Joerg

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.

I have a spare shrink-wrapped copy in Germany that might be looking for a good home.

Martin Helsdon has one in one of his books - Armies and Enemies, or more likely Men of the West - and I think there is an illumination by Katrin Dirim in Nick Brooke's History of Malkionism (unless I misremember a preview from Martin's upcoming book about sailing southern Genertela, also by Katrin).

Must have been a chance meeting on converging heroquests with a short piece of shared path. When did the White Moon business start? Around the same time as the White Bull society?

They cannot be slain honorably. They may still be subdued using non-lethal force, and rather than accepting their ransom they may be sold into slavery or indenture.

As I can make out from Greg's comments on his own spirituality, the dig may have been at Roman Catholicism, as that was what he was breaking away from at the time. Only through his pursuit of shamanism in Mexico Greg made his personal peace with that creed, when one of his teachers there took him to the church. If you want to see a dig at Islam there, it might be your preconceptions that get challenged. Or problems with the family of monotheistic world religions in general. Ompalam offers some parallels to the Book of Job. (But then, I am more comfortable with the Apocalypse than I am with the Book of Job, and I don't care for those pitch and brimstone preachers or Adventism at all.) The one redeeming feature of the upcoming cataclysmic escalation that is the Hero Wars is that these cataclysms are cyclical, escaping immediate annihilation asymptotically, while offering a way out through transcendence, even if that way may become harder and harder. While Glorantha exists in some form, Godtime persists. And the End of Time might be Time slowing down.

To my eyes, the Middle Sea Empire "ruled" in the East Isles quite similar to the Dutch East India trading company ruling the spice islands from their fleet stronghold Batavia (nowadays Jakarta). That is, there were Middle Sea Empire traders backed by moderate military and magical might establishing exclusive deals with the natives, at least as far as trade with Seshnela, Jrustela and satellites was concerned. Trade volume inside the East Isles (outside of their direct trade interests) was less relevant to them, but securing exclusive sales rights under the jurisdiction of the empire was what was profitable. The typical trade expedition might have had a few researcher wizards or monks, a small body of men-of-all and a supply of men-at-arms (Horali caste, or barbarian mercenaries), plus whatever local tribal mercenaries they could bribe to plague their rivals for pay and plunder. None of that was welcomed by Valkaro, who made a serious and heartfelt attempt to Malkionize his islanders, bringing them into the fold of the Abiding Book more than making them tax payers for the Empire. While aspects of his western ways still may have been exploitative to the islanders, Valkaro's venture was not driven by mundane profits or by bringing back magical plunder or the exotic vice of the day (such as the Angazabo pearl diet, a practice spiritually meaningful to the islanders but vapid and vain back in Seshnela). While the modern ship type is called Haragalan Tallship, there is some indication that the magic for the sun lenses used as the main armament of the Tallships was inherited from the Mokatan navy. Galleys with ray guns - a hard enemy even for the Waertagi who could assault these ships from below. God Learner sorcery had to struggle to keep up with this specialized type of sorcerous applications, and to my knowledge they never managed to copy the method. The Mokatan commonwealth was a thalassocracy based on trading and control of the trade routes between the Isles, with some measure of assistance provided against shared foes (like antigod race pirates). If the sorcerers crewing these sun-dials had to be active initiates of the island god, then their range of operations would have been limited by their need to attend the holy days of their deity. Something like that would explain the limitation of the Mokatan influence. Vormain differs from the East Isles in the importance of the island deities. While most East Isles get their identity from the island deity, in the Vormain archipelago these are a reverd group of entities, but worshiped along the Joserui, other deities (possibly also genius loci type) found on the Vormain islands (which includes the Hinter Isles). Vormain is the direct successor of Imperial Abzered, a highland refuge from the lost struggle with the Sea Gods struggling to maintain some form of unbroken imperial tradition. A possible secret of this success is the prohibition for outsiders to enter the land. In a way, the Brithini purity drive by sending dissidents off to the Malkioni colonies is mirrored by the Vormain policy to treat people who left the core islands as spiritually and culturally tainted. There is a good chance that the empire as a whole had periods when it had to pay tribute to a more powerful outside force, but that was the price they paid for keeping that outside where it belonged: outside. We know of one (Third Age) attempt to actually conquer the islands through a landing operation. The fleet (sent by Sheng Seleris) was driven off and partially destroyed by a seastorm sent by the spirits of the land, and possibly the guardians of the Closing whose objections to Sheng's disregard for their thing finally came through with Vormaini support. In the Second Age, IIRC the Outside Vormaini cooperated with the Waertagi, providing native marines/occupation forces, in the struggle against Mokato and their allied thalassocratic island which the Waertagi sunk shortly before their loss in the West at Tanian's Victory. The Hinter Isles may have seen some outsider presence and pollution, but none of the mercantile cartels of the Middle Sea Empire had the financial means to take on the crazed Vormaini warriors who lived the "death before dishonor" mantra with hired mercenaries in sufficient numbers, or sufficient magical fire support. A few of the imperial super-weapons have been detailed, such as the fire-spewing turtle galleys used by the Slontans against the Mirrorsea Bay. These were quite likely dependent on supplies from the Cult of Caladra and Aurelion and would have been hard to maintain over longer supply lines. Other "sorcery" may have been siege engines, whether original designs or re-engineered from Mostali originals (and regularly plagued by gremlins or gobblers). MRQ's take on the Clanking City weirdly postulated enchanted monster skeleton apparati as weapons for land-based warfare - I found that rather counter-intuitive for the people who created the Flesh Machine. Just saying. In the Kotor Wars, it looks like the EWF had air superiority with both their draconized cult of Orlanth and the flying dream dragons, wyrms and possibly wyverns, and the occasional Great Dragon. The Slontans quite likely had surface-to-air field artillery to neutralize that advantage somewhat. Part of the reason may have been the crackdown on the monastic wizard orders following the attempted coup of Pilif the Magus in Reconquista Seshnela. While Malkioni society is fine with Man-of-All rulers capable of some sorcery, rule by pure Zzabur caste sorcerers (who tend to be mightier than most Man-of-All spell wielders) is anathema to Malkioni Rightness. Administration and imperial order needs to rest with people trained in the Talar Caste (which includes Men-of-All and pure Talars, although those were rather rare in higher positions). Also, the hype after the early successes of Abiding Book Sorcery was followed by some sobering when the consequences of Tanian's Victory began to disrupt the seas freed of the Waertagi domination. The Firebergs took a serious amount of attention from engaging in sorcery on battlefields. And then the adoption of (badly understood) Arkati secrets in heroquesting sent most of the efforts of the sorcerous orders into exploring, mapping and most of all raiding Godtime for divine artifacts. Not quite. True, burning waters were known to Godtime Artmali of southern Pamaltela, and possibly some of the islands first drowned in the Great Flood, but that knowledge was forgotten by anyone contacted by the God Learners. Tanian's Victory was an unheard-of attack, utilizing an indirect approach ot an obscure celestial entity for which the stars had to be just right. Sure, apart from a few deviations in planetary motion, you would see the same night sky on the same day of the year again and again, but that might just mean that you don't offer naval battle on Fireday, Death Week, Sea Season (or whichever day the Battle of Tanian's Victory took place). The resulting Firebergs were massively inconvenient, too, disrupting profitable trade routes and communication channels. Especially when they started re-appearing out of Sramak's river after the last had gone down into Magasta's Pool. I cannot recall seeing Togaro among the sea deities utilized by the God Learners. Their favorite sea helper was Wachaza. They weren't worshiped. Their ancestors were venerated by those who shared them, which would have given them more oomph when calling upon said ancestors, but that's about the magical benefit the emperors would gain personally from their exalted position. All Emperors seem to have been Men-of-All, allowing them some amount of personal magic beyond that of traditional talars, but that was not the source or focus of their power either. Their position at the top of the bureaucracy and trade gave them immense wealth, wealth which bought both military might and sorcerers hungry for funds for their research topics. These are theist empires, with Living Worshiped Heroes doubling as High Priests at the top (Red Emperor, Belintar, Godunya, Sheng Seleris - and that's the complete list). The most powerful Malkioni king in the Third Age may have been Siglat, who re-created Loskalm inside the Syndics' Ban. He did not come close to any of the aforementioned Godkings. Neither do the highest rulers in Fonrit or the hardly aging ruler of Cerngoth, or some of the villains like Lord Death On A Horse, the King of Ramalia, or Argrath. Svagad was the last adventurer-Man-of-All ascending to the throne. His cotery managed to deal with Pilif using tried methods of unenchanted iron and feats of combat, rather than taking the Magus on with spellcraft - much like his Dawn Age pagan demigod ancestor Damol. Quite a bit of mechanical engineering (coupled with pre-historic Kadeniti architectural magic) helped the God Learners creating their navies, and some of their special contraptions, from the early Zistorite communities outside of God Forgot as well as other experiments in natural philosophy. But otherwise, this is a bit like asking how the results of the Manhattan Project spread through the USA of the Sixties. The Zistorites leeched off the same magical feed as the pyramid scheme of the EWF, so naturally one would be a thorn in the side of the other. Not to mention the Zistorites tapping the deities of southern Heortland for their project, weakening Storm in the EWF as well (and there Storm was one of the carriers of worship). Zistorela thrived on the special magical properties of that place that allowed the mass-produced items to work while under the influence. (The EWF had a similar localized benefit with its draconic-altered crops and livestock.) The threat of Zistorite activities was enough for the EWF to cooperate with the southern Traditionalists (at a time when they had crushed the northern ones), and with the Elder Races. Submarines and hot air balloons sound more like Leonardo's unique inventions than like Zistorite mass production. Diving bells might be a possibilty, though. That's because the Zistorite venture was not a high priority state endeavour, but rather a sectarian project among many others. It may have had some financial backers paid off with lesser by-products of the activities in the Clanking City, like e.g. lesser Flesh Machines for the Kotor Wars. Famously, the emperor did not even comment on the fall of the Clanking City. While Zzabur most likely contributed to the Closing, we are far from certain that the interruption of all sea traffic was his goal. Much like shattering the Earth Cube and the Spike to break apart Valind's glacier encroaching on Brithos had a greater collateral effect than just the targeted problem. There were only very few years between the invasion attempt and the start of the Closing, less than what would have been needed to breed and train another generation of Horali warriors on Brithos. Given the absence of Brithos at the time Dormal investigated its old position, it is possible that Zzabur enacted a "remove Brithos from the surface of the world" ritual with the Closing as a side effect. And possibly an effect piled upon by various sea deities reclaiming sovereignty over the top of their realm. The best source I know is describing Belintar's application of God Learner administration in his Holy Country, in the Stafford Library volume History of the Heortling People. Given the snippets Jeff has leaked in the last 24 months or so, I don't think that will be the case. Although with the bottleneck of layout and art direction, even a finished manuscript by Jeff would remain unpublished for a few years. The west got a dedicated Jeff Richard. What more do you ask for? For the time being, the Jonstown Compendium will be your go-to place for these stranger locales, and only if there are fan publishers caring more for getting their stuff published than for breaking even on art commissions and paying their copy editors. And Chaosium takes note of the sale figures for exotic location campaigns or scenarios, too. While fan publications rarely match Chaosium sales figures (if at all), the sales ratio between stuff for the core region and exotic ones. The closest I have come was GMing (my version of) an Aeolian campaign in Heortland in the 1616-1618 period and playing an Arkati sailor in Kustria in a PBEM game using earlier editions of RQ.

Chaos is a side-effect of the Fifth Action, brought into the world by Malkion (if you are a little bit mischievous). Chaos lacks Rightness. That said, the God Learners identified Ompalam as a face or facet of the Invisible God, condoning the Garangordite system of ethnicity-based slavery which they may have seen as a harsher implementation of their own (at times strict) caste system. Chaos in Fonrit is of the subtle variety. Much like for Black Fang the Chaos cults and Chaos-adjacent cults in Fonrit are useful and grant powers. The initial success of the Sixlegged Empire was based on their cavalry, which at first was able to survive on the resources of the land. However, the weeds and clovers of the Veldt turned out to be bad for their horses in the longer run, and the extra mobility of their riders was equalized by use of masses of tireless Jmijie runners able to maintain their speed long after horses would foam and collapse. Hon Hoolbiktu only bears responsibiity for the loss of Jolar. The God Learner ventures in Fonrit seem to have been counting on revenue from supplying the Six-legged Empire, and with that revenue missing, they ended up underfunded and over-stretched. The God Learners had installed themselves as unassailable overlords over the slavocracy. When they weren't able to deal decisively with a slave revolt, all their street credit with the local mazarin aristocracy was lost, and they became easy targets for their long-established mutual assassination teams. Time has left a record that cannot be altered (but can of course be mis-reported by later in-world sources with an agenda). Godtime is more malleable, but has a resilience to bounce back, as the God Learners found out to their detriment. Have you read the Stafford Library titles that deal with the Second Age? The Fortunate Succession is the least relevant for the God Learners (but teaches us a bit about the Carmanians), Revealed Mythologies tells us about some of the origins of Malkionism and the Abiding Book as well as the , The Middle Sea Empire tells us about the God Learner history (as chronicled by the deeds and ordeals of rulers), and the History of the Heortling Peoples gives a fairly detailed account of the Machine Wars. Interactions varied, but remember that the Malkioni have a humanist world-view, looking down on most elder races. The Elder Races had started into the Second Age with conflicts among themselves, both internal and between the ancient enemies. The dwarf misery wasn't entirely to be blamed on the God Learners. Following the Gbaji Wars, Nida sent something like an inquisition to Greatway, recycling many a dissident dwarf, fostering resentmentamong many of the rest. Early in the Second Age, a giant army led by Gonn Orta laid waste to much of surface Nida, liberating/abducting a great number of giant jolanti from their Nidan dwarf lords. While one group of these was given sentience by tricjsterous Aldryami in the woodlans of Aggar, most followed Gonn Orta's kin into the Rockwoods. In the struggles for Old Pavis, a majority of these followed Thog to conquer the city, and subsequently were used up to fuse the rock slabs left by Paragua's efforts into the smooth wall with only a few breaks we know today. Problems with the God Learners or their offshoots troubled Iron Mountain in Seshnela (conquered by the humans), Gemborg (the high priests of Caladra and Aurelion inserting themselves between Martaler and the lowland Caladrans) and the northern mostali mountain in the Shan Shan (depopulated by the Kralori under Shang-Hsa). The Mostali in the Mari Mountains and in Slon escaped God Learner intrusions. Traditionally, the Malkioni and the aldryami went along fairly well. While the marriage between the third of the Serpent Kings and a daughter of an Aldryami forest lord ended in tragedy for the bride and her people, another such princess founded a lineage which would later come to imperial power in the Middle Sea Empire, marrying the pagan Seshnegi hero Damol. The main treasure the Malkioni claimed from the forests was lumber, for construction and fleet building, at lteast the ordinary navy. The incineration of Vralos was the only major conflict with Aldryami in Malkioni territory. Removing the Woodland Judgements there allowed coastal Umathela to pursue a specific brand of heroquesting or rather looting expeditions into Godtime. The God Learners found little high magic of interest to them in Maslo. The Mother of Monsters in Elamle or the way too bloody conflict in Onlaks served as deterrent against major investments there. That same Onlaks warfare loomed over any God Learner attempt to force their way into the jungle. Already the relatively elf-poor Mirelos jungle in Laskal proved to be catastrophic for their logisitics, for way too little enrichment. Most of the expansion was directed by chartered companies rather than imperial decree. Chartered companies required profits to keep operating, and too slow profits would throw off even the more venturesome experimental heroquesters. About as much as he had use for a boil on his posterior. The Slontan invasion temporarily took his human supporters outside of the EWF away from him (except for the Hendriki who somehow managed to hide their presences), and while the EWF helped push the Slontans back again, the Kotor wars drained Shadow Plateau resources as much as they did the God Learners' or the EWF. The Machine Wars poisoned much of his recently liberated lands. The Closing almost came like a blessing. Guhan was the other troll stronghold with direct exposure to the God Learners, and their sorcerers gave as good as the God Learners could deal out. When destroying the Autarchy, the God Learners failed to eradicate their troll allies. The trolls being anchored in the Underworld shielded them from much of the God Learner explorations, as most of the Malkioni sorcerers required good access to the Source to create their magics. While there was one school of sorcery applying Malkioni sorcerous techniques to the conditions in the Underworld, the dispersion of Surface World ambient magic into the sink of the Underworld, while offering the same potential difference, is alien to Zzaburi teachings. To the troll sorcerers on the other hand this comes naturally.

The Red Goddess cheated, of course, being born into a 14-year-old (or so) girl's body rather than as a mewling infant. That way she was able to field several adult children for the Battle of Castle Blue 25 years into her reborn life.