Joerg

Make that "Dragon Pass Orlanthi", generously allowing for Heortland, Aggar and Holay to be included. Shadowcats are tied to Kero Fin, after all, and while Lightbringer missionaries may have taken them along to awaken more distant peoples (or just their memories of Storm myths), those more distant Orlanthi are not cat people. If you include the Esrolians, maybe 20% of the Orlanthi in Glorantha are "Dragon Pass Orlanthi". Of course your gaming might never encounter any Orlanthi from outside of that region, especially not if you stick to the officially released adventures (other than Riskland which allows for Orlanthi from elsewhere to join Renekot's tribe). Maniria, Ralios, Fornoar, southwestern Peloria and Fronela provide the rest of the Genertelan barbarian belt, with no significant populations of alynxes mentioned anywhere. And when it comes to Umathela, I wonder whether there are any shadowcats down there at all. How these distant Orlanthi are supposed to be cat Nazis when they don't have any sort of feline to offer somewhat reliable cooperation is beyond me. Vanchites are Raccoon people, Sylilings are Bear People, Fronelans are Bull People unless they are Bear People or Boar People without any preferred carnivorous companion defined. Pendali were Lion people, and some of their descendants still are (such as Greymane), but that doesn't make them Cat People. Alynxes appear to belong to the same group of "small felines" (or purring felines) as housecats, wild cats, cheetahs, pumas/cougars, rather than the large cats from the Panthera family (lion, tiger, jaguar, leopard) or the lynx family. Edit: At the Dawn, the Praxian Tribes were somewhat modified Orlanthi pastoralists without any cats but keeping and cooperating with dogs.

What I like about GMing RQ3 is that you don't need much in the way of tables - most of it can be calculated, even on the fly if your arithmetic ability is above 30%. No weird look-up tables with weirdly broken up distributions. Previous experience in RQ3 was weird in assuming a steady annual increase of abilities starting at age 15. One of the best elements of RQ3 was the World Book for GMs, giving a GM an idea about how agricultural life and production would be organized in any non-technological setting, providing the underpinnings of world building. Quite applicable to Glorantha, too, as the detail overlay maps by Greg had this chapter in mind. RQ3 can be adapted to Glorantha, but it was never limited to that setting, much like the RQ2 rules. There are things in RQ3 that no longer (or never quite) make me enthusiastic. Spirit magic has a very colonialist feel to it - you need to conquer the territory of the poor spell spirit some priest or shaman sends against you (against its own nature or inclination). Rune Magic reusabiity and economy in RQ3 need some adjustment or a lot more God Talker intermediate level states than just the Acolyte presented with the Ernalda cult in the De Luxe box. Unfortunately, that cult lacked immediate playability, and was ignored by most players I met.

Alloying the two metals might give you Gloranthan Brass, which has nothing to do with the real world metal zinc, but with a copper-tin-whatever-else alloy that was melted and cooled down again, like the bones of the various children or incarnations of Lodril no longer aflame. The Brass Mountains in Carmania certainly are volcanic in their origin, and they provide much of the metal needs of the Pelorian basin.

I beg to differ. Pollen is another thing besides hunny and wax which you get from keeping bees. (There's also propolis and royal jelly.) It is the blessing of Flamal, spread by sunlight, wind, beasts, and aldryami. And it may carry the curse of Aldrya or Flamal, an old gift by Malia. So you are telling me that there was no need for Aether to ejaculate (through) Lodril deep into the Broad Earth (Gata) to sire Umath? Next thing will be that calves are grown in meadows, and have no need for milk? Sorry to have to tell you this, but we are not in the Green Age any more since there is a sky to look up to. Ever since the start of the Golden Age, people need to spread the seeds of the grains (and pseudocereals) of the Land Goddesses to be able to have a harvest. Ever since the dismemberment of Yelm, magic has been required, too. Weeds and molds might be a slightly different matter, weeds being the curse of Trickster or the challenge of the Lady of the Wild, and molds something Dark. Also, the "created" for your list of Earth/Plant/Fertility entities means they Grew or they Birthed/Sired such.

Monomythically, there was no wind to carry pollen, but there was light which would have been able to levitate it. We know that creatures of Darkness invaded the surface world already long before the devastation of Wonderhome - Gash and Gore for instance were extremely familiar with the backdoor towards the Surface. There is another myth about the ascent of the ants, and how they were cursed to shrink to their (real world) size. Nactar of flowers and berries are rewards for those who spread pollen and seeds. With the walking aldryami, you have pollinating pixies and seed-spreading runners and possibly elves.

The entire existence of the "walking aldryami" (elves, runners, pixies) is about independence of the Forest from any animals. While the animals may help with grooming the forests, the forest can do without them. Still, it can be safely assumed that Glorantha has these over-specialized synergies between certain plants and insects, birds or other beasts. Mythically, this may be based on marriages or similar adoptions of beast life. No idea how much the symbiosis between the forest and its fungal network beneath applies to Glorantha. If it exists, there must be myths about the roles of Aldrya and Mee Vorala, or the command of their shared father Flamal.

Given that one of Orlanth's greatest heroes, King Heort, was a shaman, I am a bit on the fence about the shaman prohibition, but then Heort lived in an Age where there was no Cult of Orlanth, at least not with a living deity.

That's the ecological role of sprites. Aldryami bloom was able to do without beasts of Darkness, but allowed them in.

According to one of Sandy Petersen's "Forgotten Secrets of Glorantha" panels at Kraken, there is an actual iron chain of massive dimensions somewhere beneath the surface of Safelster, creating a no-magic zone in its immediate vicinity. This is part of some Mostali project. That is not the Argan Argar chain, and I doubt there is a physical item used by the Argan Argari. This is a metaphorical chain with each member a link in the greater total.

Wherever sharpened sticks and lariats are handed out.

Chaos is an inevitable side product of Creation through the Chaosium, the "organ" of Glorantha which pulls in unlimited potential from the Void outside and gives it definition (through the runes) to act as part of the Cosmos. The Chaosium does not work perfectly (how could it facing infinite possibilities), but it will result in imperfections at odds with the Creation around them. King of Sartar (Orlanthi Mythology section) calls such entities "Predark", without specifying whether this means "things from before Darkness was manifested" or "Chaos from Ages before the Darkness Era of the Gods War". Rashoran and their lore of accepting the imperfect as part of the Cosmos and taking energy or magic out of such imperfections obviously predates Wakboth, and was what inspired the Unholy Trio to abuse such knowledge to manifest Moral Evil attached to Ultimate Destruction. Nysalorean lore included the ability to approach Chaos without being immediately consumed by it. From there to inflicting Chaos unto unwilling others (like the Black Eater at the Battle of Night and Day) is just a short step, though, and with his wounding of Korastor Nysalor clearly stepped out of a morally neutral stance towards Chaos. The Red Goddess inflicting her hummingbird, the Crimson Bat, onto her enemies and later her subjects is another such step away from that careful or innocent neutrality that may have been part of Rashoran's lessions. The deities who completely accept Nysalor are those whose enemies were struck by Nysalor's use of Chaos upon their enemies. If the Nysalorean movement started innocent, it wasn't the conflict with Arkat which destroyed their innocence, but the Battle of Night And Day with the resulting Curse of Kin. The conflict with Arkat unveiled the underlying corruption, starting with that battle in Seshnela where Gerlant intervened and the followers of Nieby and his prophet Gaalth turned into tentacled monsters.

Another option would be the Banthites, a sea-going tribe in the Neliomi region during the Storm Age for a short period (according to Revealed Mythologies). They disappeared after a conflict with the Brithini and/or the Waertagi, and might have retreated into one of those islands that disappeared, and possibly re-appeared either with the Opening Voyage of Dormal or alongside Old Trade in the Aamor expedition.

Lodril's tryst is with Asrelia/Esrola. Esrola and Oria correspond about as much as Ernalda and Oria. By Dara Happan YS dating, Lodril descended into the Broad Earth one tenth into the "Reign of Yelm", aka 10,000 YS, as the vector for Aether's fiery seed. Clearly after the Green Age, but rather early. Still, parthenogenetically born Ernalda is supposed to have been around that early. Lodril's daughter, consequently "later".

Barntar definitely made it to adult stage, but in the sense of devolution, later generation Srvuali become little more than demigods or Founders. Barntar still does his own version of the Enkoshons/Aroka quest, but from there downward it is only heroes repeating the Orlanth feat (rather than Vadrus's feat, because of the different outcome). I can see a collective like the Farm Brothers, or possibly the Sons and Tools of Barntar. Not quite up to the Ten Sons and Servants of Lodril whom we find on the Gods Wall. Thunder Rebels gave us names for the handmaidens of Ernalda and the wives of the expanded Lowfire children of Lodril, but that's for the "ruling" generation rather than for the descendant generation. Deities don't usually have dynasties, unless you have severe attrition from repeated cataclysms, but even the Vithelan myths have little more than three or four generations, and emphasize the mundanisation of the protagonists. Putting Barntar into a generation is a bit tricky, too. For the Downland Migration, we have most of the Storm Brothers (named in Thunder Rebels) present for the exploration and then migration, but the birth of Barntar is tied to a Storm Age event called the Checkered Battle (which Orlanth failed to attend). But like Vingkot's death from a wound in a battle far to the future of his reign and apotheosis, a birth "date" does not preclude a deity from participating in earlier events, or from having multiple birth dates and parents.

The bear people of the Yellow Bear Hills seem to have taken on Lightbringer Ways and stopped being Hsunchen. Their beast totem language quite likely was reduced to a few idiomatic expressions in Jonating dialects. Agriculture seems to have been brought in by King Drona(r) and his boar companion. Unlike the bull people to their east and their west, bear people never were pastoralist hill barbarians. Still there is a bear belt permeating the bull belt, extending from Sylila via Arir to Jonatela and then north into Rathorela. Bears are among the least gregarious totem beasts and don't really give a totemic reason to form tribes, but they will congregate at seasonal fishing or harvesting hotspots reducing their individual solitude radius. Harrek is likely to have become rather polyglot. I would add Yggite (from the Storm family), Fonritian, possibly Suvarian (as internal command language among theDarjiinian Dart Competition teams), and possibly some more smatterings picked up during his circumnavigation.

Sewers don't necessarily transport excretions. Rainwater removal or even rainwater catchment can be the main purpose of the "sewer" system. The Sarli district in Nochet relies on cisterns filled by rainwater. While I don't expect the streets in Sarli district to be free of excrement from roaming pigs and whatever creatures use the area for traffic, I would expect either a separate collection system for water coming from the roofs of the district (still contaminated by bird poo), or otherwise a strict "cook before use" policy in the district. While sand filters aren't exactly rocket science, and adding a charcoal layer for additional removal of organics isn't either, I don't think that this corresponds to ancient or even Bronze Age practice anywhere on our planet. The water shown on images on these inverted pyramid step cisterns from India resembles that which I encounter in wastewater treatment ponds, definitely not potable quality. Rainwater with rather limited contamination by excrements can be "treated" by being kept in intermediary basins for some time, ideally with some easily removed water plants taking in nutrients, with the water plants then serving as fodder or even food. While not corresponding to German tap water requirements (which are quite similar to those of mineral water), some boiling would render that potable without summoning darkness or disease spirits to the consumers' tummies. (Said boiling may provide some incentive to remove some of the animal feces from the streets, too - charcoal is expensive, and the ashes of such fires are almost as good fertilizers as the raw feces.) Alternatively, there might be a street soil patrol of food trollkin with a handler, leaving the pavement or gravel licked clean, but where would that leave the porcine population of Sarli? Pavis seems to have a system of wells tapping into river-level ground water seeping through the banks or bed of the Zola Fel, making rain water removal a priority over catching the flow-off. The sewer might be little more than a shallow ditch in the streets, directing the flow-off to either absorbing wells feeding the water back into the ground, using the ground as a filtration system, or into ponds serving as animal watering places and reservoirs for fire-fighting (as long as the water lasts). The same can be assumed for Old Pavis, possibly with a little "Rivers of London" twist of seasonal drainage channels possessing genii locorum.

Fox and Coyote are typical Trickster beasts.

Such as the Greydog clan? The majority of Heortlings are Alynx people. Other Orlanthi have different birth places for Orlanth, and as a consequence they may have different birth siblings of Orlanth. Top of the World is the major birth place for Orlanth besides Kero Fin, the Great Mountain for Orlanthi from Fronela, Slontos, Ralios and western Peloria, including the Talastari. The Sairdite dog people are in the intersection of these two Great Mountains. The Bad Dogs usually are a collective of deities similar to the Storm Brothers, with occasional break-out appearances of an individual. They get a bit of screen time in King of Sartar. Narangros weirdly enough gets his screen time for wounding Mastakos rather than Yinkin, who still "lost his fiery breath to the Bad Dogs". Canis Chaos goes back to Griffin Mountain, where it is called Chavgaz, the God-Gobbler - one of the Eleven Big Giants, Dolog, sits upon it, avenging it wounding his friend Tada.

Do all Kralori martial artists practice unarmed combat? The famous female in the conflict with the criminal organisation is a sword user.

So while there may not be that much precipitation, there might be less evaporation due to slightly higher air humidity than in an inland desert?

There might be a chance for the two questing parties get mixed up when they depart from a station.

Not necessarily. If successful, Delecti might become unable to activate that toe from any future corpse he inhabits - a very special form of leprosity damage. Do this often enough, and he might be taken apart.

Spirit integration was talked about as one form of (IIRC no-orthodox) animism back in the early naughties, IIRC, with the practitioner implanting a magical part of the spirit into their selves, basically grafting that magical ability unto themselves. To me, this sounds like coercion of the spirit rather than the result of bargaining or a quid pro quo. But it also resembles the outcome of a heroquest challenge.

Safelster might be best handled one city-state at a time for purposes of the Jonstown Compendium, with perhaps an introduction to the lake and rivers connecting them all thrown in. I'll have to check whether there is anything salvageable in the freeform booklet we produced in 1996 for the broader picture.

There are several units of Black Horse Troop and only one of the Hell Sisters in the game. Even if we allow for two or three units in total for the Hel Sisters back in the Empire, the Black Horse Troop still have numerical superiority in terms of units fielded. In terms of total "manpower", the several units of BHT have a slight numerical advantage over a single unit of Hell Sisters.