Joerg

The Votanki don't have a specialized warrior culture, all of their lethal tools are double use for hunting or other pursuits. There may be some form of multipartite axe or stone sickle (although grain and even seeds of wild grasses don't seem to flourish in Balazar). The Votanki are likely to do fire-farming in their forests, artificially creating clearings where fresh growth will come on recently denuded ground. They appear to have managed to avoid far-flung forest fires (and thereby conflicts with the wandering aldryami of their lands). The oldest spears known from terrestrial manufacture predate the Neanderthals in Germany and probably were produced by Homo Steinheimensis. They were made completely from local wood and were sufficient to pierce animal (in this case, apparently horse) skin and muscle, and are shaped and were presumably handled just like olympic spears. Replicas were thrown uo tp 70 meters by modern athletes. Horn isn't that well suited for making weapons. A reindeer antler has a similar structure to bone and lends itself well for harpoon points, but using red deer (or wapiti) antlers for such a purpose results only in failures. Bird bones are notorious for splintering into very sharp fragments which can hurt an esophagus (some of the tougher tissue in e.g. a dog's body), so purposfully splinterd bird bones will likely make for good arrow (or light javelin) points that may last for a few shots into soft tissue. The technological level of the citadel dwellers is higher mainly through trade. While they have bronze workers who can work imported bronze and probably apply gold leaf to all manner of surfaces, there is no evidence of metal mining by humans anywhere in the Elder Wilds. The Greatway dwarves are happy to trade some brass to the Votanki and the citadel dwellers, and probably also to shape it according to their specifications. The imported tools might include metal digging tools. While bison hunting on foot with only stone- or bone-tipped spears certainly was practiced in the pre-Columbian west, hunting trapped animals reduces the risk a lot, and the Elder Wilds appear to offer sufficiently common choke points in the migration routes where large animal traps would work.

Aladdin and Ali Baba weren't among the tales told by Sheherazade... IIRC the French translator added them to the collection. The Tsortean imitation of Djelibebi's culture still applies, only now it also mixes in Ephebian history.

The Red Emperor doesn't really count when the husband is a different mask from the father, IMO. Naveria, on the other hand, ...

How do the calendars (and the associate cultures) using different length weeks treat Sacred Time? Does it have to be 14 days, or are there really only the last 11 or 12 days that are completely outside of normal Time? Supposedly world-wide effects include the Orlanth Storm and the Doldrums, and some of the Southpath planets turning invisible (Artia) or possibly pausing their schedule (Tolat).

Actually, they learned this in one of their defeats, Revealed Mythologies p.11: I have no idea when or why this became a deity of its own. The denizens of the Sex Pit apparently would have been known even prior to the Vadeli conquest of Chir and Poto. If incest creates succubi, then all first generation sacred ancestors will have produced many of these. The term "sister-wife" is fairly common in Gloranthan writings. I have seen one instance of daughter-wife, Elamle-ata. I would expect that rather than creating new deities, these rituals enslaved and then twisted and tainted deities into new ones. The Vadeli pretty much wrote the book for Garangordos and his siblings, with possibly the difference that the Garangordites applied the magics to themselves rather than to enslaved deities. If that's what you want from your purely evil Vadeli, go ahead. Some games probably need all-out evil opposition, so let the Vadeli or Sheng Seleris serve as such. IMO there is fun to be had with the deeply wronged Vadeli who got twisted from their revenge, too. The attack on the Tadeniti wasn't unprovoked - it was the consequence of Zzabur using Tadeniti magics to skin the Vadeli leaders for his books of magic. The Vadeli struck back against the creators of those magics. All the subsequent events are just mutual escalation of this. It is Zzabur who causes the Spike to implode and the chaos rift to appear in the center of the world. (True, he was aided in this by other forces, including High King Elf and Wakboth.) Nothing of this makes the Vadeli really likable. But it makes them somewhat relatable.

That wasn't the thrust of that post. It is more an attempt to find where the Marco Polo effect impacts Seshnegi perception of Eest and Kralorela, and how it may have impacted the False Dragons Ring and possibly alterations to the previous traditions. Seshnegi interaction with and reception of Kralorela remains a formative part of Glorantha, and it explains at least in part why Kralorela was presented that way. This is what we have, it is what affects us as alien observers of a mythical Cathay of our (ancestors') own making, and it probably is what prompted this thread. Are you referring to the terror tactics in Puchai and then Jaubon which he used to challenge Godunya to an (unprecedented) second contest? His third return in 1442 allowed Sheng to conquer all of Kralorela - presumably including the bridges - and to remain in power until 1460. Possibly in the wake of the spread of Herakles worship in the wake of Alexander's campaign, with the traditions of Pankration. (At least that was suggested in some of the Wing Tsun literature.) But then Marco Polo might simply have deemed the Chinese ways of boxing and wrestling as irrelevant or not exciting as there were contemporary European boxing and wrestling styles and martial literature not very different from the Chinese ones. Albrecht Dürer's book on combat shows many moves that are standard in Wing Tsun style kung fu. Although, to be honest, the guerilla warfare of Alfred of Wessex against Guthrum is very similar in theme. Most of the wuxia I have consumed is full of weapons (and weird ones at that). The Wing Tsun advice I have read for e.g. fighting weaponless against an opponent with a blade, or against multiple sources of missiles, can be summarized as "don't". If those Gloranthan weaponless styles add some magic enhancement to the unarmed combat, ok. I haven't seen any evidence of that yet, though, all that has been used ruleswise in RQ3 (players book) is the same Martial Arts skill that affects weaponless attacks that is in RQG. Meditative katas certainly are a thing, whether armed or unarmed. They can be useful for building up weapon proficiency (including bare hands and feet), but relying on them exclusively in a combat situation probably is a liability. Already Lee borrowed from showy styles in some of his work, as the very economic style of Wing Tsun doesn't always lend itself to good cinema. The wood puppet training probably is quite straight from his school, but other than a warm-up excercise those air strikes in the initial stages of a combat aren't anything like the teachings I got to read. Jackie Chan doing drunk monkey style is of course more extreme, but I haven't seen much of full contact ground combat or lat sau in any wuxia movie (which are admittedly few). It just is the opposite of cinematic.

Does this address the yogic means to achieve Kundalini, or is this in the context of Jung's analysis of Kundalini, or the physiological symptoms thereof? There is no indication in Kralorela for split brains or split tongues in their pursuit of draconic wisdom, unlike the EWF practices.

Or vice versa, and each and every concrete myth about one of these entities involves an aspect or avatar. Ebe is also Iste/Majadan, or at least an aspect of that principle. That's Vogmaradan. The story of Malkion mating with various goddesses before finally mating with Tilnta (=Uleria) to breed the three higher caste sons is similar. But then, we aren't given any runes for Malkioni entities other than the Invisible God. Assigning such runes is what the God Learners did, and they were mostly quite correct. At the same time, their attempts to reduce everything to just these runes usually made them miss crucial differences. Any such combination describes only one way at looking at these entities. The Core Runes are shared between Theyalan and Malkioni cultures, and adjacent cultures like the Dara Happans of the Gods Wall have derivatives which share such representations. Vith is the directional ruler, same as Yelm the Celestial Emperor. The source of mysticism is Oorduren, of whom Vith was a disciple. It would be interesting to see a quest proving that Vith really is Sedenya. Lord of Mysticism - no doubt. Source of Mysticism? Interestingly, Govmeranen has a dragon as father, Dogsalu, represented by Draconis Stella, elsewhere known as Sh'Harkazeel. About the non-draconic nature of the Emperor, take a look at Sandy Petersen's take of the Emperor mini for Gods War. Rather than limiting the dragon to the throne, we get the Emperor in draconic splendour. Trying to look for identity or significant differences between HeenMaroun, Govmeranen and Yelm in Revealed Mythologies is confused by the (IMO mistaken) chapter sub-headings for the Gods Cycle - it should be Govmeranen's Reign, not Osdero's Reign. Govmeranen is overcome by Oorsu Saru. Afterwards, we don't hear about him any more. Govmeranen's Palace or at least a stairway down (?!?) to its ruin is located on Mokato. That was my impression before we got into this fragmenting imperial sun business started with GRoY, too, so I don't really disagree. But then, we have a name for a Storm Age enlightenment deity - Rashoran(a). The Kralori name Metsyla the Eagle Phoenix Emperor, and HeenMaroun's teacher in Enlightenment. That's a bit of a parallel to Vith studying under Oorduren, but also like Rashoran teaching the Pelorian and select Theyalan deities. Osdero is specifically the son of Harantara (known to the Kralori as Thrunhin Da) and thereby kin to the seas that mark his end. Metsyla shares the end, but no mention is made of his origin. I wonder about the significance of the Phoenix in Metsyla's/Osdero's title. Kralorela having TarnGatha, HeenMaroun and Metsyla as distinct from Vith, Govmeranen and Osdero suggests to me that earliest Kralorela does deviate from Vithela in some respects. Ebe the Wild Man surely is not one of the Dancers. Okerio as child of Earthmaker suggests a Hsunchen connection, but Shavaya may represent yet another tradition of which little survived. It is a bit like the fragments of Kesinliddi bird influence on the mainstreamed Dara Happan myth. A rather strong series of myths like the Ratite Empire and various Kestins left unexplored, or subsumed in Antirius/Yelmalio. Shavaya is the culture hero Emperor. Aptanace is as much the Culture Hero, though probably of a different part/province of Kralorela - probably the Hsunchen side. The Dara Happan correspondence might be Anaxial. Vormain has Valzain?

Personally, I don't think we have just a single parallel for Kralorela in China. We have China through its ages, with lots of quite different dominant ethnicities. And a lot of uninformed impressions of westerners of China. And yes, I am going to ignore the upset about cultural appropriation here. All of Glorantha is about cultural appropriation where it isn't wildly original, and even those keep appropriating elements from cultures that never were asked. Take for instance the Praxians with their plains American native loans - about as politically incorrect as you can get. But then, people are invested on the Praxians (which keeps astonishing me, frankly - in my Glorantha they are a side effect comparable to the Ducks, established, but not a place I would base my gaming on). Kublai Khan's china as reported by Marco Polo is the source for many a fantasy china. This in itself isn't the most typical period of China, although a group of horse nomads ascending to Emperorhood wasn't unique at all. Kublai Khan combined the unparalleled might of the Mongolian horse armies referred to as hordes with the conquered bureaucracy trained to worship a powerful ordering hand. This makes me wonder whether Kublai's Cathay would be a good model for Sheng Seleris's empire. True, this is usurping the Mongol trope on our Pentans, which have been portrayed as something closer to the Yamnayan successor cultures in the Pontic steppe in recent years. Sheng Seleris has been demonized by his opponents, and is about to be demonized again by Argrath - the very fellow who is going to bring him back from a deeper Hell than Arkat and Talor ever experienced (and they, too, had been imprisoned by an illuminated and chaos-using empire). There are sides to Sheng or his minions which should make us wary about accusing him to have brought an era of invigorated prosperity to those who accepted his rule, but on the whole, something like this appears to have been the case. Another major source for our uninformed Western impression of mythical china comes from the kung fu action movies churned out by Hongkong. Leaving aside all the ones playing in modern times, there are many set in a historical context. And apparently, the target audience isn't necessarily the western market, as you don't really see dubbed versions of these in your cinemas. Wuxia movies are a fringe market in western media, although a well-beloved one by its fans. I don't recall Marco Polo reporting anything notable about chinese martial arts, he was way too busy admiring their technology, food, and administration. What military and martial exploits he described was that of the mongol rulers, like their postal system. Yet there are dojos (what's that Japanese term doing here) of martial artists all over Kralorela, and for some reason quite a lot of those martial arts involve weaponless combat. A friend of mine has given me a couple of textbooks from his Wing Tsun martial arts classes (which he practices now in the lowest teacher grades, last things I heard). Yes, that's the same school that Bruce Lee branched off when he included opera styles in his movies. Another source for Asians looking at their old history that is open for the uninformed Westerner are mangas, manhwas or whatever else they are called locally. They vary as strongly in their choice of artistic styles as do American or European comic books/Graphic novels, but there are quite a few going for quite realistic depiction of people and using mythological themes unrelated to Western or D&D influences. (Those abound, too...) I don't think that mythologies can be taught by anything but immersion. The uninformed Westerner with a fascination for mythical Cathay has a few avenues to draw the sources for his immersion from. Hong Kong movies and their spill-over to Hollywood are a common avenue. The travels of Marco Polo and all the literature spawned off from his book, and the archaeological reconstruction of his observations are a common avenue. Our museums with exhibitions like the terracotta army (which doesn't do a very good job of conveying the context, IMO) are an avenue, though heavily tinted by their Imperialist origins in private collections of cultural appropriation. Mangas, as mentioned. Does Kralorela need real world influences other than China? I don't think so. It already has Gloranthan influences that are wildly different from anything any version of these Chinas have, like the Hsunchen origin of the population. Can it do with less China? Probably yes, although its role in exchange with the God Learners is pretty much this, as may be the case for Vormain. I have a somewhat different problem: leaving aside whether there are traces of Cathay in Kralorela or (even less so) traces of Nippon in Vormain, we are dealing with another stratified Celestial/Solar Empire here. Vith is somewhat interesting as he represents both the Upper, Celestial Sky and the Lower, Underworld Sky in a single entity. None of the human successor states, whether Kralorela, Vormain or the greater East Isles leader cultures, embrace that dualism or transcendence of that dualism.

Kralorela has always been the land of the dragonewts. An unbroken string of Inhuman Kings/Dragon Emperors should be assumed in order to enable the Kralori dragonewts a survival in strength, as opposed to the survival in weakness their Dragon Pass cousins suffered. Whether this unbroken string of emperors applied as much to the humans as it applied to the dragonewts is another question. Did the dragonewts require an Inhuman King for re-hatching from their eggs prior to the arrival of Death? The False Dragon Ring with Shang-Hsa MHNBC somehow failed to interfere negatively with the dragonewts. It looks like Shang-Hsa was a sufficiently draconic entity to allow continued rebirth of the dragonewts despite his other failings. To my knowledge, Sheng Seleris never interfered with the dragonewts of Hum Chang and Fanzai. (Neither is there much evidence of Sheng doing anything with or about the Bridges of Godunya.) So how are the Kralori humans tied to the emperors? There is an old theory that the Kralori humans are descendants of dragon hsunchen, but that may very well be a God Learner fallacy misunderstanding the Korgatsu rites of the eastern Hsunchen. All Korgatsu hsunchen are dragon hsunchen. (Hykimi are Serpent Brothers, Fiwan follow the Horned Serpent Amuron, who is the Namahs of the Pamalt pantheon, or possibly his fetch.) The False Dragon Ring apparently takes the approach that a (reverse-engineered) Hsunchen-like transformation into a dragon (or at least a very advanced dragonewt) is secret to how the emperor rules over the humans. Several modern Kralori subgroups bear clear relationships to extant or former hsunchen populations, creating significant variety in the Kralori descended from this kind of ancestry. It is possible that Daruda integrated a great mass of former hsunchen into the imperial population. That would make him something like an apostate shaman (but then, that's a fair description of Sheng Seleris, too).

I would rather say that Darudism is the officials' religion, and sort of the umbrella path to the afterlife (the Book of the Dead function of the Dragon Emperor to ferry the souls from the waiting place to ascension upon his utuma). There is plenty of theism, animism and sorcery in Kralorela, all with its cults or schools or animal totems, and with its semi-acculturated invaders. The case of xenophobia is overstated, IMO. Foreigners having undergone a minimal acculturation are tolerated. Most of the Kralori sages predate Daruda by a dynasty or three. They aren't (or haven't been) draconic in origin (unless you reckon that Wild Man and Allgiver are high eastern deities equal to dragons). If Kralori subscribe to a thesis of multiple souls similar to those of central Genertela, then a distributed afterlife is possible. If that's the case, then the departing emperor will only be responsible for ascending the Darudic soul of a deceased individual.

Vostor's Moon rune covers all of the Young Elementals (i.e. Darkness, Water, Earth or Fire as small elementals). In addition to "summon cult spirit" the caster also needs "command cult spirit" to make the elemental do anything.

In many ways as the local fight of the bull defender against the devil. Only here the bull is the attacker. Perhaps some parallel to Heler being released from the dragon (Enkoshons/Aroka). The detail that the rain deity needs to be put together after slaying the monster is distinctive. Yes - his fight against the regional devil is in many ways a reflection of Storm Bull's fight in Prax. But at the same time, this is fighting Daga. Storm Bull has no requirement of having a dick - being one is sufficient. A couple of berserk chicks are in the Griselda stories. The Eternal Battle followed Earthfall, and most of the earth defenders would have been turned into the Copper Sands or worse there. There weren't many deities suitable for women left active in the world. Babeester stood guard over her sleeping mother (and aunts, I suppose), taking on all comers, but not leaving that post. Maran probably was with her sister. Sun Daughter (the Praxian ur-Yelmalio) might qualify.

You need to roll whenever you use First Aid. But you have the choice whether to use First Aid just to stop the bleeding (which takes one melee round) or whether you use it to heal damage (which takes five melee rounds). The difference (IMO) is that the person applying First Aid doesn't do any other active stuff in that time. Also, if the giver of First Aid parries or dodges in that time, the recipient uses 2 hit points. Same if the First Aid giver or recipient casts a Heal spell. Basically, if you decide just to stop the bleeding, the chance for getting HP back is gone. On the plus side, the recipient can fight on without losing two hit points. If you decide to go for the healing, more care (and possibly some needlework) is involved, and both characters are out of any other action for five melee rounds. Revival of an unconscious character may occur if the 5 melee round version of First Aid brings the hit points from below zero up to 1 or more. IMO you roll only once. You decide whether to just staunch the bleeding (a consequence of special hits or chest/abdomen/head wounds with more than location HP damage) or to heal hit points before the roll. Interestingly, stopping the bleeding allows a re-roll if your first roll was a failure. I wouldn't allow a re-roll to heal any hit points, though. A fumble will cost 1D3 hit points even on an attempt just to stop the bleeding.

If that isn't enlightenment/Illumination, what is?

On the matter of non-mammalian boobs and nourishing liquids, just as aldryami boobs should generate nectar, so might sweat-lactating platypus duck females have some special down to soak up liquid that might bulge out a little. Imitation of organs by feathers isn't exactly unknown - great creste grebes, "horned owls" or "eared owls" for instance.

The Eleven Troll Battles state that the Great Victory followed a battle between Kajabor and Wakboth. I always assumed that that battle had been the event that sent Kajabor into the Underworld, as there is no other claimant for slaying the Devil other than Storm Bull. Kajabor's journey down may have taken a while, though. IFWW should have coincided with the Ritual of the Net. Boztakang is mentioned again for Winter Win (not shown on the map), which would be the other opportunity to have dispersed Pocharngo. Otherwise, assuming that the battle which saw the mutation of the Cave Trolls was one of these eleven battles, that army would have had to be afflicted at Stormfall. Personally, I think that Kajabor and Pocharngo emerged from the Implosion of the Spike, and were not part of Wakboth's initial invasion from the North. Krarsht had already been present (Predark) and could have joined Wakboth's host for the Siege of the Castle of Lead, and Tien is a son of Wakboth, but most of the major Chaos deities not descended from Wakboth should have swarmed the world only after the Implosion of the Spike. But then, Pocharngo might be the "child" of Larnste and Krarsht, and the Foulblood Forest his birthplace. Krjalk appears to be one of the Wakbothi deities, with his branching off to Icebreak (aided by Zzabur). But then, his Prosopaedia entry suggests otherwise: (https://www.glorantha.com/docs/krjalk/) I do wonder about the relationship between Pelandan YarGan and the Theyalan-known Chaos entities.

Uz Lore (2nd ed version, of 1982) mentions Pocharngo as an enemy overcome by Bozkatang after having mutated previous victims.

The ducks and keets are all related to webbed feet birds, birds with both water and sky as parents. At least that's what Tholaina tells us. Reducing their sorry state to the Sky connection (a captured sky being, according to Tholaina's Prosopaedia entry) leaves out their water ancestry. It doesn't seem very likely that any cursed being would gain sky attributes like beaks or feathers. (I won't rule out the possibility that the ducks stole these from the dismembering of Hippogriff, though...)

While a book isn't meant to be read in one go, I would at least demand concentration rolls to keep your mind on the topic of the book rather than casting your Logician spell when studying it.

Yes, but for it to have an effect you need to spend about 14 points on duration, and then some on intensity. Or a couple of POW for inscribing the spell.

Not Arkatism, no. I think something to do with how the wizard side failed, and an -ism I had not seen anywhere before.

I'd apply them to the use of material. The rules as presented allow you to buy ready-made alchemy kits from some organisation, but these lores would either allow you to prepare your material yourself, or to husband the resources for better efficiency/more applications. Speaking as a chemist, recovery rates in a preparatory process are a big deal when aiming for the best possible use of your material. The rest is expensive and annoying gunk.

ZZ is fine using cave trolls (who bear a chaos taint and have chaotic regeneration abilities) as ablative meat alongside their posthumous cult members and victims. Hatred is a huge part of what ZZ is about, the choice of target is fairly secondary. Chaos is a notable rival for maximum scariness, and has done things to the trolls that fuel that hatred, but fire cults are as bad. Pacifist vegetarian broos are indeed nothing short of a miracle. Illumination can be quite powerful, and the seed may have come from a Chalanan who got afflicted with chaotic features but managed to hold on to her tenets. Possibly got illuminated in the process, possibly even gave birth to those broos survivng by healing herself. (Or himself... broo births don't require any sexual organs, and any kind of opening to the body will do for insemination, including a spear wound.) Biologists might argue whether broos really have male genitals or rather ovipositors.

Speaking as a rules-playing munchkin, delaying reading such books will increase their benefit greatly as your chance to fail your skill check diminishes at high proficiency, while the book still gives a straight bonus. OTOH, there might be a skill cap for each book beyond which it becomes useless. While a good trainer can teach a student to surpass the trainer's practical abilities, even that has limits.