<strong>Hearts</strong> in <strong>Glorantha</strong> winter 2009 whoserueisitanywa Good King Thunder King Thunderthroat, being the fourth of that ilk, r. 1563-1582 S.T. by Stewart Stansfield & Keith Nellist Widely proclaimed the last of the great duck herokings (not least by himself), Orppo Thunderthroat, being the fourth of that ilk, flourished in a time of great deeds and events. He was born in the ninth year of the reign of Prince Saronil Sartarsson, and as a youngling listened to the tales of war and destruction from over the Dragonspine Mountains. Great armies marched and countermarched across Tarsh, trading a succession of kings, aided and opposed by blood-drunk priestesses and Lunar sorcery. From the east came the howls of the wolf-warriors, hungry for battle. To the north, the Dragonewts were roused into uninterpretable action by some strange dream. Whilst on the wereducks’ borders the human tribes continued their jealous machinations, and Delecti’s Marsh encroached ever further. Orppo was acclaimed king of the durulz in 1563 S.T., two years before Prince Jarolor fell at Dwarf Ford. He succeeded his father in wearing the twin crowns of the Durulz Valley, and was made of the same stock: stout, with a fondness for fine food and entertainments; virile and self-sure; a careful husbander of wealth; courageous (though not to unseemly excess); respectful of the gods, with one or two exceptions; and, to use the words that young Prince Sarotar bestowed upon his parent, ‘a wily little bastard’. History reckons him ‘The Loyal’, and he respected his tribe’s friendship with the Royal House of Sartar. It was in his reign, after all, that the durulz magnanimously allowed the Wilmskirk-Duck Point road to be constructed, bringing greater wealth and influence to Sartar’s children. It is said that King Orppo accounted Jarosar Longarrow (r. 1565-1569 S.T.) as his favourite, perhaps because this notably emotive great-grandson of Sartar was a little more pliable to the duck king’s intrigues. Thunderthroat took it at as a personal affront when the sun-worshipers refused to aid Prince Jarosar, and committed his warbands to a long, desultory conflict with the Yelmalions to the south that lasted throughout his reign. Like most ducks, the king could be brave and ruthless when circumstances dictated; but cautious and cunning when they did not. His wardrakes could not stand against the disciplined spears and shields of the Sun Dome Temple, so conducted occasional raids in between defences of their own stilted forts. Orppo’s friendship with the next prince of Sartar, Tarkalor Trollkiller, grew similarly steadfast, though not without a little rivalry. Thunderthroat had initially supported the royal candidacy of Jarosar’s young son, Jarnandar, in opposition to Trollkiller, but clashed most famously on the matter of Tarkalor’s marriage to the Feathered Horse Queen, “Mother of Lands”. Thunderthroat was an ambitious drake and sought to become King of Dragon Pass himself. He was among the most persistent of the Queen’s suitors, rivalling even Trollkiller and the king of Tarsh, Phargentes. His gifts in pursuit of her hand were legendary: priceless pebble-gems cut over centuries by the Stream; a herd of the finest quakebeasts he rustled from all over Dragon Pass; a herd of chanting blue cows he rustled up from his neighbours; he even ceded to her his claim to all the lands between Stone Nest and the Spinosaurus Flats (i.e. the Upland Marsh), which was somewhat speculative. His most famous gift, however, was a giant polliwog pie. Ducks love this delicacy, and assumed the Grazers would, too. The durulz usually use a pickled mixture of frogs’ tadpoles, but for this recipe Thunderthroat called out all the stops. He ordered his warbands far and wide, to seize what Newtling tadpoles he could. They were baked into a huge pie, whose crust was mixed with butter made from the sweet milk of aurochs and flour drawn from the golden crops of the Sun Domers. The Newtlings were outraged at this atrocity, and bear a grudge to this day. The wereduck king was unsuccessful in his wooing, but soon got over it, strengthening his relationship with Tarkalor. It was during this time that he also developed his friendly rivalry with Jardanreal the Traveler, chief of the horsepeople of the Grazelands. Though their competition might have seemed fierce to outside observers, they always retained a profound great respect for each other and their respective peoples. Though he led an eventful life, Thunderthroat’s greatest glory came in the manner of his end. True to his epithet, the king marched north with his sordthanes and nestcarls, to fight by High King 48
<strong>Hearts</strong> in <strong>Glorantha</strong> winter 2009 whoserueisitanywa Good King Thunder 49