Bergguy

Thank you for all of the great information everybody! My grazelander players will really appreciate having this extra information.

Perfect! Thank you! I haven't had a chance to do a deep-dive into the Stafford Library yet for information. Being directed to a source is really helpful!

From the Runequest Core Rulebook... "The Pure Horse People worship an ancient Fire/Sky pantheon headed by Yelm, whom they call Yu-Kargzant the Sun Horse. Arandayla the Horse Goddess is beloved by all and Hyalor the Rider is revered as the first king of the people at the Dawn." Is there information out there on this pantheon? I've looked through the guide and it says approximately the same phrase. Is there a list of Gods that the Grazelander horse-people would worship? Not the vendref, the pure-horse people themselves. Thanks for the info!

Thanks for the sneak peek! Looking forward to that box set.

This was all very helpful! Thanks for taking the time to answer everybody.

Cool! Thanks for the clarification.

As I explore Dragon Pass with my players, we have realized that we are not entirely clear on what thanes do in an Orlanthi community. From the guide... "They are tribal folk who have leadership roles (secular, military, or sacred) and have undertaken unusual responsibilities. They are the heads of households, the god-talkers who lead sacred functions, leading merchants or craftspeople, bodyguard housecarls for the chieftain, and members of the clan council." Would a town (300 - 1000 residents) have one Thane overseeing the major decisions that need to occur in the town? Or would there be multiple Thanes with different roles? A Thane that would oversee the defense of the village... A Thane that would represent the craftspeople and their needs... A Thane would manage the harvests and herds... Priests/Priestesses/God-Talkers who would oversee the spiritual life of the village?... etc. Just wanted to clarify the role before my players take up Thaneship.

Thanks for the ideas! I've decided to go with the harvest queen/ceremonial marriage approach as presented by jajagappa. I'll give my ernaldan initiate a chance to compete in being chosen to be the harvest queen in the early days of the ritual. Her mother will put pressure on her to participate, but if she chooses not to, then she will play a role in helping to judge the young suitors to see if they are suitable. I've written in a couple of ways this ceremony can go sideways.... A group of Lunars (gasp!) has infiltrated the festival. Their goal is to sabotage the ritual so bad luck would be brought down on the clan. Players must find out what is going wrong, and who is responsible. The Harvest Queen who is selected, provided my initiate opts out of participating, will fall for one of the suitors who may not be the best competitor (either a player or a handsome rogue). Players can choose to let this play out or try to nudge the harvest queen into making a choice that would be better for clan magic.

Thank you for the posts! This has all been very helpful!

Looking at the calendar in the gamemaster pack has revealed to me that there is series of Ernalda holy days throughout Fertility week of Earth season. One of my players is an up and coming priestess of Ernalda being groomed by her mother to succeed her when she retires. My player noticed this week long holy day and was essentially like "Can this be an adventure? I think my character would want to be super-involved in this event." The questions I am putting out to the experienced runequest community is this. "What are the major events that occur on an Ernaldan holy day? Especially this week long festival in Earth season?" "What are some events that players can participate in on a holy day that would be exciting from both a roleplay and a game perspective?" "Two of my other players are a Humaktian and a Storm Bull worshipper, what would role could these death dealers take on in a festival that would make it interesting?" I'm sure that given enough time I could think of the answers to these questions. However, this is still early days in my runequest campaign (just finished our second session of runequest ever). I want to make my players first holy day adventure something special, something that gets them invested in the community as well as involving in them in deeper myths of Glorantha. Thanks for the help!

Woah! That is a cool article. I had no idea that so few of the population were initiated into minor cults!

Perfect! I'm finding this information helpful. It's giving me a rough idea about the scale a town needs to be to support a temple.

As part of my runequest campaign I've been working on building a random town generator. I'm curious as to what the density of temples is like in dragon pass. I've been going off of the town sizes found in Guide to Glorantha village (<500), town (300-1000), small city (500 - 6000), large city (6000 - 25000), metropolis (25 000 +) Do villages usually only have shrines? If so, to how many gods? Would a town only support one minor temple? How many shrines could be found? In small cities, do we start to see major temples? If so how many? Are there minor temples as well? In large cities how many temples would there be? I understand a lot of this is down to personal taste and "My Glorantha Will Vary", but I'm curious how other folks, who have spent more time exploring Glorantha, may have handled this at their game table. What I have so far... Village (1D3 shrines) Town (50% chance of minor temple) (1d6 shrines) Small City (1D3 -1 major temple) (1D3 minor temples) (at this point other shrines exist to cover the other worship needs of the community) Large city (50% chance of temple complex) (1D3 major temples) (1D6 minor temples)

I love this discussion. It should be noted that this might be a cultural solution to a lot of potential conflict problems. If you can find a family tie between clans, it might result in an inter-clan dispute being resolved more "peacefully" than otherwise.

Good idea g33k! That's inspired me to modify and make my own family history charts.