Joerg

The Trollwood trolls have way too good access to scorpionmen swarming out of the Foulblood Forest, up the slopes and into their territory. They would be the natural middlemen, and are known worshipers of Argan Argar. I have no idea how well scorpionman meat in carapaces will keep, or what fermentation method the trolls might want to use to make it travel. Salting the tails might do the trick. So, salt to the Troll Woods... trade established. I haven't seen any rules for developing an immunity against venoms or poisons - this isn't Nethack. I know that the Nordic people develop an immunity against mosquito venom over the years, but personally I got unlucky, attracted a massive infection and inflammation from a mosquito bite in the ankle after a full year in Norway, and have developed a very strong immune reaction against mosquito stings which leads to inflammations. In analogy to the Nochet transit from the Fish Road to the market in a temple, I expect the Backford temple that allows to enter the Fish Road there to be on the shore of the Syphon, with some architecture allowing the Syphon into the sanctified area. Right next to that, a little bit downriver - towards the Choralinthor Bay - there should be a place with reasonably deep water where middle sized craft should be able to arrive.

In the X-universe (which debuted in 1999), the Borons are another pacifist squid-like water dweller species which builds (or partially grows) space ships different from most other species in the setting. Their stations are designed for water, including their shipyards (in X3:TC and X3:AP at least) which have water bubbles held together by forcefields as mooring for their capital units. Their psychology is pretty similar, although the Borons are extremely gregarious. The physiology maybe a bit weirder, with an ammonia-rich atmosphere (and presumably hydrosphere). In the game, they speak an affectated, somewhat Victorian English, and their queendom uses a few such memes as well. (Actually "lar-dom", a hermaphroditic sex, which is rare but creates some sort of nobility.) Their nemesis (other than the rogue terraformer AIs that escaped Terran oversight and that serve as one of the universal opponents) is a piscivore, somewhat shark-like species of warlike humanoids (whose brutality is mitigated by their squeaky voices). Physically the weakest of the species engaging in a commercial commonwealth, they are dependent on environmental suits when leaving their tailored habitats and interacting with other species. Other species visiting their stations will have access to dry but nontheless smelly, rather cramped quarters.

Not himself, but his (Balazaring?) companion Ostling Four-Wolf. And it is possible that only Ostling's offspring (from Telmori mothers) would have been exempt from such a penalty, which would have made Salinarg's Telmori wife another royal cousin from the hairy side of the family, or at least descended from a cousin of Kostajor. Young Harsaltar could have become the first Telmori-blooded Prince of Sartar... His father was the first Prince of Sartar not descended from the first Feathered Horse Queen, Temertain was the second (and last). But yes, the prohibition may be in place for all Hsunchen, and the adoption of Kachisti after the Nidan/Vadeli Uprising may be the reason why the Hykimi of the Greatwood lost most of their shapeshifting abilities, and need incredible amounts of Rune Magic to alter their shape. On the other hand, some atavistic lion shape-changing ability survived in Greymane despite generations of intermarriage with other Orlanthi and probably Malkioni. The Praxian Basmoli have a different reason, ,their divine ancestor (who may have been "a son of Basmol" rather than Basmol in his entirety) allowed himself to be killed and skinned by Tada. Safelster appears to have been a hotbed for interbreeding between Hsunchen ancestors and Enerali or Malkioni, if the Ancient Beasts Society is a measure. The Seshnegi warrior beast societies are a different expression of this same trend, but it isn't clear whether their magic is by descent, or from taking skins or other organs (hearts, as in Tiger-Hearted?) and extracting the magic like the Wolf Runners serving Argrath after 1628 as the replacement for the Telmori bodyguard of earlier Princes. This may very well be a Rokari influenced magic, or have some Tada heroquesting behind it. Another way to lose your beast nature is to adopt civilization. The majority of the Kralori are descendants of Hsunchen who succumbed to the lures of civilization. For Pamaltela, we lack data. It looks like there are a few pastoralist Fiwan peoples, the Wildebeest, Eland and Tanuku (milk-antelope) people are pastoralists similar to the Praxians, except they don't herd any animals not of their totem (they still hunt those). The hippo people of Laskal are even sedentary village dwellers. So are the Sofali, but coastal and riverine people have less reason to migrate, see also the Rathori of Rathorela or the beaver folk of Saug. Gregarious cave dwellers like bats or gophers allow some sedentary lifestyle, too. Followers of totem beasts laying eggs often need to be sedentary during breeding time. Strict endogamy rules rarely survive slavery.

I wouldn't go that far. The Sunstop is the result of some of the strongest magics within Time, but it doesn't prevent a heroquester to find weird fragments of former sun gods and to bring thosee back as subcults or hero cults. Creating one of those old sun gods again to rival Yelm in recognition would require a similarly strong world-wide event, such as the rising of the Red Moon which established the Red Emperor. We still have Somash and Maluraya, the Vithelan Viceroy of the Sun (or whatever his title)which have hardly any knowledge about the killing of their deity even though they (or at least the Kralori) know about the Sunstop. Their emperor Govmeranen was not a sun god, and has not become one. Kralori emperor Heen Maround appears to have abdicated or ascended, passing the office on to Metsyla. The Doraddi myth about Varama being the reborn Kendamalar and Kendamalar abandoning his post in the sky to join his brothers in fighting a new enemy god (entering the Necklace of Pamalt) doesn't have any Orlanth, either. Instead, another (lesser?) form of Varama fell some time later, during the Artmali period (the Pamaltelans suffered from a Moon Age rather than a Storm Age). And Lunar mysteries as taught by Jar-eel (Prince of Sartar) are quite clear about several rebel gods terminating Yelm Brighteye and his emperor, Orlanth being just one of them, alongside Verithurusa (Sedenya), Tolat (Shargash), and Artia (the Bat). None of the other rebels lent a hand in bringing the sun back, though. The records are divided about how long the Sunstop lasted. For some observers it was just a second, in other places an entire generation may have enjoyed this return to the Golden Age slowly blackening. The other celestial mechanics may have stopped during the Sunstop, too, and possibly the tides as well.

At the very least the rightful apex predator culture. Everybody else who manages to beat them must be cheating. There may be certain rites in the Enclosure that could be described as trollish - possibly including necrophagy as a form of magical union with the deceased. I don't think that the equivalent of butcher Haarmann will be found in the less sanctified alleyways of the Green City, though, except possibly as a resident ogre family. Orlanth never had the Godtime to grow old, so he lacks the Elder aspect and relies on Lankhor Mhy instead. Yelm's Elder aspects seem to be a loan from Dayzatar, too. No, the goat herders of the Arcos Valley were nomadic after the Ice came, and may have accepted refugees from Nivorah as their new magical chiefs, bringing chariots and Kargzant/Reladivus/Lightfore magics which allowed them to come through the Greater Darkness rather ahead of the sedentary folks of Dara Happa who needed awakening from the Greater Darkness apathy. I have yet to play Six Ages: Ride Like the Storm, but IMO the cult of Hyalor comes from Genert's Garden, where Yamsur and his Hippogriff riders were the allies of Genert who fought at Earthfall and were as badly decimated as the Pure Horse Folk of Prax at Alavan Argay in 1250. Hyalor may have led some of the survivors into the Arcos basin and beyond, meeting the Nivorans fleeing the approaching glacier, and spreading horse breaking for riding. They'd certainly clamor to stop the steal and march on whichever seat of power there is. Complete with weird horned agitators... Grudges are what Vadrus and his get are good at. It is somewhat possible that Aerlit, the father of Malkion and thereby ancestor of the Westerners, was a by-blow of Vadrus, too. And get help by (a worshiper of) Eurmal (with a similar grudge) who convinces them that it is a good idea.

The Coming Storm has maps about the history of the Cinsina and Maboder tribes, and mentions a number of Maboder survivors who joined the Red Cow clan after 1607.

This came up in the thread about Arkat and Illumination, but has enough topic drift to become a thread of its own. The ancient western lands have two mythical histories, an older one (in terms of when Greg Stafford wrote them) which has the delightful multitude of deities and magical beings which drew us all to Glorantha in the first place, and a more recent metaphysical one we received in Revealed Mythologies, with concepts like "the One world" and separation of idea and substance that we received in Revealed Mythologies. This isn't the first case where we have a top-down creation myth from principles and an older, richer bundle of geographic myths intersecting with the Devolution pattern. In Peloria, we received this in a different order, where Glorious ReAscent of Yelm gives us the devolution of VezKarVez and EzelVezTay (capitals mine) as the souce of imperial power, and then we learn about all those primeval Pelorian predecessor myths in the Entekosiad. Revealed Mythologies has 34 pages of Malkioni material (not counting the short reprise of Vadeli activities in the South from Doraddi and Thinobutan perspectives). Most of that is Zzabur-centric (Zzabur said, Zzabur did), with a short 5 page section on the development of modern Malkionism and a very short 2 page summary of Brithela and Brithos from the "children of Malkion and various goddesses" perspective before the 10 page glossary section with alphabetically ordered additional information and commentary. Here is an attempt to visualize the intellectual layers of Zzabur's narrative of the One World etc. to Godtime Glorantha. The stacked triangles would be the Actions of Zzaburite Creation. Danmalastan would be the lower of the three layered triangles of abstractions of the physical world, and Brithela would be the surface portion of the cube, the physical world. The model would also illustrate the Essence planes in the Four Separate Worlds model of the Hero Wars / HQ1 period, and whatever shades thereof might still be useful in current Glorantha. (And show how Mostali solid Law - The Spike and what is derived from it - and Malkioni intellectual Law are separate, yet projections of one another.) At least according to Zzabur's writings of the Four Actions, the Fourth Action brought down the original men to the material world. In that sense, Brithos and the entirety of Brithela are not the original homeland. If you take the migration of the Mountain Peoples from the Monomyth maps, again the first people of the West are immigrants, coming down the slopes of the Spike. Coming out of the Green Age, the entire Surface World would have been covered by forest - maybe of varying density, but forest everywhere, at least according to one portion of the Monomyth. Elf presence and forest density would have been strongest in the direct vicinity of the Great Trees (named Dontri, Hadorf and Ontal in Brithela), and ebbing out at the fringes, creating a Savannah where the early Earth cultures could practice their primeval (non-plowing) agriculture. Topographically, Brithos is the remnant of Brithela that survived the Breaking of the World (wherein Zzabur destroyed the Spike, the Glacier, and drowned the evil Vadeli and those slaves who had fallen under their corruption), Comparing the position of Brithos with maps of Danmalastan, it appears to have been the northwesternmost part of the Enrovalini territory, bordering on the original Kachasti lands. At least initially, when the Mountain People immigrated and set up the western Black Camp of Introspection. Another possible interpretation of the coming of the Mountain People to Brithela could be the coming of Drona, son of the mountain (range) goddess Kala, and (a pre-incarnation of) Malkion the Prophet (siring the farmer and worker population of the West, of dark skin). Drona is an Earth King figure, similar to KaCharal, Pamalt the walker, or Tada. His multitude of sons - possibly by lesser Oreads or other such female expressions of local divinity - populate the lands that would become the homelands of the Six Tribes of the sons of Malkion the Founder. At some point, Malkion the Founder comes to the West, and institutes his six tribal founder sons as the new lords of the west - Tadenit the scribe, Kadenit the builder, Vyimorn the explorer, Waertag the sailor, Kachast the speaker and Enroval the (idle?) philosopher. Drona's work is done, and he leaves for Fronela, or he has already done so earlier - possibly in search of his destined wife Frona, accompanied by his boar companion Bakan and by Eurmal (still a respectable deity, a teacher of mankind). There is no evidence for the Volcano being much of a civilizing influence in Fronela, despite Mt. Ladaral on the site of Sog City. Ladaral or Laddy is depicted pretty much like Solf is in Teshnos, lazy between outbreaks of intoxicated lust. But maybe Eurmal is to blame, when he stole Fire (and possibly intellect and culture) for Mankind. The Firebringer (afterwards outlawed and persecuted by the gods) and Friend of Men, Prometheus except that his role in creating men is hushed. Back to Brithela. Revealed Mythologies tells us a few things about its topography - three forests (Dontri, Ontal, Hadorf), two hill ranges (Kala, Dora), two seas on the edges (Sramak, Neliom). Southern Brithela gets some attention in the Vadeli stories. Middle Sea Empire offers an interesting capsule of the Five Actions (p.4), and then a chapter describing Mornastan, the land of the Viymorni, and its neighbors. To the center lived the Viymorni, ruled by their Talars. To the north lived the Flesh People, also ruled by their Talars. Where Vimorn came from. To the west (!) lived the stone people, aka Mostali. (Weird, that, unless this myth intends to place Mornastan just east of the Curustus mountains.) To the east lived the forest people, ruled by Aldrya - the forests on the slopes and at the foot of the Spike. To the south lived the fleshless people, aka spirits, ruled by Bamat. So no Hsunchen/Fiwan contacts to the south, or not recognized because of them taking beast shape. (How Vimorn describes Bamat's spirit lands bears a great similarity to what the Mostali Somelz project attempts to re-create, both with their Godtime land raising that destroyed Churkenos and with their plans for the Hero Wars...) If you compare the map on p.7 in Revealed mythologies, this makes more sense if you change the directions to northwest for the Flesh People (aka Malkioni), southwest for the Mostali, northeast for the Aldryami and southeast for Bamatela/Spirit Land. In the next sub-chapter, Vimorn is named as one of the Flesh People, i.e. a northern neighbor of Mornastan. Vimorn wanders west to the mountain of the stone people, then east to the forest people, and finally almost perishes straying south into the dead lands of Bamatela. Revealed Mythology p.25 acknowledges the children of Vadela as the first (or at least prior) inhabitants of Brithela,with three colored castes/tribes. The Brown Vadeli lived to the south, the Red Vadeli in the center, and the Blue Vadeli lived in the north, in Dora's HIlls, a range marking the southern end of the lands claimed by the Brithini. But then, in the middle of the paragraph, suddenly we here about the Brown Vadeli of the north who retreat to the mountain tops, fearing the Malkioni (Zzaburi) magics. Enter the Guide, p.527, describing the prehistory of the Vadeli, and giving a map showing Old Trade (the surviving remnant of Brithos on the surface of Glorantha) and the Red Vadeli volcanoes marking a western boundary for the Sea of Brithos that used to be the remaining dry portion of Brithela. The only maps showing Brithos before its disappearance in context with Genertela are in Troll Pak Uz Lore (p.12, 14 and 22 in the RQ2 edition). Unfortunately, the maps of the ealier ages show the coastline of Fronela and the surroundings of the Neliomi Sea as if they were rotated by roughly 30° from their positions in the Third Age map (p.30, which corresponds quite nicely to the maps in the Guide/AAA. The historical maps in the Guide show no such changes in the topography of Fronela, being based on the Third Age map of the region. The mythical map of the Gray Age (Guide p.697) however conforms to the previous Ages map in Trollpak, if you look at the extend of northern Loskalm in relation to western Seshnela (Neleoswal). There are two theories about this - one assumes a cartographer's error when creating the three previous Ages maps, the other posits the idea that between the side effects of the Closing and the Ban a new slice of land (or reality) manifested in Fronela, extending the continent somewhat to the west. The appearance of the New Vadeli Islands might corroborate the second theory, which also leans on the Hidden Castles/Hidden Greens/Lost Lands concept. Be that as it may, any newly appearing items on the maps now have a history of always having been where the AAA shows them (see "New Vadeli Islands" on p.529 in the Guide). This doesn't stop me from looking at the earlier maps, comparing the southern (presumably Vadeli) archipelago in its previous ages and Third Age position, and rotate the outline of the Island of Brithos and the inserted smaller island - presumably Old Trade - accordingly to fit it into the AAA map of the Sea of Brithos. Horribly not to scale, but a possible first approximation of the extent of Old Brithos after the Breaking of the World and before its disappearance at the Closing. I really need to put the AAA maps into a GIS and create vector maps...

One might use Thunderstone-tipped lances in this way...

Old Peloria had the White Goddess(es) who were the sun empress(es), before Brightface's usurpation. Glorious ReAscent of Yelm (in-world document written in the middle of the Dawn Age) mentions Sedenya as a false, phasing sun goddess. Prax has a sun daughter, but that's not quite replacing Yelm (replacing Lightfore, though). The Yellow Elf dryads might worship Yelm as a nymph of light and fire. Not very likely, considering the Amazons of Trowjang and their male celestial deity.

Yes - standard iron (for any of the Alternate Earth settings) would have the same values as bronze in Glorantha, as the standard offensive material would be bronze, too. Gloranthan iron is a magical (or rather anti-magical) metal, and fantasy and myth is full of such magical materials. Mithril, Wayland's steel, modern alloyed steels, beryllium bronze - take your pick. The same applies to modern arrows. Wooden shafts can be stress-tested with less danger to the archer than can be carbon composites. It doesn't take that high draw weights to get such effects. Even a straw target with the straw oriented at an angle different from that of the incoming arrow may cause enough shearing damage to an arrow to cause a break - presumably on an already weakened arrow. If we take the second crusade as the beginning of the age of the longbow, armor wasn't that proof yet. Agincourt may have been won as much by the wooden stakes planted by the archers in their target area as by the arrows showered on the French chivalry. I suspect that killing or seriously wounding the horse will have been a major factor in fatalities.

Apparently Yelm had lots of sex in Hell. The Blue Moon that gave birth to the Artmali was sired in Hell, and had a number of planetary siblings. Separation from the pure part (which continued to hover in the sky for most of the Lesser Darkness aka Storm Age) may have removed any prohibitions he may have had before. Hell is cold, after all.

As a sports archer who has shot a variety of bows, any personalized self bow will have different ranges and penetration, and damage will depend on the type of arrow you shoot, too. Non-personalized bows are generally only shot by bloody beginners or people who lost their personal weapon somehow. It is an experience comparable to walking in rubber boots two numbers too small for your feet. Can be done in a pinch, may save you from not having any at all, but is annoying and potentially painful in a number of ways. Target arrows or the multi-purpose leaf-bladed arrows probably are some sort of standard. Then you may have dedicated hunting arrows with pronounced and wider blades to cut as many blood vessels as possible in the prey, and you may have arrow points designed to puncture weaker armor, or fitting into chainmail loops. Nope. Armor in RQ3 is for (everyday carbon) steel. Glorantha uses the same values. About right. Any glancing hit can be re-rolled to see what it hits next, provided enough of the arrow survives the impact. The good news is that they aren't reflected back to the shooter, at least not from a single impact. Missile weapons are the eternal step children of crunchy combat systems. Done realistically, they take out too much of the "fun" exchanging blows in melee.

Oria appears to mean "mother", as in DarOria, the Great Mother. PelOria would be the grain mother - Pela used to stand for wheat, but with the fairly recent re-distribution of national grains, it might mean barley these days, as Esra appears to have received Einkorn wheat.

Ernalda is the goddess of pottery in all forms, after all.

Now, that's the advanced course. On par with meeting those eye-tattoo people in Pavis in Robin Laws' upcoming Pavis books. If I had to do that, I'd start with the Fish Road from Backford, and collect some of the ichor where the Syphon is searing away most of it. Easy peasy - just like getting a sample of Ebola while dressed like Tarzan. Shipping nitroglycerin in a cart going down stairs may be safer.

Weird - I would have though that terracotta statuettes would be the norm in Orlanthi lands, with material like jade or alabaster reserved for nobility. Carved wood would be another poor man's version, and probably an important source of income for stickpickers or poor cottars.

Did they start out as such? Basically this means that Dendara is present at Ezel, and her cult known in Esrolia. As Oria has quite a lot of overlap/identity with Ernalda, where does that leave the acknowledgement between Dendara and Oria if Ernalda is unaware of the bright wife? And do we find Gorgorma alongside Dendara in Ezel? Empress Earth is of course a title as much as the Celestial Court primeval earth entity, and it is fairly normal for complex deities to have multiple sets of parents, so the question whether Ernalda is not a daughter of Asrelia would be useless. At the same time, I find it unlikely to find Dendara being a daughter of Asrelia. But then, young adult Asrelia is Ernalda as far as most of the magic of the deity is concerned. Different associates, and a few key differences, but on the whole not a lot more than between different Great Temples. And different in enough ways to make it a case similar to Yu-Kargzant vs. urban Yelm.

Dragonrise - the Fall-Out. And you thought Sky Bulls were a bad idea...

I didn't say it would be easy or harmless to get some specimen, but breaking off some branches of a petrified tree might already give you a good set of curios. Doing so will damage your perimeter against the Chaos in the Footprint, so the local Bull guards won't like it, but few of those will have survived the Lunar collusion with Gagix. I wasn't thinking of trading, anyway, more like raiding or wood-cutting, and possibly a little poaching. Pretty much like entering the Big Rubble for a dig. Even if the petrification subsides or becomes infectious (shades of Game of Thrones?), there will be customers. I suppose the Lunar expedition to Gagix will have brought a mule train or two of such samples for studies at the Imperial College, and researchers will be willing to pay for more such samples. The scenarios almost write themselves, here...

If he's lucky. "What has taken you so long?" Nothing like Watergate, rest assured. Stormgate is a local feature in the sky, the hole from which Umath emerged to spiral his way to the center of the sky, disrupting the complacent eight planetary sons of Yelm, colliding with who we know as Shargash, crashing into the north pillar, getting dismembered in the Underworld after having been caught in flagrante delicto fathering a new entity with Verithurus(a). This last myth about Umath (minus the Lunar affair) is documented in the Copper Tablets, in the Guide, in Glorious ReAscent of Yelm, and in Heortling Mythology. If you don't have these resources, here's a glimpse at Umath's entry into the sky, and at the situation before he entered: https://wellofdaliath.chaosium.com/home/gallery/eric-vanel/ Well, one of those campaigns would have to go on a non-linear exchange of mythic paths. Not impossible in Godtime, but makes storytelling and following the story quite difficult. Yes, everybody will be delighted. Perhaps literally de-lighted. Might. Might as well mar the recipient with the most annoying and harmful curse. You don't usually encounter such chaotics because they don't last very long. Got force-married by Vadrus when he slew Enkoshons, and Heler emerged as the Blue Lady. Iphara is their love-child, I think. No idea whether Vadrus recognized his old lay when he and the Helerings may have gotten into some ruffles. Basically, Alkoth's reign of Terror created a border for how far the Only Old One's Shadowlords could cast their "net" of Unity and mutual support. The Shadowlords never made contact with anyone north of the survival sites named in the Guide or History of the Heortling Peoples. And they were active in the region when Jenarong was just starting to put a semblance of Anaxial's Dara Happa back together. The Battle of I Fought We Won kicked off the Shadowlords' mission of making contact with everybody who had contributed to the Unity Battle (which had averted the Chaos Horde from making their way through Dragon Pass towards the Spike, so they had to go via Genert's Garden). I doubt that they managed to find all contributors, but a significant number of people were willing to join the alliance of the Only Old One and King Heort, and a few other heroes from I Fought We Won from smaller survival groups. Both Heort and the Shadowlords had been ranging the devastation already during the worst of the Greater Darkness before I Fought We Won, and knew about survivors and how to get there. When a hope of a post-apocalyptic period set in after IFWW, they quickly shared that knowledge with other hidden survivors, who would slowly come out of hiding. As mercenaries. Much like Storm Bulls may accompany traders' caravans. As civil servants or solders summoned by imperial authority. As merchants, grooms/brides... They are considered to be humans, these days. As raiders (mainly in Darjiin), but that might qualify as major stir at least locally. Yes. Lean back and grab some popcorn.

Of course, followed by a wave of refugees seeking shelter inside city walls, laying the foundation for recruitment to mercenary units, warlocks and similar weird societies as Orlanthi society fails to feed itself properly. A situation not unlike the eve of the Adjustment Wars when the Hendriki invaded Esrolia after taking in numerous waves of refugees from Dragon Pass, starting with famine and raid refugees from no longer draconic Kerofinela in 1042. The demographic changes of the Windstop probably should be addressed at least as guidelines how to change published population numbers for pre-Windstop Glorantha. I don't think that Backford is in a good position to trade Kitori or troll goods - Jansholm or Smithstone are better situated. What Backford has as its unique item is Stone Forest artefacts.

Not quite. The Missing Lands were cut from the Genertela Box for publication in 1988 (IIRC), 4 years before any Vinga showed up in King of Sartar, and Nandan the Birthing Man was a scandalous new discovery in the middle of the nineties. The mythology of the Sea Tribe, with the three children/aspects of Zaramaka (Daliath: Intellect, Framanthe: Soul/Spirit, Sramak: Body) mating with one another created the three strands of sea divinities. That's already in the Wyrm's Footnotes series Gods and Goddesses of Glorantha that became the core part of the Sourcebook. The Missing Lands spells this out, in a section that was skipped when the Guide was collected. Tales of the Reaching Moon #10 printed a good portion of these myths (years before Missing Lands was finally released) but left out some of the more whacky ones. Or those were added afterwards to Missing Lands... But no, the gender fluidity of at least one (each) of the first triplet (and also the second generation triplets - at least the Manthi and the Heler-Triolina-Nelat one) was long established. Nymphs of any kind owe their ancestry to the example Uleria Tilnta the Grower set. They should almost have their own form rune. They are capable of parthenogenetic or sexual reproduction. The Malkioni trace their ancestry to the Tilntae, the Aldryami (except for the Vronkali) depend on them for reproduction, the Orlanthi claim descent of their ancestral storm god from the greatest of the mountain nymphs, Kero Fin. Naiads, oceanids and nereids are just the water application of this principle, much like hags are the darkness application. There ought to be air nymphs, but those somehow fail to materialize in myth, unless you name Entekos, or "Orlanth's Sisters" in Dini on the Spike in the Downland Migration story. Darkness is similarly fluid in terms of shape. Kyger Litor as the Hell Mother may be the (rather late) adoption of the nymph principle when the Man Rune appeared in the Celestial Court, alongside the Hsunchen-like ancestry of the beasts of darkness, or the fungal life. Other Darkness/Underworld species emerged independent from these concepts, like the Alkothi Shadzorings or the multitude of Adpara lesser antigods of the East like Andinni or Gorgers. Ethilrist's Hell conquests (Hound, Diokos night-mares, Goblins) are outside of this ancestry, too. Niiads (something different from naiads) and tritons are the original Triolini, the people of the mer-kings like Wartain (strangely renamed Waertag in the Sourcebook). Malkioni classification make them the Srvuali from that strand of Sea Triplets, with the Manthi mer-deities their cousins. The entities of the bodies of water, descended from Framanthe and Sramak, are a lot less "people", but they would have been the ones who fielded Worcha the Raging Sea against the Vingkotling dry lands. (And Genert's Garden.) The Cetoi and Piscoi Triolini are a lesser, mortal race of Burtae, of Storm and Sea ancestry. So was Malkion, and his son Waertag. But then, Malkion (in other, earlier incarnations) was also Maseren, Paseren, and even the One and the Transcendent No Number. A different way to look at the divinity and ancestry of Malkion, a bit of an orthogonal truth to the myth of the Founder and the Prophet, and his various sons by various goddesses of whom at least Zzabur also claims Paseren status. I think that Earth has its own brand of hermaphrodite archetype, too, Jernoti-us/a/um/x. Which also seeped into the Celestial (and) Lunar archetypes. For Storm, we have Vinga, and various other Red Women, and Nandan, and the loan of Heler, all with a Burtae perspective. Storm is the only element coming from sexual propagation. Its descendants are defined by the sexual double binary (female reproduction or not, male reproduction or not) which results in four sexes: female/not male, female/male aka hermaphrodite, not female/male, and not female/not male. When it comes to sexual behavior, Storm is anything but stodgy. Tat (young Orlanth) gets around, meets and mates Eurmal, and is way more huggy and kissy than most modern cis males are willing to tolerate, and all too ready to share even more affection regardless of plumbing. Plus he becomes the red-haired girl, with all the awkwardness experiencing the female state. He can do patriarch, too. Ernalda never has experience being a man, but she has plenty experience as a tomboy in Enferalda myths. We don't get to hear anything about female affairs from her or her daughters (yet?), except as her contribution to Vinga's attempts to navigate sexuality, gender and marriage. Unless sisterly love gets raunchy, but then, transgression of human sexual mores is one of the most common expression of the divine. Twins of opposite sexes are practically destined to marry, whether in Tarsh or Caladraland.

Their founder - not of the chapter, but of the entire organisation. Already the Storm Bull has a mother, Mikyh, the female aspect of the beast ancestor twins. Kero Fin is given as not just Orlanth's mother in History of the Heortling Peoples p.11, but I think that is at best a projection from her giving birth to Orlanth. But those are the only confirmed mothers among the children of Umath. Later is a bit of a moot point in Godtime. If I had to give a conception date for Orlanth, it would be before Umath left for his invasion of the Perfect Sky via Stormgate. How much earlier is really a weird question. Orlanth apparently is the youngest of the five Umathsons put to the test by the Evil Uncles, barely old enough to be eligible for initiation. I am not quite clear whether the tales of Tat and Tol are meant to take place after his initiation, or whether some of those may have been scandalously before his becoming a legal adult. (As a character, Orlanth probably managed that when he set out for the LBQ.) Everything coming up in Time is tainted with the doom of being consumed by entropy a little every hour, every day. Doing a magical recombination gig, possibly reconstructing missing parts or interfaces, will bring up material tainted with more than just Time corruption. He never agreed to it, but then his "Hurt everyone" clan didn't quite agree to the founding of the Storm Tribe and only contributed because Ernalda invited someone to be beaten up. Yeah, that's what he would grunt whenever younger brother's bossy wife came up with yet another restriction. Their neighbors from Darjiin observe very closely whether a bunch of Alkothi come in their direction carrying lynching tools. Alkoth used to be the dominant city on the Oslir during the Greater Darkness and into the start of the Gray Age. During the reign of the Horse Warlords, Alkoth managed to get in an emperor or two. Those had already taken on human shapes, unlike the demons which roamed the Greater Darkness and even gave the trolls a pause. Everybody in Dara Happa worships Yelm, few are allowed to fully initiate. The planetary god of the Green City was one of eight planetary offspring of Yelm, which makes Alkothi nobility somewhat eligible for initiation into Yelm's cult if they can trace their ancestry to Shargash. Both her mother Asrelia and her grandmother Gata could when they were at the fertile "age". I haven't seen any explanation why the Earth had these generational hand-overs. Especially the crone retirement of Asrelia is a bit of a puzzle. Ernalda is active in the Golden and Storm Age, but Orlanthi myths tell about Asrelia being the destined wife of Umath that didn't come to pass. Dropping a few names from other cultures: Aleshmara, the wife of Pamalt, might. The Vithelan mother of land might. And Bab, the cubic pearl food goddess from Sea myth, certainly was the One Earth, the desired one. b

We know that the sky dome continues below the horizon, and that there are planets continuing their journeys beyond their setting gates. (Mastakos and Lightfore either are an exceptvoion, or really two bodies running opposite of one another.) The down on the sky dome could be pointing either outward or inside - for the mythical journeys of e.g. Lightfore to be seen, they must happen on the inside of the visible sky, with the observer looking at that from above, same as for anything happening on the surface of the Red Moon. When sailing up the Celestial River, there appears to be a well defined surface, and perhaps some depth, but it isn't clear which side of the river a vessel will be sailing - do you see the surface world shimmering through from under the keelwave, or is it overhead? There is a scene in Pirates of the Caribbean 3 where the Black Pearl undergoes such a transition. Anyway, low above the horizon the sky dome is nearly vertical, so the up vertical from the surface doesn't point to either Dayzatar or Subere, but towards or awy from Magasta and Brastalos. But then, light (or the space it travels through) being bendy, what you see when you look above needn't be what there is in the direction above. For the moon surface, I have the theory that the ball in the sky is only a huge reflector, and that its surface actually is in a large spherical hollow in the inside of the Crater. The moon has a mountain range called the Crown Mountains, beyond which you cannot see from anywhere on the Surface World. IMO that range looks identical to the crater rim. That doesn't solve any "gravity" issues for places further up on that surface at all, though. Places on the moon's equator still would be as vertical as Last Stop Island and the Iron City inside Magasta's Whirlpool.

There are a few well-known examples of bridges from the Bronze Age that have left archaeological evidence. Among these is the bridge across the Tollense River in Northern Germany which became the site for one of the oldest massive field battles known in human history, and the remains of a Bronze Age bridge across or at least into the River Thames at Vauxhall. Both these sites (and a number more in Britain) were wooden constructions, and probably used wooden causeways in their approaches across marshy terrain, as are known from many Bronze and Iron Age sites. In all these cases, the bridges are mainly identified by the posts remaining after millennia. When it comes to ancient stone bridges, this site only has two which date into Bronze Age - one in Devonshire across a minor river, created with stone slabs, and the other a Minoan arch across a ravine. The list has a few more stone arch bridges of somewhat more sophistication which survived in Anatolia, a region well known for its regularly occurring earth quakes. For these bridges to survive into our times, they must have been both extraordinarily sturdy and lucky. The oldest extant Chinese bridge I found is quite sophisticated, but only about 1400 years old. Looking at the architecture tells me that it comes from a long tradition of building arch bridges, though. There are a few non-permanent bridges and river crossings from history that deserve mention, like Xerxes' pontoon bridge across the Bosporus, or the Rhine crossings recorded by Caesar - both the Roman pontoon construction and the Suebian shield wall to create a fordable passage. Not to mention rope bridges (used e.g. by the Inca), or "aldryami" bridges using Ficus trees shaped into a causeway. Glorantha's presumably oldest bridge was destroyed or at least submerged in Zzabur's Breaking of the World. Built by the Mostali of Thakarn to connect with their Vadeli allies, this monumental bridge spanned the Senbanth Sea, an extension of the Neliomi Sea, apparentlly in one enormous arch. With the architectural expertise of the Mostali established, there are a number of impressive stone arch bridges built by Mostali around the Greatway colony, like the bridge across Dwerrow River in Balazar and the bridges across the Zola Fel, built by the Pavis dwarves in cooperation with the river cult, high enough to allow passage for giant cradles (even the new one connecting New Pavis with Badside), and the bridge across the Stream River at Quackford, also a dwarf-supported project. With these examples, human builders certainly followed suit early on. The entrance to the Brass Citadel of Sog City shows a draw bridge connecting to an arch and at least two, probably four elements of flat causeway outside that charming arched gate built from mortared natural stone with some mixture of blockhouse or clinker planking and ship's architecture on top of it. Ancient Danmalastan architecture apparently knows opus caementitium, aka ancient concrete. Good enough to build arches and domes, as the Pantheon in Rome proves. The God Learners would have spread such technology to their colonies, but their association and the massive seismic event which ended their episode probably put an end to that material in most Third Age technology other than Mostali. Bridging a major river remains problematic, though. Unless you have the river at the bottom of a rocky crevice, building a bridge has to allow for the seasonal floodings and the occasional catastrophic flood (though not capital F Flood, even though we are heading towards one in the predictable future of coastal Glorantha). Lumber transport needs to be able to pass bridges across rivers - whether in rafts created by wood cutters, or as debris in the Storm and Sea Season floodings in Genertela, or the monsoon season in Pamaltela and typhoon season in the East Isles. The huge seismic events starting 1049 in Seshnela, 1050 in Caladraland and 1052 (?) in Kralorela probably destroyed most earlier bridges, leaving us with rather recent architectural history of bridge-building to discuss for southern Genertela. The most impressive bridges in modern Glorantha are the ramp to the edge of the Crater in Glamour, the viaducts and even more so the river crossings of the Daughter's Road, the viaducts of the roads to Boldhome, the floating city of Dumanaba on the mouth of the Baruling river, and Godunya's dragon rune complex across the Suam Chow. Belintar's rainbow bridges are just a memory of a phantasmagoric past now. Around the Choralinthor Bay, I don't see evidence for permanent bridges across major rivers in Esrolia. With the memory of the Devastation of the Vent, I wonder whether the Esrolians invest in stone arches, or whether they prefer wooden constructs (think River Kwai Bridge) between access dams which also serve to fill reservoirs for their irrigation works. The Solthi bridges at Jansholm that I posited to resemble Lutetia's Roman bridges when I first wrote my gazetteer of Heortland connect the river island with both shores. The Solthi is not a major river, but still has an impressive estuary into the Choralinthor Bay. Jansholm may even have been spared the worst of the Devastation of the Vent, so its bridges may be some of the oldest in coastal Genertela. The Marzeel at Vingaford doesn't seem to have a permanent bridge. Belintar is known for his magical bridges, but those are more immaterial. The river crossing at Backford most probably predates his arrival. The Syphon probably floods when all the other rivers do so, too, but there may be an additional counter current of salty water flowing uphill when collecting all the leached wash-out from the snow melt and the spring rains. The Syphon is a primeval watercourse, "flowing uphill", not a level surface but a tendril of ocean poking inland, reaching out to the Chaos hole left by Larnste stomping the squirmy thing we assume was Krarsht. A multi-arched bridge like that would certainly interfere with the river's power and shape. At the same time, thinking about fording such an entity takes me aback more than a little, too. @jajagappa's mention of the Syphon being subject to the tides does at least offer certain times which are easier for crossing. The Daughter's Roads do cross the Oslir, possibly twice, at Jillaro - one of them at the shortest distance, the other in an arch maybe thrice as long as it would need to be. Given that the Oslir was described to me as a mile wide (at leat at Raibanth), we are talking a bridge arc here which is more than five miles long, or otherwise a river passing through a barrier of bridge rests. We know that the Conquering Daughter overcame the Black Eel, and I seem to recall that either the Dara Happans or the Lunars killed all the water spirits in the Oslir in retaliation for a rebellion. Establishing that degree of superiority over a river entity might allow bridging it ("forced consent"). There is no other major Genertelan river that I could name which would be bridged. Janube, Tanier, Noshain, Creek-Stream, Poralistor, Arcos...