Joerg

Sheng haters may be surprised by the Sourcebook statement (p.175) that the raids by the Kingdom of Tarsh caused more suffering to the southern parts of the Empire than did the nomad regime in what became the Doblian and Oronin satrapies. But then, those parts had horse warlord overlords, too. The Pentans have a history of oppressive overlordship in Peloria, and of genocidal expulsion after the loss of leaders from that position of power. The Pelorians managed to eliminate 70% of the Pentan population several times in their history, whereas the Pentans were hardly worse than the Bull Shahs in their dealings with local uprisings. In absolute numbers, the losses suffered by the Pentans may have been slightly less than those of the Pelorian farmers. Horse warlord rule was what brought Peloria into the Dawn, and the first three horse emperors of Dara Happa are remembered as beneficial to Dara Happa. Further west, the Lendarshi were another of the more successful nations entering Time, also profiting from their horse warlord leaders. In contrast, the Praxian nomad overlords which replaced the horse warlords after Argentium Thri'ile were assimilated into the Dara Happan culture and nobility without much of a hitch. Duke Raus for instance is likely to share ancestors with the Bison tribe of Prax, something his ancestor worship may have found out while building up Weis Domain. There are other descendants of Bison riders in Sylila which became Lunarized only in reaction to the Conquering Daughter, previously being part of the Orlanthi spectrum. Even in Kralorela, the Beast Rider followers of Sheng remain in Boshan to this day while his horse-rider followers have been expelled. It is hard to tell why the horse warlords would have been worse than the Alkothi, too. Anthropophagy has been slandered against either, and with good cause. The ecological wars for western Peloria have three major participants - Aldryami who want to re-forest the entire region, Lodrili defending their (victorious) status quo of dry farming and rice farming, and horse nomads - often allied to Sheng - who desire the area to become vast pasture. We don't know the extent of the upcomng release of the Bull Riders of Charg - they too might spread into the Heartland parts of Pelanda. The Lodrili have grown to a population density untenable with either Aldryami or Pentan overlordship. Their population recovered from the Third and Fourth Wane oppression within a single Wane (two generations). The Pentans suffered another crushing defeat at the Night of Horrors, and only in the late seventh Wane they begin to seriously endanger the eastern part of the Empire. Sheng is a liberator to the Pentans, returning them to their ancient lands of plenty once again.

That's where they came from for the Battle of Seven Horses. Part of the trick in "taming" the Char-un was to take them out of contact with the other Pentan tribes. The wars with the shrinking remnants of Carmania offered the Char-un a walker population to terrorize, but after the conquests there this atrocity service was no longer required. There is no record of Char-un activity during Sheng Seleris's reign in Peloria in the Sourcebook. To the suffering Pelorians, the Char-un wouldn't have been much distinguishable from the other Pentan oppressors. After Sheng had been ousted, the Char-un were loyal to the Empire. They may have taken a role in harrassing the retreating horse overlords, taking rider wives from them.

I have written a scenario about an eye-witness of Sarotar's wooing of Arkilia dying in 1620. Admittedly that Asrelia priestess was ancient at that time, and had adult great-granddaughters, but living memory in Sartar may reach back before Palashee threw out the Lunars out of Tarsh even without heroic longevity (like Hofstaring Tree-Leaper's). The Sartar dynasty is in its fifth generation, or so (Argrath claims to be sixth or seventh, through Onelisin, the Storm Voice in the Rubble is a grandson of Dorasor, who in turn was a grandson of Sartar himself), Kostajor is a great-grandson (also through Onelisin). Hofstaring was alive when Sartar came to the land. You might as well claim that Alexander von Humboldt or Benjamin Franklin were mythological figures, symbols of their respective investigative drives, rather than actual people. There is a tendency, though - the Lunar heroes are distinguished by planned breeding off the Red Emperor's lineage, and various other deified heroes and heroines, while the Orlanthi heroes are unexpected outliers from established lineages. Harmast as the heir of the Berennethtelli royal lineage, Sartar as a Larnsti (likely also running in lineages, even though Larnsti status may have been dormant for centuries). The Sartar dynasty produced a number of outstanding individuals, although it also produced someone unworldly like Temertain. I speculated in an earlier thread that Inkarne had to send her husband into exile for him to become more like Orlanth. The Schtick about the king declaring himself lacking in justice to achieve justice... Not that that avoided the emergence of the Unholy Trio - it may have abetted that, actually - and getting Ralzakark at the helm of one incarnation of the future may be the result of this, but hey, the fact that the empire has a chaotic core isn't exactly a secret. Sheng's eastern Antigod terror vs. Lunar and Nysalorean Chaos - which side will you cheer for?

The Char-un received Erigia - the now denuded former taiga between Rathorela and the Thunder Delta/Thrice Blessed, north of the Sweet Sea. At the time they received it, Eol was an elf forest/taiga unsuitable for riders, but the Skyburn rite of the Char-un changed that. It was the prototype for the Moonburn devastation of Rist in the Second Wane, which created the chaotic Hellwood aldryami of Dorastor in reaction.

At a guess, an immortal ruler mainly has the ambition to keep things as they are. The Vadeli intermezzo was troubling, but thanks to the loss against Hoom Jhis from Maslo, even though it cost him the better part of his navy, Archidomides is back at the helm again. Unlike Godunya, it doesn't seem like Archidomides has any transcendent goals. His appetite for expansion is documented with the conquest of Kumanku after the fall of the Vadeli. In the conflict between Afadjann and the blue rebels he remains open to either side, shifting his support as he sees opportune, while profiting from the trade that goes to Dindanko rather than Garguna in these times of trouble. Keeping the uneasy balance between the cities while avoiding assassination is probably occupying much of his activity. Sending out assassins with lousy hances of success may be something of a spot between the Mazarin rulers. While everybody enjoys witnessing a gruesome execution, there are misdemeanors that may be punished by sending the perps against another ruler while keeping their families as hostages, probably under torture in order to expedite the task. I have not idea whether the Fonritian rulers use doubles for public appearances, and if they do, how they avoid being replaced by such doubles. In other words, while there is the claim for an unbroken record of rulership by that one person, is this really the same person? I wouldn't be surprised if Archidomides had a bunch of adventurous captains or commodores as retainers, probing into new areas of expansion under his name, much like a certain Christophorus Columbus had for a certain Queen of Spain. Establishing colonies/trading outposts on distant shores, raking in wealth and thereby power, can be rather cheap. The Nochet venture certainly paid off, providing a stream of exotic slaves, some with exotic magics or abilities.

Yes, Argrath is a bit of a Mary-Sue. That's by design, as he is a reborn Arkat. Not the full (superhero) package, but 20% of that, the package which liberated Maniria, Kethaela, Kerofinela and much of Saird from the Bright Empire, before the increasing use of Chaos powers led him onward to follow the ways of Zorak Zoran and Kyger Litor. His role in the White Bear and Red Moon board game was basically Arkat from Greg's ongoing western writings pulled ahead in history, even beyond the era of the God Learners and their collapse. Just like Arkat, Argrath walks many paths, acquiring a number of hugely overpowered abilities from that. But he is far from the only such character. Apart from his exotic magic abilities to nullify the Glowline or Glowspot and to call up the Dragontooth Runners, he is on par with the Feathered Horse Queen, Gunda, and Beat-pot. The Red Emperor and the Inhuman King out-magic him by far. Ethilrist is a better leader than him. Cragspider's exotic magic is the most destructive in the game, and she has a tame dragon at her command. If you look at the Composite History of Dragon Pass (published in King of Dragon Pass), the Salinarg chapter reads like a game report of a WBRM game, with extra characters like the Household of Death added as additional units. No idea whether Greg actually rolled dice and played it out, but I think it's quite possible that he did. At the very least, I expect that troop movements were tracked on the hex grid. All of the Glorantha that we know and love grew out of this boardgame, its companion game Nomad Gods and the design notes for the third, even more magical one Masters of Luck and Death, little of which actually has been done, although the concepts have been explored in some depth - see Arcane Lore for what became of those early concepts after their contact with rpgs, and RuneQuest. Garrath Sharpsword of the Pavis Box is a glimpse at Argrath at an earlier stage. We learn only little about him from his cameos in the Cradle scenario, and otherwise he appears as one possible sword trainer and Orlanth rune master. There is hardly anything about his ties to the Praxians there. The Making of Argrath - A Retrospective doesn't quite sound like something for a pen & paper rpg. On the other hand, it seems to be perfect to me for a first person computer game, although being limited to a male character creates some problems with modern computer rpg design. A similar set for The Making of Kallyr could be the prequel, offering a female perspective. A completely different story-line might be created for the Feathered Horse Queen. Not sure whether playing Harrek or Jar-eel in first person would be a good game. Assassinating a demigod emperor only as an early- or mid-game obstacle certainly sets up the stakes a bit. There might be quite a bit of railroading.

That depends on the soil and the ground water levels where those orchards are planted. I own a couple of apple trees in my garden, and the last few extremely dry summers did indeed create havoc with my harvest, as did the extremely wet "summer" of 2017. In normal years, the water retention of the soil in my garden and some sub-surface water transport about 1-2 feet below the soil and again a water-leading layer about 8 feet lower are fine to provide enough water with a sufficiently rainy April and May and some obligatory half inch to Kiel Week. There is no evidence for any irrigation works or a reservoir anywhere uphill from the orchards. These appear to be situated on a slope, which suggests to me that there would be some sub-surface runoff for much of the year. The Ernalda cult should be wise to where you can grow certain crops, they can communicate with the soil and have an excellent idea about humidity levels. But this makes my observations about making hay in the orchards possibly even more relevant - with a layer of (second rate, for stable floors) hay on the ground there will be less evaporation, and what humidity there is in the soil will benefit the apple trees more. California is desertification in progress, due to over-exploitation of aquifers and climate change working in tandem. As is much of the agricultural midwest. Climate data from that area should be taken from the 1980ies rather than from recent years.

Running a hamlet and inn out of a single well seems quite feasible to me. Compare the cholera-infected well in London which spread the disease to hundreds in that famous first use of geo-profiling in epidemiology. The seasonal nature of the rivers in limestone areas is largely owned to them losing water to the underground. A good well will tap into some of those underground aquifers. Sartar is not a typical dry karst environment. There is no evidence for irrigation farming here. (If there was, there would be reservoirs upstream.) The Sartarites know how dam up a river, as shown in the battle of the Hill of Orlanth Victorious in 1613. The just don't need to in their everyday life. I have seen an interpretation of the myth of Orlanth breaking the first river's back (creating the Oslir River as a separate entity) as an irrigation myth, and I guess that might be true for the Pelorian Orlanthi populating that river valley. (I think that it is a different reading of Orlanth slaying Sh'harkar'zeel and thereby creating the Dragonspine range, although the Aroka myth and the location of Lake Aroka come into this, too.) Vingkotling Age Orlanthi may well have known about irrigation, and Saird as well as Esrolia may actively practice that to the 1600s. I don't think that either Heortland or Sartar have a need to irrigate, though.

Or they can be sworn followers of the chief or a thane, who then takes responsibiity for their actions much like for a bonded Trickster, only (usually) with less risk of being pulled into unpredictable shenanigans. (There will be plenty predictable shenanigans, anyway...) That will tie that person's bloodline and clan to weregeld and similar legal claims. When on a mission for someone else (like a cult leader), the responsibility falls to that individual and their legal background. The sworn master may still be required to step in, at least temporarily, which will bring trouble back to the clan, if the Humakti (or other such sociopath) returns to their adoptive clan. There may be quite a few Humakti who rather belong to a mercenary regiment as their responsible legal unit, and there may be those who are basically the same as outlaws while they are between association. The very definition of murder hobo.

And how compatible is that geas with "never seek shelter from a storm" if that acts as a shower?

One week "not in the sky" phase. Two weeks in the underworld describes Shargash/Tolat/Jagrekriand. From the events, it seems that Shargash was in the sky, or otherwise its dancer entered the rite from the rising gate of the Southpath. The Westfaring apparently takes up half of the Sacred Season Lightbringers activity. But then, does Orlanth's Ring reach Pole Star on Orlanth's Sacred Season Holy Day and disappear beyond the Sky Dome, or does it emerge to start spiraling over the middle part of Sacred Time? There are quite a few cyclical events within Time that don't quite gel with Godtime events or sequences. Orlanth's Ring either preceding or missing the exit from the Underworld on the first day of the year is one of these...

The name and the fact that it was studied at the Trickster College is basically all that has been published for this, yet. Demonic imp seems to suggest a mostly malevolent Trickster - possibly spoiling milk or causing beasts to run dry, possibly destroying equipment, possibly sewing in clothing overnight so it doesn't fit any more (no, wait, that's the definition of calories). Possibly something a lot more serious - like giving a temporary curse (or blessing) to turn a person into a herd beast, or awaken a herd beast to personhood, only not really. Possibly what remains of the Founders' and Protectresses' ability to shape-change into the hybrid form shown on the Nomad Gods counters. Possibly a magic that cancels the ride skill of a beast nomad. (or a Morokanth's ability to direct their herd men to gather suitable plants for them.) Feel free to speculate, write up your whacky idea. If it becomes something rather useful, add negative side effects. That ride cancellation might induce a strong averse reaction of steeds and herd beasts to the caster for a couple of days, for instance. That Trickster cult write-up contains other dropped names. Such name-dropping has a long tradition in Gloranthan publications, like e.g. the introduction of the Guild of Chaos Monks in Ralios. Sounded cool, so it got added to Tiskos, without anybody knowing what it was about. The trade fleets of Mostakall and Sigtrigor mentioned on the same page - who or what are they? When were they destroyed by Trickster? The mere presence of trade fleets anytime in Godtime brings up quite a few questions. The presence of the Trickster changes the world. Everything you read in connection to the Trickster may be a trick played on you, dear reader. You have been warned.

Leanness - comparing a QuestWorlds character sheet with one from RQG, the QW one tells me what my character can do, whereas the RQG character sheet mostly tells me what my character sucks at. Too many skills means a lot of dross data. Ok, so here is my letter to Santa Claus about my rpg: I like the D100 concept, I like the occasional crunch and grit when it can be made into tactical challenges. I like the absence of experience points in RQ in general, it was what sold me to the RQ3 system over 30 years ago when it became available in Germany at reasonable pricing. (One of the last good deeds of Games Workshop outside of their Warhammer product line.) I think I would revisit the concept of Defense in RQ Classic and apply it to skill categories, then make skills break-out abilities of that score. I am not a fan of calculating all starting skill values from characteristics. A moderate influence of the characteristics on the starting skill category value is ok. Since I am not in the business of publishing a game system, I won't look into the legal side of the D100 SRDs that have been discussed on BRP Central. I guess I'd just tinker something together with enough text that players would be able to comprehend my GMing decisions and to build characters with just enough limitations to keep gaming an enjoyable challenge. Roll-playing (no typo!) to simulate a difficulty development is fine with me - the chase mechanics of RQG (and probably CoC) are a case in point. Simulating aspects of economy, or possibly the positive development of a holding (manor, stead, clan, tribe, kingdom, enterprise ... you name it) without going directly to a "zero to tycoon" model would be desirable. I have yet to play anything powered by the Apocalypse, using a Monty Haul/Cypher system that creates cool one use magics ex machina. I have played enough FATE to be sceptical of the huge metagaming component. I like a little more ability to predict an outcome probability without having to resort to hero points in QuestWorlds, which otherwise has quite a good game flow.

When exactly would the oriinal 7+1 stars return? Before the temple dedication rite, or as a consequence of that? (and what questing occurs amon the orthodox Orlanthi outside of the Windstop during the Windstop?

50 Eurmali playing out a Death Run will include at least one Killboy eager to do what the Humakti would have done. If only to thwart the rest of the gaggle. 50 Eurmali agreeing to a plan and seeing it through without a hitch would cause major damage to the fabric of the universe. Much worse than that Great Temple to the Trickster in Second Age Slontos (actually Wenelia, IIRC).

What was the status of Orlanth's Ring prior to the Dragonrise? Did it go AWOL after the fall of Whitewall? The Eleven Lights heroquest brings up to three new stars that emerge from Stormgate and move up the western sky towards Pole Star, from where they exit (IMO to the outer cosmos shared by Annilla, Dayzatar and possibly the dragon mystics,) The quest led by Minaryth Purple brought forth Orlanth's Ring into the dedication rite, at a time when it had no business being visible in the sky if it adhered to its normal schedule. The questers than danced half a week of upward movement in less than half of a (rather short summer) night, following Umath's trail towards the Court of Yelm from a part of the Godtime when the stars were not visible on the Golden Sky. (The stars only emerged and established themselves after Umath had been thrown of his approach towards Yelm, according to the Copper Tablets. That makes Umath the midwife of Pole Star and the rest of the visible stars, and Stormgate their mother/parent, or their mother's/parent's womb.) The interaction of Orlanth's Ring with the constellations is the work of Orlanth on his own conquest of the Sky, IMO one of the early deeds of the new King of the World after slaying the Evil Emperor. Orlanth's reign over the sky brought about his only significant combat victory over Chaos, too.

50 Humakti on a death run tend to create quite permanent and non-resurrectable results. And other than Estal Donge, there doesn't appear to be anybody willing to go to Hell to reclaim Temertain. DI may have been attempted. Temertain did receive a burial, I think. As close to "closed cask" as Orlanthi pyres can offer, the body likely held together only by the shroud's textile. To his cult, Temertain lives on in his writings. To the Sartar dynasty, Temertain will be remembered as the compromised compromise candidate whose appearance averted direct Tarshite usurpation of the throne. To most of his subjects, his demise will be seen as a first step towards making Sartar great once more. On a totally unrelated subject, an orange hue of skin is fairly common among Orlanthi.

Well, I am waiting for Pedro Zivani's Mythic Iceland to hit the shelves, which would fill exactly that niche that you propose above. Otherwise, I prefer leaner skill systems nowadays.

In that case, his cover was too perfect, and he got murdered by his own bodyguard before he could enact the destruction of the Lunar Temple. Grant you, sacrificing most of the Dundealos tribe to Tatius' whims and helping to cause the Windstop are good enough reasons to get rid of an evil genius Temertain.

I wasn't aware of that third push by the Unholy Trio, so my previous assumption was that the annual tilt was a bit to the north (following the crash of the northern Pillar) and then a heavier push backwards to the south, until the sky relieves itself of some of its heat and tilts back. One consequence of that could have been a slower return from the extreme southern tilt towards the north, and of course there would be two days of restoring the position of Polaris on the Sunpath, rather than the one in the model above. Would the lack of the northward tilt cause a problem with the alternative Kalikos myth in Entekosiad (the one with ice accumulating on the Sky Dome, not the one with Kalikos reacting to Umath's crash by stepping in for the crushed pillar)? On the southern end of the lozenge, the sky spill marks the end of the Artmali Empire, and/or the urban civilization of Tishamto that had successfully rebeled against at least one incarnation of the Artmali Empire. Given a naval presence of the Artmali north of Fonrit, it appears that there was an Artmali Empire post-Breaking of the World. But then, Pamalt's fight against Vovisibor appears to be pre-Breaking of the World, too. Little wonder the God Learners were unable to make sense of Pamaltela as a whole. It may be impossible to impose a clear "temporal" (as in linear Time) sequence of these Godtime events, but then that's the nature of cyclical Time. It's a similar conundrum to why there is a winter sun at all (Yelm never saw winter, except from Hell), how there is an ascending arc for Yelm on the Sunpath, only the descending half of which was defined by Yelm, Or how the Brown Elves got established - some myths associate the slaying of Yelm with the aldryami going to sleep. Simultnnity probably doesn't matter much.

Putting this where it belongs: Let's spin this on a bit. No, I don't think that it was Temertain who pulled the strings for the Lunar temple. But as much of a puppet and inept he may have been, he will have had a few people trying to uphold the dignity of the office despite the holder of the office being totally unsuited for it. And possibly one of these may have been in contact with a cabal of draconic wisdom-exploring scholars like Garstal Shavetop, and possibly Tosti Runefriend or Orlaront Dragonspeaker. No idea whether Minaryth had any idea about the dragon's presence. He died before the questers got into position to place the green star in the Celestial Dragon position. I am not quite certain whether the normal movement of Orlanth's Ring can ever place the Dragon's Head in the exactly right position in Stella Draconis. The stellar precession goes in a fairly exact sequence, which means that there are very distinct tracks followed by Orlanth's Ring which may have a tiny amount of precession over the years or centuries (after all, the World Machine is damaged).

That 1622 research document that talks about using 100 heads of cattle as a bait as of 1619 appears to disagree. (Boxed section in the Guide, p.79). But then, being part of the restricted section of the Boldhome temple library would make this knowledge rather obscure. This text is weird in a number of ways. The 1622 date would place at least the time of its deposition in the library into the Windstop, but this text was first published in Elder Secrets, before we ever learned about the Windstop. A deposition date, or possibly writing date, of this document can mean that the research had actually been conducted prior to the Windstop. But this would still mean that it happened during the time the Dundealos tribe had been disbanded and the New Lunar Temple construction was already well under way. I would like to speculate who in Boldhome would have the means to throw a herd this huge at some idle research project. Of course, we have a Lhankor Mhy initiate on the throne of Boldhome, and while Temertain certainly was a Lunar puppet, it looks like the Lunars humored his academic pursuits and allowed him significant financial means. Compared to the purchase price of Brithini Iron Statuary, a small clan's worth of cattle would be rather small change, I imagine. Redirection and misappropriation of research funds probably is a time-honored tradition in Lhankor Mhy libraries. With Fazzur having taken up residence and office in Karse and Tatius focussed on the New Lunar Temple in formerly Dundealos lands, I see a possibility that Garstal had Lunar-approved and possibly documented allocation of funds. The cattle could have been taken out of the sacrificial herds kept by the temple builders for their various stages of consecration, with proper requisitioning paperwork.

Lady in Black -> Red as Beat-Pot's story: She came to me one morning, one lonely crimson morning, her red hair flowing in the battlefield wind. I know not why she sought me, for in madness I was walking And destruction lay around me From that fight I could not win Ah ah ah... etc

King of Sartar: She appears to be allied to Jandetin the Avenger and going to marry Argrath in 1629, making him King of Dragon Pass. Mark text to see spoilers.

Lightfore moves quickly across the summer sky in those short (8 hours?) nights, while he idles along the Sunpath at midwinter, taking twice that time. Diametrically opposed to what Yelm does. This north/south rhythm isn't quite what I expected. You've made the point about rotational symmetry before. I worked under the assumption that the winter sky would tilt to the south, spilling some celestial fire into the seas there, before returning to the upright position. Why would the heat spill result from tilting northward? Do you regard the sky dome as an isolating layer between the Inner World and the fiery sky above? Kalikos (the midnight jumper) rises the highest above the horizon in winter - I had assumed that this was following the celestial tilt, not running against it. As a Jumper, this star is fixed in its cardinal position, so rotational symmetry doesn't come into this. One Night Wish (which peeks above the southern horizon on Midsummer) apparently defies any classification. A hypothetical local jumper would be the noon jumper, invisible to everybody but the Yuthuppan Star Seers (and for them, possibly obscured by mountain chains). Likewise, One Night Wish only peeks above the southern horizon on midsummer. In your model there should be an entire catalogue of "underworld stars" visible in the midwinter southern sky. Probably for the entire edge region since the night is so long. But if the firespill happens then, shouldn't that affect the appearance of the southern sky?