Joerg

There is the Lunar New Year ceremony which complements the regular Sacred Time Lightbringers Quest re-enactments, including many Pelorian bits from before the birth of the Goddess. The freeform game titled "White Bear and Red Moon" (yes, excactly like that board game that started this all) was played a number of times at conventions, including twice in Germany with me attending (as Pikat Yaraboom and Beat-pot Aelwrin, respectively), and it has a suggested script for the characters to follow (the script also includes the Lightbringers side and a cosmic unity one). Getting this script published would be helpful.

While Tapatalk's Glorantha corner is mainly the archive of the activity of the much lamented Google Plus group for Glorantha, that still exists. The G+ group had a feature called "Where in Glorantha": https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/glorantha/where-in-glorantha-f2/ Edit: Looks like quite a few of the images were not archived.

Spirits are entities generating life force (magic). Depending on your Glorantha, they can be limited to the Spirit Plane, which is a huge realm including a "three-dimensional skin" that matches the Gloranthan Surface World (including the soil/bedrockj/waves beneath and the air above), or a whole lot of them can be manifest in the material world as properties of the material world. Corporeal things have spirits. Like e.g. trees, rocks, waves, geographic features, weather features, people. The question how you view your Glorantha is to decide whether the spirits have or are these things. Things may have a temporary existence only. This form of non-permanent reality is called "illusion", some of which can be generated by people using rune magic or sorcery. (And in a way sorcery spells are a non-permanent reality, too, constructs of the sorcerer's magic that have tangible reality.) Other non-permanent reality is called "manifestation", such as the effects of the "Visibility" ability that a wide range of spirits who are able to pierce the veil possess. True. Most corporeal things have undergone a series of Green Age revelations that force them to eat, sleep, have sex to procreate, and ultimately die. Not just plants, animals and people, but also rocks, soil, winds, waves... The archetypes of these things underwent mythical changes in Godtime. When I said "Green Age revelations", I don't mean exactly the age of the world when the dry land was mainly covered by plants, although that period of Godtime is home to a vast majority of irreversible changes to these archetypes. One of the last "Green Age revelations" was Grandfather Mortal accepting the power of capital D Death (as opposed to the temporary state of death that was common in the Golden Age, where/when your harvested root plant or your slain prey could be sung back within a single transition period (e.g. night, sleep period, date change, turn of the Sun Empress, you name it). The spirits of deciduous trees have died (gone hibernating in the halls of Ty Kora Tek) multiple times. That's small d dead, not capital D Dead, mostly. Again, this is difficult for hibernating entities, including Brown Elves. The rules of which game, though? While RuneQuest is the main vehicle for Glorantha again, other games have defined the reality of Glorantha in their terms, too. Starting with White Bear and Red Moon and Nomad Gods which have their own definitions of spirits, and for a significant time including HeroQuest which had spirit-housing talismans which were no enchantments but temporary homes for spirits volunteering to experience the Mundane World, created by animists who somehow helped provide these anchoring devices, possibly paying a virtual fee never specified in those rules. Then what about elementals? They are spirits, but have bodies. Your neighborhood dryad might disagree.

I created a simple spreadsheet to calculate the Gloranthan tides that allows estimates of Gloranthan tides depending on the weekday of the Blue Streak added to the influence of the weekly tide that is reflected in the phase of the Red Moon (as visible from Magasta's Pool/Dragon Pass). There are two parameters that can be played with for different models that you can play with. The first is the maximum amplitude for the weekly tidal cycle. This value gets multiplied with my estimates of the tidal amplitude of the day of the Lunar week (at the end of the table). The second parameter is the daily increase of the (isolated) Blue Streak tide. My simple approach is just to increase this by the same amount for every day the Blue Streak takes to climb up the Sky River. You start your tidal cycle by deciding on the weekday that had the last fall of the Blue Streak, then you roll 1 D6. Go to the Lunar day of your falling Blue Streak, roll 1D6 and just read the values for the day and go down to the line that shows the D6 result. At the end of the line you will find your next starting date. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rUzCT-BO4Pi0bccGLyIc_y_faPiyhWY5zBWmQk3W06E/edit?usp=sharing Play around with the parameters. If the weekly cycle has a greater factor than the Blue Streak factor, you may end up with a slow outflow despite the Blue Streak still rising. As this has not been described yet, it looks like the Blue Streak factor should be greater than the Weekly Tide factor. And it is up to you what length unit you assign to the factors. Being used to SI units, I would run with meters. With factor 1 for the weekly cycle and factor 1.5 for the Blue Streak increase, you get a maximum amplitude of 10. If you make this meters, it corresponds to the tidal changes as mentioned in the scenario "The Sea Cave", if you make this feet, it gives you a tidal variation between average high tide and highest tide of about 4-5 feet, which would be similar to Jeff's difference between High Tide and Highest Tide for the Rightarm Isles (reaching the reeds or almost covering the reeds). But try for yourself. You can play with the weekly increases or the daily ones to get other variations, like non-linear increases for the Blue Streak, or making small differences for the weekly day heights (as fraction of 1) - ideally with a personal copy of this file.

These rivers were "normal rivers" in the Godtime, when they crawled inland, until Sky River Titan (Lorion, later aka Engizi) was wounded fighting Chaos, and sent his lifeblood to support Magasta's struggle to contain the Void inside the place where the Spike used to be prior to the Breaking of the World. Only from that moment onward did the rivers flow down to the seas. (Note that the Faralinthor sea south of Genertela had been dried up in the course of the Storm Age, quite some events after the Flood had been beaten back.)

Why do you think it is the skin that is enchanted, and not the entire limb/body? Taking the body apart will break the object the enchantment was cast upon. Best "re-use" would be a zombie or mummy bodyguard.

Plentonius calls the Gray Age the reign of Kargzant, the nomad name for a Lightfore identity, known to the urban Dara Happans as Reladivus, one of the eight planetary sons, the guardian of the south-east, and of Nivorah. The only Planetary Son who did not enter the Underworld when Umath broke the Perfect Sky. Orlanth slaying the Emperor caused Yelm to disintegrate, spawning Antirius as a separate entity, while Kargzant, Shargash and Verithurus(a) were still (or again) in the sky. Until the second appearance of Antirius at the Hill of Gold, both these entities populated the Storm Age. After the Dawn, there is a re-constituted sun in the sky, identified as Yelm and at the very least including Antirius. Then in 109 or 110 S.T. there is the Bridling of Kargzant, binding that nomad Lightfore entity to the (nightly) Sunpath. Only afterwards the entities Antirius and Kargzant are united in the same stellar body. That Bridling of Kargzant followed the Hyaloring reign over Dara Happa (Vuranoste and his non-emperor sons). What happened in this event? Part of this might be harkening back to Reladivus resenting the hell taint of his siblings Verithurus(a) and Shargash. It was the appearance of Lightfore Daysenerus at the Battle of Night and Day which broke the compromise at that event, with the Black Eater forming in reaction. It seems to have been a cult from the Arcos Valley, which seems to have quite a bit of Lightfore worship, both by nomads and by non-rider goat herders. The Daysenerus forces were part of the Dara Happan muster. Fighting Heortlings and trolls was right down the Dara Happan alley, even with the temporary cooperation with the Second Council in Dorastor the Breaking of the Council had re-kindled ancient hatred between these groups. Palangio was not the hero who manifested Daysenerus (that was the Dara Happan general Elmgatum who gave his life for this manifestation of the sun god of his Vanchite forces), but he accepted the manifested god and became its avatar, carrying the god all over the Bright Empire and ruling over the hostile barbarians (except in Fronela, although the cult did reach there). The Nysalorean acceptance of Chaos was not "sanctioned" by the cult, but much of that happened outside of their presence. Palangio overcame Arkat in Ralios without having to resort to employing Chaos, but with the previous foes of Arkat bringing in "cheats" like the Telmori gift or the false immortality of the Tanisoran Vampire Kings the cult's association with the Bright Empire was tainted in the perception of its foes.

Basically, different masks for a main cult can shift the cult relations mainly in favor of compatibility in exchange for some restrictions.

Many of the Thunder Brothers in Thunder Rebels were basically faces for known rune spells of Orlanth, like e.g. Vanganth the Flyer or Hedkoranth the Thunderstone Slinger. They may be of local importance as ancestors or associated with local geographical features - essentially offering a shrine for a special spell otherwise available only at larger temples. Direct initiation to these Thunder Brothers would be similar to joining a spirit cult, although I would apply the Orlanth rune pool rather than a Thunder Brothers rune pool.

Rivers that only trace their ancestry to Heler are those cut off from the Oceans, feeding inland basins. In Genertela that would be eastern Pent, feeding the Hot Lake. Otherwise, there are three famous rivers that did not crawl in from the Seas but jumped down from above, the Creek, the Stream, and the River. These rivers were part of the waters that invaded the heavens rather than the dry earth, siblings of Lorion and hence children of the Manthi, and as they re-awakened their tributaries by re-spawning their connection to the Heart of the Seas they became the (adoptive) parents of these rivers (mainly the lesser rivers of the Quivin Mountains). Most other rivers crawled into the land with their source from the surface oceans, primarily Togaro spawning Sshorg (the first river) and Hudaro (with Neliom parenting e.g. the Janube).

So do you want to have a secession war like the US Civil War (or the Naboo incident in Star Wars), do you want a succession war (not necessarily of nobility) after a coup or otherwise end of a government, or do you want to have a doctrinal war like e.g. the 30 years war as your backdrop? Are there outside forces to ally with for either side of the conflict? What kinds of oppression are there to rise up against?

"The Cult in the World" section needs to go to some detail for either occurrance. The long Yelm Cult write-up for RQ3 tried to do that double stance for both Pentan horse nomads and Dara Happan urban nobility and didn't quite feel satisfactory for either. Transfer to e.g. Somash or the Pamaltelan new sun god Varama and his "not the same" predecessor Kendamalar would be tricky, and the weirdness of Ehilm's Flame in Yelm's Underworld court remains amusing. We're not going to find out before next year how this incarnation of the cult write-up will do that.

While not Gloranthan per se, Greg Stafford's campaign in either RQ3 Vikings or RQ3 Land of Ninja has plenty universal tropes for playing adventurers from a warrior society with an agricultural home base. The only original RuneQuest 3rd edition gaming material from the Avalon Hill period of Chaosium-written adventures that was not reprints of RQ2 material, but good enough to publish it twice without making it seem repeated thanks to the local flavor.

Slightly unexpected name, though: "Cults of RuneQuest" rather than "Cults of Glorantha". The Red Book of Magic gives you most (possibly all) of the spells, so no biggie in terms of game design. I want those as well, and I can live with scenario books providing some local information to satisfy people's cries for scenarios (in print, rather than in pdf). However, the rather tight focus on greater Dragon Pass and maybe Saird for the forseeable future (before my pension age, in slightly less than nine years) makes books on other regions rather unlikely within that time-frame. I'd also love to see Pedro Ziviani's Mythic Iceland for RuneQuest and its continental corrolaries kick off.

This tells us that the Chaosium layout and printing schedule for RuneQuest is booked until deep into 2024 (and Beyond - which I hear as spoken by Ludo @Lordabdul at the end of our podcast episodes), which would need to deliver six books to finish this batch. Which means that there is still a huge logjam of written supplements without even getting into the production queue next year. On the plus side, this gives Jeff ample time to finalize the Sartar campaign part 1, and it keeps the "must buy" expenses manageable, leaving some budget for the Jonstown Compendium. (But hey, if you want to finance your JTC desires, go and publish some nice stuff there...) Still, not getting any pdf releases for another five months isn't pleasing. (Although that time could be shortened e.g. by releasing the extra player characters for the Starter Set.)

Lowland Tarsh exports vast amounts of maize downriver into the Heartland cities, including Glamour (which is connected to the Oslir via a canal). That alone may be enough to take care of imperial taxation. This surplus will be harder to sell once Argrath (or rather Mularik) takes over, reducing the net worth of the kingdom. Otherwise, Furthest gets to see most of the wares northbound from Boldhome, earning from tolls. That would not change under any ruler. Salt brine evaporation powered by the sun doesn't work well in cold climate. The water needs to be boiled off, which means fuel needs to be spent. If there are salt marshes, air-dried saline peat might be used as fuel, then added to the brine to increase salinity. (Air-drying peat works fine in cold climate...) What are the main exports from the Heartlands to Tarsh? Mostly payment for the luxuries required by Lunar nobility, which would have to come regardless of changes in the regime. The hilly parts Given the amount of marine fossils found at Snake Pipe Hollow and presumably under other parts of the Rockwoods foothills, deposits of salt in the mountains shouldn't be that rare. In that FB thread on Sartarite trade, Jeff replied to my mention of the salt trade as an item of potential importance in the Sartarite revenues:

Sheng did reach his near-enlightenment through a century of torture austerities. And this was a different Age of History, with different magical rules (such as allowing the Telmori a no-cost shape-shifting gift). That Gaalth character (the chief missionary "reaching out" to Seshnela was no doubt a psychopath, but may have been a Logician believing in efficiency. Carrot and stick... Yes. And maybe Humakt was the ally of choice against the undead immortality of the Vampire Kings of Tanisor, but against general Chaos, he is as bad a choice as is Orlanth (other than gaining the allegiance of many Orlanthi cannon fodder). Allying trolls was a necessary step to get cannon fodder for the invasion of Dorastor after the Orlanthi decided to go against the Dara Happan Empire instead. ZZ (Arkat's cult of choice) was pre-destined (as Arkat received the Unhealable Wound from himself questing as ZZ), but calling trolls a "less blunt instrument" is rather funny. I wonder whether Arkat fielded spearkin, or whether the multiple births were too recent (or possibly not even yet invented while Gbaji was still around). If he had the complete set of Kitori shapes, he could have hidden in shadow in his Dehori shape and join the trolls in Guhan (making that illumination in Nick's History of Malkionism real).

I wonder whether those meals for the high priestess and the virgins are sourced from volunteers.

While it may be poor strategy, it might be necessary tactics if you have allies/mercenaries like Wolf Pirates and Praxian beast riders. Mongol tactics might not work all that well in Orlanthi society, but it may work on Lunar populations. Cities that surrender before they get enclosed will be treated differently than cities that fought. Gates can be opened by commandos surprising or otherwise overwhelming the guards. Happened in Bagnot 1440.

The MRQ1 edition had some flaws as stuff in King of Sartar and the History of Heortling Peoples was ignored when collecting the sources for the EWF, resulting in Vistikos and the huge dragon project getting the main stage rather than the Third Council with Isgangdrang and the other Short Cut dragonlords, which is why I would advise to use only the MRQ2 edition, that had some of the worst omissions rectifiec by LOZ. (I didn't boy either of the MRQ serries before it became available in Humble Bundles after getting the chance to read the EWF bit.) I seem to recall that there were two named colleagues of Delecti from Remakerela, but cannot find them with a cursory search of my disjunct pdfs.

The Bell Digest archives have an early version of scenarios from the RuneQuest Adventures fanzine: https://glorantha.steff.in/digests/BellDigest/vol06p09.txt

If it isn't Glorantha for Pathfinder, might it be BRP for Golarion?

Praxian Serpents are sort of "undead" or hibernating rivers. Many have headwaters in the Indigo Mountains or the Stormwalk Mountains. Others come from cacthment basins inside of Prax where the parent river has died or is hibernating, too. Having lost their connections to the Heart of the Seas, the Praxian oases are ersatz-headwaters for the Praxian waters, available for the River Horse to visit. The exact function may remain a mystery for the time being. You mean downhill? The Syphon is the only river I know of that has retained its active shape and its uphill course, running to the big void of Chaos at its head. It and the Sounders River (flowing downhill from the Storm Mountains into the Good Canal dug by Waha, then quenching the buried Devil) are riverine heroes who fight Chaos. The Erinflarth cleansing at the Densdam in Dorastor is a river miracle, too. Pollution of waters is a sad but known fact. The Nidan River and the Dwerrow River are the main wastewater channels for the main Genertelan dwarf colonies. To the dwarfs, rivers on the surface are a sad side-effect of the Breaking of the World. If Somelz is a re-creation of the Earth surface as it was meant to be, then rivers don't deserve any protection by the repair crews of the World Machine. To the Water tribe, polluted rivers are the sad proof of the enmity of the dry folk against the waters.

The name comes from the publically accessible source https://wellofdaliath.chaosium.com/home/gloranthan-documents/greg-sez/the-kings-of-seshnela-part-one/ which contains more historical detail than the summaries in the Guide. By referring to Niebie, it is made clear that this shows the Seshnegi and Brithini perspective on the fringes of the Bright Empire. Nysalor never made a personal appearance on this fringe of his influence.

And the problem with that is? Deities may be in several places at once.