Joerg

When I wrote that statement, I wasn't sure how much of Hwarin's lineage was alive or not with the Errio-unit. For all I know, Serenalda (presumably of Cafol) may have been a descendant of Hwarin. But prior to Phargentes, there was no such office as Provincial Governor/Lunar Provincial Overseer. The provincial kingdoms were tributary to the Empire, and the satraps of Sylila managed all that for the empire, relying on ancient oaths sworn to Hwarin and Ingkot, I suppose. The Orlanthi way of establishing precedent and binding vows rather than a bureaucratic administration. To keep on topic with tributes and taxes, compare the Kitori tribute (the contract that defined the Kingdom of Night, after liberation from Palangio's usurpation also known as Arkat's Command) in Kethaela. There are no written records about what exactly each group has to contribute, although the terms of the tribute (and the return services, as well as penalties) are well known to all involved. All of this is on the power of oaths, which possibly can be recalled using some Lhankor Mhy magic (e.g. Divination) or Humakt magic if the oath was witnessed by Humakti. (Now there is an application for Humakti godtalkers rather than swords...)Installing a Dara Happan style Overseer who had all these obligations written down by his bureaucrats cut out the Sylilans, and their ability to skim off before writing the records for these tributes before passing them on to the Imperial machinery.

I guess the disarming etc. tactics come into play when the "I offer ransom" move isn't trusted or won't be accepted. But then, "disarming" always has had also another meaning in RQ combat, so called shots to that limb are sufficient in this regard. Knockback - especially with a shield or a kick - has been problematic in normal RQ3 combats involving normal sized but decently strong combatants. The resistance rolls made this often desirable outcome of a combat round hard to achieve. Much of this makes me think of potential "Furry Wisdom" comics, e.g. with the exchange "You need to learn to listen better, Conan - we asked you to decapacitate him, not decapitate." "Well, he stopped moving, didn't he?"

Given the RQ3 rules for Spell Trading, I thought that was a given? In a materialist point of view the spell point pool is made up from potential energy leads from the divine realm to the mundane realm, and while the spell is active these leads are active, too. Once the spell duration is through (whether through the course of time or through dispelling) , this lead has fallen out of tune with the divine realm, and requires re-attuning at a place and time when the connection to the divine realm is auspicious. At least this is what I would expect to be the result of a God Learner applying RuneQuest Sight to a user of divine magic. The spell pool is something I haven't made my mind up about yet whether I like it or not. Back in 1994 or 95 the spell pool mechanic was promoted, and for myself I came to the result that only those spells that a priest/initiate had specifically sacrificed for would end up in the spell pool. This house-rule (an empowering one for RQ3) would mean that to be able to cast shield 3, the character would have had to sacrifice three points of POW for shield. Unless the spell was traded away, the character could repeatedly use those points of shield. If you traded away spell knowledge, then this trade would deduct that spell from your casting ability. A wind lord with lightning 4 who traded 2 points of lightning for something else would be able to cast only lightning 2 until that trading partner had used the two points of lightning. There was a grey area what would happen if the trading partner died before using the spell. Issaries' Spell Trading is even worse in this regard under RQ2 or 3. The Issaries priest blocks the use of this point of spell trading until both trading parties have used up their traded spell. What happens to traded spells when: one of the partners in the trade dies (and doesn't return from the dead within 7 days)? one of the partners gets lost on a heroquest? one of the partners in the trade is being made into a Thanatari head? one of the partners gets into contact with raw Truestone and loses control over his remaining spell points? An initiate who has spent 3 POW on his spell pool can cast any special or common divine spell available to his cult/subcult. In case of one-use spells (like Sever Spirit or Resurrection) the spell pool is permanently reduced by that amount. Does this extend to associate spells, or do these require a point of POW sacrificed to that cult rather than one's own?

The Librarian went through L-Space and performed an appendectomy. Ook. As far as I am concerned, I would be grateful for an e-reader optimized version which could be updated with subsequent additions to the rules in the same manner as a law collection like in the picture. But first let's get those dead aldryami through that mostali device and imprinted with uz sap.

I don't allow spirit screen when trying to integrate spell knowledge.The supplicant might win the spirit combat, but the spirit's spell won't be able to enter the supplicant. This makes spirit screen a good tactic to avoid possession by a spirit that has got the upper hand, but it won't allow easy access to high power spells.

In Revealed Mythologies, Venforn, called the Immense Master, is as much a student of Oorduren (the High God of Mysticism) as are Nenduren, Mashunasan and that other, Nothing, guy, and he proves that his path of integration with the All leads to the same mystical one-ness as do the austerities. When looking at EWF Draconic Mysticism as described for Ingolf (and previously successfully undergone by Obduran), it appears to be a route of manifestation rather than austerities, but it also inherits from Godunya's teachings. Isgangdrang and his cabal of Great Dragon seats on the Third Council are said to have been practitioners of Immanent Mastery, and are named as an example for short cut draconic paths, but Isgangdrang started out as a student of Obduran just like Ingolf. Obduran is the only named EWF mystic who achieved True Dragonhood and then performed Utuma to pass on beyond the boundaries of Glorantha, and it appears that he was the only practitioner who also retained his Orlanth ties to do so. But then Obduran's school/dojo was only one out of many which had developed between 590 and 780 in resistance to the council of Orlanthland, as continuation of Vistikos' "lite draconism" in the ecstatic Hunting and Waltzing movement which started the draconic consciousness movement. From the history of Domanand, the remote rebel schools persecuted by the Council of Orlanthland prior to Obduran gaining a seat there managed to provide quite a lot of magical and draconic manifestation or alliance to be taken that seriously. The dragonewts practice both manifestation (through their rebirths and progress through the dragonewt stages) and abstention from the world's entanglements. I don't see any evidence for torturous austerities in their observed practices, apart perhaps from this wasp nest dance. The Kralori and the Lunars do practice rather bad austerities to prepare for mystical revelations, as shown in the careers of Danfive Xaron and Sheng Seleris. Given the sometimes vastly variant groups in the EWF, there would probably been some schools using austerities, too, but they don't appear to have been mainstream. But then, the outer realms visited by Ingolf are a sort of austerities, too, "searing away the very souls of the questers". Not that different from the Baths of Nelat or the Flame of Ehilm as purification rites in Orlanth myths, or exposure to Chaos in Lunar mysticism.

True. But this genealogy discussion has Quinscion the Patient's family, the Farquinils from Red Fish, so still marginally on topic. Given the evidence of Tax Farming in Sartar (which is how Gringle all but bankrupted himself), I wonder what the prevalence of this practice is in the older Provinces. Looking back at the tribute list provided by Martin earlier in this thread, I notice the delivery of slaves from both Tarsh and Holay, but not from the other Provinces. Both provinces are transit areas for the more wild areas beyond - the war zone of Sartar, Kethaela and Prax, and the destination of slave hunters in Balazar. I would have expected some debt slavery (caused by "selective taxation") in places like Aggar and Talastar, too, but possibly there they are just commodities, not part of the traditional tribute.

I like Paul Jaquay's Central Casting tables, too, but looking at the prices at amazon, that's not a useful suggestion to buy it. Heroes of Legend has provided much of this stuff to my PCs and NPCs in the past, with only slightly more work to make the results fit the setting. If you remember Martin Laurie's Humakti character Onslaught, I wove him into the background of one of my characters thanks to Central Casting - basically holding a grudge for killing the character's Humakti mentor. It was that incident which made him stop trying to get into the Humakt cult and go to Lhankor Mhy instead (in both cases, through his Truth Rune).

I'm very interested in this idea, as I've been planning to use Heroquest for community/larger scale stuff as an addition to my Runequest stuff. Currently at the raw idea stage, but I think it has merit. I'd love to hear more about this particular idea/execution if there is more to know! This has been a while ago, but basically each faction had an elite Mistress troll ability (IIRC with a few breakouts) in the high mastery region, a few Dark Troll abilities in the low mastery region with maybe 2 breakouts, trollkin abilities (possibly at varying levels for values, soldiers and food), and a few insect herds (divided in adults and maggots) whose abilities could be used as well. The game was "turn based", and at each turn the faction had to fulfill certain obligations like feeding the faction and its dependents, leading the seasonal rites, pleasing the ancient mistress in her pregnancy, and using the rest of the faction's abilities to either augment such activities or to launch specific other activities. Searching for the right magical food included far ranging patrols (covered by various flying units, like value trollkin moth riders or bat-winged trolls themselves). When an interesting site had been found, the artifact had to be dug up, which (for my winged, armless bat-trolls) meant sending in the maggots to excavate the item. Jeff RIchard hosted a similar game with HeroQuest at Kraken, about two years ago. Two groups of five players each would play against each other. Group one was slightly less veteran Gloranthan and got to choose the setting (which turned out to be Melib) and their faction (options supplied by Jeff, they chose Prince Harstar and his Holy Country allies), group two then was happy to take Zaranistangi demigods teleporting in to the "Mastakos" temple city in the north of the island. Each group had five communal resources, War, Magic, Harmony, Wealth and Fertility. The game was "turn based", much like Greg's Blue Moon Troll game. Each turn, each group would have to deal with a domestic problem, an external problem, and whatever problems the other group presented to the opposition, and projects of their own. One resource was really good (IIRC 17W), one resource really bad (IIRC 12, Group 1 had Wealth at max and Magic at its lowest, Group 2 the other way around) and the rest with good or at least fair vaöues (3W and 17, again IIRC). You had to have an unused ability to do anything. With three tasks being the norm, two of the abilities could be used to augment or have extra projects, like really hard heroquests resolved in a simple contest. So we brought back the Sword of Tolat (without traveling to Fronela), or called in Harrek and the Wolf Pirate to counter the Zaranistangi/Amazon alliance disrupting all naval contact to the Holy Country. Lots of fun stuff dealt with like the Icelandic sagas dealt with a summer spent going raiding in Ireland: "That summer he went a-viking in the western Isles. When he returned...." In comparison, Greg's Hero Wars game was a lot "grittier" and dealt with details glossed over in Jeff's game. It isn't quite fair to compare those two games because Jeff's game lived from the indirect and occasional direct interaction between the two groups. Both games were very memorable to me, and left me with a thirst for more of this.

Then are the Errio-unit a client of the Assiday, or are they near-equal partners bound by marriage? (Similar to the Orindori and the Phoronestes bloodline?) The Farquinils lineage of Red Fish (Karasal/Dara Happa) is another branch off the Red Emperor's offspring. With the indicated amount of inter-marriage, there would be quite a few people whose male ancestors Wiped out as a clan, I assume. The bloodline of the Conquering Daughter will continue in other houses, through maternal descent. Very nice chart, holding a few surprises to me. Mainly Appius Luxius as descended from the Errio Unit (his father being the Red Emperor possibly is of less consequence - if I had to make a guess, more than 100 children are sired by the Emperor in any given year. But with this, Appius is extremely well-connected in the Provinces, and is by any measure the King of Saird. Seralda of Cafol sounds like a Sairdite earth priestess rather than your typical Pelorian Lunar upstart family. None of these Red Emperor lineages claim descent from Takenegi (as e.g. Hwarin did, and possibly Hon-eel, too). In fact, I am a bit surprised that Valare Addi had a child with Magnificus, who only appears in the middle of the Seleric occupation. While she lived her life as a divine and presuably unaging Lunar on the Red Moon, she was well over 200 when Magnificus took over. I would have expected that her lineage reached back inte the first or at latest second wane. Speaking of later Masks of the Emperor, we have the same effect as with the winners of the Tournaament of the Mastes of Luck and Death - their previous lives and affiliations would carry over into their Emperor persona, creating all kinds of political undercurrents with their houses of origin when having offspring marrying into existing or newcomer houses. Does anybody have similar genealogies for other Lunar houses?

The God Learners did steal Arkati secret knowledge, aftar all, so it is at least likely that they stumbled across riddles which might provide illumination. However, without heeding the body of Arkat's teachings about genuinity and respect, they may have gone down the same alley as the (vampire) kings of Tanisor did in the Dawn Age. What is well known is that the God Learners had the means to deal with mere Spirits of Reprisal. Whether this was a protection spell, a spell removing the taint of transgression (possibly tapping it for magical energy), or the illuminate ability to avoid these spirits isn''t clear. There is an entire body of inclusive mysticism in Vithela, the Venfornic practices. While Arkat's career consisted of "I am not Gbaji", in the end he (and Nysalor) overcame that barrier, and united both the two realms into which Glorantha had become divided, and themselves. His role as the protector of the Hero Planes wasn't part of the Gbaji Wars. This means he created his order of Otherside Guardians mostly in the fifty years in Ralios. But then I sometimes wonder whether Arkat wasn't a collective entity inhabiting several bodies at a time. If you read the description of his Troll Rebirth experience, a ount of the errors made by the participants leaves no room for the perect performance of a single body, yet the uz attest a perfect performance.

Two years ago, I overheard and afterwards discussed Mythic Iceland plans in an exchange between Pedro and Jeff at Kraken. From that discussion, I think that a Viking Age Fantasy Earth is definitely in the planning, with places like Vinland (having a permanent colony?) and the riverine route to Miklagard (Byzantium) firmly included in the campaign arc, and possibly also the antics of the Great Fleet which visited places like Britain (to collect the annual Danegeld), Paris, Cologne, the Iberian peninsula, mediterranean France and Italy. Possibly the barbary coast as well. Sailing from Miklagard would open the eastern Mediterranean, the Black Sea and via the Caspian Sea even access to Baghdad, or contact with the Silk Road. Enough scope to explore that era. 1001 Nights Baghdad or Fatimid Spain fall into that period, too, opening Africa and the Indian Ocean. Mesoamerica would have the late Maya culture, and the dawn of the cultures encountered by the conquistadors. IIRC, Ottonic Germany and the conflict with the Magyars was on the table, too. All of this has been done by other game system families, but other than RQ3 Vikings and optionally Land of Ninja in an earlier period, I know of no D100 products focussing on this time frame. Bronze Age Greece has been done by TDM, but Bronze Age elsewhere (other than Fertile Crescent) is terra incognita.

Hippy trippy oasis folk retaining the pleasures of the early Golden Age honestly never crossed my mind, and I think they would be sorely out of place surrounded by an environment of post-apocalyptic devastation. I regard them as slaves shackled to a place rather than to a clan, although it wouldn't be out of character for occupying Praxian clans to take along a few grounder slaves when their herd departs, or when a stronger clan takes over. Oats and barley are less suitable crops for the Oasis Folk unless grown in horticulturalist ways. While their ancestors might have known the plow, it is unavailable for the Oasis Folk since any draught beast would be taken away for slaughter by the occupying Praxians, and the unripe fields would be used as pasture. I would look at the Easter Island (Rapa Nui) form of horticulture that was used after the deforestation of that island, with stone gardens preventing erosion (and easy access for herd beasts). https://www.thoughtco.com/culture-and-ecology-of-easter-island-170819: All of this sounds very apropos for horticulturalists at the Praxian oases. I might allow the Oasis folk a semi-domestic beast similar to the Polynesian rat, and possibly a small dog breed used for catching these for a protein lunch, unsuitable for the chaparral. Morokanth occupation would be quite devastating as the herd men are quite capable and willing to raid such gardens. To begin with, the Sartarite settlers of Zola Fel valley who just lost Argrath's protection wouldn't fit this mold, but after being robbed of their cattle herds, plowing would have to be discontinued, and other methods of agriculture and horticulture would come to the fore. How did Sun County manage to maintain plowing? Or did they only re-introduce plowing after Dorasar settled Pavis County and cattle (and horses) became freely available again? I guess the failure of the Teshnan colony founded just before 1250 in what is now known as the Grantlands was from loss of their water buffalo herds to raiding Praxians. The survivors joined with the downtrodden Sun Dome farmers, who must have used stick farming or similar to maintain their barley seeds throughout the Solitude of Testing. Their templars might have managed to save at least some minimal breeding stock, but hardly enough to provide enough plow teams.

I guess you'll want to avoid licensed IP for those SF settings? I can easily outline dozens quite different premises to base a space opera game on, just by proposing different ways of traveling between planets and solar systems. Add another dimension of how variant you want mankind to become, how many and what kind of alien species you are looking for, how much "magic" (psionics, mysticism, Clarke-ian sufficiently advanced technology, actual magic) you want to allow, and whether you want to have the monolithic but too big for immediate communication empire, a more tribalist setting (imagine Glorantha as a galactic map), or a commonwealth of some sort, and there are more possible variations than anyone could publish.

Too many of your examples are too close to Atlantis. Devastation of the Vent rather than Dragonkill. The Toba eruption which depopulated the Indian subcontinent might be a better parallel, so far before history that the myths are distant. Or the supposed asteroid impact in North America which might have caused the ice barrier to the Atlantic to break, killing the megafauna by a way too sudden change in temperatures. The Great Flood is universal because the melting of the glaciers drowned fertile coastal lowlands all over the world, like the coastal plains west of the Rockies and the Andes where most of the Amerind immigration happened, or the vast lands east of Florida and the East Coast of the USA (nowadays fish grounds). Doggerland in the middle of the North Sea, in all likelihood depopulated by a tsunami caused by a methane clathrate evaporation and underwater landslide off the shore of Norway.. For lesser floods with permanent loss of fertile land, the Mandrenke events around the North Sea are a good example within historical records. A very different kind of horror, more personal. While entire settlements got depopulated and given up, there was no area non grata afterwards. Actually, in cold blood. The Bikini or Novaya Semlya nuclear testing evictions are way better parallels to the Inhuman Occupation. For the actual Dragonkill, the Dresden bombing atrocity is what comes closest, only in case of the Dragonkill it was directed against military forces rather than fleeing civilians. Second closest are the first uses of chlorine and other chemical warfare agents in the trench wars. For a less technological horror, the Hun and Mongol invasions come close. They happened too fast for what the True Golden Horde did to the heirs of the EWF, though. The Reconquista of Spain combined with the inquisition, or the Huguenot pogroms of France might be closer to the pre-Dragonkill invasion. Maybe the Herero uprising or the Boer uprising, too. Had it actually happened, the Chiemgau Impact would be the perfect analogy for the Dragonkill. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiemgau_impact_hypothesis

Yes, this is Fazzur's friendship with Sor-eel. While Fazzur has kinship ties with Moirades, I read this as a professional and personal relationship through shared service-time in the Provincial Army and/or cooperation with the Cavalry Corps. Does Sor-eel have any direct ties to the Royal Family of Tarsh? It isn't clear whether this friendship extends to a good relationship between Sor-eel and Fazzur's sons, after Sor-eel is removed from the governor post in Pavis and disappears from the written record. I have little doubt that they don't let his older half-brother Pharandros meddle with the education of young Phargentes, but there might be significant meddling by the Great Sister (since the Red Emperor doesn't seem as if he could be bothered to care). I wonder whether their influence over the Molari-sor ruling clan of Oraya isn't greater than over the royal house of Tarsh, both through Hon-eel and because of their role in installing the Molari-sor over the previous satraps from the Ari-ji. On the other hand, Phargentes all but cancelled the influence of the Sylilan lineage of the Conquering Daughter in the Provinces. But I don't see him as very manageable. Moirades may have been more biddable. Pharandros appears to be torn between advisors. Would the Eel-ariash be behind the Phargantites?

One more reason why these bands and oasis folk should have interacted with one another, whether taking these Sartarites on as protectors, or in a parasitic relationship like the Vadrudi in the Golden Age and the Gods War.

This is an excellent point which hasn't been raised before, but which makes a lot of sense why Snodal and the Syndics chose to attack the God of the Silver Feet rather than the White Bear spirit itself. This raises the question whether Dormal's arrival in Loskalm re-awakened the god, or at least his language Tradetalk, or whether a new common language has been distributed by the Kingdom of War. At least part of the Green Elves are a fairly recent presence, having entered Rathorela only in 1279, and sharing their longbows with the bear folk (Guide p.233) probably set the roots for the White Bear Empire in those 220 years of cohabitation. There is no indication that the Green Elves were any less friendly to the other Hykimi of Rathorela, but the Rathori physique made them uniquely suitable for the increased strength self bows made from dead wood that the aldryami provided them (at least the wood for). Contrary to English/Welsh myth, the yew longbow is nothing but a self bow with a penchant to higher than normal draw weights - way heavier than required for ordinary hunting of deer or birds, although well suited for hunting boars, aurochs or similarly well-muscled (i.e. -armored) prey. That unusual draw weight and a rigorous training regime to qualify for the status of the secondary warrior nobility is what created the myth. But anyway, the myth is continued in Glorantha, so the Rathori are the one human culture to use this dead-wood extra-strong self bow. Coming from a hunter culture with very muscular physique, their elf-provided stave-built bows will outperform other yew bows (even those by other bear cultists like Odaylans) by a factor of possibly 1.5 in terms of range and possibly damage (haven't checked any of the rules).

Because they are agriculturalists in Prax, and without Argrath or a sufficiently powerful lieutenant of his present in Pavis, these clans will be reduced to Vendref status sooner rather than later. From the perspective of Praxian nomads, they become a grounder group of farmers which can be forced to give you tribute whenever you stop over here (and no other nomad group pushes you out). Fertility-wise, the Zola Fel valley acts just like an oasis. Plants which won't grow anywhere else in the Wastes will bear fruit here, whether Teshnan rice or Dragon Pass barley and wheat. The magical influence of the River blocked Eiritha's draw on this area's fertility. All of this means that the river fulfills all criteria for oasis fertility, it just is way bigger than any other oasis (except the Sacred Ground around the Paps, minus that one hex in the northwest). The Sartarites are descended from the Vingkotlings, which means that they count Tada's twin daughters among their ancestors. Not completely unrelated. The Tada-shi are the remnants of the old Earth Worshippers, little different from the folk who built Ezel or Nochet. Remove Argrath's sheltering hand (e.g. after Yoran) for a year, and the clans will either have capitulated to the Nomads, or they will have been destroyed, possibly replaced by less belligerent replacements. Culling all the rebellion will take considerably longer, but how much focus will Argrath have on the city of Pavis once he is bound in Saird and Peloria? Which of his lieutenants will he send to provide his promise of safety, and what will it be worth as Chaos encroaches? The Flood caused by the floating bit of Valind's Glacier cut off will temporarily push all Orlanthi out of the region. Where will the survivors who made it into Redwood go once the sea has receded? The Indagos folk were inhabitants of Old Pavis/the Rubble, and are specifically non-Sartarite, non-Orlanthi (prior to taking over that stretch of the Scritha River). They seem to have been agriculturalists or at least horticulturalists anyway, or they wouldn't have been interested in farmland, so this makes an origin as former Pure Horse Folk unlikely. This leaves potential oasis folk which might have joined Pavis and Joraz Kyrem when they built their city. From a nomad perspective, the Indagos and the Sartarite clans are almost indistinguishable. The Indagos might be better using local spirits than the Orlanthi who would invoke their foreign deities instead. But again, both types are grounders, not riders. Discussing cultural differences between them beyond the military problem they pose is idle.

It isn't quite clear whether Sheng was dead when he was placed in that Lunar hell. Hofstaring was very much alive when he was pulled down, but entering Hell usually means you die, even if your body remains fully functional. Being carried off into some alien hell is a major wrench thrown into your proven "get free from Hell" path. Usually you need someone from the outside to carve a path to you, like Harmast did for both Arkat and Talor. The case is still open whether Belintar can be returned the same way, but King of Sartar does mention a Lord Harshax. All capital H heroes do, one way or another. Arkat of the many cults and the art of switching paths on the Other Side would have been able to explore beyond the neighborhood of the divine Other Sides through experimental heroquesting, and setting up his demesne there. The old concepts of Heroquesting included the possession of Free Will by mortals and heroes, something that could be expended to shape your own realm, setting it "in stone" or perhaps rather "in story". This was part of how offering your body to Belintar was attractive - you would be transported to a virgin portion of the Holy Country Otherworld and be able to set up your very own Apple Lane (Gringle's seat of retirement), only much nicer and more magical. (But no need to forego the comfort of having Ulerian priestesses on site, or avatars if on the Other Side...)

Having two different Humakti pulling the same Odysseus stunt ("my name is nobody", vs. Polyphemos) in the same region would be against Occam's Razor. I think it was in one of the APA-zines where Greg chronicled his Sartar campaign that he commented on his amusement about this. The variant spelling was intentional by the player, I suppose, but in the HQ publication maybe it was just that autocorrect interfered, or an editorial decision to use only "serious" spellings.

Whut? RQ3 bestiary (book 4 in the DeLuxe box, IIRC) had the calculations which was all that I needed, and hit point allocation tables for a number of body shapes. Most vital/protected body part aka chest 2/5 total HP, head, other body parts like abdomen and major limbs 1/3 total HP, secondary limbs like human arms or quadruped legs 1/4 total HP, lesser limbs (e.g. chitinous ones whose loss wouldn't incapacitate) 1/6 total HP. If any sample characters deviated from this, I never noticed, because I have never bothered to look up any numbers, but always calculate on the spot unless I am using a handout (which is rarely the case). Plus there is always a chance that neither player characters nor opposition are at full HP, giving just enough wiggle room to avoid total fails. (I did translate this part of the rules to German for private use, but didn't notice any discrepancies with the table. But then possibly I just calculated the values rather than transcribing the table entries without checking the text portion or the numerical tables verbatim, rounding mathematically correct.) RQ3 offered enchantments which would be available to major adversaries, pumping up location HP or AP - offering some wiggle room to avoid total pushovers, too. Then there was Enhance CON, which would create a few temporary total HP that could raise location HP by one or two for the duration of the spell with reasonably restrained sorcerers.

Let's be honest: how long have you played a character with characteristics like that in an ongoing campaign? A character with average stats throughout has plenty of disadvantages, like being unable to cause damage to an opponent in leather armor even for unparried hits quite often. Without the damage bonus, playing any kind of fighter is an exercise in "pling", as the range of weapons you are limited to doesn't really offer a fixed number added to the die roll. "Roll stat times 5" is a penalty game, too. Even more so when it comes to "stat times 3". To make a character at least somewhat above average, you have to choose dump stats (note the plural). If you are fine with playing the charming damsel in distress in your party of adventurers, no big deal. If the dumb hitter is your forte, bad luck - 8 is the minimum score for INT. RQ3 allowed to play the ugly brute (APP 5 or less) who still could inspire and use spirit spells, but RQG returns with CHA, combining leadership and spirit mastery with appearance. One in four characters will have one stat or more above 16 without any modifications. Every second player will have at least one stat at 16 using unmodified dice. True, you can buy down SIZ and INT to 10 to get these 6 points to raise a stat to 16 or more, and a second stat at 14 or so. Enough to give you a damage bonus and a slightly better strike rank, and to be able to wield a heavy hitter weapon. Or you can opt for the nerd wizard with pitiful STR and CON - the very D&D stereotype that RQ made obsolete. You can plan on lowering trainable stats at the start of your career, opting to spend valuable time and effort to get them to somewhat effective levels without capping your personal maximum attainable value well under species maximum (as per RQ3). Playing an imperfect character can be challenging and fun. Playing an ineffective character can be jarring, leading to a much higher death rate of such characters even beyond their greater vulnerability.

To me the text you quoted is clear. If both STR and DEX are below the requirements, all attacks and parries with the weapon are performed at half skill. A character with DEX 11 and STR 11 will be able to wield a Rapier at normal skill, although his style will be markedly variant from the normal style. It isn't clear whether excess DEX can make up for lack in STR. Given the availability of spirit magic spells that cause temporary increases in either of these stats, it makes sense to train a weapon even if it cannot be used without a penalty without that boost. I do wonder whether having too low stats lets you roll your skill increase ticks against full or against half skill, though. Can training under adverse conditions make improvement easier?

Naimless is a member of the Temple of the Wooden Sword at this time, located in Sartar, which makes her enough of a Sartarite in my book. Only 55 miles inside the Wastes is far enough to avoid contact with vengeful feuding clansfolk from back in Sartar, which might mean a semi-permanent population of Sartarites here, and possibly at other oases, possibly providing some "civilized" craft as a service. And I doubt that all members of Alain's expedition would have been Humakti - the surviving Arroyan shows that other experts would be likely, as do the adventures of the Temple of the Wooden Sword. If the goal of RQG is to pick up where RQ2 petered out, there should be numerous such bands of exile hobos eking out a meager life in Prax. Yes, there are Orlanthi settlers and refugees who have settled down to an ordinary Orlanthi life in Pavis County. We have the numbers. And technically, the folks who join resident clans aren't Sartarites any more, but a new type of uppity Oasis Folk in the river valley. Much like the Indagos. There are probably as many (combined) city dwellers without clan membership in Pavis County and itinerant exiles, quite a few of them registered as adventurers under who knows what false identities, or just re-equipping/re-sacrificing in New Pavis or Badside, operating from Adari or Barbarian Town or even Corflu, working as caravan guards when refraining from banditry. Others may live as guests of the Pol Joni, much like Olgkarth and his band of Pavis Survivors did when Dorasar contacted him. All the oases have shrines that may be of interest to Sartarite exiles hiding out in Prax, e.g. Adari or Barbarian Town, for the purpose of spell recovery or spirit magic acquisition. It is not like there are Theyalan missionaries inciting the Oasis Folk to step up and defend themselves against those Praxian take-overs, although the "Seven Samurai/Glorious Seven" trope could be played at any of the Praxian oases against some particularly awful occupation (e.g. by Lunar Sable phratries tolerating Chaos allies like Imperial ogres). But the very existence of a farmer-warrior who works his own little plot in an oasis but who is ready to defend his harvest might be a bad example that might re-awaken Tada-shi pride. Likewise nosy Lhankor Mhy folk researching how they can use ancient Praxian magic to bargain their way back into their Sartarite clans. Even more so if this happens during the Windstop. But, come to think of this, rose-tinted glass wearing Seven Mother missionaries are as likely to bring this to pass, and create a problem with uppity oasis folk for innocent Praxian clans taking over an oasis. There is too little in print about interactions with Praxian clans and Oasis Folk at an occupied oasis. Pilgrims from other clans or tribes do have a legitimate cause to access the oasis shrine, but will have to negotiate or even bully their way through the current lords of the oasis. Oasis folk will have holy folk and possibly a few slightly trickster-like wretches taking stuff from pilgrims or even occupators. They might also have some hidden avengers among their numbers, striking unexpectedly and anonymously at the worst perpretators with copper axes.