Joerg

Via a friend on G+ I stumbled across these short videos: The Call of Cthulhu Dr. Seuss Style (by R.J. Ivankovic) CGI 3D Animated Short: "The Mountains of Madness" - by "The SpookySpookyShoggoths"

However, it is Inkarne who is remembered as ruling for a hundred years. So is Inrana's daughter named Inkarne, too? We know that Inrana's daughter is brought to the Kerofin temple for further education in 1634, and is hidden there after the defeat at Yoran. I sort of wonder whether Verenmars used anything like this when he founded his kingdom of Saird? Inkarne: And through Moirades also the granddaughter of another Feathered Horse Queen (Guide p.175). Since Tarkalor married the third FHQ in contest with Phargentes, this means that Moirades is the grandson of Yoristina (assuming that she was "Keeps the Children"). CHDP states that Phargentes was happily married, and calculating Moirades' birth to 1558, he could have married her upon his ascendance as King of Tarsh. Having married a sister or cousin of "Mother of Land" almost two decades earlier may have hindered Phargentes' ambitions to become King of Dragon Pass against Tarkalor. Then we have Estal Donge, named in the Sartar section of CHDP as sister of Pharandros (and presumably a daughter of Hasta Orindori, making her Fazzur's niece). "A noblewoman from the city of Durnsa, in distant Oronin." On the other hand, Moirades was well known for orgiastic indulgences, and it would have been possible for a Lunar house like the Eel-ariash to slip a fertile daughter of their house into his amusements, e.g. during the coronation festivities of the current mask of the Red Emperor which Moirades is likely to have attended, more in his role as kin to the emperor (through Hon-eel and the Telsor lineage) than as provincial king. Interestingly, the mention of Estal in the Tarsh section of CHDP for interceding with Argrath on behalf of Pharandros has been changed from the softcover to the hardcover edition to Pharandros' mother, Harsta, Fazzur's sister. The mention in the Sartarite CHDP still has Estal Donge and names her his sister. The Guide doesn't know anything about a city named Durnsa in Oronin. The closest it can offer is the city of Durnvok in Doblian, which also offers presumably ecstatic oEgret rites (compare the heron rites of Dorkath, on the other end of Suvaria) which are congruent with her description in Sartar Kingdom of Heroes. But old Pelanda has other ecstatic cults, too. The Lost Fragment (exclusive to the hardcover edition of KoS) names Estal a rival of Fazzur, sent by the Emperor rather than by the Tarshite court (which is represented as being ruled by Moirades). Speaking of weird lineages, who are the -Telsor lineage, descended from the Red Emperor, that married Phoronestes? They might have had a hand in Pharandros' education in Glamour.

Penraltan apparently was the chief for Varnatol the Durtarl, and his exploits at Dwernapple are the last paragraphs of the Grazer section of Composite History of Dragon Pass. It is a bit unclear how the author was able to mention Penraltan's gift of gold horses at the same wedding where Varnatol presented the Composite History, but I think this would have to be the wedding to Inkarne. (There may have been a previous wedding, but with the new information about Inkarne being the daughter of Moirades and Riches Without ... I think that Argrath married only one FHQ. In that case it is unclear how Inkarne became tied to Holay, though.) King of Sartar names Jandetin as the Grazer chief at the first (1629) marriage to the FHQ, so Penraltan must have been there for a later wedding. On the other hand, if the 1640 date for the completion of CHDP was correct, we are looking at another marriage between Dwernapple and 1640. Did Argrath and the FHQ repeat their year weddings several times before the 1643 wedding? And how does Holay get into the game of weddings? Another Inkarne? Unless Penraltan's gift of the gold horses preceded Dwernapple, the CHDP confirms that he survived (p.98 hardcover edition): That would have to be the 1629 wedding. If Inkarne is the daughter of Moirades, she would have been in her mid twenties. I am not sure when Moirades became King of Dragon Pass. Riches Without Tears first set her bride price high, but was outbid by Moirades. Basically, that's the three player scenario in the Dragon Pass boardgame, and would come after the Full Game with complete diplomacy. That sounds like lots of poetic license for the CHDP version: Basically, Annstad (a vassal of Argrath, and not quite in the league of Jar-eel) neutralizes the enemy superhero through his je-ne-sais-quoi (especially after having seen his portrait). "ignoring the cries of the Lunar troops" makes it quite clear that they regarded this as weakening their side. "Both were from nations which hated each other" was unproblematic when I assumed that Annstad was one of the Tarsh Exiles. We learned about him being another Fazzurson only when some of the contents of the Glorantha book from the 13G kickstarter were leaked. Annstad was a Lunar Tarshite already when he joined Argrath in 1624 or 25, and probably never ever hid his Lunar religion. Let's assume that he went over to Argrath after Fazzur resigned from leading the Tarshite force at Dangerford, and sent one of his sons to establish rapport with the new power that was able to deal with Pharandros. I'm a bit curious why he joined Argrath rather than Kallyr, but maybe Kallyr had proven immune to his charms after having shared the bedding with Rigsdal, and his advances might have earned him a dismissal from Boldhome. As far as I am concerned, Unstey is Annstad. The Fadabius letters are another version of the war history as played out in the Dragon Pass boardgame, so they naturally describe the line-ups in the scenarios of that game. The Grazers certainly are part of the "independent" faction in the three player game, but the various FHQ switches brought switches of alliance quite a few times. Yoristina appears to have been the only FHQ allying with neither Tarsh nor Sartar.

Taken from the Status Update thread into the Glorantha forum, where this kind of nitpicking belongs. Once again, hats off to the artist to allow such a discussion to be had at all. I remember similar discussions only for the covers of Strangers in Prax (whether that red orb visible was the Red Moon) and maybe one or two other pictures. Getting the skyline, the Sunpath and the Red Moon right must be a strange requirement for an artist producing a realistic picture of any Gloranthan location. Continuing the quest for where exactly this city could be. Good point about considering the sun angle. I wonder how you arrive at east-ish, though. From the angle of the shadows both on Harmast's neck and on the city gate in the background, the sun is about 45° up, meaning it is either mid-morning or mid-afternoon. Noon would see the sun directly overhead. The Sunpath doesn't go north or south to the extent people living outside of the tropical latitudes expect. If we see vertical areas directly lighted by the sun, they must point either eastward or westward, depending on whether this scene is in the morning or in the afternoon. I would guess if I was standing there to observe the scene, the sun would be somewhere just behind my right ear, so I am not looking directly along the east-west axis, but I turned right by maybe 30 or 45°. This means I am either looking into the northwest (in the morning) or into the southeast (in the afternoon). Looking into the northwest, I could expect to see the Red Moon somewhere, so southeast is indeed the more likely direction. Taking this into account, my earlier suggestion of Arkat's Hold falls flat - the 1000 meter high Shadow Plateau, with the shadows drifting above, would be visible from there in a morning scene, or otherwise the Skyreach Mountains in the afternoon. Much of Tarsh lies on an northwest-southeast axis between the Crater (with the moon above) and Kero Fin, making a placement there a bit more unlikely, too. Checking the map for Swenstown: where would the Block hide? Is that red building in the center high enough to obscure the Block? Mountains can be hiding in haze. As a formerly frequent visitor to Munich, the Alps could be seen from there only during Fön, an inversion weather situation that cleared the air of haze. The Alps would have been 10 to 20 hexes away. Whitewall has the additional benefit of elevation, but after a two-year siege with area effect attacks including a rain of gorp or similar corrosive stuff, the buildings would be either a lot more worn (when I visited Berlin in 1981, there were still buildings with bomb damage in parts of the city), or spanking new - not the impression this picture gives. I think that Praxian herd beasts are rarer in the environs between Boldhome and Swenstown than they are further west. If you live within raiding distance of Prax, using Praxian herd beasts is an invitation for braves from those tribes to visit and take back what they regard as rightfully theirs. If you use horses and mules (and presumably donkeys, to breed those mules) instead, you are a lot less likely to be visited. The further you live from Prax, the less likely you will be surprised by Praxian raiders. Hence North Esrolia or Hendrikiland may have a greater share of Praxian riding animals than Killard Vale between Boldhome and Swenstown. Dusty conditions suggest Fire Season rather than a location. As for dingy, the entire region has been subject to the year-long winter of the Windstop and to warfare before and after that event, so cosmetic repairs may not have been a top priority of the survivors. That depends on whether you are part of a trade network comfortable with transshipping to other means of transportation, or if you are a smaller trader with the Gloranthan equivalent of a Firefly type transport - to wit, a small herd of bisons trained as beasts of burden and mounts. If you are servicing the rural outback as well as the city, the all terrain hoofed caravan probably beats any wheeled transportation. My personal vision of Jonstown has been formed by the map Ingo Tschinke used for his (never published) supplement project, and had more multi-storied houses than the aerial view in Sartar Companion p.18. Still, the houses give me a different vibe than a place less than 150 years old. Jonstown has the New Market just inside of the North Gate, so no direct match, either. Comparing the cover of Pavis-Gateway to Adventure, no match. As @M Helsdon showed in his Towers thread, the city gate has two towers of different height, and round diameter. Yes, or perhaps Jansholm? I still see Jansholm (and Durengard) as located in a river valley, not unlike the panorama of Castle Stahleck. That would mean some skyline of the surrounding plateau. Alda-Chur looking southeast might work, although I see more of a heritage of both Vingkotling and EWF fortifications there. I am still keeping Esrolia in the wider choice. True, one would expect more murals, and there But in the end I guess we ask too much of the artist (who got lots of details right) to consider all of these facets even we Glorantha grognards have difficulty to get right at first glance. If we want that much realism, we need a 3D simulation. I for one would love to have one. I wish I had the time to build one out of GIS tools.

I would have expected ostentatious Lunar decorations around the gate in Tarsh, or at least some damaged remnants thereof. I regard Lunar architecture as propaganda set in stone. The lack of mountain silhouettes sort of precludes Arkat's Hold, a city where I would expect a more sombre style of decorations, although an approach from the northeast might work. Karse might be a possibility, with its mix of different influences (Esvulari, Heortling, Esrolian, Pelaskite) preventing any ostentatious religious ornamentation of the gate. The look would have to be to the south or southwest to avoid the cliffs showing. The city has seen better times, at least the building on the extreme right with plaster fallen off from the burnt brick wall. Basically: big kudos to Andrey and the art direction that we can play "Where exactly in Glorantha" with this piece.

There are three bisons packed with bundles, and the front one with a soft basket, but I don't see any riding saddle. I would say we are seeing pack beasts here. I like the contrast between the look of concern displayed by Yanioth and the bored disinterest by Vasana. From the look and feel, I would say no. The city gate in the back doesn't look like New Pavis to me, and the houses all are multi-storied. That probably rules out cities of Sartar as well, if you compare Sartar Companion p.18. So probably Esrolia, or possibly one of the larger cities of Heortland.

Amazing piece of art indeed. The level of details is enormous.`The background scenes alone might serve as illustrations. Are those two ladies in the front Vasana and Yanioth?

I like the silver mask, rendering the unit as indistinguishable lunar demons (to their foes). What do we know about the history of this magical regiment? Calling down rocks from the moon has the presence of the Red Moon in the sky as a prerequisite, so they cannot be older than First Wane.

The last time I hired good soldiers, all the gold went to them. Bad soldiers take all your gold, too, but you don't even achieve your military goals.

Actually, no. The triceps and the shoulder musculature are what is required to fire a bow. There were a almost 50 yew longbows in the Nydam Mose finds, which I would expect to have drawn at 80 to 100 lbs at average (28 inch) draw length. If you have a longer draw, draw weight increases quite dramatically - I draw a nominal 55 lbs flatbow to about 75 lbs at 31 inch draw length. Those yew bows are likely to be even less forgiving at longer draws. It takes two to three days a week training to be able to fire more than two dozen arrows in a span of about as many or less minutes. Military requirement were four dozen arrows, if I am correctly informed. 150 yards range is manageable even in unfavorable winds when firing at units, 70 yards or less when firing at individuals. At lower than 50 yards, contemporary armor gets pierced, The shields found at Nydam Mose were of soft wood, and rather thin (a quarter inch), designed to capture the arrows and slow them almost like ballistic cloth.

And you are playing agents of the tax agency, or alternatively of the monopoly holder. Who may be chaotic cultists of a rival organisation, as you may find out after busting that first organisation, only with imperial endorsement. The point I want to make is that mind-altering substances aren't inherently bad in the eyes of the population. They are a common component of rituals, and practitioners of magic are likely to use them for various magics. The Yelmalio cult has quite rigid standards of behavior it forces on his own people as well as on visitors. Letting them have a moral problem with addiction would be in character. In Orlanthi clans, the addiction doesn't matter much as long as the individual contributes to the clan. As to native Old Pavisites and Riverfolk, as long as it doesn't threaten survival, drug use might even have been an approved way of coping with the burden of the troll occupation. As to the Lunars, to them it is a case of imperial privileges and taxes. Their deity bestows madness on followers as much as on foes, so why bother about substance-induced madness? So yes, play the righteous enforcers of a morality you force on people that may or may not share with you, in the service of an authority that makes big money from the imperial privilege, professing to sell to worthy customers only. (You know what makes a customer worthy: wealth or influence.) Have them supported by the delightful peltasts from Tarsh War.They will be quite motivated and helpful to make the first find, but might be quite lackadaiscal afterwards until their stash runs out. Maybe add one of those Carmanian magicians, with similar goals and motivations. Give them an imperial scribe or tax assessor who is part of the ring they are prosecuting, or at least on their paylist. Have a Lunar slave farm somewhere (e.g. in the Grantlands) which grows the stuff legally, and which buys additional crop from a secret joint venture with a southern Sun County village headman. Blow up the ritual use by Orlanthi heroquesters out of all proportion, have them crack down on a number of Orlanthi rites (which are illegal for other reasons) without finding more than maybe two pipes worth of the stuff. Find a huge clandestine or compromised operation with the destination Whitewall (or some other major build-up of Lunars vs. Orlanthi), and have them follow it into all manner of dark channels, but none leading to the Orlanthi. You might sacrifice a few hard working Issaries merchants supplying the Manirian road on the way. After they turn on or turn in (some of) their original employers (and co-workers), have some survivors of the cartel they just busted approach them to pursue an imperial monopoly against their former employers. Just for the groans. Possibly through Halcyon var Enkorth (who may have been involved in some payment from the first ring, too).

Note that the persecution of hazia possession or production should not be a case of a war on drugs. For Yelmalians, hazia use might be legitimate only in certain rites, possibly restricted to members of certain ranks in the cult hierarchy. In Lunar occupied lands hazia growing and use is "illegal" when it is sidestepping the Lunar monopoly on that stuff. If you pay your tax to the emperor, and purchase a users privilege, the Empire will be delighted buy your crop to imperially regulated prices and to sell you the stuff at individual rates per dose. Farmers caught growing this stuff illicitely may have their harvest burnt if caught by Sun Dome authorities not bribed to look away, and if caught by Lunar authorities have their harvest impounded, license fees impounded and additional fines or punishments for disregarding imperial monopolies. Sun Dome authorities avoid to notify the imperial authorities to avoid having to pay those fines from their community coffers.

No idea how non-sapient monsters are created in WoD, as I only have experience playing one of those systems, but there are quite a few non-sapient creatures who are mainly physical or spirit representations of some rune. Giving any spirit (or other entity sent by Humakt) an element for defining the magic would be mythically wrong (for Heortlings). Humakt severed his Storm ties. That said, at least some of the Pentan North War Wind spirits should have magic through the Storm rune. It isn't clear whether they ever brought some of these spirits along through the Redlands into the Elder Wilds, though. Yes. Even the Praxian tribal ancestors who come from elementally affiliated tribes shouldn't necessarily have that element available for magics they pass on to their descendants, or cast on behalf of them. Individual dead who retain some of their runic connection from while they were alive may have elemental runes to draw their magic from. From what I understand, this ability to pass on magic not generally available to one's cult is a minor form of hero worship, which helps maintaining this lifetime identity even after death. Lacking some directed support from the Living to maintain that identity, these abilities fade away, and the spirit will only be able to grant normal ancestral magic, acting more like a conduct to the founders' magic than as an individual entity. That is quite similar to the Orlanthi and Pelorian concept of a person possessing multiple souls, into which they break up upon death, but which might be reunited in a limited way if there is a way to contact them as individuals. Again, this might require directed worship to make this come to pass. Basically, I am trying to make an argument when spirits _can_ have an elemental connection, rather than claiming that they must have one.

There are creatures lacking elemental runes. RQ3 had the concept of "incomplete creatures" (applied to stats rather than runes, but we have a correspondence between stats and elemental runes), and spirits are one kind of incomplete. Some spirits have implied elemental connections only, e.g. plant (usually earth, but fire and water are possible) or beast spirits. A wolf spirit as a mammal will be tied to the Storm Rune, but that is very tenuous, and its habitat may be as much worthy of having an Earth Rune.

That text has a section dealing with the force on a charged particle migrating through the field. Following actio = reactio, this means that the field-generating loops will experience the opposite force, moving them out of the L1 position unless there is another force (from other interaction with the Solar Wind?) keeping it in position. A combination with mirrors (solar sails) possibly increasing a selected band of radiation on the surface of Mars could contribute to the terraforming. I don't subscribe to the idea that terraforming necessarily involves introducing new material to the planet in question, but it certainly involves re-arranging the material of the planetary surface, atmosphere, hydrosphere and (you need to deposit some stuff somewhere) upper crust. For our own world, the hottest topic in conservation of the status quo in natural terraforming is carbon sequestration. In case of hypothetical attempts to give Venus an Earth-like surface, it would be sequestration (or export) of sulphur and carbon. Installing an L1 mirror/filter set regulating the amount and spectrum of radiation hitting the planet would be a first step on that way. Given the gradual changes our primary undergoes, maintaining the status quo of our global climate will involve such filtration efforts, too, or otherwise even grander efforts to alter the orbit without completely destabilizing it. The same (today scientific fantasy) technology could be applied to the other rock planets in the system, and some of the larger moons as well. I don't think that we will ever overcome scarcity of certain resources, but that a leap out of our gravity well and a start in grand scale construction in solar orbits could shift the scarcity problems to quite different concerns even with existing technology and material science. What we are lacking is the drive to prioritize such a development, a drive like the one provided by the Cold War and the USSR space exploration successes which pressured Kennedy into making his "in this decade" statment which led to the Apollo missions. Right now, a few oligarchs like Elon Musk are at the forefront of initiatives getting us to the resources of the material beyond our gravity well, including the immense resource of the Solar Wind that fails to be captured by our little planet, not to mention solid bodies populating less stable orbits around our primary or its satellites. The energy and much of the matter is up there. The settings of SF games usually make some assumptions how the gravity well has been overcome. Once overcome, an object in a more or less stable Goldilocks orbit around the sun with a decent stock of material might generate all of its energy just paying off the initial investment cost and some (possibly significant) maintenance effort. It could start repaying that initial investment by collecting solar wind matter for reaction mass or for high energy transmutation into elements that are considered as scarce. Once established, its inhabitants wouldn't need to master more technology than the maintenance of solar panels, mirrors, or steam turbines and simple electricity to keep most of their installation operable for generations. Some regulation could be done by hardware-coded, heavily redundant "expert systems" for more generations than projected for this kind of installation. A huge, none-planetary civilization could grow, possibly mostly populating Lagrange points or similar orbits of convenience. Populations on mostly self-maintained platforms could live through decadence into primitive societies, providing ample roleplaying seeds. All kinds of healthy and unhealthy interrelations between such platforms and other entities in the system could result, creating a "third world" or "fourth world" segregation in space.

The Deep Sea entities harvest the energies from whichever "Food" (dry land stuff) arrives at their realm at the bottom of the seas, then the water wells up outside in a huge circular current inside the outer Dome of Darkness to become Sramak's River (which reaches from the middle Underworld to the surface world). The vortex of Magasta's Pool avoids being tapped by the Chaos Void as long as it continues to run with all the energies of the waters of the world. Instead, the All Waters form a huge single entity with internal vortices and currents, separated from the Void outside of the universe by Darkness (below, and outward as the lower half of the spherical dome). Varchulanga and Drospoly sit at the bottom of the bottomless oceans, below the lower limits of Earth, bordering on the Darkness below, giving birth to entities better left unencountered. Sramak's River is an endless vortex of water, under a likewise endless vortex of storm. There is no reason why there couldn't be other floating islands of calmness hidden somewhere far outside, known only to the most primal expressions of these two elements, with their very own stories of creation and destruction, maybe sharing some isolated properties of the outermost entities with Glorantha (like the Deepest Underworld, the outermost sky), and entirely different stuff of their own, possibly including their own inner Sky Dome and their own Near Underworld. Possibly also an own version of the Axis Mundi rooted in the Chaosium upholding that inner Sky Dome. But possibly sharing a branch of the River Styx. Given the wealth of weirdness and unexplored themes Glorantha offers, nobody has yet seen the need to explore such a setting. Most of us lack the time to explore what is there already.

Indeed. That's why I object to the pumpkin. I fail to see any connection there.

You sound like your contribution to the thread Bits of Glorantha you ignore would be "Beast Riders of Prax, the Mythology". There are no legal pdfs of the early Footnotes. But then, there has been a publication which extracted the Glorantha content (mainly the Gods and Goddesses of Glorantha series and the Dragon Pass campaign) into a single volume called Wyrm's Footprints. Out of print, but probably available second hand. The upcoming 13th Age Glorantha book and more specifically its system-less companion volume which describes the exact setting of the boardgame and its period might be more useful, but you can't escape the myth-building. Nomad Gods is mentioned as early as WF4 (as opposed to advertised), IIRC. Apart from a few extra units in Wyrm's Footnotes and some probably even harder to find short articles by Greg in APA zines, it was the second publication on Glorantha, and all subsequent publications refer to it some way or another. For OD&D the Gods and Goddesses of Glorantha series would probably be already more info than you need about the gods if you don't like Prax. Still, the "Cults of Prax" remains the best approach to the deities of Dragon Pass inside the RuneQuest canon to date. For a Dragon Pass gazetteer, Dragon Pass Land of Thunder has information on all locations shown on the gameboard. All those strange names can be read as past heroes if you don't like the proliferation of named aspects and subcults that was the rage in the Hero Wars and HeroQuest 1 era. Or you read the 10 pages gazetteer part of Guide to Glorantha that covers those locations, and maybe the Orlanthi culture pages (which are brimming with mythological references, though). As much as it is tied into Prax and the mythology, the Pavis and the Big Rubble setting with a good portion of old school dungeoneering might still be well suited to your style of playing. It also has some of the most accessible information on the EWF outside of the treatment it received in the Mongoose RQ line. Since you aren't concerned with Gloranthan canon at all, those products might be well-suited as background information, and you could mash up the Hero Wars period of the boardgame with some of the events of the God Learner era.

Those floods were different - the ones that left the tree-top bridge and the mountain-peak bridge were both standing waves rising on the flanks of the rockwoods, keeping a more or less steady column of water above the land regardless of the land's elevation. The Madadan Sea which covered Halikiv and possibly Yolp was specialized in covering mountains, and rather weak when it came to covering flat land. My point here is that the waters of old had steep flanks rather than the rather flat surface with waves providing most of the inland action. Sure, Orlanth's winds can blow back a flat puddle, too, but his force works better against animate water rising high above the surface. I don't think so. This is ordinary ice, just a whole lot of it, and, coming in from the west, floating on cold currents which have just gone around the northern edge of Valind's Glacier.

Cucurbitaceae have this squashy interior and a somewhat fleshy outer portion beneath the skin. While I agree that cucumbers may resemble other parts of the human anatomy, to me they are about as little scary as the orange variation. Just two weeks ago I learned that the original jack o'lantern was cut from cabbages. How scary would the jack o'bear be with a cabbage head?

Androgeus may have been whole in the Green Age, but leaving it was disastrous for the entity. Maybe that's his background - she embodies _all_ of the effects of exiting the Green Age.

I have come to think that the Feldichi _were_ the artifacts. I agree - that item felt out of place. The artifacts might have provided a way to convey their "construction plan" into the pseudocosmic egg, although I find it quite hard to have a single (if interrupted but consecutive) writing chance to influence the being emerging from that egg and then seriously to expect perfection. Did their first writing consist of the Man Rune or some similarly pure concept? The Gold Wheel Dancers with their alien life may have been the necessary component, although they had basically passed away when the project took off.

I just don't have any Halloween cultural background, so I fail to see pumpkin as threatening. Basically a jack o'bear is a vaguely ursine or humanoid body with a cucumber-like vegetable for a head. Why not a cauliflower-headed snake, or a flower-headed rhino? Not all chimeras can be excused by Chaos. Granted, that harmonizing attack is fearsome in taking agency from the players. It's the chassis which fails to register. The dragonsnails are an ecological side effect of the Devil polluting the marsh and no problem to me as such, but they don't make much sense as a monster (or a monster worthy of making a new Waha Khan). I am badly reminded of that scene from Austin Powers where for about a minute a vehicle with two protagonists slowly creeps up through a rather small hall to a man standing in the way and screaming in terror without stepping to the side.

The Lightbringers' Quest brings Orlanth into direct conflict with the Lesser Kajabori, aiding the Uz living along the route. This is one of only two cases I can name where Orlanth overcame a Chaos foe or army. The other is the defence against the Sky Terror. Neither are common monsters fought by the Orlanthi - any more. I am not sure how much the writings of Zzabur go along with the myths of Arachne Solara. Malkion the Sacrifice transcended in the face of entropy before the Ritual of the net came about. The Malkioni may very well take this event as the fertilization of Time, and refuse to name a mother. I disagree with that point of view. The reason why Glorantha began to fall apart even before the entry of Death or the birth of Wakboth was an overabundance of Creation, stretching its confines and creating cracks that allowed the Predark to enter. The coping mechanisms of Making vs. Growing fell flat first. The introduction of Death delayed the complete collapse a bit longer, but rampant growth continued to outpace even this new force, and given the huge opening provided by the Unholy Trio, maybe entered into the world prematurely. Personalizing a rune is not a problem, especially if this personalizing offers a better handle for manipulating that concept/being to succumb to the sorcerer's will. If there was a synthesis, it happened before there were Malkioni on Jrustela. The westerners have a concept of evil, and a concept of dangerous and destructive otherness. They name their evil Vadel. Their dangerous and destructive otherness is Krjalk. They somehow appear to have avoided confronting the "Nothing", except through Malkion's self-sacrifice. Maybe through their mastery of Tapping? I wonder how Storm Bull's austerity calling in the Block is much different from Mashunasan's austerity calling in Kabalt. Granted, Storm Bull's act is instinctive, an animal reaction of the world, using the fallen bull's reviving as the conduit. It is the desperate defence of the cows against whichever overwhelming predator. This isn't exactly the Theist resistance against evil. The Heortlings have an inconclusive exposure to Wakboth through Heort's Star Heart encounter, and subscribe to the Ritual of the Net and the Great Compromise. The Dara Happans claim total destruction of the world through Shargash as the way to prevent annihilation by the rampant entropy of the Empty Emperor. All of these have an element of (self-) destruction in the face of annihilation, and subsequent reappearance. I think there are three ways of chaotic sorcery. One is the Tapping of Chaos for energy - e.g. the Boristi way. This is similarly tasteless as the Tapping of the Underworld powers of Undeath etc. One is the use of command spells to control chaotic entities, possibly requiring some attunement (read:corruption) to establish that line of command. One is the knowledge of the intrinsics of Chaos to use in formulaic spells - again, requiring some attunement to the bad stuff. In all of these cases, some form of Illumination or even Occlusion may be helpful for getting the magic done, never mind the welfare of the caster. Then there is the Cursing of foes, resulting in Chaotic manifestations bound to the target. See Dorastor, the Telmori, Dilis and whatever lurks behind the Gate of Banir. I am not clear whether this is sorcery or something else, possibly mystical. On the other hand, there is Evil. Given the psychopath nature of Zzabur, an interesting concept when projected on the equally psycopathic Vadel. Don't as I do, because I am me, and you aren't. I don't even think that Tapping was evil when Creation still was overabundant - it was a valuable check against overabundance of Creation, limiting the out-of-control situation in the West. For the westerners, the Gods War was the terror of personal Death (rather than entropic annihilation of the world) and a lost Civil War ended by atrocities caused by "our side". Any existential angst was about the individual, not the world. Humanist, indeed.

It still remains a Ponzi scheme. You need to initiate to each disease (subcult) separately. Even if you limit the number of diseases to the number of stats that RQ uses, that may be enough to remove a fully inoculated character out of play. And yes, accepting Malia initiation is a form of autism, of pure self-reference. The outward symptoms and effects of psychopathy and autism can be similar.