Jeff

Having written lengthy descriptions of over 50 cults, this really boils down to me making a judgment call. Is it better to treat Elmal, Yelmalio, and Kargzant as: 1. Independent cults like Orlanth and Storm Bull. Sure they are both associated Air deities but everyone knows that Orlanth is not Storm Bull and vice versa. 2. Separate write-ups like Ernalda and Dendara. One core cult writeup, with another short writeup saying that the God Learners (and others) believe that the cults are the same, and even managed to transpose worshipers with no ill effects, but they never succeeded to get either deity to admit identity with the other. 3. Treat them all as variations of each other. Y(Elmali)io and Kargzant are just different masks for the same solar deity, and generally recognised as such by their worshipers. They might have some different spells (and only Yelmalio has gifts and geases) but they are working off the same template. Option 1 is clearly wrong, and I think option 2 is misleading.Option 3 fits the situation the best.

Yep. The default advise to gamemasters is to have one "notable episode" happen each season. Move the campaign forward in time. There's thirty years of campaign ahead of you! As for Dodge being a trap, it is an early decision tree for the adventurers. Do I want to be a character who tries to dodge blows, but doesn't wear much armor, so if I fail to dodge I am in big trouble? Or do I want to be a character who tries to parry, which means I wear as much armor (magical or physical) as possible, carry a shield, and get into slug-matches with Hector?

Yes.

A shaman is not a discorporate entity and thus is not well-represented the Spirit Rune (except when he discorporates).

Yep. As I've been working on the same material that has me looking more carefully at the Many Suns, I see far more differences within the Orlanth cult than the Many Suns. Dragon-friend, dragonkiller, adventuring rebel, king, atmospheric thunderer, etc.

For the simple reason that creating a multiplicity of personal runes creates a massive barrier to accessibility. In addition, I view them as mechanically unnecessary. Lanbril's powers are entirely within the ambit of Disorder and Illusion. No need to add an additional rune (or 50+ personal runes) to that mix.

For RQ purposes I would be VERY reluctant to mechanise the personal runes of deities. Better to just use the Disorder Rune when you try to do selfish things contrary to the harmony of a well-run community. Which is pretty much everything Lanbril does.

If you ask the average Orlanthi in a place like Clearwine who the sun god is, they'll likely give you three answers: 1. Yelmalio. He is the Cold Sun, the Last Light that refused to fall in the Darkness. He is proud and independent, and although he is not a friend of Orlanth, he is a foe of the Darkness and of Chaos. His temples are locally powerful, and his cultists proud and arrogant. 2. Elmal. He is also called the Cold Sun and serves Orlanth. Elmal carries the Sun Disk, and helped humans in the Great Darkness. Many say he is a friendly mask of Yelmalio and those cults are intertwined. His temples are few, and his cult small, but he supported by the Orlanth temples. We Orlanthi call on him when we call upon the powers of Sky. 3. Yelm is the Sun God, and Emperor of the gods before Orlanth killed him and started the Gods War. He is the Sun Disk, too distant and too remote for us to worship, if we were even inclined. Orlanth made peace with him after the Lightbringers Quest and he is necessary for the world to function, and thus we acknowledge him, even if we do not worship him.

Most Orlanthi of the late Third Age call the sun disk "Yelm". Some say he serves or is carried by Elmal, others say he is the distant father of the more helpful Yelmalio. Some say the sun disk is the depersonalised Ehilm. Some heroquesters say all four is correct.

Kargzant and Yu-Kargzant are well recognised by the Pure Horse People as different deities. Kargzant means something like "Moving Light" and "Yu" means "ruling". So there was the moving light in the Grey Age - Kargzant (aka Elmal). But then the Sun Disk reappeared at the Dawn, following in the same path as the Moving Light (but at opposite times). At first, many people thought that the Sun Disk was simply an appurtenance of the Moving Light, as they could not draw power from it. But then the Yelm Cult of Dara Happa proved that the Sun Disk was the Imperial Sun, dead since the end of the Golden Age.

I doubt the Hendreiki Elmal cultists know the Hill of Gold myth particularly well. They might stage something where their Son of Elmal or whatever his title is defends his yellow-painted palace against all comers. He gets beaten up, robbed, stabbed, but does not die and does not surrender.

For RQG purposes they all have Light and Truth. If I were to redo Elmal for HQ, he'd have Light, and not the full Fire Rune.

Nobody claims Yamsur was killed by Orlanth. All the songs of Yamsur place his death at the hands of Chaos at the same battle his master Genert died. There's a Second Age source that claims that Yamsur was a "northern light" that shone throughout the Lesser Darkness but failed in the Greater.

Divination Block is his use of the Illusion rune. Lanbril is a far less cosmically significant god than Eurmal.

Lanbril has Rune Magic. He has Divination Block (known by all temples), and Dismiss Small and Medium Elementals (known by the largest temples).

The elf Yelmalio is the same deity as the Hendriki Elmal, the Orlanthi Yelmalio, the Pentan Kargzant (who is not Yu-Kargzant), and the Dara Happan Antirius. These are all local cults of the same mythological entity.

This is NOT the thread to raise rules questions or bring up possible errors. There's an entire thread dedicated to that which Jason regularly replies to.

Although true in a way, this also tends to be massively overstated. The First Age was a period of syncretism thanks to the communication enabled by the Theyalans. Local deities got recognized as being different aspects or localised versions of Orlanth, Ernalda, etc. Much of this initial communication occurred in the early First Age, with the results being shown with the Second Council. However, syncretism between Dara Happa and the Council peoples occurred later. Orlanth and Rebellus Terminus were recognised as the same deity, Yelm was proven to be the god of the Sun Disk and the Imperial Sun, and so on. The Broken Council saw the Many Little Suns (Kargzant, Elmal, Antirius) as aspects of one Little Sun - aka Yelmalio, the Light of the Sky. The Little Sun defends against the Darkness - which was used by the Golden Empire to defend the frontiers against trolls and rebels. That identification largely survived the Gbaji Wars and was later used by the EWF to defend its frontiers against Spolites, trolls, and rebels.

Posted without further comment from me.

Correct.

RQG doesn't use Presence.

AiG is a wildly different system. The Khopesh is the sickle-sword. It is normally a two handed weapon but when used 1-handed it does only 1d8+1 damage.

You can add +25% to any four skills and then +10% to five more skills. You don't double up the skills. If you added +25% to the same skill twice, then you would be adding it to only 3 skills, not 4.

Spot on. Memory Palace techniques are inherent in sorcery.

Yes. Have each adventurer start with one cult each (each adventurer can have different cults or several can have the same cult, it doesn't really matter). Let them explore their cult. If the character develops in a way that it makes sense to join an additional cult, do it. But I wouldn't start at that point.