Jeff

So what is the Invisible Orlanth? Well the mad preacher I heard in the market at Brinnus (before the market guards chased him off) said that "Orlanth is still here even if we cannot see him. His Breath is everywhere and as Invisible as ours! He turns the world around Idovanus' pillar! Remember, he defended Castle Blue yonder, and refused to submit! Orlanth became Invisible like the Breath of Idovanus, but he is still there, still turning the world. And soon his Breath will become a mighty storm that shall knock down towers of lies and destroy the palace of Ganesatarus! He may be invisible now, but soon everyone shall see ..." At that point the market guards chased him off.

The nice thing about dualism is that it is really easy to go from a One Invisible Prime Move to a One Invisible Prime Mover AND One Bad Maker of Bad Things. Dualism pops up naturally in the Malkioni mindset.

All Malkioni would agree that ALL human societies are divided into four castes - the leaders, the magicians, the fighters, and the workers. According to Malkion that is how mortal society functions. And specialists are better than non-specialists. So magic should be handled by specialist magicians, leadership should be handled by specialist leaders, etc. The only real question is how does one get slotted to a specific specialisation. The Idealists say that anyone should be capable of doing whatever they are capable of doing. The Realists say that is a tremendously inefficient approach that always results in disaster. The Idealists say that the Realists are unjust and wasteful of talent. And so on.

A few thoughts here. Orlanth had a significant mythological presence in the old Carmanian Empire, going back at least to the times of Survilstar Dragonslayer and his Orlanthi allies. Orlanth's brothers Humakt and Storm Bull are important War Gods (even if they are rarely called by those names). And Orlanth is the enemy of the Red Goddess. The West Reaches has been part of the Lunar Empire for three and half centuries. However, it never became part of the Heartlands and maintained a strong identity. Although New Pelorian is the lingua franca, Carmanian is still spoken and written by the educated. A historical analogy could be Hungary under the Habsburgs. In the Sixth and Seventh Wanes frustration and resentment of the increasingly "Dara Happan" imperial aristocracy grew. That frustration and resentment has fuelled the rise of the cult of the Invisible Orlanth. Orlanth the Great Rebel was enlightened by and then submitted to the Invisible God. Although many viziers demand that the Hierophant proclaim the cult a heresy, the Heirophant has refused to do so despite provocation from his half-brother. Who knows how much of this is a devious scheme from the Taloned Countess? The Lunar Empire itself is in a long-brewing religious and financial crisis that has already erupted with the White Moon Movement and the Voor-Ash invasion, but will explode following the defeat at the Red Emperor, his leading heroes, and the Lunar Army at the Battle of Bagnot.

It is not a con.

Here's the current rules: INITIATE MEMBERSHIP Initiation into the Invisible God cult is a prerequisite for full membership in Malkioni society. Initiation follows several years of caste education and training. Each caste has their own set of rituals, restrictions, special abilities, and associated cults, all unique to that caste. Once a person initiates into a given caste, they cannot join a different caste – except by means of the Hrestol cult. CASTE RIGHTNESS Each caste has duties and restrictions which must be maintained to remain a member of the caste. This is represented by the RIGHTNESS characteristic for Malkioni initiates. Initiates start with a RIGHTNESS of one. RIGHTNESS may have a score greater than one, representing the initiate’s reserve of righteousness. If a character’s RIGHTNESS is less than zero, that character may no longer use any caste magic or special abilities and risks being thrown out of their caste and exiled from Malkioni society. RIGHTNESS may be increased by adherence to caste duties and restrictions in adversity in ways that create difficulties for the character and make the game more entertaining. Examples include a talar refusing to perform menial labor even though their survival might depend on it, or a dronar refusing to touch a weapon even in self-defense. The gamemaster should not award RIGHTNESS for good dice rolling, simple puzzle solving, ordinary combat successes or any other of the minor accomplishments that might occur during the course of a session. RIGHTNESS should be reduced by the gamemaster for transgressions against any caste duties and restrictions. For each circumstance, the gamemaster should warn the player that a given action will result in an increase or decrease in RIGHTNESS. If the player insists, then RIGHTNESS should be adjusted accordingly. Initiation into the cult of Hrestol can mitigate this, as a Hrestoli initiate does not lose RIGHTNESS for any action that upholds the Hrestoli code. However, if they violate their caste restrictions in a way that does not uphold the Hrestoli code, they still lose RIGHTNESS. EXPULSION FROM CASTE A character with a zero RIGHTNESS characteristic is no longer in good standing with their caste and cannot use any caste special abilities (such as a talar’s Forced Command ability or a zzaburi’s ability to store magic points in the Spirit World) until their RIGHTNESS is positive. A character with a negative RIGHTNESS may be expelled from their caste by their elders. If this happens they are no longer accepted as members of Malkioni society. If they can get their RIGHTNESS back to positive, they can submit themselves to caste elders to be brought back (this is often called “Return to Rightness”). The elders may impose penances, fines, and other punishments as a condition for return. Until then they are viewed as outlaws, barbarians, or even krjalki (monsters) by other Malkioni. Some sects do not permit a character to return to their caste once expelled. For the Brithini, expulsion is permanent and always results in death. CASTE RESTRICTIONS AND SPECIAL ABILITIES Each caste has restrictions which must be followed to maintain their RIGHTNESS. Some castes have special abilities – magical abilities of the caste members. If they are expelled from the caste for any reason, they lose all special abilities of that caste. RUNE SPELLS AND DIVINE INTERVENTION Unlike other cults, the Invisible God does not provide Rune spells, Divine Intervention, or allied spirits.

Yeah let me expand on this. The God Learners started experimenting with the genealogy of the gods around 700 or maybe earlier - Tanian's Victory showed how useful this was. But in order to understand the structure of the cosmos (and thereby have ways to exploit that structure with sorcery), the God Learners needed to learn about the gods and their myths.

Depends on the needs of your game and what that lower caste sorcerer has done.

Yes. Depending on the local sect. Some sects think that sorcerous techniques ought to be widely taught (such as New Hrestolism). Others think that deep knowledge of sorcerous techniques should be restricted to specialists (such as Rokarism).

So from an Orlanthi perspective, Malkionism is pretty radical. First it posits that the cosmos is a rationally created thing - instead of being simply born out of a cosmic egg. It demands that creator is worshiped as the supreme god, despite being abstract, unapproachable, and non-reciprocal. Second, it imposes a radically different form of social organization and says that it is demanded by how the cosmos is structured. But the Malkioni - especially their wizards - know a lot about the cosmos and its overall structure. Most Malkioni acknowledge the gods and worship specific gods as ancestors, localized beings, or useful spirits. They worship them and gain powers from them, but deny them the role of supreme - or even most important - being. The gods are often thought of as aspects, constructs, emanations, or devolutions from the supreme Invisible God.

Arkat was considered a traitor because he initiated into the cult of Humakt and then turned over all of his Brithini and Hrestoli secrets to outsiders - despite the shocked outrage of the wizards. He showed people who did not even acknowledge the Invisible God the deepest secrets of the Malkioni religion. He showed secret Brithini paths to Orlanthi, he showed secret Orlanthi paths to trolls. His treason was infinitely worse than merely joining a cult. Like all of the Stafford Library, Middle Sea Empire is a notebook and was never intended to be a final word on anything.

And this is a key to understanding the role of the zzaburi - they perform the worship of the Invisible God itself. The Invisible God is abstract, the ultimate reality in the universe. It is Brahman, the Ein Sof, the Unmoved Mover, the One. The Invisible God does not change, but is the cause of all. The Invisible God is unity, undivided, infinite, and the single binding truth behind diversity in the universe. Next to the Invisible God, all others are infinitely small, localized, and insignificant. They may be called on or used if necessary, but the Invisible God is the All.

The Aeolians? They consider themselves to have the true secrets of Malkion, so probably identify as "followers of Malkion". However, their beliefs and practice would be heretical or even blasphemous to the Rokari or Hrestoli of Loskalm. But the God Forgot folk don't care, and there really are no other big Malkioni groups in the Holy Country.

Magasta.

When we think about the Aeolians, we are talking about a small and very heterodox religion that can be described both as a Malkioni sect with syncretic Orlanth elements, or as an Orlanthi group that have adopted Malkioni elements. I view them as being roughly analogous to the Druze or Alawites. Many orthodox Malkioni don't consider the Aeolians to even be Malkioni.

OK so the "priests" of the Invisible God are zzaburi, exclusively. Think of them like brahmins or druids. They hand the worship that EVERYONE participates in. So everyone is expected to be an initiate of the Invisible God. But below that is folk religion, caste-specific cults, shamans, etc. They have their own leaders and officiants. The zzaburi-priests' attitude towards these cults range from approval to studied apathy to hostility, depending on the specific cult, traditions, etc.

Beat-pot was recorded for having a great deal of bitterness towards how he was treated as a kitchen slave, and although he was completely devoted to the Red Goddess (through Jar-eel), he had notable contempt and righteous disdain for much of the Lunar elite and nobility. As the right-hand of Jar-eel the Razoress, much of that Lunar elite and nobility tried to curry favor with Beat-Pot, which just reinforced his contempt and disdain for them.

Nope. They were pretty much a silly rules construction. There are diamondback rattlesnakes and pythons though!

Old Uncle Lodril is the lazy, destructive father of those useful Low Fires - Mahome the Hearth Fire, Gustbran the Work Fire, and Oakfed the Sacred Fire. Thank Yelmalio that they are nothing like their father! I think everyone knows Lodril stories, even if he gets no cult in Dragon Pass (except where there are volcanoes perhaps). Lodril is deeply involved in the myths of Asrelia, a comic rival of Orlanth (who gets depicted as a fat red-faced drunken fool whose phallus drags on the ground), and is the father of Ernalda and Maran Gor.

The Ducks constitute their own tribe.

Or Oakfed. His cult might be small, but he is often the most powerful Fire spirit around.

Eurmal is a mainstream cult in Sartar. In fact, it is a more common cult than Heler, Engizi, Odayla, Yinkin, etc.

Claudia knows that - Glorantha has a lower infant and maternal death rates than the ancient world (although not anywhere near as low as the modern world). But it also has a high adult death rate due to war, famine, spirits, monsters, etc. As a general rule, roughly about 1/3 of every human community in Glorantha is comprised of children under the age of initiation. Unnatural events like the Crimson Bat, the Great Winter, magical disasters, and the like hit Glorantha with shocking frequency. Greg and I worked out big spreadsheets on this, and ultimately what comes out is that there is still an incentive to have lots of children to continually replace that cadre of young adults.

That's the weight of secular cynicism speaking. The assumption that there needs to be some sort of secret materialist scheme behind every story. Let it go and the wild can be much wilder!

This is the essence of heroquesting. One of the reasons that Orlanth is the patron of heroes is to some extent he is both a hero and the construct of the self-exploration of heroes.