Joerg

The most ludicrous but unfortunately logical solution would be that Truesword adds the weapon's regular damage as magical damage while the normal damage is changed to 3D6 fire damage, both inflicted at once to the same target. A changed Telmori would be damaged by both, a fire elemental only by the Truesword magical damage. Can a weapon under the influence of Fireblade be damaged or break? Can it parry?

The easy route is to say the two spells are incompatible. I think a casting of Truesword on a blade with Fireblade on it will return the blade to its true metal form. I mean, it is in the name of the rune spell, isn't it? To cast Fireblade on a blade with Truesword on would be tricky again. Should spirit magic trump rune magic?

Now on itch.io: https://chaosium.itch.io/the-whispering-ruins Given your area of play, you will find quite a few glimpses of backgound that you may want. And you may fail to regognize more until being pushed in their direction...

He is one of the heroes of the Machine Wars, with a half column subchapter in History of the Heortling Peoples p.54 the main source. He tricked the Zistorites into making him the magical sword by pretending madness.

Which makes you a lay worshipper of Irrippi Ontor or Buserian - in the end, a lay worshipper of LM.

The Talars and Men-of-All have effectively been melded into a single caste, possibly with some of their judgement powers taken away and moved to the Zzaburi. Ancestral sorcery still has the problem of requiring sorcerous training and capabilities for techniques and the like. Given the observation of caste restricions for everybody but men-of-all, dronar caste ancestry from Brithos will be hard to trace unless you allow a rich urban dronar caste from the beginning of Hrestolism. There is mention of such somewhere in the Guide, IIRC.

i In order to become a sorcerer, one has to be literate, That means you need to be a lay worshipper of Lhankor Mhy. You need instruction to master a technique and and at least one rune. Which you probably do with a set of simple and totally ineffective spells that do nothing but let you pour magic into a magical construct. If the teachers are in any way pragmatic, those training spells will feed a magic battery for them, and the learning effect is to make a metaphorical lightbulb on the way flicker. From Jeff's recent writings about sorcery, the Alien Recmbination Machine sounds like a philosophical and / or magical construct serving as a memiry palace to latch your sorcerous techniques and mastery of the runes to. Not Gloranthan, but using a similar memory palace approach, are the Iron Druid stores by Kevin Hearne, which devote a couple of books to following the magical education of his companion. Hearne's druid builds mind spaces by operating in multiple languages, to be able to maintain one mental construct say in old Brithini while creating a new one in Heortling. I suppose different natural philosophies or different epic poems might serve, too. When it comes to theist cults other than Lhankor Mhy to teach sorcery, those memory palaces and mental spaces might already exist in the deep myths of their cult entity. A student would most likely be introduced to a memory palace technique of the teacher. Lhankor Mhy's sorcery used to be called alchemy, which mightt be a hint what memory palace was used by Thorvald. Being a chemist, the lab techniques that require some concentration yet have to happen while you do something else to get the process going on might be helpful. The Kalevala has the song of iron, a poem passed on to aid a healer treating wounds, maybe more specifically combat wounds. It might be the general framework for Dismiss Death. Music or choreography might be a way, or matial arts katas. We associate casting a magic spell with hand gestures, which are also used in many forms of dancing - think Indian temple dances. Of course, theists and mystics use these, too. The literacy requirement for RQG sorcery makes it different from the druidic or Kalevalan spell-singer sorcery, but I suppose that is a detail one can adapt. I wouldn't be surprised if the Third Eye Blue smiths have their sorcerous patterns in the hammer song and the stoking of the fires rather than as verbalized concepts that can be written down. Chalana Arroy sorcery might use anatomical knowledge as its memory palace. These cults might replace the literacy requirement with one of their cult skills, which may then limit their sorcery in scope. For a Chalana Arroy sorcerer, I suppose that's just fine as it goes hand in hand with their vows and taboos. Finally, we don't have the sorcerous Ritual of Opening yet for a non-sorcerer Openers to cast. The Cult of Dormal teaches thie ritual even to illiterate sailors, although teaching the ritual most likely involves teaching the mnenonic technique along with the rite. Your average Opener doesn't sorcerously master the Water rune, nor does he master the Command technique, but still he manages to infuse the keel water of the ship with the change in attitude that neutralizes whatever Zzabur's (?) Spell of Closing did to the Seas. Intensive lay membership is required for the Read/Write skill. To any who join up and have shown enough devotion for a sufficient time learning only preparatory steps. Think Karate Kid 1. Learning sorcery is an exercise just in that kind of frustration, only much more of it. The Cult of Pavis teaches some sorcery, it seems, to initiates in good standing (i.e. with a track record of reliability and genuine desire to act for the city). The Cult of Dormal probably requires loyalty to ship (which may have a spirit, or be a wyter) and crew. Lhankor Mhy sells knowledge, but demands outrageous prices, and/or an equivalent amount of knowledge deposited. Initiates doing research probably are on a pay per view scheme, while god talkers get a limited flat rate. And Issaries is a cult of mercenary magicians and spell traders already without sorcery. You can always find a Vadeli willing to teach you sorcery for a price. The teaching probably involves Chemtrail or QAnon analogs mental constructs that leads to a MVGA agenda. That's the great question about "low sorcery", learning spells where the spell knowledge contains sufficient knowledge but no mastery of either the techniques or the runes. And whether sorcery learned that way needs to be unlearned to master the runes and techniques. All that stuff about memory palaces might still be required for someone without mastery of Command or Water to cast the ritual. Your concrete example of the Lunar sorcerer gets more complicated because of the Lunar Phases, but I suppose that is part and parcel of mastering the Moon Rune, without which such an exchange would be meaningless anyway since Lunar sorcery revolves around that rune. Let me finish with a sorcerous dictum that applies to my Glorantha: A sorcerous spell is an energetic construct similar to a spirit. It is ephemeral, relying on the energy (MP) placed into it that upholds the entire construct. The sorcerer has to visualize the entirety of this construct - maybe like a piece of orchestral music with multiple voices creating harmony and dissonance, maybe as a Rube Goldberg contraption. While active (like say Steal Breath), the sorcerer must operate a mental construct of a joystick or similar to direct the spell, when he stops doing so, the effects of the spell (in case of Steal Breath the container to house the tapped magic) stays around but doesn't do anything beyond its basic function any more. When using a spell to attack a creature that can resist the spell, it is the energy inside the spell and not the POW of the sorcerer which contests. The sorcerer does not entangle his soul directly with the spell target but uses the spell as an intermediate.

Some will, others growing up in more isolation or unable to afford or maintain teachers from Safelster or Tannisor may have started sliding generatins ago. The Trader Princes are on a spectrum between coping well with the changes brought bay the Opening and devastation. That's a good question. The Guide states that many forms of Hrestolism believe in reincarnation into the world. But that may be re-incarnation of the soul, not of identity (intellect). The latter may be consigned to Solace, or have merged up in Joy.

Your character will have separate loyalty and devotion ratings for the different religious and social factions they are part of. Tithing and time requirement for a city or clan cult are known as taxes, and the same for guild or warband duties and fees/necessary acquisitions and maintenance. Gifting a point of POW to a wyter as initiation might raise your RQG loyalty etc. rating by 10 percentiles, or may play out as branching out or raising an "initiate of" ability from the proper rune for a hero point in HQG (and whatever that mechanic may now be called in Questworlds). It is possible to follow two or more major cults, as long as neither cult is vetoing that. Such full cult requirements will cut in your available funds for standard of living. At the same time, they may be payments for status in your community, counting towards money spent on maintaining your standard of living - I guess your GM / narrator will have to make a ruling how generous or fussy and niggardly he wants to be. Some GMs and game designers seem to have a problem with affluent or well-sponsored player characters, others may run with that and rejoice about the new source of quest-givers and plot-hooks and complications.

The Glorantha Classic Cult Compendium has the Donandar write-up (I think originally published in Different Worlds). For RQ2 or made in preparation for RQ3 Gods of Glorantha, close enough to "official until superseded.

Chalana Arroy may have come from Yelm's Court, one of the most rigid places in terms of acceptable behavior I can imagine in Glorantha. Obeying a strict set of behavioral dictums may have been in the nature of the cult when it was adopted by the Orlanthi.

YGWV Then what about non-Logician-sourced sorcery? We know of the Sherapdara son of Vith who visited the Western portion of the world outside of Vithela, and who returned with sorcery, but that going west and returning may mean that he made contact with the sorcerers of the Vadeli or (less likely) the Brithini and was taught that knowledge. The Vadeli after the Closing are known as the merchants of doom. During the Gods War, they were conquerors and slave takers, but they are known to have traded with the Mostali, and they may have traded with whoever was too powerful for them to enslave or conquer. We know that Vadel's initial interaction with Pamaltela was assisted by Zzabur (and thereby tacitly approved, even of the Talar may have had to uphold a directive not to go there). Vadel's double dealings with the Mostali led to Zzabur becoming suspicious of and ultimately hostile to Vadel, who lost his living skin for stationery before death (probably dismemberment, as this could have happened in the Late Golden Age - the God Learner Map on p.683 seems to confirm that the God Learners put that part of their prehistory in the Late Golden Age, before Death, too.). Maybe the Vadeli version of the Sword Story has Vadel as the first victim of Death? While they avoid aging, they are subject to violent deaths, and in the absence of the Blue Vadeli, their ability to sorcerously resurrect victims of violent deaths may be limited. On the other hand, the Vadeli know of sorcerous resurrection, and they may have passed on that information (if not the technique) to the cult of Chalana Arroy. Possibly already before or during her Lightbringer's Quest. The Mostali are the other major source of sorcery. They hate sharing their knowledge, but the Vimorn stories in Middle Sea Empire tell about the Golden Caste intercessor with Vimorn teaching his magic (likely that of a Silver Caste follower), but being denied the prize of acknowledgement which instead went to the Grower (probably an Aldryami lord or lady). So the Vadeli had both Zzaburi and Mostali sorcery to trade. The Artmali may have learned some, possibly as slaves who then escaped or were liberated, possibly in conquest, and blue-skinned sorcerous sailors plagued the refugees from Thinobutu. As did sprcerous antigods from Vithela.

There is one surviving outpost of the Logicians further east than the Neliomi shore - God Forgot. Probably brought there by the Waertagi rather than an extremely long ranging group of Kachisti, and judging from their aptitude for artificing, possibly of strongly Kadeniti origin - the builders of the six tribes of the Logicians, whose lands were overrun in the Double Belligerent Assault, and subsequently drowned, although only after the Storm Age Flood, in the Breaking of the World marking the transition from the Lesser to the Greater Darkness. There was a brief interlude which could have established the Ingareen colony during the Flood in the Storm Age, after the victory over Worcha but before Faralinthor became isolated from the oceans and dried up. Alternatively, the Waertagi could have carried the Ingareens to the Leftarm archipelago after the Breaking of the World and the revival of Choralinthor, long after the Expulsion Walk of Old Malkion aka Malkion the Sacrifice, but that would make their claim that their god (Malkion) forgot them problematic. A third option would be that they were a satellite colony of the city of New Malkonwal, having traveled along the Faralinthor shore to the place that would become the Leftarm Archipelago. Not all Walkers who founded New Malkonwal need to have been present for the Fifth Action. In the light of their "God Forgot" wail, this third option might become my new favorite. The Ingareens did receive a Brithini Talar before the Dawn, after the Breaking of the World, and as far as I know, the Talar would have brought a support cast of Brithini immortals, although likely he had to select from the less pure ones Zzabur wanted off his island paradise-to-be. Zzabur's periodically cleansing of disobedient dissident reasoning created as periodically an influx of sorcerers to the rest of the world. Many were absorbed by the colonies along the Neliomi coast, but others may have been carried further east on Waertagi ships. We know of the Waertagi ruins at Sog's Ruins in southwestern Prax. Once a Waertagi drydock near the Ingareens, it fell dry/out of use, and it looks like they approached Nochet afterwards, during the Dawn Age, establishing their city-ship sized docks there. (Those docks appear to have been destroyed in the Devastation of the Vent.) The Entruli of Slontos (Ramalia, Wenelia) had contact with the Waertagi within the second century after the Dawn, much likely already before the Dawn. The Olodo were transported from there to Jrustela and later Umathela during the Dawn Age, after Lalmor of the Vathmai had brought the Lightbringer rites and magic to Slontos. He may have encountered sorcerers there. Boltror the Traveler, the serpent-legged son of Sonmalos, the son of Aignor the Trader, a Vadeli-mothered grandson of Hrestol, and of Seshna Likita, left his father's kingdom on a Waertagi ship and returned with a wife from the East. That East appears to have been east of the Basmoli and Pralori-inhabited Tanier estuary, which makes Slontos or Kethaela a likely place of origin. Either place had cities and earth cults that would appreciate the earth-ness of the serpent-legged prince. It isn't quite clear whether Boltror traveled solitarily as a Man-of-All on a great quest,, or whether he traveled with an entourage of sufficiently adventurous or ambitious fellow courtiers. In the latter case, those would have included more men-of-all and some zzaburi advisors. Boltror returned after 13 years, long enough for him or his companions to have spread Man-of-All initiation or sorcery to friendly natives. And it sounds unlikely that his wife and children were the only easterners to accompany Boltror on his return trip, whether to stay with their kinswoman Pamala or whether to return home on a later Waertagi ship bringing back Serpent King Seshnegi knowledge and magic.

The Brithini seem to claim that sorcery came from or was given by Malkion the Prophet or an earlier, more primal incarnation of the Invisible God, and entrusted to Zzabur and those who followed the way of his caste. The Waertagi use the same sorcery. They don't seem to restrict it to any castes, but then they aren't immortal unaging like their Brithini cousins, as far as we know. The Kachasti (or Kachisti, after settling in Genertela along what later became the Nidan Mountain range) had Brithini castes when the Vadeli prisoners given into their oversight rebelled by suiciding. Their zzaburi are explicitly mentioned in Revealed Mythology. Enslaved by the Vadeli and/or Mostali, they could no longer maintain their caste requirements (except maybe for the workers), and became normal mortals, as did all of their offspring. It looks like the earliest association of Issaries with sorcery could have been the Kachisti republic/kingdom, or the Kachasti tribe in general. Garzeen must have been active around the Dawn - possibly still in the Gray Age. He may have been a cult hero and/or an incarnation of Issaries, ultimately becoming the Middleman subcult. As far as I know, Froalar's Seshneg had only limited contact with other communities - the Britini colonies of Neleoswal, and potentially that of Arolanit, the Brithos homeland, the Waertagi as intercessors with Brithos, and the Pendali who had granted Froalar the land he built his dukedom on. Chances are that Garzeen was one of the Brithini who had followed Froalar to Seshnela. Could he have been a Kachasti? Apparently yes, if you follow the Zzabur version of the history. Brithos did accept refugees from the other non-Vadeli tribes (excepting the Waertagi, who had no need to flee as they had become nomadic and mobile earlier on): There were some Tadeniti and Kadeniti refugees who made it to Brithos from the conquest and destruction of the Tadeniti, and later the Double Belligerent Assault - Zzabur talks about separating these refugees into pure ones allowed to join the motherland on Brithos, and impure ones sent over to Genertela. The Kachasti had created a colonial empire (or at least a federation of satellite city states) in Genertela, but some remained on the mainland, and may have been forced to flee to Brithos in the conflict with the Banthites. But then, at least one non-sorcerous Issaries has always been known, too, Harst Spare Grain, native to the Orlanthi, possibly already on the Downland Migration from Dini on the flank of the Spike. Lhankor Mhy and his knowledge of Everything necessarily encompasses the knowledge-based magic of sorcery. But then, many people who have learned e.g. a foreign language can attest that having gained the knowledge doesn't necessarily mean proficiency. Lhankor Mhy manifests as the inventor of writing, which would have been Tadenit in the ancient six tribes of the Logicians. IMG, YGWV: Together with Zzabur, Tadenit or his followers invented writing on the living skin of foes, which earned them te special enmity of the children of Vadel, and led to the destruction of the Tadeniti branch of the republic of Logic. As outlined above, there were survivors from that assault who made it to Brithos, some allowed to remain, the rest sent off eastwards to join the Kachisti or form new satellite cities (colonies) of their own. Carried by the Waertagi, whose range eastward was llimited to the extent of the Neliomi Sea most of the prehistory of the Logicians.

All communities above a certain size may have a wyter. Sometimes the wyter of a community manifests without directed ritual activity, but more often there is an active selection of the community wyter by its founder(s). In case of the communities founded by Sartar, these wyters were quested for by Sartar and his co-founders (in the case of Jonstown including Hauberk Jon as king of the Malani tribe, and probably the kings of the other confederate tribes Cinsina, Culbrea, Maboder and Torkani as well). After the city was founded (on the site of the village of Jon's home clan, at least the upper city), Hauberk Jon became the first City Rex or king of the confederation - a role he already had in the armed conflict with the Telmori. Later, after Hauberk Jon's death, he became the wyter of the city. How exactly that happened remains to be explored. Somehow, the founders of communities may replace or expand the original wyters of the community. The Varmandi Vengeance Oak and Colymar's Black Spear may be the same, or they may be slightly different. From recent statements it looks like Hauberk Jon is a local hero cult of the Orlanth Rex cult, headed by the City Rex and worshipped by all citizens as part of their citizen requirements, and by many residents of Jonstown without citizen status as well. A worshipped hero usually comes with a feat that makes it worth giving worship. In Hauberk Jon's case, that may have been uniting the tribes of the confederation for the war against the Telmori, and then to keep the confederation together and even enhanced into peace. A feat greatly aided by Sartar, sure, but then Sartar went on and created his kingdom, questing for a wyter for that with a Westfaring (following the Lightbringers' Quest to the point where the questers manifest Ginna Jar), and taking over as the wyter with his self-immolation and apotheosis. As cities go, Jonstown is on the lower end of the scale, even though it comes third in size in Sartar after Boldhome and Alda-Chur. Of the other cities of Sartar, we know that Wilmskirk and Swenstown have similar deals. Duck Point is problematic because it doesn't really have a city confederation, Alda-chur pre-existed Sartar's founding spree, and Alone was founded by Sartar's great-grandson Terasarin, probably imitating the model set by his ancestor. It isn't clear who led that city confederation after it was founded, but Terasarin did marry one of his sons to a Far Point chieftess, so maybe that son became the first city rex there. Pavis founded a city with a population at least the size of Boldhome. While New Pavis is significantly smaller than that, the pact Dorasor made with the city god of the Big Rubble allowed the god to add new worshippers and new life to his cult that had survived mostly in hiding, at least outside of the Real City section of the Rubble. There are other city gods known by name, e.g. Tondiji in Fonrit, Glamour in the Lunar Empire, Raiba(mus) for Raibanth in Dara Happa, and even major deities with divine agenda without the city like Galanin in Galin in Safelster or Shargash in Alkoth in Dara Happa. But then we know aspects of Shargash taking a role in Alkoth, making the city god bit a subcult similar to what happens with Hauberk Jon in Jonstown, only scaled up for a population ten times as high. I don't think that there is a magical minimal number for a city god to be more than a hero cult of a ruling deity. It depends on the magical stature of the city founder (where he is the city god), and probably on the fervor of the worshippers (which also measures the cult's wealth).

This is the only thread I think fit to announce the little file I uploaded: Dart warrior ducks in the Lunar Empire on a mission of revenge.

Mainly my understanding, too, but I still cannot see Malkioni Daka Fal shamans in Talar households.

There was talk about which Lightbringer deity a Malkioni participant on the Lightbringer's Quest would identify with, and I have seen Flesh Man, Lhankor Mhy and Issaries as suggestion. Chalana Arroy is obviously Xemela, who accepted Death (going into the Underworld) to heal the world. But there is one Lightbringer deity even more obviously Malkion the Sacrifice (Book of Heortling Mythology p.111): Now compare this with the account of the Fifth Action (Revealed Mythologies p.14): QED.

(Triggered by a comment by @Nick Brooke on Facebook comparing dragonewt eggs to Giger's xenomorph ones) Dragonewts are hatchlings from dragon eggs laid by a very promiscuous but still under-developed female, resulting in neoteny. By the early Second Age, the dragonewts noticed they were running out of crested scouts, so they tricked humans into becoming more draconic. Thousands of pilgrims would flock to the dragonewt cities to gain enough enlightenment to be reborn as dragonewts. Something similar had been done before, during the Second Council, resulting in the wyrms - somewhat draconic creatures, although not quite acceptable to the dragonewts (the wyrm in the dragonewt caravan had to work his way towards crested scout equivalence). The dragonewt eggs are described as leathery, a cocoon inside which the dragonewt develops, hatching the mobile stage. So, the pilgrims arrived, got infused or injected with draconic essence, sat down to meditate and slowly transformed into dragonewt eggs.

Also, becoming a god would not be a solution for his dilemma. Zzabur has seen gods die, reclaimed by the Prime Matter. There is little doubt that Zzabur left his imprint on Godtime, though, unless it was just him waving arms while some divinity did things. (Which is a scary thought for him, too.) Can Godtime mortals reach eternal conservation in Godtime? Are Zzabur's brothers Talar and Horal still around in Godtime?

Already mentioned it over on Facebook, but other than the Rokari movement, the newly dominant strains of Malkionism had been helped out of suppression by Halwal, the God Learner dissident sorcerer who left in a huff when the rest of wizard-dom would not choose him as a leader. And Rokar's use of the Sharp Abiding Book sounds like he used the example of the Malkioneranist Sharp Abiding Grimoire if any of the things mentioned in Middle Sea Empire are salvagable for the new canon. BTW, I agree with the Ralian statement. When doddering King Nralar demanded tribute from the clearly more powerful and more sovereign autarchy, the syncretism of the Autarchy was the dominating form of reformed Hrestolism.

I tend to hesitate to allow Dodge when not standing up, or might give a hefty negative modifier for such a situation. In order to be able to move out of the way of an attack there has to be space to move into, and the ability to do so. Otherwise, what @Klostersaid about the numbers game. Also, a barely successful parry will reduce special and even critical damage to the targeted hit location, and in 90% of all cases that damage will go to a different hit location.

Whenever they cllimb, swim, or move in social circumstances that require them to show up unarmed, like in a public bath

I am curious about that - do you mean the watery side (or the ability to cross over), or do you refer to the terminus effect for sea dwellers, and the border of said effect? Making it swell and ebb with the tides would be possible, but adds new cans of worms (or puddles of sea dwellers surprised by the Blue Streak plummeting down). Again, this can be problematic, at least if the Blue Moon tides are reflected in this. The weekly tides (as per the description in Moonbroth Oasis) are a lot less of a problem. But then yes, the Seas and all related magics might be subject to the tides, though a lot less drastically so than the Lunar cyclical magic is tied to the Lunar phase. But beware of possible consequences. I find it quite a pity that the Fish Road doesn't extend further into Nochet - e.g. into an audience chamber with the Queen, or possibly to the Antones Estates. Or at least when active magic is used to extend it that far. I like this, as a whole. In fact one of my pedestrian efforts to put my visual vibe onto the screen used a blue-green drizzle like that to depict the border effect from inside the Fish Road. Right now that attempt at visualisation looks an awful lot like a road with street lanterns on both sides, and a halo of different environment forming a stasis-rune shaped dome along the length of the road. What looks like street lanterns are buoys, purpose made amphorae held in place by chains anchored in hexagonal columns of basalt dug into the sea floor. The chains have been overgrown by sea weed, mussles etc., and the buoys may be overgrown with barnacles and more sea weed. Maybe I'll switch to a single central line of buoys creating overlapping spheres of effect, or to staggering the two rows in a zigzag pattern. I suppose the buoys might hold up some enchanted crystal or other mineral to support the effect. The buoys are set up in a somewhat redundant way, so that it takes more than a single buoy brought down to let the fish road collapse in that area. Having such a material infrastructure that can be maintained or repaired will of course offer scenario hooks. And that type of maintenance may be easier to do than keeping Temples of the Reaching Moon online. The entire fish road set-up may be a warding similar to that of an Issaries Great Market, although possibly with fewer trigger conditions or alarms.