Joerg

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.

Yes., Heortling Mythology p.64 tells the story of how the sailors joined the landlubbers. The Helerings landed with a huge fleet (though no greatships that I know of, the Greatship is a different foe of the Flood Age Orlanthi) and faced off the army brought by Orlanth. Orlanth and Heler met, remembered when they last had sex and decided to try the other way Ernalda had kept nagging about. Hugs and kisses ensued, and the Helerings joined the Durevings and the Vingkotlings. On p.66f the battles against Worcha are listed. Here's the list of the boat-traveling foes of the Vingkotlings in the Flood Age: the Waertagi (also known as Poralistorites on p.75) the Voti (who sound like they are connected to the Votiryan sea, inhabited by the blue-skinned Bethegusites) the endless waves of blue people the black Troll Fleet of the Vanekavan (in the map Vanekauan) Sea north of Pent the Greatship the dog-headed tribe - no idea who they could have been, and from where. The Sedrali of Ralios don't strike me as boat people, with their four-legged females. others. The Helerings are named as one of the most powerful ones among them. We know they were blue-skinned, so they were one of the endless waves of blue people. The map index names them Helerians. Artmali may have been among the blue people, too. Yestendites are explicitely mentioned. Not mentioned are the Diroti of Sofala - possibly already dead at this time.

I don't see any direct similarities a God Learner would recognize. Worcha was "born" from the motion energy of the four seas surrounding the dry spot that was Kethaela, Kerofinela and Saird, protected by the Storm Tribe. All the seas contributing to Worcha appear to be descended from Sshorg - Slarelos emerged from Solkathi, a sea that came from the east. Of the three children of Zaramaka, it would be descended from Framanthe and Sramake. Without any non-sea parentage, Worcha is a Srvuali. Magasta (the father of Wachaza) is the child of Daliath and Framanthe, and Sapana or Robber (the mother of Wachaza) is a darkness entity. This makes Wachaza a Burta of the seas. The only connection I could find between Worcha and the Helerings is in Heortling Mythology p.66. I wonder how and why humans or at best demigods were involved in the creation of Worcha. Why not merfolk, or their demigod ancestors, the Niiads and Tritons? The Thunder Rebels text is less specific (p.145): Storm Tribe mentions Worcha twice - claiming that Humakt slew it, and that Heler fought alongside it at the Trembling Shore. On the whole, this sounds to me like this is a case of "who would profit" made by the inland culture of the Heortlings. The Helerings later joined the Vingkotlings. Did they preserve any memories of creating Worcha? Did they contribute these to the Heortling collection of "things our ancestors did"?

Many of the Vadeli are ancient, and will have specialized skills to reflect that, and probably journeyman skills in stuff not explicitely forbidden to them. All are sorcerers, which means that their INT should rate somewhere above 13. Not sure about raising their species maximum.. 12 + 1D6 would allow them to reach 18 at creation and 21 as species maximum. They might have enslaved or possibly integrated spirits to gain additional volume for their manipulations, or otherwise they might use Enhance INT like munchkins. Vadeli tap freely - why kill an enemy intact if said enemy can fuel your magic? They may know spells to tap the sea or the land, analogous to Steal Breath, but they are as likely to have spells to tap all manner of characteristics and possibly even skills or rune points. They will have inscribed their spells with a fair amount of default manipulation, and they may have enchanted lots of battle magics onto themselves. Possibly engraved or even inlaid directly onto their bones? The Red Vadeli will be sorcerers, too. They may have weaponry and armor of dwarf manufacture, at least since their activities on Jrustela and along the Pamaltelan coasts.

Indirectly. I had a game weekend scheduled for 28th of March, but one of the participants from farther away had his seminars cancelled due to Corona countermeasures, which would have paid for his trip. Convention cancellations are going to pile up, too.

The Ice rune in Cults of Terror was later regarded as a wrong precedence that should be forgotten. The (single) element sub-runes of Light, Heat, Shadow and Cold however make sense, and I suggested something similar for Heler's vs. Nelat's waters. With Earth, we only get Dark Earth, unless you make use of some of the Ernalda rune variations in Thunder Rebels. For Storm, no such tripartite sub-runes have been on my horizon yet.

Spread sheets are way too unreliable. A good index system is a database format in itself...

Both Heortlings and Pelaskites appear to accept that if you marry into their group or join their group wyter, you are one of their group. Esrolian houses might have some form of client state for people joining them other than through marriage. Your group identities may be measured by the wyters that recognize you and the leaders that expect you to contribute to their endeavors (however so slightly). In order to get married into a Heortling clan (or in the Storm Age, Vingkotling tribe), you need to bring an advantage - which might be new skills and magic, as was the case with the Hyalorings, or new riches, again with the horse herds of the Hyalorings who became the Berennethtelli and the Orgovaltes. You can become a follower of one of their leaders without such a marriage, and still be recognized as belonging if not to the clan then at least the leader's household, with pretty much the same degree of integration and protection. Yuko Dostopikis and his family had the protection of Gringle [spoilers]before Gringle's departure, and quite likely followed Gringle into his exile[/spoilers]. The city of Schleswig was founded on the opposite shore of the Schlei fjord in 1066, after an Obodrite Slav who had clung to his pagan ways had led his folk against that city from the south. (That was a time when the Danes - who had provided a large part of the Great Fleets that used to harrass the English shores - retreated from coastal settlements because of Viking activity by these Slavs.) I don't know whether the fisherfolk settlement on the Holm, then still an island just outside of the newly built city, had already been there prior to the establishment of the new seat of the bishopric. At a guess, I would think so. Their presence is attested for the early years of the city, and to this day the fisherfolk from the Holm have exclusive commercial fishing rights in the inner fjord. They have a separate church (or rather large chapel), surrounded by their own churchyard, in the middle of their picturesque appendix to the city. The backyards of the houses on the water side all have a small elevated "quay" protected from the waves by wickerwork or modern replacements, and a shallow piece of beach where a boat can be beached. People in this region have been sedentary since before the arrival of the first agriculturalists. While the Baltic Sea has undergone rather drastic changes in water levels and post-glacial ground elevation and depression, the population on the coast continued to harvest the food it offered, and only since the Middle Ages the bounty of the sea failed to regenerate properly. Yet the fisherfolk remained, possibly losing parts of their population to the agriculturalists on the dry lands. As far as we can tell, the languages of the fisherfolk and of the agriculturalists merged, creating that special love for chained consonants that characterizes Germanic languages. Technical terms will have been brought in by the specialists in their respective fields. Long term cohabitation will have led to some adaptation of the neighbors' customs and costume, while other peculiarities are quite likely never to die out. Local costume will of course be dictated by what is available, but even when new materials or dyes or patterning techniques become available, they will be adapted to that costume rather than switching over to a greater community's uniform. The introduction of clan plaid in Scotland appears to be a modern age thing and probably was absent in the times when a kilt was still synonymous with your sleeping blanket, but there would have been other telltale insignia communicating clan membership to those in the know. In this light, it is entirely possible that the fisherfolk along the Esrolian coast and wider estuaries and the river-folk beyond that have adopted uxorilocal marriages while those on the Heortland coast may practice Heortling (or adjusted) practices. Different forms of wedding gifts are an effective way of reducing out-of-group marriages between these cultures, reserving those for political alliances. Your clan on the Heortland plateau will have little interest in the bridal boat or large net provided in Pelaskite rites, although they will accept these for their symbolic value (and possibly include them in their clan exhibits) if they come as part of a political arrangement. Mixing the blood will happen easily. The Pelaskites are likely to be a creole people of Storm and Sea/River populations, and through contact with sailors from elsewhere they may have other influences, too. It has been two generations since the Closing, and you are likely to encounter boats off Seapolis with Pelaskites exhibiting first generation admixture from Melib, Maslo or Fonrit. Admixture of Yggite or Western blood won't stand out as the Pelaskites had extensive contact with Slontos and the Middle Sea Empire before the Closing. Even Melibite influences may be hard to detect. Agriculture with plowing will be the exception among the Pelaskites. Maintaining the cattle to provide the necessary oxen may be difficult. The lands below the cliffs defining the Heortland Plateau may have a few Heortling style farms where the soil is not too heavy. Rock slides are an ongoing danger, and there won't be many permanent houses directly below the cliffs. On the other hand, caves and crevices may be in use as secondary storages and more or less hidden refuges in case of pirate raids. I expect fairly good pasture on parts of the coasts, which may have led to some degree of lowland transhumance from clans living atop the plateau, or otherwise some rather permanent system of cattle loans to coastal dwellers. The island dwellers before the Heortland coast have only few farmers. I'll go into detail about this elsewhere.

But that would mean that Umath remains in one piece. And neither Shadzor nor Alkor can have that.

"Esrolia" may encompass a different set of regions depending in which context it is used. There are fringe cases, mainly Porthomeka, which may be included in some definitions and excluded in others. The Heortland Plateau and the Marzeel River valley all the way up to the Cross Line became (accessible) Heortland only after the Dragonkill. Prior to that, the Hendriki kingdom and its tributaries extended all the way to the Dragonspine. Prior to that, there was the EWF pretty much north of the Cross Line, with possibly minor alterations leading to a less straight border with the Kingdom of Night. Prior to the EWF, the region was known as Orlanthland, which may have been slightly more inclusive than Heortland (Land of the Heortlings) with respect to Saird and maybe Talastar. My clumsy way of describing that region shows how little united this place was. Heortlings inside the Kingdom of Night, but the Kingdom of Night used to have (tax) authority over much of Orlanthland until the Tax Slaughter. The Hendriki kingdom had its greatest extent around 1100, and was fairly obscure before 1042. It recovered relatively quickly from the territorial loss in the Dragonkill, re-distributing much of the population that used to live north of the Crossline that had come down south as refugees before the arrival of the True Golden Horde. (I don't see any evidence for something like the Dresden Firebombing in the Dragonkill War, targeting refugees evading the approaching armies. Captives of the True Golden Horde would have been targeted alongside their captors, though.) It is possible that they were named after the elemental rune or the Man rune (for God Forgot) in magical administration. So the Earth Sixth, the Fire Sixth, the Sea Sixth etc.

Yes. Here's an alternative story that may be completely corrupt. The green orb above the Green City of the South stood fast in the spiral assault of Umath into the Middle Sky. Checking his onrush with a body check (which may have crumbled the top of his ziggurat), Alkor the Green then trailed his stumbling uncle, peppering him with missiles (javelins) until he crashed into the northern Pillar, leaving a huge crater behind where he had entered the Underworld. Caught up in a battle rage, Alkor followed, and went on to fight mighty Umath, only to be badly mangled. But he wasn't the only attacker of the Primal Storm, there also was an Underworld defender who had come to keep out the invader. Both Alkor and the Underworld defender had been badly mangled, with half of their being having been shred off in small tatters by the struggling (but likewise wounded) Primal Storm. Both defenders would expire soon, their task left undone, but both recognized a shared purpose, and that shared purpose led them to unite their selves and form a new entity that could continue the fight. Thus Shargash was formed, and thus did he dismember Umath. And that is how an Underworld Guardian became a celestial deity.

Part of the concept of Belintar's Holy Country is that the six very different major populations and the minor mixed populations all share a collective and ancient land goddess, Kethaa, after whom the land has been known as Kethaela since the Great Flood, and possibly earlier. There are plenty of more localized land goddesses - look at Esrolia, which has Delea, Delaina and probably others like the wives of the rivers (the river valleys). Esrola more or less inherited her fertility role in many of the myths, to the point where one of the two is an aspect of the other. The Right and Left Arms are naturally divided into separate islands. The rivers divide Esrolia and Heortland into separate parts, in Heortland the elevation comes into play, too. Caladraland is organized around caldera peaks and in valleys. Only the Shadow Plateau is monolithic (literally), although it is vertically separated. There is no "Heortlandia" or "Right Armia" as local deity. There is a Caladra, but that's a quite different entity. Everything is part of a manifest Esrola - body parts of her, as manifest by her arms. To take this to a more productive note, what local goddesses do we know? The lower River valley (nowadays lower Marzeel valley) was presented as Suchara Vale in the Dragon Pass gazetteer. Suchara is the Heortling minor deity of rye, the cereal somewhat associated with darkness (dark bread, ergot, ...), a fitting neighbor to the Shadow Plateau. On the whole, river valleys tend to unify the populations there rather than to create well-defined borders. Rivers as borders are a tricky concept, as keeping the river valleys defined takes a lot of taming - an effort that probably takes place in low-lying parts of Esrolia where some irrigation and water management is likely to happen, but which won't happen in Heortland which doesn't usually have entirely dry seasons. I used to be in disagreement with Jeff on how much separate ethnic identities would be maintained in cities like Karse over the nearly two millennia of their existence. From what I see in Nochet, there has been an identifiable Pelaskite minority there for almost all of its history of being a sea port, and in all likelihood also through the dark times when Choralinthor had turned into a rather stagnant saline marshland prior to the heroism of Engizi and the reversal/self sacrifice of (nearly) all the rivers. From what I see in History of the Heortling Peoples, the foreigner laws of Aventus that date from the earliest Second Age were a returning feature in the expansion of the Hendriki kingdom in the Adjustment Wars in Esrolia, and the continued existence of the Esvulari with their strictly endogamous castes is another point in favor. The coastal Pelaskites have a (deserved) reputation for being promiscuous with whoever they come into contact with (sailors with significant others in every regular port), which will have affected their genetic make-up. Yet no matter the parentage of these children, most of their livelihood comes from activities few Heortlings or Esrolians share - the gathering and aquatic gardening (sea weed, oysters and other mollusks). There are sailors from Esrolian houses, especially in Nochet and probably in Rhigos, and there would have been a Hendriki navy or coast guard during their domination in the Adjustment Wars remnants of which probably probably remain in the County of the Isles.