Joerg

I took that into consideration, but have you heard about uz funerary feasts? The bandages and ointments would be treated as a form of breadcrumb coating and condiment.

I love how Prince Orontes makes a brilliant return to the spotlight. That may be worth forgetting about my plans to have him sent to Refuge in 1620, along with five Yanafali rune lord guards, earning the name of Prince Kitty-Cat while presiding over a lot of bad things, including the Wind Stop. Great job on the poetry, as usual. Also thank you very much for providing the rumors about Moirades still having a hand in the affairs of Tarsh. Much appreciated. Now how would you suggest to play this if in your game Fazzur's betrayal occurred on the evening before the Battle against Kallyr in 1625, as per canon?

Except that Darksense doesn't work with sound going through the medium air, but with "sound" going through elemental Darkness. Absence of Cold would modify the quality of Darkness that resonates with Darksense, so possibly yes. (Did Glorantha predict Dark Matter all those years ago?) From my experience, molten lead or pewter doesn't really radiate that much heat, but boy does it interact with surfaces upon longer exposure. But then, IMO Zorak Zoran stole fire, the whole combo. The power of Death (to the Underworld). Yelmalio barely managed to hold on to a pale light, and whatever heat he might have had was lost in his contest with Inora.

I fear I was not clear. In 2019, Sandy held another seminar starting as "Forgotten Secrets" at Kraken, but about halfway through it became a series of industry anecdotes instead. Before it came to that, however, Sandy had a go at the flipchart and sketched out the interior of Dorastor as we know it from the Guide or Dorastor: Land of Doom, and then drew another line for the Ralian flanks of the Rockwoods, and revealed a very large area between the slopes visible from Nangtali Plateau and those visible from Karia. And that is a region which is in flux, or only of temporary reality, or whatever. No two passages across Kartolin Pass cross the same type of territory. Unless it's a trap.

So the Lunar empire has swing states, too?

So, to summarize, there is no "Egypt as a whole" parallel anywhere in Glorantha, where we like to imagine pyramids, charioteer armies, temple cities and navies all in one go, forgetting that those elements may have been spaced as far from one another as the most recent ones are away from our time. Terry Pratchett summed up all those anachronistic elements when he had the Djelibeybians (the original pyramid builder culture on his Diskworld) judge their Tsortean imitators for their mish-mash of historical periods. One difference between Mesopotamia and the Nile Valley that was pointed out to me quite recently is that the network of canals and river arms in the lower Euphrates and Tigris valley made it pretty much impossible for a single city state to control all the water-borne traffic, which is why there was rarely a unified empire in Mesopotamia. While the Nile Delta offered more than one possible route, too, much of the Nile Valley was pretty narrow and easy to control for upper Egypt. In that regard, Dara Happa is mainly operating on a single waterway, and only Suvaria/Darjjiin comes with a network of inter-connected waterways. The Poralistor system was controlled by the riverine Waertagi, and the lower Arcos held Kestinliddi civilization together despite the neighboring bird or horse riders. The canal connecting the metropolis of Glamour to the Oslir River may be the most work-intensive artificial waterway in Glorantha, as it doesn't seem to have much of a natural current. That would mean that the Empire would be dredging that canal almost constantly, piling up mud which may be quite fertile if it serves as the main cloaca for Glamour. One major difference between Dara Happa and Egypt is the agriculture. Dara Happa grows rice in paddies, rather than wheat on fields that are allowed to fall dry after the seasonal floodings and only occasionally watered. While the grasslands can be used for wheat or oats cultivation, rather few of those are supplied with irrigation infrastructure. (Which incidentally kept the damage Sheng's re-purposing of dry farming areas for grassland on a local level rather than making it a wide-spread disaster. Sheng's henchmen had little interest to let their horses gain hoof rot among the rice paddies.) As for smooth-surface pyramids, these were only really built by the fourth to sixth dynasty, with a few imitations in the eighth dynasty. You'd have to go south to the Kushites for the continuation of pyramid construction. But then, the Dara Happan dynasties never practiced body burials, they went for cremation or exposure to birds. I think that Alkoth has bone houses, but Dara Happan nobility expects highly efficient cremation with at best small amounts of ash remaining for reverent disposal. There is no cult of the mummy in Dara Happa, and no requirement of an intact dead body for a functional rebirth anywhere in Glorantha except where atheist wizards are supposed to resurrect fresh dead bodies. Esrolian female burials come closest to this cult of the mummy. Which creates some problems, as their climate is really too humid for dry mummification. Bog mummification might work a lot better in their climate, but bog mummies are hard to build mausoleums for. The Nochet necropolis may have a better rainwater drainage system than the parts of the city inhabited by their descendants. The Necropolis in upriver central Esrolia doesn't have these problems - it is a place without life, possibly strong enough to halt even (biological, i.e. Darkness-being) decay. The use of the term "sarcophage" in Egyptian context is pretty much a mis-nomer, as the Greek word translates as "Flesh-Eater", a burial device that leaves only the bones of the dead body behind, the flesh presumably eaten by the container. The idea would have horrified the ancient Egyptians. The closest parallel for the Egyptian cult of the Godking as guide for the dead that I could find is in Kralorela, where the Emperor serves as the divine being conveying the waiting masses from the waiting place to their afterlife or to transcendence. The rest of Glorantha has way too direct contact to the non-manifest deities (i.e. without demigod avatars) who maintain the rebirth process. Maybe there are more Egyptian things to be found in Kralorela?

Sorry, but no - this book is a colection of the 2015 relevations, but this talk about the Dorastor map was held only in 2019.

Disclaimer: I have always been fascinated by the Zebra Tribe of Pavis. Joraz Khyrem is one of my personal heroes in Glorantha, along with Jorganos, Heort, Hendrik, Sartar, Sarotar and Tarkalor. And in the 1997 freeform People of Pavis I got to play Cyrilius Harmonius, the Daughter of Pavis stationed at Zebra Fort and spokesman for the zebra breeders in the cult (and a mason). Weird, my pdf has the game stats on p.156 of the bestiary. Note that p.157 gives more info, though. First mention ever of the zebra riders was in Nomad Gods (where they appear as the Pavis Survivors), but little detail is given about their mounts. The RQ2 rules mention the zebra (RQ Classic p.93), but don't discern between cavalry zebras and war zebras yet, either: Likewise, there is an astonishing number of zebra-riding rune levels in Runemasters, including a troll priestess of Kyger Litor (! Borderlands & Beyond, p.290-291) and a dark troll priest of Zorak Zoran, and last not least a "Female Dryad, Old Pavis rich noble with light cavalry experience. Age 28." (p.296) but no data on whether they ride war zebras or cavalry zebras. (At closer inspection, this mention of allied spirits in zebras appears to be a cut and paste error in Runemasters, as every rune priest appears to have one. Even funnier is "Rohir Oaklimb, Elf Human, A Sartar peasant." But still, it is amusing.) Starting with Pavis and Big Rubble, p.61-62, repeated verbatim in Pavis: Gateway to Adventure, p.42-43, but only truncated the boxed text in the RQG Bestiary, p.157, missing this bit: Anaxial's Roster only mentions the War Zebras ("Kyremings") and wild zebras. The RQG rules mention the striped equines a few times: Harmast's zebras in RQG (p.88) are described as "riding zebras", evading the classification. "Stats are not needed." Riding a zebra is the same skill as riding a horse, and the price tables know zebras in four categories: Meat (15L), Riding (70L), Cavalry (140L) and War (210L), without going into details whether the first two categories can breed or not, and whether the cavalry zebra is an infertile crossbreed or a semi-trained fertile war zebra. The meat zebra is a bit of a mystery here - probably a beast captured by other Praxian tribes in raids and no longer fit for riding or carrying burdens.

The cavalry zebra crossbreeds are officially infertile. There will be zebra folk riding with the Pol Joni, though, as breeding cavalry zebras is a lot easier among their horse herds than it is elsewhere in Prax, with the possible exception of Zebra Fort and the pens in Zebraside. There, the brood mares might be camouflaged with stripes, possibly from selective branding. See the earlier thread on Bronze Age branding of livestock... That makes the camouflage I suggested above somewhat easier. Given Harmast's zebras and Vasana's bison, I don't think that Sartarites would be picky about the coloration of their horses or sable antelopes.

Some few (near-) Goldeneyes from the Grazer clans that joined Derek, lots of Sered and a lot fewer Galana breeds otherwise. Derek was a companion of Yanasdros, King of Tarsh and most of Dragon Pass, and Yanasdros helped Derek raid the Opili Nation of Pentans (that's where he got the magical bull to sire the Pol Joni cattle herds adapted to the Chaparral) in recognition for Derek's aid in getting Yanasdros his Goldeneye steed. I doubt that any Pol Joni own Darons, or that Darons would be able to thrive away from oats and other agriculture-based fodder. When Dorasar set off to found New Pavis, he recruited Olgkarth's zebra folk from among the Pol Joni. The original war zebra breed of Joraz Khyrem would have been Pentan sered or hyal breeds brought by the Pure Horse Folk.

There is the city of the free in Fonrit, Jokotu, named after the Garangordite who took on the role of Bolongo and who ascended his brother through murder. Everybody who makes it there is eligible for citizenship and is no longer considered a slave. The leader of the Renewed Energastor movement hobbles through the land preaching a message of peace, fertility and liberation for the descendants of the Renewed. Now the Renewed still adhere to the slavocracy model of Fonrit, they just refrain from the worst excesses against their slaves as do the Oldsters. The Oldsters claim that brutally suppressing the slaves is what confirms the order of things and what thereby preserves the world. They are worried about the more lenient ways of the Renewed, and they are frightened about the power of Jokotu and whatever Veldang demons might be awakened. The events outlined in The Hero Wars Begin on p.562 justify those fears.

Clearwine is pretty much a cul-de-sac connected to the royal highway from Duck Point to Wilmskirk. North of it lie the Annmagarn lands and the Colymar Wilds which are meant to remain outside of civilization and urban culture - that's an ancient and powerful pact of this weirdo tribe. There a less direct route through the Antorling clan lands, which also has a secondary route through the Quivin Mountains towards Boldhome. Clearwine produces the beverage that gave it its commonly used name. That's its main claim to economic fame, as most of the agricultural production of the clans goes into their own needs, with only some surplus funneled off to the authorities. You don't really want to export grain by road, although you do deliver some by road to the nearest cities. Other than their own major settlements, in case of the southern Colymar lands, that would be Wilmskirk, in case of the northern Colymar lands this would be Jonstown, either able to transship goods to the capital. Clearwine might have a few crafters of local renown, but those would be overshadowed by the guilds in Wilmskirk and Boldhome. The main source of Colymar wealth is the size of the tribe, and its military and magical power. So what could be Sora's motivation? Other than respecting Leika as a leader in the past decade in Broyan's service. The Colymar are affluent, which means that their queen will be generous to her retainers. An Issaries trader is not just a simple pusher of wares, she is also a herald and diplomat, and handling wealth in connection to weregeld and political donations, both incoming and outgoing. This sort of trade on behalf of the most powerful tribal queen in the country is a source of high prestige, and a good portion of wealth trickling down to the honest merchant handling this. Sora is profiting from her position among Leika's followers, and already did profit before Leika was re-installed as queen of her tribe.

Braving the Gateway to Adventure Our intrepid explorers three, who had set sail on the perilous seas of Imagination in our last episode, have plotted a new course; past the Copper Sands, up the River of Cradles, encountering strange nomadic warriors on even stranger mounts, dodging f-bombs and mutual throttlings, to bring you our second attempt at sharing thoughts on playing in, or learning about, Glorantha. Find yourself in one of the most iconic places to adventure; the fabled city of Pavis Outside the Walls. We stop to look at the wares expecting an almost everyday situation in the City’s bustling Founder’s Market, though what befalls our adventurers is anything but mundane! Before we arrive though, we are going to wade through news and rumours—and let’s all rejoice in the fact that we have monthly news items for Glorantha these days! And, we appreciate your feedback either left below or sent to @Joerg, @Bill the barbarian or @lordabdul . Come, visit windwords.fm for more news and even more info. Now go, and start listening, or Jörg will bring all of this to you in a couple thousand words, typed in a very small font! So you’re thinking of joining the tribe? That’s wonderful news! But we want you to be able to listen to our tribal moots (also known as “episodes”) with as much comfort as possible. Just click on the image above!

One of the maps in Heortling Mythology mentions ducks in or on the Solkathi Sea in the Flood/Storm Age.

Not the Nangtali plateau, but the Rockwoods. According to Sandy the route across Kartolin Pass is significantly longer and more dangerous than indicated in the maps both in RQ3 Dorastor:Land of Doom and in the Guide.

One thing that a new Dorastor campaign should include is Sandy's revelation from Kraken 2019 how the Dorastor map known (and shown in the Guide) is at best half-true, as there is a whole different, entirely chaotic portion of Dorastor hiding between the northern slopes of the mountains and the southern slopes, about the same size again than the area shown on the map. This doesn't make the map in the Guide inaccurate in any way, except for suggesting a closed topology along that ridge-line. This part of Dorastor has become a rip in Arachne Solara's web (thank you, Gbaji), and the "area" in between won't be mappable except for the momentary experience. At least that's how I choose to interpret Sandy's proclamation at Kraken. I thought there was a video of that, but the "The Kraken" youtube channel doesn't have it.

Yes, she failed her initiation to capital H herodom at the Short LBQ earlier in 26. But then, the Lunars have been cultivating techniques to assassinate heroes for the time of their conflict with Sartar, getting better and better throughout the seven decades they have been at it. Up to being able to assassinate Orlanth and Ernalda in 21. Belintar returned from being eaten or thrown into a volcano. Just taking people apart doesn't necessarily prevent reforming your body on the heroquest return.

It is possible to adjust your D100 variant to the complexity you want - not necessarily using the BGB or the full set of Mythras rules or any other incarnation like RQ3 or Ringworld, or the old Drakar och Demoner adaptation of Magic World. It all depends on the needs of your setting, really. My old, long running RQ3 game (late eighties, early nineties of the last century, which started with the RQ3 Vikings box set on a fantasy map of my own making) included cultures using different magic systems, like a "lesser wizardry" loosely based on Drakar och Demoner (aiming to reflect the magic of the Lesser Path of Magic in Midkemia) or the demonology of Stormbringer 3rd ed. If you want to have science fantasy of some kind, you could mechanize RQ3 style magic, creating MP batteries that might be loaded using solar collectors or sacrifice, But can those rules be introduced into a licensed setting adaptation?

At a sufficiently high campaign level, getting the adventurers killed is little more than a temporary setback? (Killed before DI, or before doing the heroquest return from the dead, I mean.)

They put down the Spolites and the Dara Happans, so yes, they can't be all bad, even though they had a big part in ending the EWF. Too bad those Rinliddi rebels interfered with their glorious reign on the Oslir. Or do you mean those turncoats led by Aronius Jaranthir? Phie on them.