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I didn't get to the Chaosium panel due to exhaustion, but did attend the Runequest one immediately prior to it. Some of this info would be familiar to people reading this forum and following the developer blogs, but I will do a recap from my notes (any errors are mine, I just got back to New Zealand this morning and have only had about three hours sleep over the last two days). The PDF of Runequest is expected around November 2017, the print version in early 2018. No kickstarter for RQ, but there will be one for Gloranthan coins from Campaign Coins in February 2018. There will be an RQ colouring book, like the recent Cthulhu one.The first wave of books will include the core rule book, a bestiary, and a GM pack that includes a Return to Apple Lane scenario. The Bestiary has about 12 playable races. Broo are not a playable race, but Ducks are. Setting wise its not 1621 anymore, the Braveheart era is over and the Lunars are no longer an occupying power - mixed Lunar/Lightbringer parties could be the norm, not the exception. Power level is for extraordinary characters. Time scale is expected to be one scenario per season. Cult Books will have stories like Cults of Prax.The second wave of books will include The Heroes Book to provide support for heroquesting, Trollpack, a second quickstart, Cults of Dragon Pass (the first of several cult focused books) and a Glorantha quickstart (short setting introduction). A good game getting better: core rules are the same, good backwards compatibility weapons damaged more often additions to improve immersion, rune associations and passions that provide augmentations spirit combat overhauled so that it didn't split the party so much sorcery a logical process, not a superpower, less maths requirred avoiding the initiate trap of sacrificing POW for rune spells, rules to support progression to rune level, not to provide barriers. Heroquesting: some discussion about how this is a narrative problem, not a power problem stations approach in HQ was too formulaic, railroady, required too much upfront knowledge, too many deus ex machine HQs based on obscure lore Greg - have fun with mythic narrative, rules provide framework to extrapolate from, don't bother with canon if it gets in the way of fun. Greg also said something like "Two hearts for all the GMs out there". I enjoyed the demo game I played, and it was my partner's first ever tabletop roleplaying game. She was happily telling people about delivering the killing blow to the giant statue for hours afterwards.

Jongjom is correct. We do not feel the time, energy, and ongoing workload from running a Kickstarter is worth it for products we merely want to be awesome and sell as soon as possible. Of course, if we have a special product or group of products that we cannot accurately gauge the demand for, we may very well run a Kickstarter for those. Chaosium had not released a boardgame in over 20 years so we thought it best to Kickstart Khan of Khans. We were not sure how much demand there would be for the 2nd edition of RuneQuest, so we did the RuneQuest Classic Kickstarter. We feel Kickstarters are for special products and special events, not every book we publish. We'd rather just publish more books.

There is always a danger trying to rely upon scholars to finely categorize the divine. Especially since crop type is not necessarily the core distinction between the various land goddesses. Reading several of these threads is a wonderful inspiration for me into to the various errors the God Learners likely fell afoul of.

OK I know this is a bit of an unusual request. After having gone to Gen Con with my children and having a wonderful time there, two of my girls wanted to dress up during the convention as the Gloranthan PCs. They got to play the quick star rules at Gen Con as Vasana and Yanionth. It went over really well for them and the People at Chaosium were great and made it a neat experience for them. It was a fun experience for me as well! Greg Stafford was a old family friend that had given me a copy of RuneQuest back in the 1978 - 79 timeframe. It's was fun for me to explain how role-playing got started in our family. I can honestly say my kids had more fun at Gen Con than Disney World! I asked my daughter why and she said: "Because I get to be myself and imagine fun things, and nobody mocks me or bullies me for having an imagination!" So, naturally, Gen Con will become a tradition for us. Now, on to my main question...my youngest daughter really wants a Gloranthan themed birthday party. I'm talking she said she wanted Glorathan food, coins, swords (foam of course) a dungeon adventure like the larp dungeons at Gen Con and more. The coins I can 3-D print for her. The rest of the stuff I'm not quite sure if I'm thinking of getting some Renaissance actors or groups you can hire for parties and giving them enough information to make it more Glorathan. I have until May to pull this off, but any ideas would be very helpful as I've never done anything like this before. She is eager to have her entire grade attend, and I'd love to make her birthday party a huge success for all to remember forever. The more ideas the better.

Stay tuned. We've got some big things to announce re licensing (and specifically for HQ) coming up once we've ironed out some details...

Wyrms Footnotes is Chaosium’s House Magazine for Greg Stafford’s World of Glorantha. Fourteen issues were published between 1976 - 1983. After a (mere) 29 year hiatus, Wyrms Footnotes returned in 2012 with issue #15, produced by Moon Design Publications. In 2017, Wyrms Footnotes is back again as the Chaosium House magazine for Glorantha! Guest editors of the next three issues are Ian Cooper (#16), David Scott (#17) and Sarah Newton (#18). More details here: https://www.chaosium.com/blog/wyrms-footnotes-returns/

I just received the Nomad Gods PDF via the Khan of Khans Kickstarter (I assume this will be available later on for purchase from the Chaosium website). Love it, especially the old-school (e.g. typewriter) presentation. But of course lots of great Praxian info in there.

Agreed; essentially you're just saying YGMV at a metaphysical level and that makes perfect sense. Even more if you've ever actually met Greg. THAT SAID, and not to get too deep into game-theory weeds, what we're scratching at here is the fundamental dichotomy that is not only yet unresolved, but highlighted in a new edition of RQ that more than ever intends to embrace/internalize Glorantha: Runequest, as a game, is widely regarded historically as a more mechanistic, 'crunchy' (I know that has a lot of meanings, not all of which apply), reality-based set of rules. (Particularly if you're using D&D as the normative centerpoint.) % to hit, hit locations, skills instead of classes etc. all combine to suggest a mechanics-heavy game. OTOH Glorantha conceptually is fluffy, nebulous, relativistic, dynamic, and indeterminate. It's Schroedinger's role playing setting. How one bolts those two things MORE TIGHTLY together than before? That's asking a lot. This specific discussion is a perfect example. I understand your point, I understand Jeff's point about even nailing this stuff down being a sort of God-Learnery exercise in the first place. But if one is putting out a GAME, and a SETTING, there have to be some constants. This isn't FATE CORE rules, this is Runequest. I'd argue that the critically-important Runes of the head of one of the core pantheons is fairly significant. If a customer grabs RQG and says "sweet, this is cool; I hear there's this MASSIVE sourcebook out there, greatest thing ever I should buy that too?" and then is told "well, yeah, but because Glorantha is wibbly-wobbly changey-stuff, some bits of it don't really apply" what does that say to that consumer? Really, now's the time to lock that stuff up wherever if can be found, and make the "new RQ" as tight and cohesive and consistent as possible.

Got my wish!

We're quite excited about the RuneQuest Fantasy Earth line, which already has several products in development. I'll readily cop to being the bottleneck here... all focus was towards getting the core rules for the new RQ lined up for Pedro to use as the base. When he started the revision last year, the core rules were not locked down, and some things were still "soft". As is now planned, Mythic Iceland will be fully compatible with RQG, and will be the first product in the Fantasy Earth line. Many more will follow. Getting that squared away required me to go through his manuscript meticulously and point out discrepancies between his treatment of the BRP rules and the RQ ones, and make some careful decisions about what needed to change. Now, Pedro now has a full blueprint of what we need his manuscript to become, and a copy of the RQG rules for adaptation. Jeff had a sit-down with him at Gen Con to discuss things, and we'll do a face-to-face status check at The Kraken, in October.

We sold out all 100 copies of the preview.

For those interested, these were my original Hortugarth and Imtherian Southlands maps. The first represents Hortugarth at its greatest extent ~1616 ST before the Crimson Bat visited, and intrigue saw its population decline. The second shows my original placement of various locales. From the Guide you can see that the Sun Dome Temple (Kareiston's Temple - which I think I first detailed in one of the issues of the Enclosure fanzine) and Hortugarth have somewhat shifted positions. Blame it on poor mapmakers from distant southern lands!

Defender of the lasting Light [Have mercy on us] Guard us through the dying Night [Have mercy on us] Shield us now from demons strong [Have mercy on us] Your glowing eye to last us long [Have mercy on us] We take refuge in your dome [Have faith in us] Guard the embers in our home [Have faith in us] Guide our eyes to find our foes [Have faith in us] And grant us hope from ancient woes [Have faith in us] Glory be to Winter's Sun [Praise Yelmalio!] Glory now to Order's Son [Praise Yelmalio!] Glory be to Light's Preserver [Praise Yelmalio!] And Glory to Truth's True Observer [Praise Yelmalio!] O! Blessed and Stalwart Yelmalio [Praise him!] O! Blessed and Stalwart Yelmalio [Preserve us!] Hail the Ever-shining Orb.

This was my team. I'm happy to give you any files from the Defense of Whitewall LARP for kids, but I've run some birthday parties like this before and have some other ideas for you. 1) When you invite your whole class you get kids with very different levels of interest in role playing, so the activities must be familiar and just have gloranthan flavor. The kids that are interested will do all the gaming internally and the ones that aren't can still enjoy the game. 2) It needs to be pretty simple or you're taking care of 20 kids all day, some of whom aren't very in to it. The rules need to be very straightforward. If I tag your arm with my sword you can't use it till you see a healer instead of numbers of points and different damage on different weapons. I did a party similar to what you're talking about last year. What I came up with was that the kids were divided into teams and sent on a scavenger hunt. We did it outside so there was digging involved. So you set it up as a hero quest that the clan is going on to find magic and weapons to help them against a feuding clan. Keep it pretty simple but here's where you can put in the flavor in the way you create the clues and frame the contest. Mainly they're just looking for visible patterns that you've depicted on rune sheets or solving riddles (be careful with the riddles and teens. It's hard to challenge them and then you cross a line suddenly into unsolvable) but you can assign perks for flavor like -- the kids on their fourth clue find themselves at a station with a kolating and snacks, the kolating asks them which one among them is most insightful in solving clues and when they decide, that person is declared Lhankor or some other knowing or observing hero. You can also have them choose who is the best at keeping the group on task and together and give them an appropriate title and then they can have a special power that makes them better at helping the group. The one that keeps them together may get a pouch of drinks or snacks to distribute as needed or the ability to heal injured clansmen by feeding them. The one that's good at solving riddles could have a divining stick that will give them a clue if they break a piece off and give it to the Kolating. The bigger the piece, the bigger the clue. Then the last few stations of the quest are harder clues that involve more teamwork and creative thinking but hopefully the teams feel more coordinated and led now. At the last station we had boxes underground that each had a few padded swords, a few nerf blowguns, and a few cans of silly string (enough for each kid to have one), and a flag. The next section of the party was a big game of capture the flag with swords, darts, and magic, group tactics, etc. They really don't need much direction on this bit, just make the swords safe to get whacked by and limit the area and ways they can hide the flag. It helps if they had a clan starting area and need to keep it on the tula. We let them play two rounds and saw that while a few kids would keep going all day, others were worn out so then cake and food. At that point, having food that by ingredients or decoration matches the game really stands out to the kids even if they didn't know anything about it before. After that just let them play or send them home. You can have Khan of Khans inside for the tired kids and more rounds of capture the flag or just running around for active ones. The critical balance with kids is to give them just enough to fire up their imagination and then let them loose with it. Their best experiences are internal. If, as a side note, you want the kids to want to become gloranthophiles later, answer all their questions about rules or anything else with vague stories that suggest epic history that surrounds their actions and location. For instance "Where is the line for where we can place our flag?" "That Magnolia tree is where your great, great grandmother Yarna StoneVoice challenged the NightDemon, ManyDeaths, slayer of men and wrestled it to the ground breaking off one of its terrible legs, binding it with the Stone Oath that our people would be safe inside the boundary of the tree and the jagged rock which is all that remains of the demon's leg." It's more work, but they get very into it. You'll cherish moments like the 7 year old girl who modified her battle axe to better hold her scrunchies turning to someone on her team that had incurred a penalty by breaking a basic safety rule and saying "Ian, our ancestors will never forgive you for bringing shame on our clan this way. Shame." 1) Games with rules they already know so all you have to do is add flavor 2) Keep it simple and just frame the activity. Try to let the kids imagine and play on their own most of the time 3) Simple rules and bonuses, complicated and enigmatic explanations for the rules. Hope this is helpful. Feel free to contact me if you want designs or graphics or any advice. Tanner

Has a few of the pictures for the tokens, which is nice to see.

Looking at the bigger magical picture of what Belintar did with the sixths, presents the idea that the elemental association with the land was already present. I find it hard to believe that Belintar overlaid a whole new system, he just brought it together and fine tuned it. We know that the moon rune was present in Glorantha before the Dawn and not in the form of the Red Goddess. In print we have three coloured moons and a number of old moon associated goddesses. The Red goddess and the Blue moon are just two aspect of the moon. Likewise we are told it's the Lunars who claim that the Moon rune is an element. Of course the storm pantheon dispute this, but actually it is an element. We know for example that some Praxians can have this as a dominant rune and nothing to do with the Lunars. With the Lunars gone, the Moon rune will still appear. We know nothing of the sorcerous schools of of the Ingareen's, but I suspect there is a slight bent towards moon magic. Perhaps just more grimoires that you'd expect. But they will be there. In theory there could be a Moon magic school. What it would teach perhaps has nothing in common with the Blue and red forms of moon magic currently in print. Another angle could be - what if there is a physical Moon component to the land, a long dead moon god / goddess that fell to the ground much like the blue moon did. As dead, only the body survives, no names or connections. Moon sorcery works better here due to this connection and more people are born with the moon rune as dominant. With Belintar gone, the moon magics funnelled towards the city of wonders reassert themselves across the land and normal service is resumed as since the dawn. Another important point with the runes and art. As they are interesting shapes, they will be combined in to interesting arty styles. Kalin's superb renditions of Belintar are arty insights to the otherworld of Belintar. The Man rune with the Moon rune head within the Law rune has echoes of the Vitruvian Man and also of Pavis. It also could be interpreted that the Ingareen's are moon rune dominant human sorcerers, which I would certainly go for, but with no connections to the Blue and Red Moon. None of this will change anything written in the God Forgot section.

The Holy Country section of the Guide has to outshine the presentation in RQ2 RuneQuest Companion, the catch-up book for the original Wyrm’s Footnotes magazine of 1983, combined with the Troll Pak, Genertela Box and Military Experience for Dragon Pass material pertaining to that region, the cult of Caladra and Aurelion, and a certain coverage in King of Sartar. There certainly was quite a bit of information available then, although hardly any information on the Second Age events (Kotor Wars, Machine Wars, conquests of coastal Kethaela), which was provided by the Stafford Library – Middle Sea Empire, History of the Heortling Peoples, Esrolia – Land of 10,000 Goddesses, and additional, then official stabs at coastal Kethaela in Men of the Sea and Masters of Luck and Death (the Heroquest 1 supplements on hero bands) and some detailed gazetteer in Dragon Pass – Land of Thunder for the northernmost edge of Heortland. Compared to official information on Sartar (other than the Sartar campaign collected in Wyrm’s Footprints), there was way more information on the Holy Country than on Dragon Pass before Hero Wars. We knew that the Orlanthi who migrated into the Quivini lands left similar folk back home in Heortland and Esrolia. For me, the Holy Country was my first dive into playing in Glorantha, aided by the fact that I learned that the Chaosium house campaign which playtested all the supplements published in a RuneQuest context had playtested the Midkemia city supplement City of Carse in Karse. I had a previous and intensive acquaintance playing in another universe’s version of Karse, so I felt right at home in the Gloranthan equivalent. My first efforts at web-publishing my Glorantha ideas led to a set of pages on the Holy Country which appears to have seeped into other peoples’ games, even though I provided little more than a gazetteer for the places shown on the Holy Country map from RQ Companion. Anyway, this section provides the current canon on my heart region of Genertela and thereby Glorantha. Ok, so what has changed to my old vision? p.234 My old website had white cliffs – a tip of the hat to my overall fascination with pre-christianized Anglo-Saxon England at the time, but also to Cape Arkona and the island of Rügen with its western slavic holiest site (at least after the destruction of Rethra). p.234 I think that Rastagar is the most maligned of all Orlanthi kings. More so than even Kodig, in Esrolian Grandmothers’ acid propaganda. The Grandmothers objected to Rastagar leading his army to a fight in a very distant place. I am fairly convinced that that distant place was the shore of Luathela, when Orlanth summoned the Ring of the Vingkotlings to aid him fight the Luatha. The Vingkotlings fought like demigods, but their foes were giant demigods. Still, the Vingkotlings were victorious, but the victory would have cost them dearly. Plus, their god had provided them sacred winds to travel there quickly, but after the battle he descended into the Underworld, onto the Path of the Dead, and he could no longer aid his warriors on their way back to their homes. Out of the Kodigvari party, Rastagar, Irillo and few others made it home from that crowning achievement of Vingkotling warfare. Ernalda was sleeping, and with her all the good sense of the Earth worshipers. Instead, the illumination provided by Imarja stripped the Grandmothers of all morality. They usurped Rastagar’s kingdom through Kinstrife, and then blamed the appearance of Nontraya on the seed of Kodig rather than on their own chaotic behavior. Rastagar was most fowlly murdered (sic), and he and his descendants demonized and cursed by the coven of chaos-ridden hags that sold what remained good for Underworld protectors (a benevolent one in the figure of Kimantor – still a terror to normal humans when coming at them enraged, and worse left undocumented). The scribes survived in the places ruled by the Grandmothers, any histories that could have told a different story didn’t. Fowl, goose-footed betrayal remained the main theme of Esrolian history. Palangio, Arkat, the Tharkantus cult, Slontos, the EWF, the Jrusteli, even Ezkankekko, all were betrayed by oath-breaking grandmothers, and I would bet that Jar-eel had received tutoring by some Enfranchised House of Esrolia as well for her dismembering of Belintar. The Spolites should have taken lessons… For all its fertility and bounty of life, Esrolia remains an outlet of infernal and morally deprived evil on the Orlanthi. The Only Old One and the Kitori and their nature was revealed to us less than ten years ago. Numerous theories on the nature of the Kitori had gone around before, and many of those could be framed as misunderstanding of the nature of the Kitori race by other Gloranthans. None of that info has made it into the Guide, though. The surviving Kitori are much reduced in numbers, but still a lot more numerous than say the Luatha of Seshnela, so I wonder why they were chosen to keep shrouded in Darkness. Arkat’s command, aka the Shadow (or Kitori) Tribute, may have been a scheme to recompense the troll fighters who followed him into Dorastor to fight the most vile Chaos without much hope of plunder, to participate in the rich tribute the leaders of Orlanthland collected from their short-lived control over Dara Happa. It wasn’t the fault of the trolls that the Orlanthi governors of Dara Happa failed to quench Ordanestyu’s rebellion. The history section of the Holy Country is a delight to read. An excellent synthesis of the RQ2 and RQ3 era information, King of Sartar, the Stafford Libary books (especially Middle Sea Empire and History of the Heortling Peoples with a smaller side order of Esrolia), and more recent events detailed in the Chaosium house campaign session reports which gave us the history of the Starbrow Rebellion published through obscure APA-zine outlets and in Wyrm's Footprints. Some of the local detail is left to the gazetteer sections, but the synthesis offers a good look at the greater picture.

Remember those work-in-progress Morokanth minies we posted last month? Our friends at Rapier Miniatures now have them available for pre-order, along with the Trolls they're also working on (one Dark, one Great, one Cave)—details here: http://bit.ly/2xIDqCf Rapier says they'll be available for dispatch the week commencing Monday 23rd of October...

Left: the city gate of an Esrolian city. Right: a side entrance to the precincts of the Great Temple of Ernalda in the Sarli district of Nochet. Two towers of glazed green brick, each depicting a goddess, are supported by stone bases depicting female trolls frame the copper-clad gate, which depicts two priestesses. The presence of the guardian trolls suggests this gate predates the era of the God-King.

Now don't forget to get your copy of VASSAL! Because you now have the Nomad Gods rules set - you can now play the game! There are VASSAL two modules of interest to Glorantha fans: http://www.vassalengine.org/wiki/Module:Nomad_Gods You'll need the software as well as the module: http://www.vassalengine.org/index.php What is Vassal? Vassal is a game engine for building and playing online adaptations of board games and card games. Play live on the Internet or by email. Vassal runs on all platforms, and is free, open-source software. Don't forget, with VASSAL you can look at the other Gloranthan board game, sadly no rules rerelease yet. http://www.vassalengine.org/wiki/Module:Dragon_Pass

Out of curiosity, I've been looking at the various examples of Theyalan that can be found across various sourcebooks, specifically those which are given defined meanings, and trying to work out the rules and such behind them. I'm posting what I've got here, in the hopes of A: it being interesting/useful to anyone else, and B: someone knowing something that I've missed, or having other thoughts that would improve things. Guide to Glorantha Argrath - Liberator (459) Mralothenyi - Pig Hollow (709) Penentelada - Penentel's Camp (709) Seriasdova - Temple of Serias (709) Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes Dar - Chief/Tribal King (84) Huscarl - Hall Man (18) Kanvulvretan - Dog Scratching (161) Larnsting - Free/Changer/Liberator (133) Murnulvretan - Cat Scratching (161) Nymie - Counsel (282) Shepelkirt - Poison Blood (104) Tarkarlings - High Free People (76) Wergild - Man Debt (217) As well as these, the book also mentions some other words. The title of the Prince of Sartar means "first" (84), and that the older version of thane means "horse men" (208). Also in Sartar, we have the remnant peoples, absorbed into the Vingkotlings. Their names are given meanings, although it's hard to know if any of them are actually in Theyalan or another language. The Nalda Bin at least seem to be related (if purely through Nalda's similarities to Ernalda) and I suspect they may be from the Durevings. The Korsto Viv and Aranto Viv are likely to share a source, given the shared word Viv ("people") Remnant People Buf Gart - Hungry Women (SKoH 41) Ched Durkel - Strings (SKoH 41) Jars Antanggi - People of the Shadows (SKoH 41) Karantuel - Cloud Folk (SKoH 41) Korsto Viv - People of the Rivers (SKoH 41) Nalda Bin - Stick Farmers (SKoH 41) Aranto Viv - Axe People (SKoH 41) Eryain Ins - The Blonds (SKoH 41) Forosto Jann - Deadly Archers (SKoH 41) Sartar Companion Abylgani - Wrathful Ones (153) Afrasaronafra - The River of River (63) Unani - Pleasant Ones (153) The Book of Heortling Mythology Autero - Goldentongue (144) Carl - Free (88) Ches Takal - Chalk Man (45) Golagolar - Fighting Man of the Armies (168) Hara - Beloved (2) Infrendel - Seat of Brass (91) Makla Mann - Unfailing Bondsman (182) Orlanth dovar - Orlanth the Faithful (148) Sevsalsal - Great Poison Breath (168) Tarumath - High Wind (136) Ura - Pleasant One (145) Varanorlanth - Wild Orlanth (37) Venebain - Attacker from Above (169) Esrolia: The Land of Ten Thousand Goddesses Besengen - That Big Guy over there (39) Dejess - Lies (21) Desdel - Surprise (30) Dungaria - Mother of the Widow (30) Esrolia - Grainland (21) Ezel - Her Home (14) Irinioori - High Water Mark (23) Kena - Headrest/Pillow (21) Notchet - Everyone (22) Orenvulvretan - Stone Scratching (22) Tereen - Chosen of Ter (23) Terliol - Blessed of Ter (23) Miscellaneous Alda Chur - Far Place (Wyrms Footprints #15 40) Meldek - Emptied/Sorcerer (Strangers in Prax 65) Despite the age of Strangers in Prax, both Emptied and Meldek have been used in modern source material (Sartar: KoH 209, and Sartar Companion 86 respectively) although never explicitly linked together. However, it's likely still valid. These next three books are no longer canon, but still contained examples of Theyalan words. Several (the spirits/agents of retribution) are used in Sartar: Kingdom of heroes, but untranslated. Thunder Rebels -ing - Children of/Descendent of (156) Banumbroling - Wind Fist (85) Belnan - Clodfoot (82) Driman - Heavy (205) Esnan - Earth Thief/Gulper (83) Haruling - Impest (82) Hedkoring - Flint Slinger (83) Manmolaning - Breath Stealer (247) Ohorakoring - Storm Fury (247) Yavorling - Bolter/Jag/Sparker (81) Storm Tribe Duro - Win (10) Kara - Draw/Tie (10) Reflarting - Blinder (55) Vanda - Lose (10) Yoskati - Warmth Stealer (55) Imperial Lunar Handbook 1 Orshil - First Axe (13) Shilkot - Master of Axes (14) Tvengkot - Master of Battles (14) There's also an article and a post of Jeff's which seem useful. Certainly Ernaldaravandi, Tekravand, Viskuranth, and Viskuvath are used in other places (Thunder Rebels for the first two, and Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes and the Book of Heortling Mythology for the latter) Ernalda's Holy Days Babeestervandi - Babeester's Holy Day Ernaldaravandi - Ernalda Holy Day Esrolaravand - Esrola's Holy Day Orlanthharvandar - Orlanth High Holy Day Tekravand - Shroud Holy Day Mahomravand - Mahome's Holy Day/Fire Celebration Voriaravand - Voria's Holy Day Talastaring Orlanth Cults Tarvathlinpor - Place of the High Breath Viskuranth - Son of the Spike Viskuvath - Breath of the Spike From these, we can determine a few simple building blocks of words: Ada - Camp (From Penentelada) Afra - River (From Afrasaronafra) Anth - Son/Child (From Viskuranth) Dov - Faith/Holy (From Orlanth dovar and Seriasdova) Hus - Hall (From Huscarl) Kan - Dog (From Kanvulvretan) Kar - Free (From Carl and Tarkarling) Mahom - Fire (From Mahomravand and the goddess Mahome) Murn - Cat (From Murnulvretan and the god Murni) Nald - Farmer (From Nalda Bin, and the goddess Ernalda) Oren - Stone (From Orenvulvretan) Ravand - Celebration/Holy Day (From Mahomravand and a bunch of others) Tar - High (From Tarkarlings, Tarvathlinpor, and Tarumath) Tek - Shroud (From Tekravand, and the goddess Ty Kora Tek) Ulvretan - Scratching/Writing (From Kanvulvretan, Murnulvretan, and Orenvulvretan) Varan - Wild (From Varanorlanth) Vath - Breath (From Tarvathlinpor and Viskuvath) Visku - Spike (From Viskuranth and Viskuvath) To make a quick note on Anth, although found as Ranth in Viskuranth, -anth is given as a common suffix in Orlanthi names in Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes (26), often found as -lanth or -vanth. It's also found as -antha in Erantha Gor, and Glorantha -- suggesting the term is unisex. We also have a couple of suffixes: -een - Chosen of (From Tereen) -ing - Children of/Descendent of (As previously mentioned) -liol - Blessed of (From Terliol) -linpor - Place of (From Tarvathlinpor)

But still to be the canon. We are speaking about two different things: - Glorantha as a work if literature. It is great and plays with complex intellectual concepts, discussed in the Glorantha subforum. - Glorantha as a game setting. This what it is about here, since we are in the Runequest subforum. I’m not found of simplistic settings, otherwise I wouldn’t be posting in these forums, and as I already said somewhere else, I like Glorantha for its complexity. Saying that it may go too far in complexity AS A GAME does not mean that one prefer simplistic settings: pretending this is an excessive reaction. All is not black or white (very gloranthian, isn’t it ? ). It's also not despising Greg's work. We could of course argue about where to put the limit of complexity for the game. It is here a question of playability. In my opinion, as a general thought, in a game setting, you shall at some point stop exploring and start providing answers. And players are free to change them if they don't agree. It is just like writing a historical game (since you are mentioning RW religions): in RW, myths and beliefs don’t have influence on the world mechanics, but they will in the game, so you have at some time to stop scholarly discussions and provide a playable solution "a minima". In RuneQuest for instance, magic exists through the runes, and there are rule mechanics for it. Of course, we could decide that RuneQuest is a game of exploration of intellectual concepts through role playing. But I would keep this as an option only. It may also be that variable runes are very playable, but it should be clearly stated, explained and somehow come with at least guidelines and consequences (game wise), since in a gloranthan based game, it is not just a detail. The Guide to Glorantha has been presented several times as the canon, so hearing two years later that it is only a relative point of view is kind of weird, but ok, we'll go ahead with it. But when players get confused, it shows that something is wrong either in the concept or simply in the way it has been introduced or explained.

Glorantha is at the same time a great strength of RuneQuest and also its greatest weakness. It is a fantastic, rich setting that is refreshingly fundamentally different from the typical D&D style Middle Earth inspired settings. However this can come at a cost. As this thread demonstrates it can be very confusing and convoluted and appears to be frequently subject to change. For someone to feel comfortable enough with it that they are confident to contribute to a discussion would take a lot of time and research. This may not be noticeable to many people here because their understanding has grown and evolved over (literally) decades. Responding that this will all be clarified in one of an endless series of supplement may seem attractive but is itself risky. An opinion of "It is a great game once you have spent $500 on source books" is not really a good one to have. RQ is not Warhammer 40K (with the common joke that the 40K stands for the disposable income you need to have to play the game). My prediction is that if this new version gets too tied into the very nitty gritty of Glorantha and mired down as a pseudo socio-mythic experimentation tool then it will fail. Then we will have a group of people standing around wondering what went wrong. They have a fantastic system and a great world. What could have possibly gone wrong? Even the hope that copies will be bought by people who are attracted to the system and hope to use for their own settings (a great strength of the D&D community) may be dashed based on the disparaging remarks of some posters, which seems to be of the attitude that RQ=Glorantha and that if you don't want to play in Glorantha then don't play RQ. Ultimately this version should not be about creating a game that perfectly matches our understanding of Glorantha's most intricate details. It must be about attracting new players to both the game and to Glorantha. Getting the balance right between making it accessible and understandable to new people and also satisfying the old guard is a very tough challenge.

Chaosium is pleased to welcome a new licensing partner for RuneQuest & Glorantha miniatures and scenery - Infinity Engine. Look out for their Kickstarter launching soon, featuring figures and scenery from the RuneQuest Quickstart's The Broken Tower scenario! More details at the link and here's a preview:

Fermenting is extremely important for Uz, as it provides ways to "cook" without tainting your food with excessive heat. Their enhanced digestive system also permits them to enjoy many varieties of food that humans do not. Maggots and putrescence are delightful flavor enhancers, to the trollish palate. Mee Vorala and Gorakiki are important goddesses who each provide their own special food and beverage transformation magic, but shamanic insight is equally important - intoxicating beverages aren't call "Spirits" for nothing. Each clan and region has its own specialized flavors and techniques, and trolls will gleefully obsess over the fine distinctions between different varieties of "spoiled meat" in the same way that human enthusiasts do over wine and cheeses. Spirits are important both to attract the right varieties of insects and fungi, as well as for direct effects. I believe that in Glorantha, spirits replace the effects of microscopic beasties like yeast or bacteria, but the observable effects are mostly similar, despite the well documented more extreme effects available to troll mixologists. (mmmmm, Powzie!)

One thing I want to warn folk away from is treating myth as euhemerised science. The sacred stories of Dionysus is not the story of how to make wine - it is what wine does, the divine madness it brings. Most Gloranthans know that wine brings both community and disorder, inspiration and madness. So although Keranna and Vuranna are the goddesses of the grapes, one might also invoke Ernalda for the sense of community and fellowship that wine-drinking brings; but one should also be aware that Eurmal is always present when wine is consumed, and that community and fellowship might quickly become conflict and violence. We know that there are tales of Babeester Gor getting drunk, but I am sure there are plenty of stories of Orlanth that most civilized of storm gods also over-consuming his wife's gifts and, with Eurmal's aid, drunkenly burning down forests, striking down those who were not his foes, flattening fields with rain and hail, and rampaging like a wild bull.

The stats you're looking for don't exist. I would suggest a simple table to help you figure out what you actually need when dealing with them. This is what I'm using to run RQG in my Prax play test, it's based on the Council skills of the King of Dragon Pass Game and a table of my own devising. As a rough and ready approach it works pretty well. Before meeting an important NPC. I rough them out as to how I see them, with important abilities, you don't need them all! I print out a small sheet with this list on then as needed add levels. They shouldn't be good at everything: Here's Beti completely made up. "who I gather would be the current Colymar Queen and therefore the most likely for the PCs to encounter first." Primary abilities Animals Bargaining Combat Customs Excellent (She's the Queen) Leadership Excellent (She's the Queen) Magic Excellent (likely a Rune Lord) Plants Wealth Secondary abilities - best of Deception (Bargaining or Leadership) Diplomacy (Bargaining or Custom) Exploring (Bargaining or Combat) Farming (Animals or Plants) Hunting (Animals or Combat or Plants) Poetry (Custom or Leadership) Prophecy (Magic or Leadership) Strategy (Combat or Leadership) ---------- Reference (this works for me) Primary abilities Animals Bargaining Combat Customs Leadership Magic Plants Wealth Secondary abilities - best of Deception (Bargaining or Leadership) Diplomacy (Bargaining or Custom) Exploring (Bargaining or Combat) Farming (Animals or Plants) Hunting (Animals or Combat or Plants) Poetry (Custom or Leadership) Prophecy (Magic or Leadership) Strategy (Combat or Leadership) Fair Good Very Good Excellent Renowned Heroic % 50 70 80 90 120 150 Spirit Magic points D6 (3) 6 + D6 (9) 9 + D6 (12) Shaman 12 + D6 15 + D6 (18) 18 + D6 (21) Rune Magicpoints Initiate 0 Initiate D2 (1) Initiate 2 + D4 (4) Rune Level 4 + D6 (7) 10 + D6 (13) 15 + D10 (20) Helper spirits / allied spirits D2 -1 (0) D2 (1) D4 (2) D6 (3) Magic Items 0 0 D2 -1 (0) D2 (1) D3 (2) D4 (2) Hit Points 10 12 14 16 18 20 Armour 3 4 5 6 7 8

I am reminded of a joke told to me by someone from southern India: Two men are discussing their marriages. First man: My mother-in-law is a goddess! Second man: You are so lucky! Mine is still alive...

Lunar gateway at Raibanth, featuring a 'moon gate' flanked by a Lunar and Solar guardian. The wall consists of stone on the lower courses, brick above, covered with a layer of painted plaster. A balcony with three entrances lies above the gateway. Note the lack of crenellations at the top of the wall. [Guardian figures derived from artwork by Dan Barker.]

It's a comprehensive introduction, covering primarily Mycenaean weapons and armour, but also Egypt and the Near East, with brief descriptions of chariot warfare. If you want atmospheric (and sometimes very speculative) pictures, then the various Osprey titles are worth looking at. Early Aegean Warrior 5000-1450 BC Sea Peoples of the Bronze Age Mediterranean c.1400 BC-1000 BC Bronze Age Greek Warrior 1600-1100 BC Early Iron Age Greek Warrior 1100-700 BC

I find the imagery of the swallow flying upward towards the Law Rune, found on the shields of the Order of the Swallow, relevant to its symbolism. So it may represent the soul ascending towards the divine - swallows fly notably high. Compare the dove, which is known for its diving flight pattern, and so represents divine energy descending towards man. This is classic Christian imagery e.g. "I saw the Spirit descending like dove" from John 1:32 or for a non-Christian use of the same image, I'm struck by the Lamen of the OTO, which also features a triangle as a divine symbol (the European occult tradition that descends from new-Platonism/hermeticism is all very relevant to ideas around sorcery IMO, and certain aspects of Crowleys ideas particularly relevant to Irensavalism) So I think of the Swallow as being about man ascending towards the divine, as a complement to the Dove being being the divine descending towards man. The order of the Swallow, being made up of Wizards who have already ascended through the farmer and Guradian castes, certainly would think of themselves as being on a magical/religious upward trajectory through their own effort.

Regardless of what one may think of the situation with this project, what Scott wrote took a whole hell of a lot of guts. Best of luck to him getting well and moving forward; depression is a SOB.

Hahahahahahahahahaha...

As Ian already mentioned - art is expensive (Just as an exercise - go and count how many illustrations Rachel Khan has in the first book. That's a big workload for a single artist). Full color illustrations, even when not a full page plate, are even more expensive. So while having to re-use art is always a bit regrettable and in this case - causing visual confusion, the other option is to simply just not have any art around for most of the book. While that might seem like a more reasonable solution, I can guarantee you it will also make the book look slightly dull. So choices and compromises have to be made, always, when dealing with stuff like this. As for the previous question brought up about having a more detailed explanation on the iconography of Minaryth's belts...trust me, you don't want it. I had to make those things, so I more or less needed to learn what every little thing on there means, and it just resulted in a headache. No need to subject your players to that!

IMO I disagree. While I've never personally tried to hack up an elephant, I'm confident that it's not all that easy. I think that RQ3 hit points are more sensible that RQ2 hit points for multiple reasons, including the absurdly high db that go with large SIZ. It's not a game breaking mechanism. RQ3 works just fine mechanically. Now RQ2 hit points might match up better with Greg's stories, but then so does HeroQuest. On the other hand RQ2 attack bonuses were a game breaker. Big Club the giant probably has a STR of 70 sih, and an Attack Bonus of around +60%, making him at expert at using any weapon he picks up. Sadly, I think the new RQ's push back to the game's roots is going to mean the loss of a lot of good ideas that came with RQ3, and the incorporation of some good RQ3 ideas out of context (such as 2d6+6 SIZ).

Easier doesn't mean it's only important 'on the fly'. It means it's easier. So if I'm populating an adventure with 50 different humanoid creatures of varying size/toughness, knowing their arms are all 0.25 their hp and legs, abdomen, head are 0.33 their hp, etc is going to make that (let's be honest) painful monster-generation process a *tiny* bit simpler. That's a bad goal? RQ2 resulted in too few body HP, and too many limb HP on large creatures. I don't believe it's absurd to think that a 7 ton giant should be a TPK machine to people dumb enough to melee him. RQ2: 28 hp total, chest 11, arms 9, everything else 10. RQ3 (IIRC): 42 hp, chest 17, arms 10-11, everything else 14. Bigclub is THREE STORIES TALL (9m) He's SIZ 69. On a human proportions (yes, setting aside physics) he's 15,000 lbs. Firstly, the idea that he's got body hp (28) double that of a decent adventurer is...well, sorry it's silly. The only reason he's tough in SPH is because he (conveniently) has +10 AP skin. Without it? A single good special arrowshot to the head kills him. Secondly, (and more importantly) because the RQ2 location hp mechanics go up linearly after a point, the damage proportions between limbs/core get all whacky making limbs intuitively too tough relatively. For a normal 10-12hp human, chest is 5, legs/abd are 80% of that (4), and arms are 60%. For a Bigclub, his legs are 90%, arms are 80%...and he's not even that big of a giant. But what that does mean in RQ2 he can be nearly dead from one completely-mangled limb, where in RQ3 he'd be at about half...like a human. And sorry, the "well there are magic dragons so why bother about realism?" response is ...weak. Why do we have bigger weapons do more damage than smaller? Why is a STR 18 toon able to lift more than a STR 6? Why is there gravity at all since characters can fly?

Xarjang Vash: "...Xarjang Vash always hated elves, who call him Tree Chopper. He is noted as a poet among his kind as well." Don't recall his name either, but clearly he knows the Tree Chopping Song. You can just imagine the inspired poetry that goes with such work: Uz is hungry, [grunt], uz must chop [grunt] Bellies empty, [grunt], trees must drop [grunt] Elves are pesky, [grunt], uz must stop [grunt] Uz wield axes, [grunt], uz must crop [grunt] Trees are tasty, [grunt], elves go pop [grunt] Uz is happy, [belch], uz is full [yawn-burp].

Glorantha is great and I love it, and I praise the job made by Chaosium's team, but it is in my opinion sometime going too far in obscure metaphysical concepts, which at the end can be seen as trying to cope with inconsistencies in the setting. Sorry, but we don't need quantum mechanics for Glorantha to enjoy it. It is up to the players to make it vary, but the publisher shall provide solid references. Game designers shall first design...a game, and not get lost in intellectual masturbation, as the French say. Qui bene amat bene castigat, I still love playing in Glorantha.

The Arakuline Tribute is a Mythras fantasy scenario for Thennla (but easily usable in any fantasy world) involving the characters in the hunt for the fabled tribute of the Arakuline tribe, stolen by outlaws many years before. The tribute included the prized King Boar Shield, war totem of the Arakuline, and still sought after by many. The Boromog tribe believe the shield and tribute have been found in the Tumbrian Forest, and a party is sent to investigate. But the Tumbrian Forest belongs to three powerful supernatural entities and the robber god Landano. Can the characters negotiate these hazards and recover the shield and rest of the treasure?$4.99 PDF only, $9.99 POD. http://thedesignmechanism.com/store.php#!/The-Arakuline-Tribute-PDF-only/p/90579401/category=24197110 http://www.lulu.com/shop/bruce-turner/the-arakuline-tribute/paperback/product-23309431.html

I picked up one of the one hundred text only copies of RuneQuest at Gen Con. I'm not an old hand at RQ but as a mostly newcomer the rules look great. There is a lot to absorb and take in. The world info and rules blend together well and I can see why the decision was made to blend RuneQuest and Glorantha back together.

There are a few region-name endings all over Glorantha. -ela is the most common. It might be western or Theyalan in origin and is definitely used by Tradetalk. -os as in Brithos, Slontos, Teshnos, Ralios, Tiskos, Sentanos, Tinaros, Kimos, Teleos, Mirelos, Nolos, Pasos, Vralos - most of these are coastal lands (Ralios on Lake Felster) -ar as in Aggar, Jolar, Kothar, Talastar, Tastolar, Gardufar, Esvular, Volsaxar (not quite Sartar and Balazar, however, since this is also the persons' name form) -sor as in Tanisor, Mortasor, possibly only -or - then also Dorastor, Oranor, Orninior, in older sources sometimes Kralor -ia as in Peloria, Maniria. Esrolia, Ramalia, Wenelia, Kustria, Karia, Carnania, Gaskallia, Garbulia, Erigia, Brolia - often formed from a goddess' name, possibly a possessive form, but could be a takeover from a Latin form of making a place name -land as in Caladraland, Corolaland, Heortland, Orlanthland, Jorstland - obviously a composite with the English term. -ali as in Ditali, Estali - sounds more like a tribal nomiker than a region, like Enerali, Pendali, Enjoreli Regions may not always be known by their native names, but named by intrepid discoverers or traders.

Even more so as Glorantha is a world based on living myths, which may even contradict each other and still will be true. This is (one of) the core idea(s) of Glorantha, and any game system based on this setting may try to set up definitions, which are consistent in the context of this game, but will never be able to define a single true and only, always applicable set of definitions for this world. So regarding everything related to the God Time (runes, myths, gods) the Guide to Glorantha may provide the most consistent view of 'pre-history', but surely not the only one possible. (And even that may be true only from a Godlearner's point of view.) That's at least my understanding.

GRoY p.42: Yelm is the One, the Light, the Lord of Day, the Enthroned One, the Giver of Live and Death, the Attended One, ... the Reborn One, the Eternal Witness, ... the Victor over the Dark Way, the Shining Overhead, the Blazing One, the Thousand Beams of Light, ... the Opener of the East, the Self-born Father, ... the Sacrificed, the Self-resurrected, the Arisen, the Receiver of Sacrifice, the Resurrector,... GRoY p.32: Second, Yelm conquered the Rebels. While doing nothing except praying, his power extended itself over the Rebels so that they died and surrendered to him. Third, Yelm conquered the Underworld. This realm had formerly been lost, and Yelm redeemed it by bringing salvation, light, and rebirth to the Land of Darkness. Most importantly, Yelm was Illuminated. He experienced the impossible. Yelm experienced being one of the Many while he was nameless and faceless. He had no contact with the One. He at last knew the Other. As far back as the cult writeup of Yelm in Cults Compendium, you will find that Yelm has the Resurrection spell. Yelm is Illuminated, just as the Red Goddess - that's a core reason he can hold both runes. He rules both the Sky World and the Underworld. He resurrects himself each day (and does not require Chalana Arroy to do so for him).

Thanks for the background info. That the old Chaosium had such massive money problems and all despite raising three quarters of a million dollars is quite surprising and, yes, depressing. When I thing of how lacking Chaosium was in supporting any of their product lines other than CoC, and how the BGB barely got out of the door, and then languished with little support, it's shocking. It's almost as bad as what happened with Decipher.

In case you missed it, Chaosium had a truly amazing night at the 2017 Gen Con ENnies, the annual awards celebration of excellence in tabletop roleplaying gaming. Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu won an impressive 9 awards (7 gold and 2 silver) across seven different products in the popular RPG line. Chaosium itself also won the silver award for Fan Favorite Publisher. At the awards Chaosium founder and current chair of the board Greg Stafford said the awards were a tremendous honor and thanked the fans—whether they voted for Chaosium or not—because it's the fans that make the industry thrive. On a personal note, Stafford added he was also very happy the new Chaosium team is carrying on the great work and reputation for innovation and quality that the company was known for back to the golden age of gaming. Caption: Greg Stafford accepting the 2017 Silver Fan Favorite ENnie award for Best Publisher with members of the team. Here are the awards Chaosium won: Best Cover Art - Call of Cthulhu Investigators Handbook = GOLD Best Interior Art - S. Petersen Field Guide to Lovecraftian Horrors = SILVER Best Cartography - Call of Cthulhu Keeper Screen Pack = GOLD Best Production Values - Call of Cthulhu 7th ed slipcase set = GOLD Best Aid/Accessory - Call of Cthulhu Keeper Screen Pack = GOLD Best RPG-related Product - Call of Cthulhu - The Colouring Book = GOLD Best Adversary/Monster - S. Petersen Field Guide to Lovecraftian Horrors = GOLD Best Adventure - Doors to Darkness = SILVER Best Supplement - Pulp Cthulhu = GOLD Fan Favourite Publisher - Chaosium = SILVER Chaosium Vice President Michael O'Brien said, "Chaosium congratulates all the other winners and nominees. In particular, we'd like to highlight our friends Stygian Fox Publishing who won GOLD in the Best Electronic Book category for their licensed Call of Cthulhu release The Things We Leave Behind. We also applaud and thank our French language licensee Éditions Sans Détour, whose wonderful artwork graces the S. Petersen Field Guide to Lovecraftian Horrors." Chaosium has posted a list of the creative teams involved in each winning title.

I mean if we're going on-Gloranthan settings, let's just take what Joerg is suggesting two steps further - HQ:Planescape. I actually keep planning on hacking together a homebrew conversion of this so I could potentially run it at some point, but hell, it's not inconceivable to make it fit the system. Beyond that - I like the West and want to have more stuff in there. Be it Ralios or Seshnela, I don't particularly care. I just want to have the Malkioni around. Having a proper Lunar-centered book would also work great.

I got a copy. I was less than impressed with the Quickstart because it seemed like there was too much mechanical stuff for a 'quickstart,' but seeing the whole thing I like it. I didn't really start reading until last night, was totally exhausted from gencon back to back with the eclipse back to back with work. It's very backward compatible with 1/2/3. At a glance, I just prefer the way some things work in Mythras better and would have preferred something closer to that game than this. It is an obvious labor of love, so don't think I'm dissing...just think that Mythras or even CoC7 may have been a better base engine than what we've all tinkered to death for years. It's nice that I can do Resistance Table calculations in my head, but that doesn't mean I think it is all that great a system. Spirit Combat is better on the page. In the scenarios I ran at the con, we just kludged something together because I hadn't seen the rules until about twenty minutes before session one. Sorcery reads better than 3 read or played. I like that the Bestiary has quick spot rules for non-humans. My home game is mostly trolls, so I like to see support for that type of game. More to come I'm sure as I read and eventually integrate what I like into our RQ6 game.

Infinity Engine have launched their Kickstarter for the adversaries from the RQ Quickstart's "Broken Tower" scenario (http://bit.ly/2fgCobY). Two Sprul-Pa, a Dream Weft, three Menhir and the Stone Woman. And two iconic Rock Lizards! There are backer levels from cardboard stand-ups right through to fully-painted sets where you can customise the colors! The Kickstarter runs until October 9—check it out at the link:

There's a couple myths in the Esrolia book which somewhat equate Harono with the Sun God (including protecting Ernalda's Virtue and getting killed by Orlanth). However, he seems to be more specifically associated now with the Sky rather than the Sun, so I'd go for Light as one rune. His worshippers commune with the Sky and he serves as a Messenger to the Sky World, so I'd likely include Communication (i.e. Issaries/Equal Exchange/Trade) rune as a second one. I think the cult is almost entirely limited to his one major temple in Nochet. Maybe Rhigos has one too. As the temple is within the Sacred City of Nochet, I think the cult's members function as messengers within the Sacred City itself and act at the request of the Queen or other priestesses there. They may go out into Nochet, but only if borne upon a palanquin as their feet cannot touch the Earth (which would sully the Virtue of the Earth goddesses). And they serve as messengers to the Sky for the priestesses - this is a highly ritualized role and always conducted within a ceremonial worship service that bridges to that other world. What messages they deliver or receive is unknown to me at the moment. At the moment, this is the only figure I know of from the Harono Temple: Gramelmo Goldtooth - Sacred City, Harono Priest With his short-cropped hair like stalks of wheat, his leather-worn face, and the notable gold tooth, Gramelmo is a distinct figure, though he rarely leaves the Sacred City except on ritual occasions such as the Blessing of the Sons. When he does leave his temple, he travels by palanquin for he is ritually obligated to never set foot upon the earth. His presence is always striking for he has a commanding figure, a penetrating gaze, and speaks with a tone of command and reverence. He often says that the best way to deal with an enemy is to name the foe. Rumors suggest that he was once the lover of Queen Valinalda, and certainly Valinalda’s son, Haramal, now a young sage at the Temple of Knowledge, bears a striking resemblance to the gold-toothed priest.

I debated this point but ultimately concluded to call him Yelm because he is known as Yelm to most people of Dragon Pass (early drafts even called the cult Yu-Kargzant(. The noble Yelm cult of Raibanth is a long way away (and many of its Life and Death functions have been usurped by the Red Goddess). But that's all for another book.