Joerg

Bruvala had eight daughters, which would have given her quite a number of direct female line granddaughters, more than Arkillia and Norina. Did Bruvala have any premonitions about her death? Or did she recognize her imminent death and decide that Brengala was better for the house. Besides, what other candidates could there have been for the next Grandmother of House Norinel? A Grandmother needn't have had a ruling role before but may have qualified herself in other matters for her House. I would guess that Bruvala outlived her sisters by half a century, but that brings a number of nieces in the right age group to qualify as Grandmother. It is interesting that Brengala chose to retire as Queen of Nochet in favor of her daughter rather than taking Hendira's course of action, becoming acting Grandmother while leaving that post open or irrelevant. Succession of grandmothers is an interesting topic anyway. Esrolian houses are big on matrilineal continuity, but there needn't be a rule that a future Grandmother is offspring of her predecessor. A grandmother usually steps out of her office by dying, correct? Would she train a successor, or would there be a cabal of crones training either one of their own number or a newly dedicated crone? A newly established Grandmother usually would have no living parents or grandparents, and she would be ill-advised to stress her allegations to another House while establishing her absolute rule over her own maternal House. So the paternal House will take a vested interest, and will be recognized for that? When the first quote says "Arkillia's Grandmother", does this mean her maternal and House's Grandmother, or her paternal Grandmother who logically would carry such ambitions? But how serious would be a year marriage to the lineage of Sartar for her perspective for becoming eligible as Queen of Nochet? It is evident from the sources that Arkillia had a swarm of suitors besides Sarotar, and apparently these sons of Enfranchised Houses were in it for more than just their Grandmothers' command. Arkillia must have been a woman of considerable personal charm in addition to being a "princess" of the single most powerful House in Nochet. Who exactly determines the successor for a Queen of Nochet? A consensus of the Grandmothers of the Enfranchised Houses of Nochet? I guess that with a Queen, the paternal descent does play a certain role in the eligibility, which might lead to the new most powerful House fielding the daughter with the most convenient paternal lineage rather than the favourite daughter of the Grandmother. While I guess that genealogically there is nothing wrong with sending a son from another branch of matrilineally descended women of the House, I wonder whether tradition would deem such a course as palatable or favorable. A Grandmother might face less scorn for sending a first cousin from one of the girl's uncles belonging to a third House than a less directly blood-related son of her own House. I see the scenario that there were at least three suitors from influential houses at odds with Sarotar. Much likely significantly more than that. A few of them may have been considerably older (but still eligible). After all, high ranking daughters of an Enfranchised House rarely wed for unlimited time. Did Bruvala have ties to House Oranaeo when she became Queen of Nochet, or was she leading an opposition? Bruvala's first Queen of Nochet daughter Bruvalaina would have been married to the former leading House (provided it still played a serious role in determining the new Queen). So, how important was Nochet under Bruvala? Rhigos certainly still had the trade monopoly and the resulting riches. In fact, Sarotar wooing one of House Norinel's daughters was a promise of gaining a share in the new profitable trade across the Pass into Peloria, which would be a way to pull even with Rhigos for the Nochet Houses. Nochet may have been the more prestigious city, but prestige doesn't necessarily equal power. Your 1) makes it sound that regardless of its actual wealth and power, Belintar chose his Esrolian Governor from Nochet rather than the more important Rhigos, possibly out of tradition. They received at least one son of Bruvala as a husband for one of their daughters, but that does't really set them apart from any other House. I agree. I cannot say much about this House. Bruvala must have been the most senior woman in the House, and in-house rival lineage heads would have been nieces or second-degree cousins born a generation or maybe even two later than her. I haven't given much thought to Norinevra's relationship to Bruvala - possibly a grandniece. (Norinevra is the recently deceased crone in my scenario whose body is to be returned to the Norinel mausoleum despite her back then imminent expulsion from the House upon losing Marlesta to the Puppeteers, a fate she avoided only by leaving Nochet before her House could make that declaration.) I think that coming up with a bunch of rival suitors for Arkillia's hand from other Houses might be more fruitful than the hunt for her father.

Where is your first "canonical" quote from? The latter two are from King of Sartar - Zin Letters and CHDP Sartar section. Arkillia survives all of this drama, although she loses control over her daughter Marlesta. There are few reasons why she would not be available as a Norinel queen, although I don't quite see how Bruvala could hope to live long enough to see her youngest daughter pass the menopause and retire from queenhood, and then still have a say when nominating the next queen. Did Bruvala expect that she had to dethrone her youngest daughter as well? In that case, Brengala would have had an active interest in making Arkillia uneligible.

This artist clearly never shot a bow from a canoe, let alone a dugoout. Also the weird concept that you would hold the bow at maximum extension for enough time to have three people on the ready to release their arrows simultaneously. For a truly Gloranthan scene, we probably have to photoshop significant amounts of tattooing. Given their prey, I was thinking of Nochet during the Darkness, when Imarja sent geese for food.

Why does everybody always assume that a healthy tradition like headhunting has anything to do with Thanatar? I do agree that hunters in the second scene are too pale for the Praxian Cannibal Cult. But seriously, does it always have to be Chaos when things become unpleasant? Think of Year King rites, or Sacred King sacrifices. Perfectly acceptable Orlanth/Ernalda behavior.

This sounds completely harmless - the football will prevent anyone from crossing into the Warding. On the other hand, putting a permeable warding on a Ball-and-Chain like contraption could be devastating if it doesn't break the four posts or the arrangement that keeps them in place in relation to one another.

Is heroforming a form of possession? A deity like Firshala might be able to be present as a possessing aspect in all of her rites on her holy days, but not on average days. An extreme example of this is the presence of Tolat in Trowjang during the night of marital bliss. Ancestors might be restricted to one place during normal days, but might have a limited pluripresence on Ancestor Day or similar occasions.

I have decided for my scenario "Norinevra's Homecoming" (the first half of which about to see publication in the German HQ scenario collection) that Arkilia is a granddaughter of Bruvala born into House Norinel, that means through maternal lineage. Sister or cousin of Norina doesn't really matter much to the Grandmother. The problem with Sarotar as suitor is that the memory of the Adjustment Wars is looming big in the minds of the Grandmothers, and there is no way that the proud upstart House of Sartar is delivering its designated heir as an under-husband to House Norinel, especially at a time when Nochet was only the second or third most important city in Esrolia, after Ezel and Rhigos. So, to me (and my story) #2 is a no-go, my story and IMO also to the victim count in the assassination war with the Sartarite royals. #3 is my preferred version of the choices you provide. But I am biased in this.

I disagree. Theism is what you are, and while I don't think that all Humakti are walking Death, surely there will be a significant number of Humakti embodying the magic of Death. Babs perhaps a little less, but still their being will be more magical than that of an ordinary farmer. I would guess that at least one in twenty Humakti will be Champions, i.e. rune level fighters. And those abilities will be manifesting the magic of Death, even if they don't use rune magic to achieve that. IMO you have to be devout (or have experienced Death) to become a Humakti. And it takes more than just devotion to join Babs. So would I, but if you have a society of sorcerers with undead servants, I would expect a much higher basic level of sorcerous ability than in an average Malkioni town. Rather like in a Malkioni monastery/philosophical school town, where you still have non-sorcerers, but most of the people belonging to the Zzabur caste. Farmers have less use for immediately available magic and will be more inclined to do slow magic, through day-long rituals (plowing, for instance) rather than spell-slinging. Hence you will have more people at low acolyte ranks rather than at full priest ranks in Barntar. That's part of the problem - these cults have few initiates, but broad lay support, so that statistics counting initiates don't reflect the actual support. Not counting lay worshipers (pantheon initiates, though) is one of the major problems I see with the cult numbers. I've since become convinced that alchemists make up a significant portion of Lhankor Mhy worshipers. Does this mean that the Issaries cult is an active priest short through his retirement? Orlanthi spend an above-average amount of "active" time for their cultic identifications, IMO - way more than the average Pelorian, who might instead spend similar amounts of time supporting a state cult which doesn't take them as direct initiates. (Not even as Yelm the Youth....) Malkioni have a very specialized caste doing their magic for them. The majority of the Malkioni has significantly less magic than other cultures, so there need to be more high level zzaburi to provide a somewhat equal amount of magic for the population. Of course only the most devout Rokari will refrain from learning magic at all. The New Idealist Hrestoli will approach acceptable Hrestoli spells even when in the non-magical castes, without necessarily lowering the number of adepts. The major difference is that the rulers all are magical folk, and their zzaburi will be mostly adepts. The not-quite-yet adepts make up a special group within their horali caste/stage. I think that as a result, the Loskalmi have more acceptable Malkioni magics than the Rokari, who might have more Hykimi warrior magics and hedge magicians instead. Ralios with its Arkati and secret societies is hard to figure out, especially since a lot of the magical activities happen hidden from the public. I don't really know how to judge the Teshnans or Kralori in this regard, especially when it comes to mysticism. Paxians, Pentans and Hsunchen have the shamans who concentrate extraordinary amounts of magical activity on their person, possibly to the detriment of general magical distribution, but with innate magic like Hsunchen beast-form taken out of the rune-levels-only in sustainability that isn't as much of a problem as it was (at least to me) under RQ3.

According to Arcane Lore, entities of a certain power level can achieve bilocality or more. In that case, those several localities might be different bodies on the material plane. What exactly are passion spirits in a non-rules, world sense? And do you mean passion spirits possessing a corporeal host, or passion spirits in the spirit plane?

The Cradle Scenario has a contest of Wardings 5, 4 and 3 vs. Warding 3 shelters set up by the defenders of the Cradle. (This rules-mechanical aspect of the battle was skipped in Prince of Sartar, we only get to see the Chain passing through and putting out Pinchining.) This offers a semi-precedent for pushing a warding into enemies (static to the Cradle vs. static to the river banks). It doesn't tell what happens if one of the wardings is located atop one of the ladders leading down (the Cradle interior apparently has the benefit of a high-power Shield), and if an enterprising attacker enters from below - which would be the equivalent of entering the hoop from below.

Unsuitable science analogy (are you a particle physicist?). In my model there are no "fundamental particles" that form various matter. Think chemistry instead (and yes, I am a chemist by trade). You get the equivalent of roundabout 40 "energetic elements" (the runes), which then form energetic compounds (molecules, crystals, polymers - meaning an open-end possibility of combinations) that make up the Gloranthan everything. No need to even consider quantum mechanics for a parallel. There is no "periodic system of runes" or other such extension of this chemistry analogon, because the runes aren't chemicals. Material substances will consist of major runic influences (often Earth or Water, with combinations of the other runes as flavors). Transmutation of these materials (the field of chemistry, alchemy, metallurgy) into something else will usually involve addition of other material substances providing additional flavors or humors, some medium wherein the material can change (like Darkness or Fire), and a resulting product and by-products which will carry those runic flavors that were taken out of the starting substance. Something like this could be an objective basis for an alchemy of matter. This would be easier if we had kept the rune for Mineral, and I am not quite clear how to express the property "metal" in runic flavors besides the dominant element/subelement (or power). Perhaps through the concept of "crystallized energies" for metals, and something similar for Crystals of the Gods. But this is just a first draft of such an idea.

Runes as atoms of the world, not elements. And atoms not in the sense of proton neutron electron combinaitions, but as indivisible smallest parts. I'll adopt the Malkioni world-view for this and say that the runes are the magical energies that make up everything, the motivations and principles. Matter is defined by its aggregate state (aka Gloranthan element) or combinations thereof exerting forces on everything else that is material. If you combine the ancient elements (which describe the physical properties of aggregate states) and the tempers (phlegmatic, sanguine etc., after the body liquids), you have a start how an ancient description of the world may have worked.

If a real world problem like miscarriage and child mortality is carried over to Glorantha, it might be useful to understand what happens in the real world. You will still find other explanations after looking at where you yourself come from. When is incest bad, and why? One Gloranthan explanation could be that the child wants as many ancestors as possible to have good protection during its unborn development. On the other hand, by that same reasoning there might be an incentive to let the child have a very strong connection to very powerful ancestors, possibly through multiple alleys of descent. But then the ancestors guiding the nascent soul through its development in pregnancy might be unwilling to part with it. A couple of interesting possibilities there. A still-birth is one either without a breath, or without the breath willing to depart from the body. Deformities leading to still-births will most likely be blamed on Chaos or moral corruption of the community. I wonder whether there are Birth is an act of separation, concluded by cutting the umbilical. It always is an invitation of Death. Maybe it takes strong godparents to overcome the pregnancy guides' attraction to that new life. Maybe the midwife has to enter the spiritual womb and assert the child's right to separate from its guardians for the short while of its surface life. This might be the opposite of encountering Babeester when contacting Ernalda in the Underworld, or it might be just that. Or there may just be too much Death present at birth. Only very few infants will adopt invisibility rather than follow the grim god. So are there cases of sudden infant death? What is causing this? The spirit breaking free? (Won't that leave an undead behind?) The spirit being lured away? Hopping into a beast that approached the child unnoticed? Exchanged for a puppet/dead body by evil fae or trickster spirits? Or it might be the opposite case, malign possession by a spirit. An infant cannot communicate in any but the most rudimentary ways. Would such a state be easy to diagnose, or could it happen without anyone noticing until all is too late? Or there might be a tithe that has to be paid to the dark aspects of Fertility. Some newborn may be destined to be a self-sacrifice. Eleven Lights has a Piper of Hamlyn event. Yeah, noticed that. With a sorcerous community and some form of longevity magic, the number of children might be considerably lower simply because old folk don't die away. In case of Orathorn, there would have been something of a reset of this at the Night of Horrors, though. There might be a group of bicentennarians around who may have counted as too young or too unexperienced for the Night of Horrors, but few older. A council of 13 sounds good A couple more powerful but unpolitical sorcerers pursuing their own arcane projects hidden away in some tower of the castle don't hurt, either. Still, I am aiming for 100 major class (Lunar College of Magic) equivalent sorcerers (or other magicians - summoners, necromancers) and perhaps twice that number minor class equivalent 150 years ago, plus a number of stay-at-homes, to have mattered that much in the Night of Horrors. They were after all troubling Hon-eel, who had dealt with disciples of Sheng in her youth, and had learned more things in the meantime, and her magical support staff. That's my old beef with RQ "common divine magic" being basically impossible to learn or renew. It is easier to get associate magic than getting shield or Heal Wound from your own deity. There is a shrine to Orlanth in Trilus. According to the rules, it offers Cloud Call, and now the opportunity to regain rune points. But you wouldn't get Warding, Sanctify or Guided Teleport anywhere short of Pavis, Old Wind or a Sacred Mountain. There might be much less of a need of a female earth defender in Prax, where Waha provides the male earth defender and avenger - and in Prax, rape might be more chaotic than elsewhere thanks to the presence of the remains of the Primal Rape child, so the Storm Bulls may hunt perpretators, too. It is possible that the Paps contingent of BG axe women or at least a significant part of them might be guarding the sleeping Ernalda underground, very much like a swiss guard. Possibly on the Other Side, guarding the entryway there. Sometimes I wonder how chaotic these professedly non-chaotic cultures like the Orlanthi or Waha's Covenant really are. The Cult of Waha is dependant on the continuing presence of Chaos in the Devil's Marsh. The Sacred Time rites all reinforce the presence of Chaos in the world. How much Chaos is built up in everybody, to be released in dramatic and tragic ways? Does externalizing that Chaos so emphatically keep such outbursts at bay?

While I agree for the Ernalda numbers, I don't quite agree with the numbers for the magical combat defender cults like Humakt or Babeester. By their very nature, such cults are more magical. What would you say to Jedi knights where only one in thousand qualifies for having a padawan? Does the 5000 population of Orathorn mean that there are only five full sorcerers? Are true mystics dependant on having a significant number of lay mystics behind them? A cult which regularly produces martyrs (including Humakt, Storm Bull, Babeester) provides a wholly different intensity of worship than a cult of farmers (although Hon-eel's maize rites may have changed that, and Alanthore might even intensify that). Certain professions like spirit talker, smith, alchemist, engineer are a lot more magical than others, and their cults may be seen like "break-outs" from the general population, to use the HQ ability terminology. Their presence may mean that a number of generalist positions (Ernalda, Orlanth) might be cut, since there is of course an economical maximal overhead of magical specialists one can affort, creating something of broader amount of people nearly at that "magic people" level while spending their time mostly on mundane necessities. There will have to be uneven distribution of magical people if you want to have magical centers (like the Greenhaft temple to Ernalda, or worse temple cities like Ezel or the Paps, or Old Wind Temple. What retirement options are there for magical people who cannot or will not continue their holy calling but aren't quite dead yet? Not every heroquester achieves agelessness like Hofstaring. Ernalda is the only cult with a working "senior citizen" level (Asrelia, Ty Kora Tek). Sun County has retirement towers.

Given that the Orlanthi peasant carl is the example for middle class, this much access shouldn't be surprising. And if anything, the cottars will make up a greater portion of the "weird cult" specialist magics. Ian provided one explanation with his "rattle-born" speed-bred warriors, almost reminiscent of the Union-space Azis from C.J. Cherryh. But then WB/RM has a lot of non-regenerating attrition inflicted on the population of Sartar, and those re-filling the ranks are increasingly desperate. Yeah, the Great Winter is something we learned about fairly late, which makes the unit strengths a bit dubious. And a decimation (10% loss) is an optimistic estimate for the outcome of the Great Winter, I would expect losses more in the 30% region. But these losses (mainly to malnutrition and freezing) would be greater among the elderly and the youngest children. But then the unit numbers are in the region Caesar reported he had to face in Gaul. The battle of Tollense would have been fought between maybe 2 to 3 Dragon Pass units per side. Megiddo might have come close. Battles fought on the home soil will boost fertility, though. Even more so if you have adopted maize. There is a possibility that Maran's blessing might affect conception and health, too. All magic has a time cost for your magical specialists and the infrastructure used. Shrine and temple upkeep will take considerable amounts of resources, but they serve other, more practical purposes than spell teaching as well. But even a purely mechanistic approach illustrates the community cost of spell teaching. Under RQ3 rules, a spirit spell taught by a priest or acolyte would cost said priest a day spent in temples business to recover the spell-teaching spell. Sounds like a zero-sum effort, but keeps this priest from doing any other magical service involving spell point expenditure/recovery. The year has only 294 days. If a priest restricts his entire spell-casting to spell-teaching, then every adult clan member will be able to learn a divine spirit spell every third year. If the priest has other duties, his spell teaching will be available at a much increased interval only, but the reality remains that the clan has to feed and equip a medium-high ranking individual for this availability of spell teaching. Providing such teaching to an outsider must profit the clan, so the outsider has to recompense more than that single day of the magical specialist, and for the upkeep of the recipient for that day (even hospitality has to be reciprocated). That's how those high spell teaching costs come about. If you take into account that under RQ3 the higher point spells might require more than one try to master the spell spirit, the higher prices for more costly spells explain themselves.

As much as the Lunar army may be corrupt, they do take care of their regiments having a monitor - one warrior out of a group of seven, who provides little magical augments and support to the rest of his file, and coordinates their personal spell casting to the best effect. It is in the regiment's interest to have their warriors able to equip their blades with Fireblade, for instance, and they will teach such battle magics to their regimental warriors. Who signed on for a quite long term of service - often 10 or 20 years, so this is a virtual cost (taking some time from the regimental priests' time allotment) well expended. I know hardly any old school skill-based campaign that didn't offer monetary rewards in "free hours of training" in lieu of cash rewards. And that's individual training, at least on personal trainer level when it comes to taxing the trainer's availability. Battle magic prices were designed to match training prices, and might as well sum up the cumulative effort of providing the magic and the infrastructure to teach it. Whether those prices listed in the RQ2 rules make sense in a cattle-based currency in a clan game interested in training up its defense force is a completely different question. Within a clan, property is allocated to households rather than to individuals. Property transactions use a virtual currency of favors and occasional transfer of actual goods between households - if these are minor, without consulting the chief and council, it these get into the range of exchanging actual life-stock, only with approval of the chief (who is the ultimate arbitrator and dispenser of clan wealth). Household wealth is to a large extent based on a property grand by the clan, including the land where the household resides (both the building and its agricultural and craft grounds) and the majority of the life-stock kept by the household. A significant minority of that life-stock may be personal property from e.g. raids (rewarded by the chief or by the leader of the raid) or personal effort in relation to people outside of the clan (like selling an item produced in one's unalotted free time to a trader). The Call of Cthulhu skill "Credit rating" would be quite appropriate for simulating transactions between clan members. So, magic earned in the service of a greater organisation will imply a virtual expense by that organisation - the use of its magical specialist retainer's time. If using an outsider retainer, possibly compensated by some activity of the organisation that serves the retainer's material needs. A quid pro quo exchange rather than hard coin, you only demand metal cash from suspicious foreigners.

Most overseas ports were situated at estuaries rather than the open sea. Prime port locations were at natural harbors that provided shelter from storms and ground high enough to provide shelter from the occasional floodings, at least for most of the city. Some of the most important ports like Hedeby or Lübeck were located at transshipping places - Lübeck had a riverboat connection to the Elbe emptying into the North Sea and to the salt production of Lüneburg, while Hedeby had a 20 miles carriage way to Hollingstedt on the Treene,, also connecting to the North Sea. Seagoing vessels could transship to river boats in Rungholt, which had an artificial anchorage secured from the tides by a lock, Cities like London, York or Chester all were overseas ports. Given the general state of the road networks (even where you had Roman military roads) it was a good idea to have the ports rather far inland. In Glorantha Sog City and Noloswal conform to the river estuary model. Handra dominates its river estuary from a prominent island (but suffers from the fact that the river doesn't really provide an economic hinterland, only a wilderness route into Safelster). Nochet doesn't quite, but has a great advantage lying on the Mirrorsea Bay. Rhigos has perfect river access to 70% of the Esrolian grain lands and should handle most of the grain exports, but for the fact that the Opening of the Seas was effected by the city of Nochet, which gained the overseas grain trade monopoly, making Rhigos only a transshipping point to Nochet. Dosakayo is a collection of all the memes and tropes of foreign coastal trade posts in exotic (to European traders) oriental places, like Honkong, Goa or Batavia (Jakarta). North Sea coastal sailing ships (like e.g. the flyboats used by the Dutch to prevent the local Spanish forces from joining the Armada) used side fins rather than keels to be able to sit on the mud at low tides without careening over, something Thor Heyerdahl also applied to his reed ship Ra. I don't think that that addition was based on any archaeological evidence, though. Sitting out a low tide is something that happens to real world coastal ports twice a day, as opposed to the Gloranthan average of 3.5 days. Few Gloranthans fear the tidal flood - it is a gentle force, almost going unnoticed. It is the sudden ebbing which will create torrential currents carrying boats and ships out into the Closing that is viewed with dread.

Please show me a good range of publish stats for human characters with no spells ? Non-adults are human characters with no spells. You don't usually get stat blocks for them. We never got a stat block for Morak, the horned boy from Biturian's Saga, but he is a published character who never had any spell. His story ends with his initiation to the (basically magic-less) Children of the Forest subcult of Aldrya in Redwood. Slaves to magical items (like "Feet", the Babeester Gor axe bearing trollkin) don't get spells. (The item has some, though.) Devout Rokari peasants don't get spells to cast themselves, they donate their magical energy to their congregation, relying on their wizard to cast the magic for them. (I doubt that there are that many magically teetotaller Rokari peasants, though. Most will have some disapproved personal spell. Rarely anything relevant for a character sheet, though, unless it is some defensive magic against magical beings sent against them.) But then I regard Rokarism as an intellectual exercise applied to a linealist Hrestoli society which mostly goes along with the wizardly doctrine in public, and continues the previous Makanist practices which allowed a stronger personal interaction with the magical world also outside of the wizard caste or magical orders (monasteries) which were so common in the Middle Sea Empire (and might have been open to candidates from any caste - do we know this?). I have the suspicion that the majority of Rokari peasants in Safelster are unfree serfs rather than free Enerali farmers. The warrior societies of the Malkioni sound like a guild-like structure granting its own magical secrets to its members - providing battle magic (in the true sense of the word, in this context, and historically Hykimi magic that mirrors properties of the totemic beasts). Free peasants may join trade guilds of their own caste, with the possibility of their own spells of low magic appropriate to the purpose of that guild. I am pretty sure that the noble caste of the Rokari has its own secret or public societies to share or trade magical and political secrets. The martial noble cavalry may have warrior society magics as well. So yes, it is way more likely to meet a human who has a small range of spells than one who doesn't, but they exist. About children and magic - I wonder whether children organized in criminal gangs (whether temporarily as a consequence of growing up in a certain quarter of the city, or permanently with joining a Lanbrili or similar parent organisation when grown up) will have some form of "guild" magic, possibly itemized little enhancers allowing them to escape, remain unnoticed or similar. But then one might argue that these kids become adults long before their bodies do.

In which Gloranthan culture do farmers receive a salary? I cannot think of any. More often than not, farmers are property of a land holder. Farmers may collect a revenue, which might produce a surplus after their basic needs for living have been deducted. That surplus then will be available for "individual" acquisitions. Battle magic is animistic, bound to charms. Unlike the Battle Magic of RQ which (in RQ3) was obtained by succeeding in spirit combat against a spell spirit, the HeroQuest charms are items which house the magic agent (spirit), which need attuning. Producing such a charm binding a spirit entity to do the caster's bidding is quite a specialist job which deserves half a year's surplus from a moderately successful small farmer. But unlike in RQ, these charms become property of the stead, kept around, and passed on to whoever is most deserving and available to carry such a charm in the interest of the stead. Hence, that spirit magic "Healing 3" equivalent charm may have been a hand-me-down from a heroic or affluent grandparent in HeroQuest. There might be several people attuned to that charm, but only the person actually holding that charm will be able to cast the magic. In this model of common magic availablilty, each stead will own quite an array of charms that get distributed to deserving stead members, just like its stock of weapons, tools and clothing gets distributed. That's somewhat different from the RQ3 model which, while still having a material focus required to cast a spirit spell, anchors that spell as a form of knowledge with the player rather than with the item. I am waiting for the RQG pdf to appear to be able to form an opinion how the new RQ rules handle this side of spirit magic. Acquisition of rune magic does include some special tithe to the temple as well, but most crucially it requires the personal sacrifice of POW. This makes rune magic personal and (except for a certain Issaries magic) non-transferable (except through a Heroquest Challenge or chaotic variations of that with the old RQ2 Vivamort cultists, or Thanatari heads). If that spell is tied more to the person carrying the focus item of the spell and less to the charm (focus item) that the carrier needs to attune to (which may use the standard RQ spirit magic acquisition mechanic). In my model above, a charm is something less than a matrix enchantment, and requires some more effort by the bearer to attune to, but it becomes a heirloom of the stead, and doesn't get entirely lost. Providing an existing charm, with a spirit associated to it, should lower the attuning cost your specialist magician might claim for the service. The question of several people attuning to the same magical item still needs to be resolved, though.

Indeed. But most peasants/serfs/cottars won't have much if any magic, and they are the majority of any population. If we are discussing Orlanthi culture (which makes up some 7 million of the human inhabitants of Glorantha), cottar class god talkers are quite common for the secondary or tertiary cults. But those 7 million Orlanthi contribute the most initiates across all theist or partially theist cultures of Glorantha. Cult initiation among the Pelorians is far from universal. Participation in communal rites there doesn't require more than a cultural/pantheon initiation, and communities are prone to switch religious affiliation if their current practice is lacking in results. Such an approach doesn't quite work with the personal monotheism practiced by the majority of the Orlanthi - while being part of a polytheist religion, the majority of the Orlanthi cultists initiate only to one deity, and the vast majority of these initiates to the cultural great deities Orlanth and Ernalda, experiencing magic and the otherworld purely through those perspectives. Pelorian theism outside of the (nobles only) cult of Yelm is a lot more pragmatic, and it looks like the theist experience of the Pelorians is a lot more polytheistic in nature, where each participant in the rites gets exposed to the magical secrets more equally than in the Orlanthi rites. Guide p.42: The wishy-washy cult initiation of the Pelorians is reflected in the very strange cult of the Seven Mothers which is the main approach to Lunar mysteries in the Provinces. The Dara Happans have a low priesthood (the Enverinus priesthood) which officiates for all (!) state-supported cults in the Empire. That approach is closer to shamans or sorcerers dealing with deities than it is to the identification with the personal deity the Orlanthi godtalkers practice. Imagine if the "temple to all gods" in RQ Apple Lane also had a priest to all gods officiating there. That's how it works in Dara Happa for non-Yelmies. It isn't quite clear how such things work out in the Gloranthan East, in Fonrit, or among the Doraddi. Pelorian theism appears to limit "being the deity" to the role in the rites rather than to the daily experience of life. East Islanders are default cultists of their island deities, but that's a bit similar to Sartarite clansfolk being "initiated" to the clan wyter - the adulthood and basic religious initiation rather than a specific cultic initiation with identification with a single deity. I am curious how the shorthand "Theistic magic is something you are" works out for the Pelorian type of "representative theism". In Pelorian society, you are first and foremost a member of your social rank, counted down from 1 (yelmic nobility) to 5 or 6 (slaves, weeders, other almost non-people), only then comes your occupation (selected from acceptable choices within that rank), and perhaps a religious preference to a single deity out of the pantheons available to that part of the empire. Unless you become a Lunar, sidestepping all of that social rank system (also benefits of rank, whether high or low) and joining a special category in addition. I wonder how this rather flexible divine identification scheme affects cult spirits of reprisal in Peloria. Will the priesthood keep those in check if the individual or the entire community switches from one acceptable deity to another? Do Pelorians expect to be able to switch cults with a one-time penalty imposed by their previous deity?

Most RQ price lists make little sense except for a place like Pavis which has a rudimentary coin-based economy, at inflated prices. Or basically prices for outsiders, without connections to the guild etc. A clansman won't have to pay coin for equipment. He may have to work it off, or fork over that cow he got to keep after the last cattle raid. Clansmen have little if any personal property. A bow fitted to your requiremenst will cost you as much, looking at the man-hours that have to be put in the construction and preparation of the materials. (Even if much of it is providing a suitable stick of yew or flawless pieces of horn.) There will be military surplus offers that will vary whether you buy directly from the quartermaster "losing" that bit or whether you buy it through several middlemen. Compare those prices to medical services. It isn't. The Bronze Age didn't know coins at all. The Salary (allotment of salt) may have been present that far back as the closest equivalent to an everyman's medium of exchange. Coinage was introduced shortly before the rise of the Athenian democracy across the Aegaeis in order to have an unconflicted medium to pay the mercenaries. The idea spread extremely fast. That's "post-Iron Age", the early classical period. Not so in Glorantha, of course - coinage may have been as old as alloys, when you think of the Clack or the Wheel. The Clack might have started as a weight rather than a means of exchange, possibly when preparing alloys. Clan economy uses virtual money, or credit. Things you cause your household to owe other households. This may be prepaid, a flatrate, or accumulating a tab. City life for known citizens will be similar. Only transients and known good-for-nothings (soldiers, mercenaries, adventurers) need to pay cash.

Was in an old White Dwarf... Also in the "Best of White Dwarf III" reprint which also featured the five issues series about the City of Irilian, as a removable centerfold (which is how I got my grubby paws on it).

I disagree somewhat. The price for iron, truestone or crystals of the gods should be outrageous, comparable to rare prints of unpublished Glorantha manuscripts. Possession of iron is not just a matter of wealth or status, but also an achievement. Quite likely some of the iron has been taken from hostile rune lords. Then there is the question whether iron items will end up as grave goods or whether they get passed on like (cult) heirlooms. If the iron was an acquisition from outside the cult by the current owner, there is a chance it may be sent along as a grave good. But then, likewise a non-rune lord might sponsor a piece of iron to the cult, or ransom one that ended up in enemy hands. This would be a parallel to Old English folk donating half the island to the church. I would suggest that in order to get new iron for a rune lord, a trader gets commissioned to make the journey closer to the source and get the stuff. While the service of such a trader is costly, quite a lot can be saved when buying closer to the source. And it makes for a good excuse for just about any aspiring cultist to be sent on a sea or overland voyage into the distant west.

In order to discover Glorantha on his own: Get him King of Dragon Pass to get a feel for life in an Orlanthi clan. Point him to the Prince of Sartar webcomic for deeper Gloranthan immersion. Give him the Griselda stories for life as an adventurer in Pavis. Try to find a play by hangout or forum game, possibly with a different game system (HeroQuest, possibly 13th Age as soon as it gets published) to experience another mechanic for Glorantha. Or have him bring in friends of his for a larger party.

That rabid "burn all sorcerers on sight" stance that was propagated in those years never made sense to me, after all there are plenty of places where they coexist. Sorcery has been re-defined, too, and now includes guild magics and alchemy - all knowledge based magics, things you know. We didn't have that definition back when Arlaten was written, and sorcery was something that atheists with familiars did. If anything, someone may have heroquested to make Lhankor Mhy less of a Tadeniti (the Malkioni inventors of writing) and more like a normal cult after the God Learners were overcome. LM and Issaries joined Orlanth on his Westfaring. Over time, we have learned that LM was present at local events that logically would predate the LBQ, like acting as the scribe of Nochet. But then each major deity has more than one expression (aka subcult or aspect). Issaries' aspect Garzeen is brought into connection with Hrestol's sister Fenela, for instance, and that since his first mention in Cults of Prax. initiate level sorcery, but yes. I don't think that this magic is outside the scope of the players, but I am firmly convinced that this magic is outside the scope of strike ranks or combat.