Joerg

Cragspider's Great Trolls prove that paternal parentage does amount to something. So did Bina Bang giving birth to Pikat Yaraboom. I think troll matriarchs do have something like a concubinate where other matriarchs send their sons. The uz must have some sort of breeding pre-selection, possibly similar to the Esrolian model. Being selected for a mating is dangerous, painful, and very rewarding for male uz. What cult task could be more important than to secure the next generations? The Only Old One is the archetype for the shapeshifting Kitori, due to his mixed inheritance from Argan Argar and Esrola, and not a descendant of Kyger Litor. Hence not an uzuz. His species is an adoptive species - presumably since Eurmal slew his son during the Lightbringers' Quest. Adoptees can be human, uz or dehori, possibly others as well, and they breed true, so there are (now) Kitori by inheritance, but it is still possible to become a Kitori by adoption. Eristi the Doubter, and possibly Borklak. Jeset is a great-grandson of Kyger Litor, a demigod, but also an uzuz Only after the battle against Nysalor (which he may have entered as a troll or even as a chaos monster). I do wonder why he didn't become a Kitori rather than undergo the grisly rite of rebirth. But then, maybe he already had.

When faced with Humakti or a berserker, a sorcerer had better cast Dampen Damage on their weapon(s). That will put the incoming damage way more into the Ward Against Weapons useful range. (Does Boon of Kargan Tor increase the required spell strength for Dampen Damage?)

The Cannon Cult has human slaves and blind cave oxen. Do they have a similar deal as the Morokanth?

Uzuz males will be in high demand as mating partners for high ranking females. No idea whether that leaves much time for any other kind of adventuring (although the mating will likely have intermittent heroic tasks of slaying intruders or hunting). And much of this will be at least underground, and when possible deep in the Underworld in the roots of the Castle of Lead. Not sure I'd want to run such adventures, though. The fan-fic probably writes itself, but again, not sure I'd want to read it, either.

Has the player character become a running body of water? That might inconvenience the vampire quite a bit, as touching that body may sear at the Vampire's being. Sure, the character will probably suffer pain or wounds he needs to reform when the contact is over. But the Vampire will have the very same dilemma.

What do you call a creature? Is a Wind a creature? Storm worshipers can interact with winds, allie them - sometimes we talk about the spirit (or the soul) of such a wind, sometimes we call such entities elementals. Are those winds creatures? Same thing again with bodies of water or currents of water. An animist will tell you that all of that is quite evidently alive, often has an individuality, or else contribute to a hive individuality. Pasteur proved that water is very much alive unless you go to great lengths to remove that life from the water. No. Technically, that is transforming the fire potential in the fuels to flame and leaving behind ashes. While it alters a portion of the universe, it doesn't destroy it. Tapping does destroy those bits of the universe, or of Creation. When Tapping first was practiced, Creation was an ongoing process, even a process that had gone out of control. In those conditions, Tapping was just pruning Creation so that it didn't become hostile to itself. The birth of Time changed those rules. The process of Creation was limited severely, because the shards of the product of Creation hold together only by gossamer strands of the Web of Arachne Solara. It still is ongoing, but in a very limited way (usually), as removing the limiters threatens to rip even more shards of reality out of the Web. There are ways to tap such ongoing Creation ethically - when you limit yourself to the surplus Creation while sheltering the process as a whole. Unfortunately the heady sensation of the magic building up inside the Tapper usually blows away any thoughts of limiting that effect. A master of restraint might be able to adjust the flow of his Tapping with the influx of raw Creation. IMO on the contrary. An Orlanthi permeates the air around him with his breath - his air sensations project quite a way outwards from him. While this isn't a reliable sense for perception activities, any destruction of intermingled breath will cause him pain and wounds.

This is getting less and less a RuneQuest thread and more and more a Gloranthan lore thread. Continue at your own peril. I am fairly certain that they have a word for it. In fact, they have a rune for it - Magic is one of the fundamental building blocks of Gloranthan reality. (It doesn't matter that it is not used for Rune Magic or sorcery in RQ... there are a few other well-established runes that aren't used that way.) Agility= Being (your deity/philosophical ideal)? I.e. divine or rune magic? Knowledge: sorcery. Will? mysticism or heroquest effects. Then there are spirits in charms, things you have. Ok, a little bit of will applies here, too. No, instead we talk about them as knowing what conditions to subject the plant to, and remembering when the plant needs water and when not. But even in our secular western materialist society, we exchange magical blessings daily -- "Good Morning!" That's a little charm where you expend a little bit of magic to brighten someone else's day. "Bless ya!" One of our many small healing charms. And worst of all, "Good Luck!". Pure witchcraft. IMO Gloranthans are very much aware of magic. Only the Mostali might think of the various magical rites etc. as algorithmic instructions to the World Machine, but then they probably talk about energies rather than magic. Sorcerers talk about and use magical energies, stuff that is generated or perhaps better accumulated in the Inner World, poured down on the worlds of Glorantha from the source, shaped by the runes, and in part returned to entities closer to the source to manifest their runes. (Malkioni sorcerers skip the entities when doing pure sorcery, but are quite willing to engage in demonology summoning and commanding such entities.) Especially the priesthood (less so rune lords or people who heroform) apply well defined ritual activities to invoke feats or abilities or properties of their deities. That's more or less the definition of a spell, and in my opinion recognized as such by the Gloranthans.

Illusory sheep might very well be able to headbutt, trample, smother or even warm people, and they should be able to eat whatever people have on them - textiles, parchment, food... If this is a Trickster spell, the spell caster wouldn't be immune against head butting etc., but might even stage-dive onto them. I'd make that spell stackable, allowing one command per extra rune point rather than 1D4 extra sheep. One use might be to make them form up in a circle and jump over a fence again and again... requiring a CON roll every few melee rounds of any observer to avoid falling asleep.

It would convert a dead thing into magical energy you can use to power your spells. That would beTap Dead. Not sure such a spell exists, but then, it is similar to the magical source of power of ghouls, so why not. No, if you tap Death, you tap the power that keeps the unliving from moving around, from following their basest instincts and hunger. One of the most important thing the victors of the I Fought We Won battle did afterwards was to separate the living from the dead, affirming the power of Death. If you start tapping into that, the dead may rise once more. IMO Tap Death would leech away the magic put into the funerary rites of people, nullifying them over time. And even if you are an ancestor worshipper you wouldn't want them to rise uncontrollably from their graveyards (outside of the proper dates to do so, if you're in Esrolia).

The problem people have with the "Lie" spell is that it mis-interpreted as making people believe in something that isn't true. In my opinion, "Lie" is a specific form of Illusion magic, creating a temporary truth, only it is a memetic truth, tied to the spoken word and gestures of the person using the spell. Pronouncements by somebody using the Lie spell will detect as Truth. If somebody has a spell to detect Illusion, that would register, too, but only on the person under the effect of Lie, not the pronouncements themselves. That's why there is no resistance roll against Lie. The audience isn't the target of the spell. Reality is.

Firefarming has been practiced in Australia for more than 50,000 years. Encouraging growth of fresh greens and keeping the undergrowth low. It isn't quite clear whether this works in the very reduced ecosystem of Prax - if it does, the Morokanth might be the prime practitioners of this, while the fire-friendly Impala riders with their beasts' preferred diet are the least inclined to practice this, though. In the Golden Age the Tada-shi built great ziggurat temples like the one in the image of Pimper's Block, and they erected a huge necropolis of mounds around Tada's High Tumulus. Theirs was a thriving society of at least horticulturalists, possibly agriculturalists, amidst a lush savannah. I don't really see them as much of pastoralists, though - the Good Shepherd is also known as the Father of the Independents, which means he is tied to the Beast Nomads descended from Eiritha rather than directly from Ernalda. I doubt that there are any serpent-drawn chariots anywhere besides the one of Ronance. Not even the sea-chariots are drawn by anything other than sea-horses, which admittedly may be serpentine/piscine behind their shoulders (much like the celestial capricorn). Darkness appears to be the only element not sporting chariots - presumably they aren't practical in the Underworld. I wonder whether there should be actually three serpents rather than two, conjoined at their tails, forming a Mobility Rune. But then, the serpents wouldn't have to slither over the ground if they can make the ground carry them forwards, so maybe the third serpent is the road, lying belly-up to transport the chariot.

Nothing so paltry as a few raised stats. Harsaltar and his sisters had taken the really heavy duty geases when they formed the Household of Death. Harsaltar was killed by the geas, not by the Emperor.

Yep, that's how I read that scenario. Jaldon used the existing altars for this type of conflict. There is no indication that he erected the altars, all he did was to set up the manoevre that would assign one of these altars to each faction. In the French remake Les Dieux Nomades there are Great Spirits for all the elements associated with the five great tribes. Are those tribal altars identical to the altars where the Great Spirits can be allied in that version? IIRC Malia got moved out to Malia's Stool. Monkey Ruins is the starting place of the Bisons in the original, though, and the altar for Oakfed, so that's not a direct fit unless those places where the Great Spirits can be contacted or the assigned territories have been changed accordingly.

Power lines in Prax: These power lines were an aspect of the Nomad Gods Map (and the Dragon Pass map) that was also known as the HeroQuest Roads, like the one from Cliffhome to Stormwalk Mountain taken by the Redbird expedition that brought Temertain to Sartar. This came up in discussions about a possible third boardgame (Masters of Luck and Death) in the WBRM-Nomad Gods series for the complete magical game. The project faltered before there was anything to playtest, and my role was little more than providing opinions about some ideas. So, quite likely not anywhere in published canon. What's your reference for Jaldon inventing the altars? Jaldon was born around 890 in the Wastes. The oases and the ancient (Golden Age) buildings which house (or are) the altars certainly predate that - I would credit Tada rather than Jaldon. Given his mobility rune and the chariot, I would favor Mastakos if it has to be a water deity. The Eirithan Genealogy in Cults of Prax that names Ernalda as his mother gives Tada as his father.

I guess I would tie RQ3 Vikings divine magic to Futhark runes, possibly in a system similar to RQG. Inscribing the runes to gain the divine favor, which then is a derived ability from the applicable rune with the best rating, and can be augmented with an appropriate secondary rune. Some of the runes could be matched to the Gloranthan concepts, inheriting those associations. Such inscribed runes would be something like words of power - inscribing and then invoking them could release the magic. As we are talking about HeroQuest, the individual feats should be somewhat based on myths from around Yggdrasil. Rather than requiring initiation, I would make this Viking magic opportunistic polytheism, where even svartalfr or trolls could be invoked by the magician. Always for a price, to be paid in blood or blot (sacrifice). (I'd probably produce a number of skaldic kvaths in alliterative poetry as examples...)

Ronance's roads are the power lines between the altars of Prax, most of which coincide with the oases, but judging from the map of Praxian catchment areas provided by @David Scott, oases have separate aquifers independent from these power lines. Ronance is after all an Earth Spirit, so his power should be Earth magic rather than water magic.

I've played in a test run of Ian Cooper's Dragonrise scenario (admittedly HeroQuest rather than RuneQuest), and what made my character shine was his herder background when fighting our way past Oxbow and neighboring bullish constellations on Umath's (accelerated) Trail to the Celestial City (which he never reached, unlike his son, who later turned out to be its greatest defender against the Sky Terror). In heroquesting, these farming skills may be more valuable than brute swordsmanship. Free farmers used to be quite badass fighters. As late as the year 1500 saw the free farmers of Ditmarsia defeat a royal elite army of the Danish king at Hemmingstedt more than ten times their number (bogging them down after opening the dams of the nearby Miele creek). Likewise, the Swiss pike formation was born from free farmers standing up to oppressive feudal landlords. Only the farmer uprisings in Svabia during the Reformation were military failures, but that may be because those farmers really were unequipped serfs. Then there is the term "buying the farm" that apparently was coined in the US military but wouldn't be out of place for a Roman veteran trying his hand at growing cabbages after his term of 20 years of service. While not that common in clan-based societies, the imperial outskirts would regularly be re-settled with veterans receiving some land (often with tenants) as their severance bonus. Wulfsland used to be such a place. Do we have any info on what happened to Wulfsland after the Dragonrise? Would the Maboder-born wives of some of the retirees or their sons remain on those lands after the duke disappeared at the Dragonrise? Or did the Telmori do the job of clearing that place of their Lunar and Orlanthi foes? I suppose that between Sacred Time household rolls and adventuring, the skil sets between fighters and farmer/herders would become fairly similar after a while as experience checks get diminishing rewards as the skills reach expert levels but are way more likely to result in improvement while in the "just competent" range.

There a a couple of three-way splits. When it comes to water with and without the special something, I think it is the triplet of Heler, Triolina and Nelat rather than their parent level of Daliath (intellect), Framanthe (soul) and Sramak (body). There was some discussion on this topic here. My suggestion for one subrune would be Rain (the Heler rune), and probably brine (rather than salt) for the Nelat opposite (no idea whether there has ever been a rune for that). Ice is Heler defeated by Darkness. Dripping water from the tap would be the Rain rune. Possibly it too comes in three sizes, like the Lowfires. In that case, the dripping tap would be the Mahome version. As to dancing... that's how the entire tragic keet epic began (Revealed Mythology p.81, but see also p.78ff)

What kind of house rule is that?

You name the evil and work it into the effigy. Another clan (even though it may be part of your own tribe) eternally shaking you down for the products of your honest work when they never have done anything like honest work in the last few generations surely counts as an evil, doesn't it? Orlanthi will fight other Orlanthi. The Lawstaff myth is about one way out of this, but Violence Is Always An Option. And especially towards a clan that traditionally hasn't given a damn for Always Another Way approaches.

Not how I read it. The bonus is for as long as the ceremony did until the effigy finally was destroyed, after the destruction of the effigy. So if you hold off the effigy for a week, your benefit will last a week. Unless you have a very special enemy associated with the enemy, who is practically guaranteed to ride along. That goes with the rite. On the other hand, if you don't know where that large raiding party is going to strike, this is how to catch them as soon as you learn about that. Especially if those raiders are your ancient feud neighbors intent on burning a couple of steads with the inhabitants inside. Irrelevant, I agree, unless specials or crits matter. You know the Varmandi are going to raid you sooner or later as you have denied their "polite request" for tribute in the most clear way possible, but these scum are crafty and sneaky, and you never know where they will strike. Well, now you do. Your rite will be the bait in the trap, so don't expect to get off lightly, but properly orchestrated, it could blunt their tribute-taking for years to come.

It helps manifesting an enemy that is hard to pin down or manifest, at a time of your choosing, so that you are as prepared as you can likely be. Plus it offers you a certain magical bonus when dealing with that threat. Which myth does have this? Right now, the best fit I can think of is The Making of the Storm Tribe with that "serendipitious" arrival of the Darkness foes of the assembled clans.

The rise of the undead...

The programmer in me approves, as a set of codes should be meaningless, but the player in me screams "Surely (C) for Canon, (L) for Largely Canon, (S) for Some Canon and (N) For Non-Canonical. The grognard in me wants to use the rumor ratings (T for true, F for false, etc.) because it also had the categories B (basically true, but...) and A (too awful to imagine).

The answere is pretty likely "there is no Tapping that doesn't muck things up too bad for the community." The Lady of the Wild is a force you don't want to anger, so just tapping nature won't be a solution. Tap the spirit world, and worse spirits are bound to appear. Tap the earth or some of her acceptable husbands... not a good idea. Tapping the Red Moon should be somewhat safe, but might require that much Lunar insight that doing so may no longer be a good idea. Tapping Chaos... well, what's so bad about another, tentacly appendage anyway? Tapping Ice Demons (hollri) might be feasible without damaging any important relationship. The winter giants might object, but you could downsize those to more manageable opponents. Tapping the Power runes sounds like an eminently bad idea to me. Stasis is also known as Stability, and unless you want to use those logs for fuel, this sounds counter-productive. Tap Locusts... does that make them any less aggressively reproductive, or does that only shrink their size? In the second case, they need less than a week to return with the same collective body mass. In order to make this feasible, there needs to be enough messing up in your study, and it needs to regenerate. But in the end, what you suggest here amounts to "Tap Apprentices" or "Tap fellow scholars". It isn't easy to get Lhankor Mhy's approval for this. My impression is that you can limit the excesses of sorcerous intensity by demanding four or more points of added intensity to reach the next step of effect, e.g. with Enhance INT. The narrower in scope a sorcery spell is, the less could be this interval. Open Seas doesn't require any manipulation at all. I think that a thread "balancing new sorcery spells" would be a good place to discuss these questions. This thread could focus on what qualities are destroyed through Tapping, and how loss of these qualities affects the sorcerer and his community.