ZedAlpha

Another dumb theory: intentionally making an alloy out of copper (the magical Gloranthan metal) and tin (the other magical Gloranthan metal) makes anti-bronze. What does anti-bronze do? Nobody knows, 'cause the dwarves will sort that mess out real quick if they find out you've been making it.

So the preparation for my FATE game set in Caladraland (talked about here: ) is going forward, and one of the players expressed interest in playing a shaman. I have a bit of information on that from the Glorantha Sourcebook (which I admit is sometimes a bit dense and bounces off my unmedicated ADHD like you wouldn't believe), and have picked up from Well of Daliath and wiki entries that most Orlanthi cultures (like the Caladralanders technically are) have access to the Kolating and Earth Witch spiritual traditions. Only problem is that I'm not sure precisely what they'd entail. Are they organized cults like the theistic religions, or are those more like...less-formal magical learning practices to teach the few kids who initiate with an active Spirit rune? Would Caladraland's primary deities being Fire-aligned affect those traditions at all, or give them access to more Solar-aligned traditions? Is there enough room here for me to come up with one on my own? If that's the case, what details should I try to cover when I do?

I'm not burned out on Fate, I like Fate. I might give this a shot, but for now I think I'll stick with Fate. THanks for the suggestion, though.

that bee is so cute.

see, I never really had a good experience with Cortex when I tried the Firefly RPG, but I'd love to hear more about how this one goes.

That's a great idea, actually. A sort of omni-elemental cult of various powerful spirits/lesser gods, representing animals and forces that pollinate plants. Yeah. That's a weird, reductive take on plants and their life cycles that always struck me as like..primitive in a way that snaps my suspension of disbelief. Bronze Age people absolutely would have noticed the relationship between bees/pollinator wasps/bats/beetles and flowers. Hell, a lot of them explicitly did. It makes sense that Gloranthans would notice it too. But the lack of it in the lore is odd. Still, could always blame the God Learners. Maybe they messed with the Aldryami myths to turn them a lot more hostile to meat beasts?

oh that's PERFECT. And it also serves as an example of the very real-world Bronze Age understanding that gods are both exemplars of proper behavior and cautionary tales at the same time. "Be like Vestkarthan! Be brave, provide for your family, be loving, be open with your emotions! Also, don't be like Him in this very specific way, it only causes trouble!"

There are Caladralander stories that involve Vestkarthan attempting to seduce every god, goddess, or otherwise nonbinary deity he can see. Most of them don't end well. They're quite popular, and his priesthood have essentially grimly accepted the fact that the big strong volcano god is also known as a horny idiot. Strangely, these stories haven't made people in Caladraland respect Vestkarthan any less overall.

Oh right, Dresden Files! That's also a great idea, I should look into that too.

If you really want to be spicy, you could always have it be both. It's not like various species haven't stolen each others' big magical artifacts to make them part of their own mythologies before, and gives the Trolls and Dwarves another reason to start fighting each other during this big important magical working. The chain could be a network of merchants' guilds, arrayed along the path of this big, underground iron chain that kills magic. Maybe the Uz are trying to unearth it so they can destroy it, given that iron is anti-Troll metal? Don't know if that'd actually work though, just spitballing.

That could also be an interesting plot hook to use, thanks!

That's interesting. I kind of want to make a history generator for this game like that as well, and I'd want it to have more than just military events on it. That's a very good start, though, thank you.

in another thread I'm discussing Caladraland as a setting for a possible campaign using the FATE rules...I do like the idea of a minor bee-deity as a subcult of Caladra for two reasons: fire-bees that bake their enemies alive, like you just said, and bees being so very important for agriculture in general, especially the kind of agriculture you'd probably find in Caladraland. Okay, three reasons. One of the prospective players in that campaign is Native American, and furthermore is studying for a doctorate in Mesoamerican anthropology and mythology. Any even accidental reference to Ah Muzen Cab, real-world Mayan God of Bees, will make them incredibly happy. It also kinda fits the Polynesian-Central/South American feel of Caladraland pretty well, I think just on a flavor level.

Anyhoo, definitely have some good ideas for how to start and possibly continue a Caladralander campaign, assuming I can find the resources and do the research. Even if I can't, this has given me enough information that I think I can fake it convincingly enough for both myself and my players, who would be first-time Gloranthan roleplayers. Assuming they want to go for this concept and not, like, the circa-1300-ish Dragon Pass campaign, set around the same time as the events of the King of Dragon Pass video game.

feel free to use either of my contributions if you want btw, you can probably flesh them out better than I can

On this note, are there any established gods of bees or other pollinators? Or just insects/bugs in general? Specifically ones that might be worshipped by humans instead of primarily by trolls?

Also, newtlings?! Where can I find more information about newtlings? Nobody said anything about salamander people! That is ridiculously cute. I can't not include them. Also also, Storos sounds like a good base, especially since for this campaign, I really do want the Wolf Pirates to be the antagonists, and it makes sense that after taking down the City of Wonders, they might go for round with Storos. That could be a fun story, helping to prepare the city's defenses now that Belintar isn't around to lend the city magical support. That could absolutely be the foundation of a Big Heroic Fantasy Quest while also tying it into their community, at least to start, and that's precisely what I'm looking for. I'll try to save up and read up on Nochet and the other Caladraland resources that've been pointed out. Also also also, I took the inspiration for the Invisible Phalanx School from here, the real credit goes to @RHW: In case anyone's interested, the original idea referenced the apocryphal origins of Karate. That is, the Invisible Spear is a secret self-defense art for Pelorian peasants, disguised as "folk dances" that use farming implements. I imagined Invisible Phalanx as that, but without the need to hide that it's a fighting style. To that end it's probably a lot more of a direct striking style than the northern Invisible Spear is, and a lot more aggressive. In the game where it appeared, we definitely referenced the Haka, Siva Tau, Cibi, et. al. (Pacific Indigenous war dances). We were using HeroQuest Glorantha at the time, not Runequest, so we had the effects basically boil down to "One man can fight like a hundred" with a good enough success and vaguely narrated from there. Bronze Arms was something we made up ourselves, and had it taught by the Caladralander cult of Gustbran. This was a lot more overtly magical, and masters of the style were said to be able to turn themselves into beings of living molten bronze for a time, to shrug off weapons and punch through men, horses, monsters, stone walls, whatever was in their way. This was described as a slow, heavy, stomping style kinda reminiscent of Hung Gar and Pankration.

not the feeling I'm going for here, but thanks for the suggestion. Have you ever created any deities for your Glorantha before? I'm interested in hearing about them if you have.

Yeah, we came through just fine, thank you for asking. 😄 We're too far south to have experienced any real damage, it was just scary for a while. If you know anybody who's in the Florida Panhandle or Big Bend (or on the Gulf of Mexico in general), check on them. They probably got hammered.

And that fits this being largely an ancestor cult with ties to the sea gods, and having some sorcery that could be oddly similar but distinct from Malkioni-style sorcery. Perfect.

I think the Waertagi angle rhymes enough with the myths I panic-typed out on my phone last night during the tornado warning that I might go with that. That's a really good idea. So these people and/or their gods could definitely be kin to the Waertagi, perhaps with having a few names that in true Storm Age/Darkness style, would be suspiciously similar to current Waertagi history and culture, post-Dawn, but could predate the Waertagi being a distinct thing. Maybe the Waertagi could be descended from some people from this culture who were trapped outside the time bubble when it happened, and resettled elsewhere? Y'know what? MGIV, I guess, I like that a lot. That could really be a fun plot hook to have the PCs go explore and try to find this island. A small community of Waertagi gets a vision that their ancient ancestral homeland has been opened, and they hire the PCs to escort them to this island, and they find...this weird, half-ruined place full of regular-ass humans with weird gods, all wondering why the sky looks different colors and why their magic is acting weird.

I lose power and internet because of the hurricane and come back to a damn GOLD MINE. Thank you! So far, @AlexS, the campaign is still in the VERY early planning stages as I work out how to adapt FATE Core to Glorantha (that's another thread lol), so I'm not sure of the overall scope of the game. Given the players I'm working with this time, it's probably going to be another Big Fantasy Quest like my Harrek Must Die! campaign ended up trying to be, rather than what seems to be the usual Gloranthan tight, home-and-community focused personal sagas, but this information gives me some great ideas for how to set those Big Quests up and ground them in the communities the PCs will probably be leaving, defending, coming home to occasionally, etc. As far as where the PCs would be from, again, not sure. I do enjoy knowing that Caladraland is definitely cosmopolitan enough to allow for a wide range of native and foreign characters that'd fit into a Caladralander-based (or at least Caladralander-starting) campaign. Right now all three regions look equally tempting to have some early adventures with and across. I do really enjoy anything involving volcano priests, though. One thing I was thinking of definitely including was Heortlander/Sartarite refugees from the Lunars or Wolf Pirates coming to Caladraland because the place is basically impregnable. Definitely Possibly including some Ducks, drawn to the verdant mangrove swamps that are probably along the coasts. As far as the Maran Gor/Asrelia connection, I love that Lodril seems to be one of the Gods Of Himbos in this setting, competing with Orlanth for the title of Dumbest Broadly Well-Meaning Deity In Glorantha. The thought that he could not keep it in his skirt around Maran Gor, and might have been the only person to melt Maran Gor's stony heart for long enough to cause some real trouble with Asrelia and the Earthshaker Herself. Now that I know all that, I'm imagining the myth that goes around being an explanation for why Earthshakers are so dangerous and aggressive--their mom is pissed off at Vestkarthan. A few small clans deep in the jungle knowing how to appease them or (maybe) tame them works, with the majority of Caladralander traditions around dinosaurs probably seem like they'd start and end with "don't antagonize them and stay clear." Anyway, one other thing I was wanting to include in this is something that my last campaign group added to the game: magical unarmed martial arts styles taught by the Vestkarthan and Lowfires cults. Namely, the Invisible Phalanx/Invisible Spear and Bronze Arms schools, which I could absolutely see being part of the country's chaos-fighting traditions. My last group had a few big Wuxia enthusiasts, and this group has another one. I think they'd squee themselves into oblivion if I include that so there's no reason not to.

Those are absolutely good ideas. I was thinking about mandating that High Concept include the culture, and make the Cult/Shamanic tradition/Sorcery school (or whatever the term is) a separate aspect that they can have, only mandated if they didn't put it in the High Concept. I'm still leaning towards runic affinities being Skills, but keeping it simple like you mentioned is very appealing...I'll have to think about it. Thanks!

okay, I was planning on this being part of a Wolf Pirate-centered adventure, and the idea of some scared islanders summoning their ancestor god to smack the crap out of Harrek the Berserk (if the PCs are able to help the locals pull it off, of course) is an amazing image that I have to try and use if I ever get the chance to actually run this game. To paraphrase the ancient illuminated spirit warrior Qui-Gon Jinn, "There's always a bigger sea monster."

I also need to come up with better names for these folks XD