Jeff

Harald, MOB, and I have done a fair amount of work on the folk of God Forgot and of the Esvulari. A few notes:

More Notes
At the Dawn, the Ingareens were atheists in the Brithini model. However, it was very hard for such a small community (only 100) to maintain all those taboos. So some of the Ingareens adopted Theyalan ways, adopted a Theyalan language for regular use (like Yiddish amongst the Ashkenazi - a Theyalan vernacular with elements taken from Ingareen Western), married outside their community, and prospered as a result. They kept their Western tongue for certain religious rituals, continued to use sorcery as their primary means of interacting with the gods, but also introduced some Theyalan worship. These folk became the Gansavuli (of Mount Passant) and Densavuli (of Refuge) in the First Age. The Gansavuli and Densavuli later became the Esvulari. In the later Second Age, the Jrusteli showed up and the Ingareens prospered. The Esvulari accepted Ingareen or even Jrusteli rulers and wizards.

When that collapsed and the Closing cut the Ingareens off from the Middle Sea Empire, the Esvulari were again ruled by the Hendriki.

The Ingareens, more isolated in the post-Apocalyptic Mad Max Fury Road desolation of the Left Arm Islands, went another way to survice, modeling themselves on full-blown Brithini society brought to them by Talar Barat of Brithos, who arrived in 917. Unlike their Esvularing kin, they have the four Brithini castes (except the only member of their Talar caste is "The Talar").  Talar Barat brought a "pure" Brithini way, which was eagerly adopted by the Ingareens. They are a community of about 50k in total, with the Immortal Talar as the supreme authority. There might be about 250 sorcerers (including their apprentices) - I wouldn't be surprised if many are the children or descendants of the Immortal Talar. I suspect all of the officials appointed by Belintar belonged to this group. There's maybe a 1000 Horals, most actually mercenaries recruited from outside. The rest are Dromal crafters, farmers, and fisher folk.

While Brithini have the Menena Caste, but the Esvularing have three free castes (plus slaves and foreigners). The Ingareens continue to speak Old Brithini, while the Esvularings speak a Theyalan tongue except for rituals (when they use Old Brithini). The Ingareens follow the Brithini caste system, while the Esvularing have three free castes, and their priests and rulers are chosen by the commoners. Nonetheless, the Esvularings acknowledge the superior sorcery of the Ingareens. Actually I suspect Ingareen sorcerers are often used as "court magicians" by the Hendrikings and Esrolians. They have a bad reputations and are feared, but that is part of the reason why you use them!  

The Esvulari are like what was called "God-Fearing" by Hellenistic Jews. Those were Greeks who shared religious ideas with Jews, to one degree or another. However, they were not converts, but a separate community, engaged in Jewish religious ideas and practices. They did not adhere to all of the Laws of Moses (including dietary restrictions, circumcision, Sabbath, etc). I think the same thing goes on with the Esvulari regarding both Ingareen and Orlanthi practices. They share religious ideas with both (imagine a Ven Diagram showing the overlap of ideas), but follow few of the restrictions. To honor Orlanth, the community abstains from eating the meat of goats on Orlanth's storm days (though those are not Esvulari holy days per se), and closes their market on those days.

Esvularing communities outside of southern Heortland often petition Mount Passant to send priests and qualified rulers. 

Oh it definitely makes sense - it is always good to look at some RW variations. But always remember, Glorantha is NOT our earth, and its religions are grappling with a core set of phenomena that in our world is mostly poetic or metaphorical.

That being said, the biggest sources of inspiration for me when I write about the Malkioni are Plato, Plotinus, Zeno of Citium, Second Temple Judaism, the Avesta, early Buddhism, and various texts on Varna and Dharma. Mix together Greek philosophers, Hellenic jews, Zorastrianism, Greco-Buddhism, and Indian philosophers and you are probably on the right track.

Yes, Handra is heavily influenced by Esrolia. Folk tend to think how influential Esrolia is on the look and feel of surrounding lands. It is rich, it is a main source for luxury goods, and it has thousands of scribes. I increasingly think that you can find LM cultists as far away as Safelster who are either Esrolian or trained in Nochet.

Thanks! Right now I don't have a Malkioni book on my plate, but as I have said before, if someone has a great submission pitch - I'd definitely consider it. That being said, the Malkioni work themselves into just about everything I write (aspects of their philosophical approach have been widely embraced even by their enemies), so we'll see.

Maniria may actually get more coverage - it is close enough to the center of the world that it is often in my thoughts. Needless to say, the chapter in G2G pretty much completely overwrites BoG (so much so that I don't ever even use that book for a reference).

Safelster is an interesting area - the Invisible God is widely acknowledged (by one name or another) as the Creator, and Malkioni sorcery widely used, but for most purposes people call upon the aid of greater gods (such as Orlanth, Ernalda, Humakt, Ehilm, Zorak Zoran, etc) or lesser gods (such as the local Horse God(dess), various heroes or ancestors). Arkat is revered, but inaccessible (so much so that the various movements claim wildly contradictory aspects to him and fight bitterly). Ian Cooper and I have both spoken of our desire to one day write a campaign set there. You have decadent civilization, secret societies, tribal barbarians, trolls, elves, and even dwarves. An awesome place for a good sword and sorcery campaign.

There's an awful lot of information on the West in the Guide to Glorantha, all together possibly more than any other culture. In a nutshell, the Malkioni are rational humanists who can shape the universe without consent from gods who elsewhere are believed to rule everything. All Malkioni believe that human society is divided into at least four categories - workers, soldiers, rulers, and magical specialists. Whether that division should be strictly or loosely hereditary in the form of castes, determined by order of birth, or is metaphorical journey that each human goes through during their life - that is something of great debate and disagreement.

Knight Fort (a sloppy translation of what is probably is just Horseman's Fort) is in the Marcher County. It is an old fort, built (or even rebuilt) during the 1300s to stop Praxian raids into God Forgot and Heortland. In its heyday, it may have mustered as many as 200 armored horse (recruited primarily from Heortland), and had a garrison of as many as 1000 archers and spear - more than enough to stop all but the most determined Praxian invasions.
Since 1616, Knight Fort has had little outside support and its garrison has trickled down to a few score mercenaries, who rule over the surrounding farmers (who are mostly Barntar farmers). Its ruler is a petty Bandori strongman, allied with the city of Refuge. The Fortress Lord (or whatever he calls himself) likely acknowledged Lunar overlordship from 1620 to 1622, and conveniently ignored that after 1623 or so. Not sure anyone actually noticed on way or another.

Feel free and ask a few loose questions in another thread, and I am happy to help out. Just don't come up with big long laundry lists of small details (frex, "where was so-and-so in 1616" or "who is the second cousin of who-is-that" or "what is the name of the talar who rules the settlement of Dorphilisket") - as I am very unlikely to answer those sorts of questions.

Don't assume HQG is a spoiler. This won't exactly follow it.

I figure there ought to be a thread for the Prince of Sartar webcomic, especially since the newest episode is now up: http://www.princeofsartar.com/comic/57/

For those who aren't familiar with Glorantha or the webcomic, Prince of Sartar is probably one of the best ways to introduce yourself to the setting. Start at the beginning and work your way forward! Kalin Kadiev is the artist and I am the writer. We try to post a new page every week (at least when we are not doing something else).

The two Red Cow books are just flat out awesome and are in layout. We are redoing our layout templates and upping the awesome factor, but we are SUPER excited about this.

Trollpak just needs me to start commissioning art.

I've got no plans to be writing a lot of Malkioni material in the near future, but I am perfectly happy with people making submissions for Malkioni material. The guidelines are simple:

• Any proposal needs to be based on the Guide - anything that smacks of the pseudomedieval or pseudo-Christian Malkioni (with saints, pagans, etc) is going to get rejected. We already have plenty of pseudo-medieval fantasy settings out there, Glorantha is not one of them. The approach taken in The Book of Glorious Joy, Blood Over Gold, Men of the Sea, HQ1, or RQ3 is not going to be published. 
• At this point it has to be based on HQG, as RQ and 13G are not written yet.
• It needs to contain playable material based on the Guide, including scenarios (or ideally scenarios linked into game). I'm not terribly interested in publishing "fill-between-the-lines" lists of cults, spells, etc. 
• It needs to do something new and novel, with themes and conflicts not present in Dragon Pass, the Holy Country, or the Lunar Empire.

I'm a big fan of keeping things loose and easy. You certainly can post questions concerning HW/HQ1.

I agree completely with this. There will be plenty of rules-based discussions for running games in Glorantha using HQG and RQ (once the new RuneQuest is out) - I see those as a different thing from a discussion of the setting itself.

I view this subforum as being about HQ rules questions - primarily HQ2 and HQG, because that is what is in print.

Doors to Darkness is on the path for being our first printed CoC supplement post the fulfillment of 7th edition. However, we are not going to print the version we had at Necronomicon. Instead we are retooling the art (including recommissioning new pieces) and layout so that it is up to the level of CoC7 - this book is going to look a LOT prettier!

From time to time, I plan to post a little information about a Gloranthan deity here on BRP Glorantha. I'm going to start with a demigod, Jonat Big Bear.
 

Jonat

(JO-nat) Malkioni and Orlanthi pantheons – demigod founder of Jonatela

Jonat Big Bear is the demigod son of Redel the Bear God and was born among the Rathori barbarians in the late Second Age. His adventures brought him to Seshnela around 1050 and he returned to Fronela with troll and wizard allies. He enslaved the Yellow Bear and unified the petty kingdoms and tribes of Syanor, often by force, and founded the kingdom that now bears his name. He retired into his underground tomb at the end of the Second Age and it is prophesized that one day he will return from his tomb to punish the enemies of his people.

Jonat is worshiped as the founder of Jonatela and as a war god. The rulers of Jonatela trace their descent to him and serve as his priests.

Jonat is depicted as a bipedal bear wearing a crown and carrying a sword.

Here's a few notes about the government of Tarsh and some people of interest, circa 1627:

The King of Tarsh serves as the chief priest, commander-in-chief, and chief judge for the tribes and cities of Tarsh. He also serves as the chief judge and military commander for the Lunar province of Tarsh. The king pays an annual tribute of silver, goods, slaves, and obedience to the Lunar Empire in the person of the Provincial Overseer, whose residence is in Mirin’s Cross, several days down the Oslir River. As a provincial king, his decisions can be appealed to the Provincial Overseer in Mirin’s Cross, although that is an expensive, and thus rare, process.

Since the passing of Phargentes, the king normally appoints deputies to carry out his duties. The king governs Tarsh with the assistance of a small council (or “ring”) of eminent Tarshites, chosen by the king. This council typical includes his advisors, royal companions, important cult leaders, generals, and representatives of the cities. The king is served by royal scribes of the Irrippi Ontor cult (who have marginalized the scribes of the Lhankor Mhy temples).

Until recently, Fazzur Wideread was the most powerful noble in Tarsh and second only to the king. The uncle of King Pharandros, holding the imperial offices of Provincial General and Governor-General of Dragon Pass, Fazzur was a valued counselor and loyal supporter of his nephew. In early 1622, however, the Red Emperor removed Fazzur from his imperial offices. Although Fazzur remained the king’s preeminent general, King Pharandros attempted to assassinate his most powerful supporters in 1625, while Fazzur was fighting in Sartar. The king failed and Fazzur has returned to his family lands on Kordros with many armed supporters. Fazzur now rules much of Kordros Island without regard for decrees coming from Furthest.

The lifestyle, language, and customs of the common Tarshite person are Orlanthi in manner. Feuds are common between clans and sometimes result in tribal warfare. Combat by champions is widely recognized as a binding way of resolving disputes, although clans and tradition encourage alternatives to bloodshed, such as compensation or blood price. Disputes between tribes are subject to mediation by the chief judge of the ruling city, and can be appealed to the king’s officials in Furthest.

Tarsh is divided into six regional districts each centered on a city. A deputy of the king, whose title is sometimes translated as “duke”, rules the district. Each district is divided into tribes, federations of clans led by a chief or petty king. These regional districts are responsible for collecting tribute, keeping peace, and levying the militia for the king. The position of regional deputy is often hereditary; for example, King Phargentes appointed Vostor Blacktooth as deputy of Dunstop, and his sons Farrad and Fazzur inherited the position in succession.

People of Interest

Annstad of Dunstop: The younger son of Fazzur Wideread, Annstad was initiated into the mysteries of the Red Goddess in his youth. Annstad is notorious for seducing priestesses and married women, and surprised all by initiating to Orlanth Thunderous at Kero Fin in 1625. He has recently traveled to Boldhome and joined the court of Prince Argrath.

Fazzur Wideread: This 63 year old retired general is a legendary figure in Tarsh. Chief of the Orindori clan and ruler of Kordros Island, Fazzur is a Rune master of Yanafal Tarnils and initiated into the mysteries of the Red Goddess. The soldiers of Native Tarsh Corps are devoted to him, perhaps more loyal to him than to his nephew, King Pharandros. Fazzur and Pharandros are bitter enemies and the king unsuccessfully tried to kill several of his uncle’s key supporters in 1625. Since then, Fazzur has retired to his estates outside of Dunstop, raising horses and writing an account of his campaigns.

The Shaker High Priestess: The High Priestess of the Shaker’s Temple is so ponderous she has to be pulled about in an oak cart drawn by six oxen. She is attended by forty-seven male and female cannibal virgins.

Onjur of Dunstop: The eldest son of Fazzur and his wife Harama of Bagnot. Onjur is a Rune Lord of Yanafal Tarnils and an initiate of the Red Goddess, the captain of his father’s old cavalry regiment, and a talented poet. Onjur achieved fame throughout Tarsh when he killed the Half-Troll King of the Tusk Riders in 1622. He had twins, Maroflo and Marenpora, with Yenestosa the Wintertop Priestess. Onjur hates his cousin Pharandros.

Pharandros, King of Tarsh: This king was educated in Sylila and Glamour and steeped in the subtleties of Lunar Magic and imperial intrigue. An initiate of the Red Goddess, Pharandros is descended from the Red Emperor on both sides of his family. The most powerful king in the Provinces, Pharandros spends regally on both frivolities and the military. Like his father before him, Pharandros is a patron of scholars and mystics.

Pharandos and his uncle Fazzur were once very close, but are now bitter enemies. 

Unstey: The king of the Wintertop Exiles since 1625. He was raised by the Shaker Priestesses and is loyal to the High Priestess, but otherwise fiercely independent. Unstey steadfastly opposes both King Pharandros and the Fazzurites.

Thanks all! Although bits and pieces of the tale are going to be familiar to some, I guarantee that even the most die-hard Gloranthologist will find plenty of brand new material. 

I personally find Prince of Sartar (or right now it appears to be Princess of Esrolia) the most revelatory way Kalin and I have to explore Glorantha. We learn plenty of new things almost every page!