jajagappa

"Yes, I swear upon the Styx that I will complete Harmast's Saga!"

Thanks for noting the original Rome references. I particularly liked this note: "would examine how a society could function without law. He chose ancient Rome as it managed to function as an imperial capital without a standing police force." That's Nochet in a nutshell.

Interesting. I've always found D&D and related products difficult to access and remember what class could or could not do what.

That's a very good point. Hopefully between the Gods of Glorantha book, the GM Sourcebook, and future material, the GM (and players) will have a broader range of material to facilitate character development (and encourage GM's to be bold and do what works for them and their players - the Maximum Game Fun principle is after all right up front in RQG on pg.6). I've always liked the fact with RQ that not all gods are equal, but any player can create a unique character with their own unique pathway through Glorantha. I'd always encourage a player to express a thought like "I wish Foundchild character had the Path Watch spell." As a GM, I'd ask the player to describe the story where Foundchild gained this. And I'd reply along the lines that, yes, you remember a Master Hunter at the Great Hunt telling this story and how he went on a quest to follow Foundchild's footsteps. Perhaps the Master Hunter failed, and gives a warning that he almost learned it, and had gained the Tiger Eye stone, but Raven tricked him at the Crossroads, stole the stone, and flew off with it. So, there's a way to get it, a partial outline of the quest to get it, and a way for the character to advance and gain something new, but still relevant to the god. It's just not common (yet - the character may become the Hero who restores the spell to all of Foundchild's followers!).

But that's been true in RQ since it was first created and true in Cults of Prax and Griffin Mountain. Granted we only had part of Orlanth there, but even then Orlanth was far more powerful and broader than Foundchild or Pavis or Flintnail or Zola Fel.... I never found that discrepancy an issue in all the years I ran RQ, and hopefully the material coming allows plenty of options and opportunities while recognizing that gods/goddesses are not created equal and don't have the same powers.

That sounds like a GM issue, not one with the cult per se. The major gods (storm, sun, earth, darkness) are powerful because they are broad and primary. Hunters are not; and the basic magical choices and options for 'cult' advancement within Odayla or Yinkin or Foundchild will naturally be more limited. The great thing with RQ was the ability of a PC to advance in multiple ways not limited to class (or cult or occupation). The GM has to be able to explore with the player what advancement makes sense. Is it skills as a Master Hunter? Is it knowledge of the Great Forest in the Spirit World? Is it recognition that Odayla is the Sky Bear (aka Orlanth's Ring) and that he is the power of the Storm too? Or that Odayla is the stead of the Red Goddess, the Moon Bear that turns the Sky Dome and that she is the power of the Moon too? All these are ways of advancement. All these can be achieved within the context of RQG. It's just not going to be spelled out as with a D&D Ranger class.

Unfortunately it's in the reprint at some time stage. Still worthwhile picking up the pdf.

It's part of a special exhibition on saddlery at the National Museum of Iceland, but unfortunately I didn't record where the piece originated. However, the writing on the piece is definitely a Scandinavian name and has a date of 1770 on it so my guess is Icelandic. The whole piece is visible here: http://www.thjodminjasafn.is/english/faldar-undirsidur/current-exhibitions/splendid-saddlery

They don't export those. 😉

Yes, could definitely see that. Could be fun to have players narrate what form/shape their characters have taken. PC's from the Red Cow clan might take the form of red cows/bulls. Or a bull-headed man or even man-headed bull (ala the old Assyrian gates). Or maybe a Humakti is a free-floating sword. Ernaldans might be varied types of snakes or like snake mothers. Lot of interesting possibilities - but I'm sure that whatever they choose the first time that they will be largely locked into that form in subsequent Spirit Plane ventures.

Buried in the Big Rubble, adventurers have discovered jars containing ancient cheese imported from distant Imther. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/16/science/oldest-cheese-ever-egypt-tomb.html

Pages from a bestiary of sea creatures plundered from the Lhankor Mhy temple in the City of Wonders.

The skeleton of a large coastal bird from the Three Step Isles, now thought to be extinct.

The skull of a monstrous broo, probably taken as a trophy after careful purification and cleansing rituals.

An Orlanthi ceremonial mask of an unknown deity.

Another carved plank, this of a sea monster devouring a ship's crew.

A carved plank, perhaps from a Holy Country ship taken in the aftermath of one of Harrek's raids.

More of the decorative saddle from Teshnos. Believed to be of a rubble runner. Note: it might also be a rare long-tailed morocanth or a morocanth heroquester with it's companion rubble runner.

Part of a decorative saddle presumed from Teshnos given the lush vegetation.

A carved wooden panel, perhaps of a dragon, from a Dragon Pass chieftain's hall.

A sea serpent devours (or perhaps vomits up) some poor soul.

Some treasures from an Yggs Isle horde, found on the isle known to locals as the Iceland. Here in this tapestry fragment a gigantic creature of chaos devours the limb of a god.

Obviously the former are what the Etyries merchants calibrate their scales to while the latter are what your average adventuring party receives - well clipped by cunning clan chiefs.

Which older sources? It's hard to comment across 20+ years of possible references. I know some older material came from a specific GM's campaign (Martin Laurie's maybe?) and certain references from that (e.g. Gudnystead, Gwandor clan) have been renamed/replaced. As the most canonical/recent, I'd just go with what is in Coming Storm re: Cinsina/Culbrea/Dinacoli/Torkani/Maboder. It seems most complete on these. Similarly for Colymar/Lismelder/Malani, I'd go with SKoH, Sartar Companion, and RQG. Personally, I'd prefer to keep these as the 'documented' tribes/clans, and let GM's figure out the rest as need/interest arises.

Love, love, love the giant duck head! That will definitely make it into one of my games. 😀