Joerg

It was written for an audience of warriors. Poetic exaggeration was accepted in such poetry, like Beowulf's heroic swimming feat. If you want to capture the option of epic heroic combat at the upper range of the combat system, boosted by magic, this is what your system is supposed to support. You do want the gritty professional level on the other end. Rolled tatami maps? Maybe 20 strikes, and your energy spent for a few minutes as this would be a sprint effort and not sustainable aerobic activity. More than half as many arrows in rapid fire mode at point blank "you need to fumble to miss" range, if you have those arrows ready, Arrowmound fashion, and a lot less anaerobic metabolism. Ypu'll be able to hit about as many fencing contacts with your opponent's weapon, and much less exhaustion. A strike followed through is a different kind of effort than testing your opponent's weapon for a clear strike. How many pieces of wood can you cleave with an axe in a minute? There are weapons which deal a lot less force per strike but have a greater strike frequency, like daggers, and the RQ strike rank system sucks at simulating knife fights or fisticuffs with chain strikes, unless you treat the chain strike sequence as a single attack.

No, it does make quite a lot of sense that Tarkalor would have an embassy of Sun Dome County in his capital. They would be an addition to the already impressive array of loyal warriors of the Telmori and the Humakti who form the regular royal bodyguard. Like Nochet and Pavis, Boldhome is a melting pot of neighboring folk rather than a typical local city. It has a troll quarter, for crying out loud. It will have a Praxian market, and probably an Earth Shaker and a Beast Folk embassy as well, though not necessarily always occupied. The dwarf embassy was mentioned in the silver dancer scenario. Terasarin's ties to the Far Place when the Far Place Yelmalians gave asylum to dissidents from Vanntar may mean that that arrangement soured within a few years. We don't hear anything about templars standing guard for Temertain.

Day and night cycles shouldn't happen before the Dawn if you believe the commentary on the God Learner Maps in the Guide, but either a Sunstop or a permanent night with a moonlight equivalent orb somewhere high. On the other hand, some form of "day" cycle appears to have existed even in the Golden Age (cf the 294 servants of Yelm, one for each day of the Gloranthan year). And Argan Argar, the son of Night, led his portion of the Wonderhome trolls to the surface (Halikiv, Shadow Plateau) just after Yelm Bijiif had entered and burnt out Wonderhome, which implies a pre-existing concept of night, too, though not necessarily during the reign of Brightface.

Leaving realism aside, if you check the exploits of Paris as a heroic archer in the Iliad, he does a veritable Legolas in that Trojan assault. Distance would have been under 20 meters, but in a melee situation where he dodged between heavily armored melee fighters. At a similar distance, even relatively untrained me was able to fire six well-aimed shots at similar distance on torso-sized targets which showed only every five seconds or so for maybe three seconds in considerably less than a minute. That's one called hit onto a hit location per melee round. Sniping from a position away from melee. Depends on the size of the target, and whether it is moving about, and on arrow speed if it is moving about. Your average sports bow with ultra-light arrows will achieve similar flight times as a low military strength longbow with wooden arrows. At 80 meters, you can have a second arrow notched and ready when the first arrow strikes the target. With flight times like that, you need to guess at the movement of a moving target to land a hit. You can reliably hit a torso-sized area at that distance, but the target needs to cooperate and cross that area when the arrow arrives. The closer the target gets, the smaller the area you can reliably hit, and the greater the chance that the victim will be within that target area because time to move out of it also shortens. Again, at 20 meters you can snipe fairly well, but the target needs to cooperate through constant movement or failure to evade. If you are shooting at a densely packed mass of targets, effective range is about 150 meters. Hitting an individual target reliably at that distance is hard, but on good days even I managed to put most of my arrows within the second innermost ring at a clout tournament. Rapid fire archery at an approaching mass is a sound strategy if you don't have to worry about ammunition. Given the amount of material and labor that goes into a well-adapted arrow, not having to worry is likely a situation where your opponents arriving makes all conservation of ammo a moot decision.

Cult compatibility and Eurmal? Who are you going to trick? Seriously, apart from the Orlanth cult which may take responsibility for a bonded trickster, most other cults in Sartar are at best neutral to Eurmal. He is the most popular in parts of Loskalm and Ralios, where he is acknowledged as the Firebringer who sided with humans against selfish gods - not sure that that will make any of those gods more inclined to be friendly with that cult. Plenty a cult will have a myth of how Eurmal (or some other trickster) interacted with their deity, and if that myth has a moment of non-violence, a Eurmali might be able to invoke that for a period of non-aggression which will end when the trickster transgresses again. (I.e., give it a day or two, unless it is a very elaborate trick that takes longer to set up.) Outright enemies will be the kin of Eurmal's murder victims (of which there are plenty, too). Toleration with strong restriction is the absolute best a Eurmali can hope for unless he manages to trick himself temporarily into a better position (which he will trick himself out of soon again).

I think it is rather the contingent provided by Monrogh for the cousin of Tarkalor, some of whom remained in the new city at Pavis while the rest went to Mo Baustra/Sun County to end their Solitude of Testing for good.

There is Storm Tribe and Book of Heortling Mythology with a number of aspects and myths.

Unless it's been changed since then. The original text had everybody with a spear, shield and hard hat or a sewing kit gets a vote. That's a fair bit of investment for a cottar household.

Sometimes the aspect is known by the name of the greater entity? There is nothing to stop any congregation to direct their powers of worship towards the Greater Gods, but usually such worship doesn't receive reciprocal magic. The only gain from such activity would be as preparation for questing on the Other Side. The Celestial Court assembled by the God Learners based on their own pre-Brithini notion of the Erasanchula and the Theyalan syncretic collection of entities whose followers contributed to the Unity Battle and later Unity Council consists of the council of runes and the Old Gods. That latter list is fairly anonymous and a convenient "we don't know" label. In a way similar to how Kargan Tor predates capital-d Death.

How dyonysian does it get? The Troupe's common illusion does bear some similarity to the dragonewt dream, but doesn't reach its permanence. While their illusions don't survive the proximity of a True Dragon (or superhero), they remain stable in the presence of dragonewts. It looks like both the Cross Line and the Death Line react only to entities crossing them. Illusionary troupes probably are free to pass. The EWF cities failed when they were dropped out of the dragon dream with the 1040 mass utuma. The special food they relied on (described in Middle Sea Empire) rotted away, and survival demanded that the non-draconics went rural. Even though the death toll of the draconic thinkers must have been worse than a decimation, famine followed, and emigration from the overpopulated Pass into both Saird and Kethaela must have ensued. Illusion is a fine gift for making unsavory but nourishing food palatable. The Puppeteers are close enough to Nochet to allow the minor Marlesta to escape her family into the Troupe, which clearly means to me that Puppeteers do operate outside of Kerofinela proper. I would expect them as far down the Oslir as Sylila. If the Red Emperor deigns to see a show, he had better take a detour from Dorkath before returning to Glamour, IMO. It is possible that the Puppeteers avoid the former Shadzoring range.

The status is very much dependent on how essential your services are to the clan. Even the stickpicker Eurmali becomes a thane in weregeld when placed on the ring. Godtalkers of more obscure deities more often than not are cottar class in origin, but their religious position makes them carl in status if not in wealth. There are plutocratic notions in Heortling law - you need to bring certain possessions to the wapentake in order to be allowed to vote, which greatly reduces the political influence of poor cottar households if the richer clan members enforce those rules strictly. For the most time, the fiction that status equals wealth is maintained, and with the favor economy, immediate material wealth doesn't quite measure the credit rating of a person, household, bloodline, or even clan. Upward mobility is given for merit in Orlanthi society, at least to the individual and his hearth while the office lasts. The real question to me is how downward mobility is handled in Orlanthi society. What must happen for a household to fall from (inherited) thane or carl status? Short of exile (which erases all status), I don't see any provision for this in Orlanthi tradition reported so far.

The Zzaburite report that the Erasanchula (original runes) of the elements and powers became False Gods who received worship also marks their devolution IMO. The full runic court atop the Axis Mundi is rarely if anywhere realized in the local variants. The Jernotians made do with seven deities. IMO all the local variants are aspects. Aspects are instances of the class, if I may lend this from object oriented programming. The Core Runes are the class - the concept with the set of parameters. The Prosopedia and Gods and Goddesses of Glorantha before it split the elemental runes into two different appellations, names of the deities (Nakala, Zaramaka, Ga, Aether, Umath) and titles of the Celestial offices (Dame Darkness, Father Ocean/Sir Sea, Mother Earth/Empress Earth, Lord Light/Liege Light, King Storm - the Burta doesn't get the alliteration?) The runic council may be just an abstraction in western philosophy.

I stated that the Elemental Rulers of the Celestial Court never received direct worship. (By mortals, that is - ancestor worship by their offspring is something else.) There are of course people who equate TarnGatHa/Vith with Aether, but his reign predates any form of worship. To be honest, the full panoply of the core runes is only present in the Celestial Court of the (Theyalan and Jrusteli) Monomyth, and that's highly syncretic. The Jernotians make do with seven High Gods, the Vithelans with 9 + 1(Atrilith). The party of the Duke of Disorder yields the harp (Harmony) returned by Leika Ballista - a quite unexpected encounter and outcome. Is the Spike myth universal, or is it a syncretic myth formed from the manifold of Sacred Mountains at the core of the world of the various cultures? Hrelar Amali has the tree of Flamal as their Axis Mundi. Kerofinela has Kero Fin, Dara Happa has the Footstool, Pelanda has Mt. Jernotius, etc. Yes, there are myths about the migrations of the Mountain People. The Downland Migration of Orlanth and the parallel myth of Storm Bull and his Founder sons into Genert's Garden suggests the presence of another mountain at or south of Threestep Isles. Peter Metcalfe managed to convince me that the bad mountain of Pamaltela was a lot closer to the modern coast than Magasta's Pool is. And Mt. Thakarn aka Piparovor may have been the body of Stone, brother of Mostal, who collapsed (at multiple attacks, including Zzabur's Blast and the axe wielded by High King Elf) onto Curustus. Yes, everywhere there was a mountain with powerful entities living on the top. At times benevolent, often neutral, only rarely hostile. And quite often it collapsed in the course of the Gods War, or was invaded, etc. Heortling Mythology speaks of the Old Gods rather than the Powers - that would be the entities mentioned in King of Sartar p.46: These entities may predate the surviving Core Runes. (Yes, this text does imply that core concepts of Glorantha may have been lost in the Greater Darkness.) Are you sure about there being a fixed sequence to these emergences? IMO this was a convergence of events along different cosmological dimensions. Each facilitated the other. Hrelar Amali had a temple to Earth, Flamal's Tree, but that was felled, causing the Greater Darkness. Yes, it doubled as Axis Mundi, but the forest heart also served as the most holy Earth site in Hrelar Amali. There are myths about downland migrations everywhere. The God Learner Maps in the Guide have the Four directional Camps settled by "Mountain people". The Camp of Innocence is mentioned when a later "downland" migration (from Veldara) returns it (briefly) to its former state. It is quite likely that Earthmaker had an island somewhere in the center of Ralios where the northwestern version of the Hsunchen (or in this case, Hykimi) witnessed Creation. The Genertites of the Garden (east of Kerofinela and Kethaela) had Genert's Palace to look at, undoubtedly a monumental edifice. For a great many cultures, I think this was the case. That's a version that I have been pursuing for quite a while. Fire was stolen - e.g. by Eurmal. Friend of Men, and all that. Not necessarily taken away from the original owner, but shared, or replaced with a mostly functional if no longer original copy. I think that the Dara Happans worked hard to exclude the impurity of Darkness from the Perfect One, which would necessarily create a bright deity. To the Dara Happans, the Sunstop state of Brightface's empire was perfection. There was little indication that the birth of the Bright One might have weakened the unbearable brightness in former Wonderhome - no healing of the womb (undoing the Dark Troll curse that had befallen the Mistress Race) was in sight. The Battle of Night and Day added even more injury, creating the Trollkin curse. Sometimes it is Zorak Zoran who kills Flamal, wielding the Death in the form of the axe that Eurmal had taken from Iron Mostali after having given him the Sword. Eurmal may as well be the blade that switches/spreads out to numerous wielders. Eurmal and Humakt both went into the next to deepest Underworld, and brought the power of Death back from the lowest edge of the Cosmos. Neither remained unchanged, both embraced Death in different ways. It isn't clear whether some form of Eurmal ever had a tribe he belonged to from which this experience would have severed him. The Fronelan West seems to have the most positive view of Eurmal anywhere in Glorantha - Firebringer and Friend of Men, who took the power of the (emperor?) god and shared it with the lowly to-become-mortals, and Ralios names Yomat, a son of Eurmal and bearer of that title Friend of Men in a positive way. What do you mean by "southern"? Doraddi "Lodril" is the big Everyman cult where Pamalt is the wily chieftain. Aurelion, the pre-eminent volcano god of Jrustela? Ernaldelan Lodril was married, or retreated as Veskarthan. The Shadow Plateau used to be the base of his highest peak. Its destruction may be part of the Footprint Myth. The "Lo" in Sea Metal should be Lorion rather than Lodril, IMO. "Lo-dwarves" - do you mean the Brass caste of alloyists? I have mentioned my theory about brass preceding bronze a couple of times here. Buried and reborn as Burta? Part of him - sure. The other part, Veskarthan, is the recipient of the First Hospitality. The Gods Wall presents Umath/Rebellus Terminus/Vogmaradan as a phallic deity. While Umath is lusty with his concubines, he is much less a dick than Lodril himself. The westerners did know the secret of metal early on - presumably the Kadeniti, the technicians among the six (plus one) tribes of Danmalastan. They seemed to have shared that with the Kachasti, who permeated the western world all the way to the Poralistor and Delela. Heler is the ancestral deity separated from the All Waters, the tragical loss of the Sea Tribe. Another piece of / aspect of Larnste. (And/or Orlanth). The energy of the Waters. Was he ever? He took Sapana Robber for his wife. Malkion was the son of two blue deities - Aerlit and Warera Triolina. The body of waters. There used to be two major lakes near Hrelar Amali, with Lake Bakeel badly reduced to a marsh, and Lake Felster still at large. I don't think that the sea-port was their main magical target. Their presence in Corflu, Karse and Nochet was little more than a by-play. If this obsession had been a thing in the Heartlands, all the power of the Assiday wouldn't have stopped another association to keep channeling resources and agents to the places conquered by Fazzur for his lunarized Orlanthi reasons. Shadzor, the Underworld aspect of the god of Alkoth? Monster Man appears to be a broad category of underworld rulers, including Lodril, Zorak Zoran, Deshkorgos. And yes, Lodril is his own foe in this myth. IMO Yelm was just a planetary light among many, if he existed that early. The White Queen was mistress of the celestial light in Naveria's time. Elmal the Youth was the unyielding lackey of the Yelmic court before his illuminating encounter with Chalana Arroy. Elmal the Father would have been Elmal the Husband, the steadguard thane. Elmal Rex is remembered in Dara Happa as the destroyer of Elempur - the city of the archer, named after its destroyer? The Dimness might be a better name for the Lesser Darkness aka Storm Age. Xentha was a leader of the troll migration, indicating that there was Night at the onset of the Lesser Darkness. Possibly as early as the starspill in the wake of Umath's invasion of the sky (Copper Tablet 9)? The duality of Kajabor and Wakboth is fair, IMO. Kajabor is the external force of entropy, while Wakboth is the externalized inner rot. Kajabor is the antithesis of Creation, no longer separate from the world after the implosion of the Axis Mundi, just the alienness of the Void. Wakboth is the distillation of spite, humiliation etc. "blessed" with the power of annihilation (which his three parents, although highly destructive, lack.) What Vadel is to Wakboth, Zzabur is to Kajabor. Note the very similar name for the second pair.

Without Sartar's road, the valley of Boldhome would have made a good mountainous refuge for a clan needing to disappear from the world - similar to the Karandoli hide-out further west in the same massif. Getting the herds in would have been a great effort, but not impossible. Sartar's city relies on the clans of Killard Vale below the main entrance of the city to feed the capital. His road enables the farmers to bring their produce into the high valley. Personally, I regard the valley of Boldhome as a less remote variant of the Höllentalklamm above Garmisch-Partenkirchen. If you are an untrained lowlander urbanite, the ascend is quite demanding. Middle Sea Empire makes it clear that the notion of the navigable river extended south of Kordros Island (named Liorn Island in the text), with banjarn located near the place where the Oslir splits around Kordros Island. Either the notion of "navigable" applied to smaller river craft than plying the Oslir further north, or the river changed significantly, possibly as a result of the Dragonkill. We do know that the post-Dragonkill Alakoringite settlement at (or near) the current river port was razed by Phargentes and rebuilt using imperial layout and craftsmen, brought along from Sylila and Saird. The importance of Furthest as trans-shipment port for Oslir barges meant that the place would have been re-settled as soon as Arim's Hidden Kingdom stopped hiding (by the time of the Battle of Quintus Vale in 1374 where Lunar (Sylilan?) and Tarshite forces overcame the Opili horse nomads) and started to take a leadership role in the neighboring territories of Holay and Aggar during Sheng's activities in Peloria. Given the shifting of rivers, I am not entirely sure whether the new location of the city would have been exactly the same as its EWF predecessor. Looking at the well-constructed Roman period river port unearthed near Notre Dame de Paris, even well-constructed quayes in a city with continuous habitation would shift location. On the other hand, there might be an artificial weir upriver of Furthest, maintaining a higher water level there, and the possibility of water power inside the city. The city of Augsburg on the Lech has numerous such canals, with cottage industries using simple waterwheels that used to provide rotation for e.g. carvers. Those canals postdate the Roman foundation of Augusta Vindelicorum by a few centuries at least, however, and no such feature was mentioned for either pre- nor post-Phargentes' Furthest. Further upriver, there appears to be a series of rapids below the confluence of the two arns of the upper Oslir around Kordros Island, probably with a stretch of wide, rather calm waters before the rapids, and a bar of bedrock that doesn't get whittled away by detritus carried down. For comparison, neither the Rhine falls at Schaffhausen nor the Niagara Falls show much retrograding because the lakes upriver eliminate most of the abrasive detritus. Without such a stable barrier, Kordros would have ceased to be an island centuries ago, even if the river branches parting upriver of the island are caused by a great magical cause. I would expect both branches of the Oslir around Kordros Island to be fairly placid most of the year, except for the great thaw in the Skyreach mountains or extraordinarily yieldful rainfalls. Showing up in the palace also precludes many of the ordinary folk from enjoying the show, weakening the magic that holds the Puppeteers together, and makes people feed them despite not being kin.

Masters of illusion... They probably could pass as anything they wanted if they put up their game face. I am a bit dubious whether they stayed in the forbidden area during this time. While the Beastfolk and the Kitori probably would have enjoyed their services, and while the trolls of Cliffhome might be willing to host them, too, I see little chance that the Tusk Riders will treat them well after their shows, and no great chance that the dragonewts would be willing to part with food or produce in exchange for their services. I find it more likely that they roamed the bordering lands north and south of the forbidden zone, possibly bypassing them using the exchange magic with their illusionariy armies. After all is said and done, the Puppeteers aren't primary producers (though possibly have a side line of hunting and gathering to make ends meet), and need to perform for people able to feed them. Illusionary food will satisfy hunger, but not energy needs.

The elements of the Celestial Court never received direct worship. As to the color blue - that's the hottest part of the flame, the well aerated part. The yellow/golden glow really is the struggle with the fuel turning into soot. This is of course the real world chemistry and physics of a candle or oil lamp flame, but I don't see any pressing need for surface world Glorantha to deviate from this. Let's meditate on the nature of the candle flame... Note that the Nargan Sea was also called Blue Fire Sea. Possibly even before the Skyspill. The golden Sky Dome could be nothing but the atmospheric effect of dust scattering light. The process of burning up the impure remnants of fuel, never succeeding without air, the doomed struggle for purity. Fire always was something to be stolen. The descent of Lodril may be a cognate of the theft of fire. And of course, Lodril's descent into the Earth was nothing but the insemination of Gata, leading to the birth of Umath. Lodril is the fiery semen poured into the Earth Mother. I see shades of Lodrilela in the brothers of Mahome, husbands of Ernalda's handmaidens, as per the boxed text in Thunder Rebels p.190. Also note that in Entekosiad, the log walkers who finally encounter the women's tribe are the dysfunctional sons of the original earthfire god, who has a nice little core family with his wife and the one functional son of theirs. This fire tribe are the rebels and outcasts, until Brightface usurps the reign of the White Queens. The Yelmic world order can be seen as a hypocritical ruse, or it can be seen as the honest attempt to shed themselves of their impure former rebellious selves. The Yelmic Golden Age world order appears to coincide with the construction plans of the Mostali, who welcomed Lodril's insertion into the Earth without realizing that this was the next act of growth. Whoever was in charge with designing the Made World erroneously considered the rise of Aether through the Spike the last great act of Creation, of stuff from the outside brought into the world of Being, not considering Growth. This made the Mostali plan a willing accessory to back up the legitimiacy of the lie that brought Brightface onto the Celestial Emperor's throne. If you are willing to step into Tolkien's construct of angelic servants and the children of the Creator, then the Yelmic Golden Age is when the angels took upon themselves the role rightfully reserved to the progeny of the Creator. It is like all the Valar but the eldest rebelled. Like a civilized reign of titans was overthrown by the no-good offspring of one of them who did not manage to save the world from his faults by swallowing them, to put the Greek mythos on its head. If you look at the log tribe, that's because the revolt was against the way Lodril had established. Lodril had established the perfect way, but the imperfections that were his lesser sons couldn't cope with that, and in the end overthrew the world order of Lodrilela. How about this: Lodril is the Third (made) Son, the one who gets the thing done where the two elder brothers fail spectacularly. Umath is the real heir, spurned by the stepbrothers. In my materialist myth of the development of the world as the Mostali-created whole, the cube of Glorantha used to stick out halfway out of the surrounding river of Sramake, pierced by the Spike and then by the semen of Aether. When Umath was born, he pushed the earth cube down until its edges were about level with Sramak's River. It was from this push that Lorion gathered the energy to flow into the heavens, and Hudaro and Togaro onto their respective corners of the surface world, sending out their advance forces Sshorg and Neliom. All of that is true to some extent, as causality as in my materialist approach above doesn't cover all of the other implications. One of the least "causality-obeying" yet most intriguing myths in Glorantha is the one of the three curious spirits, identified as Zorak Zoran, Argan Argar (a son or grandson of the sky) and Xiola Umbar chancing upon unborn Aether (the sky) deep in the womb of Darkness. It helps to remember that deities have multiple manifestations, which may even predate their birth if going their through the cycles of Godtime. Stuff like this allows a presence of Kodig "long before the birth of Vingkot", for instance. I never quite saw the immediate death of the sun when Orlanth slew the Emperor. I am weirdly comfortable with the idea that what Orlanth slew was the pillar of the sun, the emperor who upheld the static cosmos, allowing great change and also significant struggle into the world. Yes, the Second True Death (after Grandpa Mortal) did send an irresistible undead fire entity into Wonderhome. But it didn't extinguish the sun, it only weakened its absolute stranglehold on the world. I have the suspicion that there used to be a day-night cycle before the rebellion of Brightface and his ascension onto the Cosmic Mountain. Much of Yelm's Golden Age may have been nothing but an extended Sunstop, aided and abetted by the servants of the Maker. (I think that it is possible that this stage was only another stop in the Making of the world, with a quality control team let loose to make sure everything was in place. They had not finished their job when Creation went on in an unexpected place, and then struggled to stop that progress and turn it back to the point where they would finish their quality control.) IMO if Tolat ever was blue, that blue must have been so dark that it was indistinguishable from black. If anything, Shargash may have replaced green Alkor as the southern planetary son. Tolat and Annilla/Veldara were twins, one red, one blue (when not black due to their Underworld origin). The Lightbringer religions externalized Chaos. Non-Lightbringers have different approaches. The Solar religions sort of internalize the concept of the Distant Void with their mystic upper Light, cal it Dayzatar or Zitro Argon. The upper hemisphere of the cosmic bubble is not a clear separation from the disruptive omnipotence of the Void like the lower hemisphere of Darkness, but a sort of both destructive and inclusive interaction with it, the upper and outer glow of Aether, the cosmic (hemspherical) Firewall into the omnipotential (yes, I know this is not a real word) nothing. Everything can form or happen in the vacuum energy of the Void, and can (and will) be destroyed again by its antipart, unless separated from that. The Malkioni cosmology suffers from the collision of their impeccable devolutionary logic with their tribal history which tells a completely different set of stories, often incompatible. The Brithini and the Vadeli are the result of this jarring inconsistency, and that may be their cause of Chaos. It may be the irreconcilable inner conflict that necessitates Chaos. The Primal Plasma of the Animists appears to permeate the Spirit World. There are unstable regions in the Spirit World where even the weak subjective order of the entity experiencing it gets dissolved, and from which the Chaos spirits separate and intrude the more stable parts. (I guess that for a long time I failed to grasp the meaning of the exposure to the Bad Man, counterpart of the Horned God, for a long time. It is experiencing the helplessness in the face of invincible evil, and making that experience a part of themselves. The Star Heart of the Second Son experience, an acknowledged impotence made into a pillar of strength and resolve. The shamanic equivalent to the Kobayashi Maru experience of Star Trek star fleet aspirants.) The Spirit World doesn't separate the impossible from the proven. There are things about the Gloranthan East that I don't get. I am fine with Vith as the progenitor and yet primary target of the Antigods - the Titan who failed to resorb his destructive offspring isn't that far from this concept, and I cannot really say whether Gebkeran's offspring aren't really the ones who get it right by challenging the perceived authority again and again, or whether the mystics who either shed or accept all have it right. Oorduren is the first mystic, the mystic of the High Gods, the teacher of Vith, and of the primal mystics of the East. Venforn is often overlooked in the Eastern myths which focus on Mashunasan. Oorduren teaches both inclusion of everything (Venforn) or separation from everything (Mashunasan, possibly also Nenduren and Larn Hasamador). Whether it is integration of Being and Not-Being or refutation of both, Chaos is treated almost the same way that non-Chaos is treated.

Veskarthan aka Lodril shows up as one of the Evil Uncles at the Initiation of Orlanth, so the relationship is somehow acknowledged by the post-Gbaji-Wars Orlanthi. Before the Second Council got into contact with the Jenarong-dynasty Dara Happa, I wonder whether the Heortlings had heard much about Yelm at all. They knew the Evil Emperor, somehow tied to the sun, supposedly once sitting atop the Spike in the Celestial Palace. Not very much of that points north to Dara Happa. The Esrolian sun emperor Harono fits that bill at least as much and possibly better. In some senses, slaying the evil uncle was a kinslaying, but in the legal sense used by the Orlanthi, it was not - it was an act of violence against another tribe (clan, whatever you want to say), and thus well covered in the rules of the society. After the dismemberment of Umath at the hands of Shargash, this act may be named the collection of a blood debt between the tribes, too. The kinstrife that led to Chaos entering the world uncontrollably was Orlanth being unable to give justice to Thed.

Sure, Ehilm's father would be pure (or later alloyed, if following the Lodril mythic pattern) fire. With Zrethus a different deity not in the paternal line of Ehilm (as far as I can make that out), Ehilm is a lot more Flame and Fire than Celestial Yelm. Weirdly enough, the Lightbringers' Quest involves both the Ash Emperor and Ehilm's Flames (as Orlanth's test of atonement), making the superposition of Ehilm with Yelm a bit less convincing. Ehilm is the sun, not a son of the sun, but the son of primal fire/flame. I suppose that Lodik started out as the pure flame of above, but then succumbed to earthy desire ending up as the fiery mountain father we all know. Still, there appears to be a different father/grandfather for Humat/Erulat, probably Zrethus, the blue sky (passing on the color blue to the storm god).

Or possibly still by a name like Tharkantus or even Daysenerus. While Ralios had its share in fights of the Bright Empire and the EWF, it was quite far from the decisive battles, and from the bad backlashes against the cult. IMO Ehilm is a very fiery but a lot less imperial and if possible more fiery version of Yelm, without any Dara Happan or Pentan baggage but loads of Ralian baggage. I have no idea how friendly or tense the relation between Ehilm and the local aldryami is, either (and that may vary from elf forest to elf forest, too).

I just don't think that it feels right to reassign Conquest Peak (aka Cliffhome/Blackorm Mountain) to Doktados/Empty Mountain when both these peaks are clearly well-known magical and physical landmarks. Empty Mountain is the site of the Vanak Spear quest, famously performed by a Berennethtelli living in the shadow of Autumn Mountain, in the neighborhood of Lokamayadon's Talastar. Top of the World or Umath's Throne are the alternative Big Holy Mountains, each with their local color, and probably without much notion about Aedin and his wall. The Umathelans could have a hedge instead of a wall, for all their interaction with the aldryami. The Ralian/Fronelan fortress builder may be some other creature, and it may have some ramps for chariots, given the Chariot of Lightning movement of Surantyr. The perception of Storm Village is heavily dependent on the expectations of the viewer. A Storm Pentan may visit the corral of West King Wind and communicate freely with a Fonritian/Vralan worshipper of Baraku. Boasts of raids etc. will translate into culturally referable feats of the visitors. Visitors trained in mystic or RuneQuest sight might be able to read their exchange in runic archetypes. The use of Empty Mountain, Conquest Peak etc. is the native geography of holy mountains translated to features of Storm Village. A Umathelan will barely know two sacred peaks, both of which will lie way outside of their range of worship.

Heroquest exposure is a good way to gain or alter one's runic association. There is nothing inherently wrong about having a score in all elemental runes - the world is made of everything. Elemental runes can rise above 100%, too, so the primary and secondary element can still be distinguished even if the other runes have average ratings.

I think that your spiral is a lot smaller than the peaks in Aedin's Wall suggest. Doktados or Empty Mountain is a peak in the Mislari, a hollow caldera. Blackorm Mt. aka Cliffhome is Conquest Mountain on the inner circle of the spiral. (Thunder Rebels p.137) The correspondence of that map with Gloranthan geography is somewhat weak, but the peaks are clearly identified.

That would mean that Goldedge (city and Sun Dome Temple) would only have been founded around 1569?

For some inexplicable reason, people are more at home with almost lovecraftian pronunciations like pterodactyl, pteranodon or quetzalcoatl than with a sordid sord. While beaked, this shape doesn't come to mind at first when thinking of webbed foot anthropomorphic birds. I wonder whether the parrot keets are that closely related to all those other keets. Sords may be similarly close or distant.

Does the Yelmalio cult reject Orlanth, or does it simply not let him go unchallenged? Ok, unlike with Heler, Orlanth and Yelmalio have actually come to blows with one another at the Hill of Gold. But Orlanth has fought and overcome several of his allies, like his taming of Storm Bull with nothing but a stick and a lariat, or the epic duel with Humakt. The Aramites at the Dawn didn't worship Orlanth any more, either, but that didn't mean that they rejected him entirely. The Elmali weren't enemies of Sartar. They were a subculture that had become alienated of the tribal culture in the kingdom, and things had come close to kinstrife. I have no idea why Tarkalor was so set on removing the Kitori from the southern fringes of his father's kingdom. I think he was too young to have been a friend of Darlanth, the Hendriki governor-king of Heortland who lost his office (and possibly, but not definitely) his life in 1544. The beef between Yelmalians and Orlanthi is less than that between Lunarized Orlanhi and traditionalist ones. Acceptance of the Seven Mothers questions the cosmic role of the Storm God, even while maintaining his cultural role. The Sun Dome Temples have alternatingly allied with the traditionalist and the progressive Orlanthi. Right now the Lunars may be seen as the progressives, at least until Argrath transforms his traditionalist allies into the new progressives. The royal house of Tarsh is both Lunar and Orlanthi, and heavily involved in the dynastic tangle of the houses of Sartar's children.