Joerg

That is bound to get rather free-form, as normal rules of any game break down at this level except for the very abstract HQ conflict resolution or similar purely narratice approaches. The likes of Harrek or Jar-eel are capable of taking on the Crimson Bat when it is well-fed or hunger-crazed. Conflict between the likes of them shouldn't be taken to detailed dice rolling IMO. Bringing back The Green Age should be cosmologically impossible, as it would be reverting all of history and the Gods War. Bringing back an aspect of the Green or at least Golden Age like the forests of Prax or even reconstituting Tada or Genert should be possible, but even a re-constituted Genert would be able to have all his Golden Age comrades like Yamsur or Seolinthur around, let alone those no longer remembered. Entropy is a real thing in Glorantha, and can always only be partially inverted, and possibly with as great or greater cost somewhere else. The early Artmali (Afidisia) did manage to return Innocence to the Gods War, but in a very limited way. A "realistic" way to change their part of the world this way (amidst the general ruin all around them) would be to do something similar to what Sartar or Belintar did. Go about to aid (and gain subsequent support of) communities in dire straits, build up that support until you either apotheosize or become a godking demigod. In the interest of on-going playability, the godking demigod goal might be more to your player's taste than achieving his goal through leaving the physical existence in the middle world.

The original LBQ managed to resurrect all the dead gods assembled at ash-liege's court. Harmast was the first to return a specific captive of the Underworld this way, and he did it twice, and a handful of others managed to do so once. There is of course the magic Chalana Arroy gleaned from her LBQ experience to return the soul of an individual to its body, but I don't know of other Godtime feats penetrating to the Court of the Dead and beyond to return an individual. We have a few other quests where a single individual is rescued from a state of death, like Heort liberating Ivarne Frozen Woman from the ice, and there is the sorcerous reanimation of recently died Brithini that all Brithini expect to receive in case of fatal accidents. There are countless pre-Sword Story ways of returning a slaughtered beast or even a slain individual to life, provided all of the necessary parts were available (in case of slaughtered beasts, obviously not including the meat consumed by those who feasted on it), but those ceased to work over the course of the Gods War. The Lives of Sedenya tell us about a later quest of Sedenya (the one illustrated by the seven disks) which involved Yanafal Tarnils going down to the deepest hell on the trail of his goddess, which may have been similar to the Seven Mothers' quest, or which may have been modeled on another "rescue from Hell" quest we don't know about, or possibly the Carmanian rendition of Harmast's second quest (after all, Syranthir's followers who became the Carmanians were heirs of Talor). That quest goes on somewhat differently, but then Teelo Estara's communion with Blaskarth was a new concept as far as I can make out. The closest Godtime parallel would have been Uleria's taming of the Boggles, but that was a destructive power of much lower threshold. Arachne Solara's interaction with webbed Kajabor doesn't quite fit that myth, but it might make part of the Seven Mothers' quest without following the pathways laid down by Harmast, and in Teelo Estara's quest, no birth resulted and no demon was consumed with all orifices (if anything was consumed, it was Yanafal's life and Teelo's body, both to be returned afterwards - Teelo's even twice, once as Estara, once as Norri).

There is also the point of Ginna Jar being the part of Ernalda not sleeping, during the Lightbringers' Quest, joining her husband's efforts to remake the world. In a Lightbringer's Ring, the Ginna Jar position might very well be traditionally awarded to Ernalda in recognition of her active role in the LBQ. The odd man out still goes to Flesh Man, and the contrarian voice goes to the seat of Eurmal.

At a guess, the animist perception of the runes is as even Greater Spirits beyond the Great Spirits that are the equivalent to the (greater) gods. There is a layer of the Spirit World adjacent to the Mundane World and to the Outer Worlds, with a few exceptions like the Dead Place in Prax. IMO there are still portions of the Otherworld that are unique to one of the magic systems, but the old (HQ1 era) adage "The World is made of everything" does no longer end where the Otherworlds begin, but overlaps into Godtime, but then, according to Greg's Separate Otherworlds model, the hero planes aka Godtime have always been part of that "Made of Everything" bit, too. Possibly it was more a misunderstanding of where the World of Everything ends and where the Otherworlds begin. Greg did say that the diffenences between the Otherworlds weren't set for eternity, and indeed he had plans to make the "globalization" of the Otherworlds part of the themes of the Hero Wars. As far as I am concerned, this may still be appropriate. I am not quite sure that something like the Storm Village as portrayed in Thunder Rebels (and to some extent also in Heortling Mythology) was part of Godtime, but might even outside of that Cyclical Time. Possibly always has been out of the reach even of the most advanced Arkati and God Learners.

Necessary nitpick: The Telmori were cursed by Talor the Laughing Warrior in or around 450 ST, when there was no such thing as a red moon. It is a coincidence that the full moon face of the Red Moon coincides with Wildday in Dragon Pass. In Fronela, the day of the week would be two or three days remote. (Don't ask me in which direction, though - it is hard enough to remember to put the clock an hour forward tonight...) The Zorak Zoran cult has no qualms about using cave trolls, so its tolerance to similar Chaos as in lycanthropes should be about as high. ZZ hates pretty much everything that opposes him, and tolerates what aids him. Calling such powers chaotic and Humakti geases not is possibly a disservice. Both are some expression of mysticism, contact with forces from outside of this world.

Having the wyter on the ring basically gives the person who can communicate with the wyter a vote on the ring. If that coincides with the chief, he will hold two votes. Which, having the last word on any decision anyway, doesn't make much sense.

Shadowcats may have been understood as just another breed of house-cats at that time. Anaxial's Roster has a Kralori myth about house cats, so their existence alongside alynxes or big cats (like leopards, panthers, pumas, lions or tigers) hasn't exactly been challenged. We still don't know how their relation would be towards alynxes. The Yinkin myth almost suggests that Yinkin is at odds with all other carnivore descendants of Fralar. Certainly with the bobcats of Fronela, so why should alynxes be tolerant of house cats or ferrets?

I was coming from my experience with fletchery which uses sticks with a point put into a metal conus. Now, if I wanted to fireharden that, I would just push it into embers for a short while before quenching it, possibly repeatedly, in effect leaving a central cone of non-charred wood with a crust of charred wood. I would probably subject it to non-combustion levels of heat beforehand to avoid explosive release of volatiles in this process. Your comment assumes that the entire tip would have been charred through and through - and I agree that would be so brittle that it would break off after a few strikes at most. The fire-hardened tip of an all-wooden spear (or javelin) is a bit like a made-to-break-off spear tip, a concept re-invented with the Roman pilum. And my solution was to give it a contact area which has taken all the hardening it can while dissipating the worst of the heat, above a core retaining the flexibility of the wood that makes it suitable spear shaft material in the first place. Yes, such a socket would deteriorate over time. Now, let's consider a two-partite spear head, say with a hard bronze head and a weaker but more heat resistant copper socket that isn't the direct target of the Heat Metal and already acts as a radiator. Enough to charcoal wood - which is why the "wood" inserted would be pre-charred. Deprived of oxygen simply by design - there is way more fuel than oxigen in the spear tip. Then the concept of heating the bladed point, but not the socket, leaving the socket and thereby the contact area with the shaft at a lower temperature already. Then choose a Heat Metal duration roughly compatible with the time you expect the spear shaft to last (you wouldn't want to transfer the hot spear point to another shaft). Lastly, in a world where there are creatures that withstand fire, their body parts will be great for an isolating layer inside the socket. I have no data on breakage of spear shafts, but they wouldn't have lasted indeterminately anyway. At some point, any spear will need repair or maintenance, or replacement.

There is no ban on procreation between bloodlines inside a clan, but there is no meaningful marriage system. The father simply doesn't get much say in the upbringing of the offspring as the unmarried daughter of a household produces new members of that household - unless she was impregnated on behalf of a cult which has a separate social standing inside the clan, which means that the offspring is raised by the cult rather than the maternal household. The Clearwine Earth Temple certainly is such an institution, but then it has almost a standing like a separate clan. I think that there will be certain blood lines that will predominantly be wed to a specific clan, some exporting (sending virtually all of their daughters into the same clan), some importing (taking nearly all their wives from a certain clan), but that won't be the rule. Still, the wise match-maker will consider carefully whether to put wives from feuding clans into the same household. They might, in certain cases (possibly when said household is on their nemesis list).

The Nysalor ritual was possible because of the Pseudocosmic Egg, which was a one of a kind artefact. Possibly the source for the Young Elementals now associated with her Redness. But no, this wasn't about the birth of a new deity, but about the resurrection of a composite deity that had never been quite that (but, to be honest, few deities like we met them in Cults of Prax had been like that in Godtime).

This document should be turned into a map application rather than just a print document, one where you can add and substract layers (like e.g. the political division maps in the Guide). And detail maps of locations where existing. You would still want a print option for a selected area.

We know that there was enough of Saraskos' body left to be exposed to the carrion birds, which doesn't sound like the head-taking was that successful. There's also the survival of Goram Whitefang, whose personal kinship to Sartar may have been unknown or regarded as irrelevant. Using Chaos to do so probably is possible for Lunar assassins. But this entire business sounds almost like the soul-stealing morganti blades of Steven Brust's Dragaera novels.

There has been a storm raptor since the Three Feathered Rivals, and extending that to one of the cloud layers was just an extension of Thunder Bird. Yes, Vrok Hawks are classically solar birds, manifestations of Vrimak. Speaking of hawks and rats - I wonder what pest-control animals are used in Dara Happa. Snakes might be possible, birds of prey are another possibility (although getting those house-trained is a lot harder than with cats.

Certainly a possibility, but do you really think a society which has alynxes prowling everywhere is a good place for a rat familiar?

Quivin as a son of Veskarthan should be a volcano god, which cries out either basalt or obsidian to me as the dominant rock of the Quivins. Definitely not chalk or sandstone. The lesser mountains around him may have other origins and less magmatic rock, but I wouldn't expect chalk or sandstone for them, either.

Ostling Four Wolves certainly wasn't Sartar's offspring, but he was remade in the Telmori image. One of the most common ideas about his origin points north to Jajalaring Saird or Balazar, as a former dog worshipper. In all likelihood one of Sartar's companions who willingly underwent the change into lycanthropy, and his dogs into wolves. (Which would make his coupling with the Cat Witch even more scandalous - to Yinkini, that is. Lots of bad things have been said about Telmor, but he never was part of the Bad Dogs.) Kostajor was even less Telmori than his father, although he most probably took a Telmori wife to sire the Helkos brothers, two of whom ended up as husband/bodyguards of Terasarin's daughters. I'm even more curious about Harsaltar's mother, though. Huh? Onelisin is the older sister of Jarolar and Tarkalor (and younger sister to Sarotar). Her mother So(a)rana Millstone was a priestess or avatar of the Shaker's Temple in Tarsh, which could share the same ancestry as Arim's Twins through Sorana Tor, I suppose. Possibly a direct maternal lineage to Vestenbora. Yep. That's the less contradictory branch of his ancestry. Goram Whitefang (the youngest son) survived the assassination of his wife in Esrolia (Sartar:Kingdom of Heroes p.228) and leads the Boldhome Telmori bodyguard. We know of four sons, but not of any daughters. Nor do we know about other children of Ostling in the Telmori tribe. Talking about these assassinations - how did the Lunar assassins sabotage Resurrection? Surely the House of Sartar would have had a few CA Healers in their retinue.

I have yet to play a game of 13A or G, but as for forum activity, I suggest you just start asking questions or opinions. Usually some discussion will result.

Reading up on molecular biology and its impact on archaeologly I came across this article which confirms findings from a female burial that came up in connection with the battle of the Tollense crossing: https://www.pnas.org/content/114/38/10083 Basically, this is proof that people found their wives outside of their own communities. What is surprising is that these wives often traveled more than hundred kilometers (or miles) to their new homes. What is strange is that there is hardly any evidence for their offspring in the area investigated (the Lech valley upriver of Augsburg). The model of Heortling exogamy for Sartar might be rather hide-bound compared to these early Europeans. The Sartar dynasty might be one of the few bloodlines with similar variety in their wives, including Grazer, Old Tarsh, Telmori and an attempt at Esrolian ancestry for their partners. Tooth chemistry suggests that these women were well over 16 years old when joining the population on the Lech. Given a generally shorter life-span in those times, I wonder whether they left some children at their old homes before making the trek to new hearths. If these people practiced something like serial monogamy (on the side of the wives, no idea about the males), creating their family trees will easily become a wild web across communities. The Ernalsulva marriage in Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes suggests that at least Gloranthan earth priestesses undergo such serial marriages, joining more than one marriage partner's clan throughout their lives, although unlike these women their male offspring remains with the paternal clan. The females will spread on, of course. When checking the possible family network of a 90 year old priestess of Asrelia, I came to the conclusion that her female lineage offspring would realistically be spread across several tribes, as priestesshood tends to run in families given the special educational benefits of growing up in a priestess' household. I have a slight beef with the sample characters of RQG in that there are two females born into their paternal clan and still being active members, although in both cases they are valid exceptions - Vasana has taken the Vingan role, which tends to remain in the paternal clan, and Yanioth is a priestess of the Clearwine Earth temple, which is almost a matrilocal clan of its own. They do set a precedence which will mislead players with less familiarity with Orlanthi marriage customs to assume that most females stick with their birth clans. Luckily the Red Cow HQG books set this straight, presenting some female politics on the sidelines of the Eleven Lights campaign.

Textiles are rare imports in Prax outside of the Zola Fel river valley, much like metal. The Sun Domers probably grow flax, not just for textile production but also for the oilseed (although a harvest for the fibre doesn't yield the oilseed, and vice versa). Wool from various beasts would be available in Prax, and felting might be a Beast Rider technology which could provided protective textile layers, but the beast riders aren't noted for wearing textiles (or much in armor anyway, especially the Impala Tribe). The Agimori don't appear to wear much body armor, either, relying mainly on their large shields. Riverine Esrolia is almost completely dedicated to agriculture, and I expect them to use a portion of that land for flax - possibly an alternative to leaving a field fallow. Wool comes in from the hilly portions. No idea what the deal is with hemp as a coarse textile.

The Gloranthan academic sorcerer doesn't enter combat without a handful of well-armed bodyguards. If you play with old-style henchmen, the trope is fulfilled. If you play with just the individual, combat sucks major league. Protective spells are standard for sorcerers entering risky environments, but sorcerous damage (or magic) protection has the same disadvantage as dodging - it doesn't absorb damage, but negates all or nothing. (Which should be familiar to players of D&D and related games, though). What are the rules for parrying hits aimed at your protegee if you are a bodyguard? Shield interception sounds like a somewhat realistic course of action, but what I have seen in the rules only affects the shield-bearer.

Duh. It should have been clear from the context that the charcoal hardening was to be below the metal. You can take a metal frying pan from the stove and place it on wooden surfaces without reaching that brittle structure. You wouldn't heat the metal tip to the melting temperature, meaning that your bronze spear would only have very weak red glow, if visible at all. Yes, there will be wear on the spear shaft, and some maintenance, but the wood away from the massive metal tip won't be subjected to charring temperatures. Rather "hard and brittle". Always depending on the wood used in the process. Wood with volatile flammable exhausts (like methanole), sure. Once you have gotten these out by careful charring, we are talking about ignition temperatures of charcoal, which takes some encouragement (and forced aeration) to get started. My opinion is that most soft woods are unsuitable, but guess what - this lumber is unsuitable for long-lived spear shafts anyway. What may be tolerable in javelins and arrows to allow some flexibility that same flexibility is unwanted when you push about a pound of shaped metal at some distance from you.

Bare feet were the standard of the Cape Hoorners, too, AFAIK, even though they had to face sleet and snow on their passages. Only the whalers braving ice-berg riddled waters would have worn some sort of footwear among common sailors, with footwear being the privilege of officers. Not referencing this specific image,, which would work for colder conditions with the simple addition of a cloak, too, but: On the whole, I am quite distrustful of the fair weather navy and the topless fair weather fisherfolk that we have been shown for the Pelaskites. While the Choralinthor Bay doesn't normally freeze over, I can say the same for the Baltic Sea where I live. Does Kethaela even have palms? The English and Cornish channel coast has those, although it is too cold for olive trees. Rozgali and Solkathi are warm, but not hot currents. I'd expect Biscayan or Channel conditions, maybe Iberian Atlantic. Magasta is not a forgiving Sea God, and Solkathi first came as an all-drowning monster, although much of that energy was broken by Zzabur, and possibly then drained by Worcha. Sea Season is when maritime activities kickstart, and that corresponds to this time of the year in average latitudes. Seasonal fishing grounds at spawning migrations quite generally fall into cold weather, like Dark or Storm Season, and are some of the most productive fishing activities, which I expect especially the Pelaskite to be ready for. Probably donning sealskin or fish skin or similar weather clothing available from their own activities rather than waxed linen that has to be traded for from landlubbers. Bad enough that getting their timber takes them inland. When fisherfolk move out, so do pirates relieving them of their catches and other possessions, which means that the triremes (or whichever other anti-pirate craft they have) need to be ready, too. So, without any drawings, what would the sensible bad weather equipment of Pelaskite or Handran sailors be? The wolf pirate state of undress in seasons other than Dark or Storm probably is their lingering adaptation to life next to the Glacier, which would make Solkathi conditions very gentle to them, and possibly nigh unbearable in Fire Season.

Apart from Humakt and the Triolini/Zabdamar ancestors and Veldru, all storm gods known to me have ungulant aspects. Sometimes directly sired, like Storm Bull's various Founder sons' tribes, sometimes adopted, as for Orlanth (rams) or Vadrus (goats) with neither of them having any myth to have mated with Mikyh or another such beast goddess. This comes with pastoralism, which appears to be the big invention of the Storm peoples brought into the fabric of the world. While domesticated beasts preceded the ungulant herds, like e.g. gazzam earth shakers in Dara Happa or geese in Esrolia, herding as the main means to gain nourishment from the land was new (and different from the ungulant Hsunchen ways of hunting their totem beast herds). There is one species of domesticated ungulants which doesn't seem to have storm gods associated, though, and that's the water buffalo, whether in Seshnela or in the East. (The Lofak Yak is a Hsunchen beast not quite domesticated.)

Not so sure about fire hardened spears whose contact area would already be charcoal. Metal spear shafts defy the purpose of spears - to save the valuable metal for the business end. Depends on the leather. Thinking of Gloranthan associations, horse hide and feathers might be a good isolator against strong heat, as they belong to fire creatures. My thought on this is "why bother with heating metal if you can have lava?" If you have to heat the spear point to get the lava, you will have something like obsidian when cold. Pretty useful, too. Fireblade doesn't do double damage on impales.

Yes, the majority of mammals are associated with air (or storm). Horses are beasts of fire, except when specific types aren't (Shell Horse, River Horse, Mastakos' steeds, Ethilrist's steeds) There may be other beasts that we count as mammals that get other elemental associations. E.g. whales. Mammals were around in time for the Gods Wall, with the various beast mother finger goddesses arrayed there, and also with Buserian, the sacrificer of bulls, already established, but then according to GRoY the reign of Murharzarm started 10,000 solar year units after the birth of Umath (50k YS vs. 40k YS). (And Gata was pregnant with Umath for about 15k solar year units if Lodril descending into the Earth Cube was the moment of conception.) The Malkioni devolution of beasts in Anaxial's Roster disagrees with that picture. Pamaltelan beast appearance doesn't follow the Genertelan pattern - in Pamaltela, dinosaurs appear to be a rather recent addition to the fauna, whereas the Fiwan (Pamaltelan Hsunchen) species are there as witnesses to the Creation of the World, and they include numerous mammals. Humans appear way before mammals are distinguished, which means that the concept of feeding milk to offspring vastly precedes the birth of Umath. So, what's the deal with Storm and mammals? In the end, they all harken back to Gata and her daughters (or Triolina's daughter Tholaina in case of marine mammals) and Hykim and Mikyh, with occasional other fathers stepping in, like Storm Bull, his sons, or Heler establishing ungulant herds of more or less domesticated herd beasts. Then, storm and carnivores? Trickier. Take large felines, for instance. Yinkin is brother to Storm, though he has no storm ancestry himself. Lions on the other hand have both solar and storm associations. Durbaddath in Dara Happa is a solar beast, possibly lesser kin of King Griffin. The Pendali Basmol appears to have become part of the Storm pantheon with Greymane's tribe. Rathor is the Sky Bear, traditionally a storm entity. Wolves are associated with Humakt, and Telmor is the Death of the Sun in Hsunchen myths - a good correspondence. Dogs are anything but friends to (Kerofinelan) Orlanth, with a few weird exceptions (looking at the Greydogs of the Lismelder tribe...). Orlanth elsewhere (say Ralios, Fronela, Saird) might have friendlier relations with canines, although wolves are suspect because of their pact with Nysalor, and the Praxian Storm folk (aka Beast Riders) are friendly with dogs. Foxes appear to be part of the Trickster tribe of animals, along with ravens, raccoons, hares, hyenas, and probably others. Tigers, leopards and panthers are somewhat associated with Storm, but to varying extent. How much the Sakkar sabretooth cat is a storm entity I cannot say - in Dara Happa it appears to have some Death and Underworld associations, as do dogs. Bats are beings of Darkness more than Air or Sky. I'd make a similar case for insectivores. So what about rodents? Nah, no need to get silly... (We do have gopher and porcupine hsunchen, though. No peccari ones that I know of.) On the other end of the size spectrum, rhinos and elephant-kin. The woolly variants are credited to Vadrudi progenitors/makers, the Pamaltelan ones to no specific element, and the Teshnan ones are fine in their fire--dominated myths. (And don't even start about Afrotheria and Laurasiatheria... there might be beasts like the tenrec or the elephant shrew, but they will be morphologically associated rather than in Real World cladistics. Are Gloranthan manatee and dugong related to elephants? I doubt it.) There probably are aardvarks somewhere in Glorantha. And (from the real world Xenarthra) ant eaters or armadillos. Sloths were discussed just last week. Finally, primates... these are possibly better treated as Man Rune drop-outs (or alternative branches), beginning with the Morokanth's herd men, and in a different way the giant baboons of Prax and the Wastes. (Something similar is going on with runners in relation to elves.) Non-placental mammals: I would bet that there are opossums in Glorantha, but I wouldn't take bets on native Australian fauna. Opossums are another case of "who cares" or "they're Trickster beasts".