Joerg

"Every" has to be taken with a grain of salt, as there are Orlanthi known to follow the shaman's path of animism. But then, a clan adult will be sort of an initiate to the wyter, regardless whether he or she has committed to a specific deity. Emerging from adulthood initiation as an initiate of the main deity (Orlanth, Ernalda) is possible, and may be the mark of a magically strong person. Emerging from it as an initiate of another deity may be the path towards becoming a holy person. (Or unholy, if that deity is regarded as a foe of the clan's mainstream deities). Six out of seven Orlanthi will be initiated to the mainstream deities. There will be some spirit worshipers, possibly via Daka Fal (is that a cult initiation?) or via Kolat, Serdodrosa or some other animist tradition. I don't think of that as being restrictive. The expectations of those cultures are different. Classic RQ may have been a bit overboarding with cult ranks, especially the rune masters with one each of rune priest, rune lord and rune lord-priest. RQ3 had 70% of the population know magic like Bless Crops, Cloud Call and similar agriculturally important stuff. The runepower method has diluted this somewhat, but cult special rune magic still needs to be learned one sacrifice at a time. But where you had to sacrifice three points of POW in RQ3 to get three castings of Bless Crops, a single such sacrifice will allow you to cast your entire rune point pool on that spell. Herders don't usually call down lightning or thunderbolts near their herds, as they know that they won't be near their herds after casting these spells. I have some other concerns about the herder stats in the RQG adventure book. Like why are there so many women living and working in their birth clan? To be well equipped in terms of spirit magic doesn't require any cultic initiation. There is no reason why Dara Happans wouldn't have a similar amount. As true to the setting as the RQG rules are, they and the scenarios that have been published so far don't describe it completely. The RQG rules mention Barntar as the most popular male god for Esrolia, Tarsh, the Vendref. RQ2 Compendium added Heortland. Orlanth is very much an every man's god, so the society formed after his example should emulate that. Elsewhere, the majority of people may not have made the initiate bond which anchors their soul at that deity's Otherworld demesne. It doesn't have to be their farm - if pledged to a leader, the downtime may as well represent time in his entourage. There is ancestor worship... That's a different price to pay. The Heortling male initiation is about adulthood, but doesn't necessarily lead to cult initiation. The archetypal quester who underwent the Second Son rites, King Heort, was a shaman, not an initiate of Orlanth. Lhankor Mhy initiation requires completion of some studies that are usually beyond the abilities of a newly coined adult. If adult initiation was cultic initiation, then every LM initiate would have a previous initiation to some other deity's cult. That's not what I observe. As far as I recall, the difference is made. In HQ1, as an initiate you could augment abilities with your affinities and break-outs, but this magic could not be used as an active ability until you became a devotee. HQG doesn't make that distinction between rune levels and initiates, but as a lay member you had no way to acquire a deity's affinity..

One thing we tend to forget is that people living there have little concept of their history other than what the priestess and the overseer tell them about it. There are few groups in Peloria that don't remember ancestors who ruled over the known world and take immense pride from that while going through their squalid oppression, selling off their children for the next meal. (Ok, at least not as the next meal...) Roleplaying in an empire tends to give you this problem. You can start your campaign in squalor and rigid hierarchies, but where do you take it from there? Even the path of Lunar illumination and spiritual freedom doesn't get anywhere - whenever it does, the Red Emperor sends some daughter to squash any such upstart notion. And you don't get to play the occupation forces any more since the Dragonrise. Gone are the good old days when Imperials from disparate backgrounds had Sartarites and Heortlanders to oppress while gaming out their little rivalries and aiming to make it big with those newly acquired goodies looted from the dirty (and formerly unfairly wealthy) barbarians. Why, they even had stuff from the Empire! Proof that they looted the Empire first, it is only just to bring this stuff and other such things back home. Playing something like Wehrmacht REMFs in occupied Paris in Nochet was a thing for Imperials to do. But not all is lost. There are bound to be veterans from the Lunar occupation who had returned before the Temple dedication that summoned that dragon, and those guys might be called back to retake what was lost, or at least prepare such an action. and Cults of Prax. Even though RuneQuest finally has arrived in Sartar (unless you count Apple Lane, Snake Pipe Hollow and Haunted Ruins), it is Sartar in tatters. What do we lack for that? Not so much the guidelines to create characters, IMO, but what we really lack is the playable background for these characters to act in. New Pavis was easy. Occupied Boldhome may have been workable. Even royal Furthest gets harder. We know a few key players, disagree about a number of established institutions like the University of the Province and its curriculum and magician output, and have little idea about all the Heartlanders acting as agents for their houses or seeking opportunity on this semi-barbarian frontier. A Tarshite inverse Borderlands campaign where Heartlanders are hired to bring culture and Imperial erudition to an ambitious but in the end rustic rich household might be fun, although stuff like the Five Eyes game would have to be inverted for these refined Imperials to shine... And then comes the Fazzurite rebellion, and the family may be pointed in either Fazzurite or Phargantite direction... Well, as a challenge, put forward a character concept, and look whether the community here can produce the background stuff.

Glorantha has a history of Old Day Traditionalists being suppressed by the newest hot stuff, and then re-surfacing as that hot stuff begins fraying at the edges. Rather that those who bet their houses to go along with Sheng lost that bet after Sheng's unlucky loss at Kitor. I wonder how foreign oppressors manage to be worse than the native Yelmic nobility and their terrible ways for their less privileged subjects and "minorities". Whether the Heortlings, the Spolites, the EWF, the Carmanians, or the Pentans, always some sort of "grassroot" movement comes along and deals with these nasty foreigners, only to leave the population again in abject poverty and squalor while their lords amass luxuries and the good life. But then, it is no different from a population voting in the interest of the 0.001 % rather than their own...

The mindless rage that a Storm Bull cultist feels against Chaos is negated. Oddi the Keen may have been extremely hard struck by his illumination, but I think it is still possible to work up that passion - consciously. I wonder how much Illumination will push a character from Beast towards Human, as the instinctive reaction will be hampered by insight, too. In order to trigger them, or in order to avoid being triggered by them?

Welcome to the tribe! Yes, each of the three classics you mentioned offers a limited scope entryway into Glorantha. Each of the books deals with an out-of-the-way region of the setting. And each of the Classics is set eight to ten years in the past of the "current" setting for RQG and 13G, or four to six years before the cut-away date for the Guide to Glorantha. (HQG moves somewhere between the Guide and RQG.) Pavis and the Big Rubble are set in the border city of Pavis, conquered about five years ago. The Big Rubble is the mostly ruined remains of the centuries old city of Pavis, a huge enclosed area about halfway filled with former urban areas and half of it grazing or unkempt park land. The city was a place renowned for exotic magic - some inherited from the (now extinct) Empire of the Wyrms Friends, some brought by the God Learners, some stolen from giant cradles which used to flow down the Zola Fel River until the giants learned about all of them being robbed here. The ruins still contain smaller and bigger remains of these old magics, as items, texts, or denizens -ghosts, but also descendants of the survivors of the troll occupation which finally spelled the end of the human city. The trolls sealed in the ancient fortress, and it was less than 80 years ago that a huge dragonewt ritual witnessed over wide areas of the northern continent broke that magical seal. 70 years ago a scion of the Sartar dynasty founded New Pavis, a more modern city on the flank of the old city, to create a base for systematic exploration of the Rubble. A little under half the scenarios deal with adventures in the city, half deal with adventures in the rubble, some of a more dungeon style, others dealing with human-occupied parts of the city. And then there is the Cradle scenario, the most epic scenario in all of the Classics, allowing the player characters to participate in one of the pivotal events that set off the Hero Wars. Borderlands is about roving adventurers getting semi-sedentary as trouble-shooters for a minor Lunar noble exiled into newly developed lands south of Pavis. It offers a consecutive set of seven scenarios in the service of Duke Raus. About as much material is offered for two dozen encounters and their Gloranthan background as you would have in the valley of the River of Cradles, offering ready to use encounters with plot hooks or just game data. A third part is a collection of powerful NPCs statted ouf as per the rules of RQ Classic, offering some additional insight into the cults described in Cults of Prax. Griffin Mountain is possibly the epitome of a sandbox setting. While it has a few scenarios at the end of the book, it lives from its location descriptions and encounters, more so than those in Borderlands. Three citadels planted in a primitive land some 500 years ago with quite disparate rulers - one citadel was conquered by Lunars, one has the ancient Yelmalio cult, and one was taken over by a native hunter dynasty friendly to the Storm worshipers from Sartar who have made it their base for exploration. The land is dotted with ruins and graves from an earlier period (when the EWF had extended here, too) and has plenty Elder Races influences. Unlike the other two Classics, this supplement is not set in Prax but in Balazar and the Elder Wilds, to the north and beyond the almost impassable mountains (and behind the troll lands of Dagori Inkarth and the Redwood elf forest which are dsscribed in Troll Pak, the fourth Classic which only was reprinted recently as the RQ Classic reprise of RuneQuest 2. Troll Pak offers the eploration of Glorantha from the perspective of the trolls, and gives the most universal introduction to Glorantha, as there are few places which have no trolls. It has its measure of scenarios, playable with both troll or human characters, it has an in-depth exploration of the trolls aka Uz, and it covers places closer to the core action of the Hero Wars. You need the least lore for Borderlands or Griffin Mountain. Pavis is somewhere in between, but worth the while. Troll Pak still is the product that non-human supplements are measured against in any fantasy system.

and here I was hoping for a miniaturized spatial storage, but no, just a Bundle of Holding...

Herr Baumgartner is reserved for work... So are you looking for keywords? That will depend strongly on the (local) culture you are going to choose. Dara Happan and "some form of Lodrilite" works everywhere, but IMO it also fails to capture the reality of anywhere in the Empire away from Oslir River. Playing as Dart Competition strike group does allow you to mix and match just about any background. Your campaign would need to determine just the house you are serving with and a number of rival houses you may have to fend off or attack yourself.

The usual advice... Pick a place in the Empire that tickles your interest. Read up on it in the Guide, look at neighboring places. If it still holds your interest, start asking detail questions in these forums. Most of the Empire is defined by the cities, their ruling and otherwise influential houses, and the political, magical and economic networking of the main players in the place(s). Pick a side. Really - go for one side in a number of disputes. Lunar vs. old religion vs. enemy old religion. If Lunar nobility (either your players directly, or their sponsors), different lineage to the Red Emperor. Figure out a few strengths and weaknesses of your patrons and their rivals. If you want a little bit of sandbox, there is a clan "game" in some of the older HQ material, with five stats for Harmony, War, wealth, magic, and (a fifth one), and assign some ability ratings to these. One of those should be excellent, one should be almost hopeless, the rest somewhat competent. Raise for the overall influence of the patrons in the Empire. Define what makes these stats get these values. Jeff's experimental HQ game between two such factions threw three or four problems in the path of the factions - internal ones, ones with external influences, and a number of plots between these factions coming to bloom against the target or to haunt the originator. Possibly rinse and repeat for a number of your factions to keep track of changes in influence and power, and to create opportunities to do something about that or deal with it. Pick two or three of these, and present them to your players in the usual shape of patrons or allies approaching your superiors, or troubling those superiors directly. Resolve them not in a simple contest roll, but play them out normally (while using simple contest rolls for the rest of the world). Try to keep a diary. Color-code your factions in your spread-sheet that tracks past conflicts and resolutions. You will get something similar to "Military Experience in Dragon Pass" from Different Worlds 27 (IIRC). If you build this back long enough, including a number of events taken from the history in the Guide, you will also arrive at a "what my parent/grandparent was involved with". Each house can get a number of characters - tied to the faction abilities, or extra ones. Fewer than in Champions of the Red Moon. Recycle some of those. Take a look at Harald Smith's Nochet campaign on RPGGeek for ideas how your player house/clan may be obligated to various (often opposed) higher tier factions and same tier factions, and possibly a few dependent factions, too. Heartland politics and dart competitions are supposed to be labyrinthine, so you might have to prepare at least a few names and special relationships for two or three dozen factions. You don't need to name or flesh out these all at once, just keep in mind that there will be such, and each of these may have significant inter-connection with others. Possibly best expressed/protocolled by hyperlinks, as I think that relationship maps will break down or become a veritable knot of threads across a whiteboard with index cards and photos. Outsource these factions - set up a thread or a group where volunteers interested in the Empire may suggest actions for these factions. Perhaps narrating the meta-game of factions may end up the more interesting game. A kind of darts league... There are both gems of inspiration and superfluous complications in the HQ1 era Lunar books. The association in Champions of the Red Moon has a few believable parts in the first half of the description of that association, but the entire thing had too little cohesion and too many weird addendums to have become sensible. And it lacks opposition. Still, a tiered array of factions may be deduced from it. On the whole, you may have two or three games and quite a bit of book-keeping or otherwise anecdotal tracking if you want a dynamic setting where the player actions or the meta-player actions create meaningful changes.

It's already there embedded in the website. Looks like the CMS doesn't support direct links to auxiliary files in a browser window. The map shows just fine when called by right-click from the website.

Just a variant of "King Heort defrosts his wife"

Yes. You ignore the boosting MP, as they only are in effect when casting the spell - across some other counter-magic effect. Like I maintain is necessary to cast a Countermagic on top of a Shield (the other way is impossible because for the Shield to be activated the Countermagic has to be overcome first, and then dissipates). A boost just counteracts a Countermagic effect. Its magic doesn't stay around. For a 63 point Countermagic, you need say 28 points of Shield with 7 points of Countermagic on top (which require a 50 MP boost to be planted on top of the Shield's 56 points of Countermagic). Now a Charisma spell with Extension theoretically allows a character to have 28 or more rune points while the spell lasts. That's still a lot of "one use POW" once the spell dissipates and the rune points fall back to the character's CHA score (of 21 - we are talking about a Munchkin priest, after all...)

1613 Fazzur decided to blame a big part of the Rebellion on the Ducks (and Joseph Greenface in particular) and offered a year's worth of tax rebate for each duck bill delivered to the Lunar authorities (a live duck attached to it extremely optional, and removable by the authorities). The resulting pogrome - or the fear of one - created a mass flight down the River, either all the way down to Nochet, or across the Lead Hills down the Marzeel. And possibly along the coast into the lower Zola Fel valley, assuming that there wasn't a duck presence there already following Dorasar's colonisation of the valley. I expect Sartar's city to sit more or less directly on the river, which the boardgame map showed as closely as it could while avoiding a weird halving of the defensive value of units in that city due to the river characteristic of the hex. Having a ruin and an inhabited city close to one another is always a good thing to have (see for instance MOB's re-purposing of the temple layout in Sun County for a dungeon with the "Old Sun Dome Temple" in Sun County). Karse even has two ruins nearby, Old Karse and Lylket. Corflu has Feroda. DP:LoT used this, and offers a stone-walled native fortress next to the trade city of Sartar. I would reserve "Stone Nest" for the native fortification, and use "Duck Point" for the river port. The river port mainly sees duck boats carrying in the cargo, but has few if any ducks inhabiting the city. I don't expect there to be much toll evasion for cargo carried for human merchants - by delivering the cargo to the docks and warehouses of Sartar's city, the duck community will receive a portion of the royal tariffs for transshipping. Independent duck merchant boaters will be able to evade these tariffs easily, but their volume of trade isn't as large as the commissioned river traffic. The duck boaters enjoy the privilege of unchallenged passage through Beast Valley. Humans without duck boaters (or Engizi worshipers) are likely to be stopped, and possibly taken away as sacrifices to the Wild Temple. The centaurs may collect a river toll from wooden boats (constructed by humans - the ducks appear to use reed boats/floats).

Some area south of you might become slightly more swampy.

Or Jar-Eel ... They came back from the ride with the Orlanthi inside and the smile on the face of Jar-Eela... I hope the horse is no mare... otherwise your character won't hear the end of the teasings about his Lunar bride.

Only you didn't mention copper kettles or stills anywhere in your myth. It's not like Babeester is using her axe to separate the drinks. (In fact, the story could be embellished by Babs' drunken first attempts to separate the drinks with her axe, and failing...) Real world copper kettles are a consequence of copper making a good material for kettles - relatively high melting point (as opposed to bronze or lead/pewter), fairly noble (doesn't corrode much), and comparably soft so hammering and stenciling it into shape is less troublesome than for iron or steel. (Modern milling and alloyed steels make that a lesser issue, of course, but I suppose you are talking about the stills on the Speyside and similar traditional distillation sites). The archetypal metal of separation is iron. But then, iron is hostile to spirits (of the otherworldly kind), so using less disruptive tools may be more appropriate As a chemist by trade, I might be a bit obsessed with the details of these processes. experiments with pottery: small alembics and crucibles of glazed pottery: sure. odd bits of glasswork: I don't really think so. Yes, there are mentions of glass in canonical sources. But glass made its premiere in human civilization as an artificial gem, and a fairly highly regarded one, almost on the same level as round-polished mineral gems. Transparent glass came a lot later, and while glass-blowing is possible with copper pipes (not bronze, though), I think that this is a rare urban craft, and unlikely to be found in ancient rural myths. The gods have in all likelihood a material culture that is quite archaic and rural. There is no myth about Orlanth ruling over a city, the Storm Village is of a lesser scope. The Vingkotlings had no cities other than Kodig's royal Nochet, but may have destroyed one (Elempur, the city of the Bow on the Oslir). Babeester Gor is born from the sleeping body of Ernalda in the Underworld. Her presence in the Storm Village in Vingkotling times is a pre-incarnation, or an earlier aspect of hers already present alongside the Storm Brothers. Either way is fine, and such myths have their charm, but the core myth of her birth is a Greater Darkness myth, well after any ordered village life took place. Writing such myths about her should be possible and are nice to have, but keep in mind that these are for a less gruesome and hardcore aspect of the axe maiden.

Yes, each of the clans will have a temple to Ernalda and Orlanth and its wyter in their own lands. But these temples have a limited number of shrines and subcults, and worshipers may require a pilgrimage to access certain spells, or to have certain magical rites performed in their name. With fringe cults like the Lightbringer cults, a congregation of temple size is likely only found in the cities of Sartar, perhaps only in Boldhome (e.g Yelmalio). (And even Boldhome had no resident Storm Bull priest in 1614, and required a Praxian cultist to lead the ceremony which was disrupted so conveniently for Estal Donge.) One important source of income for the Princes of Sartar was enabling traffic, and I suppose that Sartar snuck a condition into the founding of the City Confederation that guarantees passage on the main roads (also lesser ones than the royal highways). Most Orlanthi may travel once or twice a year beyond their clan lands to a market or fair (e.g. the tribal moot). It takes semi-professional trouble-shooters to leave their home once a season (as per RQG - and even there, I would place a couple of scenarios at home). Certain professions will be away from home most of the year - traders, hunters, transhumant herders, miners, charcoal burners. Pilgrims (especially cultists of minority cults) will be on the way to their temples for major festivals. And diplomats and matchmakers will carry out the will of the ring in distant clans, along with their escorts/honor guards. Cattle raiding is another good reason for leaving the clan lands... I wonder whether migratory herder groups go after nearby transhumant herds of other clans, or whether the cattle raids are usually started from the clans' home area.

IMO this isn't any worse than having a Grazer Yelm worshiper or a Yelmalian in the same party as a Storm worshiper. Or a Seven Mothers cultist and a Storm Bull or Orlanth initiate. Both Orlanth's Camp and the Lunar Way provide precedents for inclusion of enemies. Zorak Zoran was the primary War God of the Second Council - a predominantly human organisation. Problems will occur when the Zorak Zorani reanimates a fallen companion or minion as a zombie (in order to honor the dead, btw). But something like that is a roleplaying opportunity rather than an impossible situation.

Humakt's Lead Cross Quest: There are bound to be some incorrigible fanatics somewhere who maintain the quest, at least in the weakest form (as a practice quest). Humakti react to rumors of undead and returnees from death a lot like Storm Bulls react to suspicion of Chaos. Whenever she needs to be female, she will be. Changing into beast form is a much greater trick than maintaining sex. Hsunchen ancestral deities are both male and female, sometime in distinct bodies and coupling with one another, sometimes alternating between manifestations. Still, the standard form is likely to be the male grizzly bear, and the bearded son (or aspect) of Orlanth.

The marriage quest in Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes has the Malani priestess Ernalsulva from the Greenstone Temple as the contested earth queen priestess for a Colymar (Orlmarth) and a Lismelder (Greydog) candidate. Despite the Clearwine temple being right across the corner. The Clearwine temple is the main earth temple for the southern Colymar clans (the northern ones have the choice beween Clearwine and Greenstone), and probably serves the neighboring tribes, too. The Hill of Orlanth is holy to all Sartarites and protecting it was the initial action of the Starbrow Rebellion, by a confederation of tribes. (Actually by the members of Kallyr's High Council.) Orlanthi etiquette yes, towards the temple. Pilgrims to the temple might be exempt from involuntary hospitality. Preventing a pilgrim's access to a temple would be an offense against that temple. A feud might balance that, though. The Hill of Orlanth Victorious was the site for royal rites, a good luck place for starting heroquests and military campaigns. Harmast started his (first) LBQ here (not sure about the second, but possibly too). Possibly one of the holiest places in Sartar. And probably the border marker for three local clans. Places inhabited by local deities (like Tarndisi's Grove) may be outside of human-claimed lands. The worst example of offensive practices probably is the Lead Cross quest which requires the slaying of Chalana Arroy healers. But other than this diametrically opposed pair of Life and Death I have a hard time to think about really offensive practices between cults of the Orlanthi. Heler or Orlanth vs. Elmal/Yelmalio is the next most likely problem, I guess. Then there is the Lariat and Stick feat by which an Orlanth cultist might humiliate Storm Bull cultists. If an Orlanth temple was having a great hunt, it would certainly include the local Odayla holy people in it. Odayla may have a separate existence, but he is a Storm Brother (i.e. subcult of Orlanth), too. The aurochs hunt that Argrath is going to hold in a number of years (possibly as a preparation for the big marriage to Inkarne) will involve Orlanth, Odayla and Storm Bull holy people.

There is the effect of generalization of the settlements to the hex map which plays into this, though. The boardgame rules forbid the coincidence of cities with river hexes, hence even a river port is always displayed on a hex adjacent to at least one river hex. Check Furthest, Bagnot, Dunstop, or Dangerford for reference.

A very nice story on the subject of separation, but I miss the essence of distilling - the transmutation of liquid to steam(fumes and back to liquid. Steam is a well known effect in Glorantha - shamans use steam huts for their journeys, and the cleansing effect is used mundanely as well by many cultures. Steam is useful for straightening or bending wood along with the grain, a valuable technology for making spears, ships' planks and numerous other items. Beer is heated, and overheating beer gives you intoxicating fumes - something certainly also used by shamans and other holy people going into trance. These fumes may collect on the outside of vessels filled with cold water, and licking your fingers after wiping such a vessel will give you the taste of liquor. The principles of distillation are open to discovery by observation, and possible in the practices of holy people. And anything which creates intoxication will find its way into ritual use. The secrets of booze come in two steps - that of fermentation, the making of wine, beer, kumiss, often a two-step fermentation starting with making the starch accessible and then producing the alcohol and the sparkling - and the separation of the booze from the water and solids. Separation of liquids usually involves a phase change - or in Gloranthan terms, a transmutation to fumes (Air) or solids (Ice, Earth), rarely the method of extraction with immiscible fluids (oil and water). The use of Heat or Cold, powers associated with Fire and Darkness. These methods are well known to perfumers, dyers, and herbalists and apothecaries. And of course alchemists. The mystical goals of alchemy are paired with observations of material transmutation. The smelting of metal from ores is as much a mystery as is the condensation of fumes with the production of liquids and resins (including pitch) or the precipitation of crystals (including edible ones like sugar e.g. in honey or syrup, or salt) from liquids or even fumes (like salts of hartshorn). This may very well be an animist procedure - with the spirit (in the sense of elemental spirits of a special kind) being summoned or called out of the original substance. The ritual @Eff describes is a combination of such a summoning and a separation. As such, it is an interesting version of an alchemical technique. But I wouldn't call this distillation. A myth about distillation is a myth about steam - the violent meeting of water - water separated or separating from the sea, a Heler theme - and the hot earth or liquid rock of Lodril/Veskarthen. And then a myth about how that released spirit condenses again. The use of lead pans for the crystallization of salt from brines (greetings from Nelat) is an ancient technology, and there is bound to be a myth about this, too. With the myths about the animated Stone, there may be lesser myths or allegoric stories to explain these processes, trade secrets that are conserved in crafters' guilds and/or cults. Or in the knowledge cult. With both Heler and Nelat involved in this, the mysteries of the weird secrets of liquids (including the weirdness of liquid Sea Metal) is a sorcerous approach to the seas. By people outside of the seas...

Isn't the River Ritual a Sea Season rite? The 1622 Sea Season is additionally hampered by the Windstop, so did they perform the rite in the same season the Cradle floated by?

Anything in connection to stone walls refers either to Duck Point where Duck Point refers to the city that Sartar built after having been rebuffed by the Colymar tribe, or to possibly Stone Nest (mentioned in Dragon Pass: Land of Thunder). The map of DP:LoT shows less detail than maps of the Lismelder Lands which apparently were created by the Tales of the Reaching Moon team from the master maps that Jeff presented at Kraken this year. The Halberd Game maps has the secondary road from Stone Nest (the end point of the royal highway) to Duck Point (the river port at the easternmost outflow of the Upland Marsh) different from the master map, the course in the DP:LoT map is true to that master map. But then the master map has no road from Stone Nest to Duck Ferry, a place which logically would have an overland route to the royal highway - just not of the quality of a secondary road in Sartar (which probably is the quality of a primary road everywhere else on Glorantha). The Duckton Road is the road from Quackford to Stone Nest. As it leads onward to Duck Point, it isn't clear which of the two settlements is meant with Duckton, or whether both are.

Here on our own planet, a biological phenomenon is another strong incentive to use the month as the intermediate measure of time. The closest celestial phenomenon to measure the menstrual cycle would be Tolat/Shargash, usefully the blood red planet. Unfortunately, this is a male-associated body (and the only one of the 8 planetary sons of Yelm I haven't seen a female version of). An approximate alternative would be the half-cycle of Entekos with 31 days, suitable because of the wifely connections.

Does this mean that say the 20,000 tribesfolk of the Jonstown confederation assemble in a suitable sacred place near Jonstown to participate in the rites, or do Malani, Culbrea and Cinsina have their own rites (and if so, where and how does the urban population celebrate)? Or does each clan send a delegation of holy folk to the tribal rites, while others take care of local deities and of the ancestors back at home? Do the spirit masters have a routine of visiting the holy places of local entities, or are these called into the sacred circle even dozens of miles away from their seat of power (e.g. Tarndisi's Grove)? The Colymar for instance have two urban and holy centers in their tribe, the Ernalda temple at Clearwine and the Elmal temple at Runegate, which happens to be the seat of the home clan of the recent Colymar kings. Where do the e.g. Enjossi hold their rites, and (importantly to them) their rites to the Stream? How do the Varmandi transfer magic between the tribal ceremony and their immobile wyter in the Thunder Oak? It is easy to over-define such things, but examples would be useful.