Joerg

The Lightbringers - regardless which batch - are reckoned dead as soon as they pass the Gates of Dusk. The path down to the Hall of Judgement may be just a pre-Hell, but as soon as you've passed Sinjota and Kaldar, you're dead, wouldn't boom if someone put four thousand volts through you, you're bleeding demised, you're not pining and you_re passed on, you are no more, you have ceased to be, you've expired and gone to meet your maker, you''re a stiff, if you hadn't gone down those stairs you'd be pushing up daisies, your metabolic processes are now history...

Correct, manipulation limit isn't affected. But the number of runes plus techniques you can master still is limited by your INT minus 11. A sorcerer with only slightly above average INT could already max out his maximum capacity with those initial points if receiving that many techniques and runes.

I thought the Gates of Dusk, going down Magasta's Pool past Last Stop Island or a couple of other such passages mark that border. The Styx permeates the Underworld, but doesn't really form the border to the Surface World.

Without wanting to jump in on the issue of whether career and cult should add up (the same question will crop up for other sorcerous cultures), is it exactly beneficial to know more than one technique? There is no way you can unlearn a mastered rune or a technique. Is there some other advantage than paying half the MP for having exactly the required technique(s) for a spell? (And, in resonance with the unfortunate way "misapplied worship" and "concentrated worship" worked out with Hero Wars and HQ1, wouldn't using a different technique than exactly the one used for the spell be the normal situation? Would "you save half the MP when using the exact technique or rune demanded in the spell" have been a good way to describe the game mechanic, doubling the basic cost as the standard case?) INT cannot be raised (permanently) by non-exceptional means (although you could work on your Fire Rune development). That means that learning additional techniques will limit your ability to manipulate your magic even more. Spells can be "tucked away" by inscribing them (blowing a few points of POW, which can also add to manipulation). Runes are the real bottle-neck. In order to be able to cast just about any spell, you only need one technique (if it is command or tap) but a dozen runes or more - two elements (not counting moon, and overlapping only in one derived element) to cover all five, four powers to have all four pairs, four forms (man beast plant spirit) and two oddballs (chaos, moon). That is of course beyond normal human ability - you'd need an INT of at least 24 to learn this many. Every extra technique reduces your ultimate flexibility wrt mastering runes. Roleplay may suggest you to take choices that go against this minmaxing, too, but it would be nice to know whether the rules offer incentives to learn more than either Command or Tap as a technique. E.g. researching spells. Can you research spells using an inferred technique, or should your character have exactly the techniques and runes for that spell? If there is no such benefit other than saving MP, can a sorcerer receiving multiple techniques decide to leave extra points unused in favor of more Runes to master?

As far as I can see, grappling is not designed to cause direct damage but to immobilize an opponent, or to place him on the ground (preferably prone). Apart from wrestling, the grapple rules also come into play as result of a hit with a lasso. There are (thankfully) no rules for dislodging a limb or for breaking ribs in a bear hug. I don't see any rules for actively breaking free from someone having a (non-immobilizing) grapple hold. Other than the attacker failing a grapple roll, he keeps clinging. Grappling doesn't appear to be a good close combat option unless you get lucky and capture the weapon arm of your target. Hold on to anything else and you will be punished by your adversary using a weapon, or boxing or kicking you. As the rules stand, they appear to be designed for a "friendly" wrestling match with all kicks or strikes barred, something you do when tentatively neutral jocks meet and step forward to test one another's mettle. All very Graeco-Roman or Freestyle Olympic, and nothing like judo or jiu-jitsu where you attempt to use the force of non-grappling attacks or even just your opponent's movement to add to your own strength. From my limited exposure to using something like grapple in unfriendly conflicts (during school) throws don't usually mean you lift your opponent uo in the air and crash them down (only did that once). It is more an attempt to put the opponent into a disadvantage "fallen", from where you continue to subdue. Without ways to modify those resistance rolls, I don't see that coming through. The question is whether detailed rules for this are required. I guess one could write an entire book about unarmed combat maneuvers and how to port them to RQ combat, and entangling attacks or similar martial arts assisting weaponry. But that's like "gun porn" in contemporary period rpgs.

Discussing Varnaval, the Shepherd King/Iron Ram owner/Great Andam/Ordeed charioteer, is a bit of a side-track here where our focus should be on the Lopers (who btw would make decent steeds for the chariot, too). Orlanth's chariot could have been drawn by just about anything, like hawks, wyrm, thunder beasts, lions, bears, ordeeds,. aurochs, sky bulls, cloud rams.

Yes, you said it - their independent Elmal. According to GRoY, Antirius manifested the moment Yelm disintegrated from grief when Orlanth slew the Emperor (Murharzarm, the son of Yelm, possibly only a mortal demigod). Personally, I have my doubts about that version of re-written myth. I think that it was Brightface (the usurper who dethroned the White Queen early in the Golden Age) who was killed by Orlanth, the original sun god of the gazzam people who built the first ziggurats including the Footstool, as depicted on the Copper Tablets (although the inverted Ziggurat is placed too far south to match the one in Spol). IMO it is possible that Yelm only "Re"-Ascended when the great-grandson of Avivorus performed the Ten Tests and ended the Jenarong dynasty, and then had so much brilliance that the name entered both the heirs of Jenarong in Pent, the Bright Empire composite myth of the Gods War and the God Learner monomyth. But then either Yelm or Murharzarm may translate as Brightface. I tend to link the Elempur incident to the four sons of Vingkot, and the bad performance at Nivorah to Janard Lastralgor's inglorious end. That, or a repeat performance doing the Ram People stuff all over again.

The Baths of Nelat are supposed to purify water beings of all that is not of the Water. In a way, Mastakos if what gets left of Orlanth if you strip all the (plentiful) stuff away that isn't compatible with water - his maternal grandfather's Movement. Chariots don't go well with Water, really, nor do the solar-descended horses of Glorantha. There are of course water spirits in horse shape, like the River Horse. Mastakos' two well-known steeds, Crisis and Rage, are generally assumed to be horse-shaped, but they don't appear to be related to any of those standard horse deities like Elmal, Galanin or Kargzant. I don't know why but I never figured the Ram People to have had charioteers. Lokamayadon rides his ram across the clouds rather than riding a chariot drawn by ram(s). But then Emilla, the blue planet teleporting deity worshipped by the Zaranistangi, is female. While even Orlanth has one female aspect, the Zaranistangi refer to the blue planet teleporter as their original mother-of-all. This dual gender role is quite typical for Water deities. The Loper steeds of the Zaranistangi are unique, and probably born from their teleporting ancestral deity who made up the second blue body in the Storm Age sky along with the Artmali birthplace/ancestress Veldara. Given the fact that Ordanal delivered the Red Sword just 15 years after its loss to Melib, while King Bradoszaran remained for thirty more years in the Slontos region, I have to concur with @metcalph's reaction to my original post found on the wikia that it is unlikely that they had any way of teleporting back and forth from western continental Teshnos or Melib. There is still the possibility that they used the first of Mastakos Seven Steps West to enter eastern Ralios from Prax or the nearby Hill of Orlanth Victorious without making any detour through Kethaela or Dorastor. After Ordanal became King of Melib, and possibly even earlier, there were no sightings of Loper steeds on Melib. There may have been on the Teshnan mainland around Dupanya, from where the survivors of the (IMO doubtlessly vengeful) God Learner conquest may have retreated into the Wastes, where they still might be found teleporting away from the finder.

Not quite true. If you are a sorcerer, you don't want to burden your mind permanently with spirit magic, but you might want to have it long enough to enchant the knowledge to some item and then clear your mind again.

Which is of course written by the Dara Happans, even though ruled by the Jenarong dynasty at the time that happened. "A new light rose from the east and went to war against mighty Kargzant, but Kargzant lassoed him in and drew him ever closer to himself, until his light eclipsed the newcomer, and Kargzant could return to the paths of the sun through the sky." Possibly bearing the head of the overcome foe on his saddle/rim of his chariot. The fact is that planet 51 and the body of Kargzant joined, after attracting one another for some time, and then becoming indistinguishable. Compare the annihilation of the northeastern Planetary son in the Copper Tablets in Glorious ReAscent and in Heortling Mythology. GRoY: HotHP: The active role changes when the two bodies join. Elmal appears to share the Reladivus origin with Kargzant. He is the spear warrior, and the horse archer - Hastatus and Golden Bow functions. To the Orlanthi, he (and/or Beren) is the god of the Foreigner Wedding. Redaylde is Vingkot's daughter, Redalda is explicitely Orlanth's horse loving daughter (and not some parthenogenetic/Form Rune animal daughter of Ernalda like Uralda, Entra or Nevala). Absorbing a significant part of the Hyalorings as the Berennethtelli changes Orlanth's stead. Gustbran and his lesser brothers belong to Ernalda's household, which ensures them a place in the village, but they aren't companions of Orlanth. Anatyr the chief is at least a parallel to Antirius - justice-dealing chief in the (Underworld? Exile?) absence of the Great Chief. If Anatyr already steps in during Orlanth's exile, this aspect of Elmal might predate the first appearance of Antirius, and the Dara Happan manifestation might have followed the Hyaloring/Orlanthi precedent. I do wonder about Elempur, the city of Golden Bow. This southernmost of the Septopolis fell to the onslaught of the Ram People, which may have been the sons of Vingkot on their joint raid, or which may have been something else. (There is no Vingkotling memory of an iron ram, unless Janard Lastralgor bore such a helmet or so...) Elem sounds like El(e)malus (IIRC this was the spelling in an older edition of GRoY).

Blaming the durulz is just chickening out, you know? The one and onlytrue canon is your (GM's) crossover Glorantha with say half-orcs, hobbits, and alignments, and/or space marines and mechas. Or stuff like my comment to this:

Thanks for that explanation. Not really, no - Lutheran German has held up better than Shakespearan English, and Middle High German or Yiddish (closely related) are already too foreign. Classical Greek in German declination does a better job. Nowadays it would sound politically correct pompous rather than impressive pompous, like someone desperately avoiding to gender a term. Has to be one long word to look and feel German, you know? "Godly" will be identical to "divine", and there's still the Learner part of the problem. "Étudiant de la divinité" or "elève de la piété" don't sound right in French, either, do they? Not really translating it by using an ancient language (Greek, with German declination) rather than English looks better and better. We're used to that and pronounce the letters as written (except for ph which becomes f, and ignoring the h in th combinations). Our sound shifts were delayed by a few centuries when northern Germany had to switch from Low German to High German less than two centuries ago, when the converts took pride in being more correct than all those speakers of dialect when not using Low German. (Still do...)

Theosophy would be the school of thought, and the practitioners would be Theosophers. Though I probably prefer Theosophists, using sophist both in the original "teacher/preacher" meaning and in the somewhat derisive sense of sophistry. That mystical baggage in addition to the already pantheistic approach of non-Blavatskyan theosophy are a perfect match for the multiple possible interpretations of "God Learner". Good that the German language is fond of using dead foreign languages to make up technical terms. (We also use lots of English, French and other influences.)

It is what was used, but nobody was exactly thrilled about it. That's what I would want to convey, too. Though then there is the question which brand of God Learners really is described well by this - the popular movement philosophy of early Jrustela, the military sorcerers of the Crusade for Rightness, or the heroquesters altering the mythical landscape willy-nilly. Although "forsch" as an adjective means "brash".... Doesn't work that well in German, where we have "lernen" (learn) and "lehren" (teach, a word that might be related to German "(jmf. etwas) zeigen", to show something to someone). "Gottlehrer" wohld be "God Teacher". Which is probably how the Malkioneranists felt around 900 ST.

No, really. “God Learner” is a maddeningly vague term for three syllables in plain English. Is it one god (the Invisible God, as per the research that led to the revelation of the Abiding Book), or is it rather gods, and how to manipulate and exploit them? And what exactly does Learner imply? Understanding through knowledge and logic? Or does the composite term have similar connotations as the "Learner" driver who gets the Vinga rune (small dark square in top right corner of double size white square) added to their British car signs, something along the line of an apprentice deity? Translating the term "god" in God Learner to my native German would be “Gott”, singular (and monotheistic). “Learner” is actually hard to translate. German and English are close enough that one can simply drop the “a” in “Learner” and producing the active substantive of the German verb to learn (“lernern”): Lerner. Gott Lerner, or in the German way of having no spaces inside a single substantive term, Gottlerner. Only problem here: “Lerner” isn’t really a word used in native German. You can form all manner of active nouns from verbs, and Lerner is no exception. According to Duden, it has appeared as a German version of Learner, usually in the context of learning a language. There are various words conveying “someone who is learning” - student (or pupil, indicating that there is a teacher or two producing the curriculum- German "Schüler" - all manner of schools up to high school, and also disciple of a master artist or musician - or "Student" - college, university), scholar (someone in or from a school, although rather conveying the achievement of having gone through that school most of the way than still accumulating knowledge and wisdom - "Gelehrter" derives from "lehren", to teach, a case of similar terms for an active and a more passive related verb, or possible "Weiser", wise man, really a cognate of wizard), researcher (experimentator or library user - "Forscher", also "Rechercheur" taken directly from French for the library use). Possibly something along seeker ("Sucher"), although that implies more mysticism than logic. Looking how others did this, there is the French “translation” of God Learner(s): Erudit(s) d’Ambigu. If my Read French doesn’t fail me, this means something like “Scholars of the Vague”, with other proposed translations for “ambigu” as noun including “buffett” or “entertainment to which a range of dishes are served” which probably don’t quite hit the meaning. "Jumaltietäjä(t)" in Finnish, which should translate to "god knower(s)"? If my bare-bone grammar knowledge is correct, "jumal(a)" is "god" in singular, possibly like an adjective, and "tietäjä" is "wise man", "sage", "seer", "wizard". That would add "Gottwissender" (god knowing person) to my selection of translations to German. Or perhaps "Gottkenner" ("Kenner" translates as connoisceur, while "kennen" also means "to be acquainted with"). Are there any offerings from other translations?

A little gem I overlooked in the Second Age Slontos box on p.351: God Learner ducks, just south of the Trickster Temple. And their neighbors on Herilia to the west worshipped the Blue Moon, though apparently not in connection to the Lopers.

Reading up on Slontos, I noticed that the Zaranistangi activities there (leading to the Battle of the Lopers in 805) were preceded by a long period of raiding across Ralios. Guide p.429: The box on Imperial Age Slontos names the Zaranistangi as allies of the Pralori rulers of Gualal, a small city south of the Ryzel hills. The Return to Rightness Crusade had made incursions to Ralios since the reign of Ullmal (708-725), possibly with lapses during the succession struggles between Saval and Pilif the Magus. Under King Annmak (whose reign began in 734) the Autarchy fell in 740. "across Ralios, heading westward" means that Bradoszaran was somewhere in Delela when the contract was made. Their trail of destruction must have run along the Doskior River and through Helby and possibly Estali into Pralorela. If they could teleport wherever they wanted, why didn't they just do so and emerge in the neighborhood of Gualal, rather than raid their way westward? And how and why could they have started their raiding in the furthest east of Ralios? A possible answer could be that Bradoszaran had come to Ralios with an army as an ally of Paslac, the last Autarch, and when Annmak triumphed over Paslac in 740, the Zaranistangi allies fled east to avoid sharing that fate. Stranded in a distant land with only his trusted band of warriors, Bradoszaran needed allies, and a way home. The Guide mentions a Zaranistangi presence in Prax at some time, but gives no hint how they could have entered Ralios. The easiest answer would have been that they traveled there some time between 450 and 578, as roving mercenary bands traveling overland on their weird steeds, possibly through Pralorela, but another, more magical answer might be found in Mastakos' Seven Steps West, which may have transported them to Halikiv. Around 758 the city states of Slontos united in an alliance and allied with the King of Seshnela, presumably to push off the Pralori yoke which obviously persisted in Gualal at that time, and possibly was re-established after Arkat had left the region. By 760 the Zaranistangi, allies of the Pralori, lost the Red Sword of Tolat. While the Zaranistangi were allied with Gualal (which probably lasted until 805), they performed human sacrifices (presumably with captives from their raids) to Annilla (or possibly Mastakos) every 16 days, in some unspecified location. It is possible that these sacrifices and a special location was required for their teleportation magics that allowed their access to reinforcements and supply. Their home base may have been in Istval on Melib.

Hero Wars and HeroQuest 1 have different canon because the source material obeyed different meta-rules for the world. Most glaringly there was the Three Distinct Otherworlds dogma, which had led to "discoveries" of oodles of essential, divine or spirit entities of whatever, complicating things way beyond what people knew about and were comfortable with in their Glorantha experience. That led to unfortunate complications like misapplied worship and needless debates based on that. The Subcultitis of Hero Wars (and to a lesser extent HeroQuest 1) obscured the cults of the core deities which had contributed to the identity of the Glorantha experience. The many subcults of Orlanth made playing a worshiper of Orlanth more versatile, but the learning curve for all those weirdly named subcults was unnecessarily high. When Moon Design acquired the rights to Glorantha, this development was addressed, and a number of things and sources that got in the way were made uncanonical. HeroQuest Glorantha and RuneQuest Glorantha don't differ that much in background, but differ in the role of runes in character creation.

Basically, we don't know. Of the five husbands of Vingkot's daughters, we have fair info on Beren and can derive a bit for Ulanin, the two riders, but the other three are enigmatic. They all create alliances with people from outside of the Vingkotling domain, and with the exception of the Orgovaltes (and the destroyed Lastralgortelli), they all occupy the northern border of the Vingkotling realm. (The Orgovaltes guard the east against whatever may come from that direction, like Chaos or Beast Riders.) Porscriptor must have had some mythic "excuse" for consuming a fellow human just like Maran Gor, I guess, and it certainly will have been magical. One culture which had leaders like this were the chariot emperors of the Jenarong dynasty, with Emperor Eats Women (Dagguneri). Six Ages has both rider and charioteer tribes in Saird way earlier, probably around the time of Beren's marriage to Redaylde, so this could be an origin for someone that might be called a cannibal. Cannibalism and head hunting needn't have been chaotic from the beginning (although certainly disturbing anyway), and given what the Vadrudi did to the ancestresses of the Merfolk, the Orlanthi verdict on rape too only changed with that botched trial of Thed demanding justice. "Innocence" also covered a lot less savory activities until people awakened to the fact that what they used to do was wrong, and after that such activities were taboo or restricted to special ritual roles. There is at least one other case where a formerly acceptable occurrance or habit was turned from good to bad - the birth of multiple (healthy) troll children. Prior to the first remedy ot the Curse of Kin, twin births were thought of as especially blessed, like Gash and Gore, but with the quest that turned single births of trollkin into trollkin litters, twin births became suspicious, and twin uzko births now are called "superior trollkin".

St. Ehilm's at Jansholm originally was a brainchild of mine, and was meant to be the Aeolian version of Elmal. Those were more or less self-generating. I used Storm in Law e.g. for the temple design. For symbolism, sure, use them. Saints are no more, and deities aren't Ascended Masters, but rather Srvuali (devolved aspects of Runes) receiving worship by the ignorant, or a share of the Invisible God worship in Henotheist circles (triangles?). None of the False Gods in the old Prosopaedia were Erasanchula (Celestial Court Rune deities), but second generation ones, the heirs to the original runes. HQ1 suffers from the "church"ness of the Malkioni. There was already a fair amount of back-paddeling (-pedaling?) as far as high medieval chivalry was concerned, but then that had been in the air since at least 1995. But heck, we still had chainmail in that picture. The Esvulari do appear to have tribes, with the Bandori (who appear to have managed to remain extra-territorial from Rikard's Malkonwal) as one example. These tribes have standard Orlanthi components - if 50% of the Esvulari are urban, the tribes down there need ordinary fisherfolk and farmers/herders to aid in feeding the city. These Orlanthi possibly have minor tribes like triaties inside the greater tribes, and while they might get a seat on the ring, they are unlikely to ever head the tribe. None was ever published, although I would guess that there is a manuscript in at least some state of completion that was prepared by the Unspoken Word crew before they lost their license. Within the framework of HQ1, Mark's approach was working just fine for me. Outside of those framing conditions (like strict non-overlapping Three Worlds model and use of "church" and "liturgy" and "blessing" in describing Malkioni), things need to be re-interpreted, just like various publications about them slowly approached what went on down south in Heortland, and inside the cities. The strict endogamy of the Aeolians is something I still have to come to terms with, but at least everybody is a warrior, whether commoner, noble or possibly even zzaburi (those who don't make the cut for sorcery?). Have fun down there, and make it fun for your players. I keep learning about these folk, and writing about them was my debut in producing Gloranthan roleplaying stuff.

Kargzant is Lightfore, since the Sun Swirl. According to Plentonius, Antirius became the real sun, until his reunion with the rest of Yelm. No Hill of Gold for Kargzant. Which possibly means Elmal = Reladivus = Kargzant on some level, with all the horse connections. Yelorna is Lightfore (when she isn't Ourania). Yelmalio is Daysenerus, an aspect of Antirius, when he isn't Halamalao the Light atop Flamal's Tree. Pretty much the Sun Dome, that lost warm reflective power of the sky, stripped off him at the Hill of Gold, though still remembered for it. There may be some Ghevengus/Vrimak component that is underplayed except in Balazar. I am not sure whether Daysenerus really is the High Sun of the Elves. High King Elf and Yelmalio stood side by side in the Darkness (presumably before the Hill of Gold?). Yelmalio in that role wasn't too different from the horse gone sedentary, Elmal. I am not sure whether Shargash wasn't at the Hill of Gold, sharing the ZZ role, or the Orlanth one, when Antirius received one of his wounds. Then there is a deity Lightfore, too, an avatar of Dayzatar rather than a son or fragment of Yelm. No clear horse connection. No appreciable Hill of Gold component, either, though possibly a quest for the Compromise.

There is no indication whatsoever that the Slontans or the Manirians transported to Jrustela and Umathela were Malkioni, let alone kin to the Waertagi. The terms Slontos and Maniria are used in a number of ways, sometimes defining a specific portion of that region, sometimes the entire region west of Kethaela. The Guide makes either of them inhabited by Entruli at the Dawn, who then became Orlanthi under the influence of the Lightbringers, although some of the coastal kingdoms may have adopted Malkionism by the 4th century. There is no information about the native religion during the reign of the Bright Empire, but its expansion may have been behind the "exiled by enemies" immigration wave of Olodo to Jrustela (Middle Sea Empire pp. 8 and 11, IIRC). The notion that the wizards would have ordered the Dronar and Horal caste folk from Seshnela (second migration, sent there by Nralar the Old, according to Guide p.621) to join the Orlanthi religion is surprising, to say the least. The notion that the third wave (folk deeply accepting the Abiding Book) did is even weaker. The first wave of around 475 are from Maniria, which (even by Imperial Age standards, Guide p.351) was the place where you would expect Orlanthi, ruled by Pralori. I'll address other issues separately.

Last time I checked Slontos was located in Maniria. The Dawn Age Slontans were reluctant to admit Lightbringer missionaries from Kethaela, but relented around 120. What kinship would the Waertagi have with the Slontans? Helering descent indicates hostility rather than friendship. The Aldryami have been their rulers for over a millennium, that should be giving the elves a better handle on their religious practices, in that context. True, the God Learners did meddle - mostly in order to gain heroquest powers by riding the Umathelan Orlanthi myths, and to test out their exchangability theories on chosen test populations. The God Learners pushed the aldryami back into the deepest forests

Two of the most important "sons of Yelm" aren't among the Planetary Sons: Golden Bow/Sagittus and Hastatus the Spearman. The Yelmalio cult clearly is the Spear cult, with the Golden Bow (Kuschile) only an allied aspect repatriated at some time. Avivorus is the Dawn Age Sunspear hero/avatar, not the warlike footman who may have already fought in concern with the gazzam-carried archer howdas prior to the Flood. Yelorna does share some of the Zaytenaras attributes IMO. Sedenya claims quite a few of the Planetary Sons as previous incarnations, including Zaytenaras, but at least also Jernedeus/Jernotius and Verithurus(a), and possibly two to five more. Only Shargash never gets identified with Sedenya.

I think we can safely assume that whoever was resettled from Slontos to Jrustela (by the name of Olodo) and finally Umathela had been in contact with the Theyalan Lightbringers. Whether they would have had other names for Orlanth and Ernalda I am not sure. Ehilm was the Ralian sun god known to the Malkioni (and probably the Brithini), and identified with the Fire Rune erasanchula (original runic being) that was among those who fell to the temptation of receiving worship, hence the False Gods according to Zzabur's propaganda. That name may well have bled over to Slontos from Galin and Helby. Worlath doesn't show up in Ralios, but that name may have been in use by the Dawn Age Slontans (who had contact with the Serpent Kings if I read that stuff about the wife from the east correctly in the Seshnelan King List). Baraku is a name from the Doraddi myth cycle. The Umathelan aldryami might know about Baraku. I doubt the immigrants brought there by the Waertagi did, although their descendants may have learnt it from the elves. In a way, Baraku is similar to Bisos or Storm Bull, and even more so to the god of the Andam Horde. We have no data what kind of herd beasts he brought, only that they didn't agree to the fodder available on the Veldt. A herder deity, and by extension also a raider deity. Elf Yelmalio is a must have. Sharing that cult with humans may have come when God Learners made the connection with lands formerly ruled by Palangio and transported that idea over, some time after Tanian's Victory. The cult may have garnered new momentum with the new platforms purging the God Learners at the end of the Imperial Age.