Ynneadwraith

Cue weird Olm-like blind albino cave-ludoch. Ludoch who have had a proportion of their Water rune replaced with Darkness.

And the Lunars would have you believe these are the same things... I'm not necessarily saying they are or aren't of course, I'm just positing the idea that there could be shades of godhood between 'heroes' like Harrek and Jar-Eel and 'True Gods' like Orlanth and Shargash. Perhaps, with her refusal to truly depart from the world of Time into the mythic, Sedenya is one of these shades. A shade like Nysalor, perhaps. Slightly different upper-tier steps on the path to enlightenment, that look indistinguishable to us puny mortals grubbing about on the ground. Alternatively, they're all one and the same thing (just in and outside of time), and all of this 'different steps' pigeonholing is nought but propaganda. Any sufficiently advance mortal is indistinguishable from a god (so perhaps all our gods are sufficiently advanced mortals).

What about something somewhere between the gods and Harrek? What about something like Sedenya? Is Sedenya even a god like the others? She certainly differs markedly by being a physical presence in the world, rather than an intangible force accessible solely through Godtime. Are the Lunars schmucks for believing their great ball of floating dirt is a god? I'm sure many Sartarites think so...

I hear she did a wonderful job with Yelm. Now he's not at all bothered by how those nasty heathens wrecked his perfectly manicured lawn. You might need to feed her pet bat first though...

Dune's more Kargyraa than Sygyt if you're googling for it. Though it's an excellent use of overtone singing to build atmosphere! Sygyt gets used in film a lot when you're designing mystic siberian snowscapes and stuff like that. Think Orlanthi mountaintop temple. Yeah it's a really good channel! There's loads of little shorts of the guy just playing a neat little tune on a different flute.

"See this one is especially interesting because the smith has made a print error when applying the Death rune. See, just below the teeth marks. That's very rare as they're normally extremely diligent with such an important rune. I've been offered an entire collection of miscast Hyaloring helmets by a Lunar collector in Saird, but I just won't part with it."

And here we get a little closer to what seems to be my own philosophy on life. There are no weeds, only plants. This is neither a good thing, nor a bad thing. It just is. Not a terribly tempting philosophy though. Doesn't exactly promise much. I doubt I'll get a mass chaos cult following going...

This I like from a 'everyone used to be Hsunchen before all these Great Spirits started having ideas above their station' perspective. Perhaps the beliefs in Prax are an echo of this thinking, reverberating through the generations where everyone else has forgotten.

Congratulations for making me snigger out loud in my office 😉 now I've got to explain what I was doing! I feel like this might be a non-issue, considering where all of these Humakti Rune Lords will be when they're finally relieved of their expensive iron armour (deepest, darkest Dorastor). More of an issue is the mounting colossal pile of iron armour buried within Dorastor. Like an anti-magic Great Pacific Garbage Patch. What happens when that much anti-magic in one place gets heavy enough to punch through the magical firmament of Glorantha? So yes, brave young initiate, you should go and try and retrieve some. Don't worry that the place was so dangerous it's killed multiple Rune Lords. I expect they died because they were weighed down by their heavy iron armour. You in your tunic and sandals should be plenty quick enough to escape any danger you find. Off you go! The world's counting on you!

What if the Devil is right? What if this world is sick and cannot be healed? What if the slate needs to be wiped clean to make way for a new Dawn? A new cycle in which Death, and Thed, and Mallia, and all those horrible things haven't been found yet. In a cycle of rebirth the old must die before the new can flourish. The Devil isn't murder...it's euthanasia. Whether these things are synonymous is up to you to decide. Orlanth clearly has a view (or perhaps it was just the method he objected to). Aha! The cycle does repeat, but is stalled by Zeus' refusal to bow to his son, and gaming the system with a daughter. Birth and succession is always a painful thing, as Umath demonstrated, but to turn back partway through is folly. Once the pain's through it's always better*.

I've always squared it that it's not enough just to tell a story, you need to actually believe it as Truth. And because 'Truth' in Glorantha is transitive rather than fundamental, Godtime obligingly distorts. The issue being that as Godtime is outside of time it has no concept of 'this is what is believed now', so it tries its best to synthesise the believed Truths of everyone everywhere all at once. Pity poor Godtime. It's got the worst customer service job in the world. Every customer, everywhere, throughout all of time...is always right.

"Ah yes, for your quest to become Rune Lord you must retrieve the armour of your late predecessor...from the chaos pit that pre-deceased him. We've only just finished making the downpayment to the smith!"

Amazing what rose-tinted spectacles will do for a chaotic apparition 😉 From now on I'm playing it as Lunars outright calling the crimson bat 'The Hummingbird', despite it fully looking like the horror-demon-bat to everyone else. Is it a euphamism? Does the Bat present itself differently to its enemies compared to its feeders? Who knows?

Man borophagines are rad! Epicyon even means 'more than a dog'. Why stop at rhinoceros' when you could have rhinoceros-and-a-half as well? Oh, anyone else looking for some other weird prehistoric animals to sandwich in somewhere should look at chalicotheres, entelodonts, early proto-whales like pakicetus, or thylacoleo the marsupial lion (or thylacosmilus for an animal that better fits that description, because thylacoleo just weird). Dinosaurs are cool and all, but prehistoric mammals are every bit as weird and cool.

If you want to be persnickety, just because a god says they did something doesn't necessarily mean they actually did it. Especially if it's self-aggrandising... Though equally it could well be true!

Seems as good a time as any to post the awesome rendition of Aristophanes' 'The Frogs' on the aulos. A lot of aulos stuff veers towards the 'atmospheric' so it's nice to see an actual song played. Love the idea of kargyraa-style throat singing being a troll thing: I always thought sygyt-style throat singing sounded like the wind whistling overhead. Would certainly fit Orlanthi of some variety (though I'm loathe to attach it to Sartarites, leave some cool stuff for other Orlanthi cultures). I'd always thought Sartarites more as ocarina people (perhaps not quite so high pitched as this, but it's a lovely tune): Or maybe a Native American-style drone flute played from a mountaintop? Perhaps something like these awesome 3-chambered stonewhistle jobbies (though for me these would fit nicer as Earth funerary instruments): Shouldn't discount the impact of just the voice either (even without Wind Voice projection). Perhaps this might do well as a marching song: Or the awesome Bulgarian dissonant choral singing? Sung in a high-ceilinged solar temple I expect it would be impressive! With a male voice? Not often you get male voice in choral work. Water drumming for water festivals? I know it might feel a little too 'viking' for comfort, but I do rather like the tagelharpe for someone like the waertegi perhaps (or other sea-aligned folk). There's nothing else that builds quite the sense of threat and unease (while hinting that it's coming in boats to do it). Makes a good lament too: Again, more viking-inspired stuff but good for shamans this time round I think: Lastly, to end on a fun little song because not everything needs to be dark and brooding:

Destruction...or transcendence? Ducks beneath lightning bolts I suppose the observable effect would be similar: you aren't around anymore. Perhaps that's what's raining down from the holes in the firmament: blended up former chaos cultists. Dayzatarian heresy! Definitely wavering into 'Your Dumbest Theory' territory at the end there...

Yep! All of these things I am happy to suspend disbelief for 😄 I think it's because all the weird zany Gloranthan things are so zany that they seem like deliberate choices, but having pursuit predation cats (that aren't built like pursuit predators) is such a common error in fantasy that it just comes across as someone not having done their homework. To me at least. I feel a similar way about people riding mammalian carnivorans. You might just get away with it for bears, but the rest of them just don't have the spinal structure to get away with it. They're not built like trusses like big herbivores (that need to resist the amorous advances of other big herbivores). They're built like springs to double their stride length. Then again, I doubt half of anyone's fantasy target audience is bothered by stuff like that so much! Aha! So definitely more cat-like than dog-like! I also had a bit of an idea for the use of chariots. If you want to deliver your murder-kitties to a battlefield 60 miles away then they're going to get very tired before they get there. Hence, carts to get them the distance and chariots for your in-battle delivery mechanism! Perhaps still in use by the Ralian Orlanthi, but fallen out of favour with our local bunch.

I do like the idea of herding via astral projection... Ooh I do like the idea of them being caracal-like. Firstly the mythic resonance you point out is great, and secondly caracals are just awesome. Though to be fair, bobcats are no slouches (nor even are tigers!) Point being though that the Orlanthi* would have to use alynxes differently than we use dogs. Coursing would be good, as would something like a pointer or something to flush out game. In a big game hunt though, the cats wouldn't keep up with us and we'd blow their cover like the clumsy oafs we are 😄 *Are all Orlanthi cat people, or is it just Sartarites? Me neither, though if give the choice I'd probably be a hyena person. Such awesome animals. In my Glorantha, I might have to swap out 'Brother Dog' for 'Sister Hyena'... Yep, it's bizarre. A-Ok with sapient tapirs who need to heroquest to get opposable thumbs, herding herbivorous dumb-humans. But cats running for any appreciable length of time? Apparently not! I'm ok with a hunting cat species that can hunt with humans though. They're called hyenas!

Also, there are many things I find no issue with suspending my disbelief around in Glorantha, but for some reason 'using cats to herd animals' is where the line is drawn! Cats (by and large) are ambush predators. They laze around for most of the day, before plodding off to go and hide in the grass for a bit before leaping out for a short sprint when they can sneak close to something. All sprint, zero stamina*. Lousy animals to do herding with, or go hunting with (polar opposite hunting strategies to humans). Two ways to resolve this I can see: Alynxes are more like hyenas in build than lynxes, adapted for pursuit predation (like us). They don't have to be built like the bone-crushing hyenas (the spotted and striped varieties), but could be more like the dog-like hyenas (of which the aardwolf is the last survivor, but their extinct relatives hunted like dogs rather than being insectivorous). Alynxes are lynx-like, but don't fulfil the quite the same functions as dogs would. Rather than being primarily used for hunting and herding, they operate more like livestock guardian dogs. They get to laze around near the sheep all day like all cats dream of, but leap into action when something threatening comes along. Could also perform this duty wherever stuff needs guarding, like temples, homesteads, or even children. Add in a spot of vermin reduction (especially if the alynx kits have a bit of a different diet to the adults) and you've got a half-decent mutualistic relationship. Of these I prefer the latter. Adds a little more flavour into the ways different societies function. *Contrary to the saying, it's really easy to herd cats. Just follow them around non-threateningly until they get tired and flop over, then relocate them wherever you want. Pips.

I believe that's what zoo keepers call 'enrichment activities' 😉

Very enlightened! I can sense my views softening 😉 I do like the idea that there's a mix of enforced syncretism as a realpolitik device, and gods that have genuinely fractured into smaller parts that can be knitted back together. Anything that makes the situation foggier (and thus more open to differing interpretations). Love the inclusion of the taboo on regular dogs as an act of devotion to the lost Dogs-and-a-Half. Has a lovely pathos to it.

This, as far as my Glorantha is concerned, is the primary sin of the Godlearners (and other syncretists that followed in their wake). The assumption that all entities are fragments of some greater whole, and not appreciating that they could be two separate entities artificially conjoined through Interpretatio Glorantha. But I'm a radical Gloranthan anti-syncretist, which isn't always helpful for filling in gaps in our knowledge 😄 On a practical note, I love the idea of lost Agimori 'Dogs-and-a-Half' that could potentially be returned by experimental heroquesting.

Sounds exactly like something the victors of a rigged contest would would say 😉 To be fair, I do prefer the idea that it's drawing lots. Perhaps that is the true tale, and the idea of the contest is a quirk of the cannibal cult's mythology (easier to justify their eating of someone if they've beaten them 'fair and square' at a game of skill). To square that you could have the Waha Khan you find act a little confused at the myth featuring a contest rather than the drawing of lots, but still acting cagey about the cheating part, indicating that there's something more to dig at there. To be fair, having the cannibals and the morokanth believe it was a contest, and the other tribes believe it was lots adds just the sort of mystery and variability I enjoy in a good myth.

Now this I like! Loads of narrative potential there. A contest of some sort which our characters must succeed at or be demoted to 'Eaten' status and be fair game for any cannibals around (hell, fair game to any non-cannibals either). A hunt, or a contest of arms (or dance), or a riddle/contest of wit etc. All in some quasi-godtime/heroquest situation. What if they lose, but survive the encounter anyway? Surely they'd need to regain their 'Eater' status somehow, all the while trying to avoid getting mistaken for herdmen. Ooh! There's the kernel of an excellent 'Sympathy for the Morokanth' story arc here (possible higher-level Waha Vision Quest too): Start some foreshadowing earlier by exposing the players to some 'cheating morokanth' prejudice from among the Praxians they encounter. It would be good if it's initiates of Waha (but not anyone advanced in the cult) who are spearheading it. Give just enough of a hint that the Waha rabblerousers might be right. The players awake to masked people bundling them out of bed and tying them to trees. Cannibals! They paint the players' chests with a strange rune, partway between the symbols for Man and Beast. It seems they'll be eaten alive! The cannibals, rather politely it must be said, inform the players that they have been chosen for one of their hunts. The players' bonds are cut free, and they're told to run. The chase starts in the real-world across the wastes of Prax, but the further you run the more desolate the environs become. You pass more and more emaciated people and animals littering the parched ground. Your stomach cramps as if you haven't eaten in weeks. Behind you, the cannibals have been joined by starving animals and spirits of all varieties, loping and lurching in pursuit. You stumble, and when you pick yourselves up you find that you're compatriots have abandoned you. They have joined the cannibals and everyone is now chasing you alone! With each step you take you become more emaciated, but so do your pursuers. The entire situation just gets more and more desperate, and it's clear there's no escape. Eventually, they corner you at a fork in the canyon. Behind you are the cannibals and death through dismemberment. In the left fork stands the dessicated skeletal form of Daga, clutching its arms around the people you hold dear. In the right fork stands a horned gambler in Praxian garb, rolling dice around in a set of cups, static arcing between them. Clearly, there's only one viable option. The horned Praxian halts the cannibals, who say they have a potential solution to their predicament that will make sure everyone gets fed (they're looking as desperate as you are), if only the horned Praxian could adjudicate. Your stomach aches so badly you jump at the chance, almost forgetting the danger you were running from in the first place. Here, you can play a game of Liar's Dice with your players (an old Peruvian gambling game, also sold under the name Perudo (it's a fun game to play anyway!). They'll play against you, the GM, as the cannibals. Whoever wins the game becomes an Eater, and whoever loses becomes an Eaten. The cannibals and the famine-spirits salivate, and to your horror you find yourself salivating too. Play up the threat that if an individual player loses, they could be Eaten (building on the visions earlier of their compatriots becoming cannibals themselves). Play the first few rounds straight (maybe til someone has 3 dice left or something). The players will hopefully start playing against each other as the game is meant to be played. Then, you're going to cheat. When a player loses dice, instead of removing them from the board, steal them and put them under the cannibals' cup. Don't let the players do this back. This should skew it enough that the cannibals will win (unless the players bend the rules as well, say by giving all of their remaining dice to one person). Only after the game has concluded does the horned Praxian inform them that all they had to do was beat the cannibals, not each other. If they lose: The runes on their chest twist and contort from the hybrid Man/Beast rune to pure Beast, as the horned Praxian's face contorts into the visage of one of the cannibals' masks. Thunder rolls through the heavens and a fine squall starts, marking the encroaching boundary of Time. Here, briefly, the players feel their magic surge back and can do something to stop themselves getting eaten. However, past that, people start treating them like Herdmen. They can speak to each other, but not to other sentients. From here, they'll need to go find a Waha Khan (who will be able to communicate with them). They can help explain what has happened, along with potentially confessing the shameful mystery at the heart of the Waha cult (humans cheated, Waha permitted it), and that they need to go find the Morokanth to find out how they won anyway. Finding the Morokanth should be perilous as the majority of them will treat them like an escaped herdman, apart from their Waha Khans. I probably haven't worked through the next story beats properly yet, but something along the lines of finding the cannibals again (or the cannibals finding them) and derailing their dinner to re-enact the liar's dice game. This time, using the advice of the Morokanth, the players should work together and confer with each other about who has what dice. This should be enough to handily beat the cannibals, though if it elongates the game too long you could stop cheating as the cannibals (this would need playtesting to get the balance right). After they win, a number of things could happen. Either the cannibals are driven off in fear (possibly to become reoccurring villains if you like). The morokanth could sweep in and herdman-ise them (bringing opportunities to play up some sympathy with the cannibals if you so desire). Your characters gain a deeper understanding of Waha, the Survival Covenant and the origins of Prax. Perhaps you could give them access to Waha's Alter Creature spell, or Fix/Release Intelligence (I'm not up to date on my magics). This would be a good Heroquest to gain access to that spell TBH. If they win first time round: Not sure how to play this best. If you want to continue down the same path you could have the horned Praxian's face contort into the visage of one of the cannibals' masks at this point and refuse to accept their victory, though you'd need to alter the way the rest of the quest goes. Perhaps it leans more into shaming the Waha Khan for outright cheating than finding out how to win from the morokanth. Or you could do something neat like everyone else treating them like cheaters just like the morokanth (even though they won fair and square), with the herdman-ised cannibals dutifully following them around like an albatross around their necks. The quest then becomes more about restoring the cannibals' intelligence maybe, I don't know.