radmonger

It has a common problem with RQ:G that what is written doesn't prevent it being played, but neither does it explain _how_. Imagine if there was a section in the default cult template, after 'cult in the world', called 'playing a character in the cult'. Such a seciton would almost always have something interesting and useful to say, even if it was only a Crimson Bat style 'don't do this'.

The potato shops of Glamour are a tolerated form of dissent, places of speculative philosophical discussion where the wealthy and the fashionable mingle. It is said that they once sold 'potato tea', a dark brown sweet drink only made at ruinous expense by dangerous magical process bordering on heroquesting. However, since the recent crackdowns, every time the lunar authorities raid, they find nothing but Hazia cakes and gin. A popular thesis propounded by potato-shop radicals is that the existence of slavery in the modern Lunar Empire is a long term plot to undermine the Yelmic nobility. Currently the cult of Yelmic rulers is irreplaceable, as the Lordril peasantry would accept no other ruler as legitimate. And without the peasantry, the cities cannot be fed. According to one such radical, when the Cycle revolves, the inner circle of active Lunar Demigods will organise a successful slave uprising against the current mask of the Red Emperor and his Yelmic allies. Come the Revolution, everyone will eat potato cake.

It is kind of brutally efficient. You break a rule, you have to do without a body part until you succeed at a Worship: Danfive Xaron roll. A grizzled imperial agent might humblebrag that it took him 400 castings of Regrow Limb before he finally saw the light of the Way. Before any DX can become illuminated, they must get to the point where they are enforce the rules on themselves. In doing so, they demonstrate they can be trusted to not have to follow the rules.

To pickup on this particular point, think of the cult restriction that Yelmalians have to deal only in gold, not silver. It is plausible that is an echo or imitation of Talar caste restrictions; Yelmalians did only recently claim the right to take on the role of ruler. The details of it being gold versus silver may come via Dara Happa. But the distinction between funding and payment may come from ur-Malkionism somewhere. If so, Talars can fund a temple, regiment or festival. They cannot pay for a snack, nor can they receive payment. This means that in sufficiently orthodox Malkioni lands, street food vendors simply do not exist. Instead, there are communal kitchens, existing wherever a Talar decided it was necessary and useful for them to be. Temporary stands are common at festivals, handing out whatever they have until it runs out. Of course, few if any lands are that orthodox; in most cases Dronali street vendors do exist, as a caste violation. The Zzaburi have mostly given up on asking for the laws against them to be enforced, though sometimes a young hothead takes the matter into their own hands. Which is, of course, itself a caste violation.

The key thing about Loskalm is that the Men of All break the caste restrictions put in place between worker, soldier, sorceror and ruler. This allow them to do what no Brithini ever could; magically craft unenchanted iron gear that is highly effective in combat, resistant to hostile magic, and invulnerable to being dispelled. The form such sorcerously created wargear takes is variable, but one common pattern is high Gothic steel plate armour. Such armour is personally created by the Men of All themselves, starting by alchemically refining the iron via a dangerous process of Otherside questing. For ten years I have been polishing this sword; Its frosty edge has never been put to the test. Now I am holding it and showing it to you: Is there anyone suffering from injustice? As a result, Loskalmi society has none of the material infrastructure and widespread knowledge otherwise required to produce equivalent gear. It's still recognizably a bronze age society. It's just one that has heavy cavalry wearing steel plate.

A third option is that hereditary Aeolian zzaburi have three career paths. One of which is learning sorcery, the other two are initiating into the two main approved Zzaburi Rune Cults: Lhankhor Mhy and Chalana Arroy. All of these are considered valid options for passing on zzaburi status to their descendants. And all of those provide enough economic value to society that it is viable for them to make up a sizable group of people. Especially if Aeolian hospitals service non-Aeolians. Note that the Chalana Arroy cult already has obligatory pacifism. And philosophers, healers and scribes are some of the few occupations that do not provide weapon skills. Which suggests that, even in wider Orlanthi society, apprentices in those cults are exempt from militia service. Some place up someone described Aeolianism as a hybrid of Malkionism and the Lightbringers. The thing is, they are a small isolationist ethnic enclave, with good written records. Which makes it entirely plausible they are not a result of a merging of cultures, but a relic of prior ages before those cultures split.

Are you dragging and dropping the runes int the categories?

Looks good. The javelin skills on cavalry occupations seem to be locked in to to 1H spear (javelin), rather than javelin (thrown) as would make logical sense.

If the cults map to castes, which seems plausible, then it could be: Talar: Orlanth, Eurmal Zzaburi: Lhankor Mhy, Chalana Arroy others: Ernalda, Issaries, ... Zzaburi-caste members who flunk sorcery training fall back on Rune magic. Talars who are incapable of leading lean into being laughable buffoons who are still somehow magically useful to keep around. One thing that is plausible to me is that this is the origin of the wider Orlanthi system of libraries and hospitals taking on full-time apprentices, to some of whom they teach sorcery. It's just outside Aeolianism this is determined by the magical sorting hat that is adulthood rites, rather than birth.

IMHO, the only way a heridatary caste system makes mythic sense is due to reflecting the flavor of Bless Pregnancy , or perhaps its sorcerous equivalent, used by their parents. Note that for Brithini, the caste roles are set by birth order, not parentage. Which presumably comes from 'first child, cast this spell, second, that one'. Hence the word 'caste' used to describe the different spell results.

I don't think Temertain was canonically Aoelian, but he must have been at least Aeolian-adjacent, coming from the Lhankhor Mhy cult in the Holy country. He honestly thought it was possible that he could rule as a philosopher-king. By birthright, despite having no notable martial skills. If Sartarites were Aeolians, that plan could have worked. And you can in fact qualify for Orlanth Rex without becoming a Wind Lord of Orlanth Adventerous. But in Sartar, that would be the equivalent of trying to become President of the USA without having a college degree, or roman emperor without military experience.

To turn the question around, I think you can essentially prove you are initiated by succeeding at a worship [deity] skill, which you wouldn't be able to do otherwise, and will have a magically detectable effect. This is presumably how initiation status carries over for cultists between distant lands, subject to the eternal debate over the deity in question being the same. As a stranger, you would normally be treated as a guest and lay member until you did so. The chance that the roll could fail gives an infiltrator some cover. Saying 'I wasn't really feeling it that time' is an excuse you can use perhaps once or twice. Having visible permanent tattoos will decrease, but not eliminate, any suspicion. Note that lunar cults tend to be a bit more organised in initiation status, actually writing things down. This is largely because they are far more likely to face infiltration by unauthorized illuminates. So you can't generally take control of a Yanafal Tarnils regiment by showing up and demonstrating an aura of command.

INT and DEX being more expensive makes sense in a modern setting like CoC, due to firearms and literacy. In RQ:G melee combat and magic tends to be more common. So you could maybe simplify things by costing all stats the same. The official fast character generation method has some suggested stat arrays.

Functionally, that is the core of the change in focus. To make it into RQ:G, you have to have perhaps 10,000 or so initiates, and provide multiple unique rune spells available nowhere else. That scope was probably set when the book was going to be two printed volumes. Minor regional cults are not covered; they still exist. Regional variants and alternate names are not exhaustively covered; they still exist. But most importantly,for every deity that has an organised cult with temples and standardised Rune magic, there are at least 10 for which that could be the case but isn't. HQ:G had a tendency to imply that every deity had a cult. And so if you wanted to find out about say Rigsdal you would go to the Rigsdal priest at the Rigsdal temple. Wheras in RQ:G, Rigsdal is personally worshipped by Kallyr who met him on a heroquest. And so she has unique powers that no-one else currently has[1]. In Marvel comics, there are supposedly 80,000 characters that have appeared in more than one story. A quiz team assembled from knowledge cultists of different Gloranthan cultures could probably match that. And even they would still miss many. So at that level of detail, when you want a new unique deity for for your heroquesting PCs to interact with, make it up. Noone is crazy enough to try to define the canon name of every shopkeeper and guard in Nochet, updating it seasonally to match births and deaths. But that's actually a comparable scale. [1] canonically I don't think she succeeds in turning that into a lasting legacy in the form of a cult, but things could presumably have gone differently, and indeed will in some campaigns.

Why pay out good silver when Summon Enemy exists? It must suck to be a assassin with a clever long term plan, and get hit by a sudden irresistible urge to attack your enemy _right now_. It's daylight, he is in the open, protected by guards, and you have just a dagger. Good luck.