svensson

You know, I'm pretty sure that gods and genetics don't mix very well

Given the quality of of the new product [RQG], I have no issue with that at all. I'm gonna buy the book in hopes that there's new or updated information within. I will note, however, that Harn has a big following and has been very successful in its loose-leaf format. Further, from a strictly referee standpoint, it's much easier to organize information loose-leaf. But that could just be my old pen-and-paper thinking. On that note, there has to be some kind of balance to be struck in the Glorantha wiki between the current 'buy this out-of-print product, page xx' and wiki entries that offer substantive information in the entries but still encourage product sales.

Actually, canon has *extensive* Thanatar activity all through Carmania, Dara Happa, and elsewhere. Specifically, RQ3's 'Shadows on the Borderlands' [a supplement to 'River of Cradles'] has an antagonist Thanatari who came to Prax from a large Thanatar cult complex in Carmania, took over a shrine in Peloria, and moved on to the Vulture Country near the Zola Fel.

To my knowledge, only two Gloranthan societies have actively tried to harness Illumination, maybe three... The First Council's Bright God project that birthed Nysalor, the Jrustelan God Learners [an arguable point.. they may not have been Nysalor Riddlers per se, but their actions were Illuminated in practice], and the Lunar Colleges. You see how well each one of those societies prospered for their temerity. With all that being said, I see Illumination as something kept very secret; something only shared between one believer to another on an individual basis. They may network among themselves, but they don't organize. There are few if any 'Illumination clubhouses'. I would think that most of the smart Illuminates [or at least the cautious ones] operate like King Oddi of the Bilini. Oddi may understand that Order and Chaos are two sides of the same coin, he might understand that neither can exist without the other. But he is also aware of his position and duty as king of his people. If a fellow Illuminate were to contact him, he would judge that Illuminate solely on the effect that person has on his people. And if that means that he personally orders that Illuminate executed, he will without a second thought.

She is much like Babeester Gor and Maran Gor that way. The Earth will have it's due, in blood, in silver, and in POW sacrificed from *everyone*. To do ought else invites utter ruination. Prior to the Dragonrise, no other cult or society could match the power of the Earth Mothers when angered... Certainly not the Red Goddess, and the Storm Gods didn't even try. Even the Malkioni's Invisible God knows better than to place his dogma in direct opposition to Ernalda. It is unknown whether or nor Argrath has any kind of control or influence over Dragons... just waking one up was Heroic enough... but he will not risk angering Samastina, Clearwine, the Paps or any other large collections of Earth power. He knows better than that.

Unless you have sufficient Ride skill to break [or train] a mount to the saddle [Ride 50 in RQG], all you can do with an untrained mount is hang on and hope for the best. I would presume that a 'meat' animal is either too old, lame, or sickly to take a rider and that those animals too stubborn to take a rider [and my horsey friends tell me these bad boys do indeed exist] would actually be valued, especially in nomad society, for their potential as Allied Spirit hosts.

I'm not so sure about that, given how often in a year Resurrection is used across Glorantha. Because the 7 Mofos were reassembling a spirit shattered [but not dead] in the God Time, I have to presume that Sedenya existed in some scattered form within the Compromise and was therefore subject to it.

Bloody cheaters! [casts Glue 5 on horse's back right hoof....]

Which would be 'untrained' right? I'm reminded of that line in the old John Wayne movie 'The Cowboys'.... Youngster: "Nice horse. What's his name?" Old Cowboy: "You never name something you might have to eat, kid...."

That is part of what I'm getting at. Could it be that the errors made in the reassembly of Sedenya's spirit and it's rebirth at Teelo Estara have made the resulting being less potent than she needed to be to ascend to Goddess-hood? Would this less than optimal result have required the new being to resort to Illumination and/or the Chaos taint in order to gather sufficient power to challenge the Compromise?

That's kind of my point. I don't think that any of the 7 Mofos intended to resort to Chaos, but that DX's 'almost-failure' [remember, 'partial success' also means 'almost failure' ] required an infusion of power tainted by Chaos for the Red Goddess' apotheosis to successfully happen. In this way they doomed the Empire to eventual defeat. The single greatest charge against the Empire [after its conquering nature] is that it is tainted by and accepting of Chaos. As for the Red Goddess' taint, yes, in order to harness Chaos she needed to take Chaos into herself. Therefore she is tainted. It is worth discussing whether she was Illuminated before she became tainted as a mortal or that her apotheosis granted her Illuminated insights that allows her contain the Chaos within her in a controlled form. As for IO, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that he was an Illuminate whose lack of morals and ethics tainted the Sedenya's Quest. I don't mean to imply that all Illuminates are depraved. King Oddi of the Bilini certainly isn't. But it is a legitimate discussion within theological and philosophical circles here on Terra Prime as whether or not 'relative morality' can to rationalized depravity. How many people in history have been led to evil because they felt that their acts were for the 'greater good', after all?

Danfive was volunteered to attempt the most dangerous part of Sendenya's Quest, at which he was only partially successful. I have found nowhere where it is explained exactly what that mission /role /whatever was, but it is clear that, while he didn't succeed, he succeeded enough to redeem a life previously given over to evil. In my personal opinion, it was Danfive Xaron's failure that required Sedenya's reformed spirit to use the help of Chaos to complete her apotheosis. But I admit that I'm probably wrong about that.

Well, you're the boss It's not like I won't be buying the books after all... lol! I will say that in a city like Nochet or metropolii of the Lunar Heartland or Ralios, Lanbril ought to thrive. I mean, if a city on the edge of nowhere like Pavis can have three Master Thieves and their gangs all working [out of a population of just 5000], then those areas ought to have a dozen or more in Nochet and at least a couple or three per city in Ralios.

Lanbril isn't supposed to be mythically significant. Where Eurmal is a Trickster god, Lanbril is an out-and-out thief. Eurmal is by and large a rural deity of Storm pantheon who provides a place at Orlanth's table for those who don't fit in anywhere else. Lanbril is the god of organized urban crime for those who are disenfranchised in the larger power structure. Where Eurmal cultists find a role in their society as jesters and dissenters, Lanbril's people are absolute parasites who feed off the work and wealth of the world. And since he doesn't belong to any specific pantheon and has few ritual ties to other cults, he avoids that whole Sun vs. Storm vs. Moon kerfluffle. Therefore, it behooves Lanbril and his cult to have no great mythic deeds nor a huge role in society's ritual life. If a Lanbril Master Thief had his way, nobody would ever know the cult existed. Let others be 'heroes', Lanbril wants to be rich and subtly wield the power that wealth and those underground connections brings him. As to the spread of Lanbril's cult, wouldn't it be present in the cities of Ralios given that the region is the interface between the Invisible God's influence and the elemental theist pantheons? With all the fighting and internecine strife, it would be a perfect incubator for a god of thieves. As to Black Fang, I thought the cult was more international than that. It may be that my impression is from the GM in an old campaign I played in.

Quick question regarding Lanbril and Black Fang... I was under the impression that both of these cults were international but very independent. What I mean by that is that the different cult branches never talked to each other and had no hierarchy beyond the local head priest, but there were cults of both located all over the Genertela... at least from Ralios to Prax anyway. So it would seem to me that including them in the Gods book would be appropriate. Am I mistaken in all that?

It seems to me that Horned Man [the other primary Spirit cult along with Daka Fal], Triolina [the Water life cult], and Wachaza [the Water war cult] ought to be included. Without them, you leave holes in those elemental societal roles. Subere and Voria are pretty minor from an adventurer's point of view; they can be adequately worshiped through Kyger Litor and Aldrya respectively.

Yay! We could use some scenarios at this point.

In RQ2, or 'Classic RQ', mounts had 4 training standards: untrained, riding, cavalry, and war-trained. An untrained animal was unbroken and would not accept a rider. A riding animal would take a rider, but you'd need to make Ride checks every round in combat or you'd lose control and the mount would hare off on its own whim. A cavalry mount was used to rough feeding, hard trail use, and desensitized to battle. It wouldn't attack, but it's a stable platform to fight from. A war trained mount would attack at the rider's command. So if it were my table with the pre-gen NPCs, Vasana's bison would be 'cavalry-trained', Harmast's zebras would be riding trained, and Vishi's High Llama would probably be war-trained. See the character descriptions in RQG and the discussion on mounted combat in RQG pg. 219.

The Byzantines picked up the stirrup from their Blue Turkish opponents about 700AD or so. It's reasonable to presume that it became part of their saddlery at that point. A boy was fostered into a house as a page at between 6 and 8. He began physical development at that point. He'd begin his horsemanship training at about 10, and begin learning weapons when he was made a squire at about 12 with hunting weapons [bows, spear, dagger] and 14-15 for knightly weapons. The Egyptian mamluks had a similar training regimen.

Good question. With a mount trained to fight [a warhorse or destrier for example], yes. For a riding or cavalry trained mount, no. I have a couple of reasons for this ruling: 1. Most quadrupeds have an instinctive urge to bypass an object in their way rather than run through it. This is one reason why mounts require just as much training as their riders do. I'm a Civil War reenactor in the western US and my association has several cavalry units. It takes a minimum of two years for a horse to get onto an active battlefield with musketry going off, sunlight glinting off of metal, the concussive impact of cannon fire on sensitive noses and ears, and spectator noise and motion etc. In many ways, we're actually more careful with horse safety than we are with the safety of people. And if you've ever seen a horse's veterinary bill, you'd know why . Horses are an expensive hobby. 2. Some animals will butt as an attack [bison, sables, and rhinos being the two big examples] in response to a perceived threat, but most of the time this is instinctive. For a mount to direct its attack at the rider's bidding requires war training.

Hey everyone. One problem that I've run into in trying to convert my DnD friends to d100 is that Glorantha is just too 'early period' for them. They'd much prefer a setting where they can wear heavier armors, where steel is common, and there's an Adventurer's Guild. In short, they want something more DnD-ish. But they're also attracted to my sales pitch about d/100... that there are no 'classes', no classes means you can start as a farmer and end up a high end wizard if the campaign goes on long enough, that the system doesn't tell you 'no', it just applies penalties, that you don't suddenly ding! a level but rather watch your character grow the skills they want to have, etc. etc. etc. I've dug out my QuestWorld box for the Kanos continent, so I'll be setting it there. I've even got an idea of a campaign basis that isn't England or Waterdeep or Greyhawk.... I'm going to use a displaced population of Komnenan Byzantines [that's Constantinople in the Crusades era]. But my question to you all is what d100 system should I use? My issues as GM are these: --I want cult membership to be a resource for the PCs, but not the all-encompassing subculture that it can become in Glorantha --I want to keep magic reasonably simple but leave room for the fireball-throwing secular wizard type if that's what a PC wants --I'm probably going to throw some definite 'you're not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy' elements [for example, no horses or cows, but substitutes they've domesticated since their arrival] So, anybody got any thoughts about this?

If suggestions are being taken, I have a couple that I think might have some value. These are all some things that have come up in conversations with other fans. 1. How about publishing a Solo Adventure that helps the player through the processes of the rules.... especially the new features and major changes. 2. A Sorcery sourcebook. 3. The main RQG book is naturally focused on the Sartar /Dragon Pass region. Are there plans in the works for similar treatments of other regions [the core of the Lunar Empire, Esrolia, etc.]?

Slightly off-thread, but related... During playtest I offered a suggestion for a sorcerous cult within the Empire that honored the thief, smuggler and conman. I called it 'The Shadow of the Sun and Moons', and the focus of its magical teachings were to be illusionary and distracting, not combative. The skills taught would be sorcery magic skills along with Devise and Bluff. The point of the cult is robbing from the rich to get rich and take care of your own community's poor without having to resort to charity or the Lunar Way. This was not a cult designed make a worshiper a well-known and widely feared Magus, but rather a wealthy and locally respected member of the underworld. The cult's attitude about the whole Empire was very much 'We may be all us, but you are not mine so piss off'. Jeff didn't like my group's take on the Sorcery rules [we tried to tie it more tightly to the Runes], and so the idea died before I really got into the details of it.

I meant that as a reference to how the Storm pantheon provides deities even for Orlanthi outlaws while neither Dara Happan cultures do. Sorry if I confused.

By 'couched' I intend to say 'braced their bodies into the saddle using stirrups and held the spear tightly to the body while inducing the mount to full charge'. The number of hands holding it is immaterial to the force delivered on impact. Both the Achmaemenid /Byzantine technique and the Western European technique [pre-1400 or so] were both designed to do the same thing: deliver the weight of the fast moving heavy mount onto the target as efficiently as possible. The one- or two-handed techniques between the two had more to do with mount control [always the single most important thing to any cavalryman] than weapon handling. And I think another point could be brought out in this... From what I've read, kataphraktoi were trained from their young adult years after they joined that unit of Byzantium's Tagmata, whereas a European knight was trained from the time he was 6 year old. Yes, much of a knight's training had to do with the social aspects of knighthood, but until the Renaissance a knight was first, foremost and always a warrior first and servant of the Crown second. This compares to the strictly military function of a cataphract serving with his thema. Something else occurs to me as well: I don't know one way or the other, but is controlling the mount while wielding the longer spear of the Byzantine heavy cavalryman easier than the European version?