Welcome to a new issue of the Journal of Runic Studies, the premier Malkioni publication for studies into the nature of Glorantha. If you haven’t subscribed yet, please consult with the spirit bound to the appropriate electronic page.
I have been extremely busy last week, so after attempting some annotation to Jeff’s notes, I eventually gave up, as I didn’t have enough time for worthwhile insights. So this week, Jeff’s notes are a small list of links with only a minimal description. As mentioned in a past Journal, now that Jeff’s notes are archived on the Well of Daliath, I might do this more regularly, freeing up time for Jonstown Compendium work…
God Learner Sorcery
Here is what us God Learners were up to this week.
Episode 13: Practical Ancient Warfare
In the newly released episode 13 of our podcast, we discuss practical ancient warfare with Lloyd, from the excellent Lindybeige YouTube channel. Weapon reach, attacks of opportunity, and the usefulness of shields are among the many topics we talk about!
Chaosium News
Here are this week’s Chaosium news!
ChaosiumCon 2023 Announced
Next year’s ChaosiumCon has already been announced! It will happen on April from the 13th to the 16th, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I was there this year and it was really fun (you can read my report here), so I will definitely try to be there next year. Hopefully some of you will be there too, so make sure to say hi! I’m easy to spot once you hear me talking…
A New Hero: Episode 02, Trials of Harvest
The new RuneQuest stream continues! And I still have to catch up to it! Aaagh, not enough free time!
Fantasy Grounds RuneQuest Module Update
The developer on the Fantasy Grounds RuneQuest module says that “main development” is now complete and that beta testing might start soon.
Jonstown Compendium
The Jonstown Compendium is Chaosium’s community content program for all Gloranthan games, hosted on DriveThruRPG. Disclaimer: all the relevant links are affiliate links that hopefully will let us cover some of the hosting and maintenance costs for the website and podcast! Thanks for using them!
Duckpac (Book 1)
Duckpac is finally out! This is the book that duck lovers have been waiting for years, and that fowl haters have been dreading for longer. This first book in a series of four has the title of “Lore, Legends & Myths” and provides an introduction to the Durulz tribe of Dragon Pass, including their foundation myths, culture and society, a gazetteer of their lands, and more. Books 2 to 4 will respectively be about duck adventurers, a soloquest, and some duck-related scenarios.
This is brought to you by Drew Baker and Neil Gibson who did a whole bunch of excellent supplements such a LEGION, Rubble Redux, and the QAD series. We also had Drew Baker on the podcast for our Biturian Varosh series (here and here), and Neil Gibson in our first episode and in our episode on gamemastering RuneQuest!
Hsunchen of the East Updated (Again)
Paul Baker has updated his compendium of eastern Hsunchen tribes again!
Added my take on the Sofali Hsunchen to the Hsunchen of the East. Plus a few snippets on the other minor Hsunchen of the region.
Jeff’s Notes
Jeff Richard, the current mastermind on everything Gloranthan at Chaosium, is often posting notes and thoughts on the RuneQuest Facebook group. Here’s our curated list from the past week. A partial archive of these sources is compiled on the Well of Daliath.
Lunar Nobility
Jeff was in a Lunar mood recently, starting with Hon-eel’s descendants, but quickly going into a quite detailed description of Lunar nobility, important noble families, artistocracy membership figures, growing up as a noble, and so on. Plus: tax demons, Dart Wars, Chaotic features as the new “holding up your pinky finger” fad, and the crazy multi-generational magical breeding program that created Jar-eel the Razoress!
Dart Warriors
Dart Wars were mentioned during the large walls of text about Lunar mobility, so Jeff added a bit more about Dart Warriors. Plus this about Dart Competitions, the semi-covert wars that Lunar aristocrat families wage against each other.
Lunar Colonists and Barbarians
Here is a note about two of the main population groups in the Lunar Provinces: Lunar colonists and Lunarized barbarians. Bonus: a work-in-progress picture of Fazzur Wideread (above), in his RQG incarnation.
Suppression of Orlanth Under the Lunar Empire
How does the Lunar Empire manage the Orlanth cult in its different provinces and occupied territories? “It depends”, but mostly “by playing the long game” and “by not being totally stupid”. Some good answers await in this note for those violent gamers who wonder why all Orlanthi haven’t been executed by the Empire for some reason.
Raus of Rone
Jeff posted this note about the life and origins of Raus of Rone, also known as that patron NPC you get in the Borderlands campaign. There’s also a theory about why Raus was exiled to Prax in there.
The Dragon Pass Campaign
Jeff is working on the “Dragon Pass Campaign“, which is sort of like the Great Pendragon Campaign but with more ducks (hopefully). Just like the GPC, the DPC is organized in broad “phases” that each cover a certain number of years, and each have a different vibe and arc. This is a good preview of what’s to come in the “Gloranthan meta-plot”, and I’m excited to see some playable material for what was, for so long, in “the future”.
Ages of Gloranhta
Since the Dragon Pass Campaign introduces the idea of ending the Third Age and going into the Fourth Age (whatever that is), Jeff also goes over what the different “ages” of Glorantha are, including those that happened before Time began.
Darkness Pantheon Preview
The pantheon genealogies found in the Glorantha Sourcebook were nice, but are proving to be incomplete for the upcoming Cults of Glorantha books, so they have been re-done and expanded by Katrin Dirim! Jeff explains the process and shows us the Darkness pantheon, which has serious Aztec vibes.
Community Roundup
The community roundup is our highlight of interesting things being mentioned in the Glorantha-related Facebook groups, sub-Reddits, and other similar online places.
Simon Bray’s Redbubble Shop
Simon Bray has got an agreement with Chaosium to sell his Gloranthan art on Redbubble, so you can get the previously featured awesome Hill of Gold stations, and more, on anything from t-shirts to hats and stickers and phone cases and such. I especially love these cute Seven Mothers:
Impala Rider Miniatures
Chris Went has seemingly kitbashed some Impala Riders. They came up pretty nicely!
More photos and explanations here.
Elsewhere on Arachne Solara’s Web
Not everything is about Glorantha, although most things are! Here are loosely relevant things that we found on the interwebs.
The Great Winter of 536 AD
Guest segment by Joerg
Maybe not quite the Lesser Darkness, but possibly an equivalent of the Windstop?
Thank you for reading
That’s it for this week! Please contact us with any feedback, question, or news item we’ve missed!