Gul-Taran: Sultan of First Blessed

	Reaching Moon Megacorp's Life of Moonson Gul-Taran Sultan of First Blessed	Age: 33 Career: Sultan Religion: Moonson Imperator Culture: First Blessed Disposition: Pious and dutiful
Return to Home Page Gloranthan Folk Tales Gloranthan Songbook Moonie Madness Life of Moonson Carmanian Sources Malkioni Scriptures	You are Gul-Taran, the leader of the Taran-il clan which rules the premier sultanate of the Lunar Empire, First Blessed, birthplace of the Red Goddess. Your clan has ruled the sultanate since the Sixth Wane, when your Great Great Grandfather, a mortal man, summoned an incarnation of the Red Goddess called Flower Poem and fathered your dynasty. Your father and mother brought you and your brother up in a palace filled with happiness, light, and laughter. You remember those days fondly. While your father taught you the arts of rulership, your mother taught you about art, literature, and the inner mysteries of the Lunar Way. As teenagers you and your brother were inseparable, and you were both despatched to Glamour to study as students at the magnificent University. But here, while your brother revelled in the freedom of Glamour, you instead studied hard. It was a terrible shock when your brother was discovered dead at the bottom of your top-floor insula apartment, after having drunk himself senseless with Gin. You blamed yourself for not being with him, and you swore then never to drink Gin again and to campaign against its evils. Prohibition is the only answer to the problem! Your mother was heart-broken by this and did not long survive your brother. Upon your return from serving a short commission in the army the palace had lost its lustre and had become a dark, brooding, and morbid place. However, happiness was again brought to the palace by your marriage to your beautiful wife Gerra, sister of Prince Pardidas, the Satrap of Sylila. Again laughter filled the palace, even bringing joy to your father before he died. She bore you a beautiful daughter, Kira, a year ago. Then the evil assassins of Rhaffa Khan struck. Beautiful Gerra was murdered defending Kira, and you were wounded before your guards arrived and saved you. The assassin's blades had been poisoned and you almost died. When you recovered you sought vengeance at the Court of the Silver Gate but inexplicably found Pardidas sullen and hostile to you. He and Raffha ensured that your case was not heard. You must try again at the next court session. A secret your wife divulged to you a few years before her death was her devotion to the White Moon movement. Though you could not share her devotion, you were able to tolerate it for her sake. It was she who brought to your attention the terrible things that the Lunar authorities, and especially the Danfive Xaron cult (the Black Army), were doing to White Moonies: intimidation, bullying, false arrest, and even torture. She set up a secret "freedom road" to help get wanted White Moonies out of the Heartlands and out to the Redlands where they could start a new life (for some reason she distrusted the official resettlement program). Since her death you have continued her work, as a testament to her, but you need more influence to help finance it. Unfortunately, you invested heavily in the East Isles Bubble, which collapsed so spectacularly last year. As a result you are short of money and influence, and you have a number of IOU's outstanding which must be paid.	Background First Blessed Sultanate First Blessed Sultanate is the spiritual heartland of the Lunar Empire. Here, in the city of Blessed Torang, the Red Goddess was born on the surface world. The back room where her Seven Mothers performed the ritual is a revered site of pilgrimage second only to the Crater. Most of the Sultanate is the Pelorian land of Rinliddi, extended by the Goddess to include the Dara Happan cities of Elz Ast and Yuthuppa, the largest urban centres. The economy is based on pig-farming, with copper mining at the base of the Hungry Plateau. The ruling clan, the Taran-il, has been in place for about a century. They are descended from a reappearing spirit called Flower Poem. The current Sultan is Gul-Taran. Moonson Imperator You are a devotee of the Red Emperor. Your right to rule comes from worshipping the founders of your family clan as a subcult of Moonson Imperator. The cult worships the Red Emperor as the perfect embodiment of the Lunar Citizen. It does so by enforcing his Justice, supervising the actions of all other governing institutions in the Empire, and providing structures for all citizens to aspire to and achieve the highest rank. As such, it determines the basic social structure of the Empire, overlying the Empire's disparate cultures. The Red Emperor leads his cult personally. Sultan of First Blessed Yours is one of the nine full sultanates of the Lunar Empire. Each is governed by a powerful ruling family responsible for extracting the emperor's taxes, protecting the people, assuring respect for the Red Goddess, and enforcing the emperor's personal commands. Your family holds large estates across the sultanate and commands a large private army. However, you must always be on your guard since your family only holds this sultanate for as long as you have the power. You have many noble family rivals who wish to remove you in a Dart War and take your place. As a sultan of the Empire you are eligible to sit on the Court of the Silver Gate.
	Objectives Personal Start a vendetta against the murderous Satrap of Kostaddi, Raffha Khan. He killed your wife! Find a new wife and a good mother for your daughter. Seek out the perpetrators of the evil and disastrous East Isles Bubble scam. Seek a complete religious prohibition on the sale and consumption of gin. This poison killed your brother! Career Ensure stability in your lands. Do not allow wars or Dart Competitions to affect your people. Support the quotas set by the Red Dancer of Power. Anything else would be inflationary. Try and make your own quotas. Try and reduce the power of the Presidium by increasing the authority of the Court of the Silver Gate. The satraps are closer to the people than the self-appointed members of the Presidium. Replenish the losses suffered by the sultanate. Make money in any honourable way that you can. Religious Have your young daughter blessed by Great Sister. Give generously to Teelo Norri orphanages, as your late wife always did. Give shelter to White Moonies, and help run the secret freedom road to the Redlands. The Red Goddess preaches tolerance and you will follow her lead even if others do not! You need to give the CPS Director at least 5 influence by Clayday to keep the road going.	Who You Know Personal Acquaintances Prince Pardidas, Satrap of Sylila: you married his favourite sister. However, he seems strangely unmoved by her death, and even hostile towards you. Does he think that you failed to save her, or did not try hard enough? Rhaffa Khan, Satrap of Kostaddi: the brutal and haughty murderer of your beloved wife. He must pay! But death is too good for him, and you must first kill his loved ones and ruin his lands! Thalia Springtime, Colonel of the Guides: you met this mysterious young woman in Red Square. She had an alluring Eastern look to her, yet also a sense of vulnerability. You must see her again! Through your Career Beatpot Aelwrin, famous cook and soldier: perhaps he would pay you to be allowed to build a Moonrock Café in blessed Torang? Lergius Cassius, Provincial General: you served under him in Dragon Pass. Moonson Argenteus, the Red Emperor: your religious leader. Unfortunately this mask is corrupt and dissolute. Orsorkhon, Grand Master of Danfive Xaron: an evil man whose agents are everywhere. He no doubt seeks to close down your "freedom road". You must be very careful! Through your Culture Hasperat, Examiner of the Red Moon: a very pious, though boring, fellow. He comes from First Blessed and he therefore seeks your patronage. You are happy to help as long as you don't have to talk to him too much. Five years ago you lent his Temple of the Red Moon a family heirloom, a fabulous red gem (won in a wager by your reckless Grandfather) - perhaps you were hasty since it would be worth a lot of money which you could really use at the moment!
	Other Knowledge The Seven Year Plan is the mechanism by which the major food and raw material requirements of the Empire are centrally planned and provided for. At the beginning of each seven year period every sultanate and province agrees to quotas of important foodstuffs and other raw materials and goods which they must achieve over a seven year period. A seven year plan has just ended and each of the sultanates and provinces will be audited this a sacred time on their results. Success is usually the route to promotion and Imperial favour, while failure is a sure road to political humiliation. The Court of the Silver Gate is a council of Satraps of the Empire. It meets infrequently, and can have great influence in determining the course of the Empire's destiny. The members of the Court of the Silver Gate are: Gul-Taran, Satrap of First Blessed Haroun al-Rastari, Satrap of Karasal Moonson, Satrap of Silver Shadow Makkrit-Oor, Satrap of Darjiin Rhaffa Khan, Satrap of Kostaddi Var-Eel, Satrap of Oronin Prince Pardidas, Satrap of Sylila Queen Penelori, Satrap of Oraya The Satrap of Doblian will also have a place, when one is appointed. The Temple of the Reaching Moon in Sartar was one of your first assignments during your time in the army. As a very young and green officer you were in put in charge of the physical and magical survey of the area by General Lergius Cassius. You did not actually complete the survey work, but you were the supervising officer. You therefore feel immensely guilty that your survey failed to detect the presence of the Dragon which later unearthed itself and killed Tatius the Bright and most of the attendant army during the temple's fatal inauguration. You have kept very quiet about your involvement in these events. The White Moon is a teaching which has grown up from nowhere in recent years. It holds that it was never the intention of the Red Goddess to create an enduring Empire. The Empire was a means to an end, to confront those states which violently opposed the Lunar Way to allow the liberation of their peoples. Since the days of the First Wane, the Empire has become a self-serving structure, its expansion never matching the speed at which the Lunar Way first spread. The White Moon Cult holds that the Red Moon is not yet perfect. The Empire must wither away. Then, and only then, will the Lunar Way be able to spread throughout Glorantha and the Moon shine White in the Air. From a fringe, harmless teaching, the cult has spread. Its devotees refuse to pay taxes or serve in the militia. They have now taken to attacks on Imperial Monopolies, tax collectors and so forth. Gin is a spirit distilled from malt and maize and flavoured with the Juniper berry; the word Gin means "Fire Spirit". Its sale and manufacture are one of the Imperial Monopolies, controlled by the Red Dancer. Known as "Seven Mothers' Ruin", it is a pernicious influence. Originally a soldier's drink, this cheap and easily produced drug is now sold on the streets to those who can least afford it. It destroys families, robs the poor of the will to work and prevents them for saving the money to escape from poverty. You have run gin-addiction centres in your sultanate, and have led numerous temperance crusades, but you now realise there is only one cure for this disease: prohibition. The East Isles Bubble is the name given to a failed commercial and trading venture which was to be launched from the frontier port of Corflu. The East Isles company was set up to manage the venture and collected investments from Lunar citizens, promising them large returns. Unfortunately, the venture collapsed and Lunar trading vessels never left Corflu for the East Isles. None of the investors money has ever been recovered or the perpetrator's behind the scam arrested. The Red Dancer of Power was a major supporter of the venture, though her losses were minor.	Secrets Gul-Taran led the survey team which failed to detect the Dragon which unearthed itself at the Temple of the Reaching Moon in Sartar. Gul-Taran lost a great proportion of the Sultanate's treasury in the East Isles Bubble. Gul-Taran's deceased wife was a White Moon devotee. Gul-Taran's Grandfather, Garak-Taran (then the Sultan), was executed seventy years ago for tax fraud.
	Reaching Moon Megacorp's Life of Moonson was written by Nick Brooke, Chris Gidlow,David Hall and Kevin Jacklin, with Rick Meints and MOB. The lead author for Gul-Taran was David Hall. Glorantha, HeroQuest, Hero Wars, and Issaries are trademarks of Issaries, Inc. The contents of this page are copyright by David Hall, 2001; any material derived from Greg Stafford's world of Glorantha is also copyright by Greg Stafford. Glorantha is the creation of Greg Stafford, and is used with his permission.