Joerg

I don't think that following Praxian herd beasts would benefit much from dogs aiding the herding. As guardians, sure, but herders accompanying the herds rather than staying in the camp can just as well have a few with them to give off warnings. Rounding up stragglers may be less of an issue with the four-legged kin than it is with sheep or dumb cattle. IMO it is the herd priestess communicating with the herd alpha female who determines migration. The priestess will be able to add dealing with other hazards into the normal scheme of migration. On the whole, the herd determines the migration, though, with the clan following.

All of these goddesses will be at Ezel, but not all may be known yet. Belintar managed to introduce at least half a dozen.

The beast rune already is a dragon rune. It stands for the ancestral dragon Hykim (and Mikyh).

Just because the organization for the cooperation of the shamans of various beast totem groups in Ralios was disbanded doesn't necessarily change the myths that define the shamanic paths. Theyalan conversion removed quite a few groups from the Hsunchen spectrum, placing them in Tanisoran Horali caste or Safelstran urban societies, and God Learner incursions may have indeed destroyed some paths, but mainly in Ralios. Fronelan God Learners spread along the convenient path all the way to Eastpoint, but no further due to the Carmanian presence beyond. North of the Janube, how far did they interact with the Hykimi? The loss of the God of Silver Feet hampered communication among the northern Fronelan Hykimi, but there appears to be a replacement allowing communication now. How else would the Kingdom of War coordinate its forces?

This is harkening back to Godtime, a more mythical Glorantha than the materialist RuneQuest one you have been discussing. On the Other Side, the Uncolings are reindeers. Under the laws of Time, they are mesolithic hunter-gatherers subsisting on their reindeer herds. At the grand meeting of Oral-Ta, the Uncolings definitely are wearing furs and possibly felt, and subsist on reindeer they hunt and slaughter. That's when their neighbors visit them, when they are the most open for trading, etc. Yes. And for role-playing purposes, thinking of them as humans with just the beast spirit probably is more approachable. Glorantha is made of myth. The Uncolings are renowned for their strong shamans, their closeness to the Spirit World. In RuneQuest RiG terms, all it takes to take the Uncolings into their spirit world shape is a weak spot where the They don't herd the reindeer (other than keeping a few companion beasts), but they don't herd the rest - they follow them on their migrations. They hunt some of the herds, but they don't capture them for slaughter, but kill (or at least lethally wound) them with hunting weapons. Anything else would lead to them no longer being Hsunchen but pastoralists like many of the Hill Barbarians (or the Pentans). Yes. I made that calculation, too. And then I looked at their territory, and accepted the extent of the glacier. Then I looked at the sentence on p.21, and analogous to other populations in Glorantha like the people of Mani Tor, I suggested that the Uncolings too use a Godtime solution to solve the conundrum. Having lived inside the Saamelag north of the Arctic Circle, I want to point out that tundra is not the limit for reindeer habitat in northern Europe, but the open pine-and-birch "savannah" all the way down to central Sweden's highlands are within the traditional reindeer range, and used to be the reindeer-Sami economic zone before agriculture claimed much of that. The Rathori creation myth associates the Uncolings with "taiga", a term I wouldn't quite use for the environment there. The solution you suggest would make them had to distinguish from the mesolithic pastoralists of Eol/Thrice Blessed who are suspected to be the Eferventes people roaming Greater Darkness Peloria when the Glacier extended further eastward, and also after the eastern half was cut off by Chaos and deteriorated. At least that's the assumption made on the Glorantha Wikia: https://glorantha.fandom.com/wiki/Eferventes categorized as Eolian peoples (and the admin of the wikia is spending enormous amounts of time tinkering with those categories, taking them very seriously for a function that isn't anywhere near user-friendly). YGWV, MGWV. I went for the shapeshifter approach implicit in the "bearwalker", "werepig" etc. entries in the RQ2 creatures list that had Telmori as werewolves.

In a strict reading of the God Learner mythic maps as a sequence of Godtime events, that would be the case. But however much the God Learners got right, they also got wrong, and those maps in the appendix are an in-world document rather than objective truth reporting. Actually, I found a reference to Taiga in Greg's shamanic origin myth of the Rathori, courtesy of @Brian Duguid when discussing the bear people. But while I tend to treat the Hsunchen myths as some of the objectively oldest, Green Age myths in Glorantha, I have a suspicion that that's just how the Hykimi project their experiences with the world of the Gods War and ultimately Time. "Safelster in the First Age" tells a different primeval beast totem myth, and the Kachasti experience has the story how the Mostali separated Fronela from Ralios raising the Nidan chain between Mt. Nida and Top of the World (according to the God Learner mythic maps the only two pre-existing mountains in the range). There has to be a mythic reality where there has always been a wintery north, with sparse conifer forest. But in the God Learner neat and tidy sequence of events and perceptions of the skies etc., no such early era has a place. Himile's Cold may have come into the surface world already in the Golden Age, but then I am fairly certain that so did Xentha's Night, and the blue Sky created by Lorion aided by Annilla regardless of the Artmali/Doraddi myth about the Blue Moon being born in the Underworld to the Dead Sun. The Aldryami presence in Fronela is another such conundrum, as - per God Learner monomyth - it should have been impossible for any forest to reclaim territory yielded by Valind's Glacier, in the dark and cold of the very late Storm Age or the Greater Darkness, and neither in the Gray Age. It appears to me that the Web of Arachne Solara pulled in pieces of Godtime from earlier ages to create the world of the Gray Age, unless Winterwood and the other forests north of the Nidan Mountains have myths about surviving under the ice until it broke. Sequentiality in Godtime is a big ask, and not guaranteed at all. https://wellofdaliath.chaosium.com/home/gloranthan-documents/greg-sez/rathori-creation-myth/ tells about the first people of the (northwestern) Greatwood, naming an ancestress of the Uncolings as the goddess/great spirit of the taiga, in the north. The invasion of the oceans already has Togaro as the hot invader and Hudaro as the cold invader, suggesting a presence of Himile's cold in the Northwest. In my sequential crutch for mapping Godtime that invasion is linked to the birth of Umath when the Earth Cube was dunked down as Umath inserted himself between his parents, pushing his mother downward. The Neliomi Sea only separated most of Danmalastan from the Malkioni coast on the flank of Genertela as a consequence of this. The World of Glorantha yahoogroup (archived at http://glorantha.steff.in) has the discussion of North Pent which sort of plays into the presence as well as absence of Glacier in the north, starting with https://glorantha.steff.in/digests/WorldofGlorantha/2007/4490.html and continuing, with a few contributions by Greg. All pre-Guide, of course, but hinting at multiple truths for the extreme regions of Glorantha.

Didn't the location get chosen by the Jruseli Cradle-snatchers at Robcradle? Paragua then included Mani Tor inside his fence. Were he and his followers discriminating enough to spare Mani's village after stomping down on Robcradle?

Draconic enlightenment will remove that barrier, I suppose. Some of the surgery may aid, too.

Humakt is the Sword God, and has no myths about using a shield. For him to bless a shield is similar as to blessing a spear or an axe - out of archetype. There is the rune spell Earth Shield for a better shield, anyway. A rune spell matrix with Earth Shield might be cheaper than a full iron large shield.

From what I heard, the shells are of huge snapper turtles living in the waterways of the Grazelands, so sweetwater species. The Hiia cult provides the Humakti bodyguard of the FHQ and thus would have been around since 1450 or so, but Hiia the individual might have entered Dragon Pass already during the Inhuman Occupation, if my memory doesn't play a trick on me. The turtle shell offers a fairly good protection without much resources required, making it perfect for the Vendref who were unlikely to amass much in the way of weapon grade material prior to the FHQ reforms.

What gave you the impression that only females are in danger of being infected with Broo larvae? The broo "ovipositor" can use any opening or incision in the future host to insert the larva, regardless of its sex. Extra appendages aren't really known outside of magical surgery (the long perished Remakers of Dragon Pass), dangerous Hsunchen/Gorakiki/dragon magics, or Chaos Features. Conjoined twins or chimeras do exist, but will look differently.

There are still different modi of recycling those nutrients - giving them to plants which are in need of them without being in the immediate food cycle is acceptable behavior, while chewing on meat probably is seen as highly aberrant.

While the Lunar Way is accepting of Chaos, and the Lunar Empire is willing to tolerate Chaos under controlled conditions, few people in the Lunar Empire will be delighted with the increase of Chaos in their neighborhood. The Rough Guide to Glamour tells us about the disease-resistant sanitation worker broos of the city, a community which is appreciated for the services they provide to the city and the empire. People still shun them, but then, that is the general fate of people who work with sewage, Chaos Features or not. As long as these sanitation worker broos abstain from impregnating the population nilly-willy and possibly would be fine with a quota of senescent herd beasts given to them to deal with their reproductive urges, and then the offspring getting civilized and trained, this much is tolerable in one of the most open-minded metropolises in Glorantha. Volunteering to accept a (random!) Chaos Feature is the equivalent of receiving military grade hardware implants that cannot be removed without killing the carrier. Recipients will be firmly encouraged to join an organization able to monitor and secure such individuals, like the Lunar Army, or the households of trustworthy nobles. Otherwise, emigration to Dorastor might be suggested, where there is a sizeable population of chaos-tainted humans, the grayskin (descendants of the) participants of the First Battle of Chaos, followers of the Mad Sultan, or "volunteering" to join the Crimson Bat entourage (or fodder). I believe that Lunar (and Fonritian) society is quite pragmatic in combining the various needs of their "special" population with their often quite draconic penal codes, allowing ogres to harvest death row candidates, for instance. Feeding the Bat is a known and canonical facet of this.

The absence of birch in the tundra and the forests closest to the ice indicates to me a lack of personal experience of the boreal forest by the authors, with a heavy dose of "it's fantasy". Ropecon may have been the northernmost experience of Greg, in a place which does have deciduous trees like southern Rathorela is described to have. Valind's Glacier directly adjacent to Winterwood and northernmost Rathorela indicates to me a rapid loss of Valind's influence at the edge of the Glacier, with at least Winterwood magically projecting its own internal climate all the way to the frontier. Looking at the three historical maps in Trollpak or those in the Guide, the Glacier seems to be resting, no longer moving south but neither retreating northward, at least no more than two or three hexes. Such stability is highly unnatural. Obsessive nitpick: "neolithic" describes an agricultural society. Contemporary, slightly backward hunter-gatherers would be called mesolithic, at least in the Baltic region. The Uncolings might primarily hunt birds, and possibly small rodents. Eating their totemic animals would be part of their culture, too. They will certainly feast on any berries growing in their lands, and on regular mushrooms, while their beasts might prefer certain mosses and lichen. Not to mention post-glacial Siberia... As I said above, the 15 millennia static glacier is weird. And I made my points in the earlier thread. That map's north has not been confirmed in either the God Learner mythical maps nor any naval expedition. The Sendereven sailors of Sramak's River could operate on that map just as well as they could on the map in the Guide. The absence of these lands in the Guide doesn't have to mean a lot - the lands of Altinela are only on the God Learner maps, and there is no definitive map of the Outer World, nor do I think there should be. The best historical maps of Genertela are those in Troll Pak, and possibly the one in Cults of Terror. The map in the Nomad Gods booklet is interesting, too... Hykimi is the term for the beast totem peoples in Greg's early western writings - people of Hykim and Mikyh, the beast ancestors. I'd have to check when "Hsunchen" was first used. I haven't seen "Hykimi" in the RQ3 era products (except possibly in the Troll Pak reprint). Valind's Winter Wastes still extend to the north-east - permafrost land, only moderately covered in snow because of low precipitation making it across the Glacier proper, with very drifty snow. IMG at least. I think that is more a memory of a possible stage in the Gods War than a historical map. To repeat, the Outer World should appear different even if you try to retread an earlier travel there - but Fronela is not part of the Outer World, and neither is most of the Glacier. Northern Pent and the Winter Wastes are less well remembered, whether by sapients or by wilderness. There should be a huge bar of morraines at the edge of the Glacier if it still moves southwards, pushing back against the sudden thaw-off. But another possibility is that the abrupt change from ice shield to cold temperate forest results from that shards of Godtime reality in between are missing due to excessive Chaos corruption. Beyond the spider's ability to reconstruct, with no one left to remember that which is missing. Nether Tundra nor Taiga had any place on Glorantha prior to the Storm Age, when Valind began to expand his ice shield from Ragnaglar's Land, according to the God Learner mythic maps after the Flood. The maps certainly give no explanations how the elf forests of the north could return during the Gods War, or when and where the Brown Elves came to expand their forests - the descriptive texts contradict anything that the Brown Elf forests would need. Genert was still alive when Valind's Glacier was broken in half, but he died soon afterwards, leaving no fertility god for the land that re-appeared after the Glacier had lost its power. And the Gray Age did not bring any new gods - this was an era when mortal heroes took over. (It did bring back some old gods and many spirits, though.) Other than Snodal and his Altinelan lover, hardly any civilized person has visited that region. I don't think that Taiga and trolls of any kind can co-exist. In the HeroQuest Yahoogroup (also archived at http://glorantha.steff.in ) I suggested a different location under the Glacier, where volcanic activity kept a bubble of air from being crushed by the Glacier, with a bunch of refugees from the Gods War still looking at a frozen sky and only shifting amounts of light and dark from the sun, but that community can be anywhere and rather far in the north under the Glacier. YGWV, but as far as I am concerned, the Winter Wastes are north of Pent, everywhere east of the Ice shield that remained after Wakboth and his parents entered the world from the north and chaosed the glacier apart. Once separated, the eastern half sublimated away, leaving a permafrost ice desert with wandering snow-drifts and some magical and weird ice ecology as suggested by that ice snake in Anaxial's Roster. The map above is simply missing the massive ice shield. RQ2 Troll Pak has it, and is IMO the most authoritative source for Glorantha outside of the Zola Fel Valley and the Elder Wilds from that era. (The only one except for that map, cryptic mentions in Cults of Prax and Cults of Terror and slightly less cryptic but even shorter one-liners in RQ Companion.) As I read Uz Lore, there should be mostly subterranean Dark Trolls following Borklak under the edge of the Glacier, too. Edit: I came across a similar statement of mine from 2007: https://glorantha.steff.in/digests/WorldofGlorantha/2007/4500.html

There was something like that in Thunder Rebels, the forest daughter of Ernalda, called Overdruva. Basically Aldrya as a subcult of Ernalda, for foresters - wife of Orstan the Carpenter, one of the crafter subcults of Orlanth, a hero cult from the Dureving Downland Migration. These cults came as subcults of the (no longer supported, Thunder Rebels xcessive subcults only) Allmother and Allfather aspects of the divine couple, IIRC (Overdruva might have been Esrola the plant mother rather than Allmother). This could be a spirit cult with very limited range of magic, or just associate magic for Ernalda (or Esrola, the generalized land/grain/plant goddess daughter/sister of Ernalda). Other than that, there is the Children of the Forest lay membership/minimum initiation in the cult of Aldrya, such as experiences in the Redwood episode of Biturian's travels in Cults of Prax.

Are obligate carnivores cannibals? No. Aldryami bodies are both - meat, and plant matter - especially the "bones" and the chromophores in the skin Aldrya's Woe led to the destruction of the Greenwood of Jolar, so yes, different groups and forests have been at each others' roots. Marching Aldryami (elves, runners) will eat mulch, regardless of its origin (so it might contain composted elf), and they eat fresh re-growable parts of plants, like leaves, fruits (including grass seeds, cereals, nuts), and possibly also rhizomes or tubers - stuff that will be eaten by strict vegetarians who would not eat roots or onions. They will eat nectar (pixies predominantly). Aldryami don't normally eat meat. Thus the question whether they would kill to get at the meat of other aldryami is pointless. Aldryami might pluck leaves or similar from hostile (living) aldryami and munch on those, but that's as far as "cannibalism" may go. All IMG.

Not all gangs need to be theistic cults. The Black Fang is a spirit cult, and has other criminal activities than just killing folk. Krarsht and Thanatar are involved with crime in human society, and lay worshippers may escape detection as chaotics. Then there are Lunar criminal elements, possibly a weird half-illuminated concept of property being theft or similar. Recruited by a syndicate operating under the radar, and put onto the trail of whatever your scenario may focus on. Or alternatively a bunch of low-ranking Dart competitors out here to foil another house's activities. Gagarth might lend some power to a gang of Praxian outcasts taking to urban crime rather than herd raiding. Griselda and Wolfhead are another gang without clear cult association. Guilds generally are recognized clan-like substructures of the city, and subject to the mayor city rex and their council. There could be guilds harboring clandestine activities while presenting a face of respectability and reliability even in Orlanthi society, although the Lunar Dart Competitions are a lot more likely to produce such activities. But there are provincial Orlanthi who have been exposed to such Dart Competitions and who may have adapted to those. And there are explicit bandit clans - often relying on tribute as a means of subsistence, like the Varmandi in their old days after being ousted from Greenstone.

Can anybody not born into a species ever become a full, untainted member of that species? Not even Arkat Kingtroll could maintain his Mistress Race body beyond his quest to slay Gbaji. Can aldryami exchange their forest community for another one? Can the elf refugees from Erigia survive in Rathorela as that was some sort of annex to their elf forest? Was the madness of the Hellwood elves inevitable as that forest shared no roots with their burnt home of Rist? Will the forest song of a forest not the home forest be as meaningful to a traveling aldryami? Can a human passion approach the aldryami commitment to the forest? When it approaches heroic proportions? I think it is possible for humans to become Mostali by having their body successively replaced by tool grafts, or possibly for a heroic Eleventh on Slon to achieve diamond skills. It should be possible for human souls or spirits to get trapped in a previously defective dragonewt egg, and to hatch as a scout. The EWF had ways for humans to become dragons, spiritually at first, but in a late stage also physically. Any species of the Unity Council could become a Kitori - including dragonewts, newtlings, and probably Ludoch or ducks. There are strong transformative magics in Glorantha, like the Luatha magic that transformed the survivors in Old Seshnela into beastfolk, or the divine power of Seshna Likita that gave her husband Froalar an unaging serpent body. (Aignor the Trader, human ancestor of the second lineage of serpent-legged descendants of the goddess, died of treachery before he could be transformed.)

In other words, a typical member of an adventuring party... These literate nerds are the ones who teach lore skills, and their terminology will have seeped into common usage among those who have any formal training. Such as Lightbringer cults other than Orlanth or Eurmal, or nobility and priesthood. Yes, there will be nursery "wisdom" laying red herrings. Of the elf-king heading the wild hunt, of the fire trolls, of the tree-dwelling dwarves, of the howling silence of the dreaming dragon. And there may be hobby taxonomists creating speculative classes. Like putting moss and mice into the same taxon for being small, soft and hairy to the touch, and starting with m and ending on an s-sound - it stands to reason, doesn't it? The term Aldryami includes dryads, runners, pixies, animated trees, and in a wider sense any plant in a forest. Elves are a specific sub-type of Aldryami, and you might use "green elf" or "Vronkali" interchangeably (if there even are different terms for these). How often will you even encounter a party containing both green and brown elves? People living in the vicinity of an Elder Race population or two will learn to call different types different terms. It's like having fifty names for snow - don't eat the yellow stuff... In that sense, a very tree- or ent-like Elf might be regarded as a different type of forest creature than a very human-like individual. "I have defeated 20 trolls" after slaying that number of Enlo might detect as a lie to truth cultists. Mostali encounters might be more frequent (and unfortunate) than their neighbors like if they have a strict policy on forbidding dwarf technology. Which might include use of iron or crossbows even if your human culture has fair access to it, and will include dwarf artifacts - even if the bearer thinks these are just weirdly shaped fragments of godsbone. Beware of gobblers or gremlins. There are tribal or clan rites which propitiate certain neighboring populations, which may result in face-to-mask encounters with representatives of that population. The Kitori Shadowlords are notorious for such encounters, and you never know for certain what species hides behind the lead mask. Their power has much diminished, but the wise tribes or clans will honor ancient agreements. HQ2 Sartar Companion has a long scenario starting with such a propitiary obligation towards Mostali. Troll caravan encounters are an uncommon event in northern Safelster, too, although they probably happen on a daily basis somewhere in the region. Tusk Rider sightings might be more frequent than their neighbors like, too. Just avoiding eye contact with a dragonewt might already be regarded as an attempt at communication by the 'newt, and could lead to a more direct confrontation. Their language contains elements of body posture and chemical signals (smells, even taste), and human evaporations may register as communication, too. Eurmali farting near a 'newt probably may be regarded as having offered to have sex, and might be taken up for that by the 'newt if that is its personality aspect of the rebirth cycle. Other than on Jrustela, Westerners have always lived in direct neighborhood of elf forests or at least aldryami groves. There are a number of families who have "daughters of the forest king" (dryads or minor land goddesses/nymphs of forests) among their ancestors, e.g. anyone able to trace their lineage back to Damol (and through him, to Froalar and Talar, as well as to Aerlit) through his wife. There is even a slight possibility for people descended from refugees from Old Seshnela at the time of the Luatha arrival to have beastmen among their direct ancestors - humans transformed thus in the cataclysm, who might show up in the Axis Mundi of ancestor worship. When it comes to the Elder Races of Glorantha, "troll" is the only one I am likely to use, while "elf" is a term I avoid in order to avoid D&D-, Tolkien-, Pini- or Shannara-inspired misconceptions. I also avoid the term spirit when talking about entities that manifest a physical or semi-tangible body.

Well, as an embodied entity, they cannot initiate spirit combat. Neither can ordinary humans, trolls, or beasts, but all of them can be attacked in spirit combat. What about mostali constructs like nilmerg, jolanti, or gobblers? Aldryami wartrees or war-vines? Or elementals? Neither can wyters, other than through community sacrifice - little different from the creator of a zombie or skeleton infusing another dose of MP into the creation (which may or may not be possible, depending on the manufacturing method).

The "Enchant Metal" process has also been called "tempering", which usually means you take the completely hammered but not yet polished piece of metal and subject it to another treatment in the fire. Thus in my Glorantha, there would be no sense or meaning in enchanting an ingot of metal for further treatment. The enchantment stabilizes the shape that the previous process created. Speaking as an archer, it is normal practice to re-shaft arrow tips after the shaft broke. Also speaking as an archer, it is rarely the shaft which does the work for penetrating a target. But then, you don't usually parry with an arrow. Exchanging a shaft doesn't involve any metalworking, so any effect of "Enchant Metal" is not involved. Neither does applying nails through holes left in the socket. Spearheads aren't usually involved in parrying an attack - the spear acts as a quarterstaff with some sharp weight on the end, or possibly on both ends if it has a butte. There are some medieval pole arms which have metal flanges along the shaft near the head of the weapon, but I don't think that's a technique used in any bronze weapon. When parrying natural weapons rather than hand-held weapons, the spear head might be used. The longer the head, the greater the likelihood that it is used like a pole sword in a parry. A similar consideration will go for axes. Unless the shaft is clad in metal covering or made from metal, the "Enchant metal" bonus will apply to the axehead only. Spell matrices are usuall placed where your hand normally touches a weapon- the pommel for a sword, and the haft for an axe or a spear. Possibly this hand-hold has a leather wrapping, in which case the leather may carry the enchantment as an engraving or stitched on, or similar. Such a leather wrapping might be transferred when the shaft breaks. A similar question will come up when a weapon with a dead crystal in the hilt breaks. Will the crystal take damage? Most likely not.

As I read this, Sedenya herself would not regret the transition from Red to White, as that would complete the cycle that the myths combined by Teelo Estara describes. It is the Lunar Empire based on the Red Moon which is antagonistic to the movement of the White Moonies seeking liberation and seeking to change the mother (and celestial home) of the Red Emperor. Jar-eel's debates about Liberation etc. with the White Moonies is as much a learning experience for her as it is part of her duty assigned to her by her dad in one of his clearer moments to prevent the Empire falling apart over this. (Or, as likely, Great Sister was the one who put Jar-eel onto this task, as she, too, may be concerned with the well-being of the Empire over the development of the celestial body.) The Lunar Way is different from the Way of the Lunar Empire. The Glowline might actually be a hindrance to the further mystical development of the Goddess, who has not yet reached the celestial position she held in the Perfect Sky.

The general trend was that Storm overcame Sea, but remember that there is plenty of bronze to be found in and around Kerofinela, so we can assume that Storm had its casualties in its war with the Seas during the Flood. None famous, though (but then we don't know the name of the Vadrudi mother of the Gnydron either), and possibly without any chance for the victor to boast about it after the battle as most of the battles were won by Storm.

I tried to sell the Scandinavian forest near the tree line to Greg, and he told me to think about the endless spruce territory. I said wasteland because biodiversity in the parts where the trees are dense is quite low. Winterwood is dense elf forest, and Erigia apparently used to be, too. Denser than Siberian Taiga, which is sort of a homeland for horse nomads where they interface with reindeer nomads. Northern Canada becomes more open Taiga, and then tundra, although the Yukon territory still seems to be fairly densely forested. But it also is only about the latitude of Turku, IIRC. The tree border in Alaska and Canada appears to be at or below the Arctic Circle, unlike Scandinavia and northern Finland where it extends several hundred kilometers further north. (I lived in northern Norway for a year, about four hours drive north of the Arctic Circle, and I made some excursions into and on one occasion even through northern Sweden. I also spent a few months further south in Finland on other occasions, so I am familiar with the north of Europe.) In some of the Dawn Age Pelorian material, I think in connection to the Nivorah folk fleeing from the glacier while Dara Happa cowered under Manalarvus's dome. And I am not talking about Uncoling hsunchen, but semi-pastoralist hunters of reindeer, possibly in a mode similar to the Praxian beast riders. Possibly riding the beasts. I concur - the Hsunchen of Fronela might have hidden in the elf forests that might have formed islands of resistance against the Glacier, similar to how Kerofinela and Kethaela remained free of the Flood a little earlier in the Gods War. It is one of the great mysteries how the elf forests (green and brown) were able to emerge so dominantly from the Greater Darkness if mythically there was no fertility and no sun left, but maybe the Sun Spider took fragments from earlier in the Gods War and patched those into the mosaic of shards of reality to create the Gray Age emergence of the world. The Aldryami still Awakened at the Dawn, except for a few green elf heroes supporting High King Elf. No western Hsunchen in what would become Pent and the Arcos Valley. These Reindeer people were something else, and may have integrated into the northen Pentan tribes after Argentium Thri'ile. I don't see any reindeer herding among the Pelorian Horse Warlords, although they may just have skipped that. Some of the Hirenmador emperors (Dardaggus, "Eater of Flesh", and Dagguneri, "Eats Women") maintained a cannibalistic streak. Not intended. I was speculating about the people of Eol, who are fisherfolk, reindeer hunters, and Thunder Delta Slingers, adjacent to the somewhat forested piece of Peloria extending towards the White Sea. Definitely not part of the White Bear Empire, definitely not Hsunchen.

Spirit combat appears to be the in-world attack mode of Ghosts, spirit entities employed as guardians by the cult of Humakt, the arch-foe of the Undead. It would be weird if these guardians were unable to deal with the Walking Dead.