Joerg

@Spence: The wealth of information on the world of Glorantha is there, it's available and held available, and crazy folk like myself will continue to expand it. But always remember the mantra "Your Glorantha Will Vary", YGWV. There have always been details in campaigns that did not conform with canon or that were contradicted by canonical information released years after the campaign details were established. Does this invalidate the campaign and the shared experience of GM and players? Not in the least. Can such material be exchanged with other GMs? Of course. People do it, here and elsewhere, all the time. Can it be made canonical? Only through heavy rewriting, and unless you want to have it published by Chaosium, why bother? Can it be published elsewhere? Sure. One of the most popular fanzines among RQ and Glorantha fans of the 1990ies was RuneQuest Adventures, a series of six issues with ready-to-play Gloranthan RuneQuest scenarios. While the author attempted to include all the canonical information he could get his hand on, this didn't stop him from making his own assumptions, and build on those. Putting scenarios up on the web or for free download requires only a clearly positioned inclusion of the fan publication policy. Apart from Chaosium's sporadically re-surfacing Wyrm's Footnotes, there doesn't seem to be a printed magazine for RQ or Glorantha at the moment. The internet offers a few regular web-zines that will take contributions. Non-specialized magazines might be interested, too. Can you affect the world? In your campaign, sure - just don't expect that the group next door will accept the outcome of your game as canon. I have observed a French campaign that brought back the Godking of the Holy Country within a few years after his disappearance (official futures don't have him for at least 12 years after his disappearance), and I have shared much of this campaign's excellent background material (note the availability of English language material, in the top right). Is the material canonical? In parts, yes. In other parts, definitely no. Would I advise to use it in your games? As long as there is no official material offering better details, sure. Even then, if you like this version better, use it. If you prefer to cook up your own material without looking at canonical or fan material, do so. My very first world designed for role-playing started with fragments of the world that accompanied that game system, inserted into a framework of my own. The downside of this approach is that you don't get to re-use as much of that world's deep background, as far as you might know about it. The upside of this approach is that you can provide the deep background yourself. I did a similar thing with my first RuneQuest 3 campaign, using the Vikings box as my starting point, but placing it in a fantasy setting. That world inherited quite a few ideas from Glorantha, but re-written to fit my own deep background. My first steps playing in Glorantha were made when in contact with the online community. I didn't have to read up on every detail (although I did), but I always had the community to ask, and that way I got access to information and traditions that had developed in that community. The people in the community love to share, even though they may disagree with one another part of the time. If you like sharing, you might find a GM or a small group of GMs playing in a close-by region of the world, and exchange your campaign information with them. Have the other group's activities as the backdrop for your own campaign. Reuse scenario ideas from the other campaigns, possibly encountering changes made by those other groups. You might even meet those other groups per hangout, these days, or at conventions.

Just to understand - are those kidnapped victims still held captive by the occultists, or is this a rite of sequential sacrifices? If they are kept alive, there could be leads along the logistics to keep that number of people fed and provided with basic care. On the other hand, the occultists could have created a cover business like e.g. providing an elderly home service. This is a quite straight detective scenario, with overtones of the supernatural only at its conclusion - a typical scenario to introduce player characters to the mythos. How will your scenario rake in characters experienced in mythos-related mysteries?

I have been writing for Glorantha rather than Cthulhu for a couple of decades now, contributing to community efforts as well as putting solo contributions on the web or in discussion lists. Maintaining authorship has never been a problem for me. I have had a personal website for more than 20 years, and had some of that website material published in magazines. Simply referring official spells in a scenario is fair use. Providing the detailed spell description as written in the rules book requires permission. Creating an instance of a monster rather than providing the mechanics to create such a monster as presented in an official publication should be fair use. Copying it exactly requires permission. On the whole, asking nicely has never caused much damage - you will learn what is tolerable, what is desired, what are no-goes. I have to admit that most of my full scenarios went into magazines rather than on the web. Those magazines were what helped keeping the Gloranthan community alive both in times of scarcity and in times of plenty. The work I put in was effectively pro bono publico, although it may have earned me an author's copy or two (which was significant when I still was at university or between jobs). The only license issue I ever bothered with was adherence to the fan publication policy of the respective owners of the rights.

I have been writing for Glorantha for a couple of decades now, contributing to community efforts as well as putting solo contributions on the web or in discussion lists. Maintaining authorship has never been a problem for me. I have had a personal website for more than 20 years, and had some of that website material published in magazines. Simply referring official spells in a scenario is fair use. Providing the detailed spell description as written in the rules book requires permission. Creating an instance of a monster rather than providing the mechanics to create such a monster as presented in an official publication should be fair use. Copying it exactly requires permission. On the whole, asking nicely has never caused much damage - you will learn what is tolerable, what is desired, what are no-goes. I have to admit that most of my full scenarios went into magazines rather than on the web. Those magazines were what helped keeping the Gloranthan community alive both in times of scarcity and in times of plenty. The work I put in was effectively pro bono publico, although it may have earned me an author's copy or two (which was significant when I still was at university or between jobs). The only license issue I ever bothered with was adherence to the fan publication policy of the respective owners of the rights.

I wasn't quite clear about that, either. And truth to be told I would like to explore all the ends of the spectrum. I wonder about the hero and demigod range - how much are such characters bound by fate, or by the worship (or similar support) of their communities that might limit them in their freedom of choice (or cause them to hurt themselves and their abilities when deciding against these trends)? If I understood the Kallyr story correctly, this is what happened to her. Are such moments "mandatory" as heroes progress, and is the mark of a great hero to take on these significant damages and to carry on? How tragic is a Gloranthan hero (and/or demigod, and/or superhero)? How much evil prophecy will the hero accumulate? (Note to self - going against the expected direction of the supporters needn't do immediate damage but may incur new taboos and premonitions of a really bad end for the character.) Looking at these musings, I think that creating the low level settings for HQ has different challenges - to come up with new interesting twists and adventures for low and low rune level folk that haven't been done in other settings - than dealing with Movers and Shakers (where you need something like a consequence generator, and possibly a "living universe" approach to the other movers and shakers and their factions) and in the far range of heroes and demigods some idea how the mythic structure of the world is reconfigured and how that plays out upon return to the more mortal affairs. I would like to see a publication that runs a community game rather than a character game. Over the years I have played a few of these, and they were some of my most insightful Gloranthan games. One time Greg Stafford ran a game where every player represented one of the uz tribes of the Blue Moon Plateau who had to provide something big for the ever-growing appetite of the ancient mistress race mother pregnant with the new hope of uzkind, where the abiltiies were something like "tribal queen 3M2", "three uzko clans 12M1", "five enlo hordes 17" and "six insect herds 2M1" where you put these abilities to certain domestic, ritual and extraordinary tasks. You could allot certain properties to these skills, like e.g. "burrowing moon moth maggots" to some of the insect herds, which came in very handy when the extraordinary task included returning the Cap of Mernita, which had to be dug out. Another time Jeff Richard ran two communities of five players each against each other, with each player personifying exactly one community skill. How to employ those skills was decided by something like council sessions, and framing the contests to match the skills and the flavors was a major component in that game. I realize that this is rather exotic. However, I can imagine a product with a working title "experimental HeroQuest" where several such approaches get presented to offer other ways to play this game, not necessarily building upon one another, and neither with a full background like that of the Red Cow setting.

(Sorry, quickfired publishing while having trouble with the editor. This is now the finished edit.) After discussing city officials over in @hkokko's thread on ring structure, I took another look at the Sartar book, prompted by @david scott. The mayor acts as the chieftain inside the city. Control of the distribution of food: Let's consider the consequences for professions like bakers, brewers, innkeepers, butchers etc. From the example of Pavis, we know that some exchange of money is involved in taverns, and on the meat market. It isn't clear whether this applies to the ordinary apportioning to the resident households or whether it just applies to visitors. Unlike in a clan, I doubt that a mayor can re-organize land ownership - that is a matter that was decided in the founding documents: So there is no trading in land for money. I suppose that rearrangements can be made by consensus of the entire community of landholders in the city, and had to be made when the Lunars claimed parts of the city - or was this treated like an unwelcome but fact indeterminate lease of those properties? Other enfranchised communities. Meaning communities which have votes in the city. How does a community become an enfranchised community? Quite recently through conquest and occupation - I suppose that the Lunars have established their presences, both military, civic, and private, as enfranchised communities. But what about earlier or more recent arrivals? E.g. mercenary bands establishing a chapter house in a city, such as the Army of Tomorrow or Sir Narib's Company? Making the non-citizen a client of the landholder. This can lead to a situation where a guild member has the workshop on tribally held land. Interesting legal question about farmland in the city: Tribes don't usually own or maintain farmland. Clans do. Clans don't take land leases from tribes out there in the rural area. A tribal king's stead may operate fields inside or outside of clan territories. Are tribally owned farmlands in the city reckoned to be part of the tribal king's stead? Are there (assuming that this clan is enfranchised in the city, in some minor way) clan-owned and -operated areas of farmland and gardens inside the city walls, independent from whichever tribe the clan may belong to? So Harmast Fieldtiller of the Red Cow clan of the Cinsina can claim citizenship if he takes up residence in Jonstown? While Ergentius Silversmith from Wilmskirk has to take a post as a non-citzen retainer from one of the guild masters? How is the citizen status of children of citizen households who live away from the city much of the time? Dormant? So a citizen has the right to found a guild, and become its master? Or just become the head of an existing guild in the city? Are all urban guilds landholders? Probably not. When did those guilds which hold a title to city land earn this? Not all guilds will have been present from the founding of the city, given the speed with which Sartar (or his descendants) realized these cities. Unlike clans, guilds will most likely encourage intermarriage between their members in order to become more like an extended family group, alongside with marriage to journeymen attracted from guilds in other places. At the same time, it is probably quite common for some of the children of a guild member not to follow their parents' profession but to join some other guilds. Making the guilds the arbiters for citizenship. I suppose that temples have similar rights. Does citizenship extend to a guild member's family? To his retainers? Would journeymen be full guild members if taking up residence in the city, or do they have to be acknowledged as masters? What is partial guild membership worth (to wit, an apprenticehood)? Lunars expect that their residents are treated as citizens or better, right? Are these beggars guests of the city, or are they tribesfolk entitled to citizenship?

Isn't Geo's supposed to operate on classic Orlanthi hospitality? Guests will get a greeting, unwelcome visitors will be escorted off the premise. A bit hard to do in an open alley.

Only two offices are well established in Pavis, the only sartarite-founded city we have official details on - the mayor and the constable. The smaller Sartarite "cities" (other than Boldhome and Alda-chur) come in two main varieties - the four cities founded by Sartar plus Pavis founded by Dorasar and Alone founded by Terasarin following the same model, and overgrown clan settlements like Runegate or Clearwine which hold tribal (or former tribal, in case of the Runegate Triaty) institutions. Alda-chur is similar, but is the center of a tribal confederation (the Far Walkers) rather than a tribe. Sartar-founded city rings have a fixed number of seats for the tribal kings or their urban deputies, and a number of seats to be appointed by the mayor (if the same form of democracy as in an Orlanthi clan is used) and/or by the major power groups in the city (besides the tribes, e.g. guilds and temples). In practice, the mayor might have a choice between representants of certain power groups, but not a free choice whom to call to serve in the city ring. The Tarshite cities that preceded the Lunar take-over are Dunstop, Bagnot, Goldedge and Wintertop. Goldedge is a Sun Dome Temple in a walled city, with the temple probably managing the administration of the city. Similar arrangements are likely in other Templar cities elsewhere. Dunstop, Bagnot and Wintertop are probably similar to Alda-chur in organisation - the seat of a leader of a confederation, who may appoint some of his followers to manage the day-to-day affairs of administration. The appointees are likely to act like an unelected chieftain with a clan ring of appointees of the most influential groups or supergroups of the city. The tribes of the confederation might see less direct influence on the cities than in the Sartar-founded model. The tribe of the current head of the confederation will most likely be over-represented, while other tribes will have to compete for the seats left over for them. Fazzur's Orindori tribe appears to be influential in Bagnot and Dunstop (Fazzur's son Annstad takes his epithet name from that city). Wintertop fort will have Shaker Temple influence and some tribal representation from the Exile tribes. The mayor or chief administrator is likely to have a staff of assistants, like the constable who is charged with keeping the peace in the city. Clans don't need a constable, neither do tribal seats - in both cases there are no needs to have more than the personal guard retinue of the chieftain or the tribal king to keep an eye on those few people not a permanent part of the community. In a city, this is no longer true - there are bound to be permanent residents who are neither personal followers of the head person nor visitors, so the peace through avoidance of kinstrife no longer works. Visitors aren't guests, either, so they are not bound to the reciprocal laws of hospitality in the same way as a guest of a clan or a tribal king. Other than the constable, there may be posts like the treasurer or the record-keeper of the city. These positions needn't be members of the city ring, but might be traditionally such. This could vary from city to city, even between the cities founded by Sartar. City lawspeaking is bound to be different from clan lawspeaking. City laws may often address an individual rather than the individual's clan, simply because these individuals are likely to be very far from the community that they came from. Citizens will usually have an organisation similar to a clan behind them - this could be a temple or a guild. These often are support structures rather than the individual's responsible lawspeaking entity, though. They will support a member, and might collect contributions to a legal fine on behalf of the convicted, but that support can be retracted more easily than with a clan member. A clan member that loses the support of the clan is exiled. An urban citizen whose support group chooses not to stand up for a fine incurred by that individual is not automatically an outlaw, he will be in dire economic straits, though. City lawspeaking is bound to have something like low justice - causes brought to the constable, or in bigger issues before the mayor, who will then pronounce a verdict, usually after hearing the accused and the accuser (or their lawspeakers, if they field any). The constable can be accuser and judge/arbiter in one person for minor and well established misdemeanors. Witnesses aren't eye-witnesses but rather lobbyists for one of the parties before the judge.

While there may have been no Storm in the Green Age, there was something like Air - Entekos.

Was it just me or did anyone else think about minuscule demonic entities featuring in these news about RQG? (Good choice, has been my acronym since I learned about the project.) Let's hope for shelf space and good presentation in FLGSs in addition to direct order options. And for many participants in organized play or on local conventions.

There are no Air or Storm gods with the plant rune known to me. We have lesser deities/elementals like dust devils (might be the same as dirty whirlvishes), waterspouts, the Darkwind, and possibly also a firestorm. We have the Still Air (Stasis). The mermen use bubbles for some of their underwater habitats (Ludoch cities, Malasp nests), which may be ordinary elementals, or specialized elementals able to dive into the water. The full (RQ3) cult write-up of Orlanth states that Orlanth admits anyone who breathes air. The question is whether Gloranthan plant life does breathe (use up oxygen) in its night cycles, or whether it is responsible for keeping the air breathable in the first place. If so, there might be a myth about some of Orlanth's sisters (mentioned in the Downland Migration, but nowhere else - a thoroughly underused resource of deities) making a pact with Aldrya or Flamal, emerging from the shelter of the leaves at day and hiding there again in the nights. Perhaps as wives of Flamal or some of his children. It is quite likely that the Growing Wind had a plant connection. It seems to have been a companion of the Storm Bull (of the Genert's Garden mythic cycle, not Urox of the Heortling mythic cycle) who fell afoul of his berserk mode. There is a role for the wind in plant fertility - the bearer of (airborne) pollen or seeds. (And the personal nemesis of anyone suffering from hayfever, so here is one drink on the Storm Bull.) We haven't heard anything about hovering or otherwise airborne plants in Glorantha (or possibly aerial kelp, except in the Kahar fog). Yet. They may have been a feature of Genert's Garden, lost in the Gods War. While talking about plants growing up in the air, I always felt that there should be some clouds that bear vegetation on their upper sides, like floating isles. There could be an entire semi-material civilisation up there, possibly a group of Helerings who did not join the invasion of the seas and lands in the Storm Age, or who returned from those while still victorious, or crippled in a way that they could not continue downwards. I think that such new discoveries should be limited to lesser entities like variant elementals rather than Storm Brother level deities. Such may have existed in the Gods War, but obviously didn't survive into Time. The Storm Gods took heavy beatings fairly often, even when they won a battle. There is a reason why there is bronze all over the surface world.

Suggestion about the entertainment value of the gun, or alternatively a modified crossbow - there is a regular toughness competition, which may be called up whenever the boasts about people being oh so tough get out of hand. Old hands in the bar will do their best to egg new faces on to get to this point. The spurious boaster(s) will be placed on the dais and receive a series of shots from the gun - starting with easy stuff, like condensed cotton, shreds of leather, or salt. It is up to the boaster which body part they will expose to the gun, only natural armor allowed. The ammunition works its way up from salt - wooden splinters, porcupine or cactus needles, lead filings (first cold, later heated), bolgs... The technician will adjust the loads of the explosive (or the draw strength of the crossbow) to avoid lethal wounds. The only first aid offered by the provider of the instrument is a wash with a badly stinging bleach to avoid infection, adding to the pain if not to the injury.

That points straight to the Harreksaga - travel around the Homeward Ocean and meet and raid all those quaint local people and their likewise quaint exotic dangers. Exotic encounters galore.

Discreet Mostali mercenary service - the gun (there is probably only one) comes for hire, never for sale, with a technician to service and fire it. Anyone else handling it will be shot, and will be held accountable for the ammunition expenses. The technician might be a nilmerg, might be something higher up in the Mostali hierarchy. (It is quite possible that the gun is an autonomous piece of engineering like a nilmerg or a jolanti, and this arrangement with the technician could be a parallel to the Axe and its trollkin feet, from the Munchrooms scenario in Troll Pak. Reminiscent of the "gonne" in Ankh Morpork, too.) Did we specify the Gimp's caste? Might be junior level gold, tin or quicksilver, depending on which part of the bartender service is his speciality - talking to customers, serving liquid food, or distilling it. (Or does he have nilmergs with him to do those tasks that aren't pertinent to his caste?)

Brass mostali produce the tubes, quicksilver mostali provide the boom, and iron mostali provide the lafette you direct at your foes.

That's iron mostali, not usually present in Pavis. They might provide some weird sort of entertainment on Flintnail nights, though.

I may have been unclear. There is the razed area on the eastern shore of Nochet, which has outlines of a number of temples that were built by Fazzur's engineers between 1620 and 1621. The ruins of the Seven Mothers Temple look like a square colonnade surrounding a central yard, but that may just be a result of the dotted lines indicating the ruined status. Another way to read this is as the remains of a two steps ziggurat, or a ziggurat-like basement for the real temple atop the central square - we have seen plenty examples of Theyalan religious architecture using such a structure, e.g. the Ivory Plinth or Wasp Nest, or the outer appearance of the bottoms of Sun Dome Temples. The enclosure-like structure might be a Pelorian, perhaps Carmanian, architectural influence, if you decide to go for that. (And nothing stops you from having a step pyramid with colonades on the the single steps...) The (apparently surviving) Sleeping Mother's house follows a similar architecture. The other temples in the razed (by Hendira and Fazzur's engineers) then burnt area appear to be of simpler design - mainly a single big building, probably with a huge central hall. Is this heist going to target the Seven Mothers (what for? Irrippi Ontor scrolls?), Yara Aranis (fighting the Glowline), Etyries (in for the profit, perhaps also the tax collected waiting for a strong escort to expedite it northwards), or some other Lunar deity?

You could model the level of a cleric as a level of initiation. At the simplest, this might involve a POW sacrifice and a temple willing to promote the cleric - not in its administrative hierarchy, but in his spiritual allegiance to the deity, and the breadth of energy he can channel back - both within religious rites and out there in the field. You can make things more complicated involving concepts like temple size, pilgrimage sites and holy days. You could demand a minimum POW stat before investing more POW to the deity, depending on initiation level. And you might grant a stored spell (or parts of one if you have real powerful ones requiring more than one point) per POW point invested, magic points pre-paid while performing rites to the deity. Almost like RQ divine magic, but close enough to D&D effects.

Hunters and shepherds, really - slingers, archers, javelineers. And of course special cultists like Hedkoranth slingers. They don't form separate regiments but act as support to the shield wall or heavier cavalry. Sartar has three duck slinger units, two of which are going to be available in a full game (the third will start the Zombie chain). The Sartar Free Army has the Pavis Royal Guard as an elite skirmisher force. If you look at the Sun Dome Templars, the description in the rules mentions skirmishers and cavalry, but the units in the game look like elite phalanxes. About half the Orlanthi sun worshippers are Yelmalians, especially north of the Creek. They too will field cavalry and archers, probably a lot more so than the Templars. Vingans are more likely javelineers. Javelins or heavy darts can be used by heavier troops, too. Orlanth uses the lightning javelin and the heavier thunderbolt or its lesser brother, the thunderstone. Then he goes into melee. White Bear/Red Moon did not know about any of the deities you mentioned (probably not even Odayla, but definitely neither Vinga nor Elmal). There used to be specialized archers among the Vingkotlings, the Jorganostelli, and some of their descendant tribes were among the original Heortling tribes. The bow was one of the weapons stolen from the solar deities, but that has not stopped the Orlanthi from claiming such weapons for their own. The bow doesn't have special prestige among the storm worshippers, though. The solar worshippers use the bow from horseback (Kuschile archery). I think that it is mainly a weapon for mounted herders, while foot herders are mainly slingers.

Followers are a prerequisite to real power. They offer a small array of specialisations outside of the character's personal skills. Followers are both a boon and a liability. As the narrator, you can use the follower as a flaw to the player character - the follower could misbehave, be kidnapped, threatened, have enemies you only learn about now... As the narrator, you don't have to spent a hero point to cement a follower's problems (you might award the follower a point for development of a different relationship to balance this flaw - after the effect). The player has to spend a hero point in order to cement a follower's newly discovered relationship to someone or somewhere else, if I interprete the rules correctly. To paraphrase Murharzarm's verdict on polygamy - the punishment for having many wives is to have many wives, and the punishment for having many followers is to offer the narrator plenty vulnerabilities if he is minded to do so. At the very least, each follower is a walking plot hook.

I disagree - from the year marriage contests between Sartar and the Feathered Horse Queen I get the impression that the queen and her husband can go into a contest for wielding the symbolic power. Composite History of Dragon Pass tells us that Sartar won the year marriage exchange, which resulted in him being named King of Dragon Pass rather than her being named Queen of Dragon Pass. There are only three more such contests and Kings of Dragon Pass, unless the Grazer history manages to forget one (which I find highly unlikely). Yoristina apparently did not have a wedding contest, her daughter did (and received Tarkalor rather than Phargentes). All we know about Tarkalor is that he became King of Dragon Pass in 1579, the year Phargentes died, and that he and his queen appeared at Grizley Peak as a couple. Moirades is the next King of Dragon Pass. It isn't quite clear when his contest took place, or what children he had from that contest. Finally, there is going to be Argrath. Details to be left to your campaign, I suppose.

The map of Nochet has outlines of the former temple buildings, but no floorplans. http://www.glorantha.com/nochet-city-of-queens/

You can usually find a lesser version of the main deities picking up a specialist rune while letting go of one or two others of the main deity. Rarely a different element, but often a power, condition or form other than the usual. The personal descriptor runes of the Hero Wars era publications appear to be a mostly non-magical form of writing rather than conveying deep magical secrets, such as the earth rune with an inscribed mastery rune in its center for all of the Earth Queen subcults and earth affinities.

Those units would be the militia of the city confederation. Since the tribes have a seat each in the city council, the joint warbands are likely to get a tribal leader, too - and quite likely the most warlike of the tribal kings sitting on the ring. As these units are Orlanthi males and women who decided to act as males, they will come equipped with militia level weaponry - as men of the shieldwall with shield, spear and/or other hand weapon, helmet, or as skirmishers with whichever missile weapon they favor. The mounted militia will be made up of thanes and weaponthanes and other habitual riders (e.g. mounted herders). They don't appear to be shock cavalry, but they will be able to ride down skirmishers or fleeing enemies. They probably can be employed dismounted, too. City-equipped mercenaries probably exist, too - they might be special warbands to provide guard duty when a city delivers valuable goods, when city leaders need to go on risky diplomatic missions, or similar needs. These mercenaries are likely to come from war clans or clan warbands, and may be weaponthanes or prospective weaponthanes. They might join for other kinds of payment, or for payment in the equipment. Fairly often there will be mercenary bands with permanent barracks in a city from where they serve as caravan guards or extra manpower in conflicts. A tribal warband will still be organized along clan units, possibly separated between mounted warriors, foot warriors and skirmishers. The magicians will be with their clansmen rather than joining in special groups, except for those who are direct followers of the king. The tribal federation war band will probably have less men (or women) from each tribe than a tribal muster of each of those tribes would field, and a tribal muster won't see all clan warbands at full strength, either. It appears to be traditional to assign a leader to each wing and to the center of an Orlanthi or Pelorian war formation. Making special use of massed skirmishers, shock cavalry or magicians might involve another leader or two, but such is rarely done in Orlanthi warfare where everybody prefers to rely on kinsmen rather than confederated folk. Holding back a reserve isn't normally done, either - you are supposed to mean serious commitment in the initial deployment. These wing leaders are likely to be the warleaders of constituent tribes who did not get the overall command.

Godunya's career is told in Revealed Mythologies, minus the belt buckle saleseman bit. He joined what he called a monastery as one of the paupers, got the permission to meditate, and soon even the masters of the monastery came to observe his techniques and to learn from him.