davecake

A retcon of course, and a very recent change at that - the Seven Mothers cult gave out potato bread and soup in Cults in Prax, and was still doing it as late as Eleven Lights in 2017. RQG in the only Gloranthan game in which the poor people of central Genertela were not offered potato bread. I'm not really sure why we had to have this change to very long established thing, but it was one of very few mentions of potatoes. Sandy, on the other hand, connects them to the Blue Moon, rather than the Red, claiming that the Blue Moon was killed and buried but grew under the ground as a potato. If you want to combine Jeff's edict against potato bread, and Sandys odd myth, so both are true, then the Blue Moon cult involved would not be the trolls of the Blue Moon Plateau, or the Loper people, but the Veldang of Pamaltela. Their usual staple food is presumed to be sweetgrass, the plant gift of Mwara the 'grain goddess' of Zamokil, which is a weird choice (sweetgrass is not actually a grass, but is a source of sugar crystals direct rather than starch), or millet (the remaining other Veldang live in Fonrit where the local grain goddess is Ernamorla the millet godess), but of course Zamokil is only where the Veldang live now, they used to live over much of Pamaltela. Potatoes could have come from anywhere there, or be a direct gift of the moon goddess. I also like the idea that (some cultivar of) potatoes do exist in Genertela, just like terrestrial potatoes other parts of the plant are highly toxic, and Annilla has chosen to conceal the good value of the roots from the world, so no one eats them. Except maybe Blue Moon trolls. As a weird aside, the word potato does occur one place in an RQG book - in the Bestiary, as part of the (psuedo-)scientific name of the bloodbird!

Note that the area was underwater in the Flood era, and tidal powers were part of that myth cycle, where Vingkot defeated Worcha Rage from Whitewall. Its been connected to the Blue Moon since the before the Darkness. Of course, something could have happened to connected it to the Red Moon since (and Peter Metcalfe has a big theory based on a single artifact), but the Blue Moon makes much more sense as a connection to the land. Of course, it's mysterious and little understood, but thats the Blue Moon for you. As an aside, if you are one of the people that still uses Refuge in the Left Arm Islands as an analogue of Sanctuary in the Thieves World stories (as it was in original Chaosium house campaign, but is no longer in canon) the Blue Star Magicians are interesting as a basis for Blue Moon sorcerers, especially with their requirement to keep secrets.

Got to say I’m surprised at this take, David. I think the core of Sable society has never been the Twin Stars as such (they are important, but nowhere near as important as Waha and Eiritha in Prax), but is Sables, and therefore Eiritha - The Paps in Prax is certainly her centre of power, but everywhere her beasts are herded she is worshipped. So I see Eiritha still the main women’s god of the HPS admittedly without most of the fascinating collection of allied cults as she does at the Paps. I do see that they would probably have Waha as a less central role, though still acknowledged.

I think this all foreshadowing of the corruption of Ragnaglar. And the Uncoling Greater Darkness survival myth is partly about this, learning to defeat an evil that gets between them and their god. Cannibalism is kind of different for herd animal hsunchen - most of them acknowledge their animal brothers as family, but survival includes eating them when necessary (though living on milk is better when you can).

In general I think that the distinction between a Great Spirit and a God (or the sorcerous or mystic equivalent) is more a matter of approach than an inherent property of an entity, but this is not well understood. But outside of heroquesters, you still need to walk an established path to approach an entity, so most entities seem to be clearly Gods or Spirits in practice, as their is only one established path. But there are spirit cults for many entities that can be conventionally worshipped, usually under a different name, and something these traditions acknowledge each other, Storm Bull and Urox is the most well known, and there are several entities that combine a more theist approach and shamanic paths in the one (Waha, Yu-Kargzant, etc). A Yelm Imperator member interacts with Yelm as a God, a Golden Bow shaman interacts with him as a Great Spirit, it's still Yelm. A Kaargs Son interacts with Kygor Litor as a Goddess, a Shaman-Priestess interacts with her as a Great Spirit, and an ancestor, as well. Similar logic for Aeolian sorcerous interaction with Heortling gods, and to a limited extent mystic interactions where appropriate. But the distinction between Gods and Great Spirits seems a real one to most Gloranthans. Often where the same entity is approached both ways, they are known by different names, and even when the commonalities are realised it is rationalised away (seeing one as a 'sibling' rather than the same being). And there are plenty of deities with thousands of years of tradition via one approach, and no history at all of the other, or it is confined to a sub-cult that is seen as a different entity (eg Earth Witch). I was never a believer in a harsh split between the Four Worlds myself - I am very glad that this has been backed away from.

Essentially, the fetch has the Spirit Rune and the shaman has the Man rune - but shamans are able to take advantage of this duality by swapping places. By adding the fetch, they add access to the spirit world, but they do not give up their Man rune. If they lost their Man Rune, they'd lose their body. Effectively they die. For some great shamans this may be little more than an inconvenience and a natural progression. But this may not be how it is represented within the RQG rules. The rules are approximations and abstractions. Access to the Spirit Rune may not be represented as a Spirit Rune %age, but by other game mechanics.

When an 'out of canon' source is the best source you have, use it unless it is directly contradicted by canon. Where The Bestiary contradicts Anaxials Roster, the Bestiary is correct, but mostly the Bestiary just doesn't say anything about breeds from outside Dragon Pass. In the particular case of horses, AR drew on earlier documents and it is unlikely to contradict canon.

I don’t. Eiritha is very much a herd animal goddess. I run Rigitaina as a land goddess minus Bless Crops.

Just chiming in to say that I'm going with: - Votank is a regional variant of Ancestor Worship. In addition to the normal Ancestor Worship abilities, they get 1 extra spell from the Votank hero-cult. Summon Son of Votank Ranged Temporal Stackabble a spirit with INT 2D6+6 POW 5d6+6 CHA 2D6+12 appears as the clans total animal totem. Physical form can manifest, attacks physically at Spirit Combat %age (typically POW x5%) doing 2d10+2, Hit points equal to POW. Friendly if the Summoner is descended the same clan as the caster. Knows 2D4 points of Rune magic, 2d4+6 spirit magic spells. Can be stacked with Summon Spirit Teacher and otherwise acts as a Summon Ancestor for magical purposes. - I agree that Hearthmother is essentially Serdrosa/Earth Witch, but I think closely associated with Rigtaina. As such shamans can have access to Earth Elementals (Summon and Dismiss, all sizes). They are also able to automatically become members of Rigtaina. Rigtaina is also worshipped separately. In return, Rigtaina members gain access to spirit magic from Hearthmother. Rigtaina is the land goddess, but is not an agricultural goddess, more a goddess of the wild. She does not get Bless Crops, but does get access to Land spirits, nymphs, etc through Command Cult Spirt etc. She has no full priests, only 'God talkers', many of whom then become shamans of Hearthmother. Major ceremonies to Rigtaina are led by Shaman-priestesses. - Balazar is a sub-cult of Yelmalio. I think it should have access to one extra Rune Spell, I'm not sure what this is - possibly Sureshot. The most important difference is that Balazar is associated with Mralota (also worshipped separately) - Mralota, even in the citadels, mostly only has shrines and/or associated cult worship, which grant Bless Animals and Command Swine - Brother Dog is a spirit cult. It teaches Speak With Dog and Command Dog, and like many spirit cults is associated with many dog spirits.

I appreciate the idea - in practice, annoys me a bit, as someone who has studied the caballa a bit the actual runes never seem to correspond well.

Yes. Though it’s often weak, and often not very clever. Normal insects are still connected to Gorakiki, just in their own way.

David’s suggestion that the secret words of Ernalda correspond to the Star Heart is a good one. Of course remembering that the Orlanthi aren’t gender essentialist - it is normal for Vingans to experience theStar Heart during her initiation. For characters in other cults, give them what seems most appropriate, or let them experience the Star Heart because they are at the edge of creation, or make something up.

Yeah, sorry Martin, I know you meant well but.... no. Women have hearts too. I'd suggest that while it is not the traditional womens path, anyone from Heortling culture who travels to the edge of existence like this obtains the star heart (just that is not normally part of a womans path, so it will be new to them). The heart is more fundamental than the genitalia. If you want to make a myth about it with a specific female spin, the Second Son obtains the Star Heart from the Third Mother. So have them meet the Third Mother if you wish.

Some variants of superglue are actually designed to bond to human flesh, and marketed for medical applications. Better than suturing for some injuries. (technically, superglue is cyanoacetate, octyl-cyanoacetates are now sold for surgical use due to low toxicity, but plain old superglue was used for situations were we were less squeamish about the quite mild toxicity, like veterinary uses or combat medicine, for ages before that) But in Glorantha, magic can presumably be tweaked for usability, and most people use Healing for wound closure, and find that a Glue spell that doesn't stick to people is more useful (especially as it would regularly fail)

The Orathorn sorcerers could also have dramatically changed (as the Pentans did). They may no longer be necromancers, they may have decided that directly invoking Chaotic powers is a terrible idea, they may have decided that they need to learn more about the Lunars, they may decided to never meddle in human affairs again, they may be obsessed with finding a secret weapon against the Lunars in case they ever face them again. Maybe they'll be a great ally for Sheng when he returns, maybe Argrath, maybe they have decided that any further involvement in politics is a disaster and have created great magical wards so they can survive the hero wars. Or they are all Chaotic monsters. They can be anything you like. We know there are abut 5,000 there. They are a family of immortal sorcerers with terrible powers and undead servants. The rest is speculation. While we know Hon-Eel fought the Chaos creatures called headhangers there, we don't know if they were summoned by Orathorn or not, they could be a result of Lunar Chaos gone horribly wrong.

Yeah, wasn’t a great result for the Emperor himself. Not so bad for the Empire, though. Nomads weakened for generations, Empire does fine right up until the Dragonrise and that Argrath fellow. And accidentally nuking yourself is what happens when your go to power move is unleash Chaos. I suspect the Orathorn sorcerers are still trying to put things back together too.

It should be entirely unsurprising that the core magic of the Lunar College of Magic is Lunar divine magic, supplemented and extended by Illumination, because thats the core magic of the Lunar Empire and Lunar religion. Both descriptions of the Lunar Minor and Major Classes, and the example of She That Strikes From Afar in the bestiary, support this. They have Lunar regimental spirits, priests of various Lunar deities some of whom are mindlinked to the wyter, and the majority of magicians discorporate and spiritually travel with the wyter, supporting it in attack. This includes Jakaleel shamans and sorcerers (mostly from the Irrippi Ontor cult), but their core magic is priestly, and almost all their magic is Lunar. The Major Class magicians in particular are all experienced Illuminants, and so are likely to supplement this with being members of multiple obscure Lunar cults, plus use of Chaos and some Red Goddess cult special magic. Of course the LCM includes other magic - I think the Spell Archers include many Solar priests, particularly Yelm the Elder, and the Comet Seers are star magic users, probably largely Buserian sorcerers. But even these are outnumbered by the specialist units of other Lunar magic. The Crater Makers. The Seven of Vistur I tend to think of as Lunar sorcerers - mostly experts in long slow powerful ritual. The Blue Moon School. Of course The Crimson Bat. And besides the Bat, a lot of Chaos forces bolster the LCM covertly. In particular the Vampire Legion. It's not clear how widespread this was in Hon-Eels time. To double down on the most powerful core Lunar magics and to use their Chaotic powers. And while it was horrible, it was largely successful, destroying nomad power for generations. I don't think there was all that much sorcery involved on the Lunar side, though it's always in the mix.

The Lunar regimental magic can involve sorcery, but I think is mostly not.

Dwarves are not the same as ancestral Mostali, and almost all the time references to Mostali are to dwarves. The number of Ancestral Mostali still alive seems to be in the dozens across all Glorantha, and in general they are not active in the world. Dwarves have the Man rune. They reproduce sexually. They are not very obviously sexually dimorphic, and it doesn’t seem to be a major factor in the lives of normal Mostali. Generally speaking the Mostali seem not to like thinking about it (for one thing, it highlights a big difference between Clay Mostali and the Ancestral Mostali). Other Mostali, like the Flintnail cult, may feel differently. The Pavis cult has a grimoire that includes magic to allow Man rune races to interbreed. Presumably this explains dwarfs interbreeding with the daughters of Pavis. Pavis is said to have written the grimoire - but presumably did so after learning about the magic used to create himself, a half-elf.

Spontaneous? I always thought it was a deliberate magical effect (and Pavis cult has a grimoire to make it happen).

Mularik being both a sorcerer and a warrior just tells us he is not bound caste restrictions, and has the resources to train as both. Many sorcerers aren’t bound by caste restrictions, we already know he is Arkati and so likely to be from a Hrestoli tradition not conservative Rokari. being a sorcerer and a warrior is the norm for Loskalm, for example. The iron eye that sees into the other world is pretty special, though.

I'd be happy to playtest for you.

All true - but then, could also be a Yanafals hero cult for a female hero too. We are both extrapolating from inadequate info. TBH the fact that both characters have the same two runes and the vagueness makes me think they were meant to have more detail filled in later. Another possibility is that Diovena worships Yara Aranis. Mirin's Cross has a Temple of The Reaching Moon, and of course the troops associated with her are horse hating infantry.

Hwarin Dalthippa is a possibility, but there are a few arguments against - Hwarin Dalthippa is a movement deity whose regiments are spear/javelin wielding peltasts or light cavalry, not swordsmen, and doesn't have the Death Rune. Probably just Yanafals. Though as a devotee, she is definitely a Rune Lord of whoever it is. I agree Rugenath would most likely be Yanafals or 7M.

OR I could pick any of the many hundreds of locations which has only a paragraph in the guide. and choose to focus work on them, and leave areas with a fairly interesting and inspiring back story as a source of inspiration. There are many dozens of areas in the guide that are obvious allusions to literary sources. Why single out Sanctuary {and Karse) as being problematic because they are linked to gaming material in addition to literary?