Joerg

A blend of Louis XiV and Mel Brooks' version of Louis XVI?

Back in the middle nineties, it was an uphill struggle to establish hentheist Malkioni without involving Arkat. (In comparison, learning that most Malkioni use spirit and rune magic makes all of them, even the Rokari, henotheists compared to the doctrine back then that if you were a Malkoni, sorcery was your magic.) I did quite a bit of research into the Malkioni back then, continuing into the years of Hero Wars and HeroQuest 1, and I had occasional access to talk to Greg. I gleaned a number of things from those talks and that research. To be Malkioni is to have a caste and to act within its rules. Under Hrestolism it is fine to acquire core tasks of the other castes on your way toward personal and spiritual advancement. How you get your caste is not the same everywhere, and neither does it necessarily mean that you have that caste for life. Circumstances of birth are involved, but so can be initiation/adoption, or a gradual rise through the system as in Loskalm. The trader princes of Maniria are one of many cases where there are hardly any farmer caste Malkioni. Instead there is an abundance of hill barbarians taking much of that role. ("Hardly any" as in the farmer caste usually makes up 80% or more of the Malkioni population. This does include urban crafters and small shop owners, and the occasional wealthy farmer or horse breeder working with their own property rather than that of some lord) The trader prince Malkioni or the Jonating Malkioni form an "elite", they are an incomplete society without the non-Malkioni. I found it hard to nail down Greg's concepts of the magic prevalence and the conditions for it. At times it looked like a resource allocation game to me, and I have played a few Hero Wars or HeroQuest games using such ideas (including a memorable one narrated by Greg where each player was a tribe of the Blue Moon trolls, with each ability being a part of the tribe). What I came to see was that worship (whether through sacrifice, veneration, ecstatic rites or whatever) was the main way of the denizens of the Inner World to create the energies that were used in magic. Malkioni worship apparently fuels the big magic of their wizards and the efforts of the Invisible God to maintain the salvaged Creation against entropy. The farmer caste has the magic of Life, and puts some of that to work providing the food and all the everyday stuff for everybody, while the three specialist castes put some of the communal magic to defense (soldier), organisation (noble) or special magics (wizard). Now dealing with hill barbarians means that every farmer is a militia warrior, and unlike Rokari peasants, one that may see occasional action as a result of raiding, both on the receiving and on the performing side. That tends to devalue the soldier caste, to the point where Jeff's most recent description of the Aeolians says that every Aeolian is a soldier, and they don't have a caste for that any more. (Or maybe never had -- the history of the Esvulari is still very much guesswork from very few published mentions, and a few stalwart attempts at describing them.) The trader princes are their Malkioni neighbors, and almost as far away from mainstream Malkionism as people and ideas travel, or used to travel before the Opening. When we read "Rokarism", fairly often I take that to mean "Makanism" aka mainstream linealist Hrestolism based on the Abiding Book, the dominating philosophy among the "pure" Malkioni of the Middle Sea Empire. RQ3 Genertela Box Player's Book "Hedenveld family" (reprinted in HeroQuest Voices) has a reference to the Rokari church that may be set before the sinking of Seshnela... I guess that's one thing that irks me about Rokarism - their claim that they are the Malkioni continuity when their doctrine isn't at all. The practice away from Leplain may be, though. It seems to me that the most devout followers of the Malkioni continuity may be the Pithdarans, who were introduced to and converted by the truths of the Abiding Book from their very different Pamaltelan warrior tradition. And while they confess to follow the decrees of the High Watcher in Leplain, they keep maintaining the ways that their ancestors adopted. They have the true book, and the book hasn't changed. If they are to use the abridged version of it when holding services for the Watcher, so be it. Pithdaran wizards are renowned for their piety and their power, and found throughout the Kingdom of Seshnela. They are one of the pillars of the Rokari religious orthodoxy, and seen as reliable. At least in my personal Glorantha, I don't see Rokarism as having taken root that deeply. Ascended masters, progression to the elevated state of Man-of-All, all these are ripe in much of the Rokari-dominated area. The Watchers prevent this from being apparent. The altered caste rules are obeyed in society, although institutions like the sergeants and the noble heavy cavalry cry "man-of-all", at least -in-training. Ascended Masters aren't acknowledged in the official worship. Well, neither are angels in Christian services (at least in the denominations familiar to me), yet there is a great subset of Christians I have met (from that selection of denominations) who are fervent and at times pious believers in angels and their tangible help, and same for saints (who do get quite a bit more acknowledgement in less protestant denominations than just the Credo). So: Rokari offshoot - they know the High Watcher of the Rokari as the highest ecclesiastic holder of office. That office may not have an infallibility decree in spiritual matters unlike the mid-19th century decree from Rome in our world, or it may have done so in as mundanely political and cynical a move as that pope. Their practices are different from the Tanisoran caste system. (The "Kingdom of Seshnela" is realy the Tanisoran kingdom. It is about as Seshnelan as the Holy Roman Empire of Germany was Roman, with the difference that the overseer of spiritual continuity comes from their midst.) Most Rokari are descended more from converts to Malkionism rather than from descendants of the original Malkoni of the west. Fornoari, Pendali, and whatever the original inhabitants of the Tanier estuary in Noloswal were - to my knowledge there was no Malkioni colony on the Tanier mouth at the Dawn, or if there was, it had no connection to Frowal. Noloswal and Alatan are part of the unknown southern coast of western Genertela in that respect. We know that the son of the first serpent King descended from Hrestol (who never became King of Seshnela) went to the east on a Waertagi ship and returned with a wife and a likewise serpent-legged son who succeeded the throne, so there were sufficiently civized people living there. Possibly something like the Ingareens, possibly the Ingareens themselves. Slontos wasn't civilized yet at that time, or not any more after the Pralori had become overlords in a style reminiscent of the contemporary horse warlords of Dara Happa, only without much acculturation. Erenplose was a city before the Great Darkness, and was sunk in Godtime. There are more such remnants of that urban culture in the region, but I can't say which culture they had, only that that culture is preserved in some way in Erenplose. But then Erenplose had very few visitors. Some say that Palangio was the last visitor, others claim that Dormal visited. Harrek might be interested in visiting - he needs something to do between 1624 (plundering the City of Wonders) and ). Or your player heroes then coming to Harrek's attention, or some other great hero, e.g. Gebel of the blue-skinned fleet. Erenplose is pretty similar to what the City of Wonders is becoming as the consequence of Belintar's disappearance and Harrek taking away parts of the magic that anchored the place in reality. The city is alive and inhabited, although we cannot be certain that Time flows normally there. There may have been some system to the God Learner (Malkioneranist) madness of researching all Trickster magic in the Archduchy of Slontos - they may have hoped to find a way to access Erenplose. To my knowledge, the God Learners didn't manage to get there. It doesn't look like Arkat had time for a short detour, either, at least not on his passage through the region to liberate Kaxtorplose. Palangio's visit in 423 (History of the Heortling People p.97) allowed him to retrieve his signature Iron Vrok in the Mislari Mountains, likely from Selon Mountain (which is after all a piece of the Sky fallen down to the Surface World). A visitor like Harrek would expect a similar boon. The Zaranistangi march to the Sea after the fall of Paslac may have been in search of tidal secrets from Erenplose, but boy did they take their time. In their defense, they came in army strength, and keeping an army fed in the field away from any support takes most of its time.

"Your deity is cool because it did X, Y and Z, and your magic allows you to attempt at least lesser versions of that. And now that you know that the deity did these three things, you might have an idea what else the deity may have done." All with the caveat of course that a Storm God has no earth powers, and vice versa, unless given these in recompensation for something or having conquered them. There are plenty of Storm Brothers. There are plenty of Storm Deities who may occasionally be siblings of Orlanth rather than a generation later, e.g. Odayla. And Orlanth himself can be counted as a Storm Brother rather than the King of Gods in certain myths. So yes, this is where mythology can and will be confusing, Having a clear tree genealogy of deities or languages or species of pre-modern humans is usually a construct. Orlanth had four brothers, right? Their names are Kolat, Storm Bull, Vadrus, Humakt, and Ragnaglar. And Odayla. And Aerlit. And ... (And yes, I can count to four. Mythology doesn't bother.) Picking up Hero Wars or HeroQuest and being the narrator right away was and probably remains a daunting task. I was in the happy situation to visit conventions where games of Hero Wars and HeroQuest (any edition) were offered, and so I had at least an idea how a game could play out. Starting a game in a typical "clan in occupied Sartar" setting was no longer a daunting task as I was a King of Sartar junkie, and heavily involved in discussing how to carry that monster of a bundle of in-world texts into my roleplaying experience already using RQ3 and the RQ:AiG playtest rules. Many of us who were well immersed in Glorantha usually were equally well immersed into the gritty "here is what you can do" approach of RuneQuest and were daunted by the "so you say this describes your character. How could this description be used to solve the current problem in a way satisfying to you and fun to narrate?" approach of HW/HQ. My experiences with narrating HW (using the German translation of the French translation, which had seen another editorial pass after the hasty job on the original edition) was a family game with a mother and her teenage children who had effectively no roleplaying experience and no idea what Glorantha was about. I wasn't prepared for some of the stuff that happened to me, like the Vingan's ability "Run Over Treetops" which inserted a fair amount of wuxia into the setting that I had not been aware of. Rule of cool, so I allowed it even though the character was not a devotee. That ability would be rather meaningless without active use. Same as flying... Don't give meaningless abilities to people's first roleplaying experiences. I still was in a quandary answering "so how do I get on top of the treetops?" Getting into the epic stuff from the get go is fine if everybody is well aware of the setting. If you want to convey the setting, then Winter is Coming, but not immediately. At least I am happy to set up foreshadowing (a gizmo like allied dire wolves that could have seen more mythical deployment) before triggering the big bad nasty. Discovering the Wilder magic in the first books of Wheel of Time was a similar build-up, although the protagonist load on those characters is a bit more than I like in my casual and ongoing roleplaying, same with Belgariath. "You are the destined one" doesn't gel well with "Oh bugger, you died."

I think it would be pretty hard to be a Rokari that early, as it was at best a new movement in the monasteries of the Makanist lineal Hrestoli sects of what remained of Seshnela, and Tanisor. Only when Bailifes the Hammer gains the support of Mardron of Leplain, a disciple or spiritual follower of Rokar, did the Rokari sect become mainstream Malkionism. The County of Tiskos on the south shore of Lake Felster did embrace this new sect early on, without any armed prompting by the (new) Seshnegi required or asked for, which gives a ready pool of Rokarism not that far from Helby. But then it seems to me that the unification of the Malkioni sects under Bailifes is mainly propaganda, with plenty local aberrations remaining, even after being uncovered and heavily persecuted by the authorites. That's my assumption, too. Ashara as the name or title of that deity.

You don't need a spell list. You do need a quite good idea what your god was up to in Godtime, as your magic is going to reflect an action or a feat of that deity. The nice thing about HQG is that it is eminently fine, even encouraged, for the players and the narrator to come up with such stories defining the magic of both deity and character. So who would have "Magic Missile"? Let's look at the myths. When Umath invades the sky, he and Shargash exchange missiles as both go down in the north, Umath a tad harder than Shargash. Orlanth's use of missiles against Jagrekriand (the Orlanthi name for Shargash) is what created the name of the mountain Arrowmound, the highest peak in the Skyreach range Players do have a fair amount of agency in creating the character and his cultic details. As long as you don't want to play a puma person, most narrators will be fine with what you come up with after some initial exposure to Glorantha (say Prince of Sartar webcomic and King of Dragon Pass computer game, having completed a short game or two, ideally a long one as you have to do all the quests for that one). I'm on the record for claiming that there are things that are usually done a certain way in Heortling society. When things are done differently, I often react by saying that out loud. At the same time, I am perfectly willing to look at the implications both of the rules how things are normally done, and on how it can be justified to go completely against the Orlanthi All way. What advantages does a clan have from allowing, possibly even promoting endogamous marriages? How do the ancestors relate to that, how do the neighbors deal with a clan that won't regularly make marriage connections in order to create inter-connections and additional diplomatic channels into the marital beds of the clan leaders?

In the Dragon Pass boardgame, dinosaurs could be controlled by the factions. I always blamed the "stray moonbeam" on Moirades and his cotery of Provincial University magicians performing long range magic similar to that of the Imperial College. The moonbeam may have caused temporary madness, which put together with an enraged dinosaur (possibly also moonbeamed) anda cliff creates the immediate means. So, no contradictions there only corroborating evidence faintly outlining what really happened, at least to me.

The Nochet assassinations were targeting the Esrolian houses that caused or aided and abetted Sarotar's demise. Things got nasty around the time of Saronil's death. No, Tarkalor has nothing to do with the Lunars assassinating his grand-children or their cousins after his death. I was referring to the dying that the Nochet nobility did after they had conspired to kill Sarotar. A clear message to not mess with the House of Sartar. No need to involve the Lunars in this, other as the constant military threat that all Princes of Sartar since Saronil had. I was insinuating (merde, I admitted it) that Tarkalor, who was chummy with those light worshipers, may have had if not a hand in then at least a way of pointedly looking elsewhere as the Elmali betrayed Jarosar. A day in the life of "lordabdul reads a message from joerg": "What's a Night Jumper?".... (checks various PDFs, 2 minutes pass)... "ah, yeah, Sartar Magical Union... hadn't read that yet... oh well let's read it now" Twenty minutes later: "Who's house Norinel again?" (checks PDFs again, 5 minutes pass) "ah yeah, right. Wait, they have troll bodyguards?" (searches a whole bunch of PDFs, without success... 10 minutes pass) And people have accused me of producing impenetrable walls of text. Looks like an improvement to me... 1. I was actually referencing King of Sartar, "An Earlier Argrath", in Argrath Book IIRC. The Night Jumpers are/were a Curtali (Kurtali?) secret society regular raiding their Kitori neighbors with a teleport-like magic. As there was no SMU in Tarkalor's time, 2. is a bit of a detour. 3. House Norinel - probably the most powerful Enfranchised House in Nochet for the last two centuries. Described in the Queens of Nochet text, and also in Esrolia: Land of 10k Goddesses. The family of Queen Hendira in modern times, the house of Bruvala and Brengala at the time of Sarotar's interaction with Arkilia (a daughter of that house). 4. was covered by Harald above. And you're more up to date with what is going on between Sartar and Nochet. Now you can go and spread that bafflement to a wider public. Is Saronil the "prince" mentioned on Queen Norina's death? ("[Norina] was killed by Sartarite assassins seeking to avenge the death of their prince"). Sarotar was the "prince" (not "Prince") whose death was the fault of that Nochet conspiracy. IMO it had to do with the Grandmother being unwilling to consider anything but an uxorilocal relationship for her precious daughter. A reprise of the Adjustment Wars, which were as present to the Nochet elite back then as the US civil wars is to the former Confederate states. With the Adjustment Wars following Kodig's acquisition of Esrolia through marriage, of course, something the Grandmothers appear to view as a greater blow to their well-being than all that Greater Darkness business. (Only slightly exaggerating here) Yes, they are wrong. The Sourcebook has the most recent and the most reliable dates, but there are mistakes in there, too. (Like naming the daughter of Terasarin "Tarkalor" instead of "Tarkala".) But it doesn't matter whether Saronil is still alive or not, the upset is about the demise of Sarotar. The ones to avenge Sarotar are his brothers and cousins, and probably his sister, too. And they don't pussyfoot around. Jarolar may be the tamest of the bunch. All of this is backstory to my "Asrelia Priestess died, female descendants form a party to bring her to Nochet" scenario. That granddaughter is the youngest of the triplet born to Onelisin and some guy without much of a story to his name, the one Argrath claims as his ancestress.

Kilometers, miles, what's the difference? 😇

About the Elmali betraying Jarosar - not insinuating anything, but wasn't this mightily fortuitous for Tarkalor? The somewhat less legitimate heroic son of Saronil who was ignored when his nephew got elected as king? Tarkalor had been involved in the retaliatory assassinations in Nochet, as far as I am concerned. Possibly using Night Jumper magics to hone in on the Great Troll bodyguards that House Norinel likes to show off. We know that the sons and nephews of Saronil were perfectly willing to play foul to the Esrolians who had conspired against Sarotar, the glorious leader of their generation (and who by Tarkalor's own admission would have become an even greater king than himself). What qualification did Jarosar have over Tarkalor? And previously, what qualification did Jarolar have over Onelisin and Tarkalor? It appears to me that Jarolar was somewhat isolated from the rest of the royal family, but politically well connected, and the same kingmakers supported Jarosar after Jarolar's death. I wonder what Hofstaring and his youthful companions Gringle and Minaryth did in those years.

In Gloranthan history, that is the story of the Zaranistangi in Ralios and Maniria, and the story of Syranthir Forefront in Fronela bears some similarity but has no going home. Both in the second half of the Second Age. The exodus of the Horse Warlords - after Argentium Thri'ile, and again after the Red Emperor imprisoning Sheng Seleris, is a similar tale of woe, but burdened with family. More recently, a certain mercenary unit led by a centaur has experienced such a fate in Lunar service, and just when they begin to settle down, nasty intruders from the Colymar Tribe interfere. (In other words, you might play the second scenario in The Smoking Ruins from the opposite perspective.) Other Lunar units may have faced similar fates. (IMvaryingG, a Prince Orontes of Tarsh got cut off from his kingdom with just a few Yanafali bodyguards in Refuge at the Dragonkill, turning his "governorship" into even more of a shamble. And then some Waertagi who had survived in a surface enclave flee from their cousins who returned from the Underworld, settling the place... Storyline by Robert Asprin and friends.) Something like Poul Anderson's King of Ys series could be played with a Lunar Sun Domer survivor of Pennel Ford somehow cut off from the Empire, going to Maniria and challenging the sacred king of a weird port city there. (Or apply this to Estali in Safelster - quite a few of the elements are already there, including the maritime motif.) Another similar rip-off from literature would be to use the mishaps of the Black Company by Glen Cook, making them the Black Moon mercenary company in the service of the Kingdom of War, breaking away from their former employer at some point. In both these cases, it should be possible to do more than just filing off the serial numbers and replacing them by Gloranthan tie-ins. The Kingdom of War doesn't seem to have overpowered sorcerers able to wipe out entire armies with their great summonings, unless King Death on a Horse has managed to get his own Lunar-like regimental magicians. Doing the King of Ys spiel with a party instead of just a single character may change Anderson's outline quite a bit, but the concept of the setup and some of those challenges can still apply. A similar story can be made for a group of Wolf Pirates that splintered off the main armada on the Circumnavigation (likely because their captain managed to anger Harrek just not enough to be taken apart at once, or because their ship needed an extended refiitting before they could continue the voyage after some battle damage, or simply drifted vastly off course on a Doom Current or a freak wave). One character backstory of mine has the father of the character as one of the Kethaelan sailors sailing into the Kralori inland sea, barely escaping with a badly damaged ship to be shipwrecked on Fanzai in the Fethlon portion of it. They survive among a hidden Sofali/Diroti community, help them against other threats, and need to deal with the local dragonewts. Long story, with a parental reunion but the new family keeping the parent overseas (that part I got to play from the other side as part of the character's campaign arc).

All good people are people... no matter how good, there is bound to be ugliness.

The Ramalians have a deeply rooted paranoia against anything related to the sea, making a sea pirate offshoot extremely unlikely. I don't have any clear idea what subjects of the Middle Sea Empire would have been trapped on Alatan by the Closing, or whether they would have made contact with the rest of the former empire through coastal waters or overland. Their early pirate fleet would have been copies of Dormal's ship, which I take to be a swift merchant sailing vessel (a courier type ship, not bulk cargo) rather than a galley. We don't hear about Dormal's rowers acting as backup fighters, or anything like that. I wonder whether these Alatan pirates were Malkioni, and rather organized soldiers rather than an undisciplined rabble. Their initial success against the retaliatory fleet from Kethaela and their ability to field more vessels than the Kethaelans indicates a fairly high level of organization. In my mind, Alatan always calls up imagery from Malta, whose templar knights were feared as pirates by the muslim sailors. If the island harbored stranded marines, maybe they may have maintained a tradition of ready-for-war men-of-all (a bit similar to Sun County) that the Kingdom of Smelch was able to mobilize at rather short notice. The only question is, what minor warfare or mercenary service would have kept their fighting abilities from rusting. Erenplose, not Kaxtorplose. But yes, going underwater is a good way to sit out the Flood, if you can do so. The Fish Roads in Kethaela offer a similar refuge. Aldryami floating copses are possible, and elf friends might hitch a ride if they serve as marines. Interesting to see all those Finland references in your place names - it wouldn't have occurred to me to transplant this much from that subarctic country to the mostly mediterranean climate of Maniria. The Finnish forest leaves a different impression than what I expect in Maniria (maybe the Spanish interior prior to the vast deforestation due to the demand for ship-building as the Reconquista was done). The mosquitos might be on spot, though. Speaking of Greymane and the Pendali-descended Orlanthi of the region on both sides of the watershed to Safelster: I have come to think of them as a variant of Yinkin, based on lion pride behavior rather than randy house-cat behavior. Thus there will be bachelor groups that may follow an established war leader hoping to amass enough experience and wealth to challenge an alpha male and become one themselves, then leading a life of glorious polygyny until the next challenger takes over. The females practice something like serial monogamy. Since they are the constant, farm administration falls to them. This model only works for a noble top layer above a farming population, presumably of Entruli stock in the Solanthi valley. But then that isn't that different from how I envision Dawn Age Pendali rule in Old Seshnela, parallel to Basmoli retaining the full Hsunchen way supporting the Pendali as a priestly caste. How dead was Basmol that far west? Presumably a lot less than in Prax, possibly through Pendal himself.

Or "What is forbidden is the good stuff that Zzabur is keeping to himself. Have you seen him aging?" Vadeli tap, e.g. the sea - in the later Godtime, the Neliomi was tapped listless by Vadeli and Brithini using those energies in their mutual war. That means they have no qualms about spending oodles of magic points. For speculation, the Blue Vadeli caste had the magic to dominate deities, enslaving them. The Browns only have magics to enslave normal mortals and the usual otherworldly creatures (spirits, elementals) that other cultures can affect with magic, too. At least IMG they produce Slave Bracelets and Slave Collars. Have you ever wondered where the tapped magic goes? The Brown Vadeli are bound to know some form of Resurrection, or possibly something like "(Re)Grow Body". Possibly consuming the body of a victim in the process (the magic consuming the victim's body, not the Vadeli). In RQ terms they probably have casting skills above 100%, in HQ terms at least 2 masteries. They are likely to have inscribed spells with a huge number of points already prepaid. The brown Vadeli may not engage in hand-to-hand combat (except probably against hostile merfolk, which are valid targets for "fishing"). An ear-witness report is in Missing Lands, "The Vadeli Smile". The Vadeli tactics you have described are little different from what you'd expect from the Kingdom of War. You left out meat shields, or sending burning hostages or captives back to the foes. Using (captive) children like the trolls use trollkin. I wonder about the connections between the KoW and the Vadeli - they certainly were in the region. Could Lord Death on a Horse be a Vadeli returnee? A field battle against Red Vadeli or Mostali may be similar to scenes from the Battle of the Somme or similar WW1 trench experiences. Magics or contraptions of mass destruction. Gorp or pratzim throwers, sylph-driven blowpipe organs, jars of enraged hornets, succubi or sleep spells to render an enemy motionless, strangling wires that relentlessly wind up once they have entangled something, wraiths created from recent victims, possibly clad in clouds of blood... That bare-chested marine made me think of a spell "transfer damage" - you need a recipient for the damage dealt to the fighter. Every damage exceeding 1 hit point is dealt to the recipient victim, usually someone within sight of the attackers (needs to be within range). Up to the intensity of the spell points of damage can be transfered thus, or until the recipient is killed. Several recipients might be included in the spell, spreading out each individual wound. For some reason, the Gloranthan western Übermensch is not toweringly tall, unless he is a zzaburi or a Luathan demigod. The Brown Vadeli depicted in the Guide in the Jrustela section is female. What is the role of female Red VadelI? What would be their battle-dress?

Thanks for that map. There is one scenario set in the Praxian Chaparral, at Horn Gate, and there are Apple Lane, the Rainbow Mounds, the Sazdorf Ruins and Snake Pipe Hollow in or near Sartar. Unless you count some of the encounters in Borderlands, which may be counted as mini-scenarios. The only other published RQ scenarios set in Sartar or the Chaparral themselves were from fanzines like RuneQuest Adventures, Tales, or Tradetalk/Free INT, or other such fan productions. There weren't that many, IIRC. I'm aware of one Sandy Petersen RQ3 scenario set in Sarro in Afadjann, in the AH house magazine Heroes, which might be regarded as semi-official, and which probably wins as the most distant RQ scenario from Pavis. We did get a few minor sandbox descriptions of places, like the Lismelder Lands, descriptions of the Jonstown confederation, or the oases of Prax distributed over various publications as system-less material. And of course Tarsh War.

Unless your Second Sight perceives all those angry animal ghosts hanging out around that hunter. Isn't there a Stephen King book on that topic?

And they use their fire powers and the Shield magic in the same sens... no, wait. Like I said, the situation is somewhat paradoxical. I wonder what the difference between an Impala worshiper of Yelmalio and a Pure Horse Folk worshiper of the Golden Bow is, and whether they could share worship sites and possiby rites. At least no longer after the Dragonkill (although a homeguard worshiper would have had a way better chance to be around after that wipe-out of martial manhood, and to rebuild and expand their cult). Looking at Six Ages, it looks like Hyaloring horse folk either joined the Vingkotlings or switched over to Kargzant/Reladivus upon contact with the other horse warlords. Vuranoste and his sons may have been the last traditional Hyalorings in the Pelorian basin. What do you make of the Sun Dome Temple in Goldedge, then, a place and templar community in all likelihood founded under Arim or his Twins, way closer to all those Tarshites than Alda-chur? The unhappiness about consorting with people who don't hesitate much to bring in Chaos would have been a good reason for templars to leave the reach of the Conquering Daughter. Firetop mountain near Alda-chur does offer a natural sacred place, but a Sun Dome Temple at Goldedge is quite the attraction, toó.

Waha invented cutting up your own kin animals that you herded and defended against others, for survival, under the (nascent) rules of Time in the Gray Age, and had the contest of the eaters and the eaten to determine these roles. All four legged but the Morokanth won and still have the ability to live directly from Eiritha's bounty, but the two-legs of the Morokanth cheated, leaving the four-legged Morokanth as the Eaters. Hunters have killed the animals since the Green Age. Entekosiad has a story how the log walkers painted the beasts they had slain for food, and how the paintings would emerge from the rock walls as revived real beasts, running away. Killing your own totemic beasts isn't exactly new for a number of Hsunchen, either. The "hunt yourself" bear quest is probably shared by all bear worshipers, whether Hsunchen, Orlanthi Odayla, Pelorian Arakang, Teshnan yellow bear, or wherever. Quite a few Hsunchen with herbivore herd beasts live fairly similar to the Praxians - the Tanuki and Wildebeest people of Pamaltela, the antlered beast Hsunchen of Genertela, the Yak people of eastern Pent and the Shan Shan... The Sofali of Maslo/Errinoru are named oophages, taking a major sustenance out of the eggs of their sea turtle kin, in return making sure that the remaining baby turtles make it safely into the sea. The ones of Fethlon appear to be fisherfolk, emulating the hunter aspect of the turtles. Waha's ritual worked within the confines of Time. I am not exactly certain how that spread to the Theyalans, and what their own sacrifices were like in the Silver Age. The Waha method probably was carried across Genertela by the Lightbringers alongside with their method of theist worship and almost monotheist dedication to one deity as the main form of theist behavior. Whatever the hunters and herders and sacrificers did before, using Waha's method appears to have improved the lot for the sacrifices and the magical benefits. I am not entirely clear how a hunter using lethal traps or losing track of a beast hit by a missile is able to perform the Peaceful Cut reliably.

I think that the "Pike and Shield" abillity of Yelmalio is a bit paradox with respect to Yelmalio having lost his shield (to Orlanth, at the Hill of Gold), but then so is the shiny armor that they like to don. Given the Cults of Prax cult distribution, there are probably more beast rider initiates of Yelmalio in Prax than there are in Sun County (Prax). In Kerofinela and Saird, there are quite likely more rural (farmer or herder) initiates of Yelmalio than there are templars. Obviously, the Cult of Yelmalio does offer some other incentive than becoming a pike-and-shield soldier. And that appears to be sun worship, the hill barbarian way to reach out to the life-giving sun through the stalwart protector son. As important in agriculture as is rain worship (Orlanth(Heler), a safeguard to be able to harvest hay or grain without having the harvest ruined by rain. Trollfighter and Elf-Friend may be additional considerations to join Yelmalio. For the Praxians, this is the theist companion to their spirits of light, Pole Star and the Jumper star daughters of Yelm, and the light-associated archery magics of the War Arrow medicine bundle. Beast-back archery is big for both the Impala riders (it's their main form of combat) and the Zebra riders. It is a skill, not a magic, though. I never understood the attraction to or the rationale behind the randomly rolled gifts and geases. Sure, some of the gifts are nifty, in a poower-player way, and "Never trust"... is a weird geas. Shouldn't that tie into passions, and obligate use of them? As for the random selection, I have the suspicion that things were rolled because you rolled on random tables in the early decades of the hobby. The RQ3 solution for Humakt initiates with gifts having their commensurate geases always made more sense to me. Or maybe a selection of commensurate geases for each gift. Way to much detail, at least for a core rules product, though. The learning curve for RQ is steep enough as is. One thing that I don't quite understand yet is how Monrogh affected the existing Yelmalio cult in the Far Place, Tarsh, and Peloria. How much did his heroquest impact them?

The same can be said when you join a spirit cult for one of its rune spells (if it provides one) or the acquisition of an unusual spirit spell. Under RQG, having joined several such spirit cults may give you some ace in the sleeve for special effects. As these rune points appear not to be counted against your CHA limit, a CHA-challenged character might have to go this way to collect a decent number of rune points. Such special spells may be mainly a heroquesting MacGuffin, useful in certain predicted situations. Still worth acquiring, and firing off to achieve something you and your party would be very hard put to achieve otherwise. Or they may be regimental specialities. Think Argrath's Warlocks and their unit cults. Can they taste Spell Trading, too? Theyalans aren't monotheists. And even Malkioni acquire rune magic from cults in a theist way these days if they aren't zzabur caste sorcerers.

You might undo the fabric of the universe by rendering Chalana's contribution to the re-making of the world faulty. That might manifest as Chaos, as a cruel "sacrificial healing" where five lives are taken to fix one, or it might rip your very community out of the fabric of the Surface World, and (if you and your community are lucky) place it in a horrible Underworld or Outer World with overpowered opponents against you. Think Night of Horrors environments. Mind you, this could be an interesting campaign. Can you escape that Dystopia, and salvage at least a kernel of your community to restart in a less abysmal environment?

It is nice when your cult overlaps with your vocation in a major way, but I don't think that it is necessary for a Gloranthan to be initiated to the one deity that happens to do the same job. You can be a merchant without being initiated to Issaries. You can be initiated to Issaries without being a merchant (take for instance the Desert Trackers). Quite a few Yelmalio initated worshipers and a good portion of the Orlanth initiated worshipers are farmers or herders for their main vocation. They can be merchants, poets, entertainers, fishermen, or hunters. Their normal work life may be less interwoven with their religious life than some guy who can deal with his religious duties while earning his food and lodging, so their religious duties may be more special to them than that other guy's everyday life. Is it viable for player characters wishing to become larger than life heroes? I would say yes. They may have to rely more on others, or their communities, but that can be made into a strength as much as it is a weakness. The shield spell is admittedly very nifty for a front line fighter, or a duelist. And if you regularly put on shield 4 before a fight and you have a charisma of 16, you can have up to one hour of fighting under the protection of your shield spells. Unless you add Extension or some "Arming of" rite like Ernalda's "Bless Champion", that's it for your combat magic. So, does your warrior have Shield up for every fight? Probably not. Wil he have rune points left when it comes to the boss fight? What if the boss fight sees the antagonist realizing that his opponents are all magicked up, and retreat until that magic wears off? Bwahahaha... Having the right magic for a job is great. Becoming the appropriate god for the magical action is one of the common ways to change the world. You could for instance become a Lightbringer. That's a warrior's job, right, or a noble's? Then tell me the name and occupation of the most important heroquester doing two Lightbringers' Quests in his lifetime. (Hint: the nom-de--guerre could belong to a hobbit. His occupation, too.) There are other ways to acquire heroic abilities than following the normal cult format. Harrek is not a normal Rathori longbowman mercenary, and quite likely never has been, although he will have hunted in his youth. Will your player character be able to emulate Harrek's feat of binding a great spirit or deity to himself? Probably not by ritual taxidermy, but there may be other ways. Not all Gloranthans rely on the most convenient magic all the time. Those who don't often end up as major heroes, and some of them established a new convenient magic for those who emulate them in later generations. Think forward. Find a new magic within the frame of your magical practices and your heroic exploits, and bring it into the world. That's what Heroes are in Glorantha.

All it needs is a Zorak Zorani or iron mostali with an axe...

You mean other than p.37 of the Adventure Book in the GM screen package and the encounter suggestion on p.74?

This does seem about right for single sorcerous rites like Dormal's Ritual of Opening, even under RQG if the forum posts by te designers may be trusted. There does appear to be a way to have a singular ability from a different magic system as a stand-alone ability. You cannot hang it off another ability, which means it is getting more expensive to keep this ability on a level comparable to the rest of your capabilities. That does remind me of the effect that the ugly phrasing of "Misapplied Worship" in the earlier versions of HeroQuest and Hero Wars brought.

Expending the magic - your life force - should be something different from just paying up a coin to join in the sacrificial feast. Pouring out your magic should help shape your perception, synchronize your senses with Godtime. There will be powerful times and locations that may draw Godtime closer to the world of the Mortals, but even then, the act of attuning yourself by expending some magic should give you an advantage. After all, your contribution helps carrying over the Godtime into the ritual. The connection made by a lay member is fleeting, but it is the first step of entering into the area of initiate participation. And then there are initiates to associate cults, cults that share secrets. Your associate cult secrets may give you a better understanding of the cult secrets you are contributing to.