Scorus

Where can I find Empire of Light/Nysalor cultural information? My party has found an entrapped creature in an EoL and then Arkat ruin. I'm thinking it is some kind of light/fire imp, basically. A Nysalorean ready to get back to the business of spreading Nysalor's philosophy and illumination. Possibly related to Antirius somehow. Any recommendations for sources, or facts that confirm or deny this concept, much appreciated.

10 hours ago, Joerg said:

If I had to make up a heroic CA ancestor, I probably would go about and invent Sartar's Chalana Arroy companion on his Westfaring quest (to get a wyter for his new kingdom). Ties to the royal house, etc. Maybe have her involved in a disease in connection to King Brangbane.

Yeah, I was hoping to have them be the central figure and not a companion. But that may not be in the cards.

I don't want or need Rune Masters style stats, just a good story that I can develop into a minor spirit cult with a shrine inside a Chalana Arroy temple (probably Jonstown).

A new Chalana Arroy character in my game has a worshipped hero ancestor from the same cult. Can anyone point me to a publication with a good example of a Chalana Arroy hero? Heroquest, Runequest, or whatever source works!

Ideas on what resulted in her hero status:

• Heroquested to cure an uncurable malady.
• Defeated a primal disease spirit to eliminate an entire disease from Glorantha.
• Prevented or ended a major war.
• Converted a horrid warlord, or even an entire warrior kingdom, to pacifism.

Other ideas from this creative crew most welcome!

8 hours ago, scott-martin said:

Unless your players are very interested, I wouldn't worry about it. If they are, they'll find out in play and be richly rewarded. Most will approach through the elf gardener channel (only the first step) but there are always a few wild revelations, even among human-identifying people. But communion with him teaches a kind of cyclical immortality that is worth having even if it fits poorly on the character sheet.

They can only find out if I know. This thread has been very helpful toward that and I look forward to GoG shining even more light on the question!

So this is not a cult with its own temples and priests, just shrines in related temples? Similar to Mastakos or Arroin, then?

I see Flamal on the list of cults included in the upcoming publication. Where and by whom is he worshipped? What kind of cult is it? I don't remember hearing a mention of a Flamal cult before and assumed that was because he was killed by Zorak Zoran in the God Time.

PC was killed. An NPC healer entered into spirit combat with his ghost to resurrect him. The healer successfully attacked him to force him into his body in the first round, but the PC fumbled his spirit combat roll and then rolled a 96:

Non-shaman: Combatant’s body and spirit become separated; combatant discorporates and may only be reunited by a successful Spirit Travel roll or the intervention of a shaman. The gamemaster should determine the physical effects of long-term discorporation.

My thought here is that the resurrection was successful but that the PC's spirit was ejected from the body by its difficulty with the spirit realm. Thoughts?

The High Priest of Orgorvale Summer has had quite a lot of success spreading the good word in my game. He has established shrines to "Grandma Summer" in the Temple to All Deities in Apple Lane, and in the Clearwine and Boldhome Lightbringer temples as a relative of Orlanth. Pilgrimages to the Queen's Tomb are also proving popular and may necessitate and/or benefit from some on-site staffing in the way of guides, security, shaman, etc. (funnel cake booth not included).

He has some hides to support this newfound religious infrastructure and I'm trying to figure out what the upkeep of this enterprise would cost. I assume that parishioners supply the sacrifices needed? So the main costs would be physical upkeep and any necessary staffing?

The only two numbers I can find are the cost of upkeep on a holy site (25-200L/season) from RQG and upkeep on a shrine (10L/year) in Weapons & Equipment.

What are the best sources for information on the Battle of Queens (besides Armies and Enemies of Dragon Pass)? I've seen the same basics of the battle in numerous publications (including RQG), just wondering if there are other sources (canon or otherwise) with additional information. Thanks.

It is encumbrance and not weight. If you look at illustrations, the skirts aren't much shorter than hauberks that folks are wearing since they come down to the upper thighs. That said, you can change it to 1.5 or whatever in your game if you think that more appropriate.

23 hours ago, AndreJarosch said:

IMHO the Heroquesting book is more important to get published soon than another adventure collection. 
If the HeroQuesting book is available future adventure collections can include heroquests (which will be more and more common as the Hero Wars continue to unfold), which will be a big plus for an adventure book.

Nothing is more important to the success of RQ than publishing GoG, but finally putting forth heroquesting rules after 40 years is a close second. They allow GMs and players to create their own campaigns and history, which is SO much more important than spoon-feeding us history and adventures. And this is coming from someone that generally adapts other's adventures instead of writing my own!

4 hours ago, Scotty said:

Yes. As an aside you don't just resummon the same elemetal when it dies, you summon a different one. You can't just rebind the divine spirit into a new elemental, it's gone.

Ah, interesting! So the physical death of an elemental overrides Having once successfully summoned an elemental, the deity sends the same elemental every time the adventurer summons an elemental of that size and type. (p.343) ?

6 hours ago, Orlanthatemyhamster said:

Hell will freeze over before almost all of the stuff produced by the JC gets an official yay or nay by Chaosium doing competition. In fact I should imagine unless they are central places, characters, what have you, Chaosium will avoid contradicting the JC stuff, cause unless it is very bad it will have done Chaosium's work for it.

Richard has made it clear what his sources are for the official Chaosium stuff, and they don't include the JC! Some of the JC authors have advanced copies of stuff and are going to stick to the canon, but anything that disagrees with Richard's primary sources will be ignored.

On 6/14/2022 at 1:58 AM, Jose said:

Yes, and the release of the Sartar set is more important from player perspective, player base and money-making than the Gods books which is important of course but has its focus on old timers and context. You tell the people hey you start in 1625-1626 and then wait 3 years until we release a book to explain what happened in the setting 1627. Just my opinion of course.

I'm afraid I can't disagree more! The cults write-ups are going to blow the new peoples' minds and force them to make lots of changes in their campaigns, the sooner it is out the easier that is going to go.

RQG states: If an allied spirit is killed or destroyed, a new one may be obtained, but this is a matter for heroic deeds on the part of the priest.

Does this mean if the actual spirit is destroyed (i.e. POW reduced to 0) or is this referring to the vessel that the spirit inhabits (e.g. killing the shadowcat or breaking the sword)?

If someone sent their awakened elemental allied spirit into combat and it was killed, would they lose that allied spirit and have to quest for a new one or could they just resummon the elemental?

2 hours ago, Jeff said:

No but it is a warrior's code - and primarily deals with issues of war and warriors. Which means mythologically it is about how Death should be used and how its user should be treated.

Obviously you can't list every possible scenario that would merit an honor reduction, but it would be great to expand the list in RQG via errata to include more war examples that you have mentioned in other posts such as setting an ambush, ganging up on someone, refusing a surrender, etc.

15 hours ago, metcalph said:

I'm not seeing any contradiction.  

An ambush is not a surprise attack?

11 minutes ago, metcalph said:

Ambushes are not dishonorable.  Breaches of hospitality etc. are.  A Humakti may be forbidden by his god to be part of an ambush but that's his problem rather than a general view that ambushes are dishonorable.

YGMV, but as per Jeff in the links above: The buildup and formation of battle lines is done with the full knowledge of the other side and no surprise attacks are made.

I started a discussion on Facebook hoping to get an official response, now hoping I might get one here.

Ambushes are an important Orlanthi culture tactic, especially among the resistance, but seem to run directly afoul of the Orlanthi concept of honor. So my question is when an ambush would result in a loss of honor. Two examples:

1) A group of archers in hiding waiting to shoot an enemy group as they come walking along.

2) A fighter that sneaks up behind an enemy that is not yet engaged in the battle and kills them unaware.

Items in Well of Daliath that have been cited in the discussion:
https://wellofdaliath.chaosium.com/home/catalogue/websites/facebook/runequest-on-facebook-january-2021-highlights/?fbclid=IwAR1jFibTpZkJHwYrcSt4RsXDTGkI0lXeqbXjOLwvu4KARJiVDFs4eYnGZgE#ib-toc-anchor-6

https://wellofdaliath.chaosium.com/home/catalogue/websites/facebook/2021-11-jeff-on-facebook/?fbclid=IwAR2BiwvDFjgtZSUyORGK5KmnuK-eWbSU-oYnEQzPEDvH1u9jilbQb_iXVZA#ib-toc-anchor-6

Opinions (and canon) most welcome!

Right now we have a lot more philosophy than mechanics as far as Heroquests go. There are several pre-RQG and current JC publications that give some mechanics, but Jeff has said that those do not fit his and Stafford's concept. But they have promised us mechanics on this for 2-3 decades, so we have to go with the rules we have or make up our own. Or, in almost all cases, both.

As far as biological race, they are all Warerans as others have pointed out. But the term race is often misused in order to create an 'Other' and dehumanize. In the past, Northern Europeans have claimed that Southern Europeans were a different race. Jews of multiple races have been lumped into a single race. Some Hutus claimed that Tutsis were a different race.

That said, when there are actual other races as in Glorantha people are not nearly as likely to confuse race and culture. A Pelorian might look at a Praxian as something different, but not that different when viewed next to Morokanth and Agrimori. It is also unnecessary since they can define that Other by cultural and religious differences.

1 hour ago, PhilHibbs said:

Of course, they can. But 5 Rune Points - one the spell, four for Extension for a season - permanently dedicated to Find Enemy is a lot. Really useful, but a lot!

It is not that bad if you are at full on the day before your holy day.

How do other GMs deal with Detect Enemies? Clandestine enemies seem close to impossible for a party that is hip to it. Ogres, Krarsht, Lunar spies, etc. just don't stand a chance if they mean the individual harm.

51 minutes ago, Jeff said:

Orlanth is often associated with bears and is sometimes visually described as such. Odayla is clearly a stand-in for Orlanth in many stories and even hangs out with Yinkin.

At times the Orlanth/Sartar pantheon sounds almost monotheistic.

Spear, a fire weapon, instead of Trident?!