Ian Absentia

Like Mordenkainen, Bigby, Otiluke, Tenser, etc? That's about right. Because they're monsters. It's okay to shoulder them out of the way. !i!

We can only hope. But, yeah, that character is a bigger Mary Sue than Argrath. !i!

No! Forbes was onto my use of Adblocker and blocked the content until I turned it off. Then the barrage of pop-up videos and sidescroll advertisements began. That said, I got far enough into the article to see that it was nothing new to me. But, yeah, Forbes, WSJ, Business Review -- they're all making an effort to show that popular culture is, in fact, part of the consumer markets they report on. Probably due, in no small part, to the fact that several prominent figures in business today grew up on things like television sitcoms, RPGs, console games, and sports, and discuss them openly. Who'd-a-thunk? !i!

Intrigued, but the webpage was unreadable due to the quantity and intrusiveness of the pop-up commercial advertisements. "Quality journalism," indeed, Forbes. Boo. !i!

Or like studying Satanism. Sure, you may be approaching it from an academic standpoint, but that doesn't necessarily inspire confidence among the population at large that you're not actually practicing it. Don't you know enough to leave a bad thing alone? !i! [Edit: Or as I've sometimes told my kids growing up -- If you have to ask, then you've already answered your own question.]

But...but, they're so ironically self-aware and playfully non-hip! How can I not approve of corporate advertising conducted through non-traditional channels of communication? !i!

M*A*S*H I can understand. Cheers, not so much. But, yes, that's exactly what was on my mind, too. I was also thinking of Mongolian and Inuit communities that move seasonally and set up semi-permanent hunting camps. There are also desert-dwelling cultures that move nomadically from oasis to oasis in similar fashion, usually for herding. There's a difference between being permanently nomadic and constantly on the move. Even the Israelites during their 40 years wandering in the desert settled down periodically in what we today might refer to as refugee camps. !i!

It may be worth noting that, among nomadic societies, "permanently" mobile may mean seasonally or periodically mobile. No fixed and structurally founded locale, but mobile encampments where they may may stay for weeks or months, though there may be semi-permanent locations that are returned to. In militaresque terms, think of a mobile, but semi-permanent HQ that serves as a strategic base for smaller, more short-term tactical missions. !i!

Tradition has it that the among the colonial voyageurs, French-Canadian fur trappers and traders, their skill with a canoe was such a point of pride that they purposely didn't learn to swim. They didn't need to! Well, the ones who lived to tell the tale, at least. !i!

I'd assumed that "instruction" in the skill of Intimidation involved enculturation in a general bellicose attitude (like in much of sports culture, say, boxing or American-rules football), but the haka, and any number of cross-cultural equivalents coinciding with ritual combat, is a very specific and purposeful example. Particularly if they're emulating the attitude and postures of their goddess(es), I reckon that's exactly what the followers of the Gors are doing. !i!

But it does! Crappy slaughter and butchery can spoil meat with bile, acid, feces, etc. Especially on a small animal. Use of the Peaceful Cut aside, I still decline to accept the Bloody Cut, although described as "a slaughtering skill" -- not "a butchering skill," I'll note (there is a difference) -- to be anything but torture intended to traumatise and defile an animal, body and spirit. Q: Bloody Cut is "used to dispatch both animals and captured prisoners." Does it work ritually on Aldryami? Again, is there a Red/Green divide as there apparently is between Peaceful Cut and Food Song? Or is it applicable to both the Beast Rune ("animals") and the Man Rune ("captured prisoners")? !i!

Coolsies. So it's like the Lunar Sweaters? What powers does it confer? !i!

Sure, the very structure of the Ivory Plinth and all, but I'm not seeing any reference to the average Aramite ritually killing a boar for it's tusks. Mythologically it makes sense, yes, but where is it writ? I dunno. Maybe the affection isn't exactly tender or requited, but... "These beasts are fierce and ill-tempered, but love their masters beyond all comprehension." - Gloranthan Bestiary, Tuskers "They are devoted to their riders; a tusk boar will not attack its own Aramite rider, and will even defend him by attacking other Aramites." - Anaxial's Roster, Tusk Boar (Tusker) I'm almost sure that I read somewhere that the Aramites share an affection for their steeds as well, but I may just be remembering the Tusker's affection in reverse. I know they're raised with the pigs until they reach majority and join a warband. !i!

Yeah, the Bloody Cut is not a skill usable for practical butchery. It's explicitly a means of torture. While it may help a practitioner know their way around the parts of a living body, it's not a skill for rendering a good cut of meat or a clean hide. As to the matter of how so many different and unrelated deities seem to have access to the same cult magic and skills, I assume that there's something going on akin to what happens in the consulting or coding trades. There are your partners, with whom you share data and project templates, so your product is consistent within the project team. Then there are your competitors, who at some point review your deliverables, admire elements of your formatting and presentation, then reverse-engineer them and add them to their own templates. Later on, you review one of their products during due diligence and remark in surprise, "Hey, they have a section detailing the Peaceful Cut, too. And that's almost verbatim our wording!" Good ideas get around and become standards of practice. Bloody Cut is like fucking malware. !i!

Hmm. Having just made friends with a pig, why not kill another Tusk Rider for his teeth? On a related note, how did Arkat handle the dentition issue when he became a Troll? !i!

Yeah, that was Cragspider's attempt. The multiple births were apparently the result of Naxili Garang's attempt to break it (Trollpak, Uz Lore). To be clear, if any resulting twins are Mistress Race (in the unlikely event it should ever happen), they're recognised as such and accorded full Troll status, probably celebrated. Twin Uzko and Uzdo get the fuzzy end of the lollipop, though, and are treated as Enlo by circumstance. Superior Trollkin, though! I can't stress enough how much fun it was to play the Gruntfartt Twins, Allecks and Oddo. Big as houses, dumb as rocks, and good-naturedly violent in the extreme. !i!

Technically, all twins born to Trolls are Trollkin, even if they're actually Uzko. Because only Trollkin are born in litters... Years back, a friend of mine and I played twin Great Troll brothers. Biggest damned Trollkin you ever did see. !i!

I haven't looked in several years, but I found the material on the expanded Ronegarth mentioned above online. I don't know that I could tell you now where it came from. !i!

Thank you. As it turns out, I have most of the sources you mentioned, save King of Sartar and the freeform support material you mentioned. Most notably, I'm lacking the details of Aram's defeat of Gouger with the aid of the unnamed demon, and Gouger's role as the Earth avenger. This is very helpful. Even if just as a pet project, I still see a heroquest to redeem the Aramites as possible. In case it isn't evident, I'm an opponent of static canon in gaming. That's for novels. Give me a starting point with an established background. 1610, 1615, 1621, 1625? Fine. But I'll break it after that. As a GM I will encourage, even goad my players to change the world. Include a provision for a player character to involuntarily and accidentally become a member of the Tusk Riders, I will see that through it its illogical and deeply heroic conclusion. !i!

[Duplicate post. Please ignore.]

Hey, @Joerg, can you provide me with a few citations for the Tusk Rider history you mention above? I've been combing through my (admittedly conventional) Gloranthan/RQ sources and finding precious little about them. The "half-troll" mislead is prominent among them. I'm guessing that I need to track down the legend of Aram for most of it. Also, to the crowd, any thoughts on alternative pig-management gods? If you're going to ouster a cruel, pig-subjugating demon, you'll need to bring a sound alternative to the table. !i!

I've seen Princess Mononoke enough times to have faith that Gouger can be cleansed. Not that it'd be easy. And in the Dawn Age, the human Aramites worshiped Orlanth, so there's precedent in the Godtime for setting them back on the right track. Not that the Tusk Riders necessarily need to be purged of their Uz-ness. And I like the White Moon connection. A lot. Just to be clear, a redeemed and cleansed tribe of Tusk Riders are not going to be a bunch of flower-sniffing penitents. I imagine something more like Paul Atreides' Fremen. Only on pigs instead of worms. And they bring the White Moon. As night passes into day, as summer follows winter, so shall the White Moon follow the Scarlet. The worst war of the world can only be followed by the best peace of the world. The White Moon is the Moon of Peace, For none can be warlike when all weapons are broken. The White Moon is the Moon of Calm, For none are quieter than the dead. The White Moon is the Moon of Beauty, But who shall remain to admire her? !i!

I see the new, private battle of the Hero Wars before me now. Healing the Tusk Riders. Right after I get done killing Argrath and changing the color of the Moon again. !i!

And in several cartoon animal and alien languages. !i!

Now you're making me feel bad. Well, Power Up to the Uz, though, yeah? And I'd argue that Orcs have been co-opted into the mainstream now, thanks in no small part to Sandy Petersen's Trollpak. One of Us... One of Us... I just find it endlessly amusing that, several decades on, there are still very situation- and probably campaign-specific provisions for initiation into the most reviled society and cult in Glorantha. Says a lot about our hobby! !i!