We talk to another Scott this month for our Initiation Series. This one was recorded back in November 2021, which is why we still mention the very imminent release of the RuneQuest Starter Set.
Scott is a newcomer to Glorantha who couldn’t wish for better guides to navigate Strike Ranks and Sartarite tribes.
Some of the things mentioned in this episode include:
Welcome to a new issue of the Journal of Runic Studies, the premier Malkioni publication for studies into the nature of Glorantha. If you haven’t subscribed yet, please consult with the spirit bound to the appropriate electronic page.
Another busy week and, therefore, not too many annotations on Jeff’s posts. I’m also trying to find some free time to continue writing my grand “Goonies in Glorantha” campaign for the Jonstown Compendium, and the more I write, the more I realize I have more to write…
You might notice that some of Jeff’s posts from the week might be missing — this is because they haven’t been archived yet to the Well of Daliath (there’s a variable and understandable delay of a few days). I’m not going to include posts that are on Facebook but not on the Well here unless I copy/paste the entire text (so you can see what I’m talking about), but then it would create this weird thing where I can abridge archived posts, but not not-yet-archived ones. So there.
Bog Struggles: An Adventure for RuneQuest Glorantha is a useful and easy addition for any campaign where there is a river or area of wetland nearby, providing a delightfully strange and horrifying encounter with some wonderfully illustrated, oh so adorable, Newtlings.
A Short Detour: An Adventure for RuneQuest Glorantha confronts the Player Characters with a moral dilemma and excellent opportunities for roleplaying supported with some fantastic NPCs.
Thanks for the review, Pookie! Everybody else, get my adventures if you haven’t already. A Short Detour is now a Silver Seller and is currently on sale, and Bog Struggles is a Copper Seller. Thanks to everybody who checked them out, and to the couple people who reached out with constructive feedback!
Chaosium News
Here are this week’s Chaosium news!
The Tome
Possibly inspired by the Journal of Runic Studies (although probably not), Chaosium is launching their own weekly newsletter! You can sign-up for The Tome here! There’s been only one issue so far, with only minimal marketing content, but I’m looking forward to see if there’s any more to it in time…
If you’re unfamiliar with QuestWorlds, this is the new name for the HeroQuest system, which itself was the new name for the HeroWars system. You could consider HeroWars (the Gloranthan roleplaying game published in 2000) as version 1.0, and HeroQuest (published in 2003 and 2009) as versions 1.5 and 2.0 respectively. In fact, the official HeroQuest 2nd edition was a generic ruleset, and was given an official Gloranthan supplement only in 2015.
The new QuestWorlds rulebook could be considered HeroQuest 2.5: the mechanics are pretty close, but a lot of streamlining has gone into it, making it feel much more modern. You know, the kind of stuff that also happened in Call of Cthulhu 7th edition and which I think RuneQuest so desperately needs. The QuestWorlds rulebook will be complemented with a second book that presents custom settings to play in.
The delighful Gloranthan game Khan of Khans is on sale, along with a few other board games from Chaosium. Khan of Khans can be summarized as a “Praxian cattle raiding push your luck game”: it’s very simple, and it’s pretty quick. It’s a great way to introduce Glorantha to unsuspecting people (including children), and it won two Gold Ennies!
Frankly I think the RuneQuest Starter Set could have been nominated for best cover, and maybe best cartography (I have too many reservations about the rest of the box to imagine it could have qualified in any other categories, even though I think it’s one of the best starter sets out there).
The Well of Daliath Got Renovated
Chaosium’s Gloranthan resource site got some cosmetic upgrade and looks noticeably better than before! This is a good opportunity to check it out and discover the many interesting archived documents it contains… once again, this Timeline of Dragon Pass in the Third Age is among my most used resources!
Jonstown Compendium
The Jonstown Compendium is Chaosium’s community content program for all Gloranthan games, hosted on DriveThruRPG. Disclaimer: all the relevant links are affiliate links that hopefully will let us cover some of the hosting and maintenance costs for the website and podcast! Thanks for using them!
It’s finally out! Everything you wanted to know about the Hsunchen, the “totem animal people of Glorantha”. Almost 160 pages of good stuff:
Twenty-one Hsunchen tribes living in the western and central parts of the continent of Genertela are described across the space of 158 pages, alongside extensive information regarding their culture, myth, technology, magic and more.
The book explains how to create a Hsunchen adventurer, gives tips on using them as adventurers or as non-player characters, ideas for high-level campaigns, and even information on Hsunchen Heroquesting!
Paul Baker has released this “short adventure” (even though it’s almost 50 pages) set in the Arfritha Vale of Sartar. For those who have it, it contains material that expands Paul’s Red Deer Saga.
Armies and Enemies of Dragon Pass, one of the inaugural offerings on the Compendium, has hit Platinum Seller status, joining Six Seasons in Sartar in that lofty category. Congratulations to Martin Helsdon!
Jeff’s Notes
Jeff Richard, the current mastermind on everything Gloranthan at Chaosium, is often posting notes and thoughts on the RuneQuest Facebook group. Here’s our curated list from the past week. A partial archive of these sources is compiled on the Well of Daliath.
A few notes on Lunar Army organization
Jeff presents the Lunar file of 25 men, consisting of three (!) half-files of six men with a file leader each, an officer plus three attendants.
Eurmal? Eurmal is a deeper old thing. Surpassed Ratslaff as the deity of Disorder, and surpassed Tylenea as the deity of Illusion. The Trickster appears early, small and comical, but was involved in so many world-changing events that some philosophers think the Trickster is somehow tied to the Gods War itself.
In Fronela, Eurmal the Firebringer aka Friend of Men takes on an almost Promethean role. In one of Greg’s unfinished novels the Dawn Age Brithini and Seshnegi associated the Pole Star with Eumal the Lightbringer. This rather unusual positive image of Eurmal may have encouraged our Slontan God Learner colleagues to start the Trickster academy in their lands.
And here’s another similar preview, this time with the Lightbringers. There’s a bunch of names that I don’t know in there… but I love how Time is shown as an offspring of Arachne Solara and Wakboth. That’s one way to see it! Jeff also adds:
Sharp-eyed viewers might note a few apparent contradictions with previous genealogies but I assure these are knowing and accepted by cult members.
And since we were talking about Wakboth, here’s the genealogy of the “Lords of Terror”! I really love Katrin’s designs, here, she totally outdid her already usual excellent self with these pieces.
Jeff gives a rough outline of the early phases of the Great Argrath Campaign. It’s interesting to see that the “high level view” of the events, wars, and notable changes to the world are not just in Dragon Pass. Maybe the campaign book will be focused on Dragon Pass but still have some hints and scenario seeds for adventuring elsewhere…
The changes to cults (including new ones!), magical techniques, and heroquesting are probably the most interesting to me. More Eurmal clown societies? Yes please!
Lunar Settlers
Here are a few more notes on Lunar colonization practices, such as when the Empire sends farmers to the Praxian Grantlands. Plus: the difference between a Talastar farmer, a Carmanian farmer, a Redland farmer, and more!
One bit particularly jumped at me towards the end:
In Dragon Pass there were some rebels who were sent to other areas in the Lunar Empire as settlers. Members of the Maboder, Culbrea, Sambari, and Kheldon tribes, as well as from Far Point and the Bush Ranges, were forcibly relocated to settle in Talastar, Vanch, and the Doblian satrapy. The total numbers were likely not great – perhaps no more than a thousand in total.
My players have been causing trouble in the Far Point, and have been asking for some travel in the next part of our campaign… maybe getting sent to one of those far-away lands by the Lunar occupiers would totally work? (we’re currently playing in 1617) Plus, we would get to visit places that haven’t been covered much by published material!
Let’s start by remembering how few people [were in Raus’ lands]. In the “Grantlands” (and by that we mean the Zola Fel valley between Sun County and the Rosgali Sea), had 10k people in total at its height. 4k of those are river folk associated with Corflu, plus maybe another 2k farmers at the river mouth. So let’s say there were 4k Grantland settlers in total, maybe half of them in Raus’ domains.
The nomads want the rich grasslands of the river valley. Left to the nomads alone, the likely fate is for those settlers to become the newest oasis people in Prax. But the nomads accept the leadership of a Sartarite, and Argrath (or his senior lieutenants) is certainly open to a deal where the settlements acknowledge his rule and come under the protection of the White Bull. Some raiding will of course take place, but low-level, like what happens in the Guardian Hills.
Yelmalio founded no dynasties and is rarely claimed as the father of other deities or spirits. He is the god of Light, the bringer of Victory, and the upholder of justice. He was born when Yelm was murdered, a blindingly bright glare of magnificence like light from the sun. The light took the form of a new god and stepped into the world.
Unlike his uncle Dayzatar, Yelmalio is willing to get his hands dirty in this world. But I do not know of any child he created.
And:
Yelmalio is the Light. Since he is a part of Yelm (Yelm’s light made manifest) if you want to you can say that the children of Yelm are children of Yelmalio.
In Dragon Pass, the Yelmalio cult at the Sun Dome Temple are dedicated to the Light God. They might also worship the plough god Barntar (which they consider the son of Orlanth and Ernalda). Yelmalio competes with Orlanth over Ernalda – she is the great Earth Goddess, and that competition symbolises the competition between Air and Fire/Sky over the Earth. Yelmalio’s cultists certainly can procreate with Ernalda’s priestesses!
You might think about this way – Yelmalio’s Light blesses others to procreate and to live.
Sorcerers and Familiars
It sounds like RuneQuest 3rd edition had something about sorcerers needing a “familiar”, as in: some magical companion animal. Although it might not be uncommon in Glorantha, it sounds like it’s not really mandatory — and for those who want them, a familiar can be modeled in RuneQuest Glorantha with an awakened animal and/or a bound spirit.
Malkioni sorcerers do not generally use familiars (in fact, there is no Create Familiar spell in the RQG core rules). They bind spirits, dominate spirits, elementals, and animals, and generally do as they will (within whatever limits set by tradition and by their sect).
But more interestingly, Jeff illustrates how diverse sorcerers might be with some numbers:
If we assume about 3% of the adult population in Malkioni lands belong to the zzaburi caste (which is probably high), that would mean that there are some 60,000 members of that caste in Seshnela, spread out through a total population of 2.88 million people. So there is a LOT of room for variation in what they do. Some might be attached the household of a talar ruler, others be responsible for the spiritual and magical care of a village, or work directly for the Rokari School. Still others might work for whoever pays them.
This is something that a lot of people don’t seem to get about Malkionism – it is humanist. It places mortal beings (let’s be more accurate, it places humans) at the center of the universe. Gods, spirits, animals, nature, plants, and everything else – we mortals have a right to overcome them and either place them in our service or remove them. Now it is perfectly acceptable for that to be done through an bargain (every year we exchange gifts with the elves of Tarinwood), or for a god to agree to aid us because it is an ancestor of ours, but we mortals do not need to submit to the senile demands of the gods to gain magic – we can simply take it through out intellect and will.
Caste Rightness
In a spin-off BRP Central thread of the previous one on sorcerers, Jeff shared a sneak peek at the Invisible God cult write-up, including some hint at mechanics for “Caste Rightness”:
Each caste has duties and restrictions which must be maintained to remain a member of the caste. This is represented by the RIGHTNESS characteristic for Malkioni initiates. Initiates start with a RIGHTNESS of one. RIGHTNESS may have a score greater than one, representing the initiate’s reserve of righteousness. If a character’s RIGHTNESS is less than zero, that character may no longer use any caste magic or special abilities and risks being thrown out of their caste and exiled from Malkioni society.
If you’re like me and you’re confused about the history of Pavis, Jeff has a bullet-point summary of, well, not the whole thing, but the whole origin story at least. It’s still confusing but hey, it’s something. Although the obvious question that follows is probably even trickier: does this convoluted backstory even matter in a game?
In the original draft rules, you got access to ALL cult Rune spells at initiation – the only restriction was your total number of Rune points. Although this played fine and modelled Greg’s stories well, it had two problems:
1. Major problem – most players didn’t know their spells! If you start with three or four spells, the players (not the characters) tend to learn their spells quickly and then can build up from that. Too many spells at the get-go results somewhat paradoxically in a block in play as the player spends time looking up their options and reading about them.
2. How to handle subcults and associate cults. These tend to be localised and differ from temple to temple so it makes no sense for them all to be available upon joining a cult.
So we changed it so you got one Rune spell each time you spent a point of POW or by doing a favour to the temple or by offering something to the temple. That can be any of the special spells known to the temple, a subcult spell, or an associated cult recognised at the temple. That system works well.
But if your goal is to keep players from using the most interesting spells the cult has to offer, well that is NOT THE POINT. Not at all. My advice – let them have their fun instead of trying to block it.
Sounds good to me!
Miscellaneous Notes
Here’s what else Jeff posted about last week:
Some thoughts on stone masonry, and its dwarven origins.
Fronela, a strange place that recently emerged from the Syndic’s Ban. This is where you get your “classic sword and sorcery”, including Sog City, “Greg’s answer to Lankhmar”.
A comparison of Safelster with the Aztec city-states of Lake Texcoco in medieval Central America (among other possible inspirations).
Community Roundup
The community roundup is our highlight of interesting things being mentioned in the Glorantha-related Facebook groups, sub-Reddits, and other similar online places.
Keith Nellist’s Board Games
Guest segment by Joerg
Keith Nellist regularly posts drawings on Facebook. Recently he has started to put out covers that he drew for the various board game adaptations to Glorantha, some of which he has shared on various online media, others works in progress or rather works indeterminately delayed.
Careless Tork Costs Lives appeared in the “raider’s digest” in 2000. It is a scenario for Dragon Pass, for three players, set during the Tarsh Civil War.
The Raiders Digest was a fan project from the GloranthaBoard mailing list (archived here, with many other mailing lists and forums on the topic of Glorantha, RuneQuest, HeroQuest and other Chaosium games). Keith also produced a number of historical Gloranthan games based on the mechanics of Britannia. The games Peloria, Kralorela and Fronela, which were published in the online PDF fanzine Rule One, might give you an idea about the kind of work that goes into these projects.
The Composite History of Dragon Pass is an unfinished project, but still received the cover above. There are a lot more such covers, some spoof, some tied to projects.
Welcome to a new issue of the Journal of Runic Studies, the premier Malkioni publication for studies into the nature of Glorantha. If you haven’t subscribed yet, please consult with the spirit bound to the appropriate electronic page.
Jeff’s choices for the most dangerous places in and around Dragon Pass are Snakepipe Hollow (of course), Dagori Inkarth (the troll stronghold north of Sartar), and… well, he gives out a couple of third choices! Namely: the Shadow Plateau and Dorastor.
Of course, people in the comments on YouTube, BRP Central, Facebook, and elsewhere have pitched in with their own favourite dangerous place, like the Upland Marsh or the Woods of the Dead. The best answer however is from Griff on Twitter: the most dangerous place is the left leg!
Jonstown Compendium
The Jonstown Compendium is Chaosium’s community content program for all Gloranthan games, hosted on DriveThruRPG. Disclaimer: all the relevant links are affiliate links that hopefully will let us cover some of the hosting and maintenance costs for the website and podcast! Thanks for using them!
Children of Hykim Status Update
It looks like Brian Duguid’s upcoming “Children of Hykim” book is almost ready to be released! In the meantime, here are some previews of Kristi Jones’ art, some of which are zoomed in from the actual piece.
The contents may change very slightly as I go through the final proofreading, but the book will describe 21 different Hsunchen peoples across roughly 80 pages*; there are about 30 pages of general material on Hsunchen society, mythology, history, spirit traditions, fighting tactics etc; 12 pages about Hsunchen characters and scenarios; and about 30 pages of appendices for those whose appetite for detail remains somehow unsatisfied.
Jeff’s Notes
Jeff Richard, the current mastermind on everything Gloranthan at Chaosium, is often posting notes and thoughts on the RuneQuest Facebook group. Here’s our curated list from the past week. A partial archive of these sources is compiled on the Well of Daliath.
Jeff shared another preview of Katrin Dirim’s work on the pantheon genealogies! This time, it’s the, let’s say, “extended” Earth pantheon (it includes various husband protectors of Ernalda, and gods like Mostal or Odayla).
Note that just like the Darkness pantheon preview we got last week, these previews continue to evoke Aztec art styles (among others, probably). My original guess was that this was the art style of the Second Age, used by the God Learners themselves. It looks like Jeff is confirming it with the comments accompanying this preview of Yelm:
These illustrated divine genealogies were product of the New Mythic Symbolism school that first appeared in the Nochet and Boldhome Knowledge Temples around 1624.
The Mythic Symbolism school was a God Learner approach to divine iconography that was popular in Jrustela and Umathela in the 8th and 9th centuries. It was very stylied and took an almost heiroglyphic approach to divine iconography. Largely forgotten in Third Age Genertela, it was rediscovered recently in the Big Rubble by adventurers who made rubbings of a stele found in the ruins of Robcradle. Copies of those rubbings were circulated among various Knowledge Temples, and the style has become popular because of its comparative simplicity and ease.
An influential Grey Lord in Boldhome drew these particular images in 1625, part of series which she claims depicts the relationship and kinship of all the major deities, and was accompanied by a poem describing the origins and genealogies of the gods, called simply Catalogue of the Gods. This text proved influential in the Hero Wars and several heroquesters claimed it as an inspiration.
We found some more information here in our tower: “This catalogue of gods became so popular that a band of Issaries heroquesters started mass-producing it and leaving a new version every season on the doorstep of people in the cities. It was known as the Seers Catalogue”.
Several important solar deities are generally thought of as the children or lesser parts of Yelm, said to be created when Yelm was murdered by Orlanth. The God Learners called such entities “srvuali” – emanations of a Rune with a narrower definition but usually more approachable.
Probably the most important of these “parts of Yelm” cults is Yelmalio.
I never realized that Yelmalio was born out of Yelm’s slaying… huh. I guess it’s fine if he shows up before the Gods War though, after all there’s no time in the God Time, and one more version of Yelmalio can’t hurt, right?
Odayla is a bear cult that is worshiped as a son of Orlanth. He’s usually found as a subcult of Orlanth in Dragon Pass but a few independent minor temples (I know of one on Jerra Hill) and shrines exist. But in Dragon Pass the independent cult is a rounding error.
In Sylila and the nearby provinces, Odayla is a bigger deal, with some 10,000 followers. In Sylila, his cult is comparable in size to Orlanth’s. He’s also found in Talastar, Anadiki, and Brolia.
At the end of the day his cult is that of a divine Bear God. His cult was more important in the First Age, when the King Bear cult was a big deal throughout the Pelorian Hill Country and even competed with the Heortling Orlanth cult for a while. But the Heortlings proved their Orlanth magic gave them mastery over the Bear God and now we have Orlanth Thunderous ruling the hill country instead of King Bear. Orlanth became a vehicle for magical exploration and quests, and his cult is broad and deep. Odayla in contrast is one of several Pelorian bear cults (although certainly the most numerous).
The easiest way to give a cult new magic is through a local hero cult that gives one rune spell, that may even be unique.
So you could have Great Sky Hunter, that caught the Sky Bear and tore a medium air elemental from it, or even pillage names from older publications:
– Kudran Golden Feather gives Sureshot (single shrine is somewhere in northern Sartar) – Mabar the fisher gives Draw Salmon (single shrine is somewhere in Aggar). Draw Salmon (beast) is a one point version of Draw Prey that only works on Salmon. – Ranoo Longlegs gives Endurance (single shrine is somewhere in Sylila). Endurance (beast) (1pt stackable) allow the caster to move / jog / run for 6 hours, without tiring as long as they are tracking / chasing prey. Each extra point adds another 6 hours (incompatible with extension).
Game Balance Again
Jeff talks again about “game balance”, a concept he likes to refute almost as much as people like to complain about its absence in Glorantha and RuneQuest.
One thing that is sometimes hard for people who are used to systems with a lot “game balance” is that not all Gloranthan cults are equal in terms of importance, access to magic, or utility. Let’s quickly compare the cults of Orlanth and Yinkin.
Orlanth is a first tier cosmological entity, one of the Great Gods of Glorantha. He is the main Air God, the Thunderer, god of adventurers, tribes, and kings, who led the Lightbringers on their quest to Hell, and who contests with Yelm over rulership of Glorantha. He has more than a score of special Rune spells, more than a dozen major associated cults, and four major subcults. If you want your character to explore Glorantha’s magic broadly and deeply, there are few cults better to do that with.
Yinkin is a third tier cosmological entity, a minor god. He’s the god of shadowcats, a feline native to Dragon Pass that are long associated with the Orlanthi people. He has four special Rune spells, is associated with two major cults, and has no significant subcults (his cult is too small). He’s the god of cats, and just doesn’t provide a lot more than that. Heck, the only reason he has much of a cult at all is that he is Orlanth’s half-brother and accompanied Orlanth on many adventures – most people worship him as an associate of Orlanth.
However, BOTH cults can be equal fun to roleplay. Yinkin’s magic is limited and his power small, but it is fun to play the worshiper of a capricious and mercurial cat. And although Identify Scent is not as combat useful as say Thunderbolt or Lightning, it does have its uses!
I don’t care about “game balance” but I want to share the following anecdote from one of my groups, which was all composed of newbies, because I think it’s absolutely relevant.
A player wanted to play a “hunter” adventurer from the get go. I tried to help him navigate the trio of hunter deities (Odayla, Yinkin, Foundchild) but without much success: it’s hard to explain what the difference is in terms of gameplay without looking at each spell they provide, and it’s hard to explain what the difference is in terms of roleplay without explaining a lot of Glorantha up-front. So after failing to summarize some setting lore, I aborted my rant and boiled it down to “hey do you want to worship a bear god, a cat god, or a dog god?”. He picked the cat.
Then the player noticed that the spell list was shorter than, say, Orlanth’s (which another player had picked and was happily shouting cool spell names). The Yinkin player asked what that was about and I indeed explained that Yinkin was a minor god and a small cult, whereas Orlanth was the main guy. Now, it is NOT obvious to new players WHY major cults get more magic and minor cults get less. Getting more political and social power? Definitely. Getting more powerful spells? Probably, yeah? Getting more spells? Nope, some of my players just shrugged. They didn’t really have a problem with it, but they found it odd. I sort of explained it by saying that spells come from stories, and major gods have more stories about them.
Next the player asked what else does that mean to be in a minor cult. I ended up explaining various temple sizes and how Rune Point replenishing works. The player got worried about that. For instance, he was worried he would have to disrupt the party’s adventures to travel to far apart Yinkin shrines or risk going without magic for some sessions. He also worried about not always getting all his Rune Points back, compared to initiates of bigger cults who have access to bigger dedicated temples. I reassured him that with associate worship he would probably be OK, and I would tailor adventures to make his character work anyway.
All these player worries need to be addressed quickly and efficiently in order to prevent seeing a player bouncing off the system at character creation. And these concerns were not really about “game balance”, they were about gameplay expectations coming from cult choices.
The sad thing is that Jeff’s comments on this topic invariably explain gameplay mechanics by, basically, saying “because it’s like that in Glorantha”. It’s ironic to me that a designer who is known to criticize people who play RuneQuest as “sim-Glorantha” is also justifying game design choices as, well, “sim-Glorantha”. I’m sure we could put this topic to bed if Chaosium shared actual game design notes. There was a conscious choice at some point to model Glorantha that way, as opposed to another way. HeroQuest’s Glorantha and 13th Age’s Glorantha actually vary quite a lot in terms of magic level in that regard.
Anyway, here are some more of Jeff’s comments:
Not every cult is going to be equal or anywhere near equal. Deciding to join the cat god cult is a player decision, not a GM. But you do what you want to do.
[…] If you enjoy having a broad range of spells to choose from, there are cults for you. If you enjoy playing from a short list of spells, or really just want two or three and don’t really care about having more, then there are cults for you, But not every cult is going to have everything for everyone. And nor should it.
[…] And rules reflect that. There are plenty of cults in the core rules. Most are major cults. A few are minor or very specialised (Eiritha, Foundchild, Odaya, Black Fang, Oakfed, and Yinkin). It was important to me to include those as well.
As we know that the Lead Dwarfs developed glassblowing, and are capable of remarkable works of art. Humans have a nasty tendency to steal the secrets of the dwarfs, so glass is likely far more common in places like Sartar, Pavis, the Holy Country, and the Lunar Empire than it was in the ancient world.
Majority Cults
Here’s a note on cultures and areas in central Genertela in which a specific cult has a membership over 30% of the population. If we’re talking about 30% of the entire population (not just the population that can join cults in the first place… but also, say, kids), then 30% is huge: that’s almost half of all adults!
Either way, I don’t think you’ll find any surprises in Jeff’s list.
Colonization in Glorantha
This interesting note deals with various Gloranthan factions that are known to have created settlements and colonies in distant lands — just like many real-world societies did in the ancient world (most famously the Greeks). As far as I’m concerned, this gives me destination ideas for my game, in which the player’s tribe is thinking of sending them away on a few caravan runs.
Fillichet
Jeff posted this note about Fillichet, which he describes as “the gateway to the Lunar Empire”, if you’re headed there from Dragon Pass pass. There’s also a bunch of useful information if your players are planning a trip into Lunar provinces, such as city leadership and notable temples. In particular, I find it interesting that there are shrines to deities like Voria and Ty Kora Tek, which I haven’t heard much about around places like Sartar… probably because Filichet is bigger than any Sartarite city (15k people, compared to Boldhome’s 11k).
Community Roundup
The community roundup is our highlight of interesting things being mentioned in the Glorantha-related Facebook groups, sub-Reddits, and other similar online places.
One tiger hsunchen (not really happy with it) plus a Feathered horse queen and Babeester Gor warrior. (Not sure of the weapon head sizes for either).. Just got to finish the mounted version of the horse queen.
Three devious dragonewts, quite happy with how they’ve turned out. Though the middle dragonewt ended up being right-handed by accident. Klanths courtesy of Atlantic Aztecs, cheers for the pointer Niamh.
Some more of these guys; Queen Samastina of Esrolia (complete with ‘Austin Powers’ style visual modesty props, because Bronze Age acccuraccy for lack of nudity taboo means I’m a creep in 2022), ol’ Dunorl Brandgorsson, Storm Voice of Clearwine and the female chief of the Ernaldori Clan in my game, who’s called Baranoste Estadottir. (Gloranthan scholars might notice some gender-bending there based on the ‘canon’, but she’s in charge of a matriarchal clan, so it would kinda follow that the leader would be female…)
Elsewhere on Arachne Solara’s Web
Not everything is about Glorantha, although most things are! Here are loosely relevant things that we found on the interwebs.
I can see a bunch of Praxian, East Isles, and even maybe Pamalterlan applications for these… and there are even tapirs in the lot! There are also very cool prototypes for priestesses, Mayan battalions, and even native fantasy monsters!
Sigiriya, in Sri Lanka, is an ancient fortress that sits atop a roughly 180 meters high rock. It was built in the 5th century CE by King Kashyapa, with various lion motifs, including a monumental lion gate whose paws are all that remains:
The palace included many frescoes, a “mirror wall”, and various gardens. Once again, Earth shows you that you can get really fancy with your Gloranthan settlements without having to use the excuse that it’s a fantasy world!
Recently, talking to one of my players, I came to a realisation about a new way I could build worlds. I tend to start with very loose factions, which are really more ideas about things that groups of people want. When I fill those in, I add people, and then things like their secret reasons why they are doing a thing, and their motivations. However, it occurred to me I could slice that banana a totally different way.
And since she ends the whole thing with a call for comments, let’s talk about slicing the world banana!
The Blank Slate
I generally approach a blank slate with both places and factions.
I start by drawing or finding a map, to get a sense of the area. If it’s a fantasy world or imaginary place, I try to put some interesting things on it (which potentially have nothing more than a sentence, or even just a name). If it’s a real place (such as when I do modern horror), I look up a handful of actual landmarks. Some of these places might have some secrets, but I keep it short or even undefined (“haunted cave here, but I have no idea what’s haunting it!”). There’s no point in working on something that the players might never encounter — in fact, I have a couple “places with a secret” on my map that, after a year and a half of gaming, haven’t shown up in play. Good thing I only had a few words for each.
Then I create factions, their rough agendas, and whether they occupy a certain space or are more diffuse or scattered. Again, this is really high-level, I don’t have much more than paragraph at most for each faction. If I’m feeling fancy, I come up with a few possible future events that will happen if the players don’t disturb things: where and when the factions will clash, and so on.
Add Elements As We Go
As the campaign goes on, I indeed slice the world banana different ways depending on what happens from one week to the next.
If the players are going to meet with some NPC we haven’t seen in a while (or ever), I figure out what happened recently with that NPC’s faction (and related factions). Hopefully the players will find that NPC in the middle of some emergency, or the emergency will pop-up while the PCs are there! Basically, if at all possible, I try to not make it look like NPCs are standing around doing nothing until the players interact with them: I try to give a sense that they move through a living world, and that everybody has their own business to take care of.
If the players are going through a new area of the map, I figure out what’s there. Maybe I had material, maybe I didn’t. But as the players go there, I again try to make it look like someone or something has been living there. In fact, this is exactly what happened with my latest Jonstown Compendium item, Bog Struggles. The players wanted to avoid some Lunar bounty-hunters who were patrolling the main roads, so they crossed through a marshy area that I had originally put on the map. The extent of my notes for the area was “Newtlings?”. Yeah. And since it had also been a couple sessions since the last fight scene, I figured I would put those newtlings in the middle of some kind of crisis that required pointy things being waved around. If we had had combat scenes in the previous sessions, I would have instead designed an episode focused on trading or negotiation or something, and Bog Struggles would have come out completely differently!
Of course, because I hadn’t really thought of this newtling community much before, there is some retroactive world-building that unfortunately needs to happen. I mentioned that the player characters have indeed seen newtlings come to the city, or travel through their lands, on occasion throughout the years. Maybe if I had prepared this area of the map more in-depth from the beginning, one of the characters would have had some pre-established history with the newtlings. But that’s fine. If a character is a fisherman, or is known to belong to a family of fishermen, then we can do some quick flashback or simply state that they indeed know a bit about this newtling community. Otherwise, anybody else can roll Homeland Lore to see what they know. The merchant of the group might augment with Bargain because he might have done some trading with the newtlings.
Finally, sometimes secrets show up just because it sounded like a cool or fun idea at the time. My players recently had a run in with some ogres, and even got semi-infected with “ogreness” for a while. They had face an avatar of Cacodemon in a heroquest to get free of their Chaotic taint (using the Chaotic rules from A Short Detour, of course!) But then they stumbled on a possible secret that their tribe’s ancestors were cannibals during the Great Darkness (“hey, there was nothing else to eat at the time, you don’t know what it was like!”). Does this mean that half the people on the tribal ring are ogres? Maybe?! I don’t know, I’m figuring it out as we speak, and I really, really like what I’m finding out!
That’s why GMing is fun, people. You can slice the world banana any way you like, but it will always be fun as long as you mess with your players.
As far as I’m concerned, retro-actively fitting world-building and character background elements into the campaign is a fair trade-off for avoiding having the gamemaster do too much (or any!) preparation, and being able to improvise as we go, which means that the world is better tailored to the narrative needs of the campaign. Sometimes I mess up, sometimes maybe it feels a bit forced, but I learn from my mistakes and keep on going!
If you have any comment about this Runic Rant, or some ideas for a future installment, please send them to us!
Welcome to a new issue of the Journal of Runic Studies, the premier Malkioni publication for studies into the nature of Glorantha. If you haven’t subscribed yet, please consult with the spirit bound to the appropriate electronic page.
I have been extremely busy last week, so after attempting some annotation to Jeff’s notes, I eventually gave up, as I didn’t have enough time for worthwhile insights. So this week, Jeff’s notes are a small list of links with only a minimal description. As mentioned in a past Journal, now that Jeff’s notes are archived on the Well of Daliath, I might do this more regularly, freeing up time for Jonstown Compendium work…
Here is what us God Learners were up to this week.
Episode 13: Practical Ancient Warfare
In the newly released episode 13 of our podcast, we discuss practical ancient warfare with Lloyd, from the excellent Lindybeige YouTube channel. Weapon reach, attacks of opportunity, and the usefulness of shields are among the many topics we talk about!
Chaosium News
Here are this week’s Chaosium news!
ChaosiumCon 2023 Announced
Next year’s ChaosiumCon has already been announced! It will happen on April from the 13th to the 16th, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I was there this year and it was really fun (you can read my report here), so I will definitely try to be there next year. Hopefully some of you will be there too, so make sure to say hi! I’m easy to spot once you hear me talking…
A New Hero: Episode 02, Trials of Harvest
The new RuneQuest stream continues! And I still have to catch up to it! Aaagh, not enough free time!
The developer on the Fantasy Grounds RuneQuest module says that “main development” is now complete and that beta testing might start soon.
Jonstown Compendium
The Jonstown Compendium is Chaosium’s community content program for all Gloranthan games, hosted on DriveThruRPG. Disclaimer: all the relevant links are affiliate links that hopefully will let us cover some of the hosting and maintenance costs for the website and podcast! Thanks for using them!
Duckpac is finally out! This is the book that duck lovers have been waiting for years, and that fowl haters have been dreading for longer. This first book in a series of four has the title of “Lore, Legends & Myths” and provides an introduction to the Durulz tribe of Dragon Pass, including their foundation myths, culture and society, a gazetteer of their lands, and more. Books 2 to 4 will respectively be about duck adventurers, a soloquest, and some duck-related scenarios.
This is brought to you by Drew Baker and Neil Gibson who did a whole bunch of excellent supplements such a LEGION, Rubble Redux, and the QAD series. We also had Drew Baker on the podcast for our Biturian Varosh series (here and here), and Neil Gibson in our first episode and in our episode on gamemastering RuneQuest!
Added my take on the Sofali Hsunchen to the Hsunchen of the East. Plus a few snippets on the other minor Hsunchen of the region.
Jeff’s Notes
Jeff Richard, the current mastermind on everything Gloranthan at Chaosium, is often posting notes and thoughts on the RuneQuest Facebook group. Here’s our curated list from the past week. A partial archive of these sources is compiled on the Well of Daliath.
Lunar Nobility
Jeff was in a Lunar mood recently, starting with Hon-eel’s descendants, but quickly going into a quite detailed description of Lunar nobility, important noble families, artistocracy membership figures, growing up as a noble, and so on. Plus: tax demons, Dart Wars, Chaotic features as the new “holding up your pinky finger” fad, and the crazy multi-generational magical breeding program that created Jar-eel the Razoress!
Dart Warriors
Dart Wars were mentioned during the large walls of text about Lunar mobility, so Jeff added a bit more about Dart Warriors. Plus this about Dart Competitions, the semi-covert wars that Lunar aristocrat families wage against each other.
Here is a note about two of the main population groups in the Lunar Provinces: Lunar colonists and Lunarized barbarians. Bonus: a work-in-progress picture of Fazzur Wideread (above), in his RQG incarnation.
Suppression of Orlanth Under the Lunar Empire
How does the Lunar Empire manage the Orlanth cult in its different provinces and occupied territories? “It depends”, but mostly “by playing the long game” and “by not being totally stupid”. Some good answers await in this note for those violent gamers who wonder why all Orlanthi haven’t been executed by the Empire for some reason.
Jeff is working on the “Dragon Pass Campaign“, which is sort of like the Great Pendragon Campaign but with more ducks (hopefully). Just like the GPC, the DPC is organized in broad “phases” that each cover a certain number of years, and each have a different vibe and arc. This is a good preview of what’s to come in the “Gloranthan meta-plot”, and I’m excited to see some playable material for what was, for so long, in “the future”.
Ages of Gloranhta
Since the Dragon Pass Campaign introduces the idea of ending the Third Age and going into the Fourth Age (whatever that is), Jeff also goes over what the different “ages” of Glorantha are, including those that happened before Time began.
The pantheon genealogies found in the Glorantha Sourcebook were nice, but are proving to be incomplete for the upcoming Cults of Glorantha books, so they have been re-done and expanded by Katrin Dirim! Jeff explains the process and shows us the Darkness pantheon, which has serious Aztec vibes.
Community Roundup
The community roundup is our highlight of interesting things being mentioned in the Glorantha-related Facebook groups, sub-Reddits, and other similar online places.
Simon Bray’s Redbubble Shop
Simon Bray has got an agreement with Chaosium to sell his Gloranthan art on Redbubble, so you can get the previously featured awesome Hill of Gold stations, and more, on anything from t-shirts to hats and stickers and phone cases and such. I especially love these cute Seven Mothers:
There are more than 600 videos on the Lindybeige channel, many of these dealing with “lots of swords and spears”, and quite a few clarifying questions that arise from playing RuneQuest in Glorantha.
Lloyd started roleplaying at age 12 or so playing the typical dungeon raids and realizing the plot holes like why are there monsters hiding behind doors to jump at exploring adventurers guarding treasure chests. A few years later he came across RuneQuest and appreciated its approaches and how they helped playing in a more believable world.
We forgot to talk to him about his legendary “Prax Warrior” video, too, which you can see here:
(the story behind this video is explained in its description)
The praises of RuneQuest in its second edition are sung. They are still the same great points as in Lloyd’s series of videos on D&D from eleven years ago. Part one is below, but check out part two and part three too:
Lloyd talks about the Dragon Pass board game, and how he never managed to find opponents to play the full game with all the magic, the alliances etc. We also talk briefly about Glorantha: The Gods War, for which Lloyd made an extensive video review:
Ludo talks about the realism of combat systems and melee weapons, and the strike rank approach in RuneQuest. Lloyd describes the “dagger vs. pike” situation, and offers a house rule assigning a different weapon strike rank for fist range fighting.
The reality of disengaging aka running away without getting stabbed in the back, which seems to be a lot easier in real life than in most rpgs.
Ludo brings up the footwork rules in GURPS, and we talk about using terrain, maneuvers, and magic, especially spells like Lightwall that enable a side to regroup without the opponent knowing about it.
Lloyd mentions how keeping track of all the magic that may enter a melee can be a challenge for a GM in RuneQuest.
We talk about the usefulness of shields and parrying missiles, and house-ruling those situations.
Lloyd discusses the importance of the GM’s eye-contact with the players in role-playing and how playing online takes a lot of that unspoken communication away even in a video chat.
We discuss active use of shields in combat, character expertise over player expertise,
On the topic actual experience of fighting in a shield wall, we learn that individual prowess matters a lot less. Lloyd discusses the death-defying attitude in re-enactment battles and suggests that facing the same situation when it is your life on the line may involve a lot more visceral fear. As you might expect, you can learn more about shield walls on Lloyd’s channel:
Lloyd talks about group coordination topping individual melee expertise, the importance of maneuvering and initiative, and how one can make a difference in group combat even without actually stabbing or slashing at the foe just by positioning yourself.
The ideal fight should not be a slogging match where you stab the other guy but to achieve an objective like crossing a bridge or capturing a flag.
The tendency to fight to the bitter end seems to be ingrained in roleplaying combats, and the fear of a certain type of players (and game systems catering to their style) to lose the items that make them effective.
Jörg asks about the practicalities of offering ransom in the middle of a melee. The answer seems to be to let go of your weapons, raise your hands and shout the amount of money that you are worth, but without any guarantee that the opposing side will accept that, even if that is the accepted outcome. In the end, this is up to GM discretion, table consensus, and dramatic effect.
Talking about setting a scenario in a major battle, Lloyd mentions about his work on a book on the Trojan War for D&D 3.5 but the D20 license was discontinued and adapting the project D&D 4th edition. He discusses a couple of approaches, like having the outcome sort of pre-determined.
If the side the player characters fight on is going to lose, the objective of the game is not to win that battle but how the unit of the players performs, whether they distinguish themselves in the battle or what losses they suffer.
There is the possibility of pushing the player characters into the situation that decides the outcome of the battle, but that can often be contrived and needs some setting up.
Lloyd talks about giving the players an objective other than winning the battle, like a detached raid around the battlefield against the train or camp of the foes to recover a maguffin.
We discuss actually playing out the war-game inside a roleplaying session, and Lloyd says that this approach needs a lot of practicing and necessitates a couple of bad games before getting the hang of this.
Lloyd talks about the constants in ancient warfare, with the basic concepts remaining the same like spears, shields, or signalling through shouts, insignia, drums or horns.
The difference made by magic on the battlefield is a lot higher than any technological differences. Also magical development may replace technological development.
Are old people in Glorantha really healthy? What is the availability of high powered healing or restoration magic?
How do people allocate their magical resources? Ludo introduces spreadsheets for administration of available magics.
Reputation as a spring-board to drama.
Skill proliferation vs. nifty new skills, on the example of a “read battle” skill (which sounds like a good interpretation of how to use RQG’s Battle skill).
Are different weapon type skills necessary? Lloyd suggests a general melee skill independent of the weapon type.
What is a “broad sword”?
Bronze weapons, and limitations real world bronze has.
The importance of tin in the Bronze Age, and using its control and supply chain as plot hooks.
Contriving situations where groups of five characters can make the difference, again and again and again…
Lloyd points out that skipping ahead to avoid tedious routines of standing watch etc. so that the bad guys don’t catch up with the players is giving out unintended information that no, the bad guys aren’t going to show up now.
He talks about doing flashbacks to establish still unknown relationships, and how “you can’t die in a flashback” may spoil the suspense for some players who prioritize survival.
Ludo suggests to have players roll the doomed assault of NPC fighters and experiencing their deaths in between playing their less combatant main characters.
There are two main types of action scenes: fights and chases, and most role-playing games dedicate entire chapters on combat but hardly any space on chases. And even if you have rules for chases, those might be about catching and fighting the opponents and not overtaking them in a race.
Welcome to a new issue of the Journal of Runic Studies, the premier Malkioni publication for studies into the nature of Glorantha. If you haven’t subscribed yet, please consult with the spirit bound to the appropriate electronic page.
Last week and week-end were exceptionally busy for me, so the newsletter doesn’t go too deep and even, for the first time, skips some of Jeff’s notes. Apologies! Now quick, let’s get on with it!
Episode 1 of the new RuneQuest stream is out! I’m happy to see James Coquillat back in the gamemaster’s chair, although with only two players: Bridget Jeffries (Miskatonic Repository embassador for Chaosium) and David Naylor (digital content manager for Chaosium).
Not much else to say yet since I haven’t had time to watch this past the introductions… if you did watch, what did you think?
Jeff Richard, the current mastermind on everything Gloranthan at Chaosium, is often posting notes and thoughts on the RuneQuest Facebook group. Here’s our curated list from the past week. A partial archive of these sources is compiled on the Well of Daliath.
Tarsh Exiles
The Tarsh Exiles are the holdout Tarshites who still resist (rather pointlessly, if you ask me) the Lunarization of their Kingdom. Jeff paints a rather bleak picture in the first paragraph… I can’t wait to have my players visit the place, because I love Maran Gor cultists.
In addition to the archived bits linked above, Jeff posted this, too, on the “social order” among the Tarsh Exiles:
The High Priestess of the Shaker Temple, often called the Shaker Priestess, is the unquestioned authority in the region. However, by tradition she does not involve herself in mundane issues of justice, trade, or war, preferring to let these be handled by tribal officials, approved by her. The current Shaker Priestess is Sorana Tor, reincarnated from an earlier era and now tended by 47 men and women—all cannibal virgins.
Cannibal virgins. Told you it’s wonderful!
For matters of justice, trade, and war, the Tarsh Exiles form the Kerofini Tribe. The Shaker Temple has great influence over tribal affairs and in 1448 they insisted on a queen and a matriarchal inheritance, overseen by the priestesses, but that proved disastrous. Since 1455, the priestesses chose a king to ceremonially marry the goddess and become lord of the ring. The king needs to be able to serve the goddess or her representative during sacred rituals, and inheritance is matrilineally derived. The tribe otherwise follows Orlanthi norms.
In 1625, the Shaker Priestess chose Unstey of Wintertop to be the Sacred King of all the Tarsh Exile clans. He rules from Wintertop Fort.
The Far Point
Here’s a short description of the Tarshite-speaking tribes North of Sartar. There’s nothing new here, except maybe for the fact that the Vantaros tribe has slightly more Yelmalions than Orlanthi… that’s a lot of military power to wave around, when you consider than hoplites of the Cold Sun are much better soldiers than an Orlanthi militia that only trains once a year.
Jeff previously shared some notes on the Far Place, or at least the Alda-churian (above) and Dinacoli (below) parts, including some cult membership figures.
It can get confusing however that the area is sometimes called “Far Point” or “Far Place”, and that it sometimes includes the Alone confederation and sometimes not…
I view Sir Ethilrist as a guy who climbed up the greasy pole and lost himself on the way. Although in his case, it is that he fell so far he has no idea where he started from any more. He was lost in the Realm of the Dead, made pacts with Darkness Demons, sacrificed his beliefs, causes, friends and family in order to survive and gain power. Each betrayal could be justified with a half-truth but after so many stacked up, the only thing that could justify this is the Destiny of a Hero. It was not his decision to enslave his followers to the Hell Horses as part of a Dark pact – that was Destiny. It was not his decision to bind the Hound into submission or make the bargain with the Goblins. All this was was what “needed” to be done to fulfill his destiny or whatever. It is only Keener Than that reminds him that this is a lie – Ethilrist decided to do these things.
I only know the short version of the Ethilrist’s bio: some sort of mercenary from Ralios who went to the Underworld and got the Doom Hound (his hellish steed), a Cloak of Darkness, and a herd of demonic Black Horses for his soldiers, now called the Black Horse Troop. Given that his original warband was called the White Horse Troop, you might think his heroquest gifts were a bit too much on the nose but hey, this is Glorantha, so we’re going to call it “mythically resonant”.
I personally picture Ethilrist more like a guy a with a purpose, who actively went looking for these dark powers, and got corrupted along the way… and who knows who’s really in control, between Ethilrist, the Darkness demon in his cape, and the Doom Hound. Maybe he’s got a 3-way schizophrenia or something. In the Disney version, these two other things stand on each of his shoulders and sing evil plans into his ears. I mean, back in the White Bear & Red Moon board game, both the cloak and the hound had their own counters!
Anyway, Ethilrist sold his services to the Red Emperor for thirty years in exchange for the land now known as Black Horse Country… although when the deal expired he immediately turned on the Lunars and helped the Grazelanders sack Dunstop.
The “bargain with the Goblins” might be explained by checking, once again, the White Bear & Red Moon board game rules. In it, Sir Ethilrist can invoke the Cloak of Darkness and stay put for a couple turns, after which “the darkness congeals to become a unit of goblins”. More on goblins later.
Keener Than is Ethilrist’s “childhood friend and former scout”, who he found while he was in the Underworld. He was “instrumental in Ethilrist’s success in the Underworld, and they rode back to life together.” But Keener Than immediately turned against Ethilrist, so there’s probably an interesting story about how Keener Than ended up down there in the first place…
And so Ethilrist spends a lot of time quietly observing his private collection of treasures, hoping that might assuage his uneasy heart.
His 2600 Black Horse Troopers and 2000 Auxiliaries were given this vale circa 1567. This by the way greatly alienated the Feathered Horse Queen who later married Prince Tarkalor. Ethilrist dutifully served the Red Emperor and fought at the Battle of Grizzly Peak. But in 1597, his 30 years of service expired without a renewal, and the next day he offered his services to the Feathered Horse Queen. Together they sacked Dunstop and halted Lunar expansion until 1602.
Ethilrist claimed a valley that already had peasant farmers in it, followers of Ernalda and Barntar. Ethilrist had NO INTEREST AT ALL in having them stop being good Earth worshipers. All he asks is that they are all lay members of his cult. And given that Ethilrist would be a tough fight for the entire Grazelander forces, the Feathered Horse Queen acquiesced to his land grab.
I guess lay members are good enough to replenish some Hero Soul points, right? It’s all about taxes.
There is a caravanserai at the entrance to his valley, called the Red Gryphon Inn. This is where most trading takes place, and his agents buy goods from caravans. It serves as a shrine to Issaries, and also is famed for its selection of beverages and exotic tastes. Beyond the Red Gryphon Inn, you need formal permission to enter the Count’s lands, although for those visiting Muse Roost, such permission is normally granted.
Jeff imagines Muse Roost as a “cross between one of those huge Alpine monasteries […] and something like Mehrangarh Fort“:
It is an absurd place, with 2500 Black Horse Troopers, 2600 black horse demons, goblins, and the Hound. It should be something that makes no sense – the castle of a fairy tale villain. Built by dwarfs who owed Ethilrist a favor (or were paid handsomely with knowledge only he might have.). I doubt it even has servants outside of the Black Horse Troop. In fact, I think only initiates of the Black Horse Troop and guests of Ethilrist are permitted within the walls. Maybe the goblins do most of the labor?
By the way, the term “goblin” refers to red elves (elves related to ferns and spore-bearing plants). They have some ties to Darkness (they were saved by Xiola Umbar once when Zorak Zoran wanted to exterminate them or something), so I guess that’s how Ethilrist got a deal with them through the darkness demon that lives in his cloak, or whatever it is. Or maybe it’s a completely different creature in this case. Jeff actually shares Greg’s own description of goblins for this:
Description: Goblins are relatively tall and lanky, with long torsos and wide, bowed legs, and splayed feet and hands. Their joints are swollen and their eyes are prone to catching any light and glowing. Hairless, their ears are small and located atop their heads, much like those of a cat or bat. They wear little clothing, favoring fur mantles or cloaks.
It doesn’t quite line up with red elves but Jeff adds that it’s “perfectly reasonable for Greg or me to tweak descriptions of minor figures.”
In South Peloria the cults of Dendara and Ernalda overlap, often with great confusion.
As we all know, Ernalda is the great Earth Goddess of the Theyalans. Her cult is centered on what was once Ernaldela – the land of the Earth Goddesses. Her cult is about Earth, agriculture, fertility, women, childbirth, and community – she is closely associated with the Grain Goddesses. She is also associated with the malevolent aspects of earth through Ty Kora Tek, Maran Gor, and Babeester Gor. Ernalda has many husband-protectors – Orlanth, Yelm, Yelmalio, Flamal, Magasta, Storm Bull, even Argan Argar. Although she generally lets her husband-protectors manage affairs of war and disputes, her priestesses wield great influence and power.
Dendara is the Earth Queen of the Lunar Heartlands. Her cult is centered on Dara Happa, and her cult is also about Earth, fertility, women, childbirth, and community – and like Ernalda she is also closely associated with the Grain Goddesses. However, Dendara has but one husband – Imperial Yelm, and is associated with the malevolent aspects of earth through Gorgorma. Dendara’s priestesses are greatly respected, but must defer to Yelm’s priests and lords. She has a “horsey” aspect as well, as Dendara took pity upon Hippoi and cared for her.
To illustrate this, Jeff uses a picture of Astarte, a goddess that basically looks like a Hellenized version of good ol’ Inanna/Ishtar.
Creative Commons photo
Despite the best efforts of the God Learners, both goddesses consistently denied recognition with the other. They are clearly closely related, but not the same. See the Feathered Horse Queen, who revealed that the great goddess La-Ungariant of Dragon Pass is Ernalda, and not, as all other Pure Horse People believe, Dendara.
Jeff confirms that the God Learners tried to approach these goddesses as different aspects of the same figure, with Dendara as a younger Ernalda before she gets “rescued” by Orlanth and leaves Yelm. But he adds: “[…] unlike most times when the God Learners played their interpretation magic, it failed.” So apparently the cosmos doesn’t agree:
But what is interesting is that this seems an easy identification but the goddesses rejected it! There’s far more concrete difference between Ernalda and Dendara, than between say Yelmalio-Kargzant-Elmal.
The God Learner in you might then theorize that maybe they’re twins, but nope:
[…] Ernalda and Dendara deny even having the same genealogy!
Anyway, back to Ernalda-Dendara worship through Southern Peloria:
In Saird, both goddesses can be found, distinct but often intertwined. Ernalda-Dendara are often clustered together, sharing the same temple, like how the Great Mother and Hecate shared a temple at Samothrace. At Filichet, there is an echo of the ancient Hippoi/Hyalor cults, where the Hippoi goddess – called Redaylda – is the patron of the queens and is associated with the Ernalda cult. Other stories associate her with the ancient Vingkotlings and still others with the Hyalorings of the Dawn. Redaylda is an echo of La-Ungariant/Sorana Tor cult around the Feathered Horse Queen as well.
In the province of Holay, the High Priestess of Redaylda is ruler of the city of Filichet and Queen of Holay. Holay has been a Lunar client state since around 1460 or so and the Lunar Empire has long supported the queens of Holay.
Filichet is an important religious center in the Lunar Provinces. It is best known for its great temple to Ernalda called the Bell Temple, where the Earth goddesses and their consorts are entertained by music created by racks of chime bells. The Bell Temple includes major temples to Pel-Oria and Redaylda, minor temples to Dendara, and Orlanth Adventurous, and shrines to Asrelia, Babeester Gor, Gorgorma, Maran Gor, Ty Kora Tek, and Voria. The Bell Temple recruits and supports the Bell Temple heavy cavalry regiment, a famed unit of the Lunar army.
The city also has a major temple to Barntar Thunderous, with shrines to each of the Seven Lightbringers, and minor temples to Gustbran and Humakt. The market has a major temple shared by Issaries and Etyries, with a minor temple to Lokarnos. There is a great temple to the Seven Mothers, with a major temple to Hwarin Dalthippa, and a shrine to the Red Goddess. The city has a major temple to Yelmalio and a minor temple to Yelm, with shrines to Hyalor and Uleria.
Having a little fun working on God Learner divine genealogies – I clearly always loved my Hesiod! Some are filled with fascinating insights if you look at them enough – for example, here’s the genealogy of the Earth deities.
Which gets really interesting when you add the Ernalda and Hykim taxonomies and the Air Gods.
Next is the Air gods:
Orlanth, like Ernalda and Yelm, has many children. These are both srvuali (like Vinga) and burtae (like Barntar and Voriof).
Srvuali and Burtae are some technical terms for various types of gods. Srvuali are “lesser incarnations” of Runes (gods that are avatars of a Rune but are also necessarily less representative than the pure Rune itself, since they, you know, can do other stuff). The Burtae are mixtures or offsprings of different Runes (like the children of two Srvuali).
Asrelia and Ernalda have fathers – which help explain what they are (both are burtae after all). Gata is sireless, coming directly from Imarja aka Ga.
Next up, more animals!
Now for some stranger taxonomies, here’s some of the animals NOT descended from Ernalda. Note that Palar and Jaskal are “aunts” or “uncles” of Ernalda and Maran Gor.
How does this square with the idea that dinosaurs are the descendants of dragons? Couple of ways – first remember that Hykim is usually though of as a dragon. So reptiles would be dragons that have descended to the material world of earth. But another way is that dinosaurs aren’t reptiles, but something else – Jaskal is the mother of snakes, lizards, turtles, etc., and not dinosaurs.
In short, this taxonomy does not need to line things up like ours does!
Indeed. One of the favourite past time of Gloranthan scholars is too look at these genealogies and come up with funny stuff like “you know, horses are a type of birds, actually”.
By the way, Jeff sets the record straight on the God Learners:
[…] that is where people get them wrong. The God Learners found connections between deities that were unknown to the stories. But those connections worked and enabled them to do amazing things. In short, the God Learners didn’t squeeze those myths into their own “truth” – rather they carefully studied countless myths, experienced them, and then found new connections previously unknown.
The God Learners downfall did not come because their approach was in error, but because they themselves grew proud and arrogant, and viewed the cosmos as something to be exploited to their benefit.
Community Roundup
The community roundup is our highlight of interesting things being mentioned in the Glorantha-related Facebook groups, sub-Reddits, and other similar online places.
Exploring Glorantha: Tour of Dragon Pass: Sartar
Guest segment by Joerg
J-M and Evan branch off their channel for some geographic exploration of the setting, starting with the focal Kingdom of Sartar., while also announcing a series of exploring the history of this region.
J-M in particular emphasizes the possibilities the amount of detail available for Sartar offers. Evan actually references our Diana Probst interview for how rescuing Kallyr Starbrow at the Battle of Queens can create a big twist on the stetting.
Glorantha Explained Through GIFs
I’ve mentioned before that there are not enough Gloranthan memes out there, so I was very happy to see Effy address this problem on Twitter! Follow the link for GIFs “explaining” Hazia, the War of the Many Suns, Arkat, Newtlings, Prax, and more!
Ardwulf on Gods of Glorantha
Ardwulf goes through the RQ3-era “Gods of Glorantha” boxed set while sharing various anecdotes about RuneQuest and its different editions, Glorantha’s focus on religion, and so on. It’s a short, candid, high level unboxing video which works well if you are curious about what this classic boxed set contains.
Glorantha is a vast world , with many different cultures , landscapes , and religions . However, most of the official publications have always focused on the two most emblematic regions in Glorantha: Dragon Pass and Prax. But, what about the huge variety of adventure-rich background material that extends beyond those two regions? You just need a quick peek into the encyclopedic Guide to Glorantha to see the range of possibilities is almost endless. So, if you are looking forward to explore a refreshing, new part of Glorantha with ready to play scenarios for RuneQuest Roleplaying in Glorantha, you might be interested in checking out Pirates of the East Isles Vol. 1, a book in PDF format penned by Scott Crowder and sold under the Jonstown Compendium section of DrivethruRPG
This piece is from Mark Smylie, for Martin Helsdon’s next Jonstown Compendium project, a periplus around the Holy Country:
This picture shows a Giant Otter and friend at Handra.
This is a scene from the Periplus, but the book includes a page specifically about these two, giving their history and stats.
Minecraft RuneQuest
Diana has awesome players — for a mere experience check in a Passion, they make a whole variety of things between sessions. This includes a Humakt temple in Minecraft!
This got the player a Devotion (Humakt) check… more pictures here.
Miniature Scorpionman Fight
Over on Twitter, Jeremy has some nice painted miniatures of four various warriors about to get stung! More close-up pictures here.
Elsewhere on Arachne Solara’s Web
Not everything is about Glorantha, although most things are! Here are loosely relevant things that we found on the interwebs.
Interactive Map of Herculaneum
The Digital Maps of the Ancient World blog has a nice interactive map of Herculaneum, a village founded around the 6th century BCE that was destroyed when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE (more here). Find out where the toilets are, or what kind of entrances and exits were available on the public baths! Plus: some floor plans for some of the residences!
Thank you for reading
That’s it for this week! Please contact us with any feedback, question, or news item we’ve missed!
Welcome to a new issue of the Journal of Runic Studies, the premier Malkioni publication for studies into the nature of Glorantha. If you haven’t subscribed yet, please consult with the spirit bound to the appropriate electronic page.
Here is what us God Learners were up to this week.
Glorantha Initiation Episode 8: Scott, Novelizations, Baboons, and Too Many Cows
Our new Initiation Series interview features Scott Rinehart, and was recorded back in October 2021. Scott had only played in a couple of one-shot games, but he has flipped through quite a few books! He chats with us about the challenges of discovering Glorantha!
Bog Struggles Featured in Journey to Jonstown
Chaosium’s latest article in the “Journey to Jonstown” blog series, which regularly catches up with the recent Jonstown Compendium releases, had my latest adventure Bog Struggles featured at the top! I’m very honoured. And congratulations to all the other authors who released new titles recently!
Chaosium News
Here are this week’s Chaosium news!
New RuneQuest Actual Play Coming Next Week
Chaosium announced a new RuneQuest actual play! The previous “RuneQuest Starter Stream” ended after 6 episodes, when the group concluded the second (out of three) scenarios of the RuneQuest Starter Set.
It’s nice to see a Gloranthan actual play come back to Chaosium’s channel, but I haven’t seen much else about it — I don’t think we even know who’s playing in it? Unless I missed something? Anyway, from the little promo material we have, I assume the group will play through the Gamemaster Adventures pack, starting in Apple Lane.
Each workshop path has many focused lessons, writing goals, and more to hold your hand and help you publish your first (or not first) adventure. More information (including price and dates) is available here.
Simon Cogswell is hard at work on laying out the Cults Books!
News on Upcoming RuneQuest Products
In a Facebook group thread about the upcoming Sartar Homeland boxed set, we learn that… it won’t be a boxed set after all. It was never confirmed to be a boxed set anyway, it was just an aspiration from nostalgic game designers. It sounds like the reality of manufacturing and shipping products in 2022 has required some reshuffling of the pipeline:
The Sartar Homeland material is now a book.
The Sartar Gazeteer is now part of a bigger Dragon Pass Gazeteer sourcebook.
The big Sartar map that Chaosium wanted to put in the boxed set will likely be sold via Redbubble, where you can already buy many big maps from the old “RuneQuest Classic” boxed sets.
Jonstown Compendium
The Jonstown Compendium is Chaosium’s community content program for all Gloranthan games, hosted on DriveThruRPG. Disclaimer: all the relevant links are affiliate links that hopefully will let us cover some of the hosting and maintenance costs for the website and podcast! Thanks for using them!
This is volume one of a three part campaign spanning years, perhaps even decades. You and your players can leave Dragon Pass behind and be pirates in the mysterious East Isles. Explore an exotic land where each island is a god unto itself. Play new occupations such as Pirate, Sailor and Mystic. Learn a unique martial arts system. Worship all new gods with a completely different mythology than what you’ve known till now. No Orlanth, no Thed, no Issaries, no Trickster!
Disclaimer: I did a bunch of art and cartography in this book!
Dario Corallo has released a new “artpack”. These packages contain a bunch of Gloranthan “clip art” that other Jonstown Compendium creators can put in their books, free of charge (well, after they’ve bought the art pack of course). Dario only asks to be credited, and to receive a copy of the book.
Trailer for the Lifethief
Diana Probst made this trailer in Blender for Beer With Teeth’s most recent release!
Duckpac Preview
Neil Gibson of Legion Games posted a sneak peek at their upcoming Duckpac, a 350+ pages “epic resource on the Durulz“.
To keep me honest we’re hoping to commit to the following release schedule: Book 1 (Myths, lore & history) – end of June Book 2 (Duck Adventurers) – mid July Book 3 (Duck Scenarios & GM resource) – mid August Book 4 (Solo Quest) – also August
This is ‘Red Quill’, one of the playable character from the Duck Adventurer book.I hope you enjoy it. We’re suuuuper excited to get it out to you.
Jeff’s Notes
Jeff Richard, the current mastermind on everything Gloranthan at Chaosium, is often posting notes and thoughts on the RuneQuest Facebook group. Here’s our curated list from the past week. A partial archive of these sources is compiled on the Well of Daliath.
Did you know it takes about 6 days to get from Boldhome to Karse by caravan? One day to get to Wilmskirk, two days to get from Wilmskirk to Whitewall, and three days to get to Karse.
Or it takes 10 days to get from Boldhome to Furthest by caravan? One day to get to Jonstown, another day to get to Dangerford, another day to get to Herongreen, another day to get to Alda-Chur, three days to get to Slavewall, and three more days to get to Furthest.
From Boldhome it takes about 12 days to get to New Pavis, by way of Bigglestone and the Paps.
Looking up some of those itineraries in Highways & Byways, it seems to mostly check out, if you consider that caravans are almost always mule trains, so they have MOV 9 in the speed tables on page 8.
What is even more interesting to me is that a caravan can get from Karse to Filichet (the terminus of the Daughter’s Road) in a 19 days plus another three to rest the animals. So three weeks.
So you can have a pretty long trade trip in just one season if you don’t spend too much time stopping for deals or getting pulled into side-adventures.
The distrust of Kallyr goes back to before Starbrow’s Rebellion. Kallyr was widely viewed by many tribal leaders as an ambitious Kheldon tribal leader who happens to have enough of Sartar’s blood to make a bid for Prince. Even worse was the performance of Starbrow’s Rebellion of 1613 – which resulted in deep resentments among many of the tribal noble families.
Kallyr definitely pushed the revolt in 1613 (it is called Starbrow’s Rebellion after all), and forced the hands of the other tribal leaders. The other leaders knew the rebellion was doomed before it began – its early success was a surprised to them (and paradoxically meant they had to support it). There were no plans for next steps or how a liberated Sartar would survive the inevitable Lunar counteroffensive (remember, this was the Lunar Empire in 1613, before war, invasions, and dragons had reduced its military resources).
A rebellion with no plan for stabilization is a common mistake… which happened many times on Earth too.
I was actually looking up who participated in the rebellion recently (and, by omission, who didn’t). As far as I can tell, it included the Kheldon, Culbrea, and Colymar tribes (for the most part, I don’t suppose everybody in those tribes was up for it), parts of the Telmori, and a whole bunch of unaffiliated warbands made of outlaws, exiles, or clan members who defied their King or Queen’s orders. The Durulz (ducks) were made scapegoats of the rebellion but I don’t think there’s any evidence that they had any particular role in it.
Other clans and tribes still uselessly tried to rebel afterwards, for some reason — a Sambari clan in 1615, the Dundealos tribe in 1618, and so on. Many other tribes kept a rebellious attitude (sometimes under pretences of collaboration) throughout the whole Lunar occupation. So all in all, it’s not like the other tribes weren’t sympathetic to revolutionary ideas, I think it was really down to Kallyr being a reckless and divisive figure, with methods not many agreed with.
As a result of the rebellion, many thousands were killed, and the tribal leaders of the Colymar were exiled. The Colymar leaders particulary distrust her – Kallai and Beneva Chan were already in exile (as were Erenava Chan and others). Kallai, along with other Colymar exiles, died defending Whitewall from the Lunar Army. Other Colymar exiles fought in the siege of Nochet. This distrust of Kallyr Starbrow extends to many other tribal leaders. The Culbrea and Malani also shared the Colymar distrust, and blamed her for the Rebellion’s failure.
But then Kallyr gets lucky (although that’s a debatable notion) by raising a dragon who eats an entire Lunar temple.
Kallyr became Prince in Darkness Season 1625, after successfully liberating Boldhome and defeating a Lunar counteroffensive at Dangerford. That gave her the respect of many common Sartarites, but the tribal leaders still distrust her (and fear she has no plan to deal with the Lunar Empire’s response). That distrust, dislike, and fear drives her decision to undertake the Lightbringers Quest that Sacred Time.
It is important to remember that Starbrow’s Rebellion was a disaster. Sure, Sartar was briefly independent, but at the costs of thousands of lives, and losing the near-autonomous status some of the tribes (esp, the Colymar) enjoyed. The only thing the Sartarites got out of it was Temertain. Yeah team!
If I’m following this right, as the Lunars were campaigning to defeat Kallyr’s forces and take back control of Sartar, a guy named Redbird (a “dangerous sage seduced by foreign sorceries”) showed up with another viable heir to the throne: Temertain, who he found living as a scholar in Nochet.
[Leika] was part of a Colymar quest to find a legitimate heir. Remember, Starbrow was not Prince during the Rebellion and was mainly seen as a Kheldon tribal leader of the Black Rock clan. The Colymar sent Leika, Redbird, and others to the Holy Country to find a legitimate heir – they found Temertain.
Temertain proved his (tenuous) link to Sartar’s lineage by making Sartar’s Flame flicker in Boldhome, and was offered as a quick alternative to pacify the tribes, compared to another military campaign.
With 20/20 hindsight we know how that turned out, but at the time it was seen as a big victory.
Furthermore:
[…] And most Sartarites agreed that Temertain had a better dynastic claim, being the son of Prince Salinarg’s cousin Jotisan. Kallyr’s claims were further away (grandfather was Prince Terasarin’s cousin).
Of course, by 1625, Kallyr has a small army and the advantage of being not Temertain. And she defeated the Lunars at Dangerford.
By 1627, Argrath has the advantage of a larger and very dedicated army. And he defeated the Lunars as well.
She fled to Volsaxiland (aka South Sartar) later falling into the orbit of Broyan of Whitewall. She likely aided Broyan making raids in Sartar against Lunar allies and assets in 1617.
[…] did you know that 20% of intelligent beings in Dragon Pass are nonhuman? That’s one of the highest concentations of nonhumans in human dominated lands in Genertela.
For comparison: Peloria 8% nonhuman Kethaela 5% nonhuman Fronela 7% nonhuman Seshnela 7% nonhuman Ralios 18% nonhuman Prax and the Wastes 19% nonhuman Kralorela 13% nonhuman
Note that Kralorela does include the Kingdom of Ignorance with its big troll population.
Only Teshnos has a higher nonhuman percentage (22%), largely because of the huge yellow elf population in Fethlon.
The Elder Wilds reverses this as it is the only large area in Genertela dominated by nonhumans. Only 18% of the population is human there!
As far as I can tell, these numbers line up with the population numbers from the Guide to Glorantha, so no surprises there. But of course, who knows if the scholars who gathered these numbers really got it right… they might not have gone very deep into Vulture County or Pent, for instance, because who would? So feel free to add big chunks of nonhumans anywhere you want!
Elder Races in Dragon Pass
Speaking of non-humans, Jeff posted some more information on Elder Races in Dragon Pass. It goes over some general but evocative information about the Dragonewts, the Trolls, the Beast People, the Dwarfs, the Elfs, the Tusk Riders, Giants, Wind Children, Baboons, Newtlings, and Ducks. Phew!
Picture by Felix Figure Painting
I didn’t spot anything new, but I did note the following:
The elf population in Dragon Pass is reduced to only a few strongholds (you can listen to our recent episode on the Aldryami for more on this), but that “there are several isolated dryads who sadly sing out to their lost elf companions, but rarely get a reply.” This opens up space for a very small elf community in your campaign, as needed (I have one in my game!)
A seemingly factual statement that the Tusk Riders indeed originate from experimental cross-breeding with trolls during the EWF era.
How the Wind Children hid high in the mountains during the Lunar occupation, but “now have begun to reengage with the newly liberated principality.“
[…] if you are wondering what the Orlanthi of the East Wilds in Ralios are like, the Griffin Mountain supplement is actually a good reference. The daily life of an Orlanthi hunter from distant Ralios differs little from that of a Balazaring hunter in his homeland.
The various hunter-gatherer clans there are gathered into about a dozen tribes under the erratic guidance of the Voshfrei dynasty.
The East Wilds tribes do get bronze tools and weapons, but “mainly through the Voshfrei dynasty or through trade with Safelster.“
The Celestial Empire of Sheng Seleris
Here’s a note about everyone’s favourite solar shamanic Ghengis Khan. It’s not archived on the Well of Daliath yet so I’m pasting it here in its entirety, even though I don’t have much annotation to add:
From about 1360-1460, the nomads of Sheng Seleris terrorized the areas adjacent to Pent – Kralorela, Ignorance, Prax, Teshnos, and Peloria. The Celestial Empire was focused on Sheng Seleris and his Enforcers, an elite band that rode atop whatever hierarchy of people they ruled. Large roving bands of nomadic horsemen devoted to Sheng Seleris’ will turned fields into grasslands and terrorized the local population.
These nomads were not administrators – that work was given to subordinate officials of Pelorian, Kralorelan, or Teshnite origin. People from one region would be sent to administer another region – so Kralorelans scribes might be sent to Peloria, Pelorian scribes to Teshnos, and Teshnite scribes to Kralorela, and so on. Government was simple – worship Sheng Seleris and his Bursts, pay the demanded tributes, ritual obeisance to the representatives of Sheng Seleris, and ABSOLUTE OBEDIENCE to his representatives. Beyond that the subject peoples were largely left to their own. Rebels were dealt with brutally and with extreme terror – collective punishment was the norm.
Hopefully Sheng Seleris wasn’t turning too many fields into grasslands, otherwise the subdued populations would have had trouble feeding themselves and giving any tribute. Well, unless Sheng Seleris wanted to force them to become nomads too but I doubt it?
The army of Sheng Seleris was large, fast moving and possessed incredible magical power. A few beings (ok, Godunya himself) were powerful enough to tangle with Sheng Seleris, but the norm was whoever opposed Sheng Seleris directly was screwed. He was powerful enough to invade the Red Moon and scar it. Sheng Seleris respected some Nysalorean schools, and also his techniques bore some superficial similarities to aspects of Kralorelan mysticism (particularly the relationship between the Dragon King and the Exarchs, which was echoed with Sheng Seleris and his Bursts).
I don’t know much about Godunya but for the other newbies out there, he’s the Dragon Emperor of Kralorela, in eastern Genertela.
After 1460, his empire quickly collapsed. Without Sheng Seleris, the nomad bands retreated to the Redlands. Hon-eel had many contests with them, defeating the Reverend Horse Mother in the contests over Yelm. In 1503 the Opili Nation unified many Pentan tribes and invaded Oraya, leading to the terrible Night of Horrors in 1506, which destroyed both the Lunar Army and the Pentan nations.
Jeff then compares Shen Seleris with the Tibetan Buddhism story of Rudra, which… well, go read it, he sounds super bad-ass in just one paragraph! Short story: Rudra fucks up living like a true buddhist, goes to buddhist hell, is reborn through sex magic with extra limbs and super powers, and almost brings forth enough apocalypse to freak out mortals and gods alike.
We can call that a failed mystic – as Sheng Seleris accumulated vast magical power through terrible austerities that used to conquer the world. Kralori mystics would say he COMPLETELY MISSED THE POINT (and thus he is a failed mystic), but he did nearly conquer the world! Sheng Sellers’ successes of course influenced later Lunar magical techniques – as how could they not?
Boldhome is a diverse and cosmopolitan city, far more than most Gloranthan settlements. There are young, unmarried warriors from the Adventurous cult, caravanners and merchants from all over, veteran Humakti warriors, Earth women with their snakes, tattooed Thunderers, Sun Dome pike men, Axe Maidens, dancing Earth Shakers, Seven Mothers mystics, hazia fiends, and poets, Eurmali clown societies, Healers of the White Lady, bearded scribes, devotees of Love, Storm Bull cultists ranting about the White Bull, potters and red-smiths with their kilns, cattle women and Animal Nomads, mounted Pure Horse People, the occasional elf or troll, and even dragonewts. There’s a cacophony of music, song, shouts, and tongues – Tradetalk as nearly as common as Sartarite, and Esrolian, Praxian, and New Pelorian can almost always be heard. There are dancers, sights, and smells; spices from the Holy Country and beyond, braying Praxian beasts, incense and hazia, wine, and grilled meat.
Just one tribe! The Stallion King is king of the Pure Horse Tribe aka the Pony Breeders, but he is a lesser figure than the Feathered Horse Queen who is the ruler of the Grazelands.
This is one of those occasions where I check back in the RuneQuest core rulebook, of all things, and find that the information was there all along. If you look at the Grazelands Homeland write-up (page 114), it does indeed imply that there is only one tribe of Pure Horse People, divided in a dozen clans (one of which can be the sample “Four Gifts” clan). I often find that there is a surprising amount of setting information hidden here and there in the core books…
By the way, you might remember this non-canonical map I shared in an earlier issue of the Journal:
I suppose you can still use that map for clan name ideas. You could even consider that these are the names of the Vendref clans, as opposed to the Pure Horse People clans? I assume that the two cultures have different groups?
By the way, Darren Happens identified that map for me. It is part of an old and long abandoned project for a “Grazer Pack” sourcebook, by Danny Bourne, Simon Bray, Duncan Rowlands and Martin Hawley.
You can also get a good list of Grazer clan names from David Dunham’s website. I assume the list is from the same source since it aligns pretty well with the above map.
Community Roundup
The community roundup is our highlight of interesting things being mentioned in the Glorantha-related Facebook groups, sub-Reddits, and other similar online places.
Also, I’m told that tapirs are related to horses and rhinoceroses?
Someone needs to do a Yelmic heroquest right now to sort this out.
“We’re Fed Up with Scary Dreams”
Sometimes when someone steals stuff from an Earth temple you don’t actually send an angry Babeester Gor Axe Sister after them to collect limbs. Sometimes, you just send spirits to haunt them with dreams of guilt.
A gang of thieves have returned more than a dozen idols they stole from an ancient Hindu temple in India, saying they had been haunted by nightmares since the crime, according to police.
The new Initiation Series interview features Scott Rinehart, and was recorded back in October 2021. Scott is new to Glorantha, having only played in a couple of one-shot games, but he has flipped through the new RuneQuest slipcase books, and the Glorantha Sourcebook.
Welcome to a new issue of the Journal of Runic Studies, the premier Malkioni publication for studies into the nature of Glorantha. If you haven’t subscribed yet, please consult with the spirit bound to the appropriate electronic page.
This is issue number 52 which means I’ve been going at it for a year now! The newsletter is happening once again on Monday because this week-end was actually extraordinarily busy for me… various other hobbies and family duties took precedence, but also I released a new adventure on the Jonstown Compendium! (more below)
My new RuneQuest adventure is up on the Jonstown compendium! Help some newtlings fight off a horrible threat and join a water cult! It’s called “Bog Struggles” and you can get it here, or read a bit more here. Note that my previous adventure, “A Short Detour“, is currently on sale to celebrate the occasion!
Jonstown Compendium
The Jonstown Compendium is Chaosium’s community content program for all Gloranthan games, hosted on DriveThruRPG. Disclaimer: all the relevant links are affiliate links that hopefully will let us cover some of the hosting and maintenance costs for the website and podcast! Thanks for using them!
– The Damali (Fallow Deer) now added to the Hsa (Tiger), Lo Fak (Yak), and Pujaleg (Bat) people. – Plan to add one more group in the next couple of months. – Rules for generating characters, background on the hsunchen from an eastern perspecive, aswell as cults and myths/history.
Video Trailer for Pirates of the East Isles
Scott Crowder has posted a video trailer for his upcoming book on the Pirates of the East Isles!
The book will describe in detail more than twenty of the totem animal (Hsunchen) tribes found in central and western Genertela. It will have rules for creating a Hsunchen adventurer, ideas for scenarios and campaigns, even some thoughts on Hsunchen heroquesting.
There will be quite a lot of information on Hsunchen magic, technology, culture – even economics i.e. trade relationships. I’m delighted that Diana Probst and Kristi Jones are both contributing art for the book, and I’m aiming for the artwork to address “ordinary” life as much as possible.As a taster, here are a couple of work-in-progress images from Kris showing a Rathori (bear-folk) family group fishing together in the midsummer; and a Hogari (mammoth-folk) group outside one of their mammoth-bone huts.
Jeff Richard, the current mastermind on everything Gloranthan at Chaosium, is often posting notes and thoughts on the RuneQuest Facebook group. Here’s our curated list from the past week. A partial archive of these sources is compiled on the Well of Daliath.
More about the EWF
As a complement to last week’s note on Dragon Pass in the Second Age, Jeff posted a “quick sketch showing the core areas of the EWF”.
This would have been the most civilised and most developed areas of the EWF.
We could also expect now to find the most EWF era ruins in these areas. Note that Upland Marsh was at the very center of the EWF.
So it is worth keeping in mind that many of the core areas of the EWF are still largely abandoned. Bonn Karpatch, Voss Varaina, Olorost, Orin Jistel, Salor,Bon Bolar, Intarn – all of these are now pretty much outside of settled areas. The ruins of the EWF are viewed as haunted and cursed.
A nice hint when you’re wondering where to put haunted draconic ruins…
Dragon Pass at the Dawn
The Guide to Glorantha already has a map of Dragon Pass at the Dawn, but I love seeing the originals from the Chaosium archives:
At the Dawn, Dragon Pass was one of the strongholds of mortal beings. Thanks to I Fought, We Won and the Unity Council, it was one of the main population centers of Genertela. But in truth, that is only in comparison with everywhere else. Let’s look at the numbers.
At the Dawn, there were about 55,000 mortals that participated in the Unity Council. Of those, 16,000 were trolls, 16,000 were dwarves, 5000 were dragonewts, and 13,000 were humans.
Only 13,000 humans! As Jeff puts it, “one way of putting this in context, is that the entire human population of Dragon Pass at the Dawn was smaller than the population of the Colymar Tribe.“
A century or so later, right before the foundation of the Second Council, the population has grown to about 125,000, but by then the human numbers had grown to 75,000.
Of course, it is worth comparing that with the current population of the old Unity Council lands – which is over 2.6 million!
During the Second Age, the common folk worshipped Orlanth (including the Rex sub-cult) while the “savage but heroic” rules worshipped Yelm, which meant many religious rites highlighting the Orlanth/Yelm rivalry. This weird religious tradition was born from centuries of interaction with Dara Happa, along with a good dose of God Learner syncretism.
After the Dragonkill War, when all humans were wiped out in Dragon Pass, the Orlanthi culture was split between those of southeastern Peloria and those of the Holy Country. Meanwhile, Dara Happan (and the basis of the Yelm cult) gets defeated by the Carmanians. Yelmalio survives as the Sun God (because that’s what Yelmalio does) although his martial role gets some competition from Shargarsh in some places like Alkoth.
While Dragon Pass is closed, the Orlanthi of future-Tarsh are effectively in a dead-end, geographically speaking. “I imagine they sell grain and livestock to the lowlands, plus other raw materials.”
Then it gets even more interesting:
They also fight in the lowlanders wars. Many Orlanthi fought for and against the Red Goddess. And when Dara Happa revolted against the Red Emperor, an Orlanthi leader, Jannisor, brought an army of Orlanthi and other barbarians to sack Glamour. This was a very near run thing for the Lunar Empire, and after the revolt is finally defeated in 1285, the Red Emperor sends his Conquering Daughter to secure the south.
In about 40 years, she conquers Syllila, Vanch, Saird, and Imther. The Kynnelfing Alliance – the main Orlanthi tribal confederation – is defeated and the Daughter’s Road goes within 30 mile of the Deathline. Many Orlanthi flee Syllila, Saird, and Vanch and settle in Dragon Pass – especially those that were on the frontline against the Lunar Empire in the Dara Happan Revolt or against the Conquering Daughter.
At that point, people still think Dragon Pass is closed to humans, but the Conquering Daughter makes people desperate. That’s when some Orlanthi led by Arim the Pauper cross the line, realize it’s actually OK, and later found the Kingdom of Tarsh there.
Now already by 1350, I can see some big differences with these Orlanthi and those of the Holy Country. Yelmalio is already in their pantheon, and they know Yelm well (and have been ruled by him on many occasions, and not always badly). But Orlanth Rex is the king of the gods, and has the ability to impose his authority over the feuding clans. They have centuries of contact with Dara Happa. And they know the Lunar Empire. They were there when Jannisor shattered the gates of Glamour and when the Antelope People betrayed him. They saw the Moonburn. And witnessed the Conquering Daughter in action.
When the Lunar march south into Tarsh the first time, they get routed by the Tarshites who have “ancient powers of Dragon Pass” and can call upon Maran Gor. The Lunar retreat and soon they have bigger problems to deal with (that’s Sheng Seleris).
The Kingdom of Tarsh likely began as a confederation of tribes under the suzerainty of the Tarsh Tribe. The Danbalings of Kordros Island, the Barnteri between the Oslir and the Black Eel, the Alda-Chur of Far Point, and the Karvenings around Slavewall, all were ruled by the Tarsh Tribe, which extended from the Falling Hills to Kero Fin. The Uiteros and Quivini tribal groups were rebellious tributaries. The Grazelanders are initially close allies, and later enemies after the Tarsh King steals their sacred horses to create his own cavalry force loyal to him (the origins of the Pol-Joni). The Praxians and trolls are sometimes hired as mercenaries.
So taking a snapshot, around 1450, the Tarshites are a powerful barbarian kingdom. They dominate Dragon Pass, but I do not think they are particularly rich. There isn’t that much trade between the Holy Country and Peloria – Sheng Seleris is too disruptive for that. The Tarshites are recognizably Orlanthi, although some lowlander cults are likely well-known – Oslira, Yelm, Lodril, maybe even Dendara (although Ernalda is the main goddess). The Earth cults are VERY important, and Maran Gor and Babeester Gor are an important part of the kingdom’s strength, but also demand human sacrifice. But they also have Orlanth Rex, Humakt, and the other Lightbringers. Storm Bull, Eiritha, and Waha are not significant, while the conflict between Orlanth and Yelm gets played out in war with Pentans and Pure Horse People (as well as Dara Happans).
This is of particular interest to me because this gives a good trajectory for Tarshite culture, from which I can extrapolate a bit more while working on the Far Place (Alda-chur and Alone). This part of Dragon Pass is populated by originally Tarshite people, and I’d like it to feel different from Sartar.
And best of all, Jeff shared another set of historical maps, like this one below!
Turns out there are from the GregAnth Atlas, and there’s a bit of additional commentary at the bottom… so check that out!
More about Jar-Eel
We already had a look at Jar-Eel in past issues of the Journal (here and here), but let’s look again.
So people love to worry about Harrek the Berserk or complain about Argrath being a warlord, but one of the most important Heroes in the Hero Wars is Jar-eel the Razoress.
Going back to one of those earlier looks (the second link, to be exact), Jeff had detailed Jar-eel’s “unconscious life”:
Remember Jar-eel is similar to Harrek, not Argrath.
– Personal Power 50% – Bloodspillers 20% – Dream 10% – Undifferentiated 10% – Red Goddess 10%
Despite – or perhaps because of – being widely worshiped in the Lunar Empire as the incarnation of the Red Goddess, Jar-eel’s mana primarily goes to her own personal aggrandisement, and another 20% goes to her Sardukar Guard. Sure she defends the Lunar Empire, but at least in part because it is a resource that enables her to do great things, but HER great things are the ultimate purpose of the empire, not vice versa.
Thinking of Jar-eel in this manner helps make her tick for me. She’s already proven her independence and autonomy from both the Red Emperor and the Red Goddess – you better accommodate her desires, because you are not going to stop her.
At least not unless you have your own superhero on your side.
There’s more about these last two paragraphs in the next segment, but in the meantime, Jeff adds:
I do not know specifically when she proved that she was not overwhelmed by the Red Goddess, but I suspect it was between 1602 and 1610, when she was in her late teens.
Remember, Jar-eel was already a Red Goddess Initiate at age 8(!).
Becoming a Superhero
The previous bit about Jar-eel’s power and “independence and autonomy from both the Red Emperor and the Red Goddess” gets clarified when Jeff explains how to become a Gloranthan superhero:
Greg speculated that to become a Hero, one needed to:
1. Participate in at least two “great events” – heroquests outside of those known by cult or tradition. This would include cult heroquests that go outside of known paths.
2. Have at least four special items or abilities
3. Have at least one unique item or ability
And finally:
4. a final test against one’s own god where the Hero proves their independence.
I’m inclined to think that these more or less define our Gloranthan Heroes, although of course there going to be exceptionns. But Jar-eel, Harrek, Argrath, Jaldon, Gunda, Beat-Pot, Ethilrist, etc., all fit into this system nicely.
Note the importance of the Hero being independent from one’s god. Even those heroes who are revered as avatars of their god – e.g.,Harmast, Alakoring, Argrath, Hon-eel, Jar-eel, etc., proved their independence to their deity!
Don’t forget Arkat, too:
Heck [Arkat] proved his independence from at least FOUR deities!
All the heroquesting and heroic feats required to become a hero or superhero can’t be achieved by being a murder hobo, though. Jeff says that “you are unlikely to get very far without community support.” If the upcoming heroquesting rules are tuned correctly, you’ll need this community support to succeed at more than a couple heroquesting challenges… fingers crossed!
Map Scales
If you know me, you know that early in my Gloranthan studies I got confused by the various maps with different scales throughout Glorantha’s publishing history. Jeff has put his foot down and confirmed what the “real” scale is:
The map scale has always been one Dragon Pass hex is 5 miles or about 8 km. That’s the absolute scale.
That is the scale for the map in the Starter Set, the maps the Guide to Glorantha, etc.
First, a bit of background. Garrath Sharpsword appears in the classic Pavis: Threshold to Danger boxed set (now available in PDF and POD). He’s a Wind Lord who fled Sartar and spent some time with both the Praxian nomads and the Wolf Pirates, and he gets heavily involved in the “Giant’s cradle” incident. If that sounds a lot like Argrath, and if you realize that Garrath is an anagram of Argrath, then you can easily subscribe to the theory that Garrath is Argrath himself and that he changed his name at some point, either as a case of superhero-style hidden identity, or as a classic case of ancient leaders changing names to sound more important (we’re told in some places that “Argrath” means “Liberator” or something).
In the HeroQuest era, several books (like Pavis: Gateway to Adventure) chose to follow the “multiple Argraths” theory, where the identity of Argrath is up to the gamemaster and players (so that a PC could be the Argrath). This also meant that all the accomplishments attributed to “Argrath” in the “canon” could actually be distributed among both PCs and NPCs if necessary. This also gave the setting a little flair of real-world history, where composite historical figures are not uncommon.
Of course, it’s arguably simpler to just tell people that they can play along an alternate history of the setting where Argrath is just someone else who does other things, rather than tell ask gamemasters and players to engage in some sort of world-building puzzle challenge where the goal is to fit all the pieces. So the latest RuneQuest product line won’t revive this “multiple Argraths” thing and will just flatly present who Argrath is and what he did, and then people can do whatever they want with the information. In this version, Garrath is Argrath… which shouldn’t be surprising if you’ve read Prince of Sartar.
Hopefully this long-winded introduction was welcome for the few newbies in the back.
So if you imagine Garrath Sharpsword circa 1621 – he’s very skilled at sword, shield, riding, spear, dagger, and thrown dagger. He is lean and wiry man, very charismatic, with the sort of quiet self-confidence only a person who has lost everything and then rebuilt himself up is able to have. He easily passed the test of the Weaponsmasters Guild, which gave him the right to have an independent school, wear his arms openly, and a degree of freedom despite being openly a Wind Lord of Orlanth Adventurous. He is fluent in Praxian (as well as Sartarite) and has many Praxian friends – mainly Bison Riders and High Llamas, but some Sable Riders and Impala Riders as well. He’s more comfortable in the company of his students, Praxian shamans, or adventurers than he is with the Garhound clan leaders or city leaders, and stays out of city and temple politics.
The Garhound are an influential family of Sartarite expats in Pavis.
Gim Gim the Grim is thought to consider him one of the Orlanth Allies, and the Moon Masks keep an eye on him, but given that he heads a recognized weapons school, they avoid harassing him or his students too much. Gim Gim keeps Krogar Wolfhelm and Govoran the Magnificent (who of course has his own mercenary band) under far more scrutiny.
Gim Gim (often spelled Gimgim in old material) is a Lunar spy who manages the Emperor’s intelligence network in Prax.
The Moon Masks are one of the many gangs of Pavis, but those are affiliated (unofficially, as I understand it) with the Lunars. You can bet Gim Gim occasionally hires them without them even knowing where the contract comes from.
The Orlanth Allies is another gang, mostly composed of disgruntled Orlanth worshippers (remember that in 1621, the Orlanth cult is still somewhat suppressed by the Lunars).
You can stat that guy up if you want, but you need to keep a few secrets, like his Dragontooth Necklace, his powerful allied spirit, his connection with the White Bull spirit, and several other boons and gifts gained from heroquesting, hidden from view. But in a Lunar game, Krogar Wolfhelm or Jarang Bladesong are much more likely to cause trouble than the “weapon master Garrath Sharpsword”. And when he does reveal himself, it is as per the Cradle scenario and then he is gone for years.
And when he returns, it is with an army of Praxians.
Yep, that’s Argrath alright. As for the other named NPCs here, Krogar Wolfhelm and Jarang Bladesong are other Wind Lords living in Pavis around the same time.
Miscellaneous Notes
Here some other miscellaneous notes that were posted last week, and which I don’t have time to annotate:
And while we’re at it, here’s a note on Orlanth Victorious, basically a “fully integrated Orlanth” cult that combines Adventurous, Thunderous, and Rex. It’s supposedly dangerous because you get sucked into Lightbringers Quest territory pretty easily when you heroquest. Jeff added in a comment that this is very dangerous, for a powerful myth attracts powerful threats, and when Argrath was getting started he didn’t have much community support (it was just a shrine!)
Why do traders travel along roads and not rivers through Sartar? Well, it’s mostly impractical.
What is magic? Apparently it’s not just a collectible card game that should have stopped a long time ago. Here are some general ideas on Gloranthan magic.
Community Roundup
The community roundup is our highlight of interesting things being mentioned in the Glorantha-related Facebook groups, sub-Reddits, and other similar online places.
My brother made this for my birthday last year, just got round to putting it in a mould. Not sure if it will get released but I thought I would share some pictures here. Mistress Race Troll with scimitar, Mistress Race Troll with mace and a “wristless mace troll”. Cue the bad troll puns.
Bad troll puns… bad troll puns… OK, how about this one:
Did you know that the trolls also have a famous indie, alt-rock, hat-wearing musician? But he’s named Stan?
As pointed out by Skull Dixon, in the SoloQuest there are some mobile shrines – there are places set up to worship before the big battle. There’s a Vingan shrine, and a Humakti one, and there are also people worshipping their Ancestors in the river. These are not permanent resources, and in the case of the Ancestor worship may not be a resource at all.
[…]
But what are these shrines. If you want to have rules for them, how do we think they’ll work?
Regular Gloranthan miniature painter (and by which I mean that they paint Gloranthan miniature, not that they are a very small person who paints Gloranthan landscapes or something) Felix Figure Painting has another wonderful picture:
Some Glorantha Trolls/Trollkin by Mad Knight and 3 Infinity Engine Rubble Runners for a commission.
I’ve been working on a little side project, turning the Boldhome map in to an actual landscape, here are a couple of screen shots. In the first one, I’m using the map as a guide for features, in the second one it’s a landscape material that changes based on height and slope steepness. I will be adding the waterways, roads and trees, but I’m not sure if I’ll go much further than that.
Thank you for reading
That’s it for this week! Please contact us with any feedback, question, or news item we’ve missed!
