Joerg

Those were hilarious. Weren't they? You're not convinced? Let's go and visit the Other Side. Yeah, that hurt a bit, But still, a good laugh... and look at this shiny magic we got. That's a typical case of scapegoating. Yes, it is Trickster's job and duty to be blamed - Hisfault. Also, there is no change without the Trickster. There is no change without somebody complaining. Voilà, you need the Trickster. Blaming events within history on Trickster the deity is a bit problematic. Usually these triggering events were done by humans, possibly ones inspired by Trickster, but while you can write mythlets about these, you cannot go to the hero plane and re-enact these unless there is a hero cult establishing and maintaining this on (one of) the Hero Planes. The Trickster is one way to externalize and demonize bad actions. Blaming everything evil on "Chaos" (Orlanthi) or "Krjalki" (Malkioni) is similar.

I wasn't commenting on the amount of damage, but on the natural skill. Cat or human, scratching with the forepaws is pretty much the same instinctive move. Slapping someone with the flat of the hand takes some consideration. Clawing and grabbing someone to get a hold are maybe more similar than punching, but what little I know about lat-sao in wing-tsun sparring decides between punch or grapple or just deflection in the same kind of forward movement of the hands.

I wonder about the division of Esrolia under Belintar's government. Judging from the military organisation of the Holy Country (History of the Heortling Peoples p.87, Esrolia was divided into eleven provinces each with their own sub-commanders, and Heorland was divided into three provinces, each with its own sub-commander. Caladraland weirdly only gets one province, despite being divided into Vinavale, the Vent region, and Porthomeka (although that may have been counted as Esrolian).

You apparently never were attacked by angry girls on bare skin.

Who needs topographic maps? Thematic maps were what started map making. Stuff like treasure charts or irrigation systems. Or land marks you need to pass in a certain way on a journey. Answer: Even military planning was able to do without much of the topographical information. For strategy, topological maps of marching routes and supply lines work just as well. For well scouted battlefields, literal sandboxes had the advantage of offering the 3D terrain effects. Linear maps are how people experience the world. Slime molds are about the only organisms I can think of that actually experience their surroundings two-dimensionally. Fliers are very much aware of the third dimension. Their two-dimensional experience is mostly similar to that of a missile user - a tableau of possible targets. But flying or looking around from tall peaks or towers gives you at least a perspective view of areas. Few fliers look directly down - most check for targets and obstacles in their predictable area of flight paths or check for dangers from above. When you need forward motion to stay aloft, you don't look directly down for targets. If you want to scan an area, you grab a nice thermal updrift and circle around, or you do long sweeping runs in rows with as much and as little overlap as necessary. If you are limited to ground movement, coming up with a bird's view map is a lot more work as you will encounter obstacles and occlusions. People still created bird's view city plans of cities with no suitable elevations to observe these from, but perspective drawing was discovered only rather lately, in the Renaissance. Like the perspective map of Caernarfon, which was the basis for Raymond Feist's City of Carse. (That map doesn't convey the quite significant changes in elevation that you have to deal with when walking through the city - I doubt that Mr. Feist had visited the place in Wales when he created the supplement.) Mapping elevation other than as terraces or significant slopes or cliffs is hard, as you need to introduce new symbology to the already somewhat confusing concept of a map. When creating a map, you have to decide what information you want to show directly, what references you need to include so that the reader of the map can relate between your map and reality, and more importantly, what information to ignore. While I like maps with a serious information overload so I can make my own correlations from as many data sets as possible, that's for armchair analysis of a map. If I want to get from a to b, all I need are the road features ahead of me once I have decided on a route. Planning a route takes more of a 2-dimensional approach, but usually works with a topological network of routes rather than with cross-country considerations. Subway maps work fine, as long as you have an idea what subway stations are within walking distance from your destination. You don't want the topographical city map while deciding on where to change trains. Whichever symbology you use in a map needs to be familiar with the reader. Map legends, scale, orientation arrows and grid explanations are important. In case of non-planar trigonometry, information on projections and how they alter the perception of distance, area and angles are essential, too. The latter doesn't apply to most of surface world Glorantha (outside Magasta's maelstrom or the Outer World, but applies to the surface of the Red Moon, and possibly some of the planets). Distances and sizes get weird at some distance from the center of the world. The farther out you get (including up and down), the less definite size and distance get. The cartoon use of a telescope or a binocular to overcome distances or sizes may apply in the Outer World, or in the God World. Few Gloranthan cultures don't have the advantage of bird's eye views to map their surroundings. This availability of elevated observations may even push the discovery of 3D projections back into its Bronze Agey technology. The absence of Mindlink from the RQG rulesbook takes one good source of birds' eye views away from the players' arsenal. Edit: @Pentallion reminded me of the Malkioni patrons of map-making: The Vyimorni and their Vadeli descendants. Maps are the works of the devil. Seriously.

Does this mean the Jonstown Compendium will produce roller coasters now?

Using those oversized symbols on the right map for point information gives you an error margin of upo to 40% at that short distance... Map symbols often are adjusted slightly for maximum visibility. The red dots are more reliable. So are longer distances between landmarks, minimizing the displacement errors. Like: what's the distance from Swanton village center to Swan River? Given the clan's history of origin, I would expect that the village is quite close to the water, on a rising making it safe from normal flooding. Compared to RQ3 (Genertela Box...) the quality of printed Gloranthan maps for RQG has improved a lot in truth to the scales and placing the symbols somewhat reliably next to the coordinates one can get from Greg's master maps (which really should be published in an "as is" shape, to show off Greg's efforts). That still leaves a lot of guesswork where exactly a map symbol is anchored, and how much 3D-ish presentation introduces another displacement error (especially for mountains, but also for locations shown as buildings).

You can always move to the edge of the area where those major figures play out their things. One problem with demigod ancestors is that they tend to hang around through a number of generations of less blessed people, even in the Golden Age before death or old age were a major concern for people. People may still tire of an existence and withdraw or move on, or because nobody needs replacement, a new generation sets out to take a new place for their own and establish themselves as the undying lords and managers of the place. Taking "wibbly wobbly, time-y wimey" to anothe level... Definitely. Worshiping a deity resembles going to the concert of a superstar. The more privileged you are in the ranks of the followers of the deity, the better your place in the audience, and a select few may be allowed a meet and greet or some backstage insight. Or interaction with your commander in chief, or the international CEO of your branch of the global player corporation. Rune magic might be bestowed directly, possibly as object - an arrow of light for a Sureshot, or similar. The economy would be different. I can imagine that rune effects would be common in day to day applications. Rituals could dominate the activities. A lot of grit would be replaced by ambient magic that is shaped by ritual. Heroquesting would be creating your own godly or heroic path, possibly by taking or loaning stuff from others (including deities) and applying them in a novel way. The experience may resemble Ground Hog Day while you are involved in courtly ritual etc., and an end to integrity of self may reset on the next cycle in a similar way, too. There may still be consequences, and if you don't mind a little weirdness, consequences can be applied before the action. Although that takes a lot of buy-in by GM and players. Another way to look at Godtime is that it is a set of lots of spiralling paths moving up and down the major and minor cycles of that age. For your sanity, the game has a linear progression of events, but ascending or descending on the the stack of cycles, your path will intersect with other linear progressions that have a different continuity. That's not so different from dropping a distant descendant into the hero planes and having them experience the stuff. Dendara/Entekos rune Just like @jajagappaI was referring to the runic halo the Gods Wall depiction of Entekos has, a circle vertically and horizontally divided into four rectangular quadrants - in itself, a marriage of and (or , which may be why the entire book proving Entekos is not Sedenya was written). Ourania appears in the Gods of Light section in the Sourcebook, she is a thought of Dayzatar which has taken on a divine existence of her own, thus his daughter. Pretty close to what Yelmalio has to offer, I think. Dayzatar is the remote, pure and unsullied light beyond Yelm. When the Three Brothers shifted from sitting aside to forming a vertical axis, Dayzatar moved up into the uppermost Sky, basking in the energies of the Absolute. His purity is such that mere physical existence is almost an insult to him. Only an extremely ascetic life-style is worthy of his cult. There is a small priesthood of this deity, who have retreated from the normal business of the world in the meditation on wisdom, and some might be bothered to share bits of that wisdom with suitably pure petitioners. More the act of eruption. The magma itself is the body of Lodril even when he is the farmer, crafter and worker of Solar civilization. When it is not the leftover seed of Aether still splashing around in Gata's womb. Entering the Underworld from the Surface World via Alkoth is a viable method. And one can encounter the Underworld portion of Alkoth in the Underworld, although I think it is not an exit from the Underworld for anybody not having entered it by that way but the Shadzoring demons of the Greater Darkness, the Gray Age and the early Dawn Age. Griffins are beasts of divine origin, but then so are the magical horses, or hippogriffs. Hippogriff was a daughter of King Griffon, a lesser descendant. The Griffins of Griffin Mountain are pretty much "normal mortals", still proud and independent, but a viable target of that spell. As an apex predator, I don't see many places in human-settled Peloria where they could coexist with human activities without conflict or regular sacrifices to them. All the races of the Second Council victorious at Argentium Thri'ile were described as monsters at the time. Trolls are foul creatures of Darkness, and obviously foes to be vanquished. Elves have reforested vast tracts of Peloria once already, in the early Second Age. Even the coreligionist yelmic elves are rivals. Dwarves share some of the goals of the Empire - stability, an orderly universe. They appear to have been allies of old. Giants ("hecolanti") have a neutral to friendly relationship with the Dara Happans. One emperor (Sothenik) famously accompanied Gonn Orta on his way to Nida, but did not return from that adventure. That hasn't helped to build trust. Ducks appear to be despised by the Dara Happans, possibly for additional reasons than those they invoke with other peoples. "Cursed by Yelm" etc. Wind Children may be seen as a lewd mockery of their own winged humanoid Sky Folk. Dragonewts are associated with the EWF, and were systematically eliminated after the fall of the Sun Dragon emperor. Hostility and fear remain. Tusk Riders receive the usual fear, loathing and hatred they get almost everywhere. Newtlings resemble dragonewts and may once have been allies of the river entities. Not well regarded, I think. Beastfolk aren't native in the region. Centaurs or swan maidens might be received with mixed feelings because of their sky associations, the rest would be regarded as monsters. Dara Happans have been portrayed in various lights in RuneQuest publications. Euglyptus the Fat and Tatius the Bright have been presented as the worst that the union of decadent Lunar and Dara Happan nobility can produce. Gordius Silverus has been portrayed as a loyal follower of Fazzur Wideread. Jotoran Longsword of the Lunar occupation administration in Pavis was haughty, skilled and ruthless. Halcyon var Enkorth is more the bad Lunar than he is the bad Dara Happan. Dara Happan exceptionalism and superiority is pretty much an inbred trait for the entire culture. Even a lowly urban latrine worker knows they are better than anyone from elsewhere because of them belonging to the city with its deity and its uplink to the Imperial Sun. If such people have a better lot than they themselves do, it is obviously because of theft and robbery their ancestors inflicted on the Dara Happan ancestors. It takes some openness and experience to overcome these prejudices. Quite a lot of Dara Happans abroad try. A few succeed quite well. Others just are obnoxious.

When matching major antigods with central Genertelan deities, I wonder which one would be a good match for Herespur? That martial antigod has managed to keep active through most antigod activities, fought in all of the realms, was involved wht the Sky tryrant and the downfall of Churanpur. The one thing that makes him different from Orlanth is that now he rules an Underworld - that is a realm where Orlanth ever only visited. But then there is Humakt,

I think that there were Grazer chiefs and clans who were completely unwilling to follow the Feathered Horse Queen and her tame Stallion King, and who may have joined the Pol Joni if they did not leave for the West or set upon a long trek to the Redlands. The Pol Joni offer a chance to remain under male rulership, for the price of leaving the Pure Horse path.

It would be quite impractical and economically unviable if every (notable) clan member had put their full ransom value in hock at the local temple. Something like say a fifth or a tenth of one's ransom deposited with the temple, done by quite a few people, would give said temple enough liquid means to ransom a portion of the people who have deposited wealth, and then regain it from family, leaders of said characters, and ultimately the characters themselves. This kind of mutual assurance, possibly with some down payment, was the origin of plenty an insurance guild where I live, e.g. by simple fishermen. Other shared social responsibilities could be piled into that. Underwriting a trade expedition is similar, and might even be an activity done by the temple which takes care of those deposits. I would hate to have underwritten Biturian Varosh's journey through Prax, but underwriting Joh Miths expedition to Balazar would have generated quite a bit profit over the years.

Unless they grew really Macchiavellan and set up the White Moon movement as a way to make their project shine even more. Having an entire city of White Moon worshipers secured away in an otherwise unaccessible fold in the Otherworld might be a good preparation for what comes after the inevitable utuma of the Red Moon.

So Murharzarm's reign. Now this is a period with lots of potential. We know from myths in The Glorious ReAscent of Yelm (the first Stafford Library book on Dara Happa, dealing with the interpretation of Dara Happan Godtime and early Dawn Age by the non-rider urban society which overthrew the Horse Warlords after their defeat against the Second Council at Argentium Thri'ile in 221 ST) that Murharzarm's realm used gazzam (earth shakers = dinosaurs) as beasts of burden and possibly a source of meat. Them being a solar culture, I postulate that their earth shakers would have been of the downy version that science came up with only after George Lucas perfected the reptile-hide look for Jurassic Park and the re-release of the Starwars trilogy (around Luke), so no direct imagery of Fred Flintstone... I wouldn't be surprised if there was a ruling elite of griffons (of the upright-going variety depicted on Gods Wall) or bird-people in Dara Happa prior to Murharzarm's elevation to emperor. Neither would I be surprised about a draconic element in early Dara Happa, or in Murharzarm's origin - the Glorious ReAscent makes it look like he was one of the three human nobles made by the cotery of six Dara Happan deities, but elsewhere he is a son of the sky. Then there is Sandy Petersen pulling an Arkati Trickster Shaman surprise by presenting the solar Emperor as a dragon in his Gods War game, and with good reason. Glorious ReAscent of Yelm offers us Plentonius' interpretation of Godtime events as Yelmic time, a continuum of "years" throughout the Golden Age, Storm Age/Lesser Darkness ("Age of Antirius") and Greater Darkness and Gray Age into History. There are only very few dates for events in the Golden Age proper, all suspiciously divisible by 10,000: 0 YS Yelm (Brightface) takes over sovereign Yelm (from Aether, according to the Dawn Age mythographer Plentonius) 10k YS Lodril descends into the Earth, Dayzatar rises into the Upper Sky (aka Aether fertilizes Gata) 30k YS Birth of Umath, the Sky Dome gets lifted off the Spike (and apparently gets to rest on the four pillars only, while still rotating featurelessly golden above the world) 50k YS Murharzarm becomes emperor after solving the invasion of Oslira (which caused Yelm to distance himself from Dara Happa) 70k YS Umath emerges from Stormgate and approaches Yelm, throws the eight planetary sons into disarray until colliding with the southern son, guardian of the Gren City. Umath and Shargash emerge after the crash into the White God's pillar (or Jagrekriand - the Orlanthi name for the Red Sky God from the Underworld - destroys the northern Pillar going after Umath seeking healing from the northern Pillar god). Umath gets dismembered, and Orlanth appears on the stage (possibly already earlier, if Orlanth's taming of Sshorga and sending on Oslir to Dara Happa leads to the Ascendance of Murharzarm, but then that may have been a precursor aspect of Orlanth). Basically, you get the ascendance of the Emperor Murharzarm, dealing with the invading Oslira by delegating the irrigation and damming works to the Ten Sons and Servants (children of Lodril and Oria). He rules over the previously newly created humans ("Uleria corrupted them and sp they had many children") and the various celestial beings of the Lower Sky. The Dara Happans acknowledge an earlier kingship of Griffon and Lion, and possibly the bear Arakang, as celestial entities, and of course there is Vrimak, the bird lord of the north. The Wedding Contest of Yelm can be read as institution of a monogamous marriage, but it can as well be read as the institution of a primary wife above all the concubines who stepped forth. There are known children of Yelm by other deities - King Griffon, Daga, Ironhoof (or Galanin). This may have been a non-physical impregnation much like Hon-eel's for her twin children in her contest with the Most Reverend Horse Mother, or they may have been concubines for the entertainment of the ruler. Plentonius, a Dara Happan biget writing shortly after Argentium Thri'ile, spreads a puritanic version which becomes the official party line. There are quite a few cycles about the Young God, which are traced by Lightfore in the Sky, and rather unrelated to the deeds of Aldryami Yelmalio, Dara Happan Antirius or Horse Nomad Kargzant, and which appear to be the result of the Bridling of Kargzant, an event that happened late in the first century of the Dawn Age and forced Lightfore (or at least Kargzant) onto the Sunpath. Earlier on, there was a War in Heaven in which Kargzant overcame Shargash in the Sky and sent the deity to heal and rest in his Enclosure in Alkoth. This happened around the Dawn, and involved the son of Jenarong and second emperor of that dynasty. The White Queens appear to have been a pre-Dara Happan celestial dynasty in Peloria. The story is in two places in the Entekosiad, the mythiest (pronounced messiest) of the books in the Stafford Library, dealing with non-Dara Happan and pre-Dara Happan myths of Peloria. In a nutshell, there is a tradition of (possibly Sedenyic) female rulers of Peloria prior to the usurpation of power and sovereignty by Brightface. Most of the story is on p.30-32, naming the female ruler as DerOrios. In the chapter "Naverian Myths" on p.76 there is only the headline "Franar, The White Queen" and then a reference to DerOrios. The rest of the references hides mostly in footnotes. The story goes that Brightface is nominated as problem solver for the increasing violence that comes from the male gods. He does, and when asked to step down after doing so locally, he points to the Four Directions, and goes including them in his reign. Asked to step down again, he points to the monsters, then solves that. Asked to step down again, he points out that he has not conquered the last resistance to his reign - the women deities who appointed him in the first place. He overcomes their champions, has all dissidents slain, and starts the Golden Age. Yes. Probably a direct translation. Harald's post: Voria is the innocence of a new-born preserved into nubile age - a woman on the brink of initiation. Dendara is the pure one, the goddess of Virtue, and has a few stories in Entekosiad how she rose into the sky (10), and she was sullied and died (p.52, "Fall of the House of Virtue". Things get complicated because her planet is the planet of Entekos, and there are passages which refer to "Entekos the Dendara". All of this is very mythy (pronounced muddy, here), again, as has to be expected from the Entekosiad. If you go there, you are in the deepest of the rabbit holes. (Some people like being there...) Ernalda is pretty much the all-encompassing goddess of both earth, fertility and female mysteries - not the actual specialists for the latter, that would be Uleria and Imarja, but for most cultures Ernalda does all that, and she also includes all of the Dark Side sisters in her grasp of Earth. I liked @jajagappa's concept of looking at the Dendara/Entekos rune and assigning halves of that to each of the light and dark aspects. To my knowledge, Oria is only worshiped in Dara Happa. Her role overlaps with Ernalda (in her lesser role as the light sister) and Esrola (in the model where three goddesses make up the earth - Esrola the physical earth, Maran Gor the moving earth, and Ernalda the spiritual earth, as per e.g. Thunder Rebels). The earth mysteries defy God Learner analysis, but stlll allow God Learner descriptions. Esrolia has yet another model where there are six sisters rather than just the aforementioned three. Oria, Dendara and Gorgorma are another "pair of three goddesses". Dendara and Gorgorma are both sisters and daughters of Oria, depending on how you look at them. In contrast, neither Voria nor Babeester have ever been portrayed as sisters of Ernalda, always as daughters, as the next generation. On the other hand, there are stories of Ernalda's youth and Asrelia's motherhood period where Ernalda pretty much held the role Voria would inherit, and it may be that prior aspect of Ernalda which overlaps most with Dendara, or at least Dendara prior to winning the Wedding Contest. Afterwards, Dendara pursues a rather new path, that of the Faithful wife, even descending to her husband in Hell to conceive the new planets of the Darkness period, and of Time. Including a(n incarnation of, or directly the) Blue Moon. Black Dendara aka KataMoripi (her Pelandan name, mentioned mainly in Revealed Mythologies when discussing the Pamaltelan Sky Witches) is a largely unexplored phenomenon. Gorgorma is what isn't Dendara. She is dark and threatening where Dendara is bright and nourishing. Oria is what isn't Dendara. She doesn't care for virtue and purity but embraces propagation of life and the activity that leads there to the fullest. The aspect as bringer of fertlity is what the Land Goddesses carry. In non-Yelmic society (Orlanthi, even Malkioni), they also carry the key to Sovereignty, but that is an aspect that is missing from Oria, as far as I can tell. And then there is the synopsis of (the Gloranthan in-world document) the Entekosiad: Entekos is not Dendara, except when she is, and Entekos most definitely is not Sedenya (although all the collected proof shows that she is). (Entekos is not the Red Goddess - that much is very clear. But the Red Goddess claims to be Sedenya. IMO only a preliminary stage of Sedenya, though Jar-eel is going to work on that after having become the avatar of the Red Goddess.) Yes. And yes to @soltakss's comment on the city gods being sons or at least grandsons of Yelm. The Glorious ReAscent of Yelm weirdly has the cities of the Decapolis only on the cardinal directions from Raibanth (below) and Yuthubars (above), and not in the four quadrants, but then the Copper Tablets position of Nivorah in the Southeast rather than the far south beyond Alkoth is cheating, and the insertion of Yuthuppa north of Raibanth after the Flood makes comparison between the Decapolis and Anaxial's initial Heptapolis difficult, too. According to the Copper Tablets, there are nine Great Cities in ancient Dara Happa, not including Yuthuppa. Alkoth, Raibanth and Nivorah are easy to locate, so is Mernita in the north (under the Blue Moon Plateau). Verapur in the far north may have shifted to Rinliddi, but there is no ancient Dara Happan city in that region to take that claim. Instead, we have sacred Torang, and some bird madness. The three western cities with ziggurats (or one inverted ziggurat) aren't that easy to allocate, either. Especially since the inverted ziggurat is shown in the southeast rather than in the north-east where Dezarpovo, the great inverted ziggurat of the Gerra cult, can be found in former Spol. (The modern Carmanian satrapy of Spol is only a fraction of old Spol, much of that is now administrated as the Oronin heartland satrapy.) These cities of the Planetary Sons of Yelm plus Raibamus would be the cities with the most Yelmic city gods. Yuthuppa as the Dara Happan capital of Antirius throughout the Lesser Darkness has its own very Yelmic city god, named Yuthu (p.40 of RQ3 Genertela Box, as a grandson of Yelm, alongside Alkor for Alkoth on p.35 and Raiba for Raibanth on p.39 as direct sons of Yelm). The omission of these three half-sentences from the Guide is one of the most striking difference between this early gazetteer and the Guide. Nowadays we don't have the green god of Alkoth any more, but the Red God Shargash, unshakably identified by Plentonius despite Shadzor having been the known underworld god of that city within his lifetime, or at least within family memory. Plentonius' writings are a master-piece of fixating myths and unmutably imprinting his interpretation for more than the next millennium on rather vague source material open for plenty other interpretations.

There is no single queen of Esrolia - as far as I can tell, there are city queens, who are the chief priestesses of Ernalda for that city (and surroundings) and who hold a lot of secular responsibility. Still, the council of Reverend Grandmothers (the autocratic leaders of the top tier Enfranchised Houses) are able to direct a queen. Rarely, a queen also becomes the autocratic head of her house, able to veto the Grandmothers' vote and thereby keep freedom of her course. Esrolia hasn't been a fully independent country since the Great Darkness. Until Belintar slew the Only Old One in 1318, Esrolia was also known as Dark Esrolia, the most populous part of the Kingdom of Night presided over by the Only Old One. His special hold over Esrolia stems also from the fact that he sheltered the population of Nochet from the Greater Darkness in his Obsidian Palace. That ancient debt led to the loyalty Esrolia had to the Kingdom of Night. The Only Old One ruled by virtue of being the son of Esrola and Argan Argar, and by virtue of the system of Equal Exchange of goods and protection that he and his Shadowlords had set up in the Silver Age - a major factor in allowing the peoples of the I Fought We Won battle to emerge as a civilization into the postapocalyptic Dawn Age. Belintar pretty much took over the reigns from the Only Old One, only he did so with different magics and a different set of priorities. When he came, he was able to summon the Silver Age heroes - the victors of I Fought We Won, brothers in arms to the Only Old One, and the ones who led the Theyalan peoples out of the Darkness - and with his deep insight into the magical Otherworld of the Holy Country, he drew them on his side. He interfered with existing rites, inserted himself, and still provided the same prosperity as the old ways. The forces for the Only Old One were spearheaded by the Shadowlords, so he cut off the Shadow Tribute which the Shadowlords collected both as wealth and as token of the loyalty to the Kingdom of Night. Little is known what exactly Belintar did to take over the Sixths, most of his deeds discussed here ae conjectures, some of them solidified into canon. A few deeds are well reorded - how he "broke the bank" in Casino Town, how he overcame the Hendriki king in battle, killed him, and then returned him to life a full year later, and his visit to the Ernaldan temple caves of Ezel (simply called Ernalda on older maps of Esrolia). To win over Esrolia, Belintar had to gain the support both of the temple of Ezel and of the rulers of Nochet and Rhigos. Esrolia, land of 10,000 Giddesses p.18: (The Visionaries are a prohpetic order at Ezel.. Skipping Footnote 18 which deals with a problem caused by the dogma of Three Separate Worlds which ruled Greg's writings at that time) Proof of his pre-existing claim as a protector, providing new goddesses for his Holy Country project - it is hard to argue against this. It isn't quite clear whether these goddesses were Godtime entities or newly created wyters waiting to adopt their constituencies, but impressive nonetheless. For Nochet, the statement of Belintar's deeds sounds a little different. Nochet had suffered in the Adjustment Wars, not so much by the Hendriki invaders but after the temple of Ernalda took exception to the Grandmothers of Nochet cursing Esrola to hurt the Adjusted parts of Esrolia, incurring a curse worse than they had inflicted. Rhigos was the premier city of Esrolia in these times, getting fat with trade from the Trader Princes and the grain from the Esrolian mesopotamia - the river basin of the Malthin and the Gorphing rivers, also taking the trade from the Porthomekan overlords on the Gorphing. The many ancient ways may have included mostly forgotten Nochet things from before the Great Darkness. I suppose that part of Belintar's projects were the revival of the Lhankor Mhy and Chalana Arroy temples, even though he also pulled a lot of scholars and knowledge to his City of Wonders. Belintar's victory over the Only Old One destroyed the above-ground portion of the Obsidian Palace when the Lead Serpent summoned by the Night Dragon Society crushed that spire in its death throes. (I have seen a lot of flat statements that Belintar destroyed that structure. He did, but only indirectly, and we cannot say whether he did so on purpose or in desperate self defense.) Afterwards, Belintar raised his City of Wonders. His magical bridge to Esrolia appears to have been anchored at Pedastal, just south of Nochet, which would have helped raise the importance of that city. There were dissidents against Belintar's ascension in Esrolia, too. After Colymar had proven that Dragon Pass was not an immediate kill zone any more, thousands of Esrolians hopefully migrated northward, only to be enslaved by the Grazelanders who roamed all of Dragon Pass (not claimed by Beast Folk, dragonewts, tusk riders, elves and trolls) at that time, although the modern Grazelands appear to have been their favorite pastures - possibly the site of their subjugation under Ironhoof after fleeing from Alavan Argay. Anyway, this is how the majority of the Vendref established themselves in Dragon Pass (the rest would have been unlucky immigrants from north of the Crossline). Unlike in the Quivini lands, the tribute taken by their horse nomad overlords stunted their population growth, although initial numbers of immigrants may have exceeded immigration from Heortland. * Belintar established his secular rule through governors. History of the Heortling Peoples has two pages (86-87) on his reign, though with a focus on Heortland. P.85 states that Esrolia had several governors, as he divided the land up - presumably into the four divisions shown on the political map in the Guide (p.245), i.e. North and South Esrolia, Longsi Land, and the North Marches.

The Choralinthor Bay lies in the center of the Holy Country. Esrolia is the most populous of the six elementally associated main portions of Belintar's Kethaela, and the only one detailed in the rules book as a homeland. Heortland (what you seem to be thinking of as Belintar's Holy Country) is just the Storm section of the land, and while it is the second most populous portion of the Holy Country, it only has about a third the population Esrolia has (in about the same area). The next biggest Sixth is Caladraland with 240k humans (or 400k if you include Porthomeka, a former part of Esrolia now ruled by Caladralander nobility, conquered from Hendriki overlords having gone native in Esrolia), followed by the Shadow Plateau and the adjacent Lead Hills, with a troll and trollkin population above 50k and hardly any humans, and the two archipelagos of the Left and Right Arm with less than 40k humans each. Esrolia has quite a few naturalized immigrants - the coastlines and the rivers are populated by fisherfolk who share the ancestors of the Rightarm Islanders and the founders of Karse, and there was a significant immigration from Heortland during the Adjustment Wars, which started after the Devastation of the Vent and probably took advantage of the enormous influx of refugees from Dragon Pass after the collapse of the EWF and continued aggression by the Pelorians (Sairdites, Carmanians and Dara Happans). While most of Esrolia managed to shake off the yoke of male rulership, quite a few places remained somewhat Adjusted (to Orlanthi norms elsewhere). The Porthomekan land grab may have extended beyond the territory controlled by them today, and may have left Caladralander immigrants, too. And the cities will have attracted merchants from all neighboring countries, including agents for the Trader Princes who also established themselves in Ditaliland and further west. Still, the houses of the original grandmothers and their side branches dominate Esrolian population, probably to a greater degree than they dominate the population of Nochet. And there was immigration to central and southern Heortland during the First Age, documented in the Foreigner Laws of Aventus, a Hendriki king from the sixth century which dealt with the various non-Hendriki population groups in Hendrikiland. The laws were applied when dissidents from Orlanthland moved here during the EWF, and when the refugees from Dragon Pass flowed in between 1042 and 1120. Thus, you find fisherfolk and Esrolian-descended, more matrilocal groups in Heortland who don't share the Hendriki traits, and you find the Malkioni/Malkionized Esvulari, too.

Old Dara Happan cities are extremely stratified - think Jim Crow laws turned up to eleven. There were parts of the cities where the street sweepers were (and possibly had to be) of Yelmic descent. That said, the Yelm-descended families are very much a minority. The vast majority in urban Dara Happa are worker class, Lodril-worshiping folk - privileged workers, and less privileged laborers, then non-citizens, and finally slaves. The Lunars aren't the first illumination movement that attracts lowborn mystics and wannabe mystics ("disciple") into mobs defying the order of the city. While they might be classified as non-citizens, their religious zeal makes them part of something like a temple. Unlike the licit cults (of the top three layers of the Gods Wall, and the propitiatory rites for the lowest layer) there is no lesser Yelmic priesthood involved in these mobs. Instead, there are more or less illuminated agitators and teachers spreading their disruptive enlightenment to the masses. Practically everybody in a city is a tenant, with the possible exception of the upper ranks of the lesser priesthood, and of course excluding the upper nobility. Away from the Tripolis, local families with ancestral ties to other priesthoods may rank among local nobility and may have risen into the Buserium layer of lesser priesthood. In Alkoth, the ruling families all claim descent from the city god (in one of his colored aspects). In Raibanth claims for descent from Raibamus may be rather tenuuous, as the former seat of imperial power has been conquered and overrun many times. Yuthuppan top nobility may have fared a little better, but may have married daughters of currently powerful overlords from non-Yelmic families. But then, lower maternal descent has not been much of a hindrance for many a Dara Happan dynasty. The less privileged the status is in Dara Happa, the lustier people get. Lodril and Oria have orgiastic rites, with massive lay worshiper participation under the auspices of the holy folk of the cults leading these antics and the Buserium lesser Yelmic priesthood failing to instil a modicum of restraint. If members of the higher nobility partake in such activities, it is supposed to happen incognito. Or at least under the pretense of incognito. Or claiming Lunar spiritual business or enlightenment. Carnival can have quite varied faces - Samba dancers of Rio de Janeiro just as much as demonically disguised folk in Swabia resembling the Grampus - wearing the Monster Man masks of the aspect of Lodril feared by the Yelmic elite, but tolerated in the religious rites. Away from the Yelmic core lands, things get even earthier. Including rites with orgiastic human sacrifice, like the Heron Dance of Darjiin. The Red God and the Green City have been associated for a long time, but IMO the Green God (nowadays an aspect of Shargash) was the steadfast son of Yelm who stood in the way of Umath's rise into the sky. Both Umath and the southern son of Yelm crashed into the north, dipped into the Underworld, and the defender of Dara Happa rose as a red god, still of strength, but taking on some aspect of the Underworld which may always have been a hidden part of his nature (much like his uncle Lodril as Monster Man), but from an even deeper Hell. The Red God then took up the position in the sky after the disruption of the Perfect Sky, and may have cycled through the upper world sky and the Underworld already prior to Orlanth slaying the Emperor and the disintegration of Yelm. (The Dragon returning from the Underworld in the wake of Orlanth's initiation, reclaiming the sovereignty taken from it when Murharzarm made it his throne, may have played a role in this that neither the Dara Happans nor the Orlanthi are willing to acknowledge.) The celestial aspect of Shargash faded away after Orlanth's conquest of the Sky World. Instead, hellish Shadzor emerged from the Green City with his race of antigods, the Shadzorings. A God Learner would have had a hard time to differentiate between these antigods and Zorak Zorani trolls, but for the uz of the Silver/Gray Age and the Second Council there was no recognition of kinship with those monsters from the Underworld. A different stance towards fire may have been the reason. Ernalda is the source of sovereignty from the Earth. That concept is alien to the Dara Happans, whose celestial emperor claims rulership of everything beneath himself (by right of conquest, if you look at the oldest myths that the Yelmites at best whisper about). The Yelmic religion recognizes Oria, the bountiful earth, the lewd sister of Dendara and lusty wife of Lodril and many others, but not as a source of sovereignty, only of sustenance - the ultimate Fuel, regrowing whatever the Flame consumes. She is one of the (many) concubines of Yelm - blessed by his fertilizing gaze and warmth, the mother/template for all land goddesses. Then there is Dendara, the Earth/Fuel ascended into the sky. (Sharing her celestial body with Entekos, the Good Air, twin sister and/or firstborn daughter of Umath, not rebellious but submissive to Brightface's sovereignty, or possibly the lowered body of the White Queen who preceded Brightface's placement at he top of the visible Sky.) Her innocence is of a different direction than that of Voria, and her dark twin Gorgorma is different from Babeester Gor. This has been discussed recently. Dendara is the confirmation of Yelm's sovereignty, but not its source (any more).

That's not exactly wrong - the Footstool is at the very least an aspect or "child object" of the Spike. It was the local Axis Mundi, superior to a number of other, lesser towers in its image (shown on the Copper Ledgers as the cities of the Eight Planetary Sons, mapped on the Oslir Valley, managing to place Nivorah north and east of Alkoth due to stronger meandering of the Oslir than is found on historical maps. Part of the God Learner maps in the Guide are overlain with the Dara Happan directional domains, most egregiously the Heron Hegemony placed somewhere in the neighborhood of Jrustela and Slon which is a reflection of Surenslib's Suvaria in relationship to the Footstool. But the Footstool has no association with Truestone. On the other hand, the Gods Wall might, at least the rolling seal used to imprint it on the valley side may have been made from Adamantium.

There is nothing "feudal" about the tenant system, whether in Orlanthi or in Dara Happan lands. Dara Happa is a severe case of reign by divine grace and ancestry. Land use and operation is directed by the Overseers, with their lesser priesthoods overseeing the bureaucracy and other such coordination no rural community really needs or has asked for, outside of areas depending on artificial irrigation. It has disappointingly little on the Lunar emperorship - seven pages on the red emperor and five pages on the new empire. But yes, describing Gloranthan history as "res gestae regi", the deeds of rulers, is a trend both capturing the spirit of the inhabitants and somewhat unsatisfying if your focus is less imperial. The Seshnelan King List or the material in History of the Heortling Peoples is the same, with only very occasional boxed sections giving some information on the general population or non-reigning movers and shakers. The Dara Happans had been steadfast allies of Gbaji (whom they called Nysalor) to the bitter end, and the bitter end was conquest by the formerly suppressed hill barbarians, taking back the plunder robbed by the forces of the Bright Empire and demanding a modest regular tribute in repairs to the damage done to them by Palangio's rule of terror (such as magical drought). That's more or less the tenor I chose for my "Lunar occupied Heortland" game, with the royal Tarshite faction mainly concerned with expanding their dominion over their region, and the Heartlander Yelmites seeking retribution for their defeats against Arkat, the Sun Dragon, and in the Dragonkill, willing to ruin the homeland of the enemy deity to eliminate it from the world altogether, undoing a Compromise that their god should never have agreed to, if you asked them (and why wouldn't you?). Before Time would be the conflict between the Anaxial dynasty emperors and the Vingkotlings, which saw destruction of the southernmost city claimed by the Emperor and then destruction of Orlanthi invaders towards their secondmost southern city. That's both before and concurrent with the story line of Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind. The campaign starts in the reign of the Dragon Sun, and the (NPC) hero of the campaign founds the new Dara Happan Yelmic dynasty - the son of the former (crippled) heir to the empire and a commoner woman. He was an ally, or possibly an instrument, of the EWF and their weird draconic ways. The Dragon is an ancient symbol of the Dara Happan emperor - the overcome dragon became the Throne of Yelm. Or possibly Murharzarm became emperor and shed his draconic skin for a human appearance? The Kralori tell the story of the Golden Age from the draconic perspective... Whether the Dara Happans as a nation were against the new ways we cannot say. What we can tell is that the dispossessed priesthood of the old ways which had been devalued plotted revenge. Think about Akhenaten's reform, and how much Tut-anch-Amun had to yield to the priesthood of the old ways before being murdered and replaced by the head priest of the old ways. Sarenesh was the son of Karvanyar the Dragonslayer. The division of Peloria among his three sons would have been the sequel to the events in Dara Happa Stirs. Yes - Storm Worship appears to be an Iron Age phenomenon, at least in Europe. The Orlanthi has the right to appeal, and even the right to choose who to appeal to. "Follow chosen leaders" and all that. The Dara Happan has his superiors who deal with his case, likely by punishing complaints against social superiors without hearing the case. As long as both parties are of equal standing, appealing to an overseer for justice isn't that bad. One of the Ten Tests of Murharzarm is the riddle of the 19 gazzam, a variation of the tale of the 17 camels which should be distributed so that one heir receives half the herd, one a third, and one a ninth. The Test somehow allows Murharzarm to add a gazzam of his own and come away with that gazzam and one out of the herd as payment for the decision - I never managed to make that equation in simple fractions, but this illustrates quite well how an appeal to Yelmic authority should work out in the ideal case. But Yelmic justice can be drastic, too - including the total elimination of irritants, already in the Ten Tests. Or it can be inconsequential - the punishment for polygamy is to have multiple wives. ()t almost has to be misogynistic...) The (inevitable) misrule of the Yelmic class is periodically overrun by peasant revolts, when docile Lodril becomes the unruly rebel leader, and the families who provided the overseer and his bureaucrats will have to find a new family member to replace the deceased predecessor and rebuild the torched palace, after burning or otherwise horribly slaughtering the ring leaders of that rebellion. The Lunar Way has provided an alternative for those uprisings and their leaders. But then, cooperating with a rival family of the previous overseer was an option prior to Lunar reign, too. Formalized "Dart Competitions" only started in the last years of the First Wane, and again mainly as an instrument for the ruling class. I am inclined to say neither, and yes. Throughout Peloria, Yelmic Overseers (which means Dara Happan nobility) organize cities and whatever communal works (mainly irrigation and fortification, rarely road-building) there is to be made. A Dara Happan trained bureaucracy (the priesthood of Buserian) does the actual administration, and a lesser priesthood of Yelm officiates in all officially tolerated religious rites, aided by holy people actually belonging to the cults of the deities sacrificed to. This is about the emperor cult that Nero envisioned for himself, but never quite achieved. The Babylonians had a couple of imperial periods, which makes them similar to the Dara Happans in this respect, but you probably need to mix in the imperial periods of Akkad and Assur to match the Dara Happan "continuity". The Egyptian continuity with its foreign dynasties - including charioteer nomads - and a single major river as the lifeline for most of the empire is in many regards a better parallel, but there is no surrounding desert, and there are too many other polities adjacent. The Roman Empire is a fairly bad fit with its Republican roots, but like I said above, the kind of empire Nero envisioned might be a good fit. The Byzantine (East Roman) Greek Empire with its court rites of the Dark Ages is a fairly good parallel, but way too modern (except for the fact that the general regression also affected them), but both were possibly only by control of the Mediterranean, or at least the Aegaean and Black Sea, and collapsed when that control broke away. The Indian subcontinent offers quite a few good parallels in the younger Bronze Age, the Iron Age and the successor states period. Possibly well into the early Byzantine era, too. Dara Happa doesn't have a monsoon, though, rather the floodings of all the rivers (not just the Nile) from rain and snow falling off-screen.

Brown and/or Green elves, I think. Prior to the Ice Age and the Breaking of the World Brithos had three forests in Revealed Mythologies (p.25): Hadorf's Forest may well have been flooded. It would have been between Neleoswal in Old Seshnela and the closest parts of Old Brithos.

Most of what we know about First and Second Age Peloria is in The Fortunate Succession, a list of the Dara Happan emperors and what happened during their reigns. It is a Stafford Library book, and one of the more accessible ones in that series. The focus is very much on Dara Happa, but its rivals get some attention, too. The boondocks of Peloria don't get much attention, though, unless some of the major powers extend their influence there. The historical maps in the Guide (and also the Argan Argar Atlas) offer some idea about the bigger political entities in the region at selected few times. Fortunate Succession is based on Greg Stafford's handdrawn political map overlays which follow the history in 50 year steps, and has quite a few more than the maps in the Guide, though a lot less pretty. The Dara Happans think of their history in dynasties, and usually dynasties only change in reaction to some major mishap for the Empire. They start under the horse warlords (and a few other homebrew warlords) taking the title of Emperor, then the Khordavu dynasty which emerged after the Second Council overcame the horse warlord forces, and which joined the Bright Empire of Nysalor, then a very short period of Orlanthi occupation which is still remembered as if it happened only a decade ago, then a dynasty that rebelled against this occupation leading Dara Happa into the Second Age. This dynasty crumbled after repelling an Aldryami reforestation under the onslaught of new ideas brought by the Spolite heresy. A new dynasty under a demigod son of Raibanth brought forth one of the most successful martial emperors of Dara Happa, but after contributing to the end of the Spolite Empire it was taken over by the Dragon Sun Emperor and became a part of the EWF. After a successful rebellion (try to get your hand on MRQ's "Dara Happa Stirs") Dara Happa was part of the forces that fought the EWF, and after its loss of the Dragonspeakers undertook the approach of the Invincible Golden Horde that triggered the Dragonkill War. The Spolite Empire was overcome by the Carmanians, whose Shahs get their own list of rulers. There is a lot less information on the Spolites, just a few emperor names, if you are lucky with a one-liner explanation. There is a point when the Emperor of Dara Happa marries the only daughter of the Shah of Carmania, and the three sons from that union become Emperor of Dara Happa, Shah of Carmania and King of Saird, at times united against the common enemy, the dragonspeakers of the EWF, at times in bitter conflict with one another. The Associations were presented in the Pelorian material for HQ1, which took directions not aligned with the canon in the Guide. Not sure whether the Associations fell of the canon wagon or not. They are basically enterprises by noble houses in the Empire which connect lesser houses or guilds, weird magical projects, factions in various cults' priesthoods, and economical ventures. All very Mafia-like, though more above the table. The Orlanthi don't usually have the equivalent of Associations, unless they have a stable over-structure, like during the Second Council, the Kingdom of Orlanthland, the EWF, and possibly during the adjustment Wars in Kethaela. Argrath's White Bull Society may be seen as a kernel for an Association. There is one HQ1 era book - not canonical any more - that explores an Association. Weird stuff, with some gems and some incomprehensible, macchiavellan structures. "Champions of the Red Moon" That was me commenting on a line from Glorious ReAscent of Yelm, which has the ruling principle of "denseb", which translates as "measured justice from above". Which an Orlanthi understands as autocratic rule, absolutism. Slightly more humane than Fonritian slavocracy, but geared for the benefit of the 0.1%.

Great

Is this 3D printable? As POD?

The Curtali are one of three smaller tribes (i.e. the same size as Sartarite tribes) belonging to the Volsaxi just south of Sartar, alongside the Sylangi and Bacofi. There is crowd-sourced information mixed with information from canonical sources on them in "Dragon Pass: Land of Thunder - A Gazetteer to Kerofinela", from the HeroQuest 1st Edition era. They were tributary to the Kitori prior to Tarkalor Trollkiller's Kitori campaigns - apparently several campaigns, as there are several dates for the Kitori ceding certain places (Sun Dome County, Whitewall). King of Sartar mentions the Night Jumpers, a magical society of troll enemies, coming from a Kurtali clan, which is assumed to have been part of the Curtali tribe.

It may very well be a form of subservient apotheosis - the sacrificed king becomes another cult spirit available to his people and successors. People may have regarded the prestigious individual sacrificed as a messenger to the deity, as their interlocutor. The Malkioni have Yingar the Messenger, a grandson of Malkion.

Not really using anthropological English, here - that would be a foreign dialect in two respects - language and subject. "Patrilocal" and "matrilocal" isn't quite the correct term, anyway. It is quite possible that a non-orphaned child grows up in a clan that neither of its progenitors live in any more. Year marriages or chained year marriages appear to be a fairly common form of marriage, with the purpose of getting a child of that couple to grow up in the clan of the child's birth. It is possible for a couple to have year marriages at either place, leaving any offspring in the household of the grandparents. The pregnancy of an unmarried woman will result in the child belonging to the clan she resides with. That may be her birth clan, or a clan she married into and then got widowed in. In case of a warrior woman or magician serving a leader, the child may be born to that leader's clan. A child conceived in a sacred rite may be born into the temple rather than the clan. A middle-status fertility priestess may have children in a number of clans from sacred year marriages. It takes a high status priestess like Vasana's and Yanioth's mother to consistently attract husbands joining her clan for marriage. While the rules talk about tribes, the marriage arrangements are the sole business of the clan, unless some tribal business requires a bunch of political marriages. And then still the clans of the spouses-to-be have the final say. The locality of the couple (and the clan membership of the offspring) is not up to choice by the couple, but by the two clans. The concept of the core family is not very strong in Orlanthi society. Child raising is a communal task of the household, with the actual parents taking some part, but not the main part. Breastfeeding is about the greatest influence a mother can have on her child, although wet-nursing other children of the same age group in the household may be a common experience. Wives or husbands from year marriages without much intention to be renewed won't be fully accepted as part of the group unless they are of pretty high status. Many wives will only be fully accepted by the women's ring of a patrilocal clan after having given birth to a child. Getting full acceptance in the household a young wife marries into may take even longer (and there is plenty story material available in this). To answer the other question: The tribal assembly may very well use the time around one of the High Holy Days of the main deities of the tribe to gather the equivalent of a Great Temple, with all the magical benefits that can be received from having that many assembled worshipers and initiates. That may be the reason behind the Colymar Storm Season assembly. (In that case, what date would Kangharl Blackmor have assembled the tribe on?) Fyrd training may be a separate event, led not by the tribal king but by a city-king (aka mayor) - but not for the weirdos of the Colymar (or Lismelder) who don't belong to a city confederation. Such inter-tribal training would quite likely happen in Fire Season.