soltakss

Thanks!

Personally, I think that is why Yelm had to accept Orlanth's Contests, they were effectively him challenging Yelm for the right to be Emperor. Now, Solars don't publicise this, as they don't want anyone to know. Also, Orlanthi don't publicise this, either, as they don't want anyone to think that Orlanth could have been Emperor, after all, he killed the Emperor and become King of the Gods instead.

I think you have to be within 3 generations of an Emperor to become Emperor. So, your father, grandfather or great-grandfather must have been an emperor for you to attempt to take the 10 Tests. The Red Emperor is son of the Red Goddess, whose Grandfather, I believe, was Aether Primolt. Sheng Seleris was son of the Morning, presumably the Morning was a child of Theya, daughter of Yelm, so he qualified.

This is what Heroes do. They find something out, get it validated and then proceed from there. There may be difficulties. Not everyone who comes to visit a God on the God Plane necessarily gets an audience. The HeroQuestor might find that all ways to the God are barred and that something special is required to get through.

The best way is through HeroQuesting. The mortal could Heroquest to journey to the God's home and meet the god there to talk to it. Divination is really a Question and Answer session and is meant to be unclear. This is not really meeting the God. Yes, Shamanic Discorporation might work. Some Deities react better to Shamans than others. this is one way that shamans know and allows them to interact with the Deity on a personal basis. Not necessarily. Many HeroQuests involve reenacting the Paths of another Deity or Hero. However, it is possible to perform a HeroQuest to get to a place, but once you are there, you can interact with the Deity as Yourself. This is what heroes typically do on their GodQuest to become a God.

Thanks Jane. That was based on a dream that I had, but the dream took the form of a number of black plates with white etchings, except that they moved like a cartoon. A bit like the plates of the Red Goddess' story.

Which is why I asked it, as the answer is an obvious Yes. I wondered why the Op asked as the answer to that is also Yes.

Soltak Stormspear had a 9 point Enhancer, so he could cast Countermagic 18, he also had Shield 4 and a set of dragonewt Skin Armour that he obtained by killing the Dragonewt in spirit combat (RQ2, so its soul was destroyed), so he could get, in theory, about Countermagic 30. Sounds great, doesn't it? However, all it takes is a Priest with Multispell 3 casting 4 spells boosted to 16 MPs each to blow it down. A big Countermagic is not the answer to everything.

I'm getting a 403 Forbidden error on this one. Clearly have to pass the secret guardians to get to it! 😉 Try https://wellofdaliath.chaosium.com/home/websites/moondesign-com/jeffs-old-blogs/greater-lunar-empire/ for the article, but I can't find the map anywhere.

I'd love to see that sort of thing, as it fits nicely into many of the good parts of Glorantha. Does being a Woman involve shunning all "masculine things"? Can you be a Woman and still do things that are traditionally masculine? Sound like a great idea.

Pavis and the Big Rubble - a mix of Politics and Dungeon Delving, with the tiniest Wilderness imaginable. Borderlands - A focused Campaign as Mercenaries for a Lunar Duke along the River of Cradles in Prax, but with so many opportunities for a further Sandbox Campaign. It also has excellent NPC writeups. Griffin Mountain - An excellent Sandbox setting, set in Balazar and the Elder Wilds Cults Compendium - A collection of all the RQ2 and RQ3 long writeup Cults, a very useful supplement, at least until Gods and Goddesses of Glorantha 1 and 2 come out. There is a nice link between Borderlands and Griffin Mountain, which allows you to travel to the next campaign.

While that sounds cool, I'm going to assume it's the same "it's crescent so moon lol" logic we see with the Sables and who knows what else. Or, they are both true. Yanafal Tarnils defied his master and so his sword was bent to show his shame. Fortunately, he follows the Lunar way and wears his curved sword with pride.

No problem. We all remember things from years ago that we are sure are right, until someone goes and checks the facts. Slightly different, as the Lightbringers are not worshipped in a single cult, but the seven Mothers are. i think that Humakt would be Neutral to The Lightbringers as a Cult, because he is Enemy to Eurmal and Friendly to Orlanth. Humakti have this silly notion of "Honour the Fallen", so would probably frown on this. Most mixed parties have rules, or at least guidelines about this. "Derak the Dark Troll, the aforementioned Zorak Zoran Death Lord, was adventuring with a dwarven Humakti who had a Godling Bone, which meant that his spirit did not actually travel the Path of the Dead if he was slain, so he could be resurrected, well, he was a bit crap and was resurrected so often that he had a handle built into his hauberk. One day, we has put back into the Godling Bone and Derak offered to carry him back, as he was only a little dwarf. On the way back to the Chalana Arroy Temple, the party heard Derak munching away on some snacks and thought nothing of it, but this kept happening again and again, until one of the Humakti realised that Derak did not have any trail rations and was eating the Humakti's fingers. he said it was fine, as he had Regrow Limb." Every worshipper of Arkat knows that they worship the part of Arkat where he was Good and not the next part, where he was Bad. So, Arkat Humaktsson was Good but Arkat the Knight worshippers think that Arkat Humaktsson was Bad, as he abandoned the Malkioni Way. Similarly, worshippers of Zorak Arkat think that Black Arkat was Bad as he abandoned the destruction of Chaos.

If you have a Bound Spirit, bound into a familiar, you can see through the eyes of the familiar, so it makes a good spy. You can also cast spells through the familiar's eyes and we played that the Range of the spell starts with the familiar as Zero and counts from the familiar.

Yes. These geases are what are commonly found and available in the cults. Yes. There are clearly more geases available, as more geases have been written up for NPCs in scenarios. So, both are true. All cults get the geases mentioned in the books, but some PCs or NPCs can get other geases. For example, the hawk riders in Dykene get geases such as "Never let a hawk suffer needlessly", which is different from the standard Yelmalio geas. Is "Never let an Elf suffer needlessly" still an available geas? I always liked that one. Yes, many people get HeroQuesting geases, for other cults. People have mentioned this before. Thanatar has geases and is a Truth Rune Cult, for example. However, Lhankor Mhy is a Truth Rune Cult without geases, so it doesn't always apply.

Don't forget that the Red Emperor is the Dara Happan Emperor, Yelm's Incarnation and the True emperor. he was accepted as a co-Emperor and heir to the last of the Dara Happan Emperors who preceded him. So, any Yelm cultists really should support the Red Emperor, as he is the head of their cult.

Humakt hates Yanafal Tarnils, who is a heretic and a traitor. By extension, he hates the Seven Mothers, who include Yanafal Tarnils in their number. Cults of Prax doesn't have Primal Chaos, but Cults of Terror does. In Cults of Prax, Humakt is Hostile (1) towards the Seven Mothers, mainly, I think, because of Yanafal Tarnils. The Seven Mothers, however, are Neutral (2) to Humakt, as Yanafal Tarnils still respects his old master. In Cults of Terror, Humakt is Hostile (1) to Seven Mothers and Neutral (2) to Primal Chaos. Seven Mothers is Neutral (2) to Humakt, as is Primal Chaos. In our RQ2 Campaign, one GM loved to bring out a Chaotic Rune Lord of Humakt, just to rub Humakti PCs' noses in the fact that Humakt has no problem with Chaos. I can't see that stated anywhere in Gods of Glorantha. There is no Cult compatibility Chart, except for Pantheons and that is unreliable for individual deities. The writeup for Humakt does not mention a hatred of anyone.

Of course art is subjective. It always has been. I might look at one painting and think it's OK, someone else might think it's a beautiful piece of work. Some Modern Art is completely inaccessible to some people, even though it has been around for over a century. I know people who cannot stand portraits and others who dislike landscapes.

Yes, of course that could happen. if the weaponthanes notice the pilgrims are from a hostile clan, then they would charge extra. However, there is nothing to stop the pilgrims saying "We are merely pilgrims come to share in Orlanth's Winds at Orlanth's Hill", or some similar ritual response. Don't forget, they could answer with the "Good Greetings in Ill times, friend" Lightbringer Response and the weaponthanes can't do much about it.

Or Jar-Eel ...

I wouldn't expect anything else from someone called Dangerduck.

In our RQ2 Campaign, we sometimes had Humakti and Zorak Zorani in the same group. What normally happened was they got their challenging out of the way first, perhaps by challenging to a duel or to a nice game of chess. Then they started posturing and chest-slapping until both sides were happy. Finally, they agreed to work together "Just this once", against a common enemy. Of course, this might be the tenth "Just this once". Undead is a problem and can be handled several ways. The Zorak Zorani might agree to keep his little helper away from the Humakti, perhaps out of sight, moving on ahead or behind. The Zorak Zorani could dress the little helper in robes with a mask, concealing its nature. the Zorak Zorani could argue that this is "Good Undead", not "Bad Undead" and show that it is going to kill some Undead itself, but I am not sure how this would work in practice. In our RQ3 Campaign, that continued our RQ2 campaign with fewer PCs, we have a Zorak Zorani Death Lord and an Orlanthi/Lhankor Mhy/Humakti PC. They were taking a Battle Wagon through Dorastor and the Death Lord had slain two Bison, brought them back as Zombies and used them to pull the Wagon, day and night without tiring, but he had covered them with thick armour, so they couldn't be seen as Zombies. However, after several days, the Humakti realised that they did not eat, did not sleep and did not tire, so he pulled their armour off, saw they were Zombies and slew them on the spot. That left the party in the middle of Dorastor with a heavily-reinforced battle Wagon that they couldn't pull.

Yes, Sartar has a number of Sacred Sites. To a certain extent, yes. Having such a Sacred Site on your tula gives a clan extra prestige. Quite often, the clan has its own special rites that are held at the Sacred Site and gives them bonuses. However, such Sacred Sites are also money-making opportunities. i can see worshippers from friendly clans being allowed free access to the Sacred Sites, but other worshippers being asked to pay a fee or have to ask permission to go there. Of course, it all depends on the relative power of the clan, are they powerful enough to stop worshippers from accessing the Sacred Sites? In any case, I would expect the local clan to have souvenir stalls, sell provisions to worshippers, sell icons or memorabilia based on the Sacred Site. Members of the same tribe as the clan would simply have to show kinship or show they are members of the same tribe. Similarly, friends of the Sacred Site's Holy People should be able to access the Sacred Site. I would say that it would be polite to always go through the ritual, formal greeting, as it would be considered impolite to not do so. That probably happens as well. In this case, though, surrounding tribes might be hostile, or unfriendly, so might have to grit their teeth when having to ask the local Clan Chieftain or Tribal King for permission to access the Sacred Site. There would be a big camp around the site, like at Woodstock or Burning Man, especially on important days. Locals would supply them with food and drink, perhaps for free or they might sell them. The same way as you deal with other offensive practices. You either oppose them or ignore them. Some clans might have a strong Odayla presence and might downplay the Bear Hunt. Others might be enemies of Odayla and play up the Bear Hunt. It all depends on local clan politics and beliefs. Babeester Gor killed the Healers of Healer Vale, but that doesn't mean that on every High Holy Day they kill a Healer. Cults choose which rites and festivals they hold, tailoring them to the local sensibilities.

Is that right? If so, then I am surprised.

And continue to enact every year. The reigning Count is expected to perform it at the beginning of his reign, and then may delegate the role to a proxy (usually a Light Son) in subsequent years. In our last Gloranthan Campaign, this was massively important to the PCs. They were River Voices, so decided to perform the Yelm-Oslir HeroQuest themselves, with one PC becoming a Year-Husband of Zola Fel. then, when the Count performed the HeroQuest, they opposed him, thus retaining the status of Year-Husband and allowing Sun County to be irrigated. When it happened again the next year, the Count was very angry and the year afterwards, the Red Emperor himself appeared to bind the Zola Fel to his service. It didn't work out quite how anyone expected, with a 7 year grace period before the Zola Fel became his wife. So, it should be possible to use this HeroQuest in unusual ways.