Joerg

The shape-shifting spells as presented in RQG so far don't allow you to take on your regular beast shape, they turn you into a divine beast entity instead. As the cost for heroforming, 9 rune points are borderline acceptable. An Orlanthi equivalent might be taking on a Storm Brother Lammasu shape, like those Gods War miniatures (and no, I don't think such a magic exists, yet). I still expect there to be magic that turns beast-souled humans into their animal equivalent. A toggle that turns them from one thing into the other for an undeterminate time, that cannot be dispelled. And the Kitori shape-shifting hasn't been laid down in rules mechanics, yet, either. Unlike the Vivamorti vampirism, Kitori ought to be playable.

Seolinthur was a known companion of Genert, and being a water entity, everything is possible. Mikyh or some other beast ancestress for beasts descended from Genert is a usual suspect. No idea whether Power-descended goddesses similar to Chalana Arroy populated his court, too. Tada (basically Genert's avatar) got around a bit. Pamalt has Nyanka and Afidisia as potential concubines.

All of my own replacements for the term "knight" in Fronelan context are sadly also (Roman) Iron Age, late (west) Roman Empire, Merowingian France, Belisarius or slightly earlier (Alexander's era). Or the Kshatryan warriors of India (which I admit I cannot place temporally that well.) The early Islamic state-sponsored warrior-devotee might qualify, too. My protest against late medieval equipment as depicted in Genertela Book is more than a quarter of a century old. The Tollense Crossing finds of bodies indicate a type of horse riding warriors already back then when the "high cultures" of Egypt, Anatolia and Mesopotamia still used chariots as their main mobile platform. Quite likely a type of aristocratic horse warrior, too, and hence a possible model for some kind of men-of-all. The Romano-British horse warriors of a potentially historical Artorios of Mons Badonicus fame would be a good match. While the Arthur flick with Keira Knightly as Guinevere had its weaknesses, having Sarmatians as the kernel of Artorios' "knights" made eminent sense to me in the context of defining the Malkioni men-of-all equipment and style of combat.

I don't have much more than speculation, either, but the speculations I gathered over the years on the digest and similar platforms include weird incarnations of e.g. Vangono or Wachaza in the middle of the Janubian valley. I expect there to be at least three varieties of Tolat/Shargash/Vorthan, too. Possibly some extra underworld variants like Shadzor, too. I would also expect most of the Seshnegi warrior societies to be present in some distorted form. To be honest, neither am I, but there is nothing in the descriptions I remember that cannot be healed by replacing the term "knight" with either "man-of-all" or "Rokari noble".

Just like Dehori aren't all disembodied, and they and shades may have permanently material presence in the surface world (in addition to the Underworld), there are bound to be a huge number of minor air and storm deities or cloud entities who may merge with larger ones. Quite a lot of the magical sea entities are not offspring of Triolina, yet still very alive - the tidal waves, the rivers and sea currents, whirlpools and other very local phenomena of water movement (or lack thereof). Many may be of similar mixed origin like Choralinthor, child of Esrola and the sea current then still body of water Faralinthor. If you look at the cult of Heler in Hero Wars Storm Tribe, all the ram manifestations of the deity are atmospheric entities, some with the ability to form a separate body, others content to form a body out of the rainclouds. Heler's offspring by Yinkin and Orlanth has already been mentioned, and while some may appear as ephemeral existences, it is as possible that these clouds can "discorporate" into a greater body of storm or cloud and re-appear when the conditions are fine. Another potential encounter in the Middle Air are low-hanging Fire Tribe or independent star folk, possibly with permanent outposts. If Liorn and Forosil were heroes of Orlanth who inhabited their own low-hanging stars, there may be other such entities, or possibly a few abandoned roosts that survived Tyram's invasion of the sky and defeat at the hands of Orlanth and his celestial host.

I wonder - do you plan to include a good portion of the one hundred war cults (and hence warbands) of the Kingdom of War? That could easily add at least half again the page count to the Fronela chapter, once you have dealt with the military and at best para-military guardians of Loskalm and their less sophisticated imitations in Junora and possibly the Janubian lands. There are bound to be exile companies from the Janubian cities that succumbed to the Kingdom of War (thinking of e.g. the Polish companies fighting alongside the English in WW2, including the aerial Battle of Britain, or the Catholic Wild Geese companies of Irishmen fighting for the Habsburg Spaniards in the 80 years wars in the Netherlands). Do you have the Army of Tomorrow in your lists? The Kethaelan company was only one out of ten such companies, if I remember the GTA essay on them correctly, and may not have survived the wars in Esrolia or the Dragonrise.

The tribe that brings more professional warriors. If those 10% are regimental Yelmalians (and face it, Templars don't really need much divine magic as they don't get much that is useful in formation), the tribe with fewer initiates may win the day quite often. Again, if the 10% have all the experts who are rune levels, as the Pelorian lowlanders handle religion, then the difference is minuscule. A greater degree of organization will win the day over un-coordinated activism. The richer of the two tribes. That is often handled inside the tribes, and while the 10% tribe will have fewer magical people, these people will necessarily be a lot more magical, and may attract more powerful mates. The 10% tribe is likely to have a large semi-free or unfree population. Again, look at Sun Dome County. The tribe with better trade connections and natural resources like e.g. bronze or salt mines. Not if you look at the amount of payment that is actually done in grain rather than cattle. An exceptional cattle raid may take away 50 heads of cattle. Also, the war magic only comes into play when the cattle raid goes awry and there is actual fighting. A well-conducted cattle raid will avoid most contact with the owners of the cattle. The tribe with all those powerful (because busy) magic experts may not be at a disadvantage. These constellations are unlikely to be found in Sartar, IMO, where there is a cult initiation rate of roughly 70% of the adult population, and the sum of cult initiates is up to 105% of the adult population, with dual or more cult initiation not being uncommon. Especially the poor or even destitute will often become holy people for fringe cults, earning themselves higher status and at least temporarily a good lifestyle for that. While it is possible to end your adulthood initiation also as a cult initiate of the sponsoring main clan deity, I believe this to be not that common. I also wonder on which side of the balance Daka Fal worshipers appear in the statistic. They are effectively spirit worshipers and lay members of the main clan and tribal deities, and thus probably part of the 30% not counted as cult initiates. Then there are outright animists looking to Kolating or Earth Witch shamans for their magical guidance, with probably a good number of former candidates for assistant shamanhood. You don't need to be a full shaman to become a spirit talker, some stint as a shaman's temporary assistant may prepare you enough for those duties. Everybody - even rune level characters - is a lay worshiper of most of the deities worshiped at the local temple and shrines when not an associate initiate (a more fancy term for lay member). RQ1 and 2 changed the world of Nomad Gods and White Bear and Red Moon. Not always in the direction that the stories which shaped the world would have led. It is astonishing how many details that we usually place firmly in the RQ2 era are present already in WBRM and NG. The NG map of Genertela shows Orathorn... Stuff like the Cannibal Cult or the Men-and-a-half or the Pavis Survivors were in NG before the Pavis campaign and background was developed in the detail we know and love. The mechanics of the universe aren't game mechanics, though. The skill requirements for Rune Lord status are purely a game artifact and have little grounding in the setting. The skill cap for non-Rune Masters in RQ2 is ludicrous in terms of world consistency. D&D has a very different goal from RQ. Its world building used to be subject to game system constraints, and it took the game more than a decade to come up with a halfway decent official setting worth exploring in any other way than dungeoneering while still suffering from the Vancian magic system. RQ tried to avoid the more surreal aspects that D&D would lead into, like the starting magician unable to pick up a club to bash some goblin heads and on the brink of death from a mosquito bite, or the high level (non-magical) character near-immunity to falls. This may be a consequence of the US education system. Over here in Germany, not going to college but to start a formal apprenticehood in not just crafts but just about any conceivable trade is a viable alternative to acquire an additional set of education. In Orlanthi society, the spirit magic specialist spirit talker or the urban craftsperson relying on the guild sorcerers (likely LM types) to provide the extra magic is a viable option. Sartar has an unusually high degree of urbanisation - the Colymar tribe is about as urban as your typical Pelorian region, and most other tribes organized in city rings have a significantly higher percentage of urban population. Joining a spirit cult or hero cult or a regimental cult rather than a standard divine cult is a valid alternative. A powerful local spirit may grant you better magic (not necessarily personal magic, but magical benefits) than joining one of the main deities. In Lunar lands, there are tens of thousands of Lunar zealots following charismatic demagogues spreading their illuminating theories and activities. An age ago, the Hunting and Waltzing bands that led towards the EWF provided a similar alternative to the Orlanthi, and some of their centers of learning (those that didn't absolutely require draconic consciousness) still exist, like the Red Dragon Dojo. Joining a mercenary company with a strong wyter may benefit an individual more than joining one of the mainstream cults. Not being initiated to the local main deities may actually make joining such a company easier. With the adult cult initiation rate of two thirds, there is one third of the population that follows other paths to cope with the magic in their lives. Getting a personal ancestral spirit guardian may beat running to the temple all the time. Befriending a spirit of nature may give your hunter or herder more benefits than joining a cult that has little magic useful to his everyday life. Your clan or tribal temple will still provide ransom and similar social security even if you are not an initiate of any regular theistic cult. You do lose the benefit of a wide-spread network of co-religionist cults, but that's about as far as the disadvantage goes. And then, every Orlanthi has a different, widespread network of support - exogamous marriages distribute your blood (but not clan) kin all over the country. Ancestor worship will identify such blood kin and lend to a different support network. You may not sleep in the chief's hall, but you'll find a place to sleep near some in-law's hearth-fire. I suppose that depends strongly on how you present these. I am fine with herders and hunters having a similar amount and type of rune magic as adventurers as they roam hunting grounds or high pastures half a week away from their home villages. (To my surprise, I found that the concept of distant high pastures well away from the clan village came as a surprise to other people playing Orlanthi. My old Balmyr campaign started with trouble as pastures high in the Quivins half a day's strenuous climb from High Wyrm, a few days from their village northeast of Wilmskirk.) The same for people who are regulars in the clan warband (as opposed to the clan militia) even though they may have a totally different everyday job if that warband stresses individual feats rather than tight organisation as a unit. Your stable hand or apple plucker may be less focussed on adventure. Initiation to the grain goddess is still a valid option that doesn't give much in the way of combat prowess but useful magic to mitigate the poverty risk of low status as a tenant. Literacy of any level always means privileged lay worship of Lhankor Mhy, and numeracy above four dozens indicates lay membership of Issaries or LM. (Btw, lay worship of Lhankor Mhy apparently is sufficient to keep Broosta married to Fleeter Nemm who is not an initiate of LM. He certainly is literate, though.) Potters, charcoal burners and other Lowfire people are likely to follow a local spirit cult of a fire entity. Gustbran is for smiths and makers of kilns and ovens, but other ways to get the magic to control the "bonfire" level of pyrotechnology exist. Some may be available as husbands of Ernalda's handmaidens, but that doesn't mean these men need to initiate to Ernalda to get some of the rune magic for their fires. The "non-initiated" may wield a couple of rune points, too, and quite likely with unusual and surprising magic gained from obscure spirit cults. Look up Firshala in Griffin Mountain for an idea of this. Even more so if Daka Fal initiation is not accounted as theist initiation. Yes, that's the pattern for at least two thirds of the population, or possibly the six out of seven (the Orlanthi All) in King of Sartar. Just about every Orlanthi (or Theyalan, i.e. quite variant culturally Orlanthi folk, like Caladralanders or Aeolians) in the region covered by RQG publications is a lay worshiper of around a dozen deities, attending the services (and associated feasts) regularly, supporting the local shrines and god-talkers with that contribution. This Rune Magic change has been around since early 1994. IIRC it was David Cheng, organizer of the first US RuneQuest Convention, who spread the gospel of rune power pools to the RQ3 (and RQ:AiG playtest) crowd - I think an essay on that was in the convention booklet, or in the post-convention publication that also had the freeform reports. It certainly was commonplace on the RuneQuest Daily in that time, so I am surprised once again that this comes as a culture shock. I think everybody's game had house rules to that extent afterwards, probably a lot less generous and a lot more complicated than the RQG proposal which basically lets your GM impose additional hindrances to regaining your rune points as an initiate if he feels that there are too many rune points around. For NPCs, simply assume that one or two points have already been cast before the encounter, and Bob's your uncle. Random stickpickers are very likely to come up with unexpected and exotic rune magic from obscure spirit cults in my games. Same as outlaw gangs. RQ2 has the example of the Black Fang brotherhood for such a type of not-quite-a-cult. This kind of source for magic was obviously meant to be typical. For some reason, subsequent publications all went the Cults of Prax/Terror full cult write-up route rather than exploring more of these spirit cults. A real loss to RQ2 material, IMO.

The potency of an illusory acid (or other corrosive substance) or the physical damage caused by a material illusion (regardless whether it is visible or not) is limited by the amount of magic invested to create the physical component of that illusion. As to making "nothing" out of "something" - an illusion might be able to liquefy a wall or rock when accompanied by an appropriate visual effect, allowing people to dive through this otherwise solid material without removing it from its place. This probably falls under illusory touch. The eternal problem remains here whether part of a continuous medium (like e.g. a wall cut out of a mountainside) can be affected without pouring magic into the entirety of that medium.

The Free Men of the Seas actually summoned a son of Tanian and then made him call in his parent (Middle Sea Empire p.15): This makes it clear that summoning Tanian himself was way beyond the abilities of these (early) God Learners. So how could the Free Men of the Seas have learned about that lesser sky grandson of Lorion? Some celestial trickery? Ancient Veldang knowledge about that distant kin of theirs? (Artmal was a son of Lorion, too.)

That should be impossible, as the Earth of Glorantha is currently separated into four separate bits (the Mostali are working on closing the deflected rift between Pamaltela and Jrustela/the drowned west). Such a Shake Earth should generate a mother of all waves...

Now that's a concurrent myth you should take into account, and probably many more. Some in accordance with what our world's science and agricultural practice would suggest, some completely out of the blue. Carbon or fiber in the soil, water and nutrient retention, water permeability, evaporation, nutrient donation through application of calcinated chalk, dung and other stuff our world categorizes as fertilizers... An equivalent to nitrogen sequestered from the air as as a nutrient along the lines of "Storm's fertility bound into the soil"? Or possibly sending stale portions of the air into the soil for regeneration (never mind photosynthesis)? The factoid that lightning creates nitrous oxides which then fertilize as nitrates is completely non-gloranthan, but Storm seared by Lightning might bleed some fertility into the soil anyway. Lightning is one of the conquered weapons, and may very well take its toll from the breath of the wielder whenever utilized, donating the result to the soil. Heler's rains help purify Storm from those minor scars. All real world chemistry removed after suggesting a cause-and-effect chain. Now, why do excrements - especially after Darkness things had their way with them (fungi, insects, worms) - result in increased fertility? What is it about pee and poop that makes the soil better? Myths, please. Don't be afraid to involve Eurmal, but please explain why farts don't contribute. (Or have a new trickster feat, the fertilizing fart - may not smell of roses at all, but may cause flowers to blossom even out of season.)

In my Glorantha, the losers were cursed with sapience and having to eat their kin...

So, the trees in an aldryami forest are worshipers, and so are most other inhabitants. In the rivers, the sapient fish are just the representatives for all the non-sapient ones (who still may have something like a collective entity powered by them simply living). The Praxian herds generate their own wyters, manifestations of the Eiritha species protectress. Worship through being. But when agriculture comes, the load for the land to bear increases greatly. Not so much for making hay for the winter, but for extracting the earth's nourishment into the (overly rich) grain (compared to natural grass or pseudo-cereal seeds). The latter, really. The Lady of the Wild is what sends the wild boars to uproot your harvest, the deer to nibble away your grain before it has ripened enough for the harvest, and all the pests and weeds that harm your crops. Pig herding works within the Wilds of Balazar as they do pretty much the same wild boars would. That's actually a good question. How much are the Gloranthan crop grains cultivars of more primitive wild forms, how much were they created that way? In real world pre-history, creating the cultivars of the wild grains with increased seed count and size was a major cultural and biological achievement of the neolithic farmers. In Glorantha, these developments or discoveries are part of the pre-Solar Empire Golden Age (called Green Age by some). And yes, I do think that worship of the goddesses of these plants and special gift offerings may have led to edible but in comparison somewhat sparse amounts of seeds to thicken and multiply, with the goddesses guiding the breeding of these cereals. In the Green and earliest Golden Age, smaller amounts were a lot less of a problem as the proper songs, dances or petroglyphs would multiply them and/or increase their size. The ambient creative energy would have been concentrated in these foods and would have made them feed many people. When the Golden Age became frozen in rules, this transformation worked less and less, and cultivars evolved instead. These cultivars would have come out of worship, so their continued well-being is likely to require worship. Entekosiad has a myth about harvesting with straight hunting knives, and how that harmed the earth, and how the sickle for harvest mitigated that harm. The Orlanthi have a myth about plowing, applying Death to the fertile Earth to prepare for the next crop. King of Dragon Pass had a series of encounters with a talking fox as representative of the Wilds, forcing the player to make concessions to the wild or suffer bad magical luck. Something like this can be used.

Mastakos is one of the Core Rune owners (Mobility) and received a long cult-write-up in preparation for RQ3 Gods of Glorantha before that publication switched to more than twice that number of deities presented in short format, if I remember an old RQ-Daily conversation with Sandy Petersen correctly. He also receives worship by the Zaranistangi (of e.g. Melib) and by Merfolk.

There is a difference, though - Heroquesting is knowable. Illumination is not. Libraries can confer knowledge about the heroquest paths, boundary transitions, and expected and previous unexpected encounters. These quests might even teach mystical insights to those who enter them prepared to perceive these, but you cannot teach enlightenment. The "schools" e.g. of draconic mysticism like the Long Mountain School that Ingolf attended teach preparatory quests and meditations, but they don't teach the insights. The RuneQuest Sight was a method of abstracting the human perceptions of the world and its magics more than it offered any insight about approaching the Ultimate (again IMO). That makes it different from illumination. I still think that the Vadeli remained ahead of them. A true munchkin doesn't need a license. The downside: You have to join those cults, and build up all those external assets. A strong sorcerer or man-of-all would be able to take on these powers and wield them without all that (feigned and inappropriate) subservience. Illumination is not "The Force" made up of midichloreans. Are these mysteries known outside of the Mongoose Second Age books? Middle Sea Empire drew a blank on that name. The Lunars are all too aware that they are dealing with Chaos. The Zistorite God Learners weren't aware of any Chaos. Except that in Prince of Sartar, Argrath states the inverse as his goal when discussing this with Lionfish, the Argan Argar adventurer. That mission statement pretty much complies to the Arkati ethos rather than the God Learner one. Do everything necessary to save the world, whatever it may be. http://www.princeofsartar.com/comic/98-time/ Hrestol and his followers had the This World Quest figured out. Dawn Age heroquesting as in the Vanak Spear quest or in Morden Defends the Camp may have been alien to them. Entering Godtime through rituals or portal books ("Impossible Landscapes") was new to them. (There is a possibility that Impossible Landscapes was a trap from the beginning.)

Your question is basically whether human expenditure of magic via ritual or similar means is required to yield anything near what the natural processes in our reality provide. This is not really limited to fertility (childbirth, health, herds, crops), but includes the continued existence of the universe (aka Sacred Time rites). There are vast parts of Glorantha which have little or no human investment into the magical ecology. As far as the Elder Races are concerned, all but the aldryami may be treated like humans in this regard. These are usually in the care of genii loci or herd (wyter) entities, such as the Protectresses of the Beast Riders, the Lady of the Wild (e.g. in Kerofinela or Balazar), or the sessile aldryami (dryads, great trees). Let's consider the Creek-Stream River. Ever since the Dragonkill, the human worshipers of Engizi had been confined to south of the Crossline. That meant that the humans would no longer take their toll on the ecology of the River by taking out their share of surplus life, but neither would they contribute to the magic for re-birthing that life. But then, the River had a population of non-human Orlanthi supporting him which had stayed in place - the Ducks and the Beastfolk, plus the Newtling bachelors roaming the river. (The Zola Fel cult makes it clear that the human fisherfolk there are just one of many groups contributing to the spiritual renewal and support of that river.) During the Resettlement of Dragon Pass (starting with the Grazers), the rivers were full of riverine life (minus the Salmon whose migration to the Seas had been disrupted by the Lead Hills). The RW Bronze Age had highly different periods of productivity, and a collapse of productivity is suspected as one reason for the Bronze Age collapse (and the phenomenon of the Sea Peoples). You may toss in the Neolithicum, Chalcolithicum and the Iron Age without changing the means of agriculture much, as already neolithic farmers had mastered irrigation where (and when) required. I assume the late Fertile Crescent/Mediterranean Bronze Age productivity with the onset of failing crops, and that mitigated by magic. IMO Gloranthan Earth yields quite a lot in its natural state, without agriculture or gardening, but these activities extract yields beyond the immediate needs of its inhabitants - something first instituted by civilization, and since the Gods War necessitated by seasons. (The Golden Age is annoyingly vague about harvest cycles and the need to store harvested food.) Human (and Elder Race) activities beyond extensive gathering will make a dent in the productivity, and will require magical recompensation.

The lack of having to award experience points (XP) fairly (as opposed to the handwavium "everybody gets 5 points now the scenario is through" which I hate almost as much) was what sold me on the concept of BRP games. Check-hunting? So what? If the rules system insists that the sword ability has a separate skill from the axe ability, and your axe has better penetration power against an opponent with better armor, it makes sense to sacrifice a few percents advantage. Stressful situations? One might argue that a sword-tranced Humakti doesn't feel any stress, and cannot earn skill checks on any sword ability while in trance. A similar reasoning can be applied to skill checks gained with the aid of Berserk or even just Fanaticism as the character was not in control when these successes were rolled. Skill checks have a diminishing reward mechanism, as are training or research. They are unfair in the way skill category bonus plays into this (especially in RQ3), but then, characteristic training (or other forms of raising them) are available, too. Only if you learned to loath/ve those quirks. Having started BRP games with RQ3, I don't have any sentimental ties to the RQ2 rules whatsoever, and their best features were the brevity of their presentation and the meta-rules that could be applied to any situation. RQ3 was far from a perfect system, though it fixed quite a few of the weaknesses that RQ2 has. Neither rules system was a Gloranthan rules system. RQ2's Rune Power concept (not in the sense of reusable spell points, but as a measure what one point, two point and three point rune spells would be able to do) as a meta-rule is applicable to any setting with divine or demonic magic through some form of religious worship. It was superseded by the explicit spells provided in Cults of Prax and subsequent publications (accumulated in the Cults Compendium). The RQ3 previous experience method wasn't that fiddly in my experience once I had it in a spreadsheet. The mathematical problem with it was that it allowed linear additions against a system that gives diminishing rewards at higher competence, leading to several "Murphy's Rules" nominations when used outside of the goldilocks zone where linear and non-linear advancement didn't diverge noticeably. It suffered from a weird fetish for inept characters with maybe one area of at best journeyman level of competence, too. Except for the weapon proficiencies. RQ3 went in quite a lot of directions at once, and brought in a number of good concepts that were previously missing. The only real complaint about Fatigue is that it is a book-keeping nightmare using simplified assumptions that don't add realism because of those simplifications (and it would be even worse without those simplifications). The nostalgia isn't for the rules of yore, it is only projected on those as they were present when one had those awesome moments. You cannot bottle or refill the innocence with which you had those firsts as experiences. Tolerance and even admiration for rules-based silliness doesn't counteract getting jaded. I suppose there are players of the other game who miss their characters being able to fall 200 feet effectively unharmed because they had high levels. Both HQG and RQG have an IMO unhealthy fixation on over-specialization. If I wanted to play character classes, I'd play D&D or one of its slightly modified clones. This results in one-dimensional character concepts which are ill-suited to gaming situations where other skills take the spotlight. HeroQuest offers enough flexibility in the application of abilities to a situation that this doesn't result in complete incompetence - in case of doubt, you still have your cultural keywords to fall back upon. There is no such thing in RuneQuest, though - the Character Sheet tells you explicitly what your character has a shitty or no chance to succeed at.

There is a range of entities who are Chaos-adjacent and often get lumped into the Chaos pantheon. Take Basko for instance. Yes, there was a set-piece battle between an army involving dark trolls (and presumably cave trolls) facing an early chaos horde coming from the northern intrusion under Tien, and the trolls celebrate that as one of their wins against Chaos. Still, all the Ignorance stuff is strongly Chaos-adjacent. And while Zorak Zoran hates Chaos deities and Chaos cultists, he also hates Earth cultists (especially of the Aldryami variety), Fire- and Light cultists, dwarves and other sorcerers, and he has a strong rivalry with Storm and other Darkness deities (other than the Hellmother and Subere, e.g. Inora). A ZZ worshiping cave troll (of unusual intelligence) could be a great Chaos fighter. So can a Telmori. An ogre could be a renowned hunter of Chaos creatures, and might even carry a Chaos disfigurement to fool other Chaos fighters about his true species. Yelm did fight Jokbazi at his usurpation of Emperorhood in the Golden Age, an entity that like the Predark foes of Umath and presumably Krarsht (as ancient enemy of Lodril) entered the Universe before the Unholy Trio brought in the Devil. Yet Yelm Emperor as manifested by Takenegi or Tatius the Bright is chaotic in nature, sometimes obviously so, but also Illuminated. I am fairly convinced that the less obviously chaotic deities listed in the Chaos pantheon may be worshiped in a non-chaotic way. Malia, Ikadz, Nontraya, Gark may all be worshiped as part of a Darkness and (warped) Death cult. Illuminated religions (Yelm, Red Lunar cults, some Blue Lunar cults, Imarja, Arkat, Talor, draconic enlightenment, Eastern enlightenment, Arachne Solara) are Chaos-adjacent. Ompalam and the other Fonritian manifestations of slavery may fall into this category, too. Zzaburism and Vadeli magics are Chaos-adjacent, as is Tapping the fabric of the Universe (creating weaknesses in Creation through which Chaos may seep in). Orlanthi and Praxians actively worship Chaos in their major rites, summoning it as their enemy. One of the manifestations of Storm Bull, the Eternal Battle, has the deity inseparatably interwoven with Chaos. Illuminates may recognize this inherent Chaos worship. Other deities are Chaos-neutral or tolerant. Humakt certainly is. Chalana Arroy has no taboo against harming Chaos, but neither do her worshipers have the obligation to do so. The Lightbringers' summons complains about Chaos stalking its world, but the objective of the Lightbringers' Quest is not to fight Chaos, but to repair Creation. There is nothing in that quest that prevents Chaotic individuals from participating. [spoilers] Encountering the Maggot in Snake Pipe Hollow can taint a heroic party of Liightbringers and friends irrevocably with Chaos. So may involuntary contact with the ichor from Larnste's wound in the Footprint. The Devil's Marsh near the Block is fairly unique as a Chaos nest which doesn't bring involuntary infection. [/spoilers] That said, I want to repeat that reducing Glorantha gaming to fighting Chaos is an awful waste of the plentiful opportunity the setting offers, even if you have a strong Storm Bull contingent in your party. Having a Humakti in your party doesn't mean that you have to roll for attacks in every session, either.

Balls...

Not to preserve it, really. Shargash destroyed just for the sake of destruction. The Dara Happans recognize the Dominion of Shargash aka the Greater Darkness, when Shargash destroyed everything (except for the few nests of survival) and then the Dominion of Kargzant (or Lightfore) aka the Gray Age when the shards of reality that had escaped Shargash and Chaos were pulled together and re-knit to the world that emerged at the Dawn. Rather "Let's have some collateral damage for extra cruel fun." IMO Shargash was the Cruel God who brought down Antirius at the Hill of Gold. And it is called the Man Rune. Personhood has been assigned legally to financial constructs which fail any test that define a Man Rune. I haven't seen any Humakti criticism of the Dragonkill calling it chaotic. Neither any Storm Bull condemnation. The burning of Vralos using the inspiration of the Abiding Book is of a similar measure. The Moonburn was actually "humane" as it allowed some evacuation, being a deliberately slow process, unlike the Dresden-style concentric firebombing the Char-un or the God Learners inflicted. Shargash of the Greater Darkness is Shadzor, the aspect of burnt earth retreat - rather than letting Chaos destroy everything, he and his minions pre-emptively did the "service". His green aspect appears to have been suppressed. On Trowjang, Tolat is a bringer of fertility. In Alkoth, he appears to be a master of fertility wives only. The Green City may have seen slash-and-burn agriculture prior to the arrival of the Oslir River. That ended disastrously - there is the rather hilarious story where Shargash and his drummers march into the advancing river front and get washed away. Shadzor probably is a shared aspect of Shargash and Zorak Zoran. Shargash/Shadzor killed and smashed to destroy the world. Zorak Zoran just reveled in the destruction of his foes and rivals. The flooding of the coastal lands as a consequence of the Maelstrom being plugged by the ice floe will have obliterated a much greater population by the time the moon comes down. The Mostali plans for Umathela and Tarien will obliterate the dwerulan species and destroy the breeding grounds of the Malasp species off Jrustela. Whatever humans and aldryami don't manage to evacuate Somelz will in all likelihood be reprocessed, and the trolls of the Tarmo may find their mountains crumbling away under themselves. The Lunar fallout over Peloria will hit at best the Silver Shadow, which is vastly exaggerated compared to the circumference of the object in the sky, even if you allow for an almost spherical hole beneath the Crater up to thrice the diameter of the crater opening. And it will be dragons tearing the red moon apart in its utuma. It will be a moment of collective ascension (if successul) or otherwise obliteration. While we know about Lascerdan ghosts rising in Umathela in the dying throes of the God Learner cities there, we have no idea where the majority of their spirits went. The final transformations of the Gold Wheel Dancers are weird, too, The 1042 ascension of the draconic leadership may have been successful in removing their souls from the cycle of rebirth. Genocide doesn't have to mean total annihilation of an ethnicity or species, any massive threat accompanied by loss of life is an (ongoing) genocide.

The exact advantage of a tin bronze (for some reason traded as "phosphorous bronze") depends on the exact composition, but 8% tin has about half again the tensile strength of pure copper. Hardness is higher, too. What's lower is the melting point of bronze, making copper the Gloranthan metal of choice for branding or for smith's pliers or glassblowing when iron isn't available. The advantages of enchanted copper aren't due to any properties of the real world metal, but to the properties of the element the metal is derived from. Gloranthan material science follows real world material science about half the time. The rest is grounded in the mythic archetypes connected to the metal.

The copulation that produced Umath wasn't much better - it had the Spike protruding into the Sky (and also penetrating Earth). Kinky stuff, never mind the Oedipal component. Umath was a pole dancer, spiralling around the Spike.

What is the species max POW for a shadowcat? Surely at least 26, as you can roll 24, plus whatever the +12 does when you calculate the minimum rollable POW added to the maximum rollable POW. Although I would probably cap the practical use of woad by the character's strength. With skin paint that potent, movement is going to become hard. But even so, you don't get much more than half a season out of that amount of rune points. Better choose wisely when to present your dangly bits died blue. Late Dark Season, and you don't need woad to appear in that skin color.

The Silver Age heroes, like Tessele the True, Vogarth Strongman, Amphibos the Wanderer, Panaxles and Sestarto. Possibly Martaler of the Blazing Forge. I have my doubts about King Heort, and I am fairly certain that Belintar did not contact any dragonewts. His truce with Ironhoof follows his victory over the OOO, too. I think your sequence of the events is off. Norinel and her people from Nochet are already in hiding in the Obsidian Palace when Orlanth goes onto his Lightbringer's Quest. I doubt though that she or any of her followers were that deep down in the Underworld when Orlanth arrived, and I have doubts about her son, too. I am fairly certain that the son in question would have been a shape-changer like the (human- and troll-descended) Kitori learned to be. He would have been the royal ancestor of a people like the Only Old One (who probably was known by a different name before Eurmal slew his heir). The mother would have been a goddess or at least of similar demigod rank as Ezkankekko himself. That's another possibility - that Desdel had fathered children unto (non-divine) women from Nochet, founding human lineages, before getting seduced by Eurmal. (Eurmal possibly posing as another Nochet beauty.) Another possibility is that Kimantor was that son of the Only Old One. Is there any report of Kimantor returning to Nochet from Akez Loradak?

How so, and why, if I may ask? Death is a shared power and an immensurable realm in the Underworld. Besides Humakt and Zorak Zoran, there is Shargash/Tolat as only one of many other masters of Death. Zorak Zoran is a lot less of an enemy of Humakt than are Mal(l)ia, Ikadz, or Thanatar. In fact, he is an ally against each of these foes who pervert the power of Death, possibly least vs. Mallia. Humakt is not really a chaos fighter, either - Humakti and Telmori respect each other as bringers of Death and Darkness. They are rivals, true. As far as I am concerned, a Humakti will cooperate with Zorak Zorani or Telmori if his sworn leader or employer asks them to. Also, both Humakt and Zorak Zoran share Arkat as a cult hero or subcult. The rulership over the Middle Sky on the other hand cannot be shared as there is only one top position available. Yelm and Sedenya have arranged themselves through the Red Emperor as their shared avatar. There is no such possibility of jointly governing the Middle Sky between Moon and Storm within Gloranthan history or myth, yet. The Hero Wars might transmute both Old Storm and Old Moon into something new which might unite those opposed forces, but right now these two religions (not just cults) are at loggerheads for domination of their core realm. Orlanth's great victory in the Chaos Wars was that he liberated the skies from Chaos - his only major achievement fighting against Chaos. There are a few minor victories of his, like the fight against the Lesser Kajabori where he aided Darkness, but otherwise, Orlanth's resume as a chaos fighter is about on par with Genert's - "will man up and stand in its way until almost completely destroyed." That comparison is about as disturbingly wrong to me as it can get. Humakt has his own personal foe, that later became chaotic - that's Vivamort, earlier on known as Nontraya. Storm Bulls sending in broos is about the same as Humakti sending in Vivamorti. YGWV. Martin Laurie's Onslaught (look up the digest archives for his stories) would feel right at home among a bunch of Zorak Zorani as long as they refrain from raising the dead or parading their undead in his presence. So would any Lead Cross heroquester. Why do you spell the cult "Humakht", btw? That's not proven in any way. The relevant quote from the Sourcebook p.120 (repeating the original statement in Wyrm's Footnotes): Seem to have is the key phrase here. Hearsay or a guess, at best. The Second Council were definitely not (yet) illuminated, at least not in the Nysalorean (Arkati) way that you are postulating here.