svensson

Since none of my players are worshiping her, she's not an issue yet.

OK, I have an honest question for those of our British friends. I understand that many of you don't like Truss or Johnson. Setting those feelings aside for a moment, could you explain just WHY Truss was forced to step down? This is a major difference between the US and UK democracies and one I still have trouble grasping. It really does seem to me that the head of government is being forced to step down because they had a bad opinion poll.

Has his Executive Privilege been quashed by a court? I ask because I honestly don't know. We've seen POTUS' dodge Congressional supoenas before, after all. Don't get me wrong here... Cheeto Benito absolutely needs to answer for the used kitty litter that was his tenure, but I'm not at all certain he'll actually end up answering for 6 JAN like he ought to.

Trump gets $250,000 per year for life. AND Secret Service protection. Talk about a 'crime against humanity'...

Sure. I can absolutely understand that, @Lloyd Dupont. One of my chief complaints against and about the Republicans is the extent by which they've allowed the rich to destroy the middle class and then blame the poor for it. Where I live is one of the more expensive regions of the country. A two-bedroom apartment rents for $1200 /mo plus utilities. And home builders don't built 'starter homes' anymore. ALL they build are these fake, pre-fab developments /HOAs where every single house is $450K or better. So in order to buy a home, you have to make better than $80K per year. All others must rent. And this lets the property management companies charge whatever the Hell they want. And that's not even getting into the assholes who list the houses available to buy on AirBnB or VRBO.... I know it sometimes sounds as if I'm against the Left, but I can assure you that I'm not. Neither am I for the Right. I have seen what unbridled socialism does to a culture and country and want no part of it. Neither do I want free-market capitalism. A balance HAS to be struck, and right now that balance is entirely out of whack.

Nope. I just miss the cutoff of 'boomer'. I turn 57 in a few days, and I'd like to share just a bit of wisdom with you... When I was 18 years old, the world was divided in half, democracy on one side and communism on the other. At one point in 1983, the whole world came closer to nuclear Armageddon than it had been since the Cuban Missile Crisis [which, for the record, happened before I was born]. I had a front row, or 'front tank' rather, view of the proceedings. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, thought that the Earth would get out of the decade without the nukes flying. Later, when I was 22, I found myself in a war-that-wasn't-a-war... one that had no 'good guys' and whole bunch of bad guys. I honestly didn't think I'd make it to 23. Obviously, I did. The wisdom from that story is this: 'Never' is a mighty long time and there's been nobody yet who can reliably predict the future. The closest you're ever going to get is 'probably'.

Well, I can only say this... the US midterm elections are going to be HUGE this time around, especially in the Senate. Our womenfolk are **highly** pissed off and I expect them to vote in record numbers. The Roe v. Wade SCOTUS ruling has a broad spectrum of women working together in ways they never would have on any other issue. OTOH, I believe that our national debate on Abortion will be resolved in the next 24 months and I see that as a very good thing.

I heard today that the Tories are talking about Boris Badanov running again? REALLY?

As some of you may remember, I'm running a pseudo-Atlantis RQG game for some family members. In a recent discussion, the players decided they want to continue with the 'Atalan' setting rather than to convert to Glorantha. I'm fine with that, but it's obviously going to take some more writing on my part. I've decided to start with Cults. The way that I've envisioned the cults is that there are the Big Three Greater Gods, and a host of Lesser Gods. All creation depends on the Greater Gods, but the Lesser Gods are important within their specific spheres of influence or portfolios. Some of the Lesser Gods are immensely powerful, some powerful enough that they creep into the Greater category. The Greater Gods are: - Zeus: King of the Gods, Patron of the Air, Sky, Lightning, Clouds, Birds, etc. - Poseidon: Father of the Empire, God of the Waters [incl. rain] - Demeter: The Earth Mother, Patroness of all that lives upon or depends upon the Earth, specifically the Domesticated Earth The Lesser Gods are: - Hades: Brother of Zeus and Poseidon, Hades is the mightiest of the Lesser Gods and resents that 'lesser' status. Patron of the Underworld, Protector of Elysium, Jailer of Tartarus. - Apollo: The Charioteer of the Sun, Patron of Archers, Musicians, Actors, and Healers - Ares: The God of Slaughter, of Warfare For Its Own Sake, of Soldiers [but not necessarily discipline] - Artemis: The Maiden of the Wilds, the Virgin Huntress, Keeper of Wild Beauty - Athena: The Mother of Civilizations, Patroness of Wisdom, Thought, Writing, Law, Crafts, and Strategy - Baccus: God of Wine, Brewers, Passion, and Madness - Hermes: The Messenger of the Gods, the Neutral Arbiter, the Herald and Merchant. And most the rest, as they become necessary to the campaign. As for PC worshipers, ALL 'Atalans' are initiated into Poseidon as a rite of adulthood at 15-16. Most choose a second cult to initiate in as their interests and professions make themselves known. So, the cults I have to generate immediately are: Poseidon, Apollo, Artemis, and Athena Now, obviously, many of these deities have direct apples-to-apples correlations in Glorathan and so writing the cults is a snap. Hermes for example will have a lot of Issaries in it. Some cults I'll have to write from whole cloth, which isn't much of a problem. My big question that I really need help with is this: Rune Lords, yes or no? How do you folks perceive the Greek/Roman pantheon [the common perceptions, not the actual historiography] insofar as the division between Spiritual and Temporal responsibility? It can fairly argued that relatively 'simple' deities like Artemis and Ares would have Rune Priests or Rune Lords, not both, in the manner of Hunter Gods and Humakt. But Apollo and Athena are stickier and more problematic.

As I mentioned earlier, the figure I purchased from HF was pretty expensive. It turns out that was because of several design decisions I made and the shipping I'd inadvertently selected. So I redesigned the figure without the 'XL' elements and was able to cut the price for a color plastic fig down to $45 USD + shipping costs. That's still expensive, but it beats the heck out of $80 USD! 🤣 You can find the original version of the figure on Page 1 of this thread. This is what he looks likes now. Design notes: Kesten Blackblade is a starting RQG character. He is of the Narri Clan of the Colymar tribe, is an initiate of Humakt, and trained as Light Infantry background. His gear is an bronze open Helm, linothorax torso, cuiboulli limbs and medium shield. He is armed with a broadsword and knife. Additionally, he's skilled with the composite bow. He has wrapped his simple rectangular woolen cloak around himself to get it out of the way for the fight. His ancestral sword is 'the Blackblade', a fine [+1 AP] bronze broadsword with a Bladesharp 2 matrix in it. He carries the geas that he must clean the blade daily and rub a mixture of charcoal, fat, and ash on the blade to 'blacken' it. [Note: this isn't an official Humakti geas, just a roleplay detail]

My poor Rhino Rider, Grettir Widewander, about the middle of his career. He wears buckskins [+2 Armor Enchantment] under a bronze cuirass, thick leather abdomen, and middle-grade helm with a Farsee 2 matix. In our game, we simplified helmets thusly: Caps /Hoods of 1 or 2 points, Open nasal helm 4 pts, 'Cheeked' helm [similar to a classic Roman legionary helm] 6 pts, and Full helm [the Corinthian helm or European great helm] 8 pts. He is armed with a fine composite bow [Speedart matrix], suitable for use rhino-back, a broadsword of excellent quality [+1 AP, +1 Damage, Bladesharp 2 matrix] and a skinning knife. On his [unseen] mount is a lance, medium shield, and extra quiver.

Orlnessa of Odayla participates in the Great Hunt. She wears 1 pt. buckskins and a bear skull headress [4 pts.]. She is lightly armed, with only a longbow and hatchet. Presumably, she also carries a skinning knife [the HF program doesn't allow 'daggers in the boot' or 3 items on a belt].

Depends on the creature, really. But in any event, even if the creature doesn't disappear in a puff of nauseating smoke, it still leaves an unidentifiable puddle of putrescent primordial proteins. At no point would extraterrestrials or extra-dimensionals leave an identifiable corpse for forensic study. Creatures from Earth logically would, but humans have long been conditioned not to accept the evidence of their senses. They'd rather believe in a conspiracy or hoax than accept the reality of the Deep Ones even if somebody brought back a trawler full of their corpses.

*I* remember that the last time 'Valind's Glacier' hosted the Winter Olympics they literally had to truck in snow... ROFL! [Vancouver Olympics 2010, and we won't get into what happened to the sled dogs]

It could also be that I was dropped on my head as an infant 😁 However, the minis I got yesterday are still noticeably smaller than the 'normal sized' ones on my shelf.

I've linked [at the bottom] the K/S I backed. I selected the Blessed Daughters Archers as my reward and additionally ordered the Pre-Gen characters from RQG. Let me repeat, the minis are high quality with few, but some, spurs and flanges. They have good-to-excellent detail. I really did get what I paid for. It's just that my 'inches and feet' brain didn't realize that there is larger difference between 25mm and 28mm that I thought there would be.

So.... Got my K/S minis today. The RQG Iconic Characters and Moon Daughters Archery Company, in case you were wondering. Wow... I guess there really is a larger difference than I thought between 25 and 28mm. Don't get me wrong here. I got precisely what I paid for: Good quality metal miniatures that'll require painting. But yeah, kinda small compared to the rest of the mini collection. I will have to keep that in mind in the future.

'Music', what it is and is not, how it's done, is it any good, whatever, is a cultural phenomenon. Music is a form of communication that speaks to multiple levels of a person's brain, so how it is organized or defined or labelled isn't really all that important. I mean, how many arguments can you get into on youtube by parsing whether a given offering is 'music' or 'noise'? [Personal note: Death to autotune!] My point is that unless one is a music literati willing to drop $1000 on a certified handmade Persian dishdudi, it really doesn't matter how a given Gloranthan culture sorts out its music. As every artist who's ever gotten up in front of a crowd of drunks knows, you have to pitch the performance to the audience - - no matter who they are. I don't think any of the gamers at my table care a fig whether or not the 'music' being played in the clan hall is bardic poetry set to drums and strings, or Pythegorean Greek 'triangular' lyre-playing. It's all just background flavor text.

Well, none of them has it in their specific portfolio and Godtime deeds. Good question.

'Not a Yelmalio sympathizer' Well, givin' all them-thar girl-chillin' high falutin' ideers jus' ain't raht....

Well, yeah.... That probably all of us, really

Another problem with Lodril worship is that the major source of worship East of Esrolia is the Agimori, but they worship a VERY different version of Lodril. Besides, according to Gloranthan Bestiary only 5% of Agimori worship Lodril anyway.

I think Eurmal and Yinkin have 'lazy' pretty well covered and Orlanth can give lessons on 'lusty' to anybody. 🤣 I'm not saying it's impossible for Lodril to have some representation. How much representation is entirely up to you and your group. IMG, I'd guess about 25-50 initiates in all of Sartar, with one Husband-Protector shrine in one of the tribal Ernalda temples and one actual Priest associated who is able to initiate followers. And maybe one roving God-Talker who tries to get around the the steadings of worshipers once a season or so.

I'm not trying to 'crush' anyone, Nick. Since we are discussing 'what role, if any' I'm supporting my position of 'logically Lodril would have little or no role'. I'm an absolute fan of 'YGMV' and Rule One, if something makes your game more fun then have at it with my enthusiastic blessing [not that you need it]. After all, no set of game rules or milieu writing survives contact with player characters anyway.

In the Allied Spirits discussion, it's generally agreed that an Allied Spirit is an initiate of the granting deity, that being in service to a Rune level of the deity 24/7 counts as 'cult service', and that the spirit cannot progress beyond initiate. Using that as a basis, it's not unreasonable for an intelligent mount to become an initiate of a deity. We have the Lunar Coders' wyvern mount that was raised to initiate status in 7M as an example. If the mount were an awakened beast, I would say that they're automatically an initiate of their racial spirit [an awakened bison being an initiate of Grandfather Bison, for example] and can choose to initiate into a larger 'more two-legged' cult if they wish. Storm Bull, Waha, Eiritha all are good candidates. But since unicorns are an intelligent race in and of themselves, we can skip that step and let them initiate into Yelorna automatically with the sacrifice of 1 POW.