Techpriest

I'm working on a regional cults variant thing for Yelmalio for the Jonstown compendium - hopefully done before the end of the year, but it depends on how strange and esoteric I want to get with it and if I want to include variants on Orlanth as well in the list. Under the name Kargzant, Yelmalio is worshiped differently so his cult is different - which makes sense. The Grazelanders/Pentans and the Sairdites are very different peoples with different ways of life. Their spirit magic is going to differ, but the same god is the core of the worship. His purpose in society is different, sure, but he's the key god of the horse nomads. You're part of his Lay cult if you're a Pentan that isn't in the pure horse clans, and probably even then the Pure Horse Peoples likely still hold him in some regard - YGMV, but he would be important as the one who still taught them how to live and showed them their ways. On topic, Yu-Kargzant has his associated cults already shown in the RGQ Core, in his detailed cults write up. You could add the star captains later on, but I think the key part of the Pure Horse People like the Grazelanders is that to them, Yelm (Yu-Kargzant) gave them the world through the lessons he taught his son Yelmalio (Kargzant), and that flavors the relation they have with one another. If you join the cult of Kargzant, you're not able to use the fire related spirit magics, sure, but that doesn't stop you from using your connection to Yu-Kargzant to summon a fire elemental or cast rune spells like Flamesword/Flamespear - that's an expression of your connection to the Sun, not the Son of the Sun. When it comes to Chalana Arroy, how the pure horse people treat her and her devoted followers is likely nearly identical to the way the Orlanthi do - look at Cults of Runequest: The Light Bringers. They might even give her some special honor for 'guiding' the rebellious Orlanth to restore the sun to the world and heal it. Ernalda (As La-Ungariant) is among the grazelanders very respected now. The Feathered Horse Queen is effectively her avatar, and she holds the vendref in her direct protection. She's more like how the Orlanthi view her than the other solar cults will view her, not submissive, but an active and powerful force that you must respect or you suffer her wrath. Aldrya is also going to be in this camp. Wood is important - they use it for spears, tent poles, fires, and a host of other things so the forests they have access to are going to be a place you can't risk offending her, else they lose it. Hyalor is a hero and god. He's the first one to ride the horse, and he and Hippoi are likely worshiped together - the re-enactment of Hyalor first mounting Hippoi and swearing to protect her in exchange for the service of her and her children is likely a critical part of any festival honoring the Horse Mother. Stories of Hyalor are likely told like those of Heort.

It has been released though? It's on the Well of Daliath.

YGMV, but I would argue there's several kinds of subcult. There's subcults like Yelmalio/Elmal/Kargzant/Antirius or Tolat/Shargash - these are distinct by region and culture, but are overall, worshiping the same divine figure. You can argue which one is the 'primary' cult and that's more a case of worshiper numbers than anything else, and they're not going to always get along. Like, hoo boy - an Elmali and a Yelmalian are likely to get into some very big arguments over the nature of who their god is associated with, what his deeds are (and which matter), and so on, while the Kargzant worshiper is going to see everyone else as just barely non-people (because cultural tie ups) and want to murder the Antirius cultist, and the Antirius cultist is going to call everyone else ignorant savages who need to submit fully to the glory of Yelm. Tolat and Shargash followers are also likely to murder one another I feel. There's probably a similar divide between Yu-Kargzant and Yelm priests. There's the Orlanth subcults - they're distinct enough you could argue they're different gods (and some cultures even sort of see them as such) but the two get along and affirm one another. Belonging to one gives you power in the other. Even when talking about Vigna, nobody denies she's close, extremely close in some way to Orlanth, either him in female form or his favorite daughter, to the point the difference really doesn't matter outside of the arguments of theologically inclined Orlanthi. Last there's the true subcults - these are minor gods worshiped as parts of larger cults. Odalya, Yinkin, etc. can fall into this. They can have their own distinct cults that are separate, but often they are folded into the larger cult of Orlanth worship.

Alright, feel free to correct me here but one of the complaints you see with the whole yelmalio elmal thing with RQG is there's no quick and fast rules for just making a follower of Elmal as the cult skills of Yelmalio seem off. Wanna know the simple fixes I did to make it more fitting to Elmal? It's just changing four things. Replace the Pike cult skill with Ride. Replace the Long Spear cult skill with Short Spear (because they're light cavalry), replace the associated cult of Yelm with that of Orlanth (Who gives Shield like Yelm does but doesn't give Sunspear, obviously), and replace the "don't help orlanthi" with "Don't help the enemies of Orlanth" in the geases. Boom. You now have a new subcult. It's that simple. Elmal is the Horse/Thane god aspect of Yelmalio for the Orlanthi. He's traditionalist in terms of association with the Heortling culture so he plays a bit nicer with Orlanth than the standard Yelmalio cult. But he doesn't really offer that much different to the Yelmalio cult - which is intentional. This is the cult of the southern Heortlings who had to play nice with the Only Old One and were separated from the Sairdites for generations and weren't the friendliest with the EWF (who patronized the Yelmalio Cult). Kargzant? Same thing. Replace Pike and Long Spear with Ride and Lance. Add in the Arrow of Light Rune Spell to his cult list. Swap out the Yelmalio starting skills to Ride +20%, Celestial Lore +10%, and Speak Other Language (Firespeech) +15%. He's associated with Dendara (Or La-Ungariant) instead of with Ernalda and she provides Bless Animal instead. With these simple changes, he's now right at home on the plains of Pent, a god of Horse Nomads. He's a warrior god, a cultural leading god, and he offers them a magic that competes with the sedentary peoples and is remembered by them due to his actions in the grey age that other cults didn't experience (the celestial host). Now why did I do this? Why these skills? Why these changes? I wanted these subcults which are part of different cultures to feel different. For the Orlanthi, Elmal was their connection to horses. It's likely over the next century or so this elmal subcult will be absorbed into the mainline Yelmalio cult of the Sun Dome County temple, and some of the Elmal traits (probably replacing Long Spear with Ride) will become part of that cult. Each Sun Dome has a different independent strain of the cult, that adopts local ideas to some degree. Why no Ride in Prax? Horses aren't welcome! Why not in Saird? Because there's the mainline Yelm cult there too and more influence from the aspect of Antirius. Changing around the geases to a cultural lens makes sense for Yelmalio. He's as I've said before, one of the most widespread gods across Genertela. It's true he was the enemy of many of Orlanth's enemies. Elmal is his aspect as an ally of Orlanth against the Darkness - so it's not a contradiction at all with the core of Yelmalio. It's fun. Cultural differences impacting cults is important. What the cult of Orlanth is like in Sartar, isn't what it's like in Prax, or Saird. Jeff can feel free to correct me, but I'm pretty sure he's stated something similar in regards to 'how to play Elmal' before when people asked, along with how cults change over time.

Holy necro batman! No, Elmal and Yelmalio being the same makes sense, even when you look through the Book of Heortling Mythology. There's nothing there that contradicts Yelmalio and Elmal being the same entity, but the perspectives being different and thus different aspects coming to dominate the cults. Look at Shargash and Tolat for another example. Yelmalio is even more fascinating because, as a god that survived into the Grey Age, he made the world whole again through his actions which we see in the mythos of the Pentans and Dara Happans, and to some extent the Heortlings as well. Elmal/Yelmalio being the same and the Little Sun being Many Suns isn't a contradiction. The Many Suns is the contest to be the sun in the darkness, and that many solar cults all have an element of truth to them. Yelmalio is the bit of Yelm carved away by death, his light and illumination for the world that somehow survived and became separate and distinct, lesser but greater. Yelmalio is the same as his father in essence, but became his own deity through the darkness, conflicting with the other sons of the sun, the storm gods, the sea gods, and the darkness gods, but never gave up his fight even to the last to try and keep the lights on (pun intended) while Yelm was chilling in the underworld. Is his domain as large as his fathers? No. But he's closer to mankind and mortals than any solar deity bar Lodril, and his patronage of horses spread them through the world. He's got as many if not more distinct aspects to him (Yelmalio, Elmal, Antirus, Kargzant, Khelmal, Tharkantus for sure, and if you squint there's Vashanti over in Kralorea who matches well with Kargzant in 'going to the underworld to retrieve the sun in the grey age' and a few other of the Kralorean pre-dawn emperors including Daruda who the Kraloreans see as Lightfore though he's now firmly a dragon) as gods with far more vast spreads of knowledge and his followers are welcome almost everywhere under one of his names. This all being one god is not that crazy when you consider the dicotomy of Orlanth - Adventurous and Thunderous cults being of the same god was not accepted across the world and for non-Theylan cultures is somewhat shocking. I do think after the solar book comes out it'd be interesting to work up a way to show how distinctive his cults are from location to location and adapted to the cultures they're in but all share the common element of gift and geas and most rune magic. I don't see Kargzant's followers having Pike or Long Spear as cult skills for example! Regional differences between cults is always fun and Yelmalio/Elmal are great ways to show that. EDIT: The revelation that Montagh had was necessary and important because what was happening was the most logical thing from a linguistic and cultural contact perspective - for the first time, the southern Kethealans from where OOO was leading were making contact after hundreds of years once again with solar cultures and gods. Elmal (and somewhat Yelmalio) were tolerated cults by the Only Old One, but never powerful or popular. When these southern Orlanthi populations return to Dragon Pass, they take with them their understanding of Yelmalio in Elmal, an isolated and sidelined version of their god. They then come into contact with the Sairdites, who talk about their little sun and the connection really isn't made. After all, Elmal was Orlanth's friend, not his enemy, not his rival and so on, so those cults don't mix too much initially. But the ability for these solar cultists to live alone and totally fine amid the larger orlanthi population there does cause some problems. Then the Lunars take over Dara Happa and there's this new god who's coming in with a lot more power and a lot more standing than Yelmalio or Elmal - Yelm. He's the sun, who the Elmali clans have kind of been worshiping already as part of their veneration of Elmal. Suddenly, there's a lot of tension. Yelm is very firmly NOT orlanth's friend, NOT a god who plays nice with Orlanth cultists ruling over him and his, and has much more powerful magical and political backing than Elmal. This leads to political strife in the new kingdom of Sartar. Enter Montragh who can tell that Yelm the Bright Emperor isn't Elmal, he can't be. His experience with the god Elmal has taught him that much. So he starts digging, goes to Prax, sees the Sun Dome there and then the revelations really start. Because before this, there's no way that he's seen the Hill of Gold before and how it matches with the Guarding of the Stead and other parts of Elmal's mythic cycle. Elmal is Orlanth's thane, but so is Yelmalio by virtue of guarding the people even if he didn't submit to Orlanth. It matches, merges, and works together and when he gets back to Sartar he's go the solution to the issue, the magic to back it up, and most importantly, Truth. The truth that Yelm is not Elmal. Elmal is Yelmalio, another strong god but one that can coexist with Orlanth.

If you're looking for a mix between Prax and Sartar, there's the Pol-Joni and the clans that neighbor them. They have long histories of interacting with the Praxian tribes for both good and ill, and it lets you ease in on the 'weird' of Prax for your players. The first Praxians they meet often know some Heortling and worship gods like Orlanth and Humakt, and herd cows and ride horses. Then the further they get into Prax, the more you amp up the 'Mad Max' part of it. The more apocalyptic things get because of the devastation of the land in the God Time. You can even include the remnants of the Lunar occupations holding out and adapting to be more like the Pol-Joni and tribes of Prax around certain oases. You also have Esrolia and the former Holy Country to the south to play around with, so you can drag out some things like say, some crazy guy declaring himself the new Pharaoh or starting some sort of cult to Belintar. Go nuts, your Glorantha will vary. Just come up with some good reasons for them going into the desert full of crazy nomads - caravans to Pavis or another oasis, deals with the Pol-Joni, and so on.

One of the things the Colymar should really do well is mounted skirmishers. They have two full clans of Yelmalio/Elmal cultists around Runegate, and that likely means mounted archers and skirmishers. Anyone who's dealt with horse nomads historically can tell you how absolutely annoying and dangerous mounted skirmishers can be.

It's also important to look at the gods as to how they fit into the world and with PC's themselves. Spell lists aren't everything - look at cult skills, and spirit magic, and rune magic all together and that gives you a much better idea of what a cult does. We've already discussed the runespells but the spirit magic of a cult tells you a lot too - and the Seven Mothers have initiates at their temples who know a lot of different magic and can teach a lay member it at a mark up. Spells you wouldn't normally have access to are available there. Skill wise they're very focused on civilization. They teach reading and writing, understanding other people, and how to speak a common language. Looking at it all together this gives you a cult where no element (except Air) is left out. Where you all speak the same language and can learn its script together. Where your magical need is offered - at a price, but still there (I'd assume initiates pay normal prices), and always open. The Seven Mothers have a Mother that covers most aspects of life (Mother Maiden Crone, Fool Warrior Sage). The cult accepts everyone as a lay member, where they can get food, healing, and shelter. That's big. "We Are All Of Us" isn't just a statement for them, it's what the cult is about. It is for everyone.

So Stormbull's cult is the CIA Special Activities Division Special Operations Group?

I would guess it would be more like a subcult akin to Barntar - they can be easily worshipped as their own god, but also grant a special spell or training to the Seven Mothers cult as a whole. Yanafal Tarnils is a warrior's god, and has association with Humakt, with a friendly rivalry between the two. I'd expect the priest/priestess dedicated to the Seven Mothers as a whole to not have the same sort of combat training as a Runepriest or Runelord of Yanafal Tarnils, and I wouldn't expect that Yanafal Tarnils Runelord/Runepriest to know the same kind of fertility magic that Seven Mothers priest/priestess would know. They both give homage to Yanafa Tarnils, but I would guess the Seven Mothers would be more focused on his role in relation to the other Mothers, while the cult of Yanafal Tarnils focused more on his deeds, actions, teachings, and such. It's a specialization into an aspect akin to Orlanth Adventurous or Orlanth Thunderous, I'd say.

He isn't? I'm actually surprised by that. Thanks for the explanation though Jeff.

Use ancestor cults as an example of 'how do I add rune spells to Daka Fal that makes sense.' For example, if you want to represent an ancestor cult of a great hero of the culture, take the Daka Fal cult as a baseline, and then add in rune spells and change associations around to match what you're looking for. You want an ancestor cult to say, Heort? He's associated with stags, with Orlanth, with the Second Son, and I Fought We Won. He took his staff of Law from Gagarth. Heort's rune associations are Man, Mastery, and Air in the prosepedia. This means you would run him as an ancestor cult of Daka Fal, but with an association with the Orlanth cult (so his spirit magic from his shamans tends to be from the Orlanth list), and Orlanth provides Lightning to his stubborn but favored founder of Orlanthi clans in Dragon Pass. He'd also likely provide his own rune magic, likely Detect Honor, or a spell similar to 'Summon Son of Votank' which summons one of Heort's successors from Orlanth's halls to help out. This wouldn't be a very powerful (or common) shamanic cult, but they'd likely be involved with keeping law records and acting as lawspeakers - after all, they can directly ask the ancestors who knew Heort what his rulings might have been. For me at least, this is how I would do it. You could likely do something similar with other long dead heroes and important figures that haven't achieved godhood themselves. Colymar might have a nascent ancestor cult too, considering at least six clans can directly claim him as a blood related ancestor. YGWV, after all. I do hope we see some ancestor cults in the homeland books.

Hah! Right on the money then!

Yes, it contains a bunch of new Rune Magic spells and compiles all the spirit magic ones. Honestly releasing it so early in the run was at least in my opinion, a bit of a mistake, but that's just me. There's likely to be a separate sorcery book later on too.

If I had to guess for 4 of them, I'd think we'd get the Lunar and Solar pantheon books, then Guide to Dragon Pass, then the Sartar book. After that, my money is on at least two more Cults books to keep up the pace for them from last year.

While they're important, they're not as prevalent as either the Darkness cults through Trolls or the Solar cults with Yelmalio and Yu-Kargzant. I agree shaman's need more, but they should come after those two, and possibly also the Water in terms of priority, at least to me.

Solar deities are a large minor faction in every nation in Dragon Pass, same with the Lunars. If they don't get cult books in the same year I'll be VERY disappointed. We got 4 cult books this year, so I'm hoping we'll get another 4 - Lunar, Solar, Darkness, and Sea. That way we've got all the elemental pantheons out of the way and with them the majority of cults you'd expect people to follow around Dragon Pass and the southern coasts.

As far as I can tell, dart warriors are just the people being used in these small wars between lunar nobles for political power and other vendettas. They could be decent magicians, straight up warriors, poisoners, demagogues swaying crowds away from the patronage of a particular noble, and so on, at least to me.

Hi, I have a couple of quick questions about this. Jeff's said here that the Pol-Joni do have some temples to Waha. Would this be among clans that are something like a pure horse people? Or would this be more of a general thing, with initiates coming from the tribe in general and more of a shamanic path? Would other Waha cultists find the Pol-Joni practicing their faith unusual, as they don't have a herd beast?

Are we talking full on military raids, or cattle raids? Cattle raids seem like something anyone with an inclination for it can end up doing, as long as they aren't slaves or thralls. You just get a bunch of other daring young lads and lasses, get a plan made up, cross over the stones, and spirit away cattle. You're likely to have a thane or warrior coming along for extra protection but not always - after all, half the point is to not get caught, and if you are caught, both sides likely let the other go after some posturing of 'we could totally take you but we have better things to do'. Full on military raids work at least in my opinion like this. The chief says, "We're doing a raid, gather men" to his ring, who then contact the thanes who then contact the carls that contact their tenants and cottars. Not everyone will go along, but might do things like send a cousin in either another clan or animals for sacrifice for the success of the operation in their stead - probably a sheep or three per man who can't show up because of other obligations. This could be because they're a new parent, on business elsewhere, are oathbound not to participate, or are married to a member of the clan being raided - after all, kinstrife is a big deal among the Orlanthi. Still, the network of family obligations, honor, and so on would be able to rally probably 80 to 90% of the potential military power of the clan, with the rest staying back to protect the steads. Nobody can make you do anything, but the social pressure to go along can be strong. For semi-free (cottars and tenant farmers) and even the lowliest stickpicker with just a sling, valor and prowess in battle can and will directly lead to rewards in social standing and wealth. Orlanthi chieftains have to be seen as generous, so do thanes and carls. Gifts are an important part of that, along with splitting shares of what's acquired. The better you fight, the better the chance your group wins, and the better the chance you personally benefit and get a larger share of the spoils. So fighting on an offensive raid with real enthusiasm is going to be a thing the semi-free do regularly. Fight well and prominently, and someone is likely to gift you things or help set you up as a favor. As for slaves, I wouldn't be surprised if occasionally they do participate in military actions, either as helpers to carry their master's arms and armor, or even active combatants! Slave soldiers and warriors aren't super unusual historically and to discharge a debt, a master might request their slave fight, especially if they're a known warrior. Their honorable conduct might be assured through oaths sworn and reinforced with the Oath rune magic, in that in exchange for fighting, seasons of service or even their entire service will be considered repaid. Otherwise though, there's no obligation for them to fight and it isn't expected. On the defense, I want to note that those without much often fight as hard or harder than those with a lot of wealth. Their little is also at stake, and for a cottar or tenant farmer, losing a fight might mean losing their fields alongside their own herds. The incentive to fight hard is also of course, there for the free like carls, and especially for nobles like thanes or members of the ring - their social expectation is to be warriors for the clan when needed and failing to live up to that could result in the end of their life, or position of power. Chiefs who lose raids will likely face backlash and calls for new leadership if it's a regular occurrence for them and have trouble keeping warriors in his retinue.

My guess would be there's a point where custom dictates you have to accept that hospitality for at least a short time, likely when being offered food that's already prepared, or a place to sleep. Guest status is important to a lot of honor based cultures as it ensures nobody gets killed. It allows for negotiation in a way that neither side can just attack the other one without coming off as a dishonorable scoundrel. So from this perspective, I'd guess that if you come out with a plate of food or fresh bread, and you vocally offer it to them and ask them to become guests, it's very very hard to refuse. This doesn't mean they can't take advantage of your guest period to say, poke around a location, or look over something. It also doesn't mean they can't stay for only a short time (perhaps an hour), or perhaps, one of them comes and accepts your offer of hospitality earlier and take the offered gift and then oh hey his friends don't have anything that you can give in terms of hospitality - so they're not guests, and you'd better listen to them, while your own guest starts negotiations.

I'm half wondering if they have giant hissing cockroaches they keep as pets and guard animals. It'd be something to see for sure.

Thanks for the clarification.

Thralls are different than slaves though, thralls have certain rights that must be respected that slaves don't, IIRC.

Cottars do fulfill important military roles though. Cottars form the core of skirmishers and light infantry for a clan - they throw javelins, act as archers, scouts, slingers, and screening forces. Most probably own a spear or an ax for battle, and a shield, though not much armor. Good performance by these men in battle can improve their social standing, leading to awards of cows, a hide of land they can manage for the temple, or other rewards that can seriously boost their wealth. It's best to think of cottars often working as tenants of various carls - while they mostly herd sheep, they'll also herd cows for carls, grow their own meager crops to support themselves, and assist in the harvest. Eventually if the gap gets bad enough, some cottars will either break off with some wealthy carl to form a new clan, or just leave for another clan in need of farmers and farm hands. Calling cottars 'semi-free' is a bit wrong, that's a designation best assigned to thralls. Cottars are still considered free men, they just don't own nearly as much as carls do. At least that's what I sort of picked up on from King of Sartar on Orlanthi society.