Joerg

A shaman should have (or acquire) the ability to self-resurrect. Repairing the body may be troublesome, but that's what possession of other beings is good for. This is an interesting quandary. Can your core self continue to act independently while your fetch is in the process of being destroyed? Is there a separateness of experience? Discorporation is pretty much shutting down the bodily experiences, possibly including pain, hunger etc. The Fetch only prevents spirits from taking over the prone body, it doesn't have any control over bodily functions. The split brain of draconism sort of reduces the apartness of the self from the All, IMO. It takes the experience to an outside perception, an outside ultimately beyond the borders of Creation. But that's just my personal opinion, not necessarily a cosmic insight.

Getting rid of that Life rune is easy - join Humakt on the Other Side. No more pesky eating, breathing or sleeping, just pure Death. If you still have unfinished business, you can become a ghost.

Because whether the deity aided the shaman or not, the Fetch is not the deity's gift, but an awakened part of the self of the shaman. It remains even after a shaman has been made into a ghost. Only by binding the shaman's (disembodied) spirit as well. And gods don't act directly in the world of mortals. They may send lesser minions (or instruct their priests to do so), but that's the extent of their involvement.

That's from the Hero Wars metaplot notes that saw limited circulation at the time HeroQuest was published. Urcheth was one of several lieutenants of the mastermind behind the build-up of the forces of Chaos or Apocalypse. Plenty of factions in the Hero Wars are going to receive offers too good to be rejected. Remember Argrath's "This is how we deal with assassins" from his entry into the city of Pavis/Boldhome? Any player of the Dragon Pass boardgame knows that the House of Sartar has assassins in its employ, too. Or ask anyone versed in the history of House Norinel and its allies 70-80 years ago... To me, it looks like the Evil Adversary comes to the Hero Wars with the goal of world domination rather than with the goal of ending the world. Much like Avanadpur was interested in its continued existence. In that, the true forces of Chaos may be its dupes. Could be, could just be someone unafraid to associate with chaotics. His reign definitely aids and abets chaotic behavior.

Thanks for the reminder that we ought to provide such backing material, ideally in an entertaining and easily accessible way. To me that list looked like a good selection of well known cases. Do not underestimate the gospel of Bob http://tangent128.name/depot/toys/freefall/freefall-flytable.html#3305 One thing about these new gods that come breaking the Compromise is that they may enter the world together with their antithesis. The Birth of the Red Goddess coincides with that of Sheng Seleris, the birth of Nysalor coincides with that of Arkat.

I have a hard time imagining the laconic Humakti effervescing flowery incantations when gearing up for lethal combat.

If you are looking for an opportunity of Yelorna going at loggerheads with Argan Argar, the arrival of the trolls at Halikiv under AA's leadership would place the Dark Walker in proximity to the sun horse riders of the Galanini. According to the Copper Tablets, the stars only came out after Umath invaded the Sky. One of the planetary sons of Yelm enters Stormgate/the Pit, and in response the stars spill out into the sky, populating the previously unicolor Sun Dome. Plentonius' Dara Happan tallying of years places this 30,000 years before the disintegration of Yelm, followed by 11,000 years of Storm Age and Darkness (the Dominations of Antirius and Shargash). The descent of Liorn and Forosil appears to date into Urvairinus reign (destruction of Elempur, loss of the Lastralgortelli before Nivorah). Garan and Sedenor may be later arrivals, as the Garanvuli form only in the ninth generation of descendants of Jorganos. The circumstances sound more like the reign of Manarlavus the Roofer. The destruction of Genert's Garden predates the implosion of the Spike only by very little. I am rather unsure when Oakfed would have been released in Prax - the worst of Valind's advance was before the Glacier was split by Chaos, nut the loss of the light on top of the Spike (or Flamal's tree) may have plunged the wrld further into Darkness and cold, independent from the Glacier. That is an extremely narrow interpretation of "marks the place". Plus there is hardly any population left after ZZ's arrival, and most definitely not a dozen or so generations of that as your description mandates. Whitewall became the hilltop forest of Garan in the comparable situation, and it had much less in ways of temples (Orlanth, Ernalda, the founders, and Argan Argar are known). The holy site of Orlanth at Whitewall probably was established as a victory shrine over the Flood, around the time the Vingkotling kingdom was established generations earlier. Whitewall had a Star Captain coordinating the survivors. These deities already inhabited the tree - Ehilm its crown, Humat its boughs, etc. The canopy of Flamal would make the area around its trunk rather sparsely populated by lesser trees or other plants, even with Ehilm residing in that canopy. That kind of "declare everything as enemy" thinking irritates me to no end. Stone is part of the ground that Flamal roots on. A tree of Flamal's dimensions needs bedrock to stabilize its roots. Aldryami groves are described using standing stones, too. Hrelar Amali is a place of peaceful co-existence, that's its point. Dwelling overly much on petty hostility defies the mythic theme of the place. Flamal is the bringer of fertility, not the warrior of doom. The temples may be rooted over on their lower steps, giving an Angkor vibe only if the masonry co-existed with the World Tree. Once Flamal had been hewn down, the strangling roots would no longer have expanded. If Flamal was dead, then the massive trunk would have been the readily available and logical building material. If the forest was dead, then what supported the civilization that toiled for generations to erect these monuments? The construction of great temples requires a great fertility to provide for the workers. Since you are looking at a different time-table than I do, this observation isn't that relevant. You are also forgetting that the production of Clay Mostali produced a much lessened quality of workforce, with deviants that may drift away as misfits a greater probability. Hrelar Amali with its peaceful coexistence would have become an attractive destination for any defective Mostali. Your story that the Enerali produce enough fertility in the worst period of the Greater Darkness to construct temples to all manner of foreign (and by this time probably dead) gods doesn't gel with the guarantor of that fertility gone and two major Chaos armies and a troll army led by Zorak Zoran roaming the region. Look at the Eleven Troll Battles map in Uz Lore, battle 9, The Great Victory. Within sight of Hrelar Amali, two Chaos hordes battle it out as they don't have any other foes left, then Zorak Zoran springs an ambush. That's not an environment where you produce enough food for subsistence, let alone a surplus that can go into building a temple city.

The Troll Pak Uz Lore troll migration map shows two interactions with brown elves from the Garden and Yelmalio aiding them. Both are too far north to be part of the Beast Rider wastes, IMO. All of the Garden had an ecology totally different from what you find there today. There were no human survivors far from the Shan Shan or the Rockwood Mountains, or the coasts. Tada's people only survived in Prax. A few of the Lesser Tribes appear to have survived outside of Prax - IIRC the Ostrich Tribe came in from the east. Pent (outside of Orathorn) may have had reindeer-herding survivors after the Greater Darkness, but those probably joined or made up the Starlight Wanderers and flocked into Dara Happa around the time of Jenarong and became just another flavor of horse warlords. I don't think there were many (if any) nomads left in Pent, when they could be lords in the Pelorian basin already before the Dawn. And for a while, their presence was beneficial to the urban survivors of the bowl, like the Lendarshi. Still, after Alavan Argay, all horse warlords were expelled, and some were exchanged for Praxian ones.

But then the Beast Riders are just a fringe population from Genert's Garden, much like the Baboons (who at least had an urban culture similar to that of the Tada-shi. Yamsur may have been the main deity for an entirely different group of inhabitants, essentially lost at Earthfall. The northern part of Genert's Wastes is full of horses and horse riders. It is called Pent, and it has suffered a lot less Chaos damage than the southern parts. Still enough to eliminate most of the Golden Age culture of the Garden, though.

Longhouse plus additional houses or double long houses make perfectly sensible square enclosures, and may evolve into huge atrium houses as masons and masonry become more available and the wealth transported through Sartar trickles down to the natives. The use of earthen sods for wall construction may be used for loom houses or similar structures. It might be a remnant of Greater Darkness survival turned into a way to build holy places. Building with grass sods is a good way to have walls lasting for a millennium - the ring wall of Hedeby and its connection to the rest of the Danewerk is a good destination should anybody happen to come into the region where I live and work, and I'll probably be able to provide some native guidance. Similar ramparts from the La Tene era are surviving in Bavarian forests e.g. near Munich - squarish "Keltenschanzen". These may be harder to find. In places with regular precipitation and storms, this material certainly beats un-baked clay bricks for construction, and it surrounds the interior with living soil, surely an advantage for Ernalda magic, right?

Trade items: All manner of illuminating substances and food for the tables of the cognoscenti in Silver Shadow Satrapy, and especially those of the Emperor. Space 1889-style liftwood or moon reeds for moon boat construction. Each trading expedition to the Red Moon is a heroquest or quest into a magical land at least as hard as the expedition across Dorastor. The Etyries cult might sponsor some. Entering the Red Moon may be similarly addictive as is entering the continent of Vithela. Unlike Vithela, the moon has madness and raving chaos awaiting right next to blissful rapture, so there may be dangers. A good level at illumination is advisable for every visitor of the moon. Looking at the Cthulhu Dreamlands for the intermixture of soothing realms and sheer horror might be a good start. There is sort of a gazetteer of places and regions on the Moon. All rumors are true, especially when they contradict one another. But then the Silver Shadow is almost like the surface of the Moon, and its highest level Lunar nobility will be alternating between residences in the rural parts of the Shadow, in Glamour, and on the surface of the moon. The Red Dancer of Power is an interesting concept.

Range 2 is a lot less cluttered, so I second Nick. All of the lands north of Genert's Garden are the ancient Ratite Empire, but Musk Ox herders would have immigrated only after the Birth of Umath, or his dismemberment, put an end to their empire, with Rinliddi being just a small remnant of previous glory. Are your Musk-Ox people pastoralist post-Hsunchen, or are they closer to the Varnaval or Praxian Founder model of beast totem Storm people? Or, given the relatively closer relationship of musk oxen to goats rather than cattle, are your Musk Ox folk some little known Vadrudi group? There are the Yak Hsunchen holding out in easternmost Pent and highland westernmost Kralorela. Do they interact with the Musk Ox folk? Range 2 would create some proximity.

And a lot of it was absorbed by the Vingkotlings who extended all the way into Saird. The sons and daughters of Vingkot were born to the twin daughters of Tada, the Summer and the Winter Wife. Genert's Garden extended well into what is modern Pent. The orogeny of the Rockwoods cut off part of that, the Eder Wilds, and possibly separated Peloria from the southern culture that retained more of those traces. South of the Rockwoods, those influences may have continued, possibly even across the then still low Nidan hills. There is evidence for Yelmalio in aldryami interactions both in the northern part of Genert's Garden and in the Greatwood to the west. Yelorna/Galana may be tied to the celestial fallout of Mt. Selon on the western end of the Mislari chain. "ye" and "ga" aren't worlds apart linguistically, and neither are "lor" and "la". (That doesn't invalidate a "Yelm-Ourania" origin for Yelorna, at all, though.) Genert's death and Flamal's have similar consequences, even if they have different causes and time-lines. And gods walk the world in numerous incarnations, which may at times meet and clash or meet and merge. The unicorn is of course a phallic symbol par excellence. The virgins riding the phallic beast.. nuff said. Dara Happa proper was mostly free of horses. Horses replace augner avilry rather late in the depictions, during the later Anaxial dynasty IIRC, well after their last gazzam perished. Ancient Dara Happa was a lot funkier than dour Plentonius suggests, at least IMG. Fluffy dinosaur howdas, riding birds and step pyramids, what's to dislike?

That ties in into the mystery of the Brown Elves and their sudden appearance when strict Monomyth demands that "nothing grows any more" (although entire agricultural civilizations sprung up and disappeared after the slaying of the Evil Emperor). And also into the mystery why there are Day-and-Night and Seasonal cycles reflecting Godtime (apparently already in the Gray/Silver Age) when the monomyth accompanying the God Learner mythical maps denies any such rhythms in Godtime. The concept of days and of harvest seasons is implicit in the Golden and Storm Age cultures. Maybe Night was mitigated by the never-ceasing street light of the ziggurat orb in the sky (much like modern cities), maybe the seasons were a lot mellower than after the cataclysm that tore the world apart, and reduced it to a patchwork of mismatched shards held together by spider silk and compromise. It is possible that Brightface's usurpation caused a Sunstop compated to the phasing sun of the White Queen before him. The God Learners never explored that in any depth, but then what they did to the layers of myths they encountered might be compared to fracking, extracting only the magics useful to them. Like I replied to Mirza, I think that The City of the Gods predated the birth of Eneral by quite a bit, and while I do agree that the Enerali became the housekeepers of (mostly dead) Hrelar Amali and did repairs and some of their own sacred architecture, quite a lot of the architecture predates them and maybe was just re-purposed for their temples and needs. Much like the Bronze Age farmers around where I live re-purposed megalith places from the Neolithic farmers that preceded them into sacrificial places, only with way nicer architecture. Flamal, the greatest of the Great Trees, was felled. It probably crashed down hard enough to have petrologicial consequences, too. The Trickster killed Flamal by taking back the original Death from the Mostali (after they had turned it into an axe) and slipping that axe to ZZ, then getting him to chop down the tree. If you like an uncomplicated monomyth with fewest possible contradictions, try that. If you can live with convergent myths, Flamal probably had as many killers as Yelm (Verithurusa, Shadzor, Rebellus Terminus, the Bat). Eurmal and ZZ being just two of the conspirators. On the other hand, the Flamal Tree was the local version of the Spike, the World Mountain, likely the birthplace of Humat. (That still leaves Top of the World for Erulat.) Earlier death may have been escaped, but being cut down by real capital D Death may have broken those cycles. Coppiced, but un-deterred? If Flamal grew back after the Greater Darkness, somebody surely would have noticed that tree, if he grew back on the Surface World of the mortals. E.g. the Theyalan missionaries, or the Seshnegi visitors before them, or the wielders of Vadeli magic to destroy the city in the second century. The temple city was reborn several times before Monotheism put an end to those efforts. I am less sure about the tree of trees. Even if we are talking about a Hidden Green like site mainly outside of Time.

IMO it is called The City of the Gods because that's exactly what it was, already in the Golden Age. Gods inhabited it in person, and they or their servants erected the place. The Enerali were just one group of servants who persisted in the place, or who took the place over after most of the previous inhabitants had been slain or fled. You make a cogent argument about the Mostali being anything but enamored of the idea of aiding and abetting a temple complex at the roots of Flamal. (Which almost makes it a good argument that they might have erected a memorial to celebrate his demise...) Who said that anybody paid for the dwarf labor? There is a long standing and unfortunate tendency to enslave or otherwise compel captured artisans without much compensation. Think Willandring the giant smith of the Red Cow, waylandring his time amongst his captors' heirs. Again, there are things like ransom, and the Mostali of old were able to craft and shape Adamantium tools, which never get dull. Mostal broke either by the birth or the crash landing of Umath, but the first Iron Mostali were only made after Death had been released from Subere's Vault, and Clay Mostali aka dwarves came even later - they are probably younger (as an Elder Race subspecies) than are Brown Elves or Cetoi and Piscoi Mermen. No, if there were Mostali involved in the construction of Hrelar Amali, it would have been True Mostali, possibly captured or coerced away from some other repair site for the World Machine. Like I said above, I don't think that the Enerali were involved in laying the foundations of Hrelar Amali. They may well have been involved in maintenance or reconstruction later on, but that's a different level of ability. Glorantha has no plate tectonics to speak of. Larnste planting mountain seeds or stomping a chaos entity on the ground are the closest we get, or otherwise the Elder Giants described in the Annilla Cult in RQ3 Troll Gods. I would argue that a piece of solid Sky Dome dropping down to the ground as at Mt Selorn might produce comparable pressure and heat. But then, so might any birth pains experienced by the body of the Earth Mother, or possibly her orgasms, too. The womb is one of the most powerful muscles in human anatomy, IIRC. There is one cosmogony that talks about colliding worlds, but that only created a single mountain: the Spike. The Orogeny of the Rockwoods involves Larnste sowing a mountain chain after a request to separate two conflicting groups from one another. Whether by misunderstanding, out of spite, or for furthering change, Larnste did sow the mountains, but he separated both groups into a northern and a southern group, each partition still in contact with their opponents, but the separated groups developing into different new societies. The Orogeny of the Nidan chain was caused by the Mostali who erupted those mountains in the middle of the Kachasti lands after the tactical mass-suicide of the Vadeli captives there. See Revealed Mythologies for that story. The Mislari chain may have its own orogeny, but then I don't know it. I know the origins of two peaks, Selon and Doktados. Doktados or Hollow Mountain is the corpse of a former volcano, while Selon is a piece of Sky Dome that fell down. The Tarin Mountains are the closest mountain range from Hrelar Amali. I don't know their orogeny story, but it may well have involved birth-pains or similar pressure. Whose bones would Gustbran or Vieltor have worked on in the Golden Age, I wonder? But yes, the assembled gods (and demigods) of Hrelar Amali would have had their go-to magical artisan from among their number.. Only if your assumption that Hrelar Amali was erected when all the world was falling apart is correct. I think that an actual city of the gods at the foot of the World Tree is a more likely alternative. I have no idea who constructed the cyclopean walls of the Vingkotling and contemporary king seats in Dragon Pass. Probably not the Vingkotlings themselves, but friendly or captured master builders from elsewhere, or otherwise foreigners as followers of their great kings doing so in gratitude for protection e.g. against the Flood. I don't think that the Enerali surpassed the Kethaelans as architects. It is a miracle that anybody at all survived the Greater Darkness. The Enerali at Hrelar Amali did so in the ruins of the City of the (lost) Gods. King Dan led them already before the Dawn, in the Gray Age, to prepare for their eventual return from the Underworld, as the Ritual of the net had started to re-create what was left of the world. Unlike other groups like the Hagolings of Talastar, the Enerali needed no awakening from the Greater Darkness. The Galanini appear to have practiced pure horse pastoralism alongside hunting and gathering. The Enerali were horse-breeders and plough-less agriculturalists cum hunter-gatherers, way more advanced than the Botai. The Enerali were at best half-blood Hykimi. That's a trait they share with the Pendali and (IMO most likely) the Enjoreli. There may have been Galanini who were more standard Hykimi, like the Basmoli brethren of the Pendali or the non-agricultural Tawari next to the Enjoreli. But then, the Tawari may have been pastoralist analogues to the Praxian Beast Riders, only way more numerous. All of the western Hykimi who emerged from the Greater Darkness are post-apocalyptic groups who fled into a Hsunchen life-style for survival, re-discovering the ancient pure Hykimi/Hsunchen ways. But then, the Golden Age didn't have any requirements for the peaceful wanderers between the temple cities to pursue any agriculture, and is it pastoralism when humans and beasts share their herds? The western Hykimi are different from the Beast Riders of Genert's Garden, but then they don't seem to have had the Storm Bull himself but only Founder-level deities leading them. It isn't clear how much shape-shifting the Hykimi did at the arrival of the Kachisti. Some Orlanthi stories in Anaxial's Roster suggest that the Storm People of the region hid via shape-shifting into beast shape, and both the White Deer and the Wolf Kodigvari of Kethaela and Kerofinela exhibit such abilities during the Greater Darkness. The dividing line between Serpent Brotherhood Hykimi and Hill Barbarian peoples of the West may be their survival pact and whether they relied on Earth-born demigod leaders or shamans. I can see how you derive that from the following quote, but I don't think that there was any great architecture done this late into the Gods War - not even cyclopean walls any more. For an easier interpretation, there would have been Flamal's Tree surrounded by a city of temples. Easy to build a City of the Gods around his living tree, though, and the remains of that city would mark the place where the tree was felled even though it was constructed way earlier, in a happier age.

Cult prohibitions shouldn't be rules prohibitions in a setting where all kinds of illumination are pursued by the protagonists and their allies and opponents. Becoming one of the Warlocks of the Sartar Magical Union may lead individuals from cults normally forbidden to go the shamanistic way into doing just that.

Interesting experiment. Could you share your adaptations of the characters to the other systems? Not that we have any immediate plans to do such an experiment in the near future, but to see how differently they would turn out. Maybe that's stuff for the Jonstown Compendium.

With my limited access to older writings, I find that to be the case. This is the basis of the God Learner cosmology, with the Theyalan names and trappings a later alteration for the Monomyth. That probably had to wait until the Jrusteli had little memory beef with the side effects of the Bright Empire. Was Flamal re-grown? As far as I know the story, ZZ applied the original Death, reshaped by Mostal into an axe, to Flamal, before Eurmal then passed the real McCoy on towards High King Elf who applied it to the base of the Spike. Land fertility comes from the Green Goddess with those serpents, just like in Fronela and Seshnela. I do think that the western Hykimi may have been advanced to some urban-ish culture in the Golden Age, before the death of Flamal took the economical and ecological bounty that made that possible away from them. Contact made by the Kachisti suggests that these Westerners found sufficient indications of culture to find someone to talk to other than the Elder Races of the region before they reached as far east as the Sweet Sea. In Ralios, that would have been Hrelar Amali.

I don't mean to diminish the Enerali, I am rather thinking that all the Hykimi of the West are heirs of greater sophistication - whether from contact with the Kachisti or whether from an earlier chthonic civilization that the Beast God descendants had contact with in a similar manner as the Beast Riders of Prax had with the urban neolithic culture of the Tada-shi. There are always the Mostali as a source of imported metal for such work, or even imported labor, but then worked Jade predates widespread use of metal in China, and the carved masonry of Göbekli Tepe predates even cold-hammered copper mace heads. We might be seeing the handicraft of deities or giants, too. Nobody knows how the Feldichi looked like, or their foes (which may have been Serias the Enchanter). Harder than the Tada-shi of Genert's Garden? And why do the Hykimi ancestors have to be less sophisticated than the monkeys whose ruins are found in western Prax and western Teshnos? Hrelar Amali was destroyed by warfare and/or evil magic, and rebuilt, several times. It took the conquest by finally rabidly monotheistic Seshnegi to put the place out of operation for good. The difference of Hrelar Amali to Jerusalem is that Jerusalem never was given up, and that it was the holy place mainly for monotheistic religions.

If they were subjects of the Enchanter, they might have been expected to show up. Depends strongly on the available hunting and gathering. We're talking Golden Age here, a Garden of Eden-like environment. If they go fishing as a significant part of their diet, they could be sedentary even as a mesolithic culture. Cities of the wolves - one in Telmoria, possibly another one in Daran. Basmol may be post-Dawn. But the Pendali royal temple sites were pre-Dawn. No or little debate about that (some of the names I know only from Dawn Seshnelan context) Ehilm as son of Lodik (who is different from Zrethus) is a noteworthy difference to other pantheons, where the sun usually is the son of the sky.. Gether is an enigmatic figure, and different from Kargan Tor, yet both are entities of the Death Rune. Vengeance is hard to place in the God Learner scheme of Power Runes. Natha gets the Moon rune. I wonder about the absence of Ehilm from the elemental deities. Fire/Sky is over-defined even so. But so is Darkness/Cold. The Hrelar Amali list is of course syncretic. This catalogue of deities looks like an early draft of the Gloranthan panteons, and many of these were known to Hrestol. But do Hsunchen really have fewer deities and spirits than that? All natural phenomena tend to be named as a supernatural entity or the work of one. Was Hrelar Amali only an Enerali holy place, or did it execute an influence on all neighboring cultures? The Pendali and later the Seshnegi seem to have made pilgrimages there. Smithing is sorcerous magic in many cultures. Soft gold and fairly hard yet ductile native copper or whatever other godbones are available can be worked into artifacts that get ritual importance. Much like iron is a mark of status among Theyalan rune lords, metal would have been a mark of status in the Ralian tribes.

To me, these extra points are pure penetration aids. But I said so earlier, and over and over again. Defensive effects affected by Penetration: Countermagic (spirit spell, as part of rune spells like Berserk, Shield, Warding) Absorption Reflection Neutralize Rune Neutralize Spirit Magic Dispel Magic 2 with 10 MP would do the trick as well. But what are those extra 10 MP for? I cast a Protection 3 boosted with 2 MP to overcome the Countermagic effect of my Shield 2. Johnny-go-lucky recognizes my heavily magical army and calls out a lucky 4 point Dispel Magic boosted with 1 MP without specifying which spell he targets, also overcoming my Shield's CM effect. Which of my magics gets shot down? That's about the same as boosting a Heal 1 with 5 MP to re-attach a limb that has been hacked off - not how the rules are written or intended. It takes a Heal 6 (or better) or a Heal Wound boosted with 6 MP to re-attach the limb, and Heal Wound with boost is one of those Rune Spells which form a container for MP to create an effect, totally ineffective without any MP boost. Weapon Trance is the same. I've seen it argued that to overcome a Shield 2 CM effect, a Heal Wound for 6MP may need 3 additional MP as penetration aid boost. That's exactly how I read the rules.

That's exactly what I was looking for, and it is also conveniently close to Galanin's birthplace. We don't know when this happened - Umath emerged from the Pit (Stormgate) around 70,000 YS, and pushing out that bit of sky dome to create the pit would fit perfectly. Plus there is Wonderwood right next door, with an entire ecology of magical beasts and entities.

Which is something I don't see supported anywhere in the rules. You can boost any kind of spell. A spirit spell goes away after 2 minutes, a rune spell after 15, a sorcery spell lasts 10 minutes without manipulation. The boosting mechanism is the same for all of these spells. How long do these Boosting MP linger, then? This also means that a 12 MP Sword or Axe Trance (which you can cast in a single melee round) requires 7 points of Dismiss Magic to get rid of.

When before the Darkness, though? Their early Golden Age appears to have consisted of beast deities roaming the land. I don't think I have seen the origin story for the Mislari or Skyreach Mountains, or the lesser mountain ranges north and south of Safelster. Only the Rockwoods and the Nidan mountains have known myths. The Plundering of Aron doesn't mention any culture on the way to Seras the Enchanter. Ralios is full of beast temple cities reminiscent of Göbekli Tepe, it seems like most Hsunchen have one such temple city. Hrelar Amali is something else, though - the Tanier Valley appears to have had an urban center beyond birthplace temple cities like Galin. However, if this was the place where Flamal sat, there may be a lot less ancient architecture than one might expect, if the architecture was more like gardening. For a prior urban or agricultural civilization, only the Kachisti and possibly some (other) chthonic population are candidates - the same situation as in Seshnela, really, although the Enerali may have been the chthonic population. The closest other high civilization would have been the Feldichi, who appear to have had a Mahabarata or Shangri La magical technology, or the Nidan dwarves. At the Dawn, the Enerali don't plow - their horses aren't suitable, and they don't appear to have domesticated cattle yet.That's a similar level as the Tada-Shi appear to have had. They may have been single-species pastoralists, though, with horses providing milk and (at least ritual) meat. I wouldn't be surprised if the Enerali had as sophisticated agriculture as the Papua, with well-domesticated (Goddess-given) field fruits. The Darkness may have cost them quite a few of those crops, though. The story of the beast god with his human and beast descendants has been told many times all over Glorantha, with different beasts and different human nations. Many of these appear to join the Hill Barbarians who come as pastoralists but turn out willing to till the fields, too. We don't seem to have a Golden Age Earth King like Tada or Pamalt. Eneral may be the closest we get. No sign of Entru north of Arstola. Ralios doesn't appear to have any significant celestial fall-out. I wonder whether Ehilm resided high up in Flamal's crown, later joined by Humat roaming its boughs. The distinctive feature besides the Greatwood are the lakes. The Greatwood may have been similar to the Redwood of Tada's lands, though, with only a few centers of strong aldryami populations. If Ehilm was indeed a mostly sedentary world-tree dweller, then there would have been some mobile suns roaming the land. Galanin is a candidate, and Galorna may have been his sister.

The Resettlement of Dragon Pass tells a somewhat different story. Clans and tribes migrated into a region without much of a temple structure. Clans and tribes would establish temples for the lands they claimed, making contracts with local earth entities. The Black Spear clan led by Colymar made an arrangement with Tarndisi, then established the Clearwine temple (and possibly moved that into Brondagal only after its establishment). How many Locaem clans are holding their land from the Clearwine temple? Just the Zethnorings? What about the Annmagarn, are they subject to Clearwine, or do they hold their lands from Tarndisi? What about the Hiordings and the Varmandi, or the Tree Triaty clans (Lysang, Namolding and Antorling)? There is one famous dispute about the ownership (or lease) of land, the conflict between Harand Boardick and Jarani Whitetop about the slopes of Arrowmound. This is the Lawstaff path, featuring in Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes. Jarani claimed the land by right of Possession. Harand claimed the land by right of Establishment (which sounds a lot like "the Earth priestess said so"). The Lawstaff decided in favor of Jarani's claim. Harand still disagreed, and violence ensued. Tribes collapse, and clans change tribes ever now and then. Many clans joined the tribes later. The Colymar tribe (consisting of the five founding clans plus the Black Spear Clan) absorbed two triaties (Runegate, Tree - each after one of the constituent clans had been destroyed and was rebuilt from survivors and members of the core Colymar clans) and at least five individual clans (some of which have been lost since): Hiordings, Varmandi, Karandoli, Jenstali, Enjossi. Then there is the mysterious, unmapped Seven Brothers clan which apparently was Lunar-friendly. What authority did create their clan lands? At the cost of which existing clans? The Torkani tribe was forced to relocate twice - first by the Sambari, then by the Telmori. How was that sanctioned by the Earth cult? Which temple would have authorized the changes in administration? Lunar occupation meddled with land assignments. The Nymie valley slave plantation would have been authorized by the Clearwine Earth Temple, correct? During the Lunar occupation, tribes were destroyed. The first loss was the Maboder tribe, which had a representation in Jonstown (what happened to that?) and lands in what now is Wulfsland. About three remnant clans appear to have remained in Wulfsland, other survivors swelled the ranks of the Red Cow clan and probably other neighbors. Many perished. The Dundealos Tribe was shattered by the Lunars, some clans left, others were forcibly integrated into the new Enstalos tribe. A few of the Dundealos clans remained in the Enstalos, others packed up and joined the Pol Joni - apparently as sedentary supporters around Barbarian Town. The Firebull uprising of the Sambari doesn't seem to have damaged their tribe that much. The flashback against the Kultain capture/destruction of a supply train to the siege of Whitewall resulted in the destruction of the tribe, with one or two clans joining the Balmyr and the rest of the surviving clans (or newly merged survivor groups) ended up as Curtali or Sylangi clans. In all these cases, thousands of tribesfolk would have been sent as slaves into the Lunar Empire, or forced to work on slave farms near their original homes. Quite a few of these re-assignments took place under Fazzur's governorship. Fazzur was intimately familiar with the Orlanthi rules for land ownership, and may have used that familiarity to redistribute those clans and lands to his king's and his own profit, and the detriment of any Heartlander cronies.of Euglyptus and Tatius. Both Wilmskirk and Jonstown lost constituent tribes - Jonstown twice, when the Dinacoli switched their allegiance to Aldachur after Starbrow's Rebelliion. That would have meant giving up real estate in Jonstown, without gaining much if any real estate in Aldachur. What earth temples are known in Sartar? The major ones I can name are both in the westernmost parts, Clearwine and Greenstone. Each clan temple is an earth temple and has some authority over the land distribution inside the clan, but that is only for the core clan lands. Pasture and hunting rights further away may be shared with or contested by other clans. How much authority does the temple have over Greydog or Enstalos lands? The Greydog clan never was part of the Colymar tribe, but has had pasture usage disputes with the Orlmarth for as long as they have been neighbors. The Enstalos used to be a core Colymar clan, but now they belong to the Locaem tribe, and their tribal temple may have different ideas about access to tribal commons (if such exist). This comes very much as a surprise to me. I had the impression that membership in a tribe is an advantageous option, but in the end an option. Land ownership would have been claimed by the clans. The clans are the legal unit of the Heortling ownership system. Usually your clan will pay wergeld, not your tribe. Granted, that's chattel property, but grazing rights are negotiable in chattel terms, too. And then there are the confederated cities of Sartar. The Enstalos, Lysang and Namolding clans now belong to the city confederations of Wilmskirk and Jonstown, and people from these clans may be able to claim (or be assigned) tribal property inside those cities. The former Kultain clans that were split off to Volsaxi overlordship lost their access to property inside Wilmskirk. Who inherited the former Kultain properties? Fazzur, or the Empire? That's much of the Lawstaff myth procedure (not necessarily involving an actual lawstaff) rather than temple fiat, then. Who presides over the never-ceasing disputes between the Orlmarth and the Greydogs, or the Varmandi and the Orlevings? Would the Greydogs defer to the Clearwine temple despite the family ties to the Orlmarth, or would the Varmandi trust the Greenstone edicts from within the Malani tribe? What happens when different earth temples disagree about the validity of those stones? Where does Greenstone trump Clearwine, and vice versa? Who owns this chattel property? Individuals, steads, clans or the clan temples, or tribal temples (other than Ernalda)? A freeman stead has to have one plow and eight oxen to pull it in teams. Not every freeman stead member needs to own one such set, though. Orlanthi households are bound to be full of helmets and some weaponry in order to have fair representation at clan or tribal moots. When bringing back plunder from a leave of absence or bringing back a caravan guards salary, the returnee obviously owns this chattel property (and may already have made gifts in order to be let go on that absence). When returning from a sponsored raid, the sponsor of that raid owns the plunder, but is expected to distribute some to the participants (and some to the temples). How close would this be towards the pastures already claimed by the clan herds? Cleared pasture is at a premium in the valley bottoms, and it may be reserved for hay-making. There is a reason why much of the livestock is sent to distant meadows, often high up the hills where little to no clearing work is required.