We are joined on this trip down memory lane by Doc Cowie, Doc sums up his credits as “40 years RuneQuest player, published one scenario”. Ludo also gets Doc to talk about his custom-made bronze shield depicting Chalana Arroy fighting Chaos, made by Type 40:
Doc offers a very UK-centric perspective of how one would encounter and learn about Glorantha.
The first big UK release was “The Lair of the White Wyrm”, a RuneQuest scenario in White Dwarf in 1979.
Doc holds up his Games Workshop edition of RuneQuest 2, which he acquired at age 12.
Doc had actually picked up Cults of Prax at the Games Workshop store before acquiring RuneQuest, and remembers how he was awed and overwhelmed by that tome..
Doc outlines the competition of D&D and AD&D: There was Tunnels&Trolls and Traveller, and there was RuneQuest.
Doc recalls being intimidated by the entire concept, and kept it on the “mystical and somewhat obscure” pile of games.
Having played and enjoyed the Apple Lane scenarios (Gringle’s Pawnshop and Rainbow Mounds), the game went into a hiatus because his group was unsure what to do with this game beyond those published scenarios.
Griffin Mountain (the Games Workshop edition, again) came as a revelation what to do with RuneQuest. Doc recounts how their group distrusted the cults, and how their group had a Zorak Zorani troll and an elf in the party, with the two characters being good friends.
We discuss the sophistication of early teenage boys tackling a fantasy setting, roleplayer elitism and an instinctive “Your Glorantha May Vary” stance as the GM.
Doc recounts his experiences as regular GM until one of his players started to run a Pavis and Big Rubble campaign, alternating with Doc’s Griffin Mountain game.
Dpc pulls out his stack of photo-copied reference sheets, hand-outs and index cards.
When asked about the timeline, Doc confesses a God-time like timelessness for his Balazar campaign, with the only future event that mattered being the Cradle Scenario as the immense finishing piece for a Pavis-based campaign, always looming, never played.
Then came a disappointing hiatus when there weren’t any players of RuneQuest at Med-School, although a game was picked up again after a year or so.
We briefly touch upon the Dragon Pass boardgame, and then we go on to Doc’s almost traumatic experience of the first Convulsion which left him with the impression that everybody knew everything about Glorantha and that he sucked at RuneQuest.
He did meet Greg Stafford, though, and while he feared the “You’re not playing Glorantha as it is meant to be” boogeyman hiding behind the door,
Doc actually lent Issaries Inc some money to get the Hero Wars started, and with Hero Wars actually and finally providing some rules for heroquesting, he got interested and bought the material.
What re-ignited the Gloranthan fire was the Guide to Glorantha kickstarter (of 2013, fulfilled in 2015)
“I have Passion Glorantha 90%, but Knowledge Glorantha 40%.”
Doc goes on to enthuse about having played HeroQuest with Ian Cooper (who is currently in charge of the Questworlds successor line) and how that lends itself to go on mythical exploration.
Ludo brings up MAR Barker’s Tekumel and how he encouraged people to find out what is in Glorantha. Doc regales us with a private conversation with Greg Stafford, and how he reacted to Greg’s offer to explain a thing about Glorantha, and Doc felt he didn’t really have a question to ask. Instead, they discussed rearing children in a shamanic culture, and how myth contributes to that.
The weight of information behind Glorantha helps making it real and solid, even if you don’t apply that much of the vast amount of information.
From his current game, Doc tells about finding an actual bone of a god and making a magical dagger out of that, or finding an iron hauberk and giving it to the Earth Temple because it felt right, rather than one of the characters using it – something that would not occur to any player in a Dungeons and Dragons game.
We talk about everybody having magic and how that affected the way the game and its setting felt, and how people felt about playing that.
Ludo mentions the Year Zero Podcast with the impression that “everybody is playing a cleric.”
We talk about the impact of RuneQuest 3rd edition and how it was a disaster for the UK game scene.
Jörg gets to waffle a bit about his initial experiences starting with third edition RuneQuest and the Vikings box.
Doc sums t up that however much aspects of the rules might annoy him, there is still that way that certain outcomes make you feel which bring back the love you feel for the system.
Runic Rants is an irregular series of thoughts, opinions, and experiments about RuneQuest.
It’s kind of funny: BRP games like Call of Cthulhu or RuneQuest are among my all time favourite RPGs, but BRP itself is not even close to my top 5 systems. One of the reasons for this is the split between characteristics and skills, which don’t interact much with each other. I’m a kid of the 90s: characteristics and skills are meant to be added together, damn it!
Anyway, this split means that the gamemaster needs to decide when to ask for characteristic rolls, when to ask for skill rolls, and what to do when both could apply. Here are some thoughts.
The first three characteristics are easy because they don’t really compete with any other abilities: there’s no skill for raw strength like kicking a door down (STR), resisting poison, fatigue, or harsh environmental conditions (CON), or being lucky or strong-willed (POW). So these should be easy to use at the table.
Interestingly enough, RuneQuest doesn’t mention POW or SIZ rolls on page 141, like it does for the other characteristics…
For POW, it’s maybe because the magic rules are already using POWx5 rolls often enough, or because, unlike other characteristics, POW is meant to go up and down quite a lot, making it unreliable to use consistently during play.
For SIZ, it’s just hard to imagine when that can be useful… but I’ve heard of SIZx5 being used to augment Intimidate!
DEX
With DEX we start to hit the problem of skills competing with a characteristic. There’s a dozen skills for all kinds of actions based on agility or manipulation, so what’s left for DEX itself?
Frankly, I can’t recall any other situation besides bad footing and balance: I would make players roll DEXx5 or DEXx3 during an action scene where the ground is difficult to run around on, or their character is in an unstable situation. One of my players also once used it when two characters raced to grab their weapons, making a DEX roll to see who grabbed them first. And of course some spells like Illusory Motion or Shake Earth require DEX rolls from the casters or victims.
If we look at the rulebook, the chase rules call for DEX rolls to see who is fastest, while the falling rules specify a DEX roll to land on a specific hit location. There is also a mention of a DEX roll for throwing a simple object at a target (such as throwing a rock to create a diversion), or catching it. But catching objects can also be done with a Sleight skill check, so the gamemaster might be met with the classic (at least for me) player request to roll under their characteristic instead of their skill… at least until Sleight is increased above DEXx3 or DEXx5. We’ll get back to that problem later.
INT
There are even more knowledge skills than agility and manipulation skills combined, but we can consider INT as raw memory, intuition, and logic. So I sometimes let players roll INTx3 or INTx5 to remember something an NPC said to their character, such as instructions or directions, or to have some revelation about “what’s really going on”, such as a conspiracy against the King or discerning reality from visions.
CHA
This is the one that I had the most problem wrapping my head around. CHA is supposed to represent how charming a character is, or how much of a natural-born leader they are, but there are already skills like Charm or Orate!
Moreover, figuring out when CHA rolls can be used is particularly important if you consider spells like Glamour or Charisma. You have combat Rune spells that can double your weapon skill or more, but these two spells only gives you, like, a +15% bonus to communication skills or something? How is that worth casting when you can get more for free with a simple augment? These CHA-boosting spells must be good for something, right?
I couldn’t figure out when it was ever OK to use CHA rolls until I checked the “Skill and Ability Time” section (RuneQuest page 139). Skills like Fast-Talk or Bargain usually take a minute or more, according to this list, and skills like Charm take 5 minutes or more. So one way to look at it is that a CHA roll is for anything that’s faster than all of these: between a few seconds and a melee round. CHA is how you get things done quick: getting past a guard (unless the guard is bored or patient enough to listen to someone yap for two minutes!), getting some bystanders to help during an action scene (the character probably only spends one round on this!), or postponing an execution (“wait, no, don’t kill him yet, there’s something you need to know!”).
So in my opinion CHA is what makes people pay attention to you. With a very high CHA, you can get people to look at you, to listen to you, or to follow you… but then you have to back it up with actual skill. You might have gotten the King’s attention, but you have to follow it up with an Orate or Battle roll to convince him that an alliance with the Telmori is needed to win. You might have gotten the soldiers to follow you in a surprise flank maneuver, but you have to show some fighting prowess or they will lose faith and retreat. You might have postponed the execution, only to find your arguments rejected and the prisoner beheaded.
Success At A Cost
There are still situations where a player might ask for a characteristic roll instead of a skill roll. In my Call of Cthulhu days, this might happen because of a dramatic scene in a previous session in which I made a ruling on the fly to roll some characteristic to make things interesting… only to realize that it set a precedent of sorts!
So I started to consider characteristic rolls as “less good” than skills rolls. By definition, they often represent a “brute” approach to problem solving, rather than one based on knowledge and experience. The idea is to make characteristic rolls a good fallback plan, but keep skills as the best thing you can use. In this approach, characteristic rolls would have the following downsides:
Obviously, succeeding with a characteristic roll doesn’t give you an experience check. You don’t learn from the experience.
A successful characteristic roll should be a “success at a cost”, i.e. a success that isn’t as good as a success with a equivalent skill (if any).
So for example:
Kicking down a door would alert a guard, while lock-picking it would not.
Keeping your balance on a boat with a DEXx3 roll might still give you a small penalty to all rolls. By comparison, succeeding with a Boat roll, showing actual experience with sailing, would remove all penalties.
I generally don’t have to think about these things unless they come up with a specific player. If we take the example of the adventurers being on a boat, I might start with a DEX roll to keep their balance, only to realize that one adventurer has the Boat skill, and the others don’t. I would probably want to give that player an advantage for that, therefore adjusting the ruling on the fly to make DEX rolls not as good.
Do you have examples of using characteristic rolls in interesting ways? Please share them!
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.
This week I was fighting the spirits of Mallia so this issue of the Journal might not be as complete or insightful as usual. It’s usually insightful, right? I hope it is… you wouldn’t believe the sort of review processes we have here. Malkioni castes like their 360 Feedback, you know.
I’m getting close to releasing my first Jonstown Compendium book, a simple adventure called “A Short Detour” which also contains a not-so-simple deep dive into the nature of Chaos. I hope you will all like it!
And yes, it’s here at the top, instead of in the Jonstown Compendium section, because it’s my book and my newsletter and I should be allowed some selfish promotion once in a while!
Chaosium News
Here are this week’s Chaosium news!
ImpCon 4
Chaosium’s Impromptu Convention 4 happened this week-end, and was a pretty nice way to connect with the rest of the tribe as usual. There’s not much to say since Chaosium is politely asking everybody to just keep the magic to themselves — ImpCons are just coming and going, like a Dimensional Shambler at the scene of a crime, or like Jar-eel in a Sartarite heroquest.
The next convention should be Chaosium Con, and I hope the pandemic situation won’t prevent me from attending… it’s not looking great in the US right now though.
ChaosiumCon VIP Sessions
Speaking of ChaosiumCon, Chaosium has posted a list of the “VIP Sessions” for it. It shouldn’t be a surprise that the list includes RuneQuest sessions by Jason Durall and Jeff Richard.
The QuestWorld rulebook is off to copy editing, and with a slogan like “2022 is going to be the year of Questworlds!“, we can potentially expect to see the new game this year.
The new ruleset is best described as HeroQuest 2.3 (check out the SRD here), but the rulebook will be a generic system, with only a few “example” settings. No Glorantha in there, sorry, but I’m sure it will be easy to do some light tweaks on the existing HeroQuest Glorantha to play with the updated rules… that is, if that currently out-of-print book is rebranded and re-released.
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!
Dario Corallo has more cardboard monsters for the new year! I believe that some are using illustrations you’ve already seen in his art packs, while others are new drawings. Eitherway, they are meant for table play, but can easily be converted into VTT tokens, even though they are drawn from the side and not the top.
Mikael Mansen continues to churn out the maps. There are multiple new generic settlement maps, and a close-up of Griffin Mountain (pictured above).
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.
Tarsh was settled by two very different waves of colonists. The first was the largest. These were settlers from the area traditionally called Saird (modern Holay, Aggar, Imther, and Vanch) that came to Dragon Pass in the aftermath of the Conquering Daughter.
It’s easy to get lost with all the history and all the names so let’s bring out the AAA maps:
Sartar is in the bottom right corner (you can see Runegate there). You can see the faint Glowline extend up to around Furthest, and covering some of Tarsh (dividing it between the colonized “Lunar Tarsh”, and the “Old Tarsh” of the rebels who stay close to the Shaker Temple and Wintertop. In the north is Glamour and the heart of the Lunar Empire.
You can also now spot the places Jeff mentioned, from where the original Tarsh settlers came before they moved close to Kero Fin. This happened around 1330, when the aforementioned Conquering Daughter did the aforementioned conquering of Holay. Her real name was Hwarin Dalthippa, and she was a daughter of the first Red Emperor (it seems a bit more complicated than that but I don’t understand all the nuances yet… bear with me). If you’ve see the “Daughter’s Road” on the map, she’s the one who got that built.
Now the distances involved are not very great – it is only about 150 km from Filichet to Bagnot – which meant it was easy for waves of settlers to travel with their herds and families into what became Tarsh.
Saird in the First Wane would have been a collection of chieftains and petty cities at the frontier of Dragon-haunted Dragon Pass, loosely united into the Kynnelfing Alliance. Generations before many had fought for Jannisor. The people were farmers with herds of sheep and cattle. The people were mostly Orlanth Thunderous or Adventurous types, with a large minority of Yelmalio cultists and other Lightbringers. However, they had centuries of sustained cultural interchange and trade with Dara Happa – Yelm was viewed as a more or less equal contender with Orlanth for rulership of the world and for the love of Ernalda.
The “Dragon-haunted Dragon Pass” is because at this time, Dragon Pass would have still been in the Inhuman Occupation. That’s the period of time when no humans lived there, after the Dragonkill War of 1120 had the dragons kill most of them, and got the rest to flee. The area was resettled more or less simultaneously by the Grazelanders (from Prax in the east), the Tarshites (from Saird in the north), and the Orlanthi (from Heortland in the south).
The Kynnelfing Alliance was the Holay Orlanthi kings’ alliance that tried to resist the Conquering Daughter… and failed. Jannisor, one of the rebel heroes, even came pretty close to invading the city of Glamour itself in 1275. Interestingly enough, he was allied with the Sable Riders of Prax at the time, because they had some kind of immunity to the Lunars’ powers… but the Lunars knew of the deeper connection between the “Lunar Deer” and the Red Goddess, and turned the Sable Riders against Jannisor. That’s when the Sable Tribe started their long tradition of working with the Lunar Empire!
By 1450, these Orlanth Thunderous types had settled a broad belt alongside the Oslira and Black Eel rivers, up to Shakeland and Wintertop and then hopping over the River to the Far Point and the Donalf Flats. A powerful Orlanth Rex dynasty based at Bagnot had ruled over them for over a hundred years, but the dynasty was killed without heir in 1448. After a civil war, a new dynasty from Wintertop was crowned in Bagnot.
The “powerful Orlanth Rex dynasty” is the legacy of Arim the Pauper (who led the Holay exiles south and founded Tarsh in the first place) and Sorana Tor (some sort of Earth Goddess found at the foot of Kero Fin). Their kids started the “Twin Dynasty”, which is what ended in 1448. The civil war lasted until 1538 when Palashee Long Axe took power and allied Tarsh with Sartar, but he was killed in 1555 and Tarsh has been a Lunar Provincial Kingdom ever since.
These settlements would have been indistinguishable from those in Holay, Aggar, or Imther. Wheat and barley would be the main crops, pigs, sheep, and cattle the main livestock. Villages were initially unwalled, but the dynasts built many fortresses and walls after 1375 and unwalled villages were rare by the time of the civil war.
Saird itself is mostly riverine plains surrounded by a bowl of hills maybe 75 km by 140 km in dimension. Think something like the Pannonian Basin around Budapest. Building techniques would be heavily influenced by Dara Happa (just as in Sartar they are heavily influenced by Esrolia).
I’m not going to start looking up architecture differences between Dara Happa and Esrolia, but I’m going to hazard a guess that the former has more golden tall phallic structures, while the latter has more colourful square buildings.
Beneath the dynasts and priestly lineages at Shaker Temple or Haruvernalda, most folk would belong to free settler families or their unfree slaves (taken in war with the Lunar Provinces or the nomads). However, between these groups were an influential class of mounted warriors (“thanes”) who gained power, wealth, and status in the wars against the nomads of Peloria. Cavalry mainly took the form of heavy, close combat cavalry backed up by light scouts and horse archers.
I’ve got no idea what Haruvernalda is, but I had heard about the “rise of the thane” in Orlanthi society. After almost a century of fighting Sheng Seleris’ Pentian nomads, it was pretty well known around the Lunar Empire that people on horseback can kick some severe ass. So surely a few people started getting the idea of doing the same… possibly just to look cool at first, but quickly because they realized horses are damn useful. And that’s why your thane of Apple Lane now has a fancy title and a fancy mount!
The answer is the Seven Mothers, either collectively or individually. About 24% of the population in the Heartlands belong to the cult. All of the other Lunar cults total about 10% of the population. So a little more than a third of the population in the Heartlands belong to Lunar cults (we are talking more than the minimal lay member rites).
I assume that another third of the population would be lay members, if not more.
The next biggest cult in the Heartlands is Lodril at about 14%. In third is the Grain Goddess Oria at about 10%.
So where is Yelm, you might ask? The Yelm cult is very magically, socially, and politically important, but it is comparatively small numbering about 4% of the population.
As far as I know, only the powerful noble families with lineages dating back a few centuries have true Yelm initiates and priests… most other people are lay members.
Dendara is at about 5% overall. And Shargash and Polaris are each no more than about 2%.
Dendara is Yelm’s wife apparently, but I have no idea what she actually does. The other two are war gods of the sky pantheon.
And again, Tarsh resembles the Lunar Heartlands in that about 25% of the population follow the Seven Mothers and 10% follow Hon-eel. Where it gets VERY different is the rest of the population largely follow Lightbringer gods and their associates.
Initiates are those who have experienced the cult’s magical secrets. They are able to act as conduits for the deity and wield its Rune magic. That is a deep connection, like being married or the member of a family – it is not something that is done casually.
Casual members are lay members – those are the folk that show up to the worship ceremonies and feasts, learn some spirit magic and skills from the cult, but might have a deeper tie with another cult.
Lay members are here for the free t-shirts and the cheap hot-dogs. Initiates have to hand out the t-shirts and cook the hot-dogs.
Associate members are initiates of one cult who can participate in the magical secrets of another, closely connected cult. They might even have special roles in that closely connected cult. As a result they have a deeper magical connection with the other cult than mere lay members, even though technically they are not actually members of that cult. A good example would be the tie between Issaries, Chalana Arroy, Lhankor Mhy and Orlanth, or between Orlanth and Ernalda.
Another example might be Babeester Gor initiates taking part in Ernalda’s ceremonies as guardians.
In some communities most members of a cult are initiates or associate members – think like the members of the Orlanth cult in an Orlanthi clan or the Pavis cult in the Real City. In other communities, most members of a cult are lay members – think the Pavis cult in New Pavis or Pavis County.
As of 1626, there are about 25,650 humans residing in Pavis County – this includes Argrath’s companions but does not include those nomadic bands that might winter in Pavis County. There are about 19,000 humans residing in Sun County.
The biggest cults are: – Ernalda 5325 (with another 4375 who are mere initiates of the Grain Goddess for a total of 9700) – Yelmalio 4900 (575 in Pavis County and 4375 in Sun County) – Orlanth 4700 (all in Pavis County) – Zola Fel 3500 (1500 in Pavis County and 2000 in Sun County) – Pavis himself has about 1000 initiates.
Now Orlanth punches higher than that, if you add the 650 Humakti and 550 Storm Bull cultists in Pavis County (many of whom are sworn to Argrath), and the other Lightbringer cults. But it does give you an idea of the relative numbers of the various cults. Post the Liberation of Pavis, the Seven Mothers cult is very small, only about 500 members, and all in Pavis County).
I don’t have much to say about this whole thing, so here’s a wall of Jeff quotes… sorry!
For a point of comparison, in all all of Sartar (including Far Point and Sun County County) there are 6525 Yelmalio cultists. Of that, 2700 are in Sun Dome County and 1725 in the Far Point. There are more Yelmalio cultists in New Pavis than in Alda-Chur, but the Alda-Churi can also call on the 1000 Yelmalio cultists in the Vantaros tribe.
So let’s just ignore the Yelmalio cult in Tarsh, and focus on the cult in Sartar and Civilised Prax.
The cult in Sartar is about a quarter bigger and is definitely richer. The Sun Dome Templars in Sartar are definitely more militarily skilled and disciplined. But they also must deal with a far more powerful and established Orlanth cult. It may be autonomous, but generally the Sun Dome is an ally of the Prince of Sartar. In Sartar, the Sun Dome and Varntaros are effectively just two more tribes among many.
The cult in Civilised Prax is smaller, but can approach the Orlanth cult as a peer. They are objectively weaker than the Sun Dome templars in Sartar but compared to their neighbours they are much stronger. They can be far more independent and autonomous than their kin in Sartar. And within Sun County, the cult is far more dominant than in Sartar. In Sun County, the traditional “Ernalda cult” is effectively a Grain Goddess cult and is long-tied to Yelmalio – but in Sartar, the Ernalda cult can always call upon the Orlanth cult for protection and support, and has ties to Esrolia.
So even though they are the same cult, worshiping the same god with the same myths and rules, the cults behave differently.
That being said, Sun Dome County in Sartar maintains close religious and cultural ties to Sun County in civilised Prax. Two of the last three counts of Sun County have been Sartarite, and Yelmalio cult in Sun County was among the first to follow Monrogh’s vision (after the Sun Dome itself).
A final thought, that island of just under 5000 Yelmalio cultists exists in a sea of Praxian nomads. Many of them also worship Yelmalio, although no doubt the cult is adapted for nomadic life (the came into Prax in the Second Age). There are some 15,000 nomads in Prax and the Wastes that follow Yelmalio, two thirds of them from the Impala Tribe.
Now that doesn’t mean that the Impala Riders don’t raid or threaten Sun County – tribal identity often overrides cult identity. But it does mean that like among the Orlanthi, they follow rules of honor.
And although that sounds like a big number, remember the nomads are spread throughout Prax and the Wastes, at a very low general density. And those Yelmalions belong to tribes dominated by over 60,000 Waha cultists (there are also another 19,000 Orlanth cultists among the tribes).
As an aside, here’s the Big Rubble’s population:
The Big Rubble has several other cults of importance:
There are about 250 “others”, from baboons to dragonewts to ogres and whatever.
If you’re wondering why there are so few Troll gods initiates given the big Troll population of the Big Rubble, don’t forget that two-thirds of that population are lowly trollkins. Jeff has a rule of thumb for that, actually:
As a general rule, for any group of 100 “trolls”, the assumption is that there are roughly:
– 20 adult dark trolls – 8 immature dark trolls – 4 Great Trolls – 3 Cave Trolls – 65 Trollkin
Some communities have few great trolls or cave trolls, some more. But this is the benchmark.
The dwarfs are an often underestimated and underrepresented Elder Race. In Sartar, they arguably played a bigger role than any other major Elder Race. They built the walls of Sartar’s cities, the Pockets of Boldhome, and built the initial King’s Road between Boldhome and Jonstown (in particular the incredible path through the Quivin Mountains).
And yes, Chaosium writes “dwarfs” sometimes and “dwarves” other times. It looks like they settled on the former for the new RuneQuest line, though.
Dwarfs might look more like humans than aldryami or trolls do, but they are more distinctly alien. Only the dragonewts are considered more mysterious and enigmatic.
Unaging, secretive, and possessing incredible skills and lore unknown to the rest of Glorantha, the dwarves view trolls and aldryami as implacable enemies and humans as fast-breeding pests.
Lovely. Thankfully, the dwarfs who live near Dragon Pass often adhere to Openhandism, which means they openly trade and interact with non-dwarf races (mostly humans). This is because they believe they can get us to help them repair the cosmos that was broken during the Gods War… so your dwarf NPCs will be mean and grumpy and weird and alien, but they’ll be there talking to your players!
Jeff then adds this on dwarf history in the Third Age, starting from the Dragonkill War which we already mentioned previously:
The danger from the human empires was largely broken in 1120, but the dwarfs were incredibly weak. Greatway was the most important stronghold in central Genertela, and the dwarfs were extremely risk adverse, needing to rebuild. So things start off with the elves trying to reclaim the Pass from 1120 to 1150. Reinforced by Brown Elves from the Old Woods, the Stinking Forest expands to the Indigo Mountains (as well as down the Dragonspine).
Around 1150 the trolls, aided by the half-trolls, defeat the Marching Forest with beetles, poison gas, and spirits. The angry ghosts of the elves still haunt the Deadwoods. And around 1180 the trolls and half-trolls fought.
Of note, the players in one of my campaigns have freed up the Deadwoods from their curse! So it should start growing back now. You can bet the trolls are going to be pissed.
After that came the dark troll period of supremacy, which was broken in 1222 by the dragonewts. Also around 1240 the trolls distract themselves by defeating the Praxians and conquering Pavis. After that the Grazers and Beast People have their period of importance. Which lasts until about 1320 when the Orlanthi return to reclaim Dragon Pass.
The dwarfs did not stir until after 1240 or so, until the trolls sacked Pavis, with its dwarf secrets. Sometime before 1490, the trolls made an assault on the Door That Goes Nowhere in the Three Little Giant Mountains. The Dwarfs were forced to temporarily withdraw from Door Mountain, sealing it off from the rest of the Greatway.
Jeff shared this map to illustrate what the Door That Goes Nowhere might be:
The origin point of the Giant’s Walk being the Giant Stairs at Door Mountain has been on maps even since Trollpak at least, but this Door to Nowhere seems new. I guess it makes sense that there’s a door on Door Mountain, but it’s interesting that it might be where giants come from.
Meanwhile The Dwarf decides to ally with the Orlanthi and lends his aid to Sartar. Dwarfs build Sartar’s cities and roads. This is the typical dwarf response – use the humans as a counterweight to the trolls.
The capitalized Dwarf mentioned here is probably Isidilian The Wise, a.k.a. The Dwarf of Dwarf Mine, one of the friendliest dwarfs in the world. He’s very very old, having been “forged” before the Dawn, and has been a supporter of the House of Sartar for most of the kingdom’s history… until:
But to the dwarfs’ surprise, Saronil stole dwarf secrets and used them to build the Orlanth Temple. The dwarfs withdraw from direct aid of Sartar, but the damage has already been done. The Sartarites took the secrets of stonemasonry and other crafts. And although they certainly fought with the trolls, they tended to fight the wrong ones.
You’d think the dwarfs would give up on humans and turn back to their underground works, but hey, don’t underestimate how much they hate the trolls:
And so the dwarfs make contact with other humans as well. Other humans who will fight trolls and keep the Sartarites from exploiting the dwarf secrets they stole. But it is important to remember that the dwarfs really don’t give a damn about human theologies and politics, and probably have great difficulty telling them apart.
The Elder Race can’t help but fight each other and waste their resources. The humans are viewed by all the Elder Races as untrustworthy bit players. The other Elder Races are the real foes. Thousands of years of hatred and conflict, between species with some very long lived rulers.
A few more notes:
In Boldhome, the dwarfs have a sealed-up complex, called the Inviolate Dwarf Palace. Dwarf constructs are sometimes seen deep in the Pockets.
And:
The most commonly encountered dwarfs are rock and copper dwarfs, especially in Boldhome and New Pavis (dwarfs are not an uncommon sight in either city). Most humans think of dwarfs as small miners, bronze workers, and stoneworkers, capable of amazing craftsmanship.
But the dwarfs nearest the Lunar Empire are not Openhandist and far less friendly than The Dwarf. So Sartar has likely gotten far more dwarf gifts than the Lunar Empire has in its entire history.
Remember, Dwarf Mine and Greatway are the center of Openhandism in Glorantha.
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.
Richard Helliwell of Infinity Engine has posted some sneak peek at an upcoming Arkat miniature, which I’m sure will delight Arkat fanboys like Bud from Bud’s RPG Reviews. The sculpt looks absolutely fantastic, and seems directly inspired by this amazing illustration from the Glorantha Sourcebook:
For our third episode of our Initiation Series, we interview Erin McGuire, who was only supposed to play RuneQuest for one night, but hasn’t stopped for the past couple years, and is now possibly an heir to the throne of Sartar. These things happen, you know.
Erin is part of the Beer With Teeth collective, who has published numerous supplements for RuneQuest on the Jonstown Compendium, and now works with Chaosium on “official” books.
Erin is also part of the Society for Creative Anachronism, which most of the creators of RuneQuest were also part of themselves a long time ago.
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 week I wrapped up one of my “Goonies in Glorantha” campaigns, with the second playtest group reaching the end next week. This is exciting: all adventurers have gone through adulthood initiation, ready for the shenanigans of cattle raiding and cult initiations. I hope to write this whole thing for the Jonstown Compendium… fingers crossed.
This is part 2 of last week’s video where James Coquillat interviews Jeff Richard about what he’s working on. Here’s the summary:
After the cults book is the Sartar Homeland boxed set, which is also project that blew up in scale and size. It’s not certain yet that it will be a boxed set (especially in these times of cardboard shortage), but that’s what Chaosium is trying hard to achieve.
There is new material on the House of Sartar.
There are guidelines for creating your own clan, guild, or temple, including Pendragon-like management mechanics.
Andrew Logan Montgomery (author of Six Seasons in Sartar and Company of the Dragon) has worked with Jeff on character adulthood initiations and the following apprenticeship years (also known as “the Ordeal”).
Boldhome gets described in detail, and there’s a “campaign” booklet which goes season by season between 1625 to 1627 where the adventurers are based out of the capital city but have opportunities to participate in all the big events of the “official” timeline.
The Dragon Pass gazetteer is there too, with the full poster-size map that Matt Ryan has done, and that we got a partial look at in the Starter Set.
Other books include the Gamemaster Guide book, Return to Snakepipe Hollow, Pavis & Big Rubble by Robin Laws, Sun Dome County (the one in Sartar, not the one in Prax) by Jonathan Webb, and some Prax Homeland book.
The video game that was teased a while ago is still going on, and apparently taking up a lot of Jeff’s time.
The reprint of the board games (White Bear & Red Moon and Nomad Gods) is still an ongoing project. Chaosium is considering having Loic Muzy redo all the counters.
As we continue to follow the Gamemaster’s Month initiative that helps new GMs to run a game of RuneQuest, you might want to learn about the whole concept from either Chaosium or the actual project site, which will also give you the links to the Discord or Facebook groups where you can chat with other new GMs – whether new to GMing at all, or new to GMing your system of choice for this year’s project.
For lesson 3 in the course, the general lesson to the GM is to relay, and to think more about creating a game flow than to get the rules exactly right, and all the RuneQuest section asks for some re-reading of the rules after you have played through the solo adventure.
This is followed by a closer look at the first adventure new gamemasters are suposed to run. In RuneQuest’s case, that is “A Rough Landing” of course, the first adventure in the Starter Set.
ImpCon Coming Soon?
Chaosium’s online “impromptu” conventions are possibly coming back on January 22nd. Jeff Richard just tested the waters on Facebook, but given the amount of positive replies, there’s a good chance it might happen.
Who’d be up for an Impromptu Con on the 22nd? And how about if it was noonish in the US and evening in the EU/UK?
So my thought is to have a chat on RQ, a discussion of heroquesting and the heroquest rules in progress, and maybe something on the setting (how Sartar works, Boldhome, etc.). Happy to have any proposals for ideas!
It’s not official yet so don’t get too upset if the date moves or if it doesn’t happen at all, but put a tentative event on your calendar just in case!
In the September 1978 issue of Alarums & Excursions #37 Steve Perrin laid out, in a very bare bones fashion how RuneQuest, Chaosium’s first RPG, blazed a new trail away from the main RPG that dominated the market. RuneQuest offered a stark contrast to what many players perceived as the one true way to play a game: Experience points, Levels, Fighters can’t cast spells, Magic-users can’t wear armor, and Clerics can’t use edged weapons. RuneQuest turned that world upside down or simply chose to ignore it. Almost 44 years later, we want to share how Steve explained it all those years ago, so here is that article in its entirety
Check Chaosium’s blog for the article in question, complete with an early method for converting D&D characters to RuneQuest, campaign ideas, typesetting issues, and what the hell is a “buck roll”!
I played through Griffin Mountain in the summer of 1981 shortly after it was published. It’s my favorite RuneQuest campaign. Here’s the story about how Griffin Mountain came to be. As luck would have it, the actual original layout still exists, and is part of our company archives.
Some of the backstory behind Griffin Mountain was already included in the introductions by Rudy, Jennell, and Greg, but Rick provides a whole new look at this classic campaign, complete with multiple photos of exclusive Chaosium archives’ items. Go check it out!
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.
So often when we talk about heroquesting, it is in the context of gaining power, defeating a foe, exploring the mythic realms, learning magical secrets, and so on. Not surprising – that is the heroquests of the God Learners and of the post-Red Goddess Lunars. Such quests require knowledge, preparation, and magical power. They can achieve great things, but some theorize that the universe itself begins to react against them. Such heroquesters become trapped in Arachne Solara’s web unless they are very careful and respectful of what they do and where they tread.
Of course there are other more powerful contexts for heroquesting. One is desperate personal need. When one has lost everything and can lose nothing more, Arachne Solara herself shows a path through the wilderness. Such quests require true need and desperation – like that of the Red Goddess.
But the most powerful context is that of cosmic necessity. When the cosmos itself needs the hero lest part or all be destroyed by Chaos. Such quests are aided by Glorantha herself – or at least by her ghost. Some priests speculate that the full Lightbringers Quest requires both desperate personal need and cosmic necessity.
I’m gonna assume that “cosmic necessity” can work at various levels, for various levels of heroquesting and heroic gifts. A simple clan could be in dire “cosmic need”, just as the entirety of Sartar or Dragon Pass can also be in “cosmic need”… if only so that adventurers can go on justified mythic journeys appropriate for whatever is going on in the campaign at the time.
And this is why those who treat heroquests primarily as materialistic means to wrest power from the divine realm are doomed. And also why those with desperate personal need combined with cosmic necessity succeed on quests far greater than anything in the God Learners imagination.
If your players are heroquesting in order to minmax their characters, you have full license to mess them up! Yay!
The cosmos itself has spirit and/or intelligence. Call it Glorantha, Arachne Solara, Ginna Jar, or the Invisible God, but Glorantha is not a clockwork thing.
Unless you are a mostali. Then it obviously is.
Call it Glorantha, Arachne Solara, or The Gamemaster. Whichever it is, they’re going to come up with appropriate consequences!
There are some interesting parallels with elements of the 12-steps of AA or NA in some of the personal desperation quests. Common to both the Lightbringers Quest and the Red Goddess quest is a point where the quester is lost and defeated and must accept that. Only then can they continue.
Now of course, no good God Learner is going to find that an easy thing to do.
You can find these 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA) easily online, but I think Jeff is mostly referring to the classic narrative structure of the protagonist hitting a low point, acknowledging their flaws, going through some kind of transformation, and emerging victorious in their new state. I don’t imagine the God Learners did that: they probably just went through the motions to reach the God Time and then “fucked around and found out”.
The point is that not only is not every heroquest even, but not every motivation for a heroquest is even. Some motivations and psychological situations are more likely to produce results than others.
Most of those people permanently reside in the cities – Boldhome, Jonstown, Swenstown, and Wilmskirk – and might have for generations. They are nonetheless members of their tribes.
For example, in Boldhome an approximate breakdown is as follows: Aranwyth 350 Balkoth 200 Balmyr 350 Cinsina 500 Colymar 550 Culbrea 550 Dinacoli 150 Dundealos 250 Kheldon 900 Kultain 150 Lismelder 100 Locaem 200 Malani 300 Sambarri 350 Telmori 450 Torkani 300 Alone 200 Aldachur 350 Other 300
Note that these numbers are typically in addition to any tribal population numbers mentioned for a given tribe’s lands. So for instance, when the Gamemaster Adventures mentions that the Colymar tribe has about 12,300 people, that’s for their own tribal lands, and doesn’t include the 550 people living over in Boldhome (with possibly more elsewhere in other cities).
Also, of these 12,300 people living in Colymar lands, not all would actually belong to the Colymar tribe: spouses, expats, and guests from other tribes would make up several hundred people among that population.
The numbers in Boldhome are big: the Colymar living in Boldhome, for instance, outnumber entire clans that live in Colymar tribal lands… so their influence can’t be underestimated: when there’s a Colymar tribal meeting, there could be a whole bunch of expats from Boldhome and other cities showing up with their fancy clothes and sophisticated gifts, arguing for their own urban-driven agendas. The rural/urban divide isn’t just a modern political problem when you consider the urbanization rate of Dragon Pass!
Aha, you might say – that only totals up to 6500 people. But you have already said there are 10,000 humans in Boldhome!
Well, 3500 people in Boldhome, more than a third, aren’t Sartarite. About 2000 come from the Holy Country – say 700 from Esrolia, 1000 from Heortland, and 300 from the rest (probably mainly Caladraland). And another 1500 come from elsewhere – Grazelands, Prax, and Tarsh mainly.
There are also 1000 members of the Elder Races in Boldhome. The largest group are trolls – 675, although 300 are trollkin. There are also 200 elves in the city.
And just outside the city in the mountains are 2000 dragonewts.
Remember that Dragon Pass is a big crossroads, with a very diverse population who all have reasons to be there. Are there tensions between humans and non-humans, or between different tribes and kinship groups, ranging from petty bigotry to downright hate crimes and violence? You bet! But then again, that’s nothing new when it comes to big cities, and will hopefully be the source of many of your scenarios:
So you can see than the Kheldon actually have almost a 20% of their total numbers in Boldhome – 900 in the city and 4000 in their tribal lands. This is why the tribal manors are so important – they are places where tribesmembers can go to resolve disputes with other tribal members and where they can get support in any dispute that might need to go to the Prince.
So if your adventurer is a member of the Colymar tribe, there’s a good chance she has kin in Boldhome. And not just a few, the average Colymar clan would have 46 members in Boldhome.
When you write scenarios in Boldhome, here’s what the very high-level view looks like:
Thus in Boldhome, the Kheldon tribe are the most numerous and powerful tribe within the city. A distant second are the Culbrea and Colymar tribes, and third place is the Cinsina. Fourth place are actually the Telmori.
Everyone else is small potatoes. And periodically people have to be reminded that the Lismelder are a tribe (“the who?”).
I love the Telmori. They throw a wrench into whatever preconceptions players might have about what constitutes a Sartarite tribe. My second favourite are the Torkani, who also do that in a slightly less shocking way…
Telmori still exist as a tribe. Whether Sartar’s Peace can be reconstituted now that there is a new Prince is another question. The Telmori have not been enrolled as Kallyr’s royal bodyguard – the massacre of the Maboder and other Telmori depredations plus Jomes Wulf and the brutal reprisals against the Telmori are a lot to just sweep under the rug.
Playing a Telmori campaign where they are trying to get back in the good graces of the Prince would be interesting: they would need to justify their claims over the now vacated Wulfsland, show good faith by running missions from the Prince or for the Jonstown Confederation (we touched a bit on that in our last podcast episode), and demonstrate enough honour that Telmori bodyguards are a thing again… potentially the adventurers themselves!
Oh, and if you wonder what these Boldhome Telmori do on Wildday, when they transform into wolves, Jeff says that they stay in their tribal caves… I wonder what would happen if some bad agent was to let them out and use that as a proof that they can’t be trusted?
In Storm Season 1625, Prince Kallyr Starbrow summoned an assembly in Boldhome. Before the assembled citizens of many tribes, she formally made the Lightbringers’ Summons.
Chaos stalks my world. Broos have bruised me, the Hand has pawed me. I have taken up the impossible path, And seek those who must aid my task. You are not the first of my friends. Others walked with me to Heal. The Devil took them, they died. I failed to save them, Chaos grows.
According to the Book of Heortling Mythology (so take this with a pinch of salt and don’t hesitate to ignore it and make other stuff up), this is how Chalana Arroy summoned Orlanth and his friends in the God Time. Either way, it’s indeed a little speech that Lightbringer cultists, and Orlanth priests in particular, are pretty much obligated to answer, or run the risk of losing any favours with their deities. I think it only applies to Rune Level initiates, though.
But hey, remember the Proximate Holy Realm that was discussed last week? I wonder if the Lightbringers’ Summons, the Wind Lord Challenges (RQG p301), and other such “obligations”, might be part of what maintains this Proximate Holy Realm?
Any master of one of the seven Lightbringer cults must answer the legitimate call of the summons or lose all power and benefit of their god. The priests and lords present in Boldhome answer the call:
I hear and stand before you, But I am only one. What would you have of me?
Kallyr proclaims that to stop Chaos and restore the world, she and her companions shall perform the Lightbringers’ Quest during Sacred Time, and that all who answer her summons shall aid her in the massive ceremonies and rituals that will bring the Gods World in proximity with the mundane realm. Some respond enthusiastically; other priests and lords reluctantly, fearing the dangers and consequences of the ritual.
Now I want you to imagine how radical an event that was. Although components of the Lightbringers’ Quest are incorporated into Sacred Time celebrations, that is not what the Prince is proposing – she wants to perform the LBQ herself. No Sartarite leader has tried that at this scale – not Sartar, not Tarkalor, not even desperate Salinarg.
She’ll need the support of thousands to bring the divine realm into proximity, and she’ll need magical items, spirits, and blessings – and that support won’t be available for the usual needs.
I already mentioned how it’s quite unclear to me how much “magical support” you need to go on a heroquest…. can you start an LBQ with a piece of string and two sticks? Would it not work at all, or would it be a hundred times more dangerous and unstable than if you had entire tribes behind you?
Anyway, in this case, the tribes are being asked to provide support, which would divert resources from their own Sacred Time ceremonies to improve harvests and pregnancies and whatever… and many of these tribes have paid dearly for Kallyr’s violent rebellion against the Lunars.
But it is a valid Lightbringer Summons by someone with the authority to give it to all the tribes. So what do you do? What do you urge your kin to do?
Jeff adds a few comments for context:
However, it is worth keeping in mind that at this time, [Kallyr] has been Prince for no more than two seasons. Her last liberation of Sartar lasted just about this long. There are other tribal leaders and warlords who barely acknowledge her authority, and there is another warlord in Prax with an army of nomads.
So it is a damn high stakes play for someone without a lot of cards. No room for error, and everyone knows it.
But she’s succeeded in unlikely circumstances before, and she IS Prince. So what do you do?
And:
Regardless of the success or failure of her quest, the magical energies summoned successfully brought the divine realm into proximity with Sartar, at least for the duration of Sacred Time. Hers was not the only heroquest that took place during those two weeks!
By definition, everybody is heroquesting in some form or other during Sacred Time, but I assume Jeff is referring to Argrath here.
Now Kallyr tries to limit the dangers of the Lightbringers Quest by truncating its most dangerous parts, by having stand-ins at key points and containing it within her realm. She does not go to the Western Shore – people will carry her on shell-back, and others will represent the Luathelans. She hardly enters the Underworld, keeping the path to what she knows. And the ritual will culminate in the Royal Palace of Boldhome, with a polluted statue representing Wakboth (to be destroyed ritually by the participants).
Having stand-ins for as many figures as possible is actually a great tactic: my players did exactly that for their first heroquest in one of my campaigns, and it severely reduced the risks (at least as long as they picked people who could truly identify with the figure they’re supposed to stand-in for). They still had a few surprises of course, but it was an interesting exercise in improvisation.
But the Bad Rain needs to be summoned, and various foes and enemies are summoned by the magic. The dangers are real – just mitigated, hopefully.
We have already discussed the Bad Rain, which is what happens when Orlanth is brooding, thinking of how his mistakes brought the Great Darkness and all its monsters… and so you’ve got monsters literally showing up.
The idea is that by bringing the divine realm into proximity, even these stand-ins will successfully bring magic into the world. This approach was common to many heroquests in Dragon Pass or the Lunar Empire (an example of it was in Cults of Prax, with a Yelmalio Rune Lord performing the Three Blows of Anger). Perform the quest as a ritual within the Proximate Holy Realm, and it should bring forth the intended magic without as much danger.
What she did not know is that Jar-eel had learned how to use that Proximate Holy Realm as a highway, and that she could enter among the stand-ins. This came as quite a shock to Kallyr and her household (although it is something that Argrath was already aware of, having encountered that in the past and even exploited it to his advantage on several occasions).
Now if we go back to how heroquests are best performed (when you’re at rock bottom), we can see why Kallyr’s LBQ didn’t start with the best chances:
Kallyr pushes for the LBQ at the very height of her power. Argrath tries at its nadir.
Sacred Time, 1625
By now, most people (even the newbies) will have gone one to 1626 or 1627 at least, but if you want to start another campaign, Jeff has some ideas:
Because of the magical energies released as part of the preparations for the Lightbringers Quest (and perhaps because of the awakening of a True Dragon with the Dragonrise), much of Sartar could be said to be on the Hero Plane during Sacred Time of 1625. While Kallyr and her companions traveled about Sartar performing the Westfaring and Descent, there were manifestations of the divine realm throughout the realm. Many people reported seeing battles in the sky, burning footprints, marching trees, the Night Wolf, and the Black Eater. A few saw stranger things, like the Stream being filled with corpses or the Three Feathered Rivals. One even claimed to have found herself at the edge of the world.
Such manifestations and events became increasingly common during the Hero Wars, as even greater releases of magical energy occurred.
The Westfaring and the Descent are the first two big phases of the Lightbringers Quest, which Kallyr Starbrow tried to perform after the Dragonrise to restore cosmic balance in Sartar or something. I don’t know, people in Glorantha use the LBQ for the most convoluted reasons sometimes…
That said, these are cool epic manifestations that Jeff mentions here. Again, this is the stuff I need to be better at to give some mythical dimension to my games. However I’m afraid it only comes with either (1) deeper Gloranthan lore knowledge or (2) deeper familiarity with real-world myths? We’ll see…
I post this in order to provide some opportunities in your game (this is going to be presented in far more detail in the Sartar Book). In Sacred Time 1625, you can have your adventurers see a battle in the sky – and maybe even participate in it – or maybe meet an imprisoned or broken deity, or witness marching trees or whatever. They might get something new and magical from the experience. They might even decide that they want to explore the mythic realm more!
Jeff adds some comments about Kallyr’s heroquest:
It is thought that Jar-eel was able to exploit the Proximate Realm to manifest herself in an unexpected manner during the Lightbringers Quest. If true, this would be a stunning tribute to her power and her mythic virtuosity – as appearing in more than one place at the same time is sign of divinity. Tosti Runefriend later speculated that Jar-eel might have Discorporated, entered the hero plane, appeared in the ceremony, and then manifested physically – but such magic is godlike and perhaps the counter-explanation is even more frightening than just saying that Jar-eel is the incarnation of the Red Goddess.
Jar-eel’s intrusion into Kallyr’s heroquest is featured in Jeff’s “While Bull Campaign”, which is available on YouTube. I always assumed that Jar-eel showed up because she heroquested the same myth at the same time (based on information from spies in Kallyr’s entourage), or used a magical road to the heart of Sartar, or something… I would not have guessed she used the Proximate Holy Realm, especially since I didn’t even know about it until last week anyway.
My current understanding is that running your own heroquest and hoping to get “matched” with someone else’s heroquest has a low hit rate, and you show up as a certain mythic figure, which might be good in some cases, but potentially limiting (and a little bit insulting) for someone like Jar-eel. She wanted to intrude as herself, or maybe as the Red Goddess — neither of which feature in the Lightbringers Quest.
Jar-eel’s willingness to tread very dangerous paths and embrace even more dangerous associations proved to surprise the Orlanthi, who could not imagine a mortal would be able and willing to do what she did.
More Heroquesting
I guess that’s the theme this week — maybe an indication that Jeff is tweaking the heroquesting rules for the Sartar Homeland scenarios? Anyway, here it is:
One of the great benefits of heroquesting is the ability to gain magic outside of what can be gained from one’s cult. These magic abilities often operate mechanically similarly to Rune spells. Sometimes these new spells can be incorporated within the cult structure, creating a new subcult. For example, Garundyer gained the spells of Hailstones from Siglolf Cloudcrusher – these spells form the basis of the Cloudcrusher subcult of Orlanth Thunderous.
A subcult of a subcult? Hah! But more seriously, I’d love to see some player character heroquest deep enough to bring a new Rune Spell and start a new sub-cult.
Alternatively, these new spells can form the basis of a new cult similar to a Spirit Cult. Hon-eel brought forth Bless Maize which became the basis of her cult. Argrath brought forth the White Bull which has become a popular Spirit Cult in Prax.
Oh, I guess the player character needs to do some really hard-core heroquesting then.
Most often, these new abilities are personal to the quester. Sarostip has the ability to kill with his left eye. Hofstaring had his flying spear. Jaldon Goldentooth has his ability to bite through walls. Harrek has his God-Spirit White Bear Cloak. Many heroes possess the ability to return from the dead or to Discorporate their spirits.
The best way to give player characters a good heroquest power is to work with the player, and agreeing on a power that feels right.
The distinctions between these approaches and why an ability gained on a heroquest might be personal or might be incorporated into a cult can get more than a little fuzzy or contradictory, but there are certain generalizations. Powers gained on quests where the hero travels in the footsteps of their god are easiest to incorporate into their cult. Powers gained on new quests that can be repeated but are outside of the mythos of the cult must become a new cult. And powers not shared with others remain personal.
Now I say these often operate similarly to Rune Magic, but it is also possible to gain powerful Spirit Magic as well. Spirit magic that does not count against spell holding limits, or is of permanent duration is well known, although such abilities are always personal.
And a few of the powers or side effects gained through heroquests don’t fit into either Rune Magic or Spirit Magic. The best known is of course unaging, but also things like lack of shadow despite the sun, no sweat (while being unaffected by heat, cold, or exertion), and so forth.
It is important to keep in mind that abilities gained through heroquests are exceptions to the general rules of magic. They are examples of direct interactions with the raw source of magic, rather than the more formulaic expressions of rune magic, spirit magic, or sorcery.
In all of Dragon Pass there are about 18,000 Yelmalio cult members. That’s:
6000 in the Sartar homeland (largely concentrated around the Sun Dome, Alda-Chur, and Boldhome). 12000 in Tarsh Negligible numbers elsewhere.
In the River of Cradles there are about 4500 Yelmalio cult members, with about 4000 in Sun County and 500 in Pavis County.
For comparison, in all of Dragon Pass, there are about 111,930 Ernalda cultists, 85,000 Orlanth cultists, and 66,500 Seven Mothers cultists.
There are about 8700 settlers in and around Alone. About 2000 Orlanth cultists, 2000 Ernalda cultists, and about 300 Yelmalio cultists. 275 Maran Gor, 250 Humakt cultists, and about 130 of each of the other Lightbringers.
There are about 31,000 permanent residents in the area centered on Alda-Chur, including the Dinacoli, Princeros, Tovtaros, and Vantaros tribes. This area, called the Far Place, speaks Tarshite but has had close economic and political ties to Sartar since the foundation of the Principality, and joined the Principality shortly after the Battle of Grizzly Peak.
The ten largest cults in the Far Place are: 5825 Ernalda 5300 Orlanth 1700 Yelmalio 1600 Seven Mothers 600 Engizi or Heler 520 Storm Bull 500 Humakt 470 Issaries 435 Maran Gor 380 Daka Fal
The Dinacoli clan is further south: it used to be part of Sartar, but around the time of Kallyr Starbrow’s rebellion in 1613 (which they did not support), they changed their allegiance to Alda-chur.
The close proximity with Snakepipe Hollow, a well known Chaos-infested area neighbouring the northern-most tribes, means that there’s a high presence of Storm Bull initiates at any point. But there’s a high turnover:
[…] many are not residents. It is not uncommon for bands of Pol-Joni Storm Bull cultists with their Praxian allies to come to Snakepipe Hollow to fight Chaos.
As of 1625, the Alda-chur Confederation is still under the indirect rule of the Lunar Empire through Harvar Ironfist, a Yelmalion Rune Lord who violently took power in 1611. Depending on your timeline, Harvar might have been eaten at the Dragonrise, but his forces might still be in power despite this. I think that in Chaosium’s Glorantha, the area is only freed a bit later when Argrath starts to move into Dragon Pass.
Personally I would have Harvar simply send some representatives to the Lunar Temple opening ceremony and subsequent destruction, which leaves open a cool showdown between himself and Argrath… or the adventurers…
Anyway, all of this to say that the area is still a Lunar colony in 1625:
And given that Storm Bull hates the Red Goddess as much as Orlanth does, imagine the consternation caused when a band of 100+ mounted Storm Bull cultists show up on a sacred quest to hunt and destroy Chaos. Can’t act against them – Storm Bull is beloved for keeping Chaos out of the Far Place – but can’t really allow them to stay.
Harvar Ironfist is from the Vantaros tribe, which is where the bulk of his Yelmalion hoplite army is from:
Of the 1700 Yelmalio cultists, 1400 of them are either in Alda-Chur or among the Vantaros tribe.
So how, you might ask, could 1700 Yelmalio cultists dominate a tribal confederation with 5300 Orlanth cultists? Three things:
1. The Yelmalio cult was more centrally organized, with Harvar able to gain their support and defeat foes piecemeal. 2. Harvar had strong Lunar support. Money, mercenaries, you name it. 3. His rule was pretty tenuous once you got outside of Alda-Chur and the Vantaros tribal lands. The other tribes paid tribute and stayed out of trouble.
I would also assume that about 2/3rds of the Orlanth cultists are farmers belonging to the Thunderous or Barntar subcults: they know fighting only as far as the tribal militia membership goes. The Yelmalions are pretty much all professional soldiers, and are much better individually trained, in addition to what Jeff said about them being better organized as a whole.
Back in 1611, Harvar brought in Gagarthi warbands (plus maybe some miscellaneous other mercenaries) to seize power violently, getting rid of several Orlanthi leaders. Once those are gone and most of Kallyr’s rebellion fled far away south or east, there probably wasn’t enough motivation left for anybody to organize a serious uprising anyway. So yeah, most of these tribes pay tribute and stay out of trouble… except for the the tribes around Alone, maybe, because that’s where my players are, currently in 1615, fresh out of their adulthood initiations and ready to kick some ass!
[…] Lets start by remembering that those that Dorasar encountered (and made himself ruler or overlord of) were the descendants of settlers that had been isolated from Dragon Pass for over 400 years.
To place things in historical context, Dorasar founded New Pavis in 1550. The Dragonkill War which started the Inhuman Occupation (when no humans lived in Dragon Pass) happened in 1120, so that’s what I think Jeff is referring to.
However, the return of human settlements in Dragon Pass started in the early/mid 1300s, with Heortlings like King Colymar coming from the south to settle the first Sartarite tribes, Arim the Pauper coming from the north to found the Kingdom of Tarsh, and the Pure Horse people coming from Prax in the east. I’m not sure how “isolated” the people of the River of Cradles would have been even after three generations since the foundation of the Kingdom of Sartar (in 1492), which, given Sartar’s modus operandi, would have had some good trade going on by then.
My guess is that trade with Prax was limited, or even non-existent. The Grazelanders, still traumatized by their defeat and subsequent exile from Prax in the mid 1250s, might have told horrible stories about the Praxian nomads to the Sartarites, stories that might have stuck in everybody’s mind well into the 1400s, if not later. And the Sartarites might have been more interested in lucrative trade between the Holy Country and Tarsh anyway. The few brave traders who had the idea of checking out what can be done to the east might have come back robbed of all their stuff, including a few limbs: “don’t go to Prax, there’s crazy nomad people there“.
Think of them like some of the Greek communities in Central Asia that survived the collapse of the Hellenistic empires, or like the Crimean Goths. Isolated, tenaciously defending their identity from the Praxian nomads and the trolls, refusing to become another “Oasis people”.
So effectively, the violent and conservative Praxian tribes might be what isolated the Zola Fel settlers from Dragon Pass.
They succeeded, and the Yelmalio cult was key to that. But during the long period of solitude and isolation, that cult dwindled and diminished. Perhaps only about 1000 cultists survived to great Dorasar and Varthanis Brighthelm. By that time, the Yelmalio cult was little more than a Spirit Cult, associated with a Grain Goddess, who he defended from nomads and trolls, and friendly with the local river nymphs. They had a big temple they could hardly maintain and stories of Yelm the Sun God, whom Yelmalio defended and was the son of.
It sounds like the original River of Cradles version of the Yelmalio cult was, by necessity, an increasingly xenophobic (towards the Praxian tribes) and conservative affair.
Varthanis brought them the Yelmalio of Monrogh Lantern. With gifts, geases, more spells useful for fighting trolls, and brought them into contact with Dragon Pass – which meant bronze and allies. The Grain Goddess became recognized as Ernalda, but that also brought in rivalry with the Orlanth cult brought to Pavis by the Sartarite settlers. The population of the farmers grew and the Yelmalio grew to dominate Sun County.
Varthanis was a Yelmalio companion of Dorasar, so he arrived with many of the new doctrines “discovered” in Dragon Pass when Monrogh Lantern helped the Sartarite cult of Elmal evolve into the more modern cult of Yelmalio.
But this area was a periphery. Contact with Dragon Pass was largely through Pavis, not Sun County, and even Pavis is a frontier settlement. If Pavis is our Wild West town like Santa Fe then Sun County is even more remote, one of our more successful Spanish missions.
This all sounds like good world-building that paves the way to the Sun Dome book in Sartar presenting a widely different take on Yelmalio compared to Prax…
Keeping Your Adventurers Prisoners
On Facebook, Wesley Samsal asked about the old “slave bracelets” that are mentioned for instance in Cults of Prax. These used to act as magic dampeners, preventing people from using magic. As far as I know, they’re not “canon” anymore so how do people keep other people prisoners? Jeff has some answers:
Characters with Honor aren’t going to escape if they are being ransomed. Given the importance of Honor in Orlanthi culture (and Lunar military culture), the broad assumption is prisoners aren’t killed, but they don’t try to escape. And your community rarely is going to reward you for breaking the rules.
This answer of course assumes the most common situation, which is: the PCs fought some NPCs, the fight didn’t go well, and the players decided to surrender and invoke their ransom (the sum mentioned in the Occupation chapter of RQG, p63-73 is usually good enough, but throw in a bag of chips or a box of chocolates to the gamemaster, for good measure).
If you escape from captors you surrendered to, then those captors will not trust other folk from your community. Which can be a very bad thing.
The whole purpose of the ransom system is to avoid killing people defeated in combat or war. Several powerful war cults strongly uphold it – breaking those rules can make other dangerous enemies.
Ransoming someone back usually only requires keeping them captive for a few days, but other situations might involve keeping them as “non-free tenants” (or similar) for longer, such as someone working off their defeat and capture in battle for a season, a year, or more. I imagine this is more common for prisoners of war, from a defeated army, than for someone being captured after a cattle raid or highway robbery… but I think similar guidelines apply either way.
So if your players surrender only to escape a bit later, the following comes to mind:
If possible, have a messenger already on their way to the PCs’ community to get the ransom. The first thing captors will do is probably ask where the funds are, and send someone there. That could be one of their own but, preferably, the messenger is one of the PCs’ companions, if applicable, or a third party, I think. Now the PCs have to intercept this messenger, otherwise they will not only still have paid their ransom, they will also have a very awkward and humiliating situation on their hands.
If the PCs escape and get out of paying a ransom, word gets around and a couple seasons later a handful of people from their community get killed instead of being ransomed back. The killers will of course have left a clear message: “the last people we captured sneaked away like dishonourable tricksters, even though they didn’t carry his marks… we’re not taking any chances this time: we’re taking our ransom from their dead bodies“. The PCs will have to restore their standing with their community if they want these new spells or skill training. This is especially true if one of those killed people carried an important tribal item!
Of course this is Glorantha so you can always bring in angry spirits: that ancestor who was big on honour, some cult spirit that thinks you’re not worthy anymore, or worse.
Not all consequences are bad, though! People might be interested in the PCs’ lack of respect for traditions. Some Chaos cult might approach them, which I’m sure won’t lead to anything problematic, right?
Her enemies are the gods of Chaos (all of them), the Red Goddess, and Mostal.
So as far as the Mother of Trolls is concerned, Orlanth is as bad as Aldrya, Yelm, Yelmalio and the Seven Mothers. But she will cooperate with any of those against Chaos (which includes the Red Goddess). Of course afterwards, she will likely to devour her erstwhile allies, so you take your risk.
It’s interesting that Kyger Litor cultists don’t even like Chalana Arroy. They have their own healer deity (Xiola Umbar, I believe), but still, healing is healing. Apart from that, I assume that Lightbringer cults are hated for their association with Orlanth, who slew the sun god and forced trolls to flee the Underworld, Solar cults for obvious darkness vs light reasons, and Lunar cults and miscellaneous ones like Telmor for their association with Chaos.
As always, those are generalizations. Your particular Troll adventurer might have a personal history that, despites their Kyger Litor cult membership, makes them somewhat friendly to, say, other adventurers belonging to Lightbringer cults. Adventurers are often exceptions after all. Buf Jeff gives some better advice:
So smart Lunars try to approach Kyger Litor through Jakaleel or Annilla if possible. Smart Orlanthi try to approach her through Ernalda or Humakt (who are Neutral) – or Argan Argar or Storm Bull (who are Friendly).
I could imagine a duelling group of delegates to the Castle of Lead – a Lunar group with Blue Moon cultists and an Orlanthi group of Storm Bulls and Earth Priestesses. Both have about the same chance of success (unless the Lunars are dumb enough to hail the Red Goddess).
I think the politics and spygames around the Castle of Lead’s agenda in the Hero Wars have been quite underused so I’m always happy when it crops up like this!
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.
Beer With Teeth’s Self-Publishing Advice
Friend of the show Diana Probst posted some in-depth article about self-publishing gaming material on DriveThruRPG (and elsewhere), based on their experience with Chaosium’s own Community Content Program. It’s full of good advice!
SkullDixon discusses group climbing on his blog. Interestingly enough, he adopts the reverse approach from my own Runic Rant article on the more general idea of group rolls: instead of having characters help a “leader” through augments, SkullDixon has the “leader” augment everybody else’s rolls.
Not everything is about Glorantha, although most things are! Here are loosely relevant things that we found on the interwebs.
Ancient Table Manners
Guest entry by Joerg
If you want clues about housing and everyday obects, this German language website has thousands of photographs showing actual artifacts and reconstructions for several cultures – Romans, Greeks, Etruscans, Celts, Germanics, Iberians, Egyptians, and a few others with less documentation. Romans and Greeks are best documented. There are sub-pages on the house, the furniture, table-ware, food selection and preparation, table manners (like us of hand-cloths in Roman depictions). Most sources are Iron Age rather than Bronze Age, but they should give some impression what you might find in Glorantha.
It won’t hurt to look for sources outside of Mediterranean and central Europe, though. A recent video on the Tlaxcallan culture in Mexico before the arrival of Cortes discusses and shows some impressive table ware 8:20 minutes in.
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.
You get a lot more guest entries by Jörg this week since I was away on a ski trip in a little lodge in northern Fronela. Family time is important even with the Malkioni, you know! Although I have to say, it seem that kids learn to Tap magic points from an early age, judging by how much I’m tired these days. Oh well. On to Gloranthan news! I may have missed a few things this week, and as someone famous once said, I didn’t have time to make it shorter.
Don’t forget, you can contact us if you want to submit guest entries or otherwise help with the newsletter.
We are now occupying a nice little tower with a long history of previous occupants who have left behind documents, tablets, artifacts, and other kinds of junk. As we clean up and archive these things, we share the most interesting ones with you.
Episode 7: Adventures in Jonstown
Art by Andrey Fetisov, used with permission from Chaosium Inc.
Episode 7 of our podcast is finally out! We’re looking after the people who got the RuneQuest Starter Set during the holidays! With guest Diana Probst of Beer With Teeth, we discuss ideas for more adventures in Jonstown after the 3 scenarios found in the box. Plus: some exclusive news about what Beer With Teeth and Chaosium are up to together!
Chaosium News
Here are this week’s Chaosium news!
Cults of Glorantha Interview
Jeff talks about his big RuneQuest project for 2022, the much awaited Cults of Glorantha slipcase set, which should include two big cults books, and one smaller (although still about 128 pages long) Prosopaedia.
The Prosopaedia is a reference list of all gods, goddesses, notable spirits, and heroes of the setting. It’s illustrated entirely by the unfatiguable Katrim Dirim.
The Cults books seem to be organized by pantheons: Darkness, Water, Earth, Fire/Sky, Lightbringers, Lunar, Horned God and animist religions, and Chaos. Note that “regional gods” like Pavis won’t be present: they will be in their relevant regional sourcebooks (such as the Pavis book, duh). Then there’s some mythology overview, monomyth, RuneQuest rules, essays, cult distribution and compatibility charts. It’s “lavishly” illustrated by Loic Muzy and Agathe Pithie (you should have seen sneak peeks of some of these art pieces by now), plus a few others, including some new maps, which I assume includes new mythic/God Learner maps.
The books are currently in layout and graphic design. Jeff hopes to have the PDFs out “by the end of the first quarter”.
Jeff is visibly excited about many aspects of this project, so watch to video to hear what he’s most excited about!
Chaosium is one of six publishers participating in the New Gamemaster Month initiative by Monte Cook Games, this year featuring RuneQuest (among others) with the material from the Starter Set.
New content is published on the website twice a week, with an introductory post and two “lessons” already available. There is also a Discord server and a Facebook Group for the course, and an introduction to using Roll20 parallel to the game-specific courses, although unfortunately not (yet) for the RQG rules.
Welcome And Let’s Get Started covers the practical aspects of getting players, getting the game material, and familiarizing yourself with the rules. For RuneQuest, that means the Starter Set, which you can order from Chaosium’s website with a 10% rebate all of January. The tutorial assumes that you have the physical set in your hands already, but you can use the PDF version as soon as your order gets processed. If you got your set from your friendly local game store, good for you because you don’t have to wait for your copy and can start right away. In that case, you might try and use that code for the core rules book.
The course material doesn’t say so, but you can also familiarize yourself with the the most relevant rules on the RuneQuest-Wiki.
Initial Planning For Your Game Session talks about prep-work for your game, and gives an estimate of the amount of time a gamemaster may have to put in beyond actually running the game. The RuneQuest section offers advice for player recruitment, asks you once more to skim a look at the rules, and then already points you to have some fun – you are supposedly ready to try the solo adventure now.
If you are still undecided whether to invest in the RuneQuest Starter Set, take a look at the Wiki, then the online SoloQuest, or even our own thorough review of the product. If you have experience with D100 games of the Basic Roleplaying family, you should be able to get by with that information.
Chaosium has posted a sneak peek at two upcoming pre-generated adventurers for RuneQuest’s Starter Set: a Telmori Wolfsister and an Issaries Duck.
Showing a Telmori girl as an example of a non-human strikes me as a little odd, but she is looking gorgeous and pretty untamable. And the duck looks mean, too. Release date is “later this year”.
Pretty much every nonhuman race has a sample pregen. I drew the line at Windchildren and Dragonewts, because the first were just too weirdly unbalanced, and the second were too complex to get across in a pregen folio description.
The [Windchildren’s] flying is great – maybe even scenario-breaking – but they’re so restricted in what they can carry, what armor they can wear, and their intense claustrophobia limits them considerably for adventuring.
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!
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.
What is Magic
Sometimes fairly foundational bits of lore can be overlooked, which is why Jeff points us to the RuneQuest rulebook’s Magic chapter introduction (on p243). I agree that this is the kind of rulebook material I tend to skim, or read but not commit to memory. Which is why whenever I re-read the rulebook or the bestiary I often pick up little gems I missed or forgot.
I’m not going to quote the whole thing (you have the rulebook after all, don’t you?), but it boils down to this:
The dualistic worlds of eternal God Time and mortal Time are the basic polarities of Glorantha. From these opposing poles comes all known reality. Magic is the result of the interaction of these two worlds; drawing upon the timeless and eternal God Time to affect the mortal world of Time.
I figure that this mostly applies to Rune Magic, where indeed a mortal uses their connection to a deity that “resides” in the God Time, and channels something they “did” to make it happen again right now. This is how an Orlanth worshipper can, say, summon a thunderbolt, which is effectively “magic”.
Compare that to spirit magic which calls upon the denizens of the Spirit World who exist in a sort of parallel universe to the world of mortals and Time. These entities have various abilities that can have an effect in the mortal world, such as closing wounds or sharpening a blade. Or consider sorcery, which is about using and affecting the Runes that are the underlying building blocks of the Gloranthan universe.
In fact, I’ve seen references to the “Three Worlds” or “Four Worlds” of Glorantha in past material, and where interaction with each of these worlds provides a different type of magic. In this model, you can generalize the quote above, with the God Time specifically providing only divine magic (also known as Rune Magic in the latest RuneQuest game). I’m not sure whether this “multiple worlds” model is still valid as far the game desigers are concerned, but you can bet that there are NPCs in-game who have that world view.
Arguably, both the Spirit World and the Runes are related to the God Time anyway: in another model of Glorantha, the Spirit World was separated from the mortal world at the Dawn, and the abstract world of Runes is sort of the precursor to the God Time, before entities awakened and became the Celestial Court that embodied these Runes.
Rick Meints: I had the pleasure of occasionally cornering Greg and getting the chance to ask him about these sorts of things. In general, Glorantha is full of a lot of “one-liner” references that never really got fleshed out. By “one-liners” I mean that they are mentioned only once or twice and often with just a single sentence. Another such example of a one-liner would be Falangian Wine in King of Sartar. When I asked about that Greg just said, “That’s up to the reader to decide what it is”.
Jeff: Yep. And a lot of these one-liners should not and will not get defined outside of the individual reader.
The effort to answer all questions, to resolve all mysteries – well, that is what destroyed the Second Age. Ponder that carefully and get a bonus to your Illumination role next Sacred Time!
[Zzabur is] the son of Malkion in most stories, and the First Wizard. Supposedly he’s been around for more than five thousand years and is the master of the Brithini sorcerer caste, and his sorcery is said to have destroyed entire nations, closed off the seas, and twice nearly changed the very nature of the world.
Wonderful dude, isn’t he? The Brithini caste are a bunch of amoral sorcerers who maintain immortality by adhering to strict life rules, which aren’t necessarily great for those around them. Wonderful bunch too.
A word of caution: this whole section of Gloranthan lore seems to be a giant minefield. It’s complicated, been revised multiple times, and is composed of lots of moving parts found in unofficial or unfinished works… plus, I’m still a big newbie. So as usual I’m just trying to figure this out, same as you, but I figured I would add a more explicit disclaimer this time.
Malkion was the child of some minor Air deity (Aerlit, a follower of Vadrus) and of a Triolini (Warera, the shoreline mother, which probably looked like some kind of siren, but who knows, it’s the God Time, things were weird back then). Looking this up I only now realize why the Malkioni are so tied to “water themes”: not only is Malkioni half-Triolini (merfolk), he’s also the father of Waertag and, therefore, the Waertagi, a race of sea-faring humanoids with webbed hands and feet and blue or green skin. This special relationship explains how the Malkioni’s Middle Sea Empire got so much help and achieved their naval supremacy.
An interesting aside on Malkion as Zzabur’s father is this:
Good old Zzabur is usually claimed as Malkion’s first or second son with the goddess Britha. Zzabur was given the Great Gift of sorcery from his father, who was a mortal beings, not a god.
It’s hard to figure out who is a mortal and who isn’t when things happen in the God Time, but my guess is that you’re a mortal if (1) you refuse to be part of the Compromise and enter the world of Time at the Dawn or (2) you got killed in the Gods War. Malkion belongs to that second category.
Anyway, back to Zzabur:
He’s kind of a Pandelume figure from Vance’s Dying Earth. Like Pandelume, Zzabur possesses knowledge of many things which are otherwise lost or unknown to mortals, “including the method of creating artificial life, of all the spells which have ever been invented, and of mundane sciences such as mathematics.” But like Pandelume, Zzabur is a mortal (if ageless). He is not perfect nor infallible, although he never admits an error. And like Pandelume, Zzabur no longer exists in this world, as he and his island of Brithos have vanished from the mundane world, to no one’s regret.
The island of Brithos disappeared around the time of the Closing of the Seas, which is why some people think that the Closing was a side-effect of Zzabur’s spell to move the island out of the Mortal World. It’s not clear where the island went, but note that you can have your adventurers visit the place: there’s a port city in western Genertela where sailors from Brithos sometimes show up and lead you there! How intriguing…
Zzabur is interesting because of his contradictions, and the fine line he’s walking. As far as I can tell, being a big intellectual wizard, he rejects the Gods of Glorantha as nothing more than a bunch of selfish bullies and narcissistic divas, imperfect emanation of the “pure” Runic concepts that make up reality. At best they’re peers, who achieved as much as him. But on the other hand Zzabur can’t really become an immortal in the sense of “existing in the God Time” because that would make him a deity himself. So my guess is that he found an alternative, and that’s where him and his little island currently are.
I imagine Zzabur is incredibly alone, removed from even his fellow Brithini. He remembers interacting with the gods, views them as beings like himself – but he is not a god. He was a first hand witness to many of his father’s pronouncements, at least to begin with. But Zzaburi rejected his father’s second revelation – that of Solace and he did not accompany his father when he departed Brithos. Some claim Zzabur was a parricide and was even responsible for Malkion’s death, but most say he turned his back on his father and made his own arrangements to survive the end of the world.
“Solace” in Malkioni philosophy seems to be the somewhat intellectually abstract state of bliss that awaits you after death if you live your life correctly — for a certain definition of “correctly”. I haven’t found a good explanation of this falling out between Zzabur and Malkion (feel free to contact us and point me to it!), but from what I can see, Zzabur might not have really appreciated Malkion coming out of the Tower of Reason. Malkion might have done that to go educate the masses, so to speak, and indeed bring them the revelation of Solace. Maybe that’s what Jeff is referring to here?
Of course Zzabur is pure ego – he is the great objectifier. He is the intellect that stands between Us and Things. He seeks to survive at whatever cost, knowing that as a mortal his ego is all there is to him – the soul is sentimental drivel and spirit is merely an animating energy. Egoism is his drive – a very personal egoism. “I AM that I AM.”
He is also a very very very old mortal who lives alone in a tower and knows lots of things.
Greg never liked Zzabur and what he stood for (and thus in all of Greg’s stories, Zzabur comes over as an unmitigated arrogant prick), but he was an important part of Glorantha and one of its earliest characters.
The Way of Hrestol began in the land of Seshnela in the year 2 ST, but its importance stems from the culture from which it separated, the Brithini. This prehistoric culture began long before the Darkness and it’s the root of the Western culture of Glorantha.
The ancient race of Brithos was called the Malkioni after its father and founder, or sometimes Brithini after the island goddess who was the mother of that people.
Talar was eldest, and he received the Crown of Malkion as his share of his father’s realm; Zzabur the Sorcerer Supreme was second, and was master of the spiritual world; Horal Swordson was third, and was a soldier who carried a sword from Humakt the war god; and Dronar Plow was last, who had so many children who worked merrily for the support of the older brothers.
Here we can see how the basic separation of roles in Malkioni society is based on Malkion’s own family. In Western culture, Talars (after Talar) are the nobles and political leaders, Zzaburi (after Zzabur) are the wizards and philosophers and intellectuals, Horali (after Horal) are the soldiers, and Dronars (after Dronar) are the farmers.
Jörg says: The simplistic version has all Brithini and all Malkioni descend from this union. There are other genealogies and stories about the Six Tribes of the Logicians, of which we still know the Waertagi. The God Learner Maps in the Guide name the tribes and their suffering and terminal fates in the Gods War.
The Malkioni fared well during the War of the Gods, especially with the skills of Zzabur, who was as powerful as many of the gods of the time. Once, they even forestalled a dire internal dispute which could have torn them apart and made them easy pretty for Chaos, as happened to so many others.
This event led to the departure of Talar’s eldest son, Froalar, Prince and heir to the throne, from Brithos to avoid a civil war with his brothers. Many others went with him, and they started the first Malkioni colony called Froalarwal (later shortened to Frowal) in Seshnela.
Seshnela was destroyed at the end of the Second Age when the God Learners ran out of excuses with the cosmos, and it snapped back at them… so now Frowal is just a bunch of ruins.
Froalar led his people, called the Seshnegi, through the Great Darkness, and even aided the hostile beast worshipers of the wild who were his enemies.
His wife, Xemela, performed a heroic self-sacrifice and saved her people from darkness demons and Chaos. When the Dawn came, the peoples of Frowal found themselves well off in comparison to the rest of the world.
From what I can tell, these “hostile beast worshipers” might have been the Pendali lion people, who were created by Seshna Likita, the local earth goddess (more on her shortly). The Pendali tribe belongs to the broader Hsunchen Basmoli lion people, who all are some kind of were-lion shapeshifters.
The story of Froalar’s settlements is pretty vague in the Guide or the Sourcebook, which is part of the fun of Glorantha for me: you get a few evocative statements, and you get to make up everything in between!
However, the wild hill barbarians showed no gratitude or friendship, and quickly returned to harassment and war. Froalar and his court zzaburi were distressed as to the proper course of action. The goddess Ifttala, a daughter of Seshna Likita the Earth Goddess, was the mother of the hill barbarians and as long as she aided them, the Dawn Age would be ruled by war and conflict.
And so, in the spring of the second year of Time, Prince Hrestol, the son of King Froalar, swore to slay Ifttala and bring peace to the land. When Hrestol asked his father’s zzaburi how this could be done, they said: “You must be as a god and know what they know. You must be a leader, as you are now. But it is not enough. You must be a warrior, and know how to wield a sword as well as any man bred to it. You must know prayers, like your cousins who study under me. And you must know the secrets of the earth, like the plowmen who feed us. Only thusly by combining the four tasks which Malkion gave to his sons will you be as a god to perform a god’s task.”
The court feared this was blasphemy, and Hrestol purified himself and went to the temple of Malkion the Founder to ask the ancestor. Malkion revealed himself to Hrestol and presented the hero with a helm and shield, armor and a sword, and a book. And as he did so he spoke saying, “Let the old ways be changed in Seshneg, for you are set upon by a mighty foe. Let those who would lead do so. Let those who would fight do so. Let those who would reap and sow do so. Let those who would study and learn sorcery do so. Go forth, and do as you wish, for my blessings go with you. And may all the gods look upon you with favor.”
So there you have Hrestol basically saying that he will forego the ancestral “caste” system, where you’re either a noble, wizard, soldier, or farmer, and you don’t do anything else in your life. Instead, Hrestol is aiming to be all four, because each will give him the abilities he needs to defeat the lion people.
This is the kind of thing I have yet to be better with in my Gloranthan games: if my players are fighting beast people who have local land magic supremacy, their adventurers might just get military allies, some kind of magical McGuffin weapon, or something similarly boring. To get that epic feel I’d need to give them some convoluted omen or quest! I guess this is where cracking open an ancient myths book can give some ridiculous but highly resonating ideas…
Anyway, I’m sort of surprised to the see the zzaburi themselves recommend this course of action: I would have thought they were the most conservative of the bunch, clinging to their secret scrolls and comfy lifestyle. It sounds like it’s the nobles who thought this was blasphemy, although it’s possible that a majority of wizards also thought so, if you imagine that only Froalar’s close zzaburi entourage was behind the idea.
I also love how Hrestol goes on a “quest” to get validation from Malkion. For all we know, he just went around the house, waited 10 minutes, and came back saying “yep, the Founder is all OK with it, don’t worry everyone!” More seriously, I guess this is one of those “magical contests” Jeff mentioned previously, where Hrestol actually comes back with some kind of proof from a heroquest.
And thus it was that Prince Hrestol became the first of the Men-of-All, the champions of the Malkioni. Hrestol became the best swordsman in the land. He learned the earth secrets of the farmers and spells of battle that blunt enemy’s blades and staunch the flow of blood from a wound. He studied the sacred book which Malkion gave him and was the basis of the Code of Hrestol. He tamed the wild horse and learned how to fight from horseback. When he was ready, Hrestol went into the earth and with Malkion’s sword he slew Ifttala.
Although successful in his quest, Hrestol was slain, not by the barbarians but by Seshna Likita, Ifttala’s mother and goddess of the land. However, the Prince managed to retain some memory, skills and identity in the Land of the Dead and continued his quest.
How bad-ass is that? Even Death cannot stop Hrestol’s quest!
When King Froalar learned of Hrestol’s death, Froalar set off himself to beg for the return of his son’s life. Froalar met with the goddess Seshna Likita and successfully bargained with her for Hrestol’s return. Froalar could not return Ifttala in return, and so Hrestol was exiled forever from Seshnela. Hrestol went on to commit other great deeds, but none were ever as far reaching or important as his Godslaying. Hrestol taught others the way of the Men-of-All (sometimes translated as “chivalry” or “knights”) and they rose to greatness and carried on as a shining example for humanity for generations.
I heard that terms like “chivalry” and “knights” is what led to a time where Western Genertela included iron age and medieval tropes — as Chaosium is trying to step away from terminology that gives the wrong idea, I don’t know if we’ll see these terms much anymore.
Besides, for me, the medieval knight doesn’t really convey this image of a very versatile hero who knows just as much horse-riding and swordfighting as he knows about animal husbandry and tool repair, herbology and hunting, public speech and intrigue, philosophy and mathematics. The term “Men-of-All” gives a better picture of this in my opinion, and if I had to pick a real-world equivalent I would lean towards Batman or James Bond, who seem to know everything, and can do everything… which of course raises the question: did Hrestol have any belt full of gadgets? An amphibian horse? A crossbow sword?
So let’s talk a little about some of the Third Age Malkioni movements. The Second Age broke Malkionism. Let’s say that again – the Second Age broke Malkionism. Most of the intellectual centers of Malkionism – Jrustela, Seshnela, and Brithos – were sunk, broken, or disappeared. The Oceans – long the highways of the Malkioni were closed to humanity.
Hrestolism – the mainstream of Malkionism since the early Dawn – had been delivered a catastrophic blow. Not just in numbers, but in self-confidence. The Invisible God had struck against the God Learners and the Middle Sea Empire.
That is not the rallying cries of the enemies of Hrestolism – that is what mainstream establishment Hrestoli agreed. Something had gone terribly wrong in Malkionism – and mainstream Hrestolism was to blame.
Protest already led to Genertelan parts of the Middle Sea Empire breaking away from Seshnela shortly after the Closing had struck, with the sorcerer Halwal taking the lead in pointing out those mistakes and leading or aiding liberation movements in Fronela and Ralios.
Halwal perished in an epic magical battle against the main proponent of Makanist Hrestolism orthodoxy, Yomili. With both intellectual leaders gone, the remnants of the Empire as well as the heirs of Arkat became disorganized and unable to do anything about the coming cataclysms.
And so the Third Age opened with Malkioni intellectuals – especially among the zzaburi and talars – trying to figure out how things went wrong. In Loskalm, the Irensavalists said it was because the so-called Hrestoli worshiped Makan the Demiurge instead of the Invisible God. They deeply inspected Hrestoli’s life and deeds and the New Idealists came up with a radical form of Hrestolism that Hrestol himself would not have recognized.
In the ruins of Seshnela and Tanisor came another answer – the problem was Hrestol himself. He twisted Malkionism so that he could murder the daughter of Seshna Likita and conquer the Pendali (who happened to be claimed as ancestors of the Tanisor talars). Hrestol betrayed Malkionism and if the Malkioni were to survive they were to try to figure out how to adapt Malkionism to the world of Time without going down Hrestol’s path. This is the origin of Rokarism.
This is an important point – the rulers of Tanisor aren’t descended from Froalar or his companions, or at least only by admixture. The Bailifides and their allies owe their legitimacy to a combination of barbarian roots with the land goddess and approval by the Rokari school, rather than from kinship with Malkion and/or Hrestol.
In Ralios, many concluded that Arkat was likely not the villain the God Learners claimed he was, and a myriad of sects claiming to know the secrets of the Dark Empire sprouted up.
We have the name of three heroes of the liberation war against Seshnela, which ended in a draw after the battle between Halwal and Yomili – a magical catastrophe on par with the Nights of Horror in the Lunar struggle with the Pentans, for both sides.
In fact, Ralios recovered from the disunity before what was left of Seshnela and Tanisor did, but the Kingdom of Jorstland was held together mainly by its charismatic leader.
This is the context in which Malkionism developed in the Third Age. In Tanisor (which now claims the ancient Serpent Crown of Seshnela), the Rokari movement is backed by the talars and nearly all Zzaburi publicly ascribe to it. They have excised the errors and corruption of Hrestol, Arkat, and the God Learners from Malkionism – the proof has been a strong and powerful kingdom, the Opening, and the defeat of their foes.
Note the phrasing “publicly ascribe to it.” The Rokari school may not be quite as monolithic as its leaders present it.
The only remnant of old school Hrestolism I can think of offhand is the Castle Coast. Which we often romanticise, but let’s think about what it is – the dwarf made fortress of Rhis, and the ruins of Frowal and Laurmal, plus a few heavily fortified strongholds. I kind of imagine it like the later Crusader states, after the loss of Jerusalem.
By and large, I don’t think the Castle Coast Hrestoli are filled with optimistic self-confidence. They are at best like the inhabitants of Gormenghast, performing rituals they no longer know the purpose of. At worst, they are the Vadhagh, hiding away in castles, wilfully oblivious to the changes over the last six hundred years.
There also just are not all that many folk in the Castle Coast – maybe 50,000, which is about the population of The Far Place (the area around Alda-Chur plus Alone).
In short, the Castle Coast is a melancholic place, dreaming about a past it no longer believes in, but rejecting a future it cannot be a part of.
Other comments led to the Carmanians of western Peloria, one of the few Malkioni groups that had stayed free of the God Learner philosophies:
Carmania was part of the umma, at least in the late Second Age and early Third Age. It is not now – embracing the Red Goddess was a bridge too far.
Imagine Carmania like the Mughals. So far removed from the core that there is not a lot of pressure to maintain anything resembling orthodoxy. And with the majority of the population not caring at all as long as they can worship their traditional gods.
And when the Bull Shahs take power – not even the rulers particularly care about Malkionism.
And the southern shores:
Slontos, once the gem of the Middle Sea Empire, was also sunk. The rulers of Ramalia are wracked with fear – and the cruel lords grasp onto power with the aid of amoral sorcerers, who Tap all who oppose the rulers. It is a police state of lords and sorcerers, backed by sadistic soldiers.
Groups like the Manirian Merchant Princes or the Aeolians are not particularly influential on the development of mainstream Malkionism. They are too far removed, too influenced by the Orlanthi (heck, many consider them to be just Orlanthi with some sorcerers – which is not entirely wrong).
So as part of our Third Age Malkioni discussion, lets get to the Manirian Road and the Trader Princes. Remember what this is – it is a trade route between Safelster and Esrolia, dating back some 400 years. During the Closing this was the only way to get goods and people between Ralios (and from there to Seshnela) and the Holy Country.
I imagine this trade route a bit like the Silk Road, which connected the mainly Greek cities of the Mediterranean to Central Asia by way of the Achaemenid Empire’s roads. This must have been not only a great business and adventuring opportunity, but also a catalyst for the exchange of ideas and cultures. Jeff actually confirms a bit later that the Silk Road is an inspiration for this bit of Glorantha.
The route was founded around 1170 by a talar named Castelain, who was descended from the god Issaries and worshipped by his kinship group as an ancestor (which is permitted by talars even under orthodox Malkionism). This was common among those talar clans that handled long-distance trade under the Silver Empire and later under the Middle Sea Empire, and many lesser talar families traced their descent to Issaries. This would have been around the time when the Kingdom of Jorstland dominated Ralios.
In some comment, Jeff sort of implies that Castelain might be related in some way to Garzeen, the son of Issaries who vowed to piece the god Genert back together in order to marry Fenela, a daughter of Froala and therefore sister of Hrestol. I don’t know if Castelain might be a descendant of Garzeen, or a Garzeen worshipper who somehow made great progress with this quest, or something else… but it’s an interesting link to explore between the god of trade and the Malkioni dynasty.
Castelain got spectacularly wealthy – imagine the markup of kafl, spices, iron, and other Western goods in an Esrolia cut off from trade. Of course he got his kin – his immediate family, cousins, and other clan members – in on the act. They made pacts with the local Orlanthi tribes, established settlements and caravanserai, and as talars, quickly fit into the role of judges in disputes between the tribes. They took Orlanthi and Esrolian wives and became part of the local network of alliances and kinship, but preserved their ancient role as talars, and invited zzaburi to aid them. Peace was maintained so that goods and people could be traded between Ralios and Kethaela – and when Belintar unified Kethaela into the Holy Country, that trade boomed!
The Holy Country became a thing in the early 1300s, so this business boom happened roughly half-way through the Manirian Road’s lifespan. Before then, most of the big events of the Third Age are happening in Peloria and further east, so the relative quiet of the western continent is maybe what lets Castelain setup this trade route. Plus, after the Dragonkill War, most of the people in the southern Dragon Pass region couldn’t really get their stuff from the north (it was closed to humans) or the east (there lies Prax who probably doesn’t export much), so it was only a matter of time before someone decided to heavily trade with the west.
They brought the Invisible God with them as well, although the locals continued to worship the Lightbringers. Eventually there was a degree of syncretism, although it was mostly one-sided. The Invisible God became a distant creator, and the Lightbringers were worshiped by everyone. Issaries was the favorite of the Trader Princes – their ancestor and patron. Some smatterings of Arkat stuff from Safelster likely got passed along as well, and zzaburi from Safelster or Tanisor could get good money working for a Trader Prince family.
If this sounds familiar, it is basically the Silk Road story.
I figure that if a local culture along the way was still clinging to some old pre-God Learner local deity worship, that’s when they would have “upgraded” to the monomyth version, especially if their local deity naturally maps to a Lightbringer. But more interestingly (at least to me), I wonder if that’s when the Lhankor Mhy cults of central Genertela started dabbling in sorcery… they would have accompanied traders as accountants or advisors or even just tourists, they are naturally curious about any kind of knowledge, and they would have definitely been interested in the peculiar magic that they see in the hands of Malkioni people… Do we know when Lhankhor Mhy initiates gained sorcerous powers?
But the Malkionism of the Trader Princes is pretty much worship of Issaries (as an ancestor, so it is ok!). With imported zzaburi to give respectability (not enough locals to keep the numbers up – besides the imported sorcerers are better trained). This manages to keep the Trader Princes from going completely native. Although I expect the zzaburi are well paid for this gig.
And so the Trader Princes have a curious “dominion”- the local tribes work with them because 1. they are good neutral judges, and 2. they give the local tribes a cut of their profits. The local Storm Voices get gifts, the Earth Priestesses are consulted (and the Trader Princes do not claim the land), and warriors get hired as mercenaries and guards. Win win for everyone!
To understand this bit, it’s important to note that Trader Princes actually rule the cities that dot the Manirian Road. The cities are not very big, and their Trader Prince leaders are often squabbling against each other, but it mostly works…
At least it is until the Opening. And suddenly it becomes cheaper to send a ship laden with goods to Handra than to send it overland across Maniria.
And if this sounds familiar, it is basically Barry Cunliffe’s theory on the collapse of the Hallstatt Fürstensitze and the rise of the La Tene warrior migrations.
The Hallstatt culture is the late bronze age culture that was predominant in Western and Central Europe, and which was gradually replaced by the La Tene culture around the 5th century BCE. A short research indicates that the La Tene warriors mostly invaded the Hallstatt settlements by crossing the Alps, so I’m not sure what theory Jeff is pointing at here that might relate to the collapse of trading roads in favour of sea trade… has anyone here read a book by Barry Cunliffe? Maybe Jeff was actually referring to the earlier conquest of the Manirian tribes by the Trader Princes?
The Malkioni distrust gods in general. There is a strong current of ancestor worship in Malkionism, and at times the Malkioni have made their ancestors surpass the gods in power, or else reduced the gods into mere superhuman heroes or multinational ancestors. Some sects reject all worship of the gods, others make exceptions for specific deities. For example, in the Second Age, the God Learners spread the Lightbringer cults of Chalana Arroy, Issaries, and Lhankor Mhy throughout the Middle Sea Empire. Even those sects that do not worship the gods rarely oppress worship of the gods by non-Malkioni.
Possibly answering my own previous question, it’s maybe during that time that the naturally curious Lhankor Mhy initiates peered into sorcery?
Most cults of other gods despise and fear members of the zzaburi caste. The zzaburi consider the gods to be individuals who mastered themselves, as the zzaburi strives to do. They consider the gods to be peers. Those who worship the gods are lesser men, those who couldn’t make it. Naturally, these attitudes cause considerable friction between the worshipers of the gods and zzaburi. The Malkioni distrust and dislike the Elder Races in general, although again exceptions are often made by specific sects. The Malkioni lump all the Elder Races together with the Orlanthi hill barbarians and even Chaos monsters until [sic] the category of “krjalk.”
With Krjalk being listed as the Chaos Lord of Monsters in the Guide, father of broos, dragonewts, elves, trolls, dwarves, Hsunchen and “other barbarians, that… does give a good idea about how much the Malkioni don’t like all those people.
The Malkioni recognize the force of evil and call it the Devil. The Devil is the god of Chaos. The Devil is the worst of all the beings who forgot the Invisible God, for he turned the wondrous forces of life against himself and tried to destroy the world in the process.
The talars are directly descended from the first-born son of Malkion, They venerate their ancestors – kings, heroes, and even gods – as a means of connection to the supreme power of the Invisible God. The earliest ancestors were the children of gods, and can intercede with the Elemental gods and the Powers on behalf of their descendants. As a result, Talars must carefully learn their lineage, and act as links between past generations of leaders and the present time.
Hah, interesting, I didn’t know that Malkioni nobles had to do this much ancestor worship, but I guess it actually fits with the old “chivalry” theme, where noble families must know the heraldry of all related families, their lineages and notable ancestral feats, and so on. I wonder if they could get a cool game mechanic where they need to roll on Lineage Lore to locate an ancestor that can temporarily grant them some magic spell.
Upon death, the remains of a talar are buried beneath the earth. Mounds, shrines, or other structures are typically built atop the grave. Cults to specific ancestors are common among their descendants. In the First Age, the royal burial mounds of the Seshnegi Serpent Kings were sacred complexes and the center of much religious activity. Other such cults, such as those of Xemela, Hrestol, Gerlant, and Talor, are now worshiped by members of all Malkioni castes.
Woooo…. “sacred complexes”? My tomb raiding sense is tingling.
Under Malkioni humanism, mortals can and should wield the creative power of gods and without needing to worship beings other than themselves. The world can be explained, understood, and mastered through human reason and logic alone.
Now that is a radical statement in Glorantha. The Theyalans, Lunars, and Praxians view it as insane hubris. The Elder Races view it as a not-so veiled threat.
If you want the Orlanthi and Lunars, Trolls and Elves and Dwarves, and everybody else to make peace, you could have a campaign where the Malkioni somehow manage to rise up and become a massive power, like they were in the Second Age! Then everybody would rally against them!
Of course, if you’re a massive Watchmen fan like me, that threat doesn’t even have to be real…
Anyway, when the Malkioni say that you only have to worship yourselves, they actually mean it in a sort of ancestor worship kind way I guess? All their past heroes who achieved great things and uncovered great insights of the Invisible God are often called “Ascended Masters”, and you can worship them:
Most Ascended Masters are hero cults. One offers a point of POW to them, regularly venerate them, and gain whatever blessings they offer. It might mechanically look just like a minor Rune cult, but Malkioni would say you are wrong.
Although the mechanics are similar, I wonder if there could be a few tweaks here, such as the ability to gather all these little Rune Points pools into one big one that can power any spell from that lineage of heroes… but anyway, it’s only for a subset of the Malkioni anyway. As far as I understand, depending on which school of thought you belong to, you might actually reject the Ascended Masters.
Jeff concludes by saying that this upcoming write-up contains “a lot that moves the Malkioni away from being crude analogies to medieval Christians or Muslims into something purely Gloranthan“.
Let’s Talk About Sorcery
Since we’re really into Malkioni stuff this week, sure, let’s!
First thing is obvious – it is very different from other magic systems.
Ok, let’s stop here. When I first read RuneQuest Glorantha, I skimmed past the Sorcery rules thinking that it’s pretty cool (in a “Ars Magica vibes” kind of way) but that I’ll get back to them later. Then, I realized that these rules were a big deal to some people, with many arguments and complaints in online forums about the nerfing compared to RQ3 or something.
It’s so weird to me because the arguments I’ve seen boil down to Sorcery not being able to produce the amount of power of Spirit or Rune Magic in a similar amount of time… but that’s not the point! The point is indeed that it’s supposed to be different!
In fact, Spirit Magic is quite underpowered and slow compared to Rune Magic — but when the difference is a few points or a few Strike Ranks, it doesn’t register as strongly as with Sorcery, which is more underpowered and slower by another order of magnitude. But it can do so much more with enough time and resources!
I’ve got absolutely zero interest in having yet another magic system that can accomplish the same things as the other two, but with different dice rolls and point pools. Two magic systems for “doing cool stuff in short notice” is more than enough. It’s even twice as much as most games. There’s no need for a third one…
Anyway, I’ll stop ranting and get back to Jeff’s words:
With spirit magic, you have a spirit that you know how to concentrate on (with your foci!) and it does whatever effect it can do. Makes your blade sharp, makes you strong, heals people. whatever.
Advantages: you have a fair amount of magical fuel for it (especially when you add POW crystals), this fuel recharges pretty quick (a few hours to a day), and you can get little helpers to further expand your catalogue of spells (bound and allied spirits).
Disadvantages: it takes part or most of a combat round to cast, you need to have your foci with you (otherwise you need to take an extra round), and spells have a somewhat low upper limit.
For instance in my Glorantha I would say that it becomes hard to find spells past level 4 or 5, like Heal 5 or Bladesharp 4, unless you have cult support and the finances or standing to get a 6 level spell (a healer might get Heal 6 from their Chalana Arroy temple, but someone else might have trouble getting access to it). Above level 6, I’d say it’s virtually impossible to find (again, in my own Glorantha) without a big adventure in the Spirit World.
With Rune magic, you wield a fraction of the power of the god. You are your god’s conduit to act in the mundane world. For that brief moment, you are the manifestation of your god in the mundane world. The limitations of this is you MUST maintain that connection to the god, which limits your actions and forces you to give time and resources (both material and spiritual) to that god!
Advantages: it’s fast (SR 1!) and it’s powerful (especially all the spells that come with MP boosts like Sword Trance!).
Disadvantages: you can’t cast these spells as much as you want compared to Spirit Magic (Rune Point pools are usually small until you approach Runemaster level), and recharging your magical fuel takes a long time, at least if you have a gamemaster that follows the Gloranthan calendar for Rune Point replenishing.
Note that for both Spirit and Rune Magic, you’re also limited to what is available out there: Spirit Magic has a relatively small list of spells, and Rune Magic is limited to what deities did during the God Time. Sure, you can collaborate with your gamemaster to make an occasional new Spirit or Rune spell, but you (as in “you the adventurer“) can’t come up with something new.
Sorcery isn’t any of that. Sorcery is something that must be learned, and is arduous to learn. You must learn to construct vast memory palaces, and create mental connections with points in the God Time. A lot of that is just rote learning and takes years.
Then you learn spells. These are careful paths through these “memory palaces” and mental connections that enable you to create an effect in the mundane world. The limitations of this is obvious – you are slow, learning spells is difficult, only a tiny percentage of people have the time to learn how to do this (and must be supported by the rest of society). But the advantages? You don’t need gods or spirits. You can cast any spell you are capable of learning (or creating).
And this is the great thing about Sorcery. It plays into the trope of the wizard alchemist who researches and studies obscure things in an old dusty tower, something that neither Spirit or Rune Magic push you to do, except maybe for Lhankor Mhy initiates who, guess what, have access to Sorcery. It also lets you make up virtually anything.
It’s hard to justify a Spirit or Rune spell that would make all bronze weapons in your enemy’s hands suddenly dissolve, or fly vertically in the air. Or a spell that sets fire to their clothes, or boils the water in their bodies. You can do it with Sorcery.
Similarly, you can’t really go big with Spirit and Rune magic. You can make a Shield spell last for a year, sure, but you can’t Create a Fissure in the ground that’s 10 kilometres long and twice as deeper. It’s only with Sorcery that you can sink entire islands and break the world.
So if only a tiny minority of specialists can learn sorcery, how do most Malkioni do magic?
Easy. Most people – talars, soldiers, and workers – use a combination of spirit magic and Rune magic. They also get some magic by upholding their caste duties and restrictions.
For example, the talars have the ability to give commands to Malkioni from other castes. They can also worship their ancestors and gain magic from them. And they have limited access to spirit magic. The horali can learn spirit magic from their regiments or war societies, and can belong to some cults of war gods. And the dronari can join whatever cults approved by their talars.
But of course, if you are Malkioni, your options are limited by the talars (and not directly the zzaburi). If your talar says you shall not worship Orlanth, that’s going to put a damper on things. This is a bigger limitation for horali than for dronari (mainly because as long as the dronari feed everyone and do the work, it is rare to ask them questions).
Jeff then addresses everybody’s favourite thing to complain about: Free INT:
Wait, I sometimes hear, but sorcery requires me to empty my mind of other thoughts so that I can use my INT to manipulate the size the spell. That means I need to “forget” my other spells (put them somewhere in a memory palace) and then spend an hour meditating on a new spell when I need to cast it. But what if I am on an adventure somewhere and need to do lots of things?
My answer is simple – you are a zzaburi. You are a magical specialist – the equivalent of a university research professor. You ought to have horali and talars there to take care of your mundane needs – including your protection!
This again goes back to Ars Magica: there’s a reason it defaults to troupe play, where only one wizard goes out adventuring at a time, surrounded by a bunch of companions! I imagine Zzaburi would do the same, and I would use a similar campaign framework if I played in the Gloranthan West.
I imagine these wizards come out prepared: they would have inscribed spells on jewelry and tablets worn around their neck, effectively carrying as much bling as a Praxian shaman. And since they don’t come out very often, I would also make downtime activities an important part of this campaign framework, with Zzaburi characters able to spend that time doing these kinds of preparations.
There’s also the much possibility of the Zzaburi being an NPC patron of the party, with the PCs going out on more or less obscure missions for him. And maybe they can take him out of his tower once every few adventures as a shared resource they need to protect, but which also provides lots of power once or twice… mmmh. So many campaign ideas, so little time…
At the end of the day, playing a sorcerer should be difficult:
Dabbling in sorcery works fine for player characters, but playing a full-fledged sorcerer is hard. It can be done, of course, just like it is possible to play a Mistress Race Troll or a dryad.
So when we think about heroquesting, the Empire of the Wyrms Friends, and Belintar’s Holy Country, one common thread is the idea of the “Proximate Holy Realm”.
The mundane world and the divine realm are distinct. Many philosophers and priests claim that the divine realm (which exists eternally in the God Time) underlies and defines our mundane world. We all know that they overlap during worship ceremonies and at some specific places where the divine realm erupts through the mundane world.
Heroquesters interact with both realms. They are mortals, born in Time, but their heroquests have them interacting with archetypes and powers tied to the divine realm These interactions follow prehistoric patterns eternally present in the cosmos. Life is always producing Life, Death is always Separating the Living from the Dead, Air overcomes Fire/Sky, Fire/Sky overcomes Darkness, etc. This overlap of the divine realm and the mundane world that the heroquester interacts is usually called the Hero Plane.
Oh nice, that’s the first time I see a definition that makes sense for the Hero Plane. I wonder if that means there’s no real difference between the Hero Plane and the God Plane — experiencing the God Plane means you’re in the Hero Plane?
After the wild heroquests that ended the First Age – Arkat and Harmast are best known, but there were far more than those two – priests in Dragon Pass came up with the idea of the Proximate Holy Realm. Through widespread use of magic and adoption of the “holy customs”, the divine realm could be brought closer to people. These holy customs encroached on clan and tribal organization by requiring that leaders meet certain magical criteria that were in the hands of the organized religion of Orlanth and Ernalda. Within a generation or two, the priests became a centralized heirarchy ruled by a Sacred Ring that in turned ruled all of Dragon Pass.
Oh so I guess this is similar to the idea of the “This World” heroquest? These kinds of heroquests are celebrations like Sacred Time, with the divine world manifesting down on the mortal world where the entire tribe is engaged in worship. Only I get the impression that the Proximate Holy Realm was semi-permanent, as opposed to only available during a big ceremony.
That would not only bring visions of the divine to everybody (including lay members), thus reinforcing the general population’s commitments to the main big cults, but it would also bring access to yearly boons such as better harvests and good pregnancies.
The Proximate Holy Realm brought widespread prosperity and peace to Dragon Pass. But maintaining this required an increasing amount of magic energies and resources. As the Orlanthi learned to communicate with the dragons, eventually the Sacred Ring learned to do so around 725 and become the Empire of the Wyrms Friends, which gave far greater magical resources to the Sacred Ring which meant that the Sacred Ring – restyled the Third Council in 826 – had vast surpluses, at least at first. As the EWF expanded it gained more resources, and in 889 the Third Council accelerated the process, and demanded to be worshiped directly as gods.
The costs of maintaining this grew, but the EWF no longer expanded. With rebellions, it began to contract and lost resources as the requirements to maintain the Proximate Holy Realm continued grew. The people were forced to offer more and more to the Third Council, and received less and less for it. The Third Council was visibly decadent and exploitive, and the tottering edifice collapsed in 1042.
Jörg says: A visiting Middle Sea Empire explorer’s travelogue in Middle Sea Empire describes the Glorious Cities of the Dragons. Among the wonders of the EWF under the influence of the Proximate Holy Realm there are two new kinds of cereal called velt and kreet described as tasty, hearty and sublime that turned into putrid slime after having secreted away in their packet. In the Holy Country, there used to be a few items of similar magic – Belintar’s rainbow bridges, the Fish Roads, and the entire nature of the City of Wonders where gods would visit as if it was in Godtime.
Belintar had a different solution. His deeds uniting the lands of Kethaela brought his Holy Country close to the Proximate Holy Realm. But he maintained this through his Tournament of the Masters of Luck and Death, which summoned heroquesters from far and wide. The Tournament resulted in a new Belintar and magically reunited the Holy Country, as described elsewhere. It was easy to cross over into the divine realm and vice versa, especially during the Tournament. The Holy Country enjoyed centuries of peace and prosperity, but Belintar was slain by Jar-eel in 1616 and the Tournament failed to produce a successor.
But many philosophers believe that Dragon Pass remains close to a Proximate Holy Realm, especially during the Hero Wars. Some claim this is because of the Lunar efforts to change the divine realm itself, others think it is a result of the True Dragons that have been awakened in Dragon Pass, starting with the Dragonrise. Whatever the reason, wild heroquesting was increasingly common among all participants in the Hero Wars, arguably even more so than in the Gbaji Wars.
Given that we have a good foot or more of snow on the ground, now is a good time to talk about Valind within the context of Orlanthi society.
Valind is the God of Winter, and his cult is associated with Orlanth Adventurous, providing Snow. The cults of Valind and Orlanth are friendly and associated, even if the gods often brawled. There are often shrines to Valind in Orlanth’s mountain temples in Dragon Pass.
Valind is not socially useful or powerful – but he does serve as a minor war god and his cult can propitiate the forces of winter. His few initiates in Dragon Pass live on mountains where it is winter all year long.
And in the comments:
Valind’s cult is Friendly towards the Lighbringers, Mastakos, Odayla, Rathor, Uleria, Xentha, Xiola Umbar, and Zorak Zoran and associated with Orlanth, Inora, Himile, Storm Bull, and Ygg. Everyone else is Neutral or worse.
And he really hates the Red Goddess.
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.
Lionel Marty’s Artwork
Since Lionel Marty was highlighted previously for the upcoming non-human pre-gens, I took a look at his portfolio and found some great Glorantha-related art and cartography:
I said I would stop linking to any more Starter Set reviews but I’m making an exception for Bud’s, because he’s a friend of the God Learners. Yes, we are a totally nepotic bunch.
Playing the SoloQuest (Part 2)
Speaking of the Starter Set and nepotism, RPGImaginings has part 2 of the SoloQuest up on the channel!
Personal Horror in Glorantha
The Back To Balazar blog has a new article on “personal horror in Glorantha“, with suggestions on how to bring some horror elements in your Gloranthan games. Since horror gaming is my all-time favourite type of gaming, I’m whole-heartedly agreeing with this mix!
More Previews for Martin Helsdon’s Upcoming Book
Guest entry by Jörg
Identifying the various deities and myths depicted in Katrin’s illustrations has become pretty much a game of itself, and more often than not zooming in on a detail will let you appreciate the amount of information in these pictures. So guess away!
Click on the links to the Facebook sources after you have made your guesses about who and what is depicted to confirm or discuss your conclusions.
Converting Gamemasters to RuneQuest With the Starter Set
Guest entry by Jörg
On Facebook, Sven Lugar told about his seasonal gifting spree, targeting 14 GMs of other systems with a gift-wrapped Starter Set. Of that sample, 10 are willing to try it out, one still needs to get his players on board, and three haven’t reported back yet. And all of the non-GM friends who received one were wanting to try it out, too.
Kitbashing the Starter Set Pre-gens
Zagmuk posted pictures of their “kitbashed miniatures” on BRP Central, and they’re great! I only put four of them above, so follow the link for more character minis.
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.
Hidetaka Mizayaki’s Inspirations
ScreenRant has a story about EDGE Magazine’s interview with Hidetaka Mizayaki, creator of the Souls video game series (Dark Souls is the probably most famous of the lot) and the upcoming Elden Ring, among others. He cites RuneQuest as one of the inspirations for his next game, but don’t hold your breath for more information than that.
In the meantime, this is as good an opportunity as any to remind you that RuneQuest had a fairly complete product line in Japan in the 90s, although they had a completely wild array of custom artwork.
Dan Davis, the creator of these videos has published several novels set in Bronze Age Europe and provides some of his research in these quite accessible videos.
The Terramare culture offers a few visuals too good not to be robbed for Glorantha, like their stilt houses which could be used in regularly flooded terrain. Their position in the European trade network with the presence of standardized weights for both the Mycenaean and the Central European trade networks makes their role as a mediator between those environments quite plausible.
Thank you for reading
That’s it for this week! Please contact us with any feedback, question, or news item we’ve missed!
The PDF of the Weapons and Equipment Guide is out, and it’s up to the listener whether to believe Diana’s tale of how her name appeared on the cover (There is no take-over of Chaosium’s Glorantha line by Beer With Teeth, according to Diana: “Too much work”).
The concept of providing your standard RPG lists of sharp and otherwise deadly items in context with the culture is what makes this a Gloranthan product,. Saying that it has been a dive into a Gloranthan midden might be mis-interpreting Ludo’s experience.
We discuss Chaosium’s naming sense for their Gloranthan products. Gamemaster Screen Pack for a scenario book with a sandbox was underselling the product, and the Weapons and Equipment Guide is really an introduction to the material culture of the world.
The New Gamemasters Month starts this January, a guided seminar teaching new game masters how to actually run a roleplaying game. Chaosium contributes with the RuneQuest Starter Set.
New on Jonstown Compendium we find To Hunt A God, the final volume of Austin Conrad’s Myth of the Month.
Diana is teasing that Beer With Teeth are about to deliver a manuscript to Chaosium supporting the Starter Set.
The Gloranthan West gets some attention, too, with the first in a series of map PDFs of Gloranthan regions starting with Kanthor’s Isles, and then there is Nick Brooke’s art-book illustrated by Katrin Dirim explaining The History of Malkionism.
(As always, you will find the complete listings of Jonstown Compendium new releases in our weekly Newsletter/Blogpost Journal of Runic Studies)
Main Topic
Adventures in Jonstown
In our main topic we aim to explore how to take the RuneQuest Starter Set and get more scenarios out of it.
Jörg praises the resources the city has to offer to adventurers (player characters), like the library.
Diana points out that by having played through the scenario the adventurers will have built up a reputation in the city,
We discuss how rather lengthy training efforts can tie an adventuring party down (e.g. ability training, which takes two seasons), and that the city of Jonstown can offer scenarios to do on the side without lengthy travel that would interrupt such training.
Ludo points out that the background information in the Glorantha Book (book 2 in the box) is designed to be given to both gamemasters and players, which means that all the information in that book contains hardly any narrative spoilers.
We discuss the motivation and background of the City Rex of Jonstown, Orngerin Holdfast, and his possible future.
Diana describes her modus operandi for preparing a gaming session. “At first I panic because it is only half an hour until the game.” and how she gets inspiration out of the headings of the book, and considers what would happen if one of those things have a problem, one that the adventurer party can be pointed at.
Jörg suggests to use the efforts to get the tribes to work together and form a cohesive military as the backdrop for inter-personal conflicts or even inter-tribal politics, using any of the NPCs in the book as a catalyst for the adventure. That could be top-down, as Ludo points out, or there could be minor street level events escalating.
Diana wants to involve the adventurers in the preparation for such an assembly and joint training.
Ludo suggests to look into the factions of the city and explore their agendas for scenario hooks and a web off intrigue.
Ludo mentions the Cherry Ridge groves with its medicinal jerret cherries tended by the Chalana Arroy cult (p.57), and how anything happening to the cherries may involved the local clans. He also reminds us why your characters will want to stay on the good side of the Chalana Arroy temple.
We talk about Birne’s Squeeze, already mentioned in the Colymar Adventure Book, as a place where you can expect bandits. How do these bandits become your problem? Your players might hire out as caravan guards in the region. Traders with unusually valuable goods may hire more guards than usual, but then there may be a risk that there might be bandits among those new hires. Might even the player characters, or they might join up to investigate what that caravan really is transporting.
A Life of Crime vs. Heroic Adventuring
Ludo talks about sorting his scenario hooks into “Below” hooks dealing with criminal or lawless agendas, and “Above” hooks with possibly more heroic stuff or politics out in the public.
There might be spies or spying for the Lunars going on.
Diana confesses that she often lets herself be surprised when it comes to criminal or covert activities in her games.
Ludo brings up the good old player suspicion of perfectly non-descript throw-away or “soup” characters that may derail your entire prepared plotline, and advocates to confirm the players’ story instincts. Diana suggests using a roll on the player characters’ POW to decide how right they are.
Jörg suggests using NPC record sheets as discussed in the Passions episode to develop such characters more or less on the fly.
Ludo maligns the Hornos brothers as the ultimate crime bosses, and how they might be the crime lords behind all underworld activities in Jonstown. Diana proposes a more political dark secret tied to their collaboration with the Lunar occupation forces and administration, and of course their massive profits from trading Lunar war booty.
Ludo brings up the problems plot possibilities that might result from having acquired somebody else’s heirlooms through some of those deals.
Diana points at Lyserian Goodspeech, the former City Rex under the Lunar occupation, and how he avoided being sent into exile because his tribe threw their full support behind him.
For the grognards, Jörg points out that all the traders in Jonstown would have been associates of Gringle, the pawn shop owner from Apple Lane who had gone missing following the demise of the former Thane of that hamlet.
At the very least, the connections to the Gamemasters Screen Package with its description including the hamlet of Apple Lane are a good tie in if you prefer to run published scenarios.
The circumstances of Gringle’s disappearance are described in the old HeroQuest/Questworlds demo PDF Return to Apple Lane.
You All Meet in a Pub, or in a Bathhouse?
Gaining a connection with regular residents of Jonstown, putting names and faces to the generic stats provided in the book.
Socializing can happen in the pub, in public baths, in the Chalana Arroy hospital, joining the militia.
Ludo expounds how relatively harmless militia duty may lead to favors that residents of the city may owe your adventurers.
Jörg points to the police procedurals on TV where militiamen (well, cops) come to interfere with plots of some of the high and mighty, possibly putting them in their bad books.
Diana talks about how crafters (and really all economic activities) come under the scrutiny of the guilds, and that suitably skilled adventurers may be offered (or demanded) a guild membership, which opens up another social circle of interactions and vested interests. Ludo mentions how the guilds (or the sages, or other temples) may act more easily as quest-givers if one of the adventurers is already a member of that organization.
Jörg points out that all the provided adventurers fail to mention any spouse or permanent love interest, and how providing some may connect the party to the place and give family or in-laws as another possible source of quest-givers or plot hook anchors.
Diana describes how she brings up marriage, childbirths etc. in the Sacred Time review of the year meta-session where the regular income and spendings of the characters are determined. She also uses marriages as rewards for adventures. (Keep in mind that temporary marriages are a big thing in Orlanthi society! Having a spouse for a year will not tie you down interminately!)
Ludo suggests that sufficiently notable characters might be pushed by their superiors towards political marriages to further some agenda. Even if it is over by next sacred time, that extra connection can be valuable.
We digress on discovering possibly unsavory skin care habits of new spouses, and being walled up upon discovery of those…
Ludo brings up the Noir Detective story genre, or the old chestnut of getting your clothes stolen in a bath, possibly mistaking them for somebody else’s ones suspected to contain plot hooks.
Diana rejects any and all accusations of planning forward her adventures. Instead, she uses NPCs the characters have a relation with and who they judge to be politically astute. Whether correctly so remains to be discovered. Between Jorjera Latish and Orngerin Holdfast, Diana reckons one is politically astute and the other may or may not take her their leads.
Introducing Plot Hooks
Ludo lists patrons and quest givers (potentially any of the important people mentioned in the book).
Diana suggests to look at the player characters’ passions, starting with Love Family or Loyalty Clan or Tribe which everybody gets. You can introduce plot-carrying NPCs as belonging to one of these target groups, or map the role of plot-carrying NPCs to an existing NPC contact in your game.
Diana offers “Miraculously, whatever the character is good at is exactly what the tribe wants of them.” Ludo counters with “These people are disposable.”
People from the place you stay at may serve as quest givers.
Amid pronunciation debates Ludo points to the opening in Wulfsland created by the majority of Jomes Wulf’s followers abandoning the former Maboder lands, and all the neighbors and kin of the previous owners may vie for.
Ludo suggests a plot line where the adventurers escort a group of people intent on re-settling those lands, only to find squatters or rivals with a similar claim having arrived before them, or about the same time.
Jörg points towards plots in the city that were formerly owned by the Maboder, starting with their tribal manor. We discuss things that may be found in their abandoned manor (or that of the Cinsina who left the Jonstown confederations a few years later), and that their portion of city plots may have gone to the Lunars, who aren’t here any more. (Many of their tenants still are, though, and may be looking at an insecure future.) Diana brings up buried hoards in some of the houses, left by people having to leave in a hurry.
Ludo suggests to have characters with “Hate Lunar Empire” protect and escort people still loyal to the Lunars moving out.
We discuss the ongoing trade volume with the Lunar Empire and the travel opportunities joining a trading caravan to Tarsh or just the still Lunar-occupied Far Place.
We discuss spying done by people in these caravans, and whether or how often traders of the Etyries cult will travel to and through Jonstown, bringing their Lunar goodwill habits to an audience that may be unwilling to accept that. Scribes and sages are information gatherers anyway, and might be used by opposing powers. And then there is Eurmal.
Diana suggests that if you play a spy game, create a bunch of eligible candidates and randomly determine who dunnit. Jörg brings up the Paranoia RPG’s concept of everybody following two secret agendas, and we riff on potential secrets within secrets plots.
Diana tells about a murder mystery where all player characters thought they had killed the victim (which actually had not been killed at all, but disappeared).
The Darkness Within Jonstown
Ludo suggests to use another common passion, Hate Trolls, and the fact that the Torkani tribal mansion houses trollkin for an involved crime investigation to hand to the militia, where the head librarian and known glutton with a sweet tooth Garangian Bronze-Guts gets a nightly visit by trollkin which doesn’t go undetected, while at the same time somebody else filched a scroll with possibly dangerous information, but definitely one a senior member of the temple cares about. Now the trollkin who did break into the library get identified and falsely accused for the scroll theft, and it is up to the militia how to deal with this.
(What is it about the sweet stuff, Ludo? Even the tale of a visit to the Block made you talk about sugar cubes…)
Ludo explains his prep work for something like this, giving the real theft maybe a paragraph or two in preparation, and improvising from there. Diana points out that this is fine for your personal game if you are an experienced gamemaster, but if you want a scenario you can hand over to a GM inexperienced with the setting or the rules, you will need to note down some alternatives for possible courses of action.
Ludo talks about keeping the pacing, so if your player adventurers interrogate the trollkin, they ought to learn more than just that they did steal the sweets. Possibly they saw a robed (or prominently bearded) person sneaking away during their escape.
Jörg suggests an alternative where the real culprits, or some other party desiring the stolen object, assumes that the player characters have the lead, asking enough leading questions during an uncomfortable interrogation that the players can pick up a lost trail.
Diana talks about NPC defenders of the story arc, and to place them as companions and plot-drivers with a group of inexperienced player investigators.
Diana outlines how she manages her NPCs in a fairly simple spread sheet, and how to find stuff in that.
We return to the trope of the players ignoring all the plot hooks and following the harmless NPC they feel is suspicious, and the resignating gamemaster yielding to the collected wisdom of the table and making that NPC a bearer of the plot.
But in the end, keep it small and as simple as you can get away with.
Ludo talks about the Schrödinger’s Reward, where a job well done as much as a job catastrophically failed at will lead to the same follow-up adventure, either to atone for the failure or because of the show of competence.
Jörg suggests to give the adventurers low-level contacts in all the institutions that might come up in their upcoming shenanigans to have at least one boot inside the door, and Diana suggests to have the adventurers bask in their fame for a job reasonably well done, getting offered free drinks as well as free plot hooks when they visit their pub or bathhouse.
Diana tells a tale about infant ducks (durulz) coming to take a look at the famous people (the adventurers) who might be able to heroically help them out.
Diana talks about taking inspiration from looking at the maps.
Ludo elaborates how reading about the system of food distribution among citizens inspired him to look for ways how people could abuse that system for their own advantage, whether through fraud, forgery, manipulated weights… and then goes into the dangers of having too many opinionated intellectuals in a small place.
“The dog ate my homework” and what kind of ideas just mentioning that can trigger.
Joh Mith is a valuable NPC because of his wide-ranging connections outside of Jonstown, and some of those may be enemies with a hostile agenda.
We discuss a few possible follow-up scenarios on the Jonstown Compendium, and talk about some of the smaller Beer With Teeth scenarios that have ties to some of the adventures in book 4 of the starter set.
Rocks Fall might tie in with the third scenario of the Starter Set
Stone and Bone as a possible follow-up to the second scenario of the Starter Set, or near Birne’s Squeeze
Vinga’s Ford is suggested for the Apple Lane region, but that’s just west of Jonstown
A Tale of Woodcraft could be set near Tarndisi’s grove just south of Birne’s Squeeze
Other community content scenarios or sand boxes set in the region:
The Red Deer Saga exploring the Namolding clan living between Jonstown and Apple Lane, whether as a bundle or as single products that will give you a discount when you buy the bundle
In a Merry Green Vale explores the Lysang clan, another Tree Triaty clan severed from the Colymar on the road from Jonstown to Apple Lane
The Duel of Dangerford describes a battle of Dangerford different from what happens in the solo scenario, a year later. It might cause a few continuity kinks, but is another exciting opportunity to encounter Lunar forces in full panoply while giving the player adventurers agency.
Apologies if we missed any other pertinent Jonstown Compendium content – we advise our listeners to visit there and discover things for themselves anyway.
In a last minute recording, Diana reveals what project Beer With Teeth is working on for Chaosium. Their manuscript is ready to hand out, but the book is likely a long ways away.
Welcome to a new issue of the Journal of Runic Studies, the premfrier 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 another holiday week, and the heart of ski season… I may not have too much time to collect these Journals as exhaustively as usual, especially since I have the episode 7 of the podcast to finish editing. It should be out in a few days.
By the way, if you want to help by writing a specific section, provide commentary on a specific note from Jeff, or other contribution, please reach out to us! It would help a lot to have more hands and brains on this!
James continues his interview series with Jeff Richard, and this time we have a short chat about mythology: in Glorantha, in books, in the real-world, in games.
Richard Helliwell of Infinity Engine shared this work-in-progress version of Makarios, one of the pre-gen characters from the Starter Set. The plan is that all those pre-gens are available in miniature form eventually! Infinity Engine already had the miniatures for the Quickstart adventure, along with several other cool things.
Glorantha Skirmish War Updates
Speaking of official licensees for miniatures, Andrew Taylor of Mad Knight Castings shared a few updates about the Gloranthan skirmish game that he was working towards with his many Kickstarted miniature lines. The project had taken a hit, between the global COVID pandemic and Andrew’s personal health problems, but it sounds like he’s getting back on track. Here’s some preview and design notes on unit cards:
The richness of Glorantha is both a beauty and a nightmare. Whilst many excellent skirmish rule sets exist none easily lend themselves to a Glorantha setting. I started with an A5 size UNIT card containing UNIT stats, Leader stats, pictures and magical abilities. It worked ok up to a point, but coupling the leaders to the UNITS and to the Magic became inflexible. So I split leaders and non unit specific magic off into separate cards. The card size shrunk from A5 to poker size. This, for UNITs, generated a new problem- how to fit pictures of the figures and all the info onto a 63*88 card ?
We tried many different layouts but to no avail. The pictures had to go off the cards and into the armies book.
Here is the front and back of a Troll Unit. On the front is the UNIT Magical Highlight, on the back the UNIT stats, the UNIT runes, and the UNIT special tactics.
Recent Well of Daliath Additions
The Well of Daliath website is Chaosium’s online repository for Gloranthan Lore and RuneQuest clarifications and errata. It has some awesome content such as, say, an index of all White Dwarf articles for RuneQuest. It also has monthly archives of notable Facebook postings by Jeff Richard or Michael O’Brien, though without the commentary we provide here in our Journal of Runic Studies (which might be a good or bad thing depending on your opinion of it!)
There is a whole treasure trove of information in there… I’m a big fan of the Prosopaedia archive, which has the Runes of a lot of deities per publication, so you can see how their Runes changed (or not) across game lines. Another one I frequently consult is the giant Third Age Timeline of Dragon Pass, which helps collate various sources easily. It is divided in several chunks of history, each with their own page. Note that it only draws on official RuneQuest and general Glorantha publications up to and including the GM Screen package, and ignores dates e.g. from any of the HeroQuest publications or from the Stafford Library book “History of the Heortling Peoples” or “The Fortunate Succession”.
David Scott is the librarian behind the Well of Daliath, but several volunteers help here and there with the website. You can contact him to get involved!
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 final-but-not-so-final issue of Monster of the Month Volume 2 is now out! To Hunt a God describes the crazy monkey cult of Hrunda who lives in the Old Woods of Esrolia, his “Temple of Bones”, and the first part of an adventure that sends you after him. Don’t forget to try Ludvik’s Liquor, it’s delicious and totally good for you.
After the mean and ugly Krampuslauf, Stormspearia are now releasing Joulupukki, the apparently nice jolly good man who gives children gifts during Sacred Time… but he’s a sub-cult of Eurmal the Trickster God so who knows what he’s really up to?
Martin Helsdon continues to tease his next Jonstown Compendium project which, I assume, is something based on his Periplus of Southern Genertela. The project will be illustrated by Katrim Dirim. The picture above supposedly shows Chalana Arroy, Lhankor Mhy, Issaries, and Dormal, and is part of a much bigger picture featuring many more deities and heroes.
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.
Memes in the Second Age
One of the things that are often under-estimated when we think of the ancient world on Earth is how much cultural exchange there was between various part of Europe, Africa, and Asia. Well Jeff is talking about that for Glorantha’s Second Age:
Around the coastal regions of the world, the Middle Sea Empire, with its mix of Malkionism with a smattering of Theyalan and Darkness myths (starting from the Broken Council and Gbaji Wars era, but later built upon with the Dark Empire) and finds parallels in Kralorela, Teshnos, Fonrit, and elsewhere. This leads to the Monomyth – a universal approach to Gloranthan Mythology.
Now many commentators will say “God Learner Lies” or similar nonsense, but the Monomyth worked. It enabled deep exploration of the God Time and experimental heroquests to gain power and rob secrets from their enemies. Like Arabic numbers, the Monomyth was too useful not to be used, and the Empire of the Wyrms Friends eagerly embraced it (which can be viewed as its return to its source – as the origins of the Monomyth was with the First and Second Councils).
I really like this comparison to the Arabic Numbers: they worked, they were better, and everybody started using them. There’s just no arguing about it, and there’s no arguing about how the Monomyth worked and was more useful, from a theological standpoint, than the previous darker ages.
Still, even though Jeff shot down the idea, I can’t help but think about the little details that got lost in the process. Any generalization will, by definition, work in general, but might gloss over the little things. A change in mental framework is often accompanied by many other changes, such as when a 7-day week was introduced in the Roman Empire and that affected people’s habits and conception of time. So in my own Glorantha, there might have been minor gods and spirits lost in the process… when you’re changing your worship rituals to use the Monomyth version of your local goddess, it’s hard to tell if you’re getting access to new and larger mythical truths about her, or if you’re leaving her behind and worshipping a bigger and different goddess altogether! This sounds like a nice way to have an adventure or two where you need to appease one of those shunted deities, or even help them realize they are just a piece of a much bigger goddess who forgot who they were! Having to deal with the amnesiac aspect of Ernalda that makes radishes grow around a hill near Jonstown sounds fun to me!
And so by the height of the Second Age, a working understanding of the Monomyth had spread across much of Glorantha. The Monomyth never fully replaced many traditional names and cults, but it informed them of their greater context.
This is how you tell that radish goddess that she can still be herself, and consider herself a daughter or cousin of Ernalda, I guess?
In the Empire of the Wyrms Friends, the Third Council learned secrets from the dragonewts and wyrms, something entirely consistent with the traditional Orlanthi openness to strangers and new ideas. With aid from mythic maps stolen from the God Learners and with the Monomyth as a framework, experimental heroquests and mythic explorations were common in Dragon Pass, as the lives of such individuals as Gorangi Vak, Ingolf Dragonfriend, Isgangdrang, Lord Labyrgon, and Pavis show.
These God Learners’ mythic maps are available in the Glorantha Sourcebook and the Guide to Glorantha. Jeff shared an early sketch of one of those:
The enemies of the empires also adopted their approach, and such heroes as Alakoring Rex, Iddi Scorchbane, Emperor Karvanyar, and Verenmars would not be possible without the secrets taken from the EWF and God Learners.
The disasters that ended the Second Age largely put an end to this experimental outlook and mythic explorations. With one big exception – the Lunar Empire.
That last sentence is important: the Lunar Empire has kept their heroquesting up consistently over the past centuries, and they continue innovating… the God Learners were just in it to “see how things work”. But:
The Lunars, in contrast, are basically driven by the desire to aid the Red Goddess in remaking the world (we can euphemisize this as “healing the world” if we want). Like the God Learners, personal ambition and the desire to weaponise these secrets factors into this, but I’d say the Lunar interest is much narrower (but deeper) than the God Learners.
Jrustela
Let’s talk about our homeland! (the God Learners’, I mean)
Jrustela was somewhere more than 400,000 square miles in area or about twice the size of Madagascar. Dwarfs, and several species of sentient insects, the Timinits, were indigenous to Jrustela.
Humans came to Jrustela in the First Age. The initial settlers largely came from Slontos and were brought here by Waertagi dragonships. They called themselves the Olodo, and settled in the interior away from the coasts. They settled in small freeholds and fought with the Timinits.
Slontos was a land on the southern Genertelan shore, west of the Holy Country, which sank in 1050, leaving behind only islands off the (new) coast of Maniria.
The Wartagi are an ancient humanoid amphibian race who sailed the oceans ever since there were oceans to sail, some time in the God Time. They’ve always had an alliance with the Brithini, and had many trade routes across southwest Genertela including Slontos.
This was all good and fine until some problems with royal succession in Seshnela sent a whole bunch of unhappy wizards and nobles to Jrustela:
In the Second Age, the Seshnelan king Nralar son of Gerlant Flamesword died in 603 after ruling for more than a century. Nralar had many eligible and powerful sons to succeed him, and so a council of nobles, Hrestoli adepts, and wizards met to chose a new king. The council chose one of Nralar’s younger sons, Nepur, the older brother having been deemed unfit to rule the kingdom.
Rather than contest the choice of the council, a great many descendants of Nralar left the kingdom, sailing upon Waertagi ships over the ocean to Jrustela. The royal talars were accompanied by their sorcerers and followers. They founded the city of Hredmarinos, and allied with the Olodo against the Timinits. The Seshnegi kept to the coasts, and the Olodo claimed the rugged interior of the island.
So you’ve got wizards and nobles (talars) going to Jrustela, followed by a whole bunch more soon after:
Sadly, the settlement of Jrustela by the Nralarites did not prevent a civil war in Seshnela, and many others fled Seshnela to the comparative peace of Jrustela.
The human settlements on Jrustela grew in number and population. Each settlement was free and independent. At first, this was no problem as there was land and resources enough for all, but within two generations conflicts grew. In 646 the quarrelling rulers and wizards of the city-states and tribes of Jrustela met to reach a lasting settlement.
Unexpectedly, the conclave created or was presented with a new ecumenical syncretic form of Hrestoli Malkionism called the Abiding Book, which presented the Invisible God as an utterly simple, ineffable, unknowable entity which is both the creative source of existence and the teleological end of all existing things. The Invisible God created the Runes, the Powers, Elements, and Conditions, which slowly commingled and degenerated into gods, spirits, and mortals. All of creation was made understandable and knowable – with the exception of the Invisible God itself of course.
You can look up the Invisible God in previous issues of the Journal for more information and, most importantly, real-world inspirations.
This Abiding Book presented the true teachings of Malkion, and was consistent with the teachings of Hrestol, Zzabur, Gerlant, and Arkat – without need for the dangerous mysticism and irrational contradictions of Stygianism. The Abiding Book was a framework for understanding, and was an open invitation for exploring the cosmos. Everything could have its proper place within the framework of the Abiding Book, and the limited perspectives of the various barbarian cults could be put together to flesh out that framework.
About this time, the Jrusteli began experimenting with seagoing ships and began their first tentative challenges to the Waertagi.
Around 650, some of the Orlanthi of Dragon Pass learned to speak with the Dragons. This opened tremendous mystical vistas for the Orlanthi, identifying the Cosmic Dragon as the Source and expanding their cosmological perspective.
The 650s are about one century into the era of the Empire of the Wyrms Friends as far as I can tell. Jörg points me to the timeline in the Guide, however, which show that in the 560s Rostand the Speaker was already teaching the “kernels of draconic consciousness”, and a decade later Vistikos Left-eye was establishing a “formula and pattern for a draconic human life”. It’s possible some of these figures, along with a few of their students, were the ones who opened up these channels of communication.
Unlike the Invisible God of the God Learners, insight into the Cosmic Dragon cannot be reached through materialistic logic – the identity of opposites, matters of duality and nonduality, formation of the “self”, and other such metaphysical questions.
The following immortal dragonewt poem is a chant and prayer which relates to the creation of the world and was popular with the Wyrmfriends:
– Silence, The Infinite O Zero, or an exclamation OU A cry of pain; Ego OUR Collectiveness, plurality. OURO Collective emptiness OUROB Creation (Collective with an end-stop “b”) OUROBO Closed Infinity, or Being OUROBOR Birth. OUROBORO Nothing, emptiness. OUROBOROS S= “Voice” (i.e. the sound a serpent makes).
We’ve seen this poem in a few places. Jörg points to Wyrm’s Footnotes 14, where the “Dragon Pantheon” is defined, and the above poem is tied to the Cosmic Dragon. We’ve also seen it recently in MOB’s tales of Yellow Mellow.
The poem shows a gradual internalization of something to bring about the formation of the concept of “self.” This poem was also repeated backwards at rituals and transported the chanters and the universe into mystical bliss which was ordinarily impossible to reach.
Ouroboros was sometimes worshiped as the Source and seen as the complement to Glorantha the World Goddess who was without consort or mate in her own realm. The phenomenal world is constantly changing and thus ultimately spiritually unreal – the gods themselves, although useful, do not reveal the hidden principles and implicit knowledge that created them and the universe.
Orlanth led the path towards draconic understanding. His openness to strangers meant it was easiest for his priests to speak to alien species. They learned that Orlanth embraced Arangorf the Inner Dragon, and that Orlanth had performed utuma for the Cosmic Dragon. Orlanth’s role as a cosmic creative-destroyer was promoted by the priests, sometimes to the near-exclusion of his other aspects.
Ok so this is getting interesting. “Utuma” is the term for the ritual suicide that Dragonewts commit when their time has come to get to the next evolutionary stage. You might remember that these weird little buggers can die many many times, and they always come back in a new body grown from the same egg. Only they sometimes come back with a new improved body as they reach the next of their five stages of evolution… which is why they get reaaaaally pissed off when humans go destroy their nest cities. Last time it happened, things didn’t go well for those humans. Anyway, so that’s what “utuma” is, although it’s also the term for the ritual dagger used for that ritual suicide.
Anyway, we know that Orlanth is big on fighting dragons: he had several adventures where this happened, the most famous one being his fight against Aroka (the Blue Dragon who kept all the rain inside it and caused drought in the lands). But I had somewhat glanced over in the Glorantha Sourcebook that he also killed Sh’harkazeel, the Cosmic Dragon. It’s originally framed as Orlanth being appointed by the other gods to go kill the Cosmic Dragon because it was awoken and was about to eat all of them… but it’s also called out that Orlanth had a chat with Sh’harkazeel and learned a bunch of draconic secrets, in exchange for performing utuma on the venerable dragon.
So depending on how you take the myth, Orlanth might be your classic dragon-slaying hero, or the confidante of a wise, ancestral, mystical dragon. This being Glorantha, he’s probably both. That’s why Orlanth is cool, I guess.
Through their draconic insights, the rulers of the Wyrms Friends had access to powerful dragon magic that terrified their enemies. Their mystics could dismiss even the most powerful of elementals or spells, terrify foes, deflect spells, breathe fire, or even become dragons themselves!
Not only did we have God Learnerism, dragonic mysticism, and syncretic developments in cults, but also there was an exploration of the God Time. This was a time of remarkable cult-changing heroes such as Pavis, Alakoring Rex, Gorangi Vak, Ingolf Dragonfriend, Carmanos, Verenmars, Jaldon Goldentooth, Delecti, and many more. This was the time that experimental artificial gods were created – and they proved to have magical power (although not necessarily as expected).
However, the Second Age ended in catastrophes worse than that of the First Age. The Oceans were closed to humans. Seshnela was sundered into fragments, Slontos sunk, and the Dragonkill War exterminated humans in Dragon Pass. Nature struck back against human hubris. After 1120, humans had learned to fear experimentation, exploration, and new ideas.
There were three main exceptions to this: the “resurrection” of the Red Goddess, the arrival of Belintar, and the rise of Sartar.
In 1220, a desperate cabal with nothing left to lose brought back into the world a goddess that had been destroyed in the God Time. Seeking weapons against her enemies, she tread paths in the Underworld and became lost there until she was Illuminated by Nysalor and returned with the Crimson Bat. She later rose into the Middle Earth as the Red Moon after appointing her son as her regent for her mundane affairs.
In 1313, a Stranger came ashore in Kethaela despite the Closed Seas. He made alliances with the Silver Age heroes of that lands, gained acceptance of their gods and goddess, and overcame the Only Old One, the dark lord of that land since prehistory. He instituted rites and ceremonies by which the Gods World could remain in proximity of the mundane world, and began the Tournament of the Masters of Luck and Death to keep those pathways active and empowered. Kethaela became known as the Holy Country because of this.
In 1470, a wanderer named Sartar came to Dragon Pass from the Holy Country. Without using violence himself, this wanderer united the quarreling Orlanthi of Dragon Pass, made friends with the dwarfs, centaurs, dragonewts, ducks, and werewolves, founded cities and built roads, temples, and libraries, and made himself King of Dragon Pass when he married the Feathered Horse Queen (another mythic adventurer from the Grazelands). He displayed the secrets and magic of Orlanth Rex, but also maintained draconic friendship. The kingdom he founded became rich on trade, and was influential far beyond its size and population.
This backstory helps explain the context of the Hero Wars, and gives ideas as to what they are all doing. Few if any of the main heroes are repeating the deeds of others. They are forging new paths, experimenting and exploring. Like your adventurers likely do!
Harrek the Berserk
Jeff takes a look at another big, epic, and iconic figure of the HeroWars: Harrek the Berserk. After all, the original Gloranthan game, White Bear & Red Moon, was named partially after him, not Argrath or whoever else.
Separating the stories of Harrek from the truth of his life is nearly impossible – certainly Irrippi Ontor has so far failed to do so. Harrek was, as far as any can tell, initially a normal Rathori warrior. There are rumors that Syndic’s Ban was somehow connected to his adulthood initiation but those are but rumors. What is known is that after he awakened in 1594, he was extraordinary. For over a decade, Harrek wandered the world without – both the mundane world AND the mythic realms. Stories of him as a penniless mercenary, a slave, a Lunar gladiator, etc., are often associated with this time. In 1605 he received training as a Dart Warrior.
Rathori are bear Hsunchen people, similar to, say, how Telmori are wolf Hsunchen people. They’re typically from Fronela.
In 1607, as part of a Dart War, Harrek killed the Red Emperor and fled through the wilds of Dorastor to escape. Harrek is known to hate the Red Emperor and the Red Goddess with an overwhelming passion – it is thought this hatred originates from those experiences.
Harrek’s training as a Dart Warrior means he was basically a black-ops operative for the Red Emperor, or for one of the leading households of the Empire. He probably witnessed the worst side of the Lunars during that time, which played into his later hatred of it.
And then in 1609, Harrek slew and bound the White Bear God – and now always wears its skin and claws. After this, Harrek was no longer merely extraordinary – he was a superhero, a shaman with a god as a fetch, a demigod of destruction and disorder. Constantly wandering through this world and the Mythic Realm, Harrek is constantly seeking treasures, weapons, and fame. But his goals are erratic. He’s thrown away fortunes and even kingdoms for further adventure, traveled all the way around the world, and quested along unknown paths.
Oh that’s interesting: I thought the white bear god was a bound spirit for Harrek, but it’s actually his fetch… which means that a fetch is not necessarily your own “awakened” spirit, but can be another spirit you “acquire” somehow during your initiation? Interesting. I guess that brings exciting possibilities if you have a very ambitious shaman in your party, especially if they take an unusual path towards shamanism. In particular, Jeff commented:
I personally find the idea of a self-initiated shaman terrifying.
What about Harrek’s Facebook profile?
Harrek is said to be loyal only to Gunda, his Shield Maiden. His relationship with Argrath is more complicated; Argrath is the closest thing Harrek has to a true friend, but they also come to blows on several occasions. Harrek has an intense and inflexible hatred for the Lunar Empire and everything in it.
Given Harrek’s hatred of the Lunars, you might wonder why he still worked for them in a couple occasions, like the taking of the city of Karse, or the destruction of the Holy Country’s fleet. Personally, I interpret these as some other Wolf Pirates doing these things (Harrek isn’t necessarily the leader of all Wolf Pirates… they existed before him), but Jeff also offers another explanation:
One theory is that Harrek’s hatred is very personal (and focused on the Red Goddess, Red Emperor, and the demigods around them) and he didn’t appreciate that Gimgim the Grim or whoever brokered the deal was an agent of the distant Red Emperor.
Gimgim the Grim is a secret operative of the Red Emperor, who was at some point posted in Pavis to gather intelligence and run operations in Prax.
Harrek can be thought of as a great random factor throughout the Hero Wars. And one who does not fit easily within anyone’s models or frameworks.
Harrek’s combination of power – both physical and spiritual – with his unpredictability makes him perhaps the most dangerous protagonist in the Hero Wars.
Harrek is savage and uncivilised, but he’s also been trained by the Lunars, been to Dorastor, plundered cities in Fronela, Teshnos, Fonrit, and Seshnela. He’s definitely no fool and has bestial cunning.
Heroquesting
Jeff hopes that people will have moved on from heroquesting as pictured in the King of Dragon Pass computer game, or the HeroWars/HeroQuest books.
Every culture performs ceremonies and rites that cause the mundane and divine worlds to overlap into what is called the Hero Plane. This is where you get your Rune magic from, your allied spirits, befriend cult spirits, and all that stuff.
Now that stuff is gameable, but it really only gets interesting IMO when things go wrong. When the ceremony no longer predictably works, when dangerous enemies show up, etc.
So this is what heroquesting has mostly been about since the HeroWars/HeroQuest line: you go in thinking you know what’s going to happen, but the gamemaster throws in a bunch of surprises and twists. Jeff goes farther:
But far more interesting to me is deliberately exploring the mythic realms and discover previously unknown paths through the divine world. This is what heroes such as Alakoring, Argrath, Arkat, the Feathered Horse Queen, Harmast, Harrek, Jaldon Goldentooth, Pavis, Sir Ethilrist, Cragspider, Jar-eel, Hwarin Dalthippa, Hon-eel, and the Red Goddess. They did not “invent” new myths – they traveled previously unknown paths through the Hero Plane and brought back their experiences to the mundane world. They discovered paths and events that had always been latent in the God Time.
Being a recent convert to Glorantha, and playing with people who didn’t know anything either until a few game sessions ago, I have to say you probably need to do the former before you do the latter. Players need to know that heroquesting is a thing, how it works, and what it can give them, before they can start making it their own with advanced exploratory heroquesting.
And this ties a lot into rules and world-building to me. On the one hand, heroquesting is supposed to be very dangerous and require lots of magical support, but on the other hand we want to facilitate it for players to go wild with it. But it’s easy to undermine the heroquesting prowess of Kallyr, King Broyan, or even Belintar if that kind of advanced heroquesting can also be done by the thanes of Apple Lanes after a few seasons of adventuring in Colymar lands. Without going into details (that’s maybe for a future Runic Rants article), there are a few ways to resolve this conundrum depending on your players and your campaign:
If you have ambitious players, let them become leaders, and give them followers that can (at least narratively) provide magical support for big heroquesting.
Decide that actually anybody can move the heavens… it’s just that farmers have better things to do, and other thanes are not crazy enough to try it.
Make the adventurers join the entourage of big NPCs like Kallyr or Argrath, and have some missions essentially be about going heroquesting somewhere to figure out some kind of weakness in an enemy, find some advantage, or whatever else. The mission giver doesn’t have any precise instructions: “just figure it out“.
This approach to heroquesting was fairly common in the late First Age and through the Second Age. Most people shunned it after the cataclysms that ended that Age. BUT not everywhere – in the Lunar Empire and the Holy Country this sort of spiritual exploration remained, although for very different ends. And Sartar and his dynasty inherit the techniques developed in the Holy Country.
As the Hero Wars develop, the protagonists take more risks and gambles in their heroquesting – such as rediscovering the techniques of the God Learners and the Empire of the Wyrms Friends, using Chaotic magic in heroquests, and more. People take short cuts, make permanent changes for short-term gains, and all the sorts of things that people do when they are desperate and ambitious. That becomes the Hero Wars. We start from a familiar starting point, but by the end, the world has changed so much we can barely recognize where we began.
So I guess this gives weight to the second option from above: people are just warming back up to doing “creative” heroquesting, and the adventurers are part of the “innovators” or “early adopters” of the heroquest techniques adoption cycle.
Jeff concludes with this:
It is important to keep in mind that underlying Glorantha are the Runes and other archetypes. These archetypes are more real than reality. We know that the Runes joined together, came into conflict, devolved, and made the world we live in. But how we interact with these archetypes is based on our experiences which in turn is the foundation of our understanding of it all.
Repeating somebody else’s story is not the point of heroquesting – nobody becomes a hero by simply being the understudy! One becomes a hero by making your own path through the mythic realm of archetypes and Runes. Make the divine and eternal the personal and psychological!
Cults Friendly or Neutral to Chaos
From a question posed on the Facebook group about cults friendly or neutral to Chaos, Jeff’s answer gives a sneak peek at some cult relationships from the upcoming Cults book:
Let’s put aside cults with the Chaos Rune (Red Goddess, Nysalor, Thed, Vivamort, Crimson Bat, etc.) or weird specific Chaotic cult specific associations (like Thed and Daka Fal) and just look at non-Chaotic cults that are Friend towards Primal Chaos:
Hon-eel Hwarin Dalthippa Yara Aranis
And those neutral towards Primal Chaos:
Black Fang Etyries Gorgorma Humakt Ourania
Another short (but interesting) list.
Yelm is an Enemy of Primal Chaos. He makes a few Chaotic exceptions – Red Goddess and Nysalor – but in general he hates Chaos.
As an aside, Yelm is Neutral not Hostile let alone an Enemy of Orlanth. And vice versa. If Orlanth was enemies of every god he fought with, he’d have no friends at all! And if Yelm was enemies with every rebel god, he’d have nothing to rule!
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.
RuneQuest Year Zero Podcast
Baz Stevens, one half of the excellent “What Would The Smart Party Do?” podcast, has started a new RuneQuest-specific podcast that aims to chronicle his first foray into the game. It’s called RuneQuest Year Zero and in some ways it’s Baz’s own series-long foray into what we’re attempting here with our “Glorantha Initiation Series”, where we interview newcomers to Glorantha one at a time. I’m looking forward to hear more from Baz, and hopefully we’ll have him on the God Learners podcast soon!
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 week was of course holiday season, with some unusual low temperatures and snowfall here in Jrustela. While I was trying to wrap up some art for Jonstown Compendium customers and for my own projects, Jeff posted a lot of large notes on Facebook, with not much time left for me to analyze or research them in-depth… so apologies for the large blocks of quoted text this week!
We are now occupying a nice little tower with a long history of previous occupants who have left behind documents, tablets, artifacts, and other kinds of junk. As we clean up and archive these things, we share the most interesting ones with you.
‘Tis the Season
This week was the heart of the holiday season for most people who would be reading this kind of blog, so for all of you who celebrate anything, happy Sacred Time!
Now, the correspondence between Glorantha’s and Earth’s calendar has always been a bit iffy. Chaosium themselves have also given their Sacred Time Greetings this week, but in theory Sacred Time is a spring festival. The Gloranthan winter solstice happens in the penultimate week of Dark Season, as Ian Cooper explains, and as marked in the Glorantha Calendar and the Guide… But hey, I don’t see anybody getting two weeks off in spring to get drunk and eat piles of meat with their whole families! So I guess that when it comes to Earth/Glorantha correspondence, we have to pick between cosmological correspondence and cultural correspondence? Which would you pick?
Review: RuneQuest Starter Set
Did you think we would not start writing reviews of Gloranthan products? Well, to be frank, we weren’t sure either… but the pandemic holidays brought me some free time:
The RuneQuest Starter Set has already been reviewed many, many times, but since I have already gifted it three times this holiday season (yes, to my unsuspecting players), its merits and faults have been on my mind… and what kind of a Glorantha focused website would we be if we didn’t have some reviews? We’re just slow about writing them, being, like, two products behind schedule. But we are the God Learners, and you wouldn’t believe the kind of administrative puzzle we have to go through for approval of that kind of thing.
Jeff Richard was interviewed on RPG Ramblings about RuneQuest and Glorantha.
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!
Mikael Mansen has been working on pimping up the Argan Argar Atlas’ maps, and doing a pretty good job at it! The first map is out on the Jonstown Compendium, and covers Kanthor’s Islands, in Seshnela. This is a pretty minimal product (two maps, one with text and one without), but it’s quite pretty and high resolution.
RPG Imaginings Unboxes Armies & Enemies of Dragon Pass
If you want to see what the Print-on-Demand version of Martin Helsdon’s book looks like, here is RPG Imaginings flipping through it on camera!
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.
Nochet’s population density averages somewhere around 18,000+ per square kilometer. That’s average – for every Sacred City garden that means somewhere else people are piled on top of each other.
Boldhome in comparison is a mere 3000 people per square kilometer, but it has plenty of empty space, which means that in the Pockets and the Main City, things get piled up.
In comparison, the population density of modern London is 5700 per square kilometer; modern Manhattan has a population density of 29,000 per square kilometer and San Francisco about 6600 per square kilometer.
While Nochet’s density is incredible, it isn’t unheard of for Earth’s bronze age cities either.
For instance, Alexandria in the last century BCE might have had 500,000 inhabitants, and even if only a fraction of those lived inside its walls (an area of about 5.3 square kilometres), that would still be way more dense than Nochet.
Another example is the ancient Greek city of Antioch (in modern day southern Turkey) is said to have peaked with at least 250,000 inhabitants around the same time frame (last century BCE), and potentially as high as 500,000 inhabitants. I’m having trouble figuring out its area (there’s the intramuros area and the general suburbian area, and some of that area was uninhabited rocky mountain), but even with a conservative estimate, it might have been twice as dense as Nochet.
Anyway, back to Glorantha:
Interestingly, although Boldhome averages only about 3000 people per square mile, Jonstown averages somewhere around 16,000 people per square mile. Which means it is built up more like Nochet than Boldhome.
Sheng Seleris, Shadow of the Lunar Empire
Jeff shares some thoughts about everybody’s favourite ruthless horse riding crazy nomad:
Sheng Seleris and his nomad army entered Peloria for the first time in 1375. Sheng Seleris was a celestial hero, whose horses could run through the sky, and whose companions were as pure and as merciless as the light of the sky.
As we mentioned in last week’s Journal, Sheng Seleris used his army’s superior mobility to force the Lunars into battles during Dark or Dying lunar phases. For almost 30 years, the Lunars knew “little more than defeat and humiliation”. Ouch.
Jeff shared map sketches (above for the 3rd wane, later below for the 4th wane), but if you look at the nice colour versions in the Glorantha Sourcebook, you’ll see how the Lunar Empire got broken up in small pieces between 1355 and 1389. The Red Emperor really just had a few strongholds left (Glamour and the Silver Shadow area, Sylila, and the West Reaches).
The Red Emperor engaged in several magical contests with Sheng Seleris, but appeared to have lost them all.
I’m not sure what these magical contests would have been… Face to face battles, such as their “wrestling” in front of Glamour’s gates? Encounters during heroquests where the Emperor and the Nomad recognize each other? Something else? Either way, I’m pretty sure it was awesome.
Much of Peloria was overrun, and many cultivated areas returned to grassland. For FOUR GENERATIONS(!), nomadic herds roamed over the Pelorian grasslands. In some areas, city and town life continued, ruled over by Yelm-worshipping horsemen. Other areas paid tribute to whatever nomad chieftain demanded it, and submitted themselves to whatever other demands were made, in exchange for limited autonomy.
These four generations of nomadic supremacy ended in 1460, when Shen Seleris was finally defeated by a later Red Emperor. But let’s go back to the early 15th century first:
In 1409, the first Temple of the Reaching Moon founded. Within the “Glowline” formed by her temples, the Red Moon was always magically at Half Phase, which helped to mitigate the Lunar magical weakness that Sheng Seleris exploited. The Lunar Army knew a few successes against the lieutenants of Sheng Seleris, although whenever Sheng Seleris was present, the Lunars were badly defeated.
Reading the corresponding part of the Glorantha Sourcebook, my understanding was that three Temples of the Reaching Moon (and the Glowline they produce) was actually in effect several years prior to that, as early as 1397. My understanding here is that 1409 is the year during which the name “Temple of the Reaching Moon” was made official, and when the effect of the Glowline was revealed publicly.
Imagine the fun stories to tell and play in the years when the Lunars are building this magical infrastructure, but have to keep it secret from their enemies… could there be a Lunar sorcerer who, for reasons unknown, betrays the Red Emperor and designs a fatal flaw in the temples’ magical lattice, or something? A flaw that could be exploited by a small band of nomads who just have to lob an explosive into a small shaft to blow the entire thing up? Am I watching too many movies? Is my analogy completely wrong because the nomads are the ruling bad guys in this case? Am I asking to many questions in my own newsletter?
Anyway, you can check last week’s Journal for more discussion on the Glowline.
In 1415, Sheng Seleris killed the Red Emperor in a magical duel. This is the first time the Red Emperor is known to have died. He had ruled for over 150 years but now was gone. For 15 years, there was no emperor.
For those of you following at home, for some reason this is not mentioned in the Glorantha Sourcebook… I blame the Lunar Ministry of Truth and its “correction” of historical records. Thankfully, the Guide to Glorantha has a mention of the event. After that, you can follow Sheng Seleris and the Red Emperor’s battles in either books, but I like how it gets pretty epic at some point:
In 1442, Sheng Seleris defeated the Kralorelan Emperor and became a god. A new star appeared in the heavens. The remnants of the Lunar Empire shuddered before the Celestial Empire. The Red Emperor confronted Sheng Seleris and was killed again, and Sheng Seleris flew his elite warriors to the Red Moon to search for him. The scars on the Red Moon can still be seen by the naked eye.
That’s pretty bad-ass. But things started to change:
Sheng Seleris continued to search for the Red Emperor, and ravaged the land and mythology. He killed those who were formerly neutral in the conflict, and made a growing number of enemies. Even those who had once hated and feared the Red Goddess increasingly viewed her as the lesser threat.
In 1460, the Red Emperor returned (in a new form) and finally defeated Sheng Seleris in a magical duel the Battle of Kitor. Lunar propaganda claim this was a long-planned master scheme of the Red Emperor, but other accounts suggest it was more opportunistic and that many former enemies aided the new Red Emperor.
Over the next few years, the Lunar Army forced the now leaderless nomads to withdraw from the Lunar Heartlands into the Redlands. But the nomads were still powerful and a near-equal to the Lunar Army. The threat was not ended for another two generations with the Nights of Horror (1506), which destroyed both the Lunar Army and the nomads. The Lunar Empire raised a new army, but the nomads were forced deep into Pent.
The Redlands are immediately east of the Lunar Heartlands, with Pent far further north-east from there. The Nights of Horror was a two-day battle where most of 150,000 warriors and magicians were slain, Hon-eel (daughter of the Red Emperor) died, and Chaos and Dragons were involved. Exciting stuff. And yes, Chaos was summoned by the Red Emperor… I’m sure that using Chaos to finally get rid of the nomad bane was a big step at the time, but given its success at the time, the Lunars probably won’t think too much before they do it again if needed.
Sheng Seleris’ game of Whack-a-Mole against the Red Emperor exhausted the Celestial Emperor and turned formerly neutral (or even potentially friendly) forces into enemies. Ironically, this sounds a lot like what happened to the Lunar Empire in the Eighth Wane.
The Eigth Wane is of course the “current” wane, as per RuneQuest’s starting date.
Almost every institution we associate with the “modern” Lunar Empire except the Seven Mothers and the Red Goddess really is the result of the struggle with Sheng Seleris and the nomads. The Glowline. The Lunar College of Magic. The Cavalry Corps. The widespread nature of New Pelorian. Referring to each new Red Emperor as a “Mask” of the Red Emperor. And so on.
So before you think about the Lunar Empire, remember that it rose out of the ashes of a previous Lunar Empire, one nearly destroyed by Sheng Seleris. The Lunar Empire has known defeat and had to recreate itself out of the ruins.
The Seven Mothers Cult
Jeff wants to set the record straight about the Seven Mothers cult, which is sometimes pictured as imperialist colonial administrators similar to those of the 19th century British Empire. But they’re not thinking of themselves as “bringing civilization to the barbarians of Dragon Pass”, and don’t act in a condescending way to the cultures they are proselytizing in:
The Seven Mothers purpose is to prepare people to embrace the Red Goddess. Most people never become Illuminated, but the Seven Mothers creates an environment where Illumination can be welcomed and respected – not feared or killed. The Seven Mothers likes those things that like the Red Goddess, and it fights against those who would fight the Red Goddess.
In my campaign set in the 1610s near Alone, I gave a few glimpses of the Seven Mothers missionaries getting set up around the confederation: they are advocating inclusivity, telling all the kids they can be “whatever they want to be when they grow up”, hand out candy and free t-shirts at their worship ceremonies, advertise the tax cuts you get when you join them, and so on. They’re very nice people (at first glance), and I sort of modelled them after real-life cultists like Raelians or Scientologists.
Often Seven Mothers missionaries find themselves in cultures that are as wealthy, technically skilled, whatever, as the Lunar Heartlands. Carmania was wealthier, more developed, etc. than Rinliddi – that didn’t matter. Carmania threatened the nascent Red Goddess and needed to be defeated so that its population could be prepared to embrace her.
For most Seven Mothers cultists it is a universal goal – the Red Goddess needs to be embraced by the world so that we all can finally be healed. The Lunar Heartlands are in just as much need of healing as the barbarians.
See? They’re nice people! They’re looking after your well-being!
Now add to that a level of imperial chauvinism – that it is only right and proper that the Red Emperor rules the world and that Lunar/Dara Happan/Pelorian society is the only right and proper society and that everyone not of Lunar/Dara Happan culture is a benighted barbarian. This cultural chauvinism is always present but is also at odds with the Seven Mothers mission. It is sometimes suppressed (by enlightened provincial administrators like Phargentes, Moirades, Fazzur Wideread, or Sor-eel), but just as often it suppresses the Seven Mothers mission (e.g., Euglyptus the Fat, Tatius the Bright, Halcyon var Enkorth, etc.).
Well, you know, they’re people too, and they have their flaws. Still… free t-shirts! Come over!
These imperialists rarely justify their rule by saying they are building roads, aqueducts, whatever – because they aren’t! Maybe they introduce maize through the Hon-eel cult, if they remember to do that. They tolerate the Seven Mothers missionaries, but primarily they justify their rule because it is right and proper that the rule of the Red Emperor should be universally acknowledged. They are imperialists first and foremosts.
Remember that Sartar already has fancy roads, cool dwarf-built architecture, and so on… so although I love the Life of Brian references as much as the next guy, they don’t quite apply as much in the “new Sartar” described in the latest RuneQuest line.
The imperialists and the missionaries often work hand to hand, but also are often in tension. Many suggest that the closer to Mirin’s Cross, the more likely the missionaries get their way – the further away, the more the imperialists get their way. But enough exceptions exist to make this a dubious political maxim.
It sort of nice to think about because you could even show the difference between the Lunar soldiers, administrators, and tax collectors, and the Seven Mothers missionaries, with one getting obviously annoyed by the other. One wants to invade and control everything, the other wants to spiritually liberate everybody. That could generate some sympathy for the missionaries, and even lead to interesting alliances, stories, and even cult memberships…
Jar-eel the Razoress
What’s more bad-ass that Jar-eel’s nickname? Well, a Jon Hodgson painting for instance!
Arguably the mightiest hero in Glorantha at this time is Jar-eel the Razoress. She has loads of titles – Fourth Inspiration of Moonson, Incarnation of the Red Goddess in Time, daughter/lover/mother of the Red Emperor, poetess and musician, defeater of barbarians, etc. But let’s talk about HER for a moment.
Jar-eel was born in 1588 in Glamour and when she was only one year old she was part of the Legion of Infants that traveled over Fronela in Moonboats and thawed Syndic’s Ban. At ONE year old.
At eight, she was Illuminated and traveled to the Red Moon itself.
At fourteen, she was a leader of the elite warriors who sacked Boldhome.
When she was twenty-nine, the Temple to Jar-eel was consecrated in Glamour. The Moonsword cult already worships her. She dismembers Belintar, suppresses the White Moon Movement, and defeats the Voor-ash confederation. And so on, and so on.
[…] Jar-eel was born to incredible power and privilege and has achieved more.
She is not a ruler, but even the Red Emperor is often over-shadowed by his glorious “daughter”. She is a figure like Krisha in the Mahabharata – operating at a different plane of existence than those around here. Let her drive your chariot, and she’s likely to Illuminate you on the trip across the battlefield!
“The energy which the gods are endowed with is indeed great, but mine is greater.” – from the Song of the Razoress.
She so incredible that Jeff thinks she’s probably the most famous person alive if you play in the standard timeline. She is “revered within the Lunar Empire, feared in the Redlands, Holy Country, Dragon Pass, and Prax”.
And Jar-eel embraces contradictions. She is both notably merciful and notoriously cruel. She loves, but kills without hesitation or remorse.
Jar-eel is a patron of the arts, a musician, and a poetess. She debates with the White Moon Movement and many of those who witness her renounce their errors and return to the Red Moon. Those who reject her words are killed.
I picture these “debates” are incredibly tense scenes in the Lunar halls, like a magical and heroquesting version of the movie Ridicule, where “simple” discussions and witty exchanges in the French King’s court can lead to extremely serious, violent, and deadly outcomes later on.
And they are true debates, magical events where she invites the leaders of the WMM to prove their claims. Jar-eel devastates them so badly that some bleed from the eyes as their tears run out.
Jar-eel, not the Red Emperor, is the real Elvis of the Lunar Empire. She walks into a room and everyone – even gods and spirits – stops to look at her. She’s that beautiful, that charismatic.
So whenever you think of the Lunar Empire, always keep in mind the presence of Jar-eel, for good or ill. Her charisma overwhelms that of the Red Emperor or Great Sister. She is a rock star, movie star, star athlete, and so much more.
Of course, she can juggle the duality of Moon and Chaos without any problem:
As for Chaos, Jar-eel accepts it as any Red Goddess illuminate should. Jar-eel has ridden the Crimson Bat, unaffected by its Chaotic abilities. I’ve heard stories that she has even allowed civilised broo to join the Moonsword regiment, as long as they maintain discipline and standards.
Jar-eel is said to be inhumanly graceful and agile, and dances with her two swords to cut down entire regiments. Afterwards, she is famed for composing poems. One famous poem compares bloodshed in battle to a field of red roses, with the impression that both are equally expressions of beauty.
After reading all this, I’ve been wondering whether Jar-eel actually gets more magic from her Hero Soul than from her worship of the Lunar deities?
For than a generation Jar-eel has been a – and more often THE – dominant light in the Lunar sky. Most accounts place her far above the mundane and magical machinations of her Eel-ariash kin, who nonetheless have gained tremendously by her presence. Even the Red Emperor might have second thoughts before acting against the family of the Fourth Inspiration of Moonson. Imagine how the other satraps and imperial nobles must feel!
The Great Compromise
We know that the Great Compromise was created after the Gods War to separate the Gods from the mortals, binding the latter to Time. Jeff adds a few details: three “universal rules” that the deities agreed to.
First, they would concede previous claims, and mutually agree to define themselves as they were, making no further attempts to interfere with the realms of other deities. They shared Nature among themselves. No longer would Orlanth strive to be Lord of the Underworld, nor Yelm to be King of Middle Air.
Second, all the goddesses and gods accepted to include within their being all which had occurred to them before, each event being in appropriate measure. Thus Yelm would spend half his time in the Underworld, and half in the upper world.
They agreed too that no deity would directly manifest themselves into the world, but instead work through Nature, worshippers, proxies, avatars, and incarnations which would be inferior to the true deity.
I think that most deities took it the same way Captain Barbossa takes the rules of parley: “it’s more what you’d call guidelines than actual rules”…
She is a Greater God who appeared during Time, embraces Chaos, and her very existence violates the Cosmic Compromise. Many of the Old Gods refused to acknowledge her because of this – her victory at Castle Blue forced them to acknowledge her power, and many now accept and even embrace her (most significantly Yelm). However, several of the most powerful gods remain her resolute enemies (Orlanth most prominently, but also Storm Bull, Valind, Kyger Litor, Humakt, Eurmal, and Zorak Zoran). Many others (Aldrya, Magasta, Yelmalio, and the Malkioni) remain hostile to the Red Goddess.
The Battle of Castle Blue was a year-long affair that’s a bit convoluted, but as far as I understand the Red Goddess (who was not a deity yet) triggered it as a way to “prove” herself, drawing in all the Old Gods and forcing them to accept her in the God Time. That’s when she truly became the Red Goddess.
Through Illumination, the initiates of the Red Goddess are liberated from the reflexive fear of Chaos and oblivion. They believe that by following along the path of the Red Goddess, they can thread this needle and embrace ego annihilation as a means of liberating the true self. Enemies of the Lunar Way point out that in many cases this path to “ego annihilation” results in an even greater false self – Gbaji. The parallels with Nysalor and the Broken Council are there for all to see, although many Lunar apologists claim that with the Red Goddess’ aid, Nysalor has now defeated Gbaji (Sheng Seleris). Others claim that at the Shadows of the Empire, Arkat or Arkats are being formed once again.
More disturbingly is the rise of the Lords of Terror with at least the tolerance of the Red Goddess. The Lunar Empire sponsors the Chaos demon called the Crimson Bat, accepts worship of Primal Chaos, and is known to cooperate with such Chaotic cults Krarsht, Mallia, Thed, and Vivamort against the mutual foes. Within Chaos strongholds such as Dorastor, Snakepipe Hollow, and the Footprint, the Lords of Terror have awakened.
Some mystics claim there is uncertainty at the core of the Red Goddess’ existence that makes it impossible to resolve whether she is a deity of Chaos or of the Cosmos, or even that she is both simultaneously. This uncertainty and ambivalence is a key driver in the cataclysm later known as the Hero Wars.
Here, frankly, I’m not sure it matters? When it comes to the people of Glorantha, they probably judge her on her actions and the actions of her followers: she’s crazy, rides a giant Chaotic weapon of mass destruction, and says you can reach illumination and be one with the cosmos. Or something like that. Classifying deities is the purview of the God Learners and other intellectuals. Others just know that their gods hate the Red Goddess, and that’s enough for them?
It is perhaps inevitable that the Hero Wars ultimately is conflict between the two most complex of Gloranthan deities – the Red Goddess and Orlanth. As we know, Orlanth is both a Destroyer and the Upholder of the Cosmos. Like Shiva, he destroys and creates. He plunged the Cosmos into Darkness when he slew Yelm, but his Lightbringers Quest was the key to the preservation of the Cosmos.
Memory of the Elder Races
Jeff muses about the memory of the Elder Races. For instance, a lot of elves will remember the Inhuman Occupation, and be unable to differentiate much between the various humans who came back into Dragon Pass. The “political squabbles” between the Lunars and the Orlanthi doesn’t mean much to them… this means you can have any elf show up on any side, or be an annoying road block to both sides!
And some elves have been replanted or reseeded, and recall events from the Second or even First Age.But this memory also means that old feuds and betrayal are not forgotten. Humans are a secondary concern – the other Elder Races are existential threats.
Ok, on to the Uz. Mistress Race trolls are immortal, but there’s only very few of them around:
Most Mistress Race Trolls were born in Wonderhome, before the Dawn. The race was already diminishing in the First Age before the Curse of Kin. Arkat and his companions were the last Mistress Race Trolls born in Time, until recently.
Arkat is considered a Mistress Race Troll? Huh, interesting (disclaimer: I don’t know much about Arkat). And “until recently”? Ok, who got some big babies?
Some are many thousands of years old. They barely recognize the dark trolls as their descendants – the trollkin are hated mockeries. The Mistress Race remember Osentalka! They remember the Broken Council! They remember the betrayal of the dwarves and elves, the fickleness of the dragonewts.
A Mistress Race Troll should be a terrifying encounter – likely to occur only in the deepest Darkness of a troll stronghold. She is a dark, rumbling thing, constantly hungry, utterly without mercy, and those with Second Sight will wish they did not. Sure she has dozens of Rune points but most have also wrested strange powers from gods and spirits. Your human tribe, kingdom, or empire is irrelevant to her, unless she learns that it is tied to something she experienced and still cares about.
The Deadwood
Jeff is talking about something we just explored in my campaign: the Deadwood, up in the Indigo Mountains near Alone… and not to be confused with the Woods of the Dead, which is also near Alone, but is completely different! (seriously, Greg, what the fuck)
Deadwood was the site of an Early Third Age conflict between elves and trolls. After the Dragonkill War killed all the humans, the elves tried to reclaim the Pass from 1120 to 1150. Reinforced by Brown Elves from the Old Woods, the Stinking Forest expands to the Indigo Mountains (as well as down the Dragonspine).
The Elves planted a marching forest to try to break the back of the trolls. That’s why the trees go so far up the mountains. To the elves’ horror, the trolls summoned Gorakiki Beetle and swarms of bark-boring beetles killed trees and elves alike. The trolls awakened the Indigo Mountains and an eruption killed the trees inside the Indigo Mountains, and then the trolls released the beetles on the rest. The trolls were also aided by spirits and by the half-trolls of the Ivory Plinth.
This broke the back of the Aldryami attempt to reclaim Dragon Pass. The trolls keep the dead trees standing as a reminder to the elves what will happen if they try again. The angry ghosts of the Aldryami still haunt Deadwood.
I didn’t have angry elf ghosts in my Deadwood (maybe I’ll add them next time I run the adventure!) but I went a bit farther, trying to explain why the trolls didn’t unleash these bark-boring beetles onto other elven armies: I turned it into a unique type of beetle that a Gorakkiki Rune Lord got only through advanced heroquesting… and paid a steep price for.
I’m sure you can also explain it more simply by the fact that the elves kept their distance anyway, and that Dragon Pass got repopulated with humans quickly after, which created a lot of buffer between the two warring Elder Races.
Now this nicely illustrates the conflict between the Elder Races. Always remember that the Elder Races usually view all humans as the Lesser Enemy. The True Enemy is the other Elder Races. And they have very good reasons for this.
This I got right: in my adventure, both the trolls and the elves have no regard for the humans of the Alone Confederation tribes, using them as cannon fodder or meat shields in their centuries-long battles… still, my players sided with the elves in this case! Go figure!
Random Events
Jeff shared a snippet of the upcoming Dragon Pass Campaign (or whatever it will be called): a few tables for random events at the clan, tribe, and entire region levels! This is a really nice treat as far as I’m concerned… Here they are, lightly formatted for your enjoyment.
This kind of table is nice for rolling or picking an idea for a new adventure or a complication in an existing one. Jeff also adds:
This is intended to be out of the ordinary events. So stuff like a caravan shows up is an ordinary activity. Or the stuff that normally happens at assemblies, militia musters, or seasonal holy days. That stuff happens according to the calendar – or often enough that it is pretty darn predictable.This is the unpredictable stuff that happens, and screws with player plans!
A Summary of Argrath’s Life to 1627
Jeff shared a short document he and Greg worked on to get an outline of Argrath’s life path until 1627:
Born on Starfire Ridge to the Colymar Tribe Maniski killed in fall of Sartar Yanioth killed (by Telmori?) Initiated to Orlanth Outlawed from Starfire Ridge Made slave among Bison Riders Discovered White Bull, founded secret society Became Wind Lord of Orlanth, gained a draconic entity as an allied spirit Adopted name Garrath Sharpsword and resided in New Pavis Quest of the Drinking Giant’s Cauldron Giant’s Cradle Met Harrek Circumnavigated the World, many adventures Battle of Pennel Ford Was lover of Queen Samastina Left for Prax, gathered White Bull society and summoned Jaldon Goldentooth Liberated Pavis Liberated Corflu Defeated at Hender’s Ruins Founded first Magical Union, gained Dragon Teeth Defeated Lunar Army in Far Place, liberated Alda-Chur Became Prince of Sartar
And some peek behind the scenes:
When we were writing this, we looked at the early years of Alexander and Napoleon Bonaparte – Argrath’s manic activities seem pretty reasonable in comparison!
But Argrath has the farthest to travel in order to become a peer of the likes of the Red Emperor, Gunda the Guilty, Beat-Pot, or Sir Ethilirist.
The Sisters of Mercy are the daughters of Chalana Arroy, adopted or otherwise. Malamse, Oronio, and Amprefesne are the three holy Sisters most often called upon, but there are many others. Many living High Healers are often accounted among their numbers and the title “Sister of Mercy” is a common name for High Healers in Dragon Pass.
They live in an invisible nunnery whose exact location or dimensions are unknown. Some claim that it is as large as the world, encompassing all of the cosmos within its walls. This is, however, untrue as proved by the Sage Elad Kramdnil during the reign of Prince Salinarg. He showed that the Sisters are met wherever the old Empire of the Wyrms Friends was dominant, and he was the first to state that they should be considered remnants of that lost empire. This lends credence to the belief that the Empire was not totally corrupt, as such remnants as the Tusk Riders and Delecti would suggest.
The Sisters of Mercy is the subcult most commonly worshiped in Dragon Pass and Prax. It provides the Refine Medicine spell. The center of the subcult is the Nunnery in Dragon Pass.
You can find the Refine Medicine spell in the Red Book of Magic, along with all the rules for finding and processing healing plants!
The Middle Sea Empire and the God Learners
I know we’re supposed to be the God Learners and I should know about this, but I’m mostly ignorant about the Middle Sea Empire, aka the Jrusteli Empire, the farthest-spanning nation in the history of Glorantha. Jeff says:
Its core was city-states of the island-continent of Jrustela who were tightly allied with the kings of Seshnela, and in 789 they formed together the Middle Sea Empire.
Seshnela and Jrustela were ruled by Hrestoli Malkioni, although they had significant Theyalan influences, particularly in Jrustela. The Umathelan Coalition was part of the original alliance, and in Pamaltela, the Empire expanded to conquer Fonrit, Laskal, and Jolar (where it was known as the Six Legged Empire).
To help place things geographically, Jeff shared another map sketch, and if you want the pretty version you can look into the Glorantha Sourcebook or the Guide, of course.
Slontos was conquered by the Middle Sea Empire, and it formed a borderland between the Middle Sea Empire and the krjalki of the Empire of the Wyrms Friends, with its dragons and trolls. Akem in Fronela was also a stronghold of the Empire, which later expanded to rule much of Frontem (Loskalm).
The Middle Sea Empire ruled Teshnos, Teleos, and Loral and included the New Dragon Ring of Kralorela.
With the core of the Middle Sea Empire being a bunch of Malkioni sorcerers, and the Empire of the Wyrms Friends being more theistic, I don’t imagine they got along philosophically speaking at least.
The Dark Empire of Ralios was conquered in 740, and the Arkati secrets taken from the Stygian Archons formed the basis of the Mythic Maps of the God Learners, which enabled their great conquests.
Ok so here we have the remnants of Arkat’s empire, with some of the secrets he got from his awesome heroquesting and battling against Gbaji a couple centuries prior. The God Learners plunder that and start piecing things together.
The Mythic Synthesis Movement enabled the God Learners to develop the Monomyth, a holistic understanding of all the mythologies of their allies and subjects. Cults such as Chalana Arroy, Issaries, Lhankor Mhy, and Wachaza were deliberately encouraged and spread by the God Learners, although the ruling caste was largely Hrestoli Malkioni, at least at first.
And this is something worth keeping in mind – the Middle Sea Empire was not a Malkioni missionary movement. Each new culture it encountered or conquered had secrets and insights which were synthesized into the Monomyth, and the God Learners came the closest of any mortals to seeing the “whole mythological picture”. Their insights were adopted by their enemies, for example, Jrusteli information and trade filtered into Dragon Pass, where it was quickly appreciated by the rulers and used in tandem with their new draconic magics.
The Empire of the Wyrms Friends
And of course now that we talked about the Middle Sea Empire, we have to talk about the EWF. Jeff shared this abridged text from the upcoming Cults books:
Two great schools of investigation existed in the Second Age. One originated in the far east. It became a popular mystical religion in Dragon Pass and created new horizons of magic. The political form of this religion was the Empire of the Wyrms Friends, who had learned powerful secrets from the dragons and enjoyed the support of the dragonewts and the rest of dragon-kind. This splendid and colorful age combined many parts of many ideas to make a new wholeness to face the world.
The ruling humans became progressively more interested, fascinated, and enmeshed in the strange draconic magics. These left-handed pathways offered exotic and strange powers, whose effects could be exceptionally devastating when manifest in the physical world. In 826, the Empire of the Wyrms Friends—or the Third Council—was established to rule over the material interests of the leaders of the draconic movement. The rulers began a long and intense ritual that was expected to take generations to conclude.
During the development of the Grand Ritual, the fortunes of the Empire of the Wyrms Friends grew. Armies of dragonewts and trolls led by Lightbringers who rode dragons and wyrms conquered much of central Genertela. The barbarians of Prax were defeated, and the Shadowlands and the Storm Hills paid heavy tribute rather than fight. Jrusteli information and trade filtered into Dragon Pass, where it was quickly appreciated by the rulers and used in tandem with their new draconic magics.
Here we are catching up to what we had in the previous note (above), where the Mythical Synthesis Movement was used to actually strengthen the religious understanding of the EWF.
Also, if you want to ride dragons into battle, here is where and when you can do it! (the “Lightbringers” in this case are, I believe, Runemasters of Lightbringer deities)
In 889, the Third Council demanded to be worshiped in place of the traditional Lightbringer deities. Immense energy and power were needed to sustain the Grand Ritual. The dance of the gods in the early stages of the ritual provided much of the energy used to expand the Third Council’s domain. However, in the latter parts of the spell, more and more power was to be provided by the population, who were at the same time growing distant from their increasingly-demanding Council. The Council, deep in spectacular meditation, was either unaware of the dissatisfaction, or unable to break their concentration to do anything about it.
[…] The Pelorian peasants welcomed Carmanian spirits into their newly-built temples, and burned the images of the Third Council members. The dark trolls of the Blue Moon Plateau killed and ate the dragonewts that garrisoned Peloria. Dara Happa rebelled and Prax fell. Orlanth Rex reestablished his primacy over the gods and slew his Third Council imposter.
Another member of the Third Council awoke to the threat of the barbarian hero Jaldon Goldentooth, and directed some divine energies to aid the beleaguered Six Sisters upon the border with Prax. The tattered remains of the Empire gained heart, and members of the Council took form and descended to the earth to aid their people.
Such was the cause of their downfall, for in aiding their fellow mortals, the Council abandoned their unfinished ritual. The Grand Ritual was left with insufficient leadership among those few Council members who did not return to earth. The magic lost direction, and its release was directed first against its makers and then against their followers.
As always, Jeff adds a few insights in follow-up comments:
So imagine the EWF as “something like” the old World Council of Friends, BUT the Orlanthi are clearly the dominant group and they are firmly allied with the dragonewts and other draconics. And their rulers are in deep conversations with the dragons, seeking power and understanding. Eventually, that ruling council concludes that they are gods and should be worshiped as such.
So we have this Orlanthi empire that dominated central Genertela. Now wait you might say – the Third Council insisted on being worshipped as gods! How can you say they were Orlanthi?
Simple – the rulers established themselves atop the traditional cults and allocated more and more the worship energies to the great great ritual of the Proximate Realm. But the base was always the traditional cults at least until near the end.
But this mighty empire – which steamrolled Dara Happa while fighting off the Middle Sea Empire – lurks behind Orlanthi history.
“We hate dragons and would never cooperate with them.” “Perhaps that is true. But our ancestors did, and they ruled the world.”
I guess that’s Argrath’s marketing pitch?
So where we see the EWF dominant, we also see the Lightbringers Pantheon (Orlanth, the other Lightbrinters, Ernalda, Humakt, etc). The very top of the society are engaged in mystical experimentation, but most people at most dabble in this and worship their Theyalan gods as led by their priests (who are increasingly engaged in mystical experimentation).
This is of course a gradual process. In 826, we might have a ruling council allied with the dragonewts and dragons, who are supported by the priests who seek to maintain the Proximate Realm, and the rest of society just do what they have always done with a little extra for the Proximate Realm.
By 889, those rulers are now gods and demand to be the primary focus of worship and are supported by the priests. The rest of society is torn about this, but the rulers are as powerful as gods, are backed by dragonewts, dragons, and many mercenaries. And so things erupt in violence and peoples who might have supported the original Empire of the Wyrms Friends now oppose it. And people who did oppose the original EWF, now support it.
And:
The EWF was dominated by its Storm Voices, many of whom had learned to speak with the dragons and dragonewts. The priests formed the council that ruled Dragon Pass and beyond, and the chieftains and war lords were bent to their will. Orlanth Rex fixed this, so that the Rex rules the priests and can even cut them off from their magic.
Oh that’s very interesting… I had heard before that the Orlanth Rex tradition of ruling only came towards the end of the Second Age, when Alakoring Dragonbreaker introduced it to the Orlanthi tribes… and guess what, that guy was a big enemy of the EWF, organizing various rebellions and acts of sabotage against it.
And now, we have an Orlanth Rex who can speak with the dragons and dragonewts. And not just any Rex, but the Prince of Sartar, who also has Jaldon Goldentooth at his side.
History sure can have a sense of irony!
The Empire of the Wyrms Friends still haunt the dreams and ambitions of the Orlanthi – and is still feared by the Praxians, the trolls, and the Pelorians.
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.
“Stand Watch” – that was Orlanth’s instruction to Rigsdal. At this time of year in Glorantha (the Winter Solstice falls on Fire Day, Illusion Week of Dark Season) the Heortlings look up at the Pole Star and think about him as the Night Watchman.
Sacred Time remains weeks away, when spring comes in Sea Season, but many Heortlings doubtless look forward to it, as Rigsdal stands guard, and they gather around the “first hearth’ that is dedicated to Elmal – the light in the darkness, shining atop Kero Fin. Perhaps they indulge in salted beef, pickles, and pass around clay jugs of cider and other winter foods.
So prayers to the Night Watchmen and Elmal, who watch over us all, whilst Orlanth and Ernalda are the underworld.
“Stand Watch”
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.
Who Were the Phoenicians and Where to Find Them in Glorantha
Joerg decided to pop into the newsletter this week!
While much of the Phoenician history falls into the Iron Age, their beginnings lie in the Bronze Age. (But then, a lot of the same can be said about the Greeks.)
There are few surviving records written by Phoenician sources, as they were vilified by their antagonists – most prominently the Romans, whose struggle with the Phoenician-founded city-state then empire of Carthage was bitter and genocidal.
The Entire History of the Phoenicians (2500 to 300 BC)
The Phoenicians provided one of the earliest transportation network not only along the (mostly southern and central) Mediterranean coasts, but also in the coastal Atlantic on both northern Africa and western Europe. They served as middlemen already to the Bronze Age Egyptians, and may have been responsible for providing the tobacco found in certain royal mummies.
The Quinpolic League of southern Seshnela and Tanisor resembles the Phoenicians somewhat in their de-centralized city-state approach and their reliance on naval trade, and the Waertagi- and Tanisoran-enforced exodus of the surviving remnants of their merchant navy and patrol duty mercenary fleet may be the kernel of a new development, as touched upon in Martin Helsdon’s Periplus of Southern Genertela which had been available on Facebook for a short while, and of which there are about two dozen fund-raiser hardcopies in circulation since Dragonmeet. Martin has posted a few art previews on Facebook, mythological representations of the Mirrorsea Ports of Rhigos and Durengard by Katrin Dirim.
The Maslo cities might be another such non-centralized thalassocracy, even though they have Hoom Jhis as the Dynast of Flanch. Half the Maslo catamarans may come from Elamle, possibly more as the Masloi there are in league with the Alryami and may receive purpose-grown tree trunks for immense dugout hulls.
The Vadeli naval empire prior to the disastrous loss of the Battle of Oenriko Rocks against the Masloi and what remains of it in the Vadeli enclaves in Umathela and Fonrit and their port cities in Jrustela is another Gloranthan thalassocracy which bears some similarity to the Phoenician one, especially since the Vadeli lack a central government or leader due to their caste restrictions. Rather than being accused of burning their firstborn to Baal Ammon, the Brown Vadeli are rumored to eat their children to maintain their immortality. But then, the Vadeli are objectively vile, by their own choice, or that of their ancestors few generations earlier, in the Gods War.
Finally, the Waertagi trading monopoly in the Western Seas bears some similarity to the role of the Phoenicians following the Bronze Age collapse in the Mediterranean.
Hanno the Navigator
The most famous Phoenician mariner probably was Hanno the Navigator, a fifth century BC explorer whose periplus only survives in a Greek translation, which did reach much of the West African coast, and which has the remarkable observation of seeing the sun cast shadows toward the south, something observable only a fair bit beyond the tropical (or at high northern latitudes). While disputed, his travels may have carried him all the way to Gabon.
Alongside St. Brendan and his Old Irish cognate, Hanno is one of the achtetypical explorers that both Waertag and Dormal have been drawing on.
The Habiru and King Idrimi
The penomenon of the Apiru or Habiru in the late Fertile Crescent Bronze Age is interesting as the composition of their forces has a lot in common with how Umath and after him Orlanth assembled his Storm Tribe around him. The name “the dirty” also applies to the Burtae, and the appearance of the Storm Peoples.
One Habiru leader was Idrimi, a disowned son of a king who made himself leader of a sizable contingent of the Habiru and leading them against numerous established cities. The story of many a Gloranthan hero fits this bill, like Prince Aamor mentioned in the Seshnela chapter of the Guide
Thank you for reading
That’s it for this week! Please contact us with any feedback, question, or news item we’ve missed!
The RuneQuest Starter Set has already been reviewed many, many times, but since I have already gifted it three times this holiday season (yes, to my unsuspecting players), its merits and faults have been on my mind… and what kind of a Glorantha focused website would we be if we didn’t have some reviews? We’re just slow about writing them, being, like, two products behind schedule. But we are the God Learners, and you wouldn’t believe the kind of administrative puzzle we have to go through for approval of that kind of thing.
As I wrote earlier this year on my personal blog, the RuneQuest Starter Set is part of the “RPG boxed set come back”, where the boxes of yore are coming back as introductory game material.
Here, the RuneQuest Starter Set is following in the footsteps of its older Call of Cthulhu Starter Set sibling, with a very sturdy box of unusual size. The reason for this unusual size is that all the booklets and handouts inside the box don’t leave any empty space (unlike some other disappointingly empty Starter Sets we won’t name here), so the set of dice that Chaosium provides has to find room at the top, with a taller-than-usual box.
If you have very snug shelves, you might have trouble fitting the RuneQuest Starter Set on them. However, if you have the Call of Cthulhu Starter Set, some old Chaosium boxed sets like Thieves’ World or Superworld, other tall game boxes like Harnmaster, or any kind of European game books or boxes, then the RuneQuest Starter Set should fit perfectly next to them.
Since we are looking at the dice, those are pretty nice by the way: they are very legible, and have a nice colour that evokes the bronze age setting of Glorantha.
The box itself is quite impressive. It’s among the sturdiest boxes of all the starter sets I have in my library, and the art is stunning, original, and evocative. Vasana’s pose is even reminiscent of the original female warrior on the first two editions of RuneQuest, which is a nice touch for the fans. The only nitpicky remark I have here is the back illustration (right, above) which depicts what seems to be a port city, maybe Nochet. It does a great job of showing the colour and density of a bronze age city, but it’s not representative of the region described in the booklets where players will have their first adventures.
Another notable aspect of the RuneQuest Starter Set is its weight… so much so that my first step was to weigh it against my other starter sets!
The RuneQuest Starter Set comes in at a whooping 1.380 kgs! The lightest of the bunch is around 670 grams, with most of the others between 800 grams and 1 kg. The excellent Alien RPG Starter Set is rightbehind RuneQuest, at 1.300 kgs (I hope I didn’t forget to put everything back in it to get a proper measurement!), and the even more excellent Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set (which we will mention again) is just above one kilogram.
You might be shocked to learn however that RuneQuest’s box is not the heaviest of the bunch. There is another one on this picture that comes in at a stunning 1.700 kgs! It’s the Mongoose 2nd edition Traveller Starter Set, whose box is also notable for having a nice little ribbon at the bottom to help you lift the contents easily (publishers, take note). But as far as I can tell, it’s not available anymore, except in PDF on DriveThruRPG, so I guess it doesn’t count? Yeah, let’s go with that. The RuneQuest Starter Set is the heaviest on the market! Yay!
When you open the RuneQuest Starter Set box, you’re greeted with a traditional “what’s in the box” sheet. I love that Chaosium also thought of including a “what’s NOT in the box” section, to set people’s expectations right. In particular, the box does not contain character creation rules: there just wasn’t enough room, especially with the lengthy Family History section that takes up almost 20 pages in the core rulebook. Instead, Chaosium provides more than a dozen pre-generated adventurers, which is more than enough for getting started. Other notable omissions are rules for high level characters like Shamans and Rune Masters, which is again understandable for a starter set.
A few reference sheets are provided: the usual Gamemaster aids (ability results table, resistance table, hit locations, and so on), a player-facing description of Gloranthan Runes, and a Strike Rank Tracker for combat (which also nicely incorporates some rules summary).
The Strike Rank Tracker is made of thick paper, which is excellent since it’s bound to be used a lot during gameplay. Sadly the other two handouts are made of “normal” paper, which is surprising because I would actually expect them to be manipulated a lot more: the Strike Rank Tracker would probably just sit there on the table, while the other two are flipped, picked up, and passed around all the time even outside of combat.
Last, the back of the Strike Rank Tracker is an ad for other Chaosium products. It would have been nice to see, say, the ability result table on the back instead, so that you can flip this reference sheet on one side during combat, and on the other side for other scenes.
The RuneQuest Starter Set’s main material is split between four books. The first book is the rulebook, the second describes the world of Glorantha in general and the area around Jonstown in particular, then there’s a “SoloQuest” book, and a book of adventures.
If you turn the booklets around, you realize that they all line up and form a map of northern Sartar, which is a nice touch. You know I’m a sucker for maps.
The first book throws you into the complex and crunchy rules of RuneQuest. I’m not totally convinced that this is the best way to make a good impression on new players, but Chaosium put some effort in simplifying the rules and making them easily understandable.
But first things first. The first few pages deal with the usual introductory material: what’s a roleplaying-game, how do you roll dice, and so on. More importantly, it has some good summary of RuneQuest’s core activity: playing adventurers that are members of a community and a cult, and who will rise up as heroes during the Hero Wars.
The next few chapters of the rules booklet by and large contains similar material as the core rulebook, although the text has been shortened in many places. In some cases, this is actually beneficial for long-time RuneQuest players and gamemasters: the core rulebook has, in my opinion, many editing problems, so the shorter and simpler rules of the starter set help understand the “rules as intended”. In many other cases, however, the same editing problems persist and new players are bound to have the same slew of questions as everybody else. Let’s point these people to the Well of Daliath!
In some occurrences, rules have been modified to be simpler. The most obvious example is that the core rulebook’s fumble table, which is rolled on with a D100, has a simpler D20-based version in the starter set. This is fine, and quite welcome for a starter set product.
What’s more baffling are rules modifications that don’t really simplify anything: they’re just… different from the core rulebook for no reason I can think of. For instance the attack/parry table has a couple of subtle differences between the two rulesets. Sometimes, the starter set even introduces entirely new rules, which seems counter-intuitive for a product that aims to simplify things. For instance, there are some new rules around language which cap your adventurer’s communication skills… I don’t like these rules, and will thoroughly ignore them. I’m just surprised to see new rules in a starter set: I expected less of them.
These early rules chapters (game system, skills, combat) are occasionally decorated with very nice art pieces plundered from Chaosium’s older books, such as this wonderful duel scene (above) from the mind-blowing Guide to Glorantha.
Once we get into the Magic chapter, things become quite shortened compared to the core rulebook. Only spells and rules needed by the adventurers are described, and everything else gets a hint or short write-up, nudging you to get the core rulebook if you want to know more. The material on the Spirit World and Shamanism is short, since neither the adventures of Book 4 nor the pre-generated adventurers would have much to do with it, but there’s enough to whet a new player’s appetite. I really appreciate that because these are some of the game elements that set RuneQuest and Glorantha apart for me.
Book 2: The World of Glorantha
The second booklet in the box describes Glorantha in general, and the city of Jonstown (and surroundings) in particular, which acts as the stomping grounds for new players.
In the first part, Chaosium really sharpened their ability to distill Glorantha’s essence in a minimum of pages, with some nice art (including new stuff, as far as I can tell, see above). In a short 20-ish pages, we learn about the bronze age flair of the setting, the magic, the Gods, the Runes, and other explicitly called out “Unique Aspects of Glorantha”. We learn about Dragon Pass, its myths, and its history from the Gods War all the way to the present. This is the best summary of Glorantha I’ve seen to date: short enough to keep the reader’s attention, but with enough detail to keep it exciting and unique.
The second part of the booklet details the city of Jonstown and its surroundings. This is where the RuneQuest Starter Set shines: Chaosium wanted to release a product that would appeal to new and experienced players alike by providing valuable exclusive material, and this is our first encounter with it.
Not only is this an in-depth look at a Sartarite city that hasn’t been featured much in official books (I think the only existing write-up of Jonstown is in the now defunct HeroQuest line), it’s also a great reference for any Sartarite city, period. The information on buildings, citizenship, walls and guards, markets and trade, government, militia, and more is already worth half the price of the box in my opinion. This kind of “everyday life” information was what I was lacking when I originally read the core rulebook (being wholly ignorant about the bronze age at the time), which meant I had trouble picturing the world of Glorantha in practice.
Next are write-ups for important NPCs, with some good background and detailed stat blocks for each. The remaining 20 or so pages weren’t as exciting to me, however, because they were a mostly descriptive list of places across the city. The gamemaster will have to come up with their own ideas to fill the city with intrigue, adventure, secrets, and more, using this rather cold and factual material as the foundation… by comparison, the previously mentioned Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set fills its description of Ubersreik with places and NPCs both big and small, and there’s an adventure hook (or two!) on every page:
Thankfully, Book 4: Adventures contains a few scenario seeds and encounters, which mitigates this problem a bit.
Going back to Jonstown, the one thing I got very excited about is the map. It’s an absolutely stunning map, both pretty and functional, extremely readable, and equipped with a scale! (believe me, it’s not a given with Gloranthan maps…)
The map pictured above is actually a poster-sized handout available in the box (there’s a smaller full-page version in Book 2), but you get the idea: it’s very good looking! And while we are on maps, let’s look at the other poster map, which covers northern Sartar:
This is another great map: it’s both prettier and vastly more legible than the maps from the core rulebook. Somehow, it looks to me, style-wise, like a modernized version of classic Gloranthan maps such as the Dagori Inkarth map from Trollpak.
Book 3: SoloQuest
Next, we have the SoloQuest book, which puts the reader in Vasana’s… err… greaves during the epic Battle of Dangerford. This is a great choice to put a new player in the heart of Gloranthan and RuneQuest action, and you can even play this adventure for free in your browser.
The adventure does a good job to show many different mechanics, introduce recent events of Dragon Pass, and get up-close with important NPCs. After running the adventure, you not only should have a better grasp on the crunchy RuneQuest rules (there’s often a big difference between “getting it in theory” and “getting it in practice”!), but you also should get an idea of the grittiness and “swinginess” of RuneQuest combat: anything could happen, and playing through a few scenes twice yields vastly different results, from glorious to deadly.
Sadly, the solo adventure also exposed one of the classic problems with RuneQuest combat. Without spoiling much, at some point you get a chance to fight a duel against a Lunar soldier. Up until then, I was playing the adventure along with my 10 year old kid who was quite invested in the story. But with Vasana’s 90% Broadsword up against an opponent’s 80% Kopis, the game came to a crawl, as we rolled and rolled and rolled, neither combatant able to hurt the other. My kid got bored and moved on to something else, asking me to call him back “when something happens”. Ouch. “Out of the mouths of babes” and all that, I guess, eh?
Generally speaking, this SoloQuest was a solid and enjoyable experience. I preferred the solo adventure from the Call of Cthulhu Starter Set, however. Maybe it’s because I’m such a giant horror gaming fan, but maybe it’s because it’s so innovative. It is actually the first booklet in the Call of Cthulhu Starter Set box: it makes you go through a simple version of character creation as part of the first few steps in the story, and follows by teaching you the rules in an interactive way. This makes getting into Call of Cthulhu so easy and entertaining! In comparison, the RuneQuest Starter Set has a more “standard” setup, where you first learn about the rules, then the setting, and then you play a game to see if you got it all correctly. The innovation of having this first game be a solo adventure remains, however, so the RuneQuest Starter Set keeps a leg up on the non-Chaosium competition. I don’t know if Chaosium could have done it differently anyway, since RuneQuest and Glorantha are much more complex to grasp than Call of Cthulhu and, well, Earth… I would love to read a “Designer Diary” about whether they tried it!
Book 4: Adventures
I’m obviously not going to say much about the last booklet in the box, since it contains the adventures and I’m trying to keep this review spoiler-free. What I can say is that it contains three adventures, and a few adventure seeds and rumours for further gaming.
The first adventure has a pretty simple premise that will work wonders for players migrating from other fantasy games like D&D or Pathfinder. You can see an actual play of it here, courtesy of the Glass Cannon. But I think it lacks in Gloranthan flavour, and for a “first contact” I much prefer the Quickstart adventure “The Broken Tower”, which is free to download in PDF.
The second adventure is great because it has the kind of stuff I like, such as a big investigation element. Both the first and second adventures are also well anchored into recent events of the setting, which is great.
The last adventure is an update of The Rainbow Mounds, originally from the Apple Lane supplement (now available in Print-on-Demand), where the players are sent to the titular caves. This is a classic Gloranthan dungeon crawl, where the dungeon has a fine backstory, its inhabitants have agendas and reasons to live there, and things are more complicated than they seem.
Pre-Generated Characters
The last material in the RuneQuest Starter Set is a pile of 14 (fourteen!) pre-generated characters. Surely there will be enough choice to mitigate the lack of character creation rules: these pre-gens range from a blood-thirsty axe-wielding Babeester Gori, to a pacifist Chalana Arroy healer, to a “reformed” Lunar soldier, and more. The heroine of the SoloQuest book, Vasana, is of course there too.
These pre-gens come in fancy “folio” format, as previously seen in the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set (which also forgoes character creation rules, by the way), and you can see the resemblance:
WFRP’s folios are printed on thick paper, so the RuneQuest ones feel flimsy in comparison. On the other hand, WFRP only offers six pre-gens, so there must have been a compromise there.
Another small problem is with what goes where. WFRP puts all the character’s abilities in the folio’s interior: the side panels’ exterior only has character background (above, right). RuneQuest’s folios have the character’s Runes on the left panel’s exterior (above, left), which means you have to flip it open and closed depending on what ability score you need… it’s easy, at least at first, to look for a Rune rating for a while before remembering that it’s on the other side.
Conclusion
Overall, the RuneQuest Starter Set is a fantastic product, especially given the very low price tag of about $30 USD. In my opinion, it sits firmly in the now triumvirate of the best RPG Starter Sets on the market today: Call of Cthulhu, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, and RuneQuest. With two of them from Chaosium, and all three based on class-less D100 systems, one might say I’m biased… but I’m ready to argue my points if needed! Well… who am I kidding… I’m a software engineer and I’m French: of course I’m ready to argue anything.
One of Chaosium’s goals was to make this product useful even for veterans of RuneQuest and Glorantha, and I think they have greatly succeeded here. Out of a total of 272 pages across all four booklets, there’s about 185 pages of new material, from the Jonstown write-up to the SoloQuest and adventures: that’s more that two-thirds of useful stuff for someone who already owns the core rulebook! The poster map of Sartar, the pre-gens, and the Strike Rank Tracker are just icing on the cake at this point!
My final advice is that the best “introduction to Glorantha” combo is to offer one gift for your RPG nerd friend, and one gift for their family: the RuneQuest Starter Set plus Khan of Khans is your best bet at a successful summoning spell for your gaming table!
