Joerg

The gifts (wishes granted) themselves wouldn't be dangerous, but the balance is terrible. If the people were Maranites, then blood to the earth will be a likely answer, and Maran is hungry, so potentially lots of blood. And if it is a price to pay, probably blood you wouldn't normally want spilled. I think I would go for the nymph/genius loci explanation. Granting wishes at a terrible price sounds like some Balancer entity, and the entire temptation stuff fits into the non-illumination insight school of arduous mysticism. Not really draconic mysticism, either. Nysalorean riddles appear to be a non-meditative form of mystic insight, planted on you by riddlers and waiting to be realized.

My thoughts were "wrong bear, wrong beard." A polar bear is going to be a lot more baseball cap than that short-nosed brown bear.

Those geese tend to bite you, or at least natter loudly at you at the slightest movement. Vicious things, plucky as hell, better bring pliers. But then, those cultists you are supposed to lead by example can exhibit the same nasty traits, and they would be less tasty when roasted. Seriously, I don't see spirit mastery or spirit plane travel as normal rune lord powers. The backdoor from Hell quest and jts stakes and cost should be written up for both RQG and HQG, and it might well include some permanent loss of rune points when necessary. It is far more convenient than normal resurrection, as you don't need your old body to return (as proven by Belintar, who returned a couple of times after his body had been destroyed or eaten). You might have to hunt for your old body up and immolate it properly, or something like that, similar to the quest of that unlucky dragonewt (in Griffin Mountain, IIRC) hunting down the skin of its previous incarnation which had been made into dragonewt armor. A copy of the Book of Belintar should be helpful to learn this quest. It might have been a standard reward for surviving participation in the Tournament of the Masters of Luck and Death as anything but the winner, at least after a certain point in that questing tournament. That means you will have lost at least one Heroquest challenge... might still be worth the price.

There is dead to the world (which you are as soon as you enter the Underworld, in a Schrödinger's Cat way) and dead to the Underworld (bereft of agency). Your companions might still be able to drag you back out of Hell. You will be either freshly dead, as Time doesn't corrupt you in the Underworld, or dead for the length of your absence from the surface world. Questing into the Lands of the Dead shouldn't be the norm, IMO, unless you are about to steal Death from Darkness or to bring back someone long gone from the world on the LBQ, or similar. (There are underworlds which aren't part of the Lands of the Dead, like the one ruled by Lodril or Monster Man. You might use the Castles of Lead or the stairwell beneath Shadow Plateau to descend without having to pass the Court of the Dead, but if you wish to proceed to Ty Kora Tek or Maggotliege, you will have to cross another barrier of Death. The feasting Hall of Argan Argar should be reachable without formally having died (being a former part of Lodril's domain), but you would arrive there without being drawn towards the hall of Maggotliege where you might claim an entity of light for your price. The dungeons of that place would be part of the Lands of the Dead, though. IMO, you should leave Death behind if you want to enter the Golden Age or some previous period. That shouldn't mean you have to do the entire Westfaring/Descent stick whenever you quest - it gets as long in the wind and tedious (to play or narrate) as the stairwell into the Cthulhu Dreamlands. (That might mean that in order to go to Orlanth's final contest with Yelm, you'd have to wrestle away or steal Humakt's sword on the quest.)

RQ2 prices are in the table on p.48. Selling price is 200 L per point of healing. Potion cost is ten times ingredient cost, potion potency is limited by your knowledge and your training in making the potion. If you want to make them yourself as associate member of the guild, you need to sell about 30/potion strength plus 12 potions to break even (paying for training cost and guild association), compared to buying them from some alchemist. If you decide to learn a stronger version, it's 12 sold potions again. As with casting Battle Magic, you should be able to make a weaker potion than your training would allow you to produce.

My contact with D&D lore was through ADHD 1st edition, which no longer had such discrimination. It also had the dreaded half-elves. Revealed Mythologies is the best collection of such snippets. Add the description of Arolanit in the second volume of the Guide, the snippets in the God Learner Maps, and you have pretty much all that was officially published. There is quite a bit more in unpublished stories by Greg, but those were produced in a very small print run as rewards for 1000$+ backers of the Guide, or some of them auctioned off as single copies of ring-bound photocopies at conventions. Given how much I paid for my copy of Hrestol's Saga, that backers reward was a steal. I own German translations of the red and light blue Moldvay boxes, but never played those. In the mid eighties northern Germany, playing the Moldvay boxes was akin to playing DSA (the first and second editions, nowadays The Dark Eye), and not that well regarded by the D&D and convention grognards from the late seventies. Were these in the rules, or did they appear in scenarios? Not published as the complete setting, but plenty high quality locales. Check out https://www.rpg.net/columns/designers-and-dragons/designers-and-dragons13.phtml The setting of the Riftwar era could be reverse engineered from a combination of those products and the novels by Feist. There is a wiki: https://midkemia.fandom.com/wiki/Midkemia_Wiki To be honest, I never played either. The only such game other than rogue-like ASCII questing (mainly Nethack) that I ever played a tíny bit was Betrayal at Krondor on someone else's computer (still was using my Atari ST at the time). I did play the original Warcraft.

Not ok. I've been called out for that, correctly, but I still despair about Orlanthi hoplites. Orlanthi in conquered or imitation hoplite armor are acceptable, although their magic and heavy armor don't gel that well. I am a representative of the grumbling grognards, really. I am mightily irked at "don't use land-locked Vikings any more" when we get "use land-locked Achaeans" instead which makes about as much or as little sense, and it doesn't make sense for a culture that has been described as non-Greek (aka Barbarian) until the most recent re-phrasing as "bronze-working tribal chiefdoms" in the Guide. Greek parallels are fine for western Peloria, which even has two large lakes and navigable rivers to play around with penteconters. Glorantha doesn't have any parallel for the Mediterranean (any more). The Homeward Ocean is aptly named for the sailing conditions it offers. Its real world parallel could be the Indic Ocean, but not the Mediterranean where triremes could opeate in fair weather. Don't get me started on ram-armed bird-headed penteconters for Wolf Pirates originating from Ygg's Isles when the ancestrally neighboring Loskalmi have long ships and knarrs for their sea transport and warfare...

The prophecies are made about M.Blue, not by him. The prophecy that none of his children will read doesn't really foresage the Illiteracy Era, as only Karendra doesn't die out of the four children born to him. Estkepo is only mentioned in a Fourth Age document, which makes it rather unrelated to anything we know. Unlike the report on the trolls with its "subtly hidden" secret message in bold typeface, this text is sigificantly shorter, has no obvious markings (which may admittedly have been lost in copying), and is dated to the eve of Phargentes' invasion of Dragon Pass. The 1629 events are interesting, too. "We kill Dinacoli." They have always been a problematic tribe, and were part of the anti-Telmori alliance that became the Jonstown confederation (of six tribes if you include Telmori and Torkani). "Telmori promise revenge, quarrel with Argrath." This is cryptic. Revenge sounds like the wolf-skinning already has been done. Do the Telmori quarrel with Argrath, or do Minaryth's company (that of Asborn Fourborn) or the Wolfrunners quarrel with Argrath after the wolf-skinning?

The revised hardback edition of King of Sartar has made a few small alterations to the Events of My Life list, including mentions of the Great Winter that were absent from the softcover edition. It deviates from the information given in the Adventure Book - Minaryth claims that Fistivos, Colymar king before Kallai, died fighting Telmori, whereas the Adventure Book credits Kallai with killing is predecessor. Now what business would a Colymar king have fighting Telmori in1603? The closest ones would be in Boldhome, as part of the royal bodyguard, although the absence of a Prince might mean that the Boldhome contingent was absent prior to the discovery of Temertain. It surely would have been a bad environment for Goram Whitefang, son-in-law of Terasarin and connected to the House of Sartar through his grandmother Onelisin. (There is a remote possibility that Fistivos may have been involved in the assassination of Terasarin's daughter Tarkala, or have given shelter to one of the assassins, and that Kallai assisted Goram in taking revenge. Fistivos' Seven Brothers clan is absent from the Colymar clan list, and his appearance so shortly after the Lunar conquest is suspicious, too.) One entry I wondered about is "1607: Clearwine burned." This is in the middle of King Kallai's reign, with no mention in the Colymar King list or the history of Clearwine. "Minara killed" (same year). There are a few deaths mentioned in the list, probably kinsfolk of the author, but he also keeps track of royalty. Minara probably is a fairly common name in Sartar. But this could also be the daughter of Onelisin, born in 1639 as the presumably youngest of the triplets born to Onelisin and Jostharl. Another thing that is somewhat strange that Minaryth keeps accompanying his mother through her marriage to the Orlmarth. How does a Hiording woman end up in Tarkalor's Keep with a son not claimed by either the local clan or the Hiordings, or if he remained Hiording, why did he grow up among the Orlmarth and in those many places?

Checking "Evens of my Life" by Minaryth Blue, who was gifted with a writing quill at birth, shows no sign of such an internship.

One book I found quite instructive is The Way of Wyrd by Brian Bates, telling the story of a monk's introduction into the quite shamanic ways of a pagan magician. For a historical fantasy, I enjoyed Poul Anderson's King of Ys series - four books on a fictional Phoenician city in Late Roman Aremorica (actually using Martin of Tours as one of the protagonists), about a Mithraic Roman prefect in the service of Magnus Maximus, based on the Bretonic myths about the drowned city. I found it influencing my views of the Holy Country. I eventually read it, but his first novel really made a barrier to his others. Greg wrote a huge endorsement for the mythic aspects of Watership Down. The fact that the protagonists aren't human makes this quite good preparatory reading for anyone wishing to play non-human species. The social moles of the Duncton Chronicles by William Horwood are another example of "furry" spirit quests, biologically implausible, but possibly quite Hsunchen. Chronologically, Maia is a prequel to the events in Shardik.

The Zistorites (not the God Learners in general) were mass-producing magical swords that worked just fine in Zistorela on Kostern Island (in God Forgot) but which became basically mundane weapons (of inferior quality to Heortling ones) when removed from that place far enough. The crystals powering that magic clearly drew on some magic source inherent to that place, or inherent to the God Machine running below the Clanking City. Another way to create a magical artifact is to take an ordinary item to a heroquest, identify it with a mythical item, and return holding that artifact. This method is commonly used by all heroquesters, and the number of such items depends on the number of your heroquesters and heroquests. In this, the God Learners certainly had an advantage over most other cultures, although the Holy Country proved to be a hotspot of heroquesting, and its daughter culture in Sartar as well. The HeroQuest 1 material had the Chain of Veneration for the Malkioni, a method to channel and redistribute the magical advantage accumulated by their Worship Invisible God rites somewhat more directly to their zzaburi, possibly side-stepping the formation of a wyter, but then the history of Hrestol does suggest that he was more than aware of wyter magics. His quest to slay Ifttala, daughter of Seshna Likita and ancestress of the Pendali, was basically the quest to slay the wyter of the Pendali peoples. Snodal's quest to slay the God of the Silver Feet is similar. It is worth mentioning that these God-Slaying quests have very negative consequences for the questers.

Given that the creator of the world was practicing shamanism and included his personal experiences in the game's approach to shamanism, I would say that these experiences have a high degree of relevance (to avoid writing a weird version of Germany). Instead, they can end up in psychosis or coma, at least as far as materialists observing them are concerned, which may be attributed to their use of psychoactive and poisonous substances. In case of doubt, undergo the steps of "Becoming an Initiate" pp.274f., adapted to the entity. At least those before the POW sacrifice - replace those with the acceptance of taboos. That's my main worry with a party with only few people able to discorporate, too. At the very least, you will have to deal with a split party.

I don't know whether I can agree to that blanket statement. Children don't receive any personal magic (spirit or rune magic), but it will be hard to keep them from exercising their passions. Do their runes manifest in the course of the adulthood rites? Or are they there already, only not yet tattooed? Children will learn the public dances of the rites, and will be encouraged and often even required to participate, in order to receive blessings. They will learn the general overview over their myths, their lineages, and quite possibly the markings used by Issaries to count and label goods or harvested items. They are likely to pick up Tradetalk, too, and possibly some understanding of the rote verses in Stormspeech and Earthspeech used by everyone in the liturgies. And sooner or later children will become initiands who are taught the basics of magic in preparation for their adulthood rites. Not yet actual spells, but controlled sacrifice of magical energy in the worship services, for instance. And already small children will be taught how to invoke (passive) protective charms that aid them against e.g. spirits.

The historical equivalents are numerous but not that well known unless you spent some time "researching" cultures as ancient as their real world parallels. Greeks invoke images of Marathon, Salamis, Thermopylae - and that's as little in-period as the armor style in Excalibur for early British dark age Romano-British heroic militia. The culture of the Orlanthi is that of lactose-tolerant farmer-herders that came into being at the start of the Bronze Age, with agriculture having radiated out from the northern bend of the Fertile Crescent all over the Old World, and dairy-dependent pastoralism added around the same time that Bronze replaced copper tools. Where agriculture or sacred services required communal works, cities and bureaucracies would have come into being - often before the adoption of pastoralism. The Orlanthi live in a region that has real winters, with snow and frost. That is bound to be reflected in their housing and their winter dress, but need not carry over into their summer and battle dress, as military operations in the winter are not a good idea. They are a mix of free and tenant farmers, where the tenants are less wealthy but beyond those economic considerations as free as the free farmers. All men are warriors when given the need or opportunity. Equipment will vary. You will find a similar social structure in Germanic farmer republics, some of which managed to maintain much independence from royal interference into the early modern Age. Most people north of the Alps or the Danube had such social structures in the Bronze Age. In the fertile Crescent and the Mediterranean, often a lot less so, as their continued welfare required coordination and organisation beyond what free farmers organized in extended family groupings (clans) could provide. Orlanthi usually inhabited hilly country, with uplands that are too inhospitable in winter but good grazing in summer, which leads to the practice of transhumance, leading a significant portion of the lifestock away from the permanent settlements into these uplands. Elsewhere, herds would follow the rains, here the herds avoid the snow. The Anatolian uplands do offer such conditions, so maybe the Anatolian Bronze Age cultures (think allies of the Trojans in the Trojan War) might be an appropriate parallel. Otherwise, the precursors of the Thracians and Dacians, the Hallstatt Culture people and their Urnfield precursors are my favorite parallel, as I know too little about Bronze Age Afghanistan or Northern India to decide whether those conditions and social structures were similar enough. The cities in Sartar are mostly the centers of tribal confederations, with the surrounding tribes owning significant parts of the cities. There are also non-tribal city folk, the well-to-do organized in guilds or similar clan-like organisations, the poor as destitute beggars, entertainers, street vendors or day laborers. Most cities were founded less than 150 years ago and were planned cities, copying internal organisation and architecture of the Holy Country or the dwarves (who were very friendly to the dynasty until a century ago). The cities made it through the Lunar conquest and the liberation without signifciant damage. The only walled settlement that was destroyed in the conquest over 20 years ago is Runegate, rebuilt as described in the Adventure Book of the GM Screen package, and that was not a typical Sartarite city but a fortified tribal center. Seafaring: Sartar is completely land-locked, and while it lies on two trade routes leading to the major sea ports for central Genertela, it has no naval experience at all except for some of the closest companions of Argrath and a few far-travelled individuals. Water traffic is limited to the mostly durulz (duck)-operated river boats on the Creek-Stream River to Nochet (which had been severely diminished due to a pogrome a dozen years ago). RQ3 had rules for ships and sailing, but the only Glorantha publication digging deeply into that topic is "Men of the Sea" for HeroQuest 1 (not RuneQuest). Excellent book, cheap as pdf, highly recommended even though some details are no longer supported as canonical. Seafaring in Glorantha was impossible until two generations ago, due to a great curse that swept the Gloranthan seas free of all ships about 700 years ago. The last 45 years have seen the return to the seas, almost with a vengeance. Naval trade, journeys of discovery, raiding and conquest have blossomed in the last two generations, ancient port sites have returned to prominence lost during the long curse. A few coastal waters and one notable inland water (Lake Felster) had managed to maintain some naval tradition. If you want Aegaean style seafaring in a rather narrow water, Lake Felster at the heart of Ralios is your friend. Fleet sizes are rather small compared to the Aegaean, but so is the available area of water. The lake is connected to the sea by the Tanier river, a quite broad and fairly navigable waterway, but political divisions prevent an exchange of fleets between the lake and the open seas so far. The major power on the river once controlled all the lands between the sea and the lake, but at that time the seas still had not been opened. The local naval power used to be the Holy Country, but that entity has largely fallen apart into its constituent portions since its Godking did not return from the Dead nine years ago. Others like the Lunars or King Broyan temporarily unified some of those lands, but currently there is no unified government, the Wolf Pirates are back from their circumnavigation of the inner ocean of Glorantha, and naval trade has become risky once more.

Depending on how long you will be playing in the setting, the players may eventually heroquest: enter the realm of their gods, experience their feats, and bring back magic from those experiences to change their fate. Knowing Jeff, I expect that the first heroquests for RQG are written, but I have no idea when they will be published. Why do they enter the myths? Because some problem requires bigger than normal magic, possibly even some permanent change to the myths. Until then, they will be tasked to help their communities to navigate difficult times. Indeed. The near future of Argrath will see his wooing of the Feathered Horse Queen (presumably covered at least in preparation in the announced Grazeland scenarios), a trip to the Holy Country to make peace there and to hire the Wolf Pirates, and his campaign to aid the Fazzurites against the King of Tarsh, leading to the conquest of Tarsh and the foul play of Mularik Ironeye on Argrath's honor - at least if your campaign (and the near future supplements' timeline) follows the outline in King of Sartar. There are other things your campaign might do, in order to prepare the community for survival, possibly tied to some later activity of Argrath, and not necessarily always on his side. The Telmori massacre is an opportunity to take a dissident position, at least to a faction among his supporters. The Wolf Runners may end up to be the Telmori tribe sworn to the Prince (whether from the bottom of their heart or in self-preservation), rather than their prospective slayers, and the actions of your players might create that outcome. Whichever side the player party may end on, the outcome will be significant to them.

Orlanthi worshipping "Eurmal, Friend of Men" and "Vorthan" (who appears in Dragon Pass as an enemy deity named Jagrekriand) and putting way more weight on bull traditions than the shepherders of central Genertela are bound to be somewhat different. I agree - Fronela appears to be a lot easier to handle, with resident Orlanthi, Malkionized Orlanthi, and initiate-to-Rune Master people rising from the population. That used to be the case when Seshnela had (Castle-Coast) style Men of All rather than Rokari style military Talars, although there used to be a significant overlap between Talar-caste nobles and Men of All. The short passage in the RQG rules suggests that the Horali use Hykimi beast magic, possibly variants of Hsunchen shape changer magic adapted to Malkioni soldiery, taking on magical but not bodily aspects of that change. That's why I would play this from the perspective of Gebel and his quest for the Sword of Tolat, making Gabaryanga his tragic at first noble then more and more corrupt ally.

I'd suggest you name that cult "Kimantor".

The sorcery use of a rune can be destructive (Tap, Dismiss, Separate), also in connection with temporary reality (aka Illusion). I guess that using the Truth Rune to infer the Illusion Rune would count as "casting with the Illusion Rune".

Sure. Earthquakes are a proven method to collapse temples, so can be precision meteor strikes or tornadoes. Fire damage, corrosive agents on the regalia, a thunder beast earth shaker charge... A Seven Mothers temple might have a portal to a Chaos Void. Might be of use to dispose of regalia. Approaching the wyter in the magical equivalent of bomb disposal team armor (spirit screen, Shield, countermagic, sorcerous stuff) will even the odds. Eliminating the direct contact of the wyter will hamper its information flow and decision making. (Depending on the contact person, eliminating the human component might things worse, though.) There are ways to desecrate consecrated areas, just like there are ways to remove the markers of a Warding. A price might have to be paid, in health or magic. Often the guardian spirits will have specific foes in their past. Find them and convince them to aid your cause. In case of doubt, the tactics of the Battle of the Somme do work, although there is a cost.

You'll have to find the entity first, and bypass guardians and possibly other petitioners. Ideally establish a personal connection through small gifts (sacrifices) to be recognized as a friendly visitor. Bring catnip for its beast companion, that kind of stuff. Greater Entities are entities you meet with respect and some humility, although also with purpose. Getting that balance wrong means your bargaining might be harder than necessary. Some entities will gamble rather than trade niceties. So will some traditions - the Kolat tradition as described in Heortling Mythology for instance.

I would support the "hive entity" disease spirit theory for ease of aligning it with the concept of infection by infectious material. Whether the spirit is attracted by miasmas that corrupt stuff around them to increase their presence or whether disease is just a fermentation process of miasma that results in a spirit entity doesn't matter much. Contact with infectious matter or people (i.e. carriers of disease spirits) doesn't automatically bud off a disease spirit. It is almost like the disease spirit steals its magic from the prospective victim.

Giving unfiltered examples of Cypriotic glazings, Mesopotamian or Anatolian frescoes and Roman statuary copying classical Greek or Pontic statuary doesn't help much, either. Did I say that you have to buy these books? A simple image search with google (and probably other search engines of your choice) delivers samples of the artwork: A link to Jan Pospisil's art from the Guide, the sourcebook and HQG. (Warning - might contain nipples, so you have to type in your age. I wonder what happens if you type in less than three months...) https://www.deviantart.com/merlkir/art/HQG-Esroli-and-Pelorian-Influence-564421715 Also check out the gallery on the right side. http://www.portablecity.net/character-designs-heroquest-glorantha/ A collection of character designs for the Red Cow books, from the artist's portfolio. Exactly the images I was talking about. Sorry, but pointing to Osprey Trojan War pictures, or stultified/bowdlerized childrens books renditions thereof, is mis-information. These samples are reasonably available in the artists portfolios, with meaningful search terms for anyone sufficiently literate to find a website. Look at the sources produced for canonical Gloranthan products, not some dubious pictures of Cu Chullain or Agamemnon, or the Hermann bronze statue in Teutoburger Wald. Or some Hollywood attempt at depicting period equipment. (Bollywood however might have some useful imagery. Just turn down the sound...)

As a German, I think "Jrust" should be a single syllable. It is not like English doesn't have similar consonant atrocities like e.g. "thrift". But then, I use a very throaty rolling "r" sound overlapping with the zh sound to pronounce that. I generally add the consonant(s) before the "-ela" to the final syllable, so my pronunciation is closer to dzhroos-TE-la. (Claiming the German/North English pronunciation of the vowel.) I reserve glottal stops before vowels to word beginnings or to separate syllables ending on a vowel sound from the following starting with a vowel sound unless there is a word separation. Spirits-addled shouldn't be pronounced spirit-saddled, but other than such cases, I'd combine the vowel with the preceding consonant. IMO the "e" in "-ela" acts as a flection of the previous name. Mavorela - Mavor's land, Genertela - Genert's land. Related question - Jrusteli: ending in "-ly", or in "-ligh"? My (German/phonetically pronounced Latin influenced) instinct would be the "-ly" as in "friendly".

Orlanthi worshipping "Eurmal, Friend of Men" and "Vorthan" (who appears in Dragon Pass as an enemy deity named Jagrekriand) and putting way more weight on bull traditions than the shepherders of central Genertela are bound to be somewhat different. I agree - Fronela appears to be a lot easier to handle, with resident Orlanthi, Malkionized Orlanthi, and initiate-to-Rune Master people rising from the population. That used to be the case when Seshnela had (Castle-Coast) style Men of All rather than Rokari style military Talars, although there used to be a significant overlap between Talar-caste nobles and Men of All. The short passage in the RQG rules suggests that the Horali use Hykimi beast magic, possibly variants of Hsunchen shape changer magic adapted to Malkioni soldiery, taking on magical but not bodily aspects of that change. That's why I would play this from the perspective of Gebel and his quest for the Sword of Tolat, making Gabaryanga his tragic at first noble then more and more corrupt ally (or possibly losing control over his more and more corrupt followers). It doesn't have to stay that bad.