hipsterinspace

I Fought We Won is itself a solitary ordeal if you read the myth as presented in Book of Heortling Mythology. Heort fights alone against chaos in the darkness. It is a deeply personal battle where he chose to fight despite knowing the odds were stacked against him, had his dark night of the soul (apt, given the whole Great Darkness thing), encountered the Second Son, and was strengthened enough to fight until victory against the devil was achieved. You can similarly run Hill of Gold as if it also has the same two distinct phases, you have the first part which can be likened to Heort in the Darkness, where Yelmalio is defeated again and again, has to face the Selfish God, the Cruel God, is weakened by the cold, and is defeated by Chaos. The second part can be likened to the Second Son and facing the devil, where Yelmalio is healed and strengthened by Aldrya and the elves and fortified enough to withstand his ongoing fight against chaos, the last light watching over the desperate battle until the first dawn.

Jardan isn’t the Little Sun, he’s an aspect of Yu-Kargzant, Yelm, the (big, regular) Sun. Rules-wise he is Yelm the Archer in the RQG book. Among their relatives, the Pentans, the Little Sun is called Kargzant. One thing that has been pointed out elsewhere is that the Little Sun worshippers of Tarsh and the Provinces never lost contact with the old Pelorian Solar traditions. The reason the Elmal civil war stuff happens in southern Sartar is that that’s the only place where the Elmal cult meaningfully exists, where the Heortling Little Sun was disconnected from the Pelorian Solar cults and old traditions by the Inhuman Occupation. This being the case, Harvar didn’t need to convert anyone, they were already Yelmalio worshippers up north, that’s how he was able to take over in the first place. If he’d had to convert a bunch of Elmal worshippers by force it would have made it impossible to leverage his position against the more numerous Orlanthi in the way that he did. I think David Scott does a good job of clarifying how their cult is represented rules-wise and what they get here. They wouldn’t worship him like a Sun Domer, just like Pentan Kargzant worshippers wouldn’t worship their little sun like the Sun Domers. I don’t think Monrogh’s revelation is supposed to be that you have to be a hoplite who lives in a Sun Dome.

In some of the older material (Griffin Mountain if I'm remembering right), some cults with rites that include human sacrifice are said to be able to use the POW of those they sacrifice for things like powering spells or enchantments. I would imagine chaotic creatures and cultists would have no issue with such things, especially if they can be combined with something like tapping. Mastering runes and techniques is another important part of sorcery, I'd imagine similar measures would be required to do so.

I think Prax’s contribution to I Fought We Won is quite straightforward: it’s the Eternal Battle, Storm Bull and the Devil. Perhaps they say the Little Sun was there too, the last light in the darkness, shining over Storm Bull to avenge his lost brother Yamsur. Well, there’s Southbank not far away, said to be ruled over by a Solar Tyrant and a resurgent Yelm cult. As @dumuzid points out there’s Vorthan nearby with his hill, ostensibly Yelmalio’s brother, there to kill everything to bring about new life. There are the elves of the Courtwood and Winterwood. There are also plenty of Earth worshipers around everywhere.

In the older material, when Orlanth departs he entrusts the defense of the stead to Elmal and Vinga who defend his people while he is away. This would be an occasion for Elmal clans to heroquest Elmal Guards the Stead, and I’d imagine it would serve as a piece of the wider I Fought We Won rites practiced basically everywhere. The Hill of Gold has a lot of messages similar to the I Fought We Won/Unity Battle, and some say that Elmal Guards the Stead is a version of the Hill of Gold. As for Chalana Arroy and Elmal, if you look into the Six Ages stuff his rider followers worship Erissa, who we know as a daughter of Chalana Arroy (also an associate/subservient cult of Yelm) offering the rune spell Restore Vision. In the background of KoDP, Elmal joined with Orlanth after Chalana Arroy “cured his blindness”. These seem like they’re probably related somehow. On the other hand, I don’t know that I would associate them if you’re looking more properly at Antirius-Daysenerus-Kargzant-Tharkantus Yelmalio, as he was healed in the darkness by Aldrya and the Elves rather than Chalana Arroy.

They only become impure by herding something other than horses or practicing agriculture, per the Yu-Kargzant section in RQG's core rule book. Both of those are why they have the Vendref around to do it for them. As for the relationship between Kargzant (who the Grazelanders do not have) and Yu-Kargzant, I think the WoD article on Solar Pentans is pretty useful, they have Pure Horse Yu-Kargzant worshipers as a priestly caste within their tribes and among nobles (women from those groups worship Dendara as La-Ungariant), but most people worship Kargzant and the Cow Goddess (Yelmalio and Eiritha). Pentans do not have Vendref to burden with the responsibilities of herding food beasts, so they appear to use Kargzanti in a similar way to the Yelmite-Lodrili dynamic of lowland Peloria. If you want citations, the Guide p. 647 explains that Yelmalio is called Sun Daughter among the Praxians. David Scott has written extensively on the Praxian tradition and is the person I'd most trust to have the right answer as the person writing much of the official material. He talks in detail about Yelmalio in Prax here. He's popular because he came to help the Praxians in the Darkness as Sun Daughter, the same reason any Praxian spirit is venerated. If you just want the ultimate survivor you have Waha, the reason why everyone there survived. Whether you want to agree with me or not, we're getting a big far afield from Elmal.

Their entire way of life is structured around not losing that connection, that’s why they are the Pure Horse, why they live in the highly restrictive way that they do. They would not know the mysteries of Kargzant, they would have no need to know them, they have never worshiped him. As such, that’s why I would think the Pol-Joni probably had Elmal prior to Monrogh and maybe the Praxian Sun Daughter tradition, which leads me to: They used to call Yelmalio Sun Daughter, one of the more important spirits of Prax and part of their Sky Gazers spirit society. Their Yelmalio cult is focused on riding rather than pike phalanxes, and is primarily among Imapala tribe and to a lesser degree within the Sable tribe. I like David Scott’s suggestion that they are a martial cult who follow Light Khans and do not have priests which sounds very similar to Elmal’s rune lord-only cult of Loyal Thanes.

Nonetheless, they are not Pure Horse or Pentan, they are culturally Orlanthi. If you look at their demographics, they have a minor temple to Yelmalio, but I’d imagine that would be either the Praxian version or their post-revelation Elmali, not the Pentan Kargzant who the Pure Horse Tribe have no connection to.

They aren’t ex-grazers. Their founder was an Orlanthi from the Blue Jay Clan of the Dundealos tribe, they are Heortlings, not Grazers or Pentans. I wouldn’t give Animal Lore, that’s identifying wild animals, but I would give Celestial Lore. In addition I would maybe add Sing or Orate, maybe both. I’d swap Command Horse for Clear Sight, which reflects his victory over the illusions of the Teller of Lies. I’d instead give him Command Horse through Hyalor (or Beren or Ulanin) as an associate/hero cult, after all, the Runegate clans are the Hyaloring Triaty for a reason. I would have Orlanth (irrespective of subcult) give a single spell: Shield. Associate spells come from mythic interactions rather than rewards for service. Orlanth traded shields with Elmal when he departed on the Lightbringer Quest. I would not give him additional atmospheric magic beyond Cloud Clear. The reward that Elmal’s cultists get from their god’s loyalty to Orlanth in his kingship aspect probably isn’t Rex spells as an associate but the ability to become a Chief (as in Anatyr in the old material) and easily initiate into Orlanth Rex temporarily (or permanently as a tribal king) on that basis. It is my understanding that one must be a friendly or associated cult of Orlanth to do this. Yelmalio as a neutral cult would have difficulty mythically doing that, hence why the Sun Dome is outside of the kingship of Orlanth Rex. Personally, if you’re going to make Chalana Arroy an associate (I’m not sure that I would), I would give Elmal Restore Vision from her, Erissa’s spell, because Chalana Arroy is said to have cured his blindness. In addition, like Heler, I’d give him Bless Crops from the Grain Goddesses (Elmal competes with Heler for Esrola’s hand every summer). I’d add to that Heal Body from Ernalda (healed by her daughters’ weeping for him while guarding the stead) and Speak to Horses (or the ability to learn the magic skill Understand Horse) from his/Beren’s wife Redalda, who I would treat rules-wise as a hero cult of Ernalda found in some clans.

Kerofin is the goddess of Einkorn Wheat, I would imagine that figures pretty heavily.

Ernalda is said to remain reachable by the Earth Witch shamans of her cult even in the Heroquest materials, but the absence of Orlanth is the really difficult part. It's worth noting that spirit magic is far more limited in terms of both effect and efficiency if you aren't a shaman. As for Baroshi, there are some other things going on there, including some potentially big changes (11 Lights spoilers):

Esrolia is the breadbasket of Kethaela and grows the food to support its own population of more than 2 million people from a rather small area, all of that magical fecundity has to come from somewhere. In Esrolia the temple city of Ezel is where Ernalda lives and is the holiest site in the Ernaldan religion, maybe all of the Earth Pantheon religion, in Genertela. It is a place not fully constrained by the middle world, where one can experience the fullness of the manifest earth. I would suspect that the mystical traditions of Imarja are also going to be very prominent. Perhaps the scheming aspect is going to be most pronounced in Nochet, but the Great Houses are bound to have a huge household staff of retainers and servants, including a functioning bureaucracy made up of many Issaries worshipers (the third largest cult in Nochet) and some of the thousands of Lhankoring scribes present to conduct the day-to-day business and bookkeeping work of the houses.

I think, at least canonically, some of the little sun cults get Command Horse from Hyalor and Speak to Horse from Gamari. For Elmali I’d imagine the latter is probably called Redalda.

I doubt women are going to be more prominent than Esrolia, I don’t know that that’s possible, but the character of their prominence is likely going to look different due to the influence of the “malign earth” cults. Sorana Tor has been listed as an avatar Ana Gor—the goddess of human sacrifice—in addition to an avatar of Kero Fin, which seems to really set the tone for their earth rites.

I think they’ve stated that the only Thunder Brothers to get the full named treatment are Vinga and Hedkoranth, that the others are treated like Maruts, mostly unnamed petty gods of thunder.

That is a very modern perspective, where the entire Solar worldview appears to be based on hierarchies of hierarchies, it reads as Confucian in some ways. Yelm is the emperor of existence, he is everyone’s better, it is natural that Lokarnos would defer to him, just as men are the betters of women, priests are the betters of initiates and laypersons, nobles are the betters of the common folk, and elders are the betters of the young. That is the nature of the Yelmic social order, that is why the Lunar Way is so transgressive, it isn’t that it accepts chaos, it’s that it says everyone is the same, We are all Us. Even so, there is still recourse from within that old social order for mistreated peasants, after all, Lodril gives magic to incite peasant rebellions, but that’s said to be a very rare occurrence. They don’t sell goods, they move goods, that’s why they would seek out an Issaries trader. They facilitate the movement of goods between places by wagon and between people by coinage.

Superhero, from what has been said before, is broadly synonymous with demigod: ageless, undying, powerful beyond mortal reckoning. Jar-eel has her heart ripped out by Harrek and returns seemingly without much trouble. On the other hand, many “regular” heroes are the source for special rune magic, venerated based on the deed of their god that they discovered and reenacted through heroquesting. A good example is Garundyer, a powerful Orlanthi heroquester from Ralios. He is not a demigod, but he is a very powerful hero who discovered Siglolf Cloudcrusher in the other world and his boon of Hailstones. He brought that boon back, which allowed other Orlanth cultists to sacrifice to his hero cult for the spell. In time his Cloudcrusher aspect has grown notable enough that it is said to form its own subcult of Orlanth in Ralios.

The second page of the Rune Magic section of the RBoM has rules for devising new rune spells. The spells in the book are certainly not all of the spells that are possible, and this seems like a great use of those rules to create something interesting.

I think you could pretty straightforwardly rule it like the Morale or Star Walk rune spells. Cast by the leader on the boat's crew, it lasts until they stop rowing or sunset. Maybe it could use Vigor the same way that Star Walk extends Mobility, where every rower casts Vigor on themselves and it's extended through the day of rowing.

I don’t think this particularly works for most spirits. It might be something you’re able to get away with for cult spirits, but it seems like many spirits do a lot to put the petty in petty god: every spirit seems to have their own rivalries, likes, dislikes, and demands which can differ significantly from spirit to spirit or change over time based on relationships with humans. The spirit ecology that gives rise to these preferences also seems to change as much as the physical ecology over time and distance, and if you treat them interchangeably I’d imagine they’re liable to get upset that they are being venerated incorrectly. Think of it this way, no matter what extravagance someone might be willing to give you as a gift, it would probably be far less attractive if they’re calling you the wrong name and picked it out based on someone else’s preferences.

I would imagine the Sleep spell begins with the target being overcome with a powerful hypnagogic state where they would like more than anything to lie down and curl into a fetal position before drifting off to sleep. Chalana Arroy would not be the source of something that routinely harms people from negligence, to me that’s not MGF and would unnecessarily and additionally punish someone for choosing to accept the already very strict limitations of Chalana Arroy’s cult for their PC.

Slavery is still all over the place in Glorantha. The Orlanthi may be generally averse to it, but the Lunars are said to have widespread slavery within their empire and Fonrit has an entire social order based materially and metaphysically around slavery. Of the big player cultures, Esrolia has a lot of unfree labor through what amounts to a corvee system exercised by the Earth temples, but don't seem to have a tradition of chattel slavery natively. That said, Nochet has a neighborhood called Bluetown where I would imagine enslaved Fonritians live as chattel slaves of their Mazarin merchant owners. As the Ergeshi go, personally I find the idea of the Yelmalio cult constantly trying to recapitulate a mythic victory of light over darkness in their social structures interesting. One of the most appealing options to me that it sets up is the potential for a Kitori Spartacus rising up as a PC or campaign hook, but it does make the Sun Domers a far less sympathetic group.

Minor illnesses and diseases can also be caused by other entities’ displeasure, not the work of Mallia’s epidemic diseases. Disrespect or offend the naiad of your local water source and you might find your body unable to hold in her water, resulting in diarrhea. Disrespect or offend the grain goddess and eating her grain denies you the life held within it, either causing you vomit it back up or otherwise leaving you hungry and lethargic. Anger an ancestor spirit, maybe they use their source of your man rune to curse you in your sleep with terrible nightmares or impotence until you correct your course of action.

In The Guide, vetches are said to be important enough for the warlord rulers of Porthomeka to exercise a monopoly on in their lands, I’d think that speaks to a broader reliance on legumes for calories if they’re important enough to place such strict controls on. On the other hand, I’d imagine the Praxian diet is pretty similar to that of the pastoralist Maasai. Meat, blood, fat, and milk for the most part.

The primary brewers are the Ernalda cult, to which Minlister is a subservient cult (I’d imagine, if nothing else, providing the single rune spell Brew). It makes a lot of sense, her cult grows and keeps the grain and fruit as part of the whole palace economy. Sartar is famous for its white wines, but I’d imagine beer and ciders are also very common. Mead is said to be rarer and more expensive, a special sort of mead called Crazy Black Widebrew is said to be able to cause potent visions and is often used only during rituals. As it gets quite cold in the winters at high altitude, we’re told that they also make ice beer in some places.