Jeff

That all seems right to me. Vasana was initiated into the cult of Orlanth Adventurous (Vinga) at the major temple of the Colymar tribe (as is common). As an initiate she offers worship to Orlanth at all sorts of temples and shrines to the god and his aspects throughout Dragon Pass, Pavis, and the Holy Country. Vasana can travel from Clearwine to Vesmonstran and recognise things. Normally she recognises the regalia, the accoutrements, and the songs in Storm Speech - this stuff has been carried throughout Genertela over the last sixteen centuries. Nathem was initiated into the Bear God cult in Old Tarsh. There is little more than a few shrines to Odayla there, and Nathem wanders widely offering worship to the Sky Bear wherever he can. He travels to Syllila where there is a large and organised cult with as many people as the entire adult population of the Tarsh Exiles. It is an eye-opener, with new stories, new myths, and more. So Nathem keeps wandering, and eventually makes his way to Fronela. There he encounters the Rathor cult - and Nathem tries worship the Great Brown Bear there. Does he succeed or is that the point where the differences are too great? Dunno, sounds like a fun part of that campaign though!

Now that is an interesting one - and ties in with the general downgrading of Lightfore in favor of Ehilm by the God Learners. Ehilm-Somash, Lodril-Solf, and Aether-Zitro Argon are all easy to see, but Lightfore is hard to find there!

I find it weird as well.

Yes.

I'd rather have this horse being flogged in its own thread, rather than showing up everywhere else!

Humakt is in general neutral towards most deities, except those that misuse Death or sanctify betrayal. He's friendly only to Orlanth and Ty Kora Tek. Humakt views the Red Goddess as an enemy and the Seven Mothers collectively as hostile. But Humakt is neutral towards Yanafal Tarnils - Humakt's opposition to the Red Goddess is not because of Yanafal Tarnils but something else, perhaps historical, perhaps cosmological - likely both.

And one can embrace an outer truth while still rejecting the inner truth. And vice versa.

And as both the Red Goddess' apocalyptic instincts and the compromise itself are both profoundly unstable and tottering in crisis, we get the Hero Wars. It is going to be up to mortals to hash this one out again.

Greg and I went over the Cult Compatibility tables a few years before he passed away. The Crimson Bat serves the Lunar Empire and is pretty much Neutral towards any everyone - with the exception of the Bull, Zorak Zoran, Thanatar, and VIvamort, everyone is just Bat Food, and not worthy of any specific hostility. But you are welcome to have your Glorantha. But this is how Greg and later I put it together for these publications.

And this is the Gbaji/Nysalor dichotomy again. IF you accept the experiences of the Lightbringers and their associates, the Red Goddess is as evil as any Chaos cult, just as Nysalor was Gbaji. And yet, the Lunar Heartlands are well-governed and until recently have enjoyed more than a century of tranquil peace and great cultural accomplishments. Few residents of the Heartlands ever see Chaos monstrosities or features. So who are you going to believe - the cults of the Old Gods or your own eyes?

Well she groups the Red Goddess with the likes of Zorak Zoran rather than Mallia, but yes, the Chalana Arroy cult is hostile towards the Red Goddess cult. Not the Seven Mothers (who is merely Neutral), not even the Red Emperor (who as Yelm Imperator is Associated), but the Red Goddess cult of illuminated Lunar Rune Masters. That's simply there. And putting the Lunar apologetics aside, the Red Goddess is profoundly dangerous. She has brought Chaos back in the world, and has violated the Cosmic Compromise. At the same time she turns the wheel of cycles and offers spiritual liberation - that includes illumination that this is neither inherently good or evil, but simply is. But Chalana Arroy - like all the Lightbringers - views the Red Goddess as an Enemy or at least Hostile to the cosmos. That also simply is. Whether the danger that the Red Goddess represents is outweighed by her spiritual illumination is an open question. For those who follow the Lunar Way, the answer is clearly yes. For those that uphold the old Cosmic Compromise, the answer is not so clear, although those clustered around Orlanth answer that the answer is most definitely no. The Lunar Empire itself manages to straddle this for the most part, finding ways to deal even with cults hostile to the Red Goddess (but at least neutral towards the missionary cults). But a few cults - such as Eurmal, Heler, Humakt, Storm Bull, Valind, and Orlanth - are intransigent in their refusal to even accept the Red Goddess' existence.

The Sun Domers didn't show up to Moonbroth. That was the Lunar Empire with its Sable, Grazelanders, and dragonewt mercenaries against Bisons, Impalas, Rhino Riders, Agimori, Zebra Riders (aka Pavis Survivors), Basmoli Berserks, newtlings, Oakfed, and even a contingent of broo.

Few if any. The Red Goddess is at the center of the Lunar religion - and by definition, all Lunar citizens are initiates of the Lunar Way.

The Seven Mothers' great deed was untouched by Chaos. The same cannot be said to be true for the Red Goddess herself.

The Red Goddess is a profoundly problematic deity. Plenty of cults are find with the Seven Mothers and other Lunar deities, but then draw the line at the Red Goddess. A few are the reverse - associated with the Red Goddess but friendly to even hostile with other Lunar cults.

Chalana Arroy is the Goddess of Mercy. The only cults she is hostile or an enemy of are Cacodemon, Krjalk, Mallia, Pocharngo, Primal Chaos, Red Goddess, Thanatar, Vivamort, and Zorak Zoran. Everything else can be healed. Even Thed, the Bat, and Nysalor could be healed. But the others - especially Mallia, Pocharngo, Primal Chaos, and Vivamort - are beyond healing. Interestingly, the Red Goddess is on the short list of hostiles. A quick review suggests that of the Lunar cults, she is friendly only with Etyries (she's Neutral with the rest). Perhaps the Merciful Goddess is on to something?

This was in another thread, but I think it is perhaps interesting enough to justify its own thread: So who are the Thunder Brothers, if we ask the Orlanthi? They are the Airy offspring and brethren of Orlanth, who can split the clouds so that rain can fall, shake mountains and destroy forests. They are collective of some three to sixty - once we focus on any specific Thunder Brother (except their leader, Vinga), we aren't talking about the Thunder Brothers any more. Scribes and poets love to make lists, but for the most part this is irrelevant. Usually you get a lot of local names that just mean things associated with Orlanth - eg., Donner and Blitzen - plus some local manifestations of Orlanth or named Umbroli. Sometimes Storm Bull, Kolat, Valind, Ygg, and even Gagarth get named. But it's understood you aren't talking about them individually (except maybe Vinga). Now Vinga is a very popular subcult of Orlanth, and Vingkot has the occasional cult. Lightning Spear is one of the Four Weapons and gets cult, but the rest are just names like Prancer, Vixen, Comet, and Cupid - we talk about Rudolph or about Santa's Reindeer collectively. But when we speak of the Thunder Brothers we always are speaking of them as a collective, with maybe Vinga as the leader. Some entities definitely aren't Thunder Brothers. Elmal is definitely not a Thunder Brother in any imagining! Same with Polestar. Nor Mastakos - he's the charioteer of Orlanth, and not part of that group (he's not a warrior or an Air God). I'm pretty sure Humakt is never listed as one either. Those figures were listed in the HW material, we reduced them in the HQ supplements, and then decided to get rid of them almost entirely in RQ. Hedkoranth makes an appearance in the Prosopaedia and the Sartar Book as a local incarnation of Orlanth Thunderous worshiped at Roundstone Fort, as does Rigsdal (as the personal guardian of Kallyr Starbrow).

As an aside, there have been previous version of the Yelmalio cult WIP circulated publicly. It is worth mentioning that there have been revisions since then.

As an aside, there have been many changes to the WIP manuscripts since they were last circulated publicly. There are more cults than listed, and many of the cults were revised since we circulated them.

There's a Cults of Sartar chapter of the book that has a dozen or two minor cults.

Certainly the Broken Council supported and encouraged the Yelmalio cult. That was a time of Light shining in the hills and the dark places. Yelmalio's followers brought the Light to the Shadowlands and broke the resistance of the Heortlings and trolls. And Light cults were able to cooperate and see the One during that brief exciting time. But at the edge of the Light, new shadows gathered. Gbaji, Arkat, Zorak Zoran, and more. The light of Nysalor was extinguished, although once again Yelmalio did not submit.

But at this point, this thread is for discussion of the announcement and of the Cults books as a line. If people want to talk about specific cults - please create threads for it!

Boldhome has around 10,000 people.

So who are the Thunder Brothers, if we ask the Orlanthi? They are the Airy offspring and brethren of Orlanth, who can split the clouds so that rain can fall, shake mountains and destroy forests. They are collective of some three to sixty - once we focus on any specific Thunder Brother (except their leader, Vinga), we aren't talking about the Thunder Brothers any more. Scribes and poets love to make lists, but for the most part this is irrelevant. Usually you get a lot of local names that just mean things associated with Orlanth - eg., Donner and Blitzen - plus some local manifestations of Orlanth or named Umbroli. Sometimes Storm Bull, Kolat, Valind, Ygg, and even Gagarth get named. But it's understood you aren't talking about them individually (except maybe Vinga). Now Vinga is a very popular subcult of Orlanth, and Vingkot has the occasional cult. Lightning Spear is one of the Four Weapons and gets cult, but the rest are just names like Prancer, Vixen, Comet, and Cupid - we talk about Rudolph or about Santa's Reindeer collectively. But when we speak of the Thunder Brothers we always are speaking of them as a collective, with maybe Vinga as the leader. Some entities definitely aren't Thunder Brothers. Elmal is definitely not a Thunder Brother in any imagining! Same with Polestar. Nor Mastakos - he's the charioteer of Orlanth, and not part of that group (he's not a warrior or an Air God). I'm pretty sure Humakt is never listed as one either. Those figures were listed in the HW material, we reduced them in the HQ supplements, and then decided to get rid of them almost entirely in RQ. Hedkoranth makes an appearance in the Prosopaedia and the Sartar Book as a local incarnation of Orlanth Thunderous worshiped at Roundstone Fort, as does Rigsdal (as the personal guardian of Kallyr Starbrow).

Again, that is not really the case. First the Yelmalions fought for Sartar throughout the reign of Tarkalor and Terasarin - even against the Lunar Empire. In Prax, the Yelmalions aided Dorasor, fought against the Lunars, then accepted the Lunars under the sort-of anti-, sort of pro- Count Solanthos, The Yelmalio cult is neutral towards Orlanth, but is hostile towards the Red Goddess.