When I started my Lohwand campaign I had intended to leave out elves and dwarves and the like, particularly orcs and goblins. But fairly quickly I decided I wanted Tusk Riders, who are half-trolls. These are Gloranthan trolls, by the way, "Uz", not those that live under bridges. I have relented even further since and arrived at the above chart showing the main races.
So, most civilized and most intelligent are the Vadhagh, which are Corum's race from Moorcock's Corum series (and possibly also Elric's race.)
The Mostali (Gloranthan Dwarves) are next in line with high civilization levels and high use of technology and science (= intelligence.)
Then come the Mabden (i.e. Mankind, using the term from the Corum books.) They are reasonably civilized with Empires and Kingdoms, but with some primitive, tribal cultures as well. They have some technological or sorcerous ability, reading and writing, mathematics, etc. At the most civilized levels, at least.
Then come the Uz (Gloranthan Trolls.) Not quite so intelligent, at least not in the way of using technology or the niceties of civilization, but not stupid either; they can be cunning and wily strategists, but tend to emphasize force over other means. Some species, such as Cave Trolls are very beast-like.
The Aldryami (Gloranthan Elves) are next. They are the basically plants, some very intelligent, others mindless, but all distinctly on the "wild" side.
Last are the Morlocks, an off-shoot of the Mabden race. As barbaric as in The Time Machine, with cunning to match Gollum.
Some characters for the "Life of Moonson"
I had also intended to paint all the figures for this campaign the same as I do for my Tekumel figures, using the Foundry South American flesh triad; the humans on Tekumel look like Mesoamericans, basically.
That changed for a number of reasons:
1) I am gaming Lohwand with 60mm figures, of which I started with none. So since my campaign began I have been slowly accumulating forces. I picked up some Egyptian figures on eBay, intending them for part of my Stygia faction. They arrived and I found that the flesh was painted some sort of bluish shade, almost indigo. Hmm, I thought, perhaps not really that bad an idea for a place called "Stygia";
2) I picked up the Life of Moonson RPG aid on DriveThruRPG. This is a Gloranthan play-aid about political intrigue in the heart of the Imperial Lunar Court. Intended for a LARP run several times in the late 90's it is never-the-less a great product - IMO - and I'll never be using it for any LARP. Anyway, I noticed the art for some characters showed them with blue skin (see above image). I rather liked the imagery, so I thought here is another vote for blue-skinned humans in Lohwand;
3) Of course, after I had started thinking in that direction I naturally had to add green skinned humans as well - they are in Glorantha already, but also there are Orion slave girls to think about!
Bottom line is I have subdivided my Mabden up into the following groups, which are inspired by Gloranthan sources, but also Edgar Rice Burrough's Barsoom stories:
Warerani - 'Red' skin, ranging from pale* to deeper shades, like the Mesoamerican skin tones I started with;
Waertagi - Green skin;
Artmali Blues:
Vadeli/Helerings - Blue skin, as in the image above;
Veldang - Indigo/Slate blue skin, like the Stygians I acquired;
Agimori - Jet Black skin;
Orovars - White or Ivory skin;
Okarans - Yellow Skin, this a sort of earthy shade, as opposed to lemon yellow;
* I allowed the paler shades both because of the art but also b/c I have figures bought painted that fit and I don't want to repaint.
