jajagappa

Tatius could even be the Gold Proxy - particularly tasked by the Red Emperor to perform the rituals of the Sun. And what might be more galling than to know that the Emperor is a decadent, hedonist like a new Ovosto. With the Perfect Sky above, and the Temple of the Reaching Moon below, Tatius could rise between while drawing upon the great magical energies beneath as if it were a new Footstool. Meanwhile the Emperor smiles, knowing that his proxy has stepped into a wonderful trap.

I think there was a particularly strong selection in the Jonstown Compendium along with Pegasus Plateau and RBOM. Since the Lozenge has four sides, I'll go with four nominations: A Rough Guide to Glamour - a fine "illumination" of that most Lunar of cities Six Seasons in Sartar - that wonderfully detailed work of Usuphus of Jonstown Valley of Plenty - wherein we get to see the exploits of the Wildlings, children of the Dundealos Sandheart v.3: Tradition - who can pass up a VW camper rhino!

I enjoyed that one. I also recommend the TTC course Foundations of Eastern Civilization by Craig Benjamin. Another good one is Grant Voth's Myth in Human History.

It's not explicit, but you can see pieces of it. "Argrath and his companions set off over the broken realm of myth." - i.e. they had to cross the Threshold to enter the Gods War. "All went well after that until they saw the Blue‑Like‑A‑Corpse Woman, who sent decayed vilgars at him, armed with Argrath’s own weakness. He was wounded to death" - i.e. he experienced a Death. "When Orlanth and the Lightbringers reached the edge of the world, they had to enter into the Underworld to continue their travel. At that place, where Sky, Earth and Sea meet, Orlanth gave up his possession and attachment to Death, and he named Humakt to be the honorable wielder of it. In this way Orlanth gained entry into the Land of the Dead, and with that judgment Humakt gained control of Death once again." - i.e. he had to pass Humakt, and gave up "Death" to gain entry (and since Humakt "gained control of Death", I think we can see who won) At the Gates of Dusk, Rausa "collected the fee for going to the Underworld" - i.e. someone had to die. "The guardians, who all wear purple masks, question the visitor. There might be a fight." - i.e. a symbolic death to pass the Gates of Dusk.

The courses by Elizabeth Vandiver on the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Aeniad, and the Greek plays are great - and provide a lot of ideas for RQG games. Kenneth Harl's courses on Rome and the Barbarians, the Empires of the Steppes, and the Vikings all provide interesting thoughts. The course on the Etruscans by Steven Tuck is useful as one model about the Esrolians and Nochet. The courses on ancient Mesopotamia are also very good.

It rises into the Sky and heads towards Peloria. It is turned back by the magical powers of the Red Emperor. Then it circles around Kero Fin a few times before returning to the great crack in the Earth it came out of. So, it's there and waiting for whoever wants to visit it. (In KoS, it doesn't do anything further until the end when it's one of the two dragons that help to tear apart the Red Moon.)

Well, you do have to go to the Underworld, so at least ritually someone has to die. Whether or not you'd always face Humakt is another question. Arcane Lore outlines a few different variations of the quest, particularly the Westfaring. As it says in one version: "Humakt will appear after the mists clear. To pass him there must be a death: Humakt's or one of the questers'." In another version it notes: "The particular death is not important. In the Lightbringers' Quest it is either one of the party, at the hands of Humakt, or the Humakti guardian. Whatever the case, only one person can engage the guardian. One of the two must die." And, of course, to leave the Underworld you will have to defeat Humakt again because you have become part of the Dead and the Dead are supposed to stay dead.

Get an ostrich!

Do you have Arcane Lore? There's more references to Humakti myths there including the Combats in Kargan Tor's Court of Conflict (you could play as a series of duels/fights to become Champion of the Court). There are also the tests to gain the Berserk Rage or the Mighty Blows. Humakt is ALWAYS a Threshold Guardian too. Someone who you MUST fight if you want to reach the Underworld. You can figure that for any given ceremony there is someone (considered "evil") who is trying to cross the Threshold to rob the Underworld of some treasure without paying the price to do so (i.e. Death). This can be formalized into a relevant duel. Of course, as a former Storm God, Humakt fought all of his brothers at one point or another.

For this Rune spell, you could reasonably take the Inspire Love spell in RBOM and swap references to the Love Passion with the Lust Passion.

I seem to recall another thread (perhaps on Fonrit) asking about Seseine and GoG where Jeff indicated that Seseine would not be included. That the spells are not in the Red Book of Magic also suggests that it has not been fully written out, but that may have changed. IIRC there are at least 100+ deities, so there will be many that have not had full writeups previously (Sea and Lunar pantheons particularly). But you cannot have a Darkness pantheon without Kyger Litor, so of course she will be there.

Why? It's not like great colonies of seaweed are common to lakes and seas. You can certainly get algae blooms, stagnant duckweed, etc. but not sure those are typical of blue elves. Most likely you'll get patches of marsh grasses, reeds, etc. along the margins. These could be home to naiads (or voughs and their spawn), but they may have few sentient followers. In my Amber Fort campaign (Imtherian/Lunar colonists along the mouth of the West, aka the Gap, River at the western edge of the Elf Sea) which I ran back in the mid-90s, the colonists were busy trying to propitiate the river nymph to get her aid against the sea monsters. One of the PC's fell into the river, but succeeded in befriending the nymph - a teal-colored baby was subsequently left beside the fort.

There's also the aspect of a Chaos horde coming through and melting away the Gap of Tork. The Chaos might equally have melted, dissolved, mutated, or obliterated some amount of the Earth there, so quite possible to have a deep pit beneath (no indication of a Hole to Hell though). One possibility is that Chaos dissolved enough to either reveal or summon a dragon, which turned the Chaos westward through Tork, and subsequently took up residence. The waters then flowed over the dragon. Subsequently, the dreams of said dragon have given rise to all manner of monstrous sea creatures.

The Telmori are cursed to always transform on Wildday. No RP's needed - it always happens on that day. If they want to transform on other days, then they would use their magic.

Generally I've assumed it to be quite deep.

My pet theory is that underneath the Elf Sea is where the Blue Dragon is resting/sleeping.

Perhaps similar to Lunar-controlled Talastar or Holay (or Tarsh)? Lunars become more prominent/dominant in the cities, Orlanthi remain stronger amidst the clans. Trade becomes increasingly dominated by Etyries cult.

This was, of course, the approach Nysalor took in Ralios in the First Age, though in that case it was providing healing from spirits of disease. The challenge with this is that if not done carefully, you'll win over some clans, but immediately get their enemies as your enemies.

I think more like "including the LBQ"!

The Lunar Tarsh package should work reasonably well for Carmanians as both are more urban/city-dominated cultures and both are under the Red Moon.

The Lunars at the west end of the sea are in the provincial kingdom of Imther. Imther itself is a rugged mountainous land and it trails eastward into rough forested hills that end at the Elf Sea. Aside from one river noted for its falls and cascades, the other rivers from Imther drain south or west to reach the Black Eel and Oslir Rivers - so nothing that takes you to the Elf Sea. While there is plenty of timber along the Elf Sea, there's no compelling reason for the Lunars to try to build boats there (particularly with the threat of monstrous sea creatures). It's far easier for the Lunars to approach through the Arcos River valley. That's the drainage for the Elf Sea itself and it flows north. But that valley is home to barbarian tribes outside the Lunar Empire.

Correct, no tribes (except for occasional Volsaxi rebellions), just clans. With Belintar's presence (there is a reason he is called the "God"-king), that level of leadership was not required. Not much yet published. The Olontongi tribe are briefly mentioned in the Pegasus Plateau book. Their "clans" are the war bands that followed Broyan in freeing Heortland and Whitewall. They are centered on Newtown below Whitewall. But their leader has to deal with the rivals including the Kultain, the Sylangi, and the Balmyr plus the Volsaxi clans that were led directly by Broyan. Specific situation will be a complex multi-leader struggle to see who (if anyone) emerges as strongest - and they all will try to take tribute from merchants heading to/from Sartar. For the most prominent troll: GtG p.249 "Obash Broos-Smasher: A dark troll warleader from the Shadow Plateau, whose magical guardian is a petty storm god. A Shadowlord of Argan Argar, Obash does not denigrate humans who also worship the god. He and his clan claim ownership of the roads to Dragon Pass, and often raid north into Sartar, and against Lunar convoys as well." While the folks around Whitewall are enmeshed in petty power struggles, Obash undoubtedly reasserts the Shadow Tribute between Karse and Whitewall. Farther south, there are struggles for leadership in the cities (remember that the Lunars were driven out in mid-1624 by Broyan with aid from Argrath and Harrek) in this post-Belintar, post-Rikard, post-Lunar world, and there are no tribes, so no tribal leaders - just lots of small, rival clans. There are still Wolf Pirates around who want their loot. And then there is Queen Gagix, leader of 4 tribes of scorpionmen and they will be erupting out of the Footprint.

Remember that the Orlanth Rex rites come from Alakoring, and he arrived from Ralios in southern Peloria and the rites spread from there. So it was the standard practice in the Provincial kingdoms.

No. It was based on wielding a certain set of regalia. No, there were Governors of Heortland under Belintar, no kings. It was the Vingkotling ritual - you must prove your lineage to Vingkot and wield the Helm and Sword. He was not the first, but it had certainly been awhile since anyone used it. Not yet, though there are those who would like to.

My expectation is that all the new spells not in the RQG core book will be described in the GoG book.