Joerg

Couvade is only one of Xiola Umbar's nifty spells about pregnancy. "Transfer Pregnancy" is a spell with a whole lot of practical and political implications, too. Imagine an aging queen of an Esrolian city needing to prove her fertility, a Xiola Umbar priestess willing to perform the ritual, and a daughter or granddaughter inconveniently pregnant when she should be available for the marriage market. And the adventurers tasked with bringing all of these together without anyone else noticing.

Checking the dates for the Six-legged Empire (861 - looks like I underestimated the time they needed for the weeding of the elf forests in Umathela before taking over Fonrit and progressing into Jolar), that would mean that Delecti would have missed the making of the Rascullu, unless he took a sabbatical during the Kotor wars starting in 842 to avoid being accused of a conflict of interests. Robcradle fell in 800, which makes an arrival in its aftermath a valid option. Magus level means that he arrived as an adept (or independent) sorcerer, and built up a power base. Sounds about right. The Six-legged Empire lasted only 40 years, but the magical exploration and the creation of the Rascullu likely started earlier. Delecti has always been portrayed as a mercenary force. He had antagonized the Zorak Zoran cult, so it made sense to limit troll power after they did him the service to reduce aldryami power. Troll victories also are bad for Delecti's business - trolls feed on the raw material that he craves.

Delecti possibly was involved with the people who created the Rascullu in the Six-Legged Empire. He clearly was a powerful magician of some sort, without clear allegiance to any Theyalan or draconic cult (except perhaps Pavis's). Just the type of strange magician you would call a sorcerer regardless of his actual magic, but possibly guilty as charged, though from an unclear school. Quite likely Malkioni by descent, but possibly Fonritian (Vadeli), exotic Ralian refugee, or other such weird forms. It isn't quite clear to me when he arrived in Dragon Pass, could have been after the destruction of Robcradle, possibly during a visit with the Pure Horse folk while that assault happened. I think that minotaurs, centaurs and manticores may have derived from encounters with Praxian groups. The Minotaur is an imitation of the Founder spirits of the tribes, the centaur is the ultimate unification of the Pure Horse steed and rider (and concept-wise not that different from the Rascullu), and the Manticore might be an application of his remodeling to Basmoli Berserk "volunteers". I don't think that he could have created the satyrs from broos or unicorns. All of these Remaker experiments were performed on live subjects, not corpses, although they may have involved a death-and-rebirth magic. Let's have a look at his necromantic talents. He seems to have tricked the mandatory Death to all Humans of the Inhuman Occupation by practicing corpse-hopping. It isn't quite clear whether he really inhabits that corpse or whether that corpse just serves as the mobile platform of an artifact that holds his soul, possibly implanted. He is able to animate composite corpses as well as regular corpses without any other temporal limitation than rot. (That regular corpse bit is similar to ZZ's Create Zombie.) He is able to mass animate corpses of recently died people, several thousands a day after a battle or a sacrifice. Outside of the Upland Marsh, they need to remain in a magical chain to remain animated. WF 15 suggests that he gained this power from a heroquest ability imitating a feat of Zorak Zoran, and that such zombies are different from the ones in the previous paragraph. None of these are mentioned during his activities in the EWF. Delecti was not a draconic thinker - he survived the 1042 utuma unscathed. He may have been able to tap into the chain of veneration instituted by the Third Council, maybe he even was its architect. If the transformative magic from say rider and horse into centaur involved death of the subjects and then rebirth, he would have had a magic that could tap that energy release upon death. And possibly capture the souls of the beings to be united, too, which might be described as a shamanic technique (to get back to the topic at hand), possibly acquired in Fonrit, Jolar or Prax. (If I am correct about the human subjects of the Remaker transformations, all of these were from cultures practicing shamanism.) He may have tapped into the massive release of the 1042 utuma, which might have burnt out his (not that) mortal body from sheer overload, and may have forced him into body-hopping already then. The massive transformation of the lakes into the Upland Marsh might have been fueled by the immense amount of deaths of the Golden Horde and their victims. It might even have been an involuntary release of those energies. The Blackthorn transformation of the captured dryad Horalin isn't dated, but appears to have occurred after Delecti subjected and corrupted Rihalya, who sounds like a limoniad rather than a dryad. If Delecti used the myth of Korang the Slayer to overcome Rihalya, this sounds like his abandoning his mortal form and transforming the Lakes into the Upland Marsh was the same event. I don't think that Delecti was either a card bearing member of the God Learners or the EWF. He may have been a useful companion for God Learner heroquesting, however, before his relationship with them fouled and/or he received a better offer by Isgangdrang and the ring of Orlanthland. It is possible to make him a Forrest Gump of the Imperial Age, starting his career as heroquester from Fonrit into Jolar, helping form the Six-legged Empire and constructing the Rascullu, then being shipped over to Robcradle only to miss its destruction at the hands of Paragua and friends, remaining as a guest of the Pure Horse allies of Feroda before following Pavis into the EWF, where he established Remakerela. He may have been privy to the the methods of the Chain of Veneration and may have helped Isgangdrang to set that up for the Third Council. He was no valid target for the assisted mass utuma of 1042, and so remained active until the arrival of the True Golden Horde. I am not exactly certain why he chose to make his stand at Orin Jisteel rather than in Remakerela, but that may have been because of him targeting Rihalya. The first confirmed mention of Zombies comes after the Dragonkill - he had an army of zombies when that Zorak Zorani paid his terminal visit, reminding Delecti of the Battle of the Walking Corpses, and allowing him to heroquest for the ability to turn the slain bodies of enemies (or sacrifices) into zombie hordes. He possibly created the Dancers of Darkness.

I am a bit astonished that the term Malkonwal survived the capture of Rikard, but it is possible that the Lunars continued the term for the newly conquered district while they had it under their administration. It appears to be the only collective word for Heortland without Volsaxar. Deep into Malkonwal probably means that the scorpionman plague spread through the forested foothills of the Storm Mountains, erupting onto the plateau in fast raids, harrassing the countryside. Scorpionmen make good raiders, but may be hard put to deal with disciplined cavalry. Capturing Backford must have been quite the grizzly feast, but for all its role as a junction in Belintar's Holy Country, it was a small city. But then its position at the exit of the Footprint would suggest that it had some protection or precautions against chaos outbreaks. The bigger cities (Jansholm, Durengard) probably have way better fortifications, and quite certainly larger garrisons, too. Duchamp might be in greater danger than Durengard, being closer to those forests and a lot smaller.

The God Learners were Malkioni in origin, and the term originally applied to learning about the truths about the Invisible God which led to the Return to Rightness movement that conquered Seshnela, Fronela, Ralios and Slontos. The Free Men of the Seas who summoned Tanien were Malkioni establishing the superiority of sorcery over divinity. The adventurism and heroquesting movement that experimented with theist worship called Malkionieranism in Revealed Mythologies and The Middle Sea Empire probably is what most Third Age folk think of as the God Learners, with weird stuff like the Zistorite Machine God or magical experiments like the creation of the Rascullu in the Six Legged Empire (which appears to have the hand-writing of Delecti). They weren't mainstream Malkioni, but they were tolerated by the mainstream ones for the results they brought home. From the results, I have serious doubts that the Malkioneranist movemen managed to invade shamanism the way they invaded theism.

Sure. I am not in a position to define "no Hsunchen shamanic path allows shamans to become sorcerers, or vice versa." Except for my own games, where this probably is true. Likewise, the Rokari church will have made the acquisition of spirit magic through other means than spell matrix enchantments anathema, let alone following a shamanic path. Report to the inquisition for immolation. Do not go to Solace. Easily done in an official voice. "No shamans can become sorcerers, and vice versa, without breaking the restrictions and losing all support of both communities." Losing all support prevents the new apprentice shaman or sorcerer from learning anything from that source. A statement like this in the magic book would clearly curb any such approaches outside of rules-breaking communities like the Imperial Lunar College of Magic or the Sartar Magical Union. Any characters going down paths like that outside of either organisation will have found their One Unique Thing, or be retro-actively included.

Delecti perhaps??? I always thought that Delecti dealt primarily in dead bodies rather than spirits. But I haven't seen any games mechanics in RuneQuest how he creates his zombies. From his ability to re-animate or transform entire regiments I guess that he doesn't use the Animate Dead sorcery spell.

Agreed. Anyone who's ever tried writing with the "wrong" hand knows how little of their skill carries over. True for handwriting (not that my dominant hand reads any better...), but e.g. with fine manipulation in the lab I am ambidextrous.

IIRC an uncle Jaldon was a dental technician, so: close.

One reason for the beard requirement might be the truth rune formed by the sideburns in combination with the goatee part in traditional long beards. With sufficiently long and voluminous beards, I don't see why any sage would worry about the necklines. Apart from that A-or B-rated rumor in Tales about using Regrow Limb to fight baldness (one point per strand of hair), I don't think there are any magics for growth of hair (other than Hsunchen transform body) anywhere in writing. There should be at least a trickster spell causing hair growth, possibly a Touch spell. Maybe active.

Our university rpg club fanzine had a spoof advertisement for a dice academy where the dice would be subject to a rigorous training regimen. There may have been one or two takers... As far as damage dice are concerned, I used to make sure to let players notorious for rolling high roll their own damage using the same dice and surfaces.

Why punch someone for 1D3 plus damage bonus when a kick can do 1D6 plus damage bonus? Unless you are a disciple of martial arts, too. I have to admit that in RQ3 kicking usually was reserved against opponents who already had parried that melee round, as a sword parrying a kick would be painful. Some tripping action with the legs might fall under grappling, although the description in RQG remains silent about this. Coming from a two-handed sword style where it is still possible to use the blade one-handed in either hand, I would definitely use half that skill for the off-hand one-handed use, and half that penalty for dominant hand one-handed use, unless one-handed sword has already been trained higher for either hand. Albrecht Dürer's fencing book (or other such manuals) shows a mix of grappling and sword action in quite a few of the tableaus, apparently out of situations with locked blades. Given that the contemporary books for unarmed combat aren't that different from modern Asian techniques or Hellenic pancration, I don't see why those sword techniques would have been "modern" developments of the Renaissance.

Not all spirits will be able to attack normally. A shaman may have trapped disease or other enemy spirits, carry healing spirits, have spirits only able to provide MP, and elementals or other such entities that can form bodies. Under RQ3, there was no limit to spirits in bindings, and a shaman could also hold spirits in his fetch as long as the total POW of those spirits didn't exceed the MP of the fetch. Some NPC fetches had POW in the fifties. You could have Theist-Sorcerer-Shaman Chalana Arroyans, I suppose, although getting there would be a long way. On the Lunar side, shamanism appears to be rather remote from sorcery. With uzuz demigoddesses, all bets are off. Few shamanic traditions are neutral towards sorcery. The Hsunchen are mostly hostile to Malkioni, and that seems to apply to the beast totem warrior societies of the Malkioni, too, possibly even more so. Kolat and Earth Witch aren't very friendly even with elemental Rune cults of the same flavor, and probably even less towards sorcerers. Pure Horse folk in Prax once were allied with sorcerers, but that alliance was betrayed, and when they had to face the Beast Riders, no sorcerers were there to help them. The Pentan alliance with the Orathorn sorcerers didn't end on a happy note, either. Doraddi shamanism is unlikely to welcome sorcerers. Fonritians might, and I wouldn't swear that Pujaleg wouldn't be tempted, either. Sheng Seleris managed to overcome such distinctions, and the Lunar College of Magic and Argrath's Magical Union appear to work on such terms, too. Fonritian slaves might be forced to cross-train slaves from the other type of magic, possibly overriding tradition or school limitations. Eastern society may have such combinations somewhere. Malkioni caste restrictions probably forbid any experimentation with shamanism. including the Carmanians. The Waertagi might be more open. The Vadeli will have spells to trap or dominate shamans. Older Spolite combinations are possible, though rarely practiced openly within sight of Carmanians or Dara Happans. The Ramalian overlords might be able to force their way into the Mraloti secrets, but how attractive can it be to lower yourself from proud sorcery to unclean porcine shamanism? Arkati stygianism doesn't really include shamanism, although Kitori or Argan Argar Chain practitioners might have access to some traditions of uz shamanism, too.

I tended to demand a few intermediate targets on such activities, too. In arm-wrestling, a setback would also increase the difficulty for the loser. A tie would use up endurance for both equally, a loss would cause additional endurance loss. This could be done with fatigue points or with some CON limit for the entire exchange.

Fireblade sounds like the spell of choice for weak characters without damage bonus (or with negative ones), or for the formation use I suggested (and attested in Gloranthan sources). Being an active spell meant that you could switch it off and sheath your blade as soon as the combat was over, rather than having to wait out five very visible minutes in potentially hostile or flammable environment. You don't have to attack directly, either - igniting some of the scenery can alter the scene significantly, too. Few ropes last more than two melee rounds of exposure, and ship hulls are quite susceptible, too. As far as I remember, Bladesharp 3 was the best in my RQ3 games, but combined with sorcerous Damage Boost and personal damage bonus easily outdid the Fireblade damage. On the other hand, I witnessed a scene in our university gaming club where such a combination with about 6 points of additional damage just bounced off the natural armor of a(n in Gloranthan terms dream) dragon. The character returned with Truesword and full intensity Damage Boost atop the biggest Bladesharp available, and finally managed to hurt the opponent significantly. The accumulated defensive magic practically glowed in daylight, too.

Just clarifying Richard's answer. The only situations where we thought channeling could be "resisted" would be (a) breaking a shield, which only applies to channeling characters anyway, (b) breaking out of Air bonds, which is basically impossible, or (c) breaking free of Compulsion, which has more to do with force of personality than channeling ability (Morgase breaking free of Rahvin in The Fires of Heaven.) This would make weaves like Compulsion automatic instant successes against anyone not holding on to the source. Making it an attrition contest between magic points (which would be replenished by someone holding on to the source, but be used up rather quickly by non-channelers) would at least delay the effect, analogous to RQ Spirit Combat. But then, using a Resistance roll against some other stat would do this job just as well, repeating for as long as either the victim succumbs or the channeler breaks off (due to a wound or the appearance of a more immediate threat). Air bonds would match weave effect STR vs. the STR of the victim. Is there a way to use an opposing weave of air to counter air bonds? IIRC, Morgase is using a passion to counter the Compulsion, and probably rolls a critical in rules terms. And she is a (however weak) channeler educated in the White Tower. Do you have mechanics for shielding and breaking through a shield? (Or for unraveling a weave?) Tying off a weave means it stops being active, requiring no further concentration (and allowing no further modification). Does it still occupy some of the weaver's POW? Your rules variant as presented now might work for other settings where magicians tap into external energy flows, too, like e.g. Asprin's MYTH series.

You would probably have to be illuminated to be able to do so. A sorcerer might try and use a pyramid scheme with bound spirits (in creatures possessing a CHA stat) controlling a MP storage and a number of other bound spirits whose function is to refill these. A couple of rules clarifications might be required here. Can bound spirits possessing a CHA stat control other spirits? Can MP be transferred from one MP storage to another? Now imagine a sorcerer controlling the bound spirit of a shaman, and shudder, even without an ability to use the fetch.

I guess much of this interaction between spells from these very different sources will have to be house-ruled, since it is nearly impossible to produce a multi-dimensional matrix for all these possible combinations, but from the answers I have seen so far, a few official guidelines appear to be helpful. Not sure what you mean by this. Does the stacked Protection effect from both Shield and Protection act as the resistance (making it 6 points vs. 8 points), or is it 6 points vs. 4 points for just the Spirit Magic spell? Similar concerns where Multispell or Extension are involved. Basically, does stacking of effects strengthen the magical resistance of the single components? Does stacking a spirit magic effect with a divine Rune spell render this effect immune from magic targeting just spirit magic? As to the Berserker effects, I have been in an adrenaline-induced fighting "zone" or rage a few times, which corresponds well with the overall description of Berserker, but also with the effects of <weapon> Trance. Basically what I experienced was an extraordinary control over moves without any ethical considerations holding me back. So there is a possibility that two or more incompatible spells could be there on a single target, but only one of these in effect. If so, casting a Protection 3 or Countermagic 3 over an Protection 1 Extension 1 needn't remove the extended spell, but might simply suppress its effect. But given the book-keeping nightmare of such layered spells, it is probably spell strength (plus boosting) that decides which of the magics applies. But then, the Attract Magic sorcery spell creates just this situation.

There isn't any road through the Colymar Wilds or the Thunder Hills, but there will be paths between Asborn's Stead and the Nymie Vale to the south and Apple Lane to the north. The original Colymar tribe did not extend north of the Colymar Wilds, although the addition of the Hiording and Karandoli clans early on in the tribal history will have extended Colymar interests beyond the Thunder Hills. Possibly the Jenstali clan, too. The Karandoli king Venharl dragged the Colymar into the Taral War, apparently against the interests of the original five Colymar clans (the Karandoli were reported "destroyed" under the next king Robasart, from the Arnoring clan, although some reconstituted form of the clan with nobility descended from the Arnoring clan continued until at least 1491, with King Ortossi lured on the Other Side on a hunt), but the addition of the Runegate triaty to the tribe meant a strong presence in the Afritha Vale, and the addition of the Varmandi antagonized the Malani. The conquest of the Tree Triaty away from the Malani put the main strength of the Colymar into the Arfritha Vale, away from the five original clans plus the Black Spear/Anmagarn (and the more recent addition of the Enjossi on the Stream). The Colymar Wilds play an important role in the identity of the tribe and its Black Spear heirloom, and building a road there would probably damage that identity and magic. There will be trails east and west of these woodlands, also used by the herders for the summer pastures atop both the Starfire Ridges and the Thunder Hills. The area where both the Karandoli and the Jenstali clans used to settle may be regarded as haunted. The Antorlings probably spread into those lands of these clans which remained attractive. Basically, this history of the Colymar shows how two disparate groups were joined under one tribe. The enmity with the Malani certainly played a role why Venharl found initial support with his activities away from the tribal center, but later on the Arfritha clans became quite dominant in the tribe. It is probably only thanks to the strength of the Clearwine Earth temple that the tribe avoided a split into those two territories, and the custom to install old clan nobility in the new replacement clans (Taraling replacing the Lonisi, Karandoli reformed after their heavy losses in the Zarran War, Antorlings from the third Tree Triaty clan after the Zarran War). The Lismelder are an offshoot of the Malani, and despite their feud with the Malani, the Colymar never really trusted them, although they stood by them in the Beastman wars and against the undead of the Marsh. I think that the best route for medium to larger parties on horseback would be across the Thunder Hills into Antorling lands, following the cattle drift paths there, and then down the Arfritha valley through Hiording lands. These routes are ok for mule trains, too, but not for wagons.

Precisely because a dagger is shorter and can be realigned quickly. A medium or large shield is fairly bulky. Attacking with its edge brings it out of its protective alignment, and using it for a body slam locks it with the body in question unless you succeed in a knockback. I wonder whether we might see rules for locked weapons and subsequent wrestling or kicking, perhaps in the shape of martial arts.

The God Learner philosophical devolution of beasts has Hykim and Mikyh as the first physical manifestation of beasthood, and follows them up with a host of single purpose and derived taxa, plus ancestral trees resembling the Linnaeus taxonomy concepts, like Mother Mammal or Fralar, the ancestor of the Carnivores. Also, for most Hsunchen the beast god worship is ancestral in nature. I expect some Hsunchen magic (and not just limited to full or partial shape-changing) to be introduced with the Bestiary, at least for Telmori and Basmoli. But basically, worship of the unspecific Beast rune entity has a lot less application than worship of the totem beast spirits (or deities). Trying to gain some draconic powers or insights through Hykim and Mikyh sounds like something the God Learners might have tried, and may have found lacking in their conflicts with the EWF.

No you can't... because the spell parameters are touch and active; So the caster of the spell need to always touch the weapon for it to work AND concentrate to maintain it active. The way I see it, you need an allied spirit in a gauntlet or similar, or in the weapon itself, to cast the spell for you. That way the concentration is only in danger when the spirit-holding item is damaged or attacked, and mounted attacks aren't much of a problem, either. The other use is to stand in a pike formation with planted pikes ablaze with magical fire. Probably a standard move for a Men-and-a-half formation and for Caladraland spear formations (like at Pennel Ford), and sadly unavailable to Sun Domers. In that case, the flaming blade is very much a deterrent to whichever mount is approaching, much more than the actual damage, and not much less frightful to the front ranks of any attackers on foot. The prohibition against mounted combat doesn't take awakened herd beast mounts for the Praxians or other intelligent mounts into account, either. Fighting from such a mount will be similar to fighting from a chariot. That paragraph on active spells (p.247) has a few other problems, too, like the statement excluding divine Rune spells, as mentioned in the Magic vs. magic thread.

Shield's countermagic effect effects thing that are 1 "point" above it's countermagic (I'm going to try be consistent and call this Spell Points, or SP.). Rune magic has 2 SP per RP spent, so therefore the Dispel Magic's 10 spell points would overwhelm the shield's 4 SP countermagic and go on to dispel the 6 total SP of spells protecting the target. Dispel Magic is the Spirit spell, not the Rune spell, so the spell points of the Dispel are just 5. If the Shield is effective to up to 5 spell points, then depending on the priorities the Countermagic effect of it could cancel the Dispel, but unlike Countermagic, the Shield would remain in place, or the Dispel effect takes place fist, removing the Countermagic effect. I would expect the existing spell to take precedence, but I am not 100% sure about that, hence the follow-up question with the boost. The other question is whether stacked effects also mean that the spell points stack. Dispel 5 with a boost is enough to cancel either the Protection 4 or the Shield 2 despite the Countermagic effect if both Shield and Protection are counted as separate spells. Without targeting a specific spell, the most powerful defensive spell is targeted - that would be the Shield spell. Dispel Magic will automatically target the strongest spell it can affect, so if the target wore a Shield 2 (which a 5 point spell can affect) and a Spirit Screen 6 (which the 5 point spell can't), the Shield would go. Again, the spell's 6 SP beats the shield's 4 SP and would pass through untouched. It ignores the shield after that, pitting it's 6 SS vs the protection's 4 SS on the resistance table. If that is the case, the stacking of the effect with the Protection effect of the Shield doesn't make the Protection harder to neutralize. It's unclear exactly how incompatible spirit/rune magic spells are supposed to be handled. As I said above, I'd probably just ape the incompatible spell rules from sorcery. So, in this case, the countermagic would suppress the protection. I'd also require that any unwilling target would have to have his POW overcome. Shield gets overwhelmed, so as above. Does Shield's Countermagic getting overwhelmed cancel the Shield? I don't think so. The spell description says "the spell must be at least 1 point stronger than the defense of the Shield", but is that 2 points (as per the description above) or 2 points plus 1 as per Countermagic spell? Is an incapacitated target able to resist a spell? Huh, yeah, that's true! A neat trick, that. That depends on whether boosting a spell with extra magic points delays the spell strike rank or not. I have heard it argued that boosting a Divine Rune Spell doesn't affect the strike rank, but I am far from sure about that. The rules actually say "Rune magic spells always take effect at strike rank 1." This opens a new can of worms with regard to applying Rune spells to heal a comrade who will die at the end of the round. With a literal reading, you can't make the decision to cast the rune spell on a later strike rank. I do expect "at strike rank 1" meaning from the moment the caster can react to what happened in the melee round (which may or may not be delayed by the caster's DEX strike rank). The new sorcery rules have sort of opened the "one SR per MP" meta-rule, as each additional point of intensity takes 2 strike ranks, in my reading regardless whether the caster can do so by a single magic point or whether he has to double it (multiple times) for lacking the direct rune and/or technique. Each point used for boosting a sorcery spell takes 2 strike ranks, just as any point of intensity. Which gets me to the next question - if a sorcery spell requires two techniques, can both of them be inferred from just one related technique? Is the Command technique enough to cast a spell requiring both Summon and Combine (quadrupling MP cost just for the techniques)? Answering the parenthetical: Dismiss Magic clearly spells out that only the spell strength of sorcery needs to be overcome, so 2. That's for the Divine Dismiss, but the box next to the Dispel Magic spell talks about the intensity of the spell, not just about the strength, and in the sorcery section the total intensity is for the basic 1 in all three parameters, plus 1 for each increase in one of the three parameters (strength, duration or range). A sorcery spell is always at least a 2-point spell (at least one technique and at least one rune), so does an intensity 1 spell require two points of Dispel Magic to be effective, or is one point sufficient? On the other hand, Rune spells are supposed to be superior to Spirit spells, so maybe this difference is intentional. Unless I misruled that all the time, RQ3 rules required only the Intensity component (which translates as "Spell Strength Intensity" in RQG) to be overcome for dispelling magic. I find the use of "intensity" and (spell) "strength" to be slightly inconsistent, and the explanation on p.247 reads somewhat circular when comparing to p.384f where strength is one possible form of part of the total intensity of the spell (as cast by the sorcerer, i.e. measured in points of Free INT required, never mind the actual consumption of magic points). There is also multiple use of "intensity" when the potency of a fire is measured in variable spells requiring certain intensities. (Loaning "potency" from the poison rules here. There shouldn't be much overlap between poison and fire potency/intensity.) The page referenced for fire intensity (p.157, referenced from p.325 and 330) doesn't say anything about fire intensity. There is such a table for the Conflagration sorcery spell on p.392, however.

The archetypal deity for the helering gender is a warrior's companion, and a warrior in his own right, although he also fills the role of the damsel in distress (in the Aroka myth) and has mothered a couple of beings In The Coming Storm, the most prominent helering person is Aethelric the girl, housecarl and one of the bodyguards of the Red Cow chief, combining the very male activity of the tough and respected warrior with surprising femininity. Intimate companionship probably is possible even between members of the same gender, as Orlanthi males are very much into hugging and kissing. There are basically only few sexual taboos in Orlanthi society - sex with non-adults, forced sex against the expressed wishes of the partner (aka rape), and possibly bestiality while in human shape. Breaking marital vows is a different issue, but those vows might define the extent of exclusivity of the marriage. Marriage is more than just a personal relationship, too. Depending on the type of marriage, it can involve adoption into the partner's clan, and many a marriage has served as a peace bond between conflicting clans, creating something of a hostage situation for the individuals moving to the other clan. Point of the Vingan or Nandan genders is that hanging around with people of your own gender means hanging around with the cis-people of your opposite sex (provided you have exactly one, the number may as well be zero or two). Helering gendered folk hang around with just about anyone in whichever role they feel like, although they are supposed to stick to the role of unambiguous cults whenever performing as such - which means permanent abstention from reproduction even in the male role if a follower of Ty Kora Tek, to get back to the original topic. It is possible that there are gender-fluid groups somewhere in Heortling society with very few (if any) standard males or females, but they haven't been described yet. Clans with high numbers of Vingan warriors have featured in King of Dragon Pass. I haven't seen a strongly Nandan presence anywhere, yet. I do wonder what the Imarjan take on nandan sons is in Esrolia. As non-mothers, they are barred from deeper mysteries of Ernalda, but they might be eligible for Dark Earth priestesshood. Actually having given birth on the Other Side would remove the barriers to queendom, too, although their fertility would be constantly questioned unless they spent most of their time being pregnant from Other Side intercourse. I have no idea about hermaphrodites in Esrolian society, either - there they might have to form communities of their own to be recognized as female gender.

Good catch. Important note that nandan is a gender, not just a deity, as that implies that the stricture that males cannot join the cult is still applicable. The inverse conclusion is that someone with male sex joining a cult like Ernalda or Ty Kora Tek is by definition of nandan or at least helering gender. Which gets us to the weird situation that there would be a lot of female sex initiates of Vinga (or other male occupation cults) whose gender is really helering rather than vingan.