Joerg

There's always the bar...

I don't think that Gloranthans celebrate the anniversary of their birth, but they will probably have a good idea what day they were born on, because that's when their forecasts and birth gifts. (Like Minaryth's knowledge that none of his children will read, which is a forecast that takes in his education by the Sages so that he could.)

The gift bringer ecclesiast with the broo at his side (Krampus) punishing the sinners might be some Arkati thing. No idea why shortly after winter solstice, though.

Quite likely a heroic ability rather than a skill, or possibly the starting skill might be available as a gift for a corresponding geases of "never use missile weapons" and "never hide from arrows behind shields". But then, I have about the same prejudices towards Humakti as I have towards ducks, Both are mainly good against zombies.

Already present in HeroQuest Glorantha, where the mounted Sartarite warrior rides a Sable antelope. Harmast's preference for Zebras might come from these beasts having been created by Issaries magic. Plus they breed true among themselves, or breed infertile crossbreeds with horses. As beasts of Eiritha, Praxian steeds may not need to be broken to the rider like horses require

That's the other Pamalt who is worshipped by the elves. Genert has Tada, and Pamalt has Pamalt of the Necklace.

Actually, too good pasture may turn your horses (well, ponies) into barrels only capable of rolling, at least that's what the local zoo director had to say about his pony pasture. You may want slightly less fattening pasture unless your horses are going to the butcher.

Any success putting it up anywhere?

The way the Form/Set spells were written in RQ3 (they don't seem to exist in RQG, yet), there is a linear cost for the amount of matter you want to affect, and a single point will allow you to affect roughly the equivalent of a (modern clinker) brick. From the Xeptam dialogues, the way a Malkioni sorcerer would approach something like architecture would resemble what Argan Argar did to Veskarthen to construct the Obsidian Palace - take control of a huge elemental entity and make it form its element. Mt. Passant happens to have a huge elemental - the ambling hill. Just saying.

Basically, you need to be a good horse master to train an ordinary young horse to a warhorse, and sell off that horse, to get this amount of cash. You could buy the colt, or breed some yourself and only train the most promising. Horses want good pasture both for grazing and making hay, and some grain fodder. To produce that grain, you need a plow team if you want to do it yourself, or otherwise a grain-farming tenant nearby. That plow team will require some milk cows to replenish the draught beasts. You also need to feed yourself and your assistants, provide housing etc. for a rich freeman or clan noble standard of living. I am not really a horse-affine person, so I will leave the training cycle of a young horse from colt to warhorse to more experienced people.

Yes, roofs in Esrolia might serve to collect water for the cisterns rather than primarily get rid of the surplus. The water collection in Nochet's Sarli district uses the local sewers to gather the water for the cisterns. That requires quite a bit of care to avoid excrements (of humans as much as of domestic beasts on the ground, like pigs, and as importantly of the ubiquitous sea birds and probably other birds taking their share out of the grain surplus, like doves) in the sewers. And of course some purifying installations - whether mechanical/biological, or magical. Agreed. The edge of the plateau alone will irrigate the karst above to an extent that subterranean loss of water may do little to affect plant productivity except in rare droughts where contrary winds or calms prevent the rain from entering the land. A lot more so than in Croatia and neighboring countries. (When such winds are cut off, productivity will quickly go down way below sustainability levels. That seems to have happened when the Machine God was fed with the physical and magical energy of the Good Wind of Heortland.) At the same time, Heortland is probably pleasantly warm much of the year, and Fire Season might make you wish for the wind to go through all rooms in the interior. In the Storm Sixth, designing houses so that the wind may enter each and every room (if you let it) might be a major design feature. Keeping the wind out or leading it past a central heating (that may double as bakery, pottery kiln, or smithing fire) could provide pleasant inside conditions in Dark and Storm Season, too. Aeolian architecture in more than one sense. How do you translate from that to house-to-house detail maps? One house at a time? Mt. Passant sits on top of the lower portion of the Heortland plateau (where the plateau may be rolling hills of up to 150 meters above the lower parts of the landscape and still fit into that 300 meter height band of the Guide's vertical map scale). One place I am working on nearby is an island shown as purely lower height band. My idea about it right now is to make it a half-scale Capri, with rather steep coastal cliffs around most of the shore, grottos, and a few places on the edges even exceeding the 300 meter band (though too small an area to show up on the Guide map scale). A similar reasoning can be applied to Mount Passant, which is shown without significant elevation beyond that band from 300 to 600 meters (give or take a few to make it 1000 to 2000 feet). If you place the lower end of the city area at 400 meters above sea level, the ambling hill can have at least 200 meters in height above that and just scratch the next height band in the Guide. Compare this e.g. to the Celtic oppidum near Kellheim, now crowned by the Liberation Hall, on a rocky knoll in a tight corner in the confluence of the Danube and the Altmühl. (Image taken from Google Earth Pro) Kelheim is a surprisingly good model for this kind of elevation (image from https://de-de.topographic-map.com/maps/6ff0/Kelheim/😞 The ridge of the old oppidum rises about 150 meters above the river planes. The ambling hill of Mt. Passant could easily be at least half again that high, with as much craggy protrusions around its peak as you might like. One important difference between Mt Passant and Kelheim is the absence of a major waterway. Mt. Passant is the only city in Heortland not situated on a waterway. Maybe Hattusa is a better parallel? One consequence of that absence of a waterway is that the city will need to rely on cisterns, as a rootless hill is unlikely to provide a holy spring near its peak. At least not a very productive one. That's something else to figure into the architecture, unless you want to invent an aqueduct for the city connected to the foothills of the Storm Mountains, or two.

The perennial debate about when the unborn child counts as more than a possibility and an entity of its own. A heartbeat? Motion? If every egg is sacred, menstruation shouldn't happen. This is the Bronze Age, so only viable children may be regarded as worth giving birth to. Uleria might have some secret ritual magic to re-absorb non-viable offspring.

In your area style that we have seen for Nochet, or in a house-to-house style like Pavis? An ambling hill, so without deep roots, and possibly quite different rock than the surrounding karst. The question is how Orlanthi the temple will be. The Boldhome temples to Orlanth are one possible parallel, Malkioni ecclesiastical architecture like in Slontos the other. (Which begs the question what Old Seshnegi influences made it to Slontos. Modern Tanisor may have inherited some, but may just as well have inherited from the converted Enerali holy places.) 8k according to the political map on p.246. Small enough for a house-to-house treatment. Heortland remains on the rainy side, which makes roof terraces a bit problematic. Roof pavillions might be a possibility, though. I might go for early Muslim Spain architectural influences - the Visigoth inherited Roman architecture, and the invading muslims came from formerly Roman Numidia. A merging of styles and cultures... Of the 8k populace, I guess more than 5k would be Aeolians, with urban traditional Orlanthi making up much of the rest before foreigners from other Sixths come into the picture. Out in the countryside, traditional Heortlanders are part of the Esvulari domains. Possibly intermingling, possibly in a ghetto-like separation (where being in the Aeolian ghetto may be a privilege that even Aeolians have to earn). And the term "ghetto" might better be avoided. But their worship rites don't have blood sacrifice (according to the Durengard scrolls), and the rites are overseen by the Zzaburs alongside the cult holy people - the worship/veneration mana needs to flow.

Personhood and an urgent need to get rid of the menace aren't mutually exclusive, really. Many a classic adventure offers a bounty on perpetrators, often to be proven by bringing in a grisly trophy (like an ear or a head). Also, ritual foes can be killed with indemnity. Biturian Varosh witnesses Narmeed Whirlvishbane deliver some broo heads from the Devil's Marsh to his own wedding and raising, and in the Six Strikes of Anger rite in Sun County he assists the killing of a Yelmalio priest. I stick to my previous stance that broos have the potential for personhood, but it takes nurture for the personhood to develop, and the person that develops is not very likely to be a pleasant person. But then, broos giving nurture aren't likely to imbue pleasantness. On the issue of honorable battle - a majority of Humakti can be assumed to obey that code of honor to their best ability. But there is room for Humakti who only maintain the appearance of honorability, and there is room for Humakti publicly behaving in ways suggesting that they don't value the concepts of honor that much. Sometimes a Humakti is pushed into anti-social and dishonorable behaviour by the weight of his geases - never trust or aid people from a certain cult or similar. Non-Humakti hope to fulfill the lofty goals of the Humakti code of honor in battle and war, but many Orlaanth-initiates for instance may prefer to survive/succeed now and atone later, like their own deity did when Orlanth had Humakt's new weapon stolen for himself to use on the Emperor. Orlanth tries to be good, and goes a long way to set things as right again as he can, but he does wrong fairly often. It wouldn't be wrong to call him the Unholy Trio's inspiration or trigger to give birth to the Devil when he fails to ubhold his own justice, and him going to exile for that did not do anything to change the events that created the race of the broos. And that's the deity. The worshippers are mortal humans (or humanoids), and have an even greater potential for failure. Biturian has no qualms at all to team up against that particularly nasty Light Priest in the Six Blows of Anger ritual, and even less after only narrowly escaping death in an unfairly matched battle. He may be the equivalent of a noble in standing, but he is no warrior - when he fights, he fights for survival, his own and that of his protegees. There are definite advantages to honorable battles - the survival rate is likely to be a lot higher than for an all-out battle. Sure, you may forfeit a large amount of wealth if you surrender, but even in such defeat there may be honorable reputation for you.

Feral broos skirt the definition of people - absent of any culture or language, they rarely develop anything that might make them people. They are all about eating and mating, and bouts of mindless raging destruction because their chaotic nature.. Freshly spawned boos can however be taught basic personality by example, and are perfectly able to acquire language and culture (and cults). This "nurture" makes them into Wild Broos, capable of communication, negotiation, planning, and magic. There are even civilized broos in the Empire, having received nurture and more than just the bullying of a band of wild broos. Immune to dsease, some serve as sanitation crews in Glamour. These broos definitely count as persons, although possibly traumatized from being pushed into a role that goes counter all of their instinctis.

Eurmal is the mother of Lodril! After she visited the sky, she came down with fire.

Possibly those of Pamalt, if Ompalam is the Fonritian inversion of Pamalt's values.

Girls? Horned (like little Morag)? Will the mother be fine? Norayeep's mother basically sacrificed herself in that ritual. And Uleria has a myth about barely surviving exposure to Disorder. Good fosterage is often part of a heroic upbringing. Sometimes anonymous, sometimes in the light of the public. The Storm Bull doesn't go by the name of Sky Rider? Or is he a walker?

As the uncatchable prey, she does have those magics. And IIRC, Orogeria has a similar story in Entekosiad. As I understand Transform Self, it takes the other partial transformations and completes them so you become a divine form of that totem animal. Which is completely in line with the mythos of the Lady of the Wild, and totally unhelpful if all you really wanted is to change into an ordinary bear's body.

If you can prove descent from Hyalor or Kuschile, I think you would be eligible to be adopted as a rider. And the daughter of Sartar was eligible as Feathered Horse Queen by virtue of being daughter to the previous one. Even without such an adoption, there is always a position as a foreigner companion to a noble or otherwise leader of another culture, if your characters are worthy of that distinction. Plenty such examples in Griffin Mountain.

Combine the Horali into the Dronari, or drop them at all? I don't see any strong evidence for either. Half of them, those who qualify, do. Unless Esvulari Zzaburi roll 1D6+12 for INT. Or unless there are more spells like Open Seas which have a variant that can be cast by people who have not mastered any runes or techniques. But then we might have sorcery-users in the other castes, too. And never touch one of Orlanth's accoutrements?

Only if you accept the Sartarite or Jonatelan situation as usual. They are an outlier on the Kingdom end of the spectrum, with regions like Brolia or the Solanthi on the other end. The alternative are tribes inside tribes inside tribes, until the term loses all meaning. (Or replace "tribe" with "king's domains".) Heortland, and Lunar Tarsh. Both places where urbanisation is way older than in Sartar, and where the constituent tribes to a city may have lost impact. Similar in Saird or Esrolia, it seems.

From what I remember seeing, there is a chance that the Talar was brought to the Ingareens only by the Waertagi after the Breaking of the World. Agreed. However, I think it would have to be more ancient. The Esvulari appear to be a splinter group of the Jon Barat survivors, but they are one of the Foreigners subject to the Hendriki Foreigner Laws of Aventus, an early successor to Hendrik (before 500 ST). Later, they are shown as very belligerent. The Slontan travelogue in the Durengard Scrolls around 900 describes the Aeolians as heterodox Malkioni (HotHP p.62). The Expulsion Walk hypothesis is similar to Europe being settled by Iaphetites. Emphasizing the Brithos texts over the Danmalastan texts in Revealed Mythologies is to be expected of the more ancient Malkioni groups. Malkion is son of Aerlit, brother (and great-great-great-grandfather) of Damol.

No - this was the good kind of mind control that would bring draconically inclined priests to heel. Worthless on fully enlightened draconics, though, but enough to raise Frankenstein mobs where the EWF was more about collecting tribute than about spreading draconic wisdom. City Rex - where the Orlanth subcult is in the title... Why? Introduced by a Larnsting king, then exported by a Larnsting king-to-be. The Sartarite Rex cult comes straight from the Hendriki, but Sartar hiimself never seems to have been of a particularly royal lineage - his only claim to rulership is his Larnsting-hood. At least prior to marrying the FHQ. Under Belintar, they might be Essrikuab Grandmothers or Yelmic overseers, dating back to Palangio's governorship? The concept of clans or tribes of unusual size must be fairly recent, if one compares to the Resettlement era.

According to Jeff's notes on them from a while back, the Aeolians have no warrior/soldier caste, and all three (!) castes fight - even the Zzaburi. If the Tanisoran Talar caste gets to play Man-of-All as a martial caste alongside their beast-society soldier caste, why would the Aeolians be banned from that? My question from five years ago when this caste system variant would have appeared still remains open. From the looks of it, all four Brithini castes are present in God Forgot, even if their Talar caste consists of a single person. I don't know whether the Ingarens follow the caste system closely.