Joerg

I seem to remember a little detail on Zebra Fort in the HQ2 publication "Pavis: Gateway to Adventure" as I was using that (rather sparse) info for a RQ game. Hargran the Dirty was in charge of the fort in both official treatments of the Rubble, and while IMG some of the decent Zebra Tribe folk remained in the fort, others distanced themselves from his blatant banditry. Still, IMG he managed to receive an Eirithan contract wife from the nomadic Zebra Folk as one of his wives.

Except this is Ragnaglar. Thed is the female goat-legged goat-headed humanoid with the sliced-open womb:

Uralda is just another name for Eiritha. Her cattle aspect now has an active shrine in the Paps, too, maintained by the Pol Joni, although there doesn't seem to be a cattle protectress yet. Derik's cattle are a new breed from crossing a prize (magical?) Pentan steppe bull with Quivini highland cows, resulting in a breed better suited to the longer dry phases in the (fertile parts of the) chaparral. The Pol Joni rely on the dairy (and possibly some blood) of their cattle for much of their sustenance, butchering bull calves (for cheese-making) and bullocks. They seem to have abandoned the use of wagons and hence the need for oxen muscle power. Riding zebras resulted in more than two centuries of peace and prosperity for the city of Pavis, with the Zebra folk a go-between their Pure Horse Folk cousins and the Praxians. The Pure Horse Folk relied on the support of the Quvini Orlanthi (both during the EWF period and after its collapse, before the Dragonkill.) With that support taken away, the Pure Horse Folk declined, and so did the city of Pavis. With the Pol Joni re-establishing a horse-riding buffer tribe between Prax and the re-settled Quivini agriculturalsts, both Pavis and the Zebra tribe have recovered their advantages. Argrath's future drain on the Praxian braves leads to a mass emigration into the wetlands along the Oslir (and the upper Creek-Stream River), reducing the pressure on the Pol Joni and the Zebra Tribe. The Morokanth might become the most populous tribe in the plains as there seem to be rather few of their tribesfolk following the call of the White Bull.

It would be interesting to learn when Ragnaglar, Thed and Malia received Illumination from Rashoran. If it was before the rape complaint, the entire set-up would have been premeditated. If Rashoran offered therapy to the traumatized couple, then it backfired mightily.

Ragnaglar is as much a goat as Orlanth is a sheep or Vadrus is a goat (or a rhino if you look at Anaxial's Roster). Storm Bull is the child of Umath and Mikyh. There is no indication that Raggie was his full sibling. Pastoralist founders have the Minotaur body plan, and there might be Sable or even Impala minotaurs somewhere in Prax or beyond. There certainly are Bison ones. Wakboth has three parents (and a midwife helping Primal Chaos to enter Thed's womb?), and no discernible goat features. I always took that as referring to Thed - after all it was Thed who appeared before Orlanth and demanded a justice which Orlanth's law could not grant, leading to the self-inflicted exile of Orlanth (and Vingkot becoming king). I always suspected the case of Thed as the precedence case for the Vadrudi "brides", with extra injuries. The Orlanthi have a "Bad King Urgrain" as the antithesis to Orlanth's virtues. Orlanth himself is a fringe case. We have the tales of Tat and Tol, juveniles seeking and finding intercourse with adult women (something not really condoned by Ernaldan mores, except when it comes to Great Ernalda herself playing the femme fatale with naive Orlanth. Orlanth flew with the Vadrudi, a venture that led to the birth of the air-breathing Triolini. (Kahar and Harantara is a special case, more a parallel to Orlanth and Ernalda, and Aerlit and Warera is an undecided case.) Much of his youth is a sex pit, and then he falls prey to the old manipulatress. Does Orlanth take a no? Ask Heler at the Aroka episode. (Although Heler might not have dared to say no after experiencing Vadrus forcibly separating them from the river dragon/dragon river.)

Logically, Thed would be a sister and/or daughter of Eiritha, one of the herd mothers, in her case of goats (who aren't that different from antelopes, really - read up on this on the Synapsidae blog by long time Glorantha contributor Jamie Revell, e.g. on goats, or on how to tell goats and sheep apart, and the family relations between bovines, antelopes and goats and sheep). We have other goat goddesses - Carona as ancestress of the goat hsunchen of the Mislari, and the Pelorian (and especially Arcos Valley and Kostaddi) goat mother Uryarda (a passenger on Anaxial's Ark), or possibly Miapora worshipped at Sidara (which may have been used as her name, too - inhabiting land never flooded). No origin is given for the goats kept in Fonrit, apparently present already when Garangordos conquered the land. Those Vadrudi who practice pastoralism herd goats, too. There is a Chaos Goat, too. The broo (her earlier offspring with Ragnaglar) used to be little different from the minotaurs, offspring of Storm Bull and the children of Eiritha, or the beast-headed Founders of the Praxians. Eiritha is not a grain goddess, and neither are any of the other herd mothers, which is why I have a lot against classifying Thed as a grain goddess. No idea whether the early broo were pastoralists, herding goats, and whether Thed actually had been a herd mother or Protectress, or whether there had been Storm-descended human pastoralists herding her goats descended from her as herd mother.

The Pol Joni have been allies of the Zebra Tribe(s) of Prax since they had established themselves by putting Jaldon to rest. The Zebra Fort zebra people following Olgkarth had been hiding among them before Dorasar re-established them in the Big Rubble. Pure blood war zebras breed rather slowly, which is why a lot of the Pavis zebra mounts are half-breeds of war zebra stallions with horse mares, as infertile as are the mules of the Issaries cult. In the RQ2/RQ Classic Pavis books, these crossbreeds were called Cavalry Zebras, but in the RQG Weapons and Equipment Guide it seems like all the zebras listed there are pure-breed war zebras, whether trained (or untrained) as meat animals, pack animals, steeds, cavalry steeds or war steeds. In the Second Age and up to the Battle of Alavan Argay, the Pure Horse Folk of Prax would provide mares to breed the crossbreeds, but until the arrival of the Pol Joni, hardly any crossbreeds were bred.

Not really. There are too many underworld denizens or other monsters who may be called demons after certain definitions. The Crimson Bat is a demon. A kaiju specimen of demon, really. Cacodemon is a portion of the Devil, and the ancestral deity of the chaotic ogres. While this chaotic entity deservedly bears the name demon, it has no direct connection to Hell (the Underworld). Another part is the Devil's Hand, and a similar (possibly smaller) such entity roams Snake Pipe Hollow. Trolls are refugees from Hell, and at least their ancestral Mistress Race can be called demons without any hyperbole. Using the name for ordinary dark trolls, trollkin or cave trolls seems to be over the top, though. Dehori darkness spirits are "hellspawn" and can thus be called demons, even though they lack (much of) physical bodies. (Some may manifest elemental and to some extent tangible darkness.) The Hound ridden by Sir Ethilrist and the demon horses ridden by his followers are entities from Hell that Ethirist forced into his service. His Cloak of Darkness may summon another Underworld species (called goblins) should he elect to use (up) this memento from Hell. The various antigod races of the East (including the Huan-to from Kralorela, the Andins from the East Isles, and presumably the Gorgers who fled the destruction of Duravan to Kimos) could be counted as demons, and their demigod ancestors even more so. Compare the trolls, above. Krarshtkids and their spirit kin Krarshtides may be regarded as demons. There are various hill ranges in Sartar (Starfire Ridge) and Heortland (Aurochs Hills) where there are Fire entities bound into the hilltops that may assault visitors with their fiery magics. To the natives, these are demons even though they profess a celestial origin. Elementals, especially unusual ones with intelligence, might be counted among the demons.

You can look at bestiaries for related games like the Cthulhu or Dreamlands field guides (although 7th edition stats need to be divided by 5) or the RuneQuest: Glorantha bestiary for ideas how non-human humanoids and less humanoid entities may be statted. Cthulhu doesn't give location hit points, though. One of the older contributions is the RQ2/RQ Classic Gateway Bestiary which offers some non-Gloranthan critters. Start with a fitting body plan. Add or substract straight bonus points or dice for characteristics you want to modify. Skill defaults and magics are a bit harder, as is a general cultural description. Possibly their religion, the powers of their specific deities or spirits, and how these translate into their specific magic (or other such powers). No species exists in isolation, and stereotypical relationships with others (at least the usual contacts) should be defined. If you can just use almost-human stats, things are easiest.

There are a few partial listings available for the Kodigvari (kings), the Koroltes royal lineage to King Heort and his sons, and for some later Berennethtelli ancestors of Harmast. Other than that, we know a daughter each of Kodig (and his Nochet queen) and Korol as founding queens of the two successor tribes to the Lastralgortelli - the Liornvuli and Forosilvuli, and of a 9th generation female descendant of Jorganos as founding queen of the Garanvuli of Whitewall (who would be the most likely Vingkotling era ancestors of any Hendriki tribesfolk).

Clay Mostali reproduction might suggest that there is a generational sequence of units. Their life expectance due to accidents and sabotage should be around 4 centuries, which means that there may have been less than a dozen generations of Clay Mostali since the Greater Darkness, and possibly as many during the Lesser Darkness (when they were designed and released). Clay Mostali proto-modules aren't primed for any caste yet and could have come from whichever caste. Ancestral information would thus usually clash with the imprinted caste programming, quite likely resulting in fatal runtime errors. We don't quite know whose "make humans from clay" procedure the Mostali copied. Shaping humans from clay is attested for Vimorn and his siblings, for Yelm and his fellow deities and for Pamalt and several of his Necklace fellow deities. (Also for the Creator entity of Thinobutu, but they had little opportunity to interact with Mostali until far into the Lesser Darkness.) Apparently the first Clay Mostali were created this way, inheriting the self-reproduction method of the Man Rune that had not been applied to the Elder Mostali. Clay Mostali proto-modules are removed from their reproductive sources fairly early, resulting in premature infants transferred to technomagical devices (similar to the one in the Mabinogion for infant Llew Llaw Gyffes his grandfather and his uncle Gwydion forced out of his (professed virginal) sister Arianrhod's womb, alongside an older, more developed brother Dylan from a Sea entity). These devices proceed to shape the proto-module's body into the desired size and proportions - which clash mightlily with human ideal proportions, putting dwarfs at best into uncanny valley and at worst into the grotesque. Besides the body, the operation system of the future Clay Mostali is imprinted from Elder Mostali caste coding that may have been reproduced during the Gods War and recorded in some container. The production of such codings might damage the original owner's programming and may have been part of ancient recycling procedures. It is possible that the programming of diamond clay mostali can be used for priming proto-modules towards the end of their productive career. In many ways, these programmings would be the ancestral spirits rather than the (spit, hack) biological parents.

I am not certain whether Broyan claimed descent from Kodig - as I understand his story, his Kodigvari tribal markings came to him the same way Harmast (a Berennethtelli by descent, not a direct descendant of Kodig) acquired them - as an adaptation through effort and heroquesting, without (initially) aiming for them. I have no idea whether Broyan had any idea about his lineage to the Vingkotling founders. He did embrace his (developing?) Kodigvari tattoo that sent the Grandmothers of Nochet into hives of bad conscience and fear for their authority, much like it had in Harmast's time.

Putting the Death Line onto your bed might have some consequences, though....

I like how the mystic's head is devoured by Chaos.

The crystals resulting from Krarsht's bite would likely turn out to be Flawed Crystals. But keep on mining, and have fun with the additional chaotic features.

Greg Stafford was influenced by mythologers of the sixties and earlier when he wrote his first stories and expanded them in the seventies and early eighties to include the God Learner monomyth. You will find influences of Jung, Eliade and Campbell and probably their abstractions of the elemental deities at the root of quite a few of the Gloranthan elemental deities, who in turn compiled their knowledge of Indo-European, Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Indian, Chinese and other well-researched mythologies translated at the time, and possibly also some of the fantasy archaeology by Evans or Schliemann projecting stories on their finds. Research of real world myths and ancient textual sources has progressed quite a bit since the early days of writing about Glorantha.

While it usually is the cult that mediates the magic to its initiates (and associates), it is the deity who receives the soul link (rune points) to the initiate and a little bit of indirect agency in the world of Time. (There is the possibility of spirit cults addressing the deity outside of the official cult structure, and there are Heroquesting ways to access the magic of a deity unlike the cult methods). Bronze Age magic is not really about belief or even piety, it works on the principle "do ut des". The sacrifices are given to the deity in the expectation that the deity either offers help or abstains from causing undue damage. This is done by the cult whose leaders are held responsible for placating or mediating the deity. In RuneQuest rune points acquired empower a follower who qualified to receive these rune points to spend them. Good standing in the (local section of the) cult allows the follower to renew these points by participation in the sacrifices of the holy day rites. I have yet to see evidence for temple wyters or cult wyters - i.e. entities entirely relying on the gift of magic by the worshippers to grant magic to them. That is a difference to clan, tribal or city wyters which do rely on these. Temple spirits seem to come from the same pool as do allied spirits.

With most deities, sacrifice (not prayer) adds to their power, but they tend to have some intrinsic power of their own. There have been notable exceptions in Glorantha's past - Avanapdur in the Greater Darkness East Isles (an illusionary deity strengthened to the point that it deposed established ruling deities and led a number of Antigod leaders), Jogrampur in God Learner Umathela (an experimental made-up deity whose initiates wielded actual rune magic when they rose up in rebellion against the experimenters) and to some extent the Machine God Zistor in the Clanking City.

One thing that is of some importance in my understanding of Glorantha is that a lot of the equipment carried by the adventurers won't be theirs to give away as they please, but would be the property of the household they belong to, or the clan, or the cult, or the leader they swore service to, or loaned by the quest-giver.

The Godtime rivers were tendrils of Sea sent onto the dry to collect nutrients and energies for their parent bodies of water, which means that while they crept uphill (and had an uphill flow) they would have to send back whatever they collected through the tendril back to the seas. Think of them as living entities rather than as mere strips of water. The river bodies would be made up of various internal currents, those on the surfaces moving uphill, those in the interior flowing back. An anatomy like that would also allow "normal" sedimentation of digested debris in the lower parts of the river. And any lost waters from Heler would be scooped up and re-united with the seas that way.

Not until Monday 12AM GMT.

Quite a lot of such artifacts could be what we know as "contact relics" from medieval Christian practices. If you look a the story of the Red Sword of Tolat in the Guide, that reads like many of the items in the Godtime myth already are such copies or descendants of the original.

While it acknowledges the depictions of Eurmal e.g. in Agathe Pitie's hidden picture puzzles of Mythology, I think what is missing are the Tvi'lek tentacles with bells on.

Or maybe that return to a happier, earlier phase of the Cosmos is the equivalent of Annihilation of its futures? A looped past that removes itself and its memories from what emerged out of the Greater Darkness?

Not quite. A good amount of Gloranthan lore has been accumulated under the watchful oversight of Truth magic, which admittedly tests the subjective truthfulness of the author rather than providing a Lhankor Mhy Reconstruction magic for each and every bit of data. The study of Chaos (and laterally adjacent matters, including Disorder, Lunar madness or the veil of Darkness) has an intrinsic falsehood. This is the province of Gbaji, which even the Arkati acknowledge as a risk. Tomes like the Book of Drastic Resolution are doing the work of Gbaji (at least when they go into unsupervised distribution outside of sufficiently enlightened AND responsible circles). Corrosion is a force inherent to all of the elements, with rather different outcomes as per element. Storm and Sea corrosion results in different products than Dark corrosion (aka rot), but exposure to Earth provides digestion (rot), too (composting). Exposure to Light and Flame weakens and erodes stuff in yet different ways when it doesn't simply burn them. Moonglow corrodes the mind. Corruption on the other hand goes beyond mere corrosion (which is just a form of Change, of Becoming). Corruption is Unbecoming, losing all defining properties except for corrupting whatever it touches. Not true. The Void is a (hot) vacuum of eternal becoming and instantly unbecoming, not really nothing, but inherently impermanent. Gorp stuff is at least semi-permanent, but non-gorp stuff that gets absorbed by gorp passes through a singularity losing all and every definition it had before. Somewhat ironically, the most solid and ordered stuff is what is weakest against gorp, while the some of most volatile stuff can permanently consume gorp stuff, removing it from the Web of Arachne Solara (or fast-feeding it to Time?). Time itself acts a bit like gorp-stuff (it is after all Kajabor regurgitated), but it hinders itself in consuming Creation, slowing that inevitable process. Creation includes well-ordered Darkness, well-ordered Sea, well-ordered Disorder, well-ordered Storm, even well-ordered Wildfire and well-ordered Celestial sperm. Rock, Metal and Crystal are the only well-ordered components of Creation. Gorp stuff lacks almost all properties. It has some cohesion (which sharp or bludgeoning objects can easily disrupt, though, separating out portions of the bad stuff), it possesses a certain amount of energy enabling it to move (or rather translocate by oozing), and it corrupts stuff that it touches. It is weak towards brine, towards fast-flowing water (energy), and to flame, and Storm can stall it but not really diminish it. Earth and Rock are weak to it. Gorp stuff has no structure - that's the point(lessness) of it. The Void/Silence/Primal Plasma/Prime Mover acts as a contemplation of the balance of Becoming and Unbecoming beyond Creation which may open the way not into the dissolution in the Void but into unity with the Ultimate, the Source of Energies. That's the mystic end game, not mere submission to the Void but surpassing the limits of existence and becoming the Source. The Void (by whichever name you call it) is neutral when kept separate from Creation. Small amounts of Unbecoming can be tolerated and balanced while the well of Creation works enough to replace what gets annihilated. Getting swallowed by Unbecoming separates them from the Ultimate (which is projected onto them by the runes). As far as I can make it out, Chaos can reach out to Atrilith, but gets undone when confronted with the Ultimate - that's how Mashunasan operates. Infection of reality by the Void produces monsters, as can unprepared exposure to the Ultimate. Properly prepared confrontation of and then unity with the Ultimate allows ascension. (Which might be different from Malkioni Ascended Masters who have intellectual unity with the One Mind.) None. Infinity ties to the Ultimate, the Source, the flow of energies (life) through the world. Death/Separation wards existence against annihilation. Chaos denotes the impending loss of connection to the Ultimate, even if it may allow a direct access to its energies through the chaotic features, including stuff like Walktapus or Cave Troll regeneration or Were-beast shape-shifting and immunity to mundane weaponry. Illusion is reality that dissipates in the face of the Ultimate (and/or against the corruption of Time). It is part of reality, but without direct access to the energies sent out into the world by the Ultimate, although Illusion may be fed indirectly by these energies once they have been processed by Life (or possibly once they have been reflected by Moon). in White Bear and Red Moon, the Illusionary Armies of the Puppeteer Troupe are reality, but must not get into the neighborhood of dragons or superheroes (or any other manifestations of Infinity) or be annihilated. I posit if there is a rune for Nothing, it is a blank. There is a rune for the Void, though - for the balance of Becoming and Unbecoming outside of Creation (which can also be read as "before Creation" and even as "after Uncreation"). The Void is a vacuum quantum plasma. It has Zero Point Energy. On the edge of a singularity, it may manifest stuff or energies. Chaos is a drain on the energies from the Source. That's a different (absence of) quality. Earlier we had the statement that Chaos is a scab on exposure to the Void. I disagree - Chaos is a sore and a pustulence, not a scab.