David Scott

Gerendetho and the Hungry Plateau Sables Whilst working on the Prax book I had cause to look at the Sable tribe that would eventually reconnect with their cousins in the Wastes. As the two sable nations separated in the first age, the Hungry Plateau sables must have adapted their religion to survive in a new location, far from their Praxian sources (600 miles not as the crow flies). The newly arrived sables from Prax would have had the same spirit societies as those currently found in Prax. In their new environment far from Prax, they would have to evolve. The main issues being with two of their primary spirit societies: Waha - Mythical actions in a distant land. Only shamans now have contact with Waha (normally initiates and spirit-talkers as well). Eiritha - Mythical actions in a distant land. Only shaman-priestesses now have contact with Eiritha (normally initiates and spirit-talkers as well). Changes to the Praxian tradition • Tradition renamed to The Hungry Plateau tradition to reflect differences. • New male spirit needed to supplement/replace Waha in new land. Candidate: Gerendetho. "Kostaddi: Two thirds of the satrapy's territory is rich farmland, while the rest is the tall foreboding Hungry Plateau. This was the home of the Earth God Gerendetho, who once quarrelled with the giants who lived in a big palatial hill made of granite. During the fight, Gerendetho sheared off the whole top of the hill and the ruins of palace is now called the Hungry Plateau. Gerendetho shoved all the rest of the rock to the side, and that big pile is now called the Jord Mountains." Gerendetho fulfills the role of dead Genert who would be his father - a "coming home" for any Praxian. For this to work, he has the runes of (death) and (earth). Waha defers to him in this land. • New female spirit needed to supplement/replace Eiritha in new land. Candidate: Pelora: "Genert and Gata were children of the Primal Earth, and formed two corners of the Earth Rune. Genert fathered many goddesses upon his sister, and they are the land goddesses found everywhere. They gave their names to the regions of Genertela. Hence Ralia is the goddess of Ralios, Frona is the goddess of Fronela, and so forth. In Peloria, the daughter of Genert and Gata was called Pela or Pelora." Pelora is the land goddess here, she is a sister-wife to Gerendetho. For this to work, she has the runes of (life) and (earth). She is not a grain goddess in this form. Eiritha defers to her in this land. New Primary spirit society The Earth Guardians - Pelora (earth)(life) and Gerendetho (earth)(death). Accepts both men and women. Has a shaman path. (I wrote a lot more but it's the basis of an article so I won't let it all out).

Time to add RQ2 Reprint and all the extras :-)

No it's coming from the Nargan Desert, see the map on p541, entry on p583 and box on p588. Also the Mythic maps section. Sandy discusses the details about how the chaos gets there in Forgotten Secrets of Glorantha.

I did some development work on the sables of the hungry plateau when I was working on the Praxian sables. I'll look it up and post the gerendetho link.

Good idea moving this over. The forum content to planed to move here at some point, but don't hold your breath. On the subject of lost tribes, I was reading threads about this between @Joerg and Sandy yesterday: > I don't think the plains elk of Prax was a > moose variety. It might have been a version of the now-extinct Great Elk (usually miscalled the Irish Elk in the U.S.A.), which we know to have existed in Ralios before the Dawn. You talk about the Irish Deer, certainly. <grins pedantically, though not obnoxiously so> Since you're the biology expert, what environment did the Irish Deer live in? If it was pre-dawn Ralios, there was the Great Primeval Forest. However, Prax and Genert's Garden were somewhat dense Savannah as well at that time, cf. the Oakfed story. Did the lost tribes of Praxian Beast Riders die out when the Oakfed deforestation took their means of subsistance from them? (Not immediately, but constantly declining.) >Did the lost tribes of Praxian Beast Riders die out when the Oakfed deforestation took their means of subsistance from them? No doubt this made an initial impact. The gradually deteriorating nature of the Wastes during Godtime probably also took its toll. Note that in the First Age, the Rhino Riders nearly went extinct. While the Rhinos narrowly avoided this fate, the Nose-Horn folk might not have been so adaptable. The Nose-Horn folk, by the way, were Synceros riders -- an antelope-like animal with three horns. Two over the eyes and one down near the nose which forked near the end. They were probably pygmies. --- Basically how I'm going to play it in the Prax book is that there were originally 21 tribes of 2-legs/4-Legs. Add in the Zebra's that didn't get their humans until Time began and you have a list of the tribes. You will notice that we are missing the names of some of the tribes, this leaves space for GMs and players to invent stupendous stories about the other tribes and what they were and whether they will return and what if they do. Let the speculation begin.

As for Bubar, not much is said of him anywhere except the book of heortling mythology. So to backfill, he's going to be one of Generts tribe, and so likely a son. GtG p452 gives the Ginmuz Mountains: The four peaks here are called the Sons of Genert and have no names. Presumably lost to chaos, the peaks could be their earthly remains.

I'm wary of Genert being an Earth giant. Primal Earth god yes, but giant only in he was physically big. The whole giant thing is a bit too much of a norse mythology crossover. Physically big as in the whole continent, the part we are referring to is the conscious god part, not the physical size. Clearly when he dies, the continent remains, devolved/evolved into his daughters and sons - the land goddesses - apart from the Wastelands which is his core being. Following this line of though the mountains are part of his body, so the true giants are his are his children.

I don't think gods become chaotic after encountering chaos. I think they have to actively go over to chaos and embrace it. Gods that encounter chaos get wounds that don't heal or cripple them (eg Larnst), die and are no more (as in gone forever even in name), or are mostly destroyed but some part still lingers on so we know their names (eg Genert, Tada, Seolinthur).

Trifletraxor can we pin this to the Glorantha board as it provides updates for those looking for info on new products.

With the new understanding of Gods and Runes, i'd say that Caladra & Aurelion are are a two Rune Cult, like likely with the runes of Fertility and Harmony. Tessele the True is a hero of the cult with Harmony Veskarthan the Deep is likely also two rune with Fire and Disorder

I believe this is also the image of Caladralander, @Quackatoa maybe able to give more specific cultural references.

I could be wrong but I'm sure I recall seeing some caladralander figure sketches - @Jeff I'm I miss remembering?

@Tindalos, for HQG I rewrote the Peaceful Cut so that it resembled a more traditional real world shamanic song. In this context it's a ritual (and therefore fulfils the spell criteria). It has the Death rune in front of the description as it's categorised as a charm and so needs the rune defined, It's part of the tradition so never needs to be noted separately. Interestingly Daka Fal's Funeral Rite that you mentioned works the same way in the current version I've done - it's a shamanic song as the Peaceful cut.

Following on from the Practicing sorcery: any material components? topic: I thought I'd mention one of the discoveries I had in doing the spirit magic for HeroQuest Glorantha. Spirit Magic users can learn rituals that will do things like summon a specify spirit. These are clearly different from a charm. A charm is a spirit in an object that will do a specific task for it's "owner". But a ritual is a set of knowledge based tasks that produces a particular result every time. Waha Khans can learn to summon special spirits - The Founders and Borabo Nightmare the cult spirit of retribution. Doesn't this sound like sorcery with specific limitations (must be a khan)? Theists can also learn rituals.

But that's what you do in tapping material components, you tap their Rune source - If you tap a log you're tapping the plant rune, if you tap a metal bowl, you're tapping the rune metal it's associated with, etc.

The HeroQuest Glorantha rules as written don't specify any material components. Spells directly manipulate the runes producing effects. Spells are also very specific in their scope and in some cases may specify specific needs to be cast. This basically ignored for ease in a narrative game, but I'm sure in "Real" Glorantha grimoires more than just "Tap Water" is written. e.g. The incantation must be spoken over water metal bowl containing water drawn from a deep well of greater than 25m by a blue haired woman of age greater than 25 who has given birth and is wearing the long robes with long tassels, the resulting energy must be held in a quick silver wand of 1m length carved with fish. That's a deliberately ridiculous example, but limitations of gender, caste, materials, age, cult and clothing are not unreasonable. I'm of the opinion that the rarest spells have the fewest limitations. I would hesitate to build these restrictions into actual game rules unless as @Charles said, they are story driven

Great - can you get RSS on the activity feed: http://basicroleplaying.org/activity/ That's the equivalent one that we had on glorantha.com - lets you watch everything

RSS feeds please. It's very hard to follow what's going on. I had to ask Rick about if we could have RSS and he directed me to this post (I missed it). It was very easy to follow activity, topics and posts over at glorantha.com.com with rss.

along with normal Orlanth worship. Sartarites, etc - good job we brought our ancestors with us as well...

As @boztakang said it's what the trolls do, but not just trolls, many other cultures too. Sartarites and Praxians certainly do this as their ancestors are important to them, and they were at many historical/mythological events and can tell about them first hand. There's actually a bit in one of the recent adventures that alludes to this - you meet an ancestor that has been forgotten (can't remember the exact detail on this). Like trolls they also tend to remember the important stuff - Slights, Grudges, Feuds, spells, and why you should listen to what your grandfather said. In Sartar, Daka Fal is much more widely acknowledged that current publications suggest. This has been an ongoing discussion with @Jeff. There will be a paragraph on it either for the next WF or the Prax book. The Praxian ancestors are in spirit form they have a only slight material form and fight with magic weapons and the like, attacking the very souls and spirits of their foes. Only rarely does an an ancestor take on a body and even then it's that of the family shaman. When a Praxian cultist dies, their spirit goes to the Great herd ruled over Waha and Eiritha, after an undetermined time they enter back in to the cycle of life and their spirit is reborn again. It is while they are in the Great Herd they may become a cult spirit, source of a charm, etc. They have died, their body is gone and their spirit/soul is separated. They have not avoided death.

As for a description of the Devil - there will be a picture by Mike Perry in the Guide. It is the ritual of the Net with the Devil confronting Arachne Solara. I can describe him - The Devil has a boar like head with two forward pointing horns coming out of his forehead with what look like metal tips. He had sharp fanged teeth and a long forked tongue. His ears are longish downward pointing and pig like. His snout is short and wrinkled. He has a hairy ruff around his neck. His four muscled arms end in long claws and he has some kind of bands around his wrists. He has long feathered wings jutting from his shoulders like an angel, they taper off and are longer than his height. The tops of the wings each have a claw like spike. He has a long segmented scorpion tail with a huge barb. His two legs end in eagle like claws with long talons. On one ankle he has a band like his wrists. The picture is black and white,

Looking back at the original source to Wakboth - Nomad Gods (1977) by Greg Stafford, it says: There are six Parts of the Devil in the Nomad Gods game: So putting that together, Cacodemon is an eroded part of the devil that has half digested the river that was sent to wash it away. In the game cacodemon is limited to appearing at the marshes, but can then be allied and then act as a normal unit. The next piece of info came in 1981 in Griffin Mountain in the Cacodemon cult (Cults by Sandy Petersen and Steve Perrin): it also tells of Cacodemons links with ogres: One of the main stories of the Wastelands in the Great Darkness is of how groups of survivors found powers to help them survive. Ogres were probably once a group of human survivors of Genert's Garden that were helped to survive by following Cacodemon, but became corrupted by the act. The Devil's Army and Cacodemon's followers are synonymous. Cacodemon is a remnant of the Devil and had his own army of ogres.