Jeff

Again I don't know why people would expect that the cult of the Little Sun is going to look very different from Yelmalio, regardless of name. Prior to 1500 or so, the Little Sun cult in Sartar would look a lot like Yelmalio, although possibly with no gifts, no Cloud Clear, and probably no Sunbright. Now that the Little Sun cult is revealed to be Yelmalio, the Yelmalio-as-Orlanth's Thane cult just swaps out Shield from Yelm with Shield from Orlanth.

The classic is the Esrolian Ernaldan nobles woman and her Donandar servant. The Orlanthi Wind Lord and his Eurmali companion. You are looking for the Illusion Rune in action here.

I'm not saying it doesn't happen, I am just saying I have played and GMed a LOT of Call of Cthulhu over the years, and I've never seen anyone play up insanity "for the lolz". I am sure it happens, but we'd likely either tell the player to knock it off or to just leave.

I've played in easily hundreds of sessions of CoC over 40 years. I've never seen that done.

Yep. Imagine that diaspora going to Nochet, Whitewall, New Pavis, Boldhome, Wolf Pirates, etc. Even a few go to the Lunar Empire. And many end up influencing Sartar like the Chans, Leika Black Spear, Tarkala the Lover, etc. I suspect this is the origin story for many who end up in the Sartar Magical Union.

I see absolutely no need for SAN rules in RuneQuest.

Not even that. Belintar was a sacred figure, not a political or administrative figure. That's really really hard for us moderns to wrap our head around, but Belintar's main function was to be a conduit between the Mundane World and the Gods Realm. He's a Living God, acknowledged by everyone in the Holy County. His palace was in the Hero Plane and to visit him was to enter it. At the City of Wonders, one might encounter gods and spirits, emissaries and ambassadors. Of course people also lived in the City of Wonders - at its height (around 1600) it had perhaps 50,000 people making it bigger than Raibanth. It was vacated in 1616 after the Tournament of the Masters of Luck and Death failed to produce a new incarnation of Belintar - without Belintar's presence, the City did not function for mortals. Only a few people, such as the rulers of the Sixths, could even open the paths to the City.

I find different "experiences" of the god a more accurate description than interpretation. In Prax, we typically experience the Thunder God as the Thunder Bird, and so we view him mainly as the Adventurous young god. In Pavis, the Sartarites brought the Dragon Pass Orlanth and so of course we know of Thunderous and Rex. But those aspects rarely manifest in Prax - perhaps the Dragon Pass Orlanth is just mightier than the Orlanth of Prax? Perhaps here his brother is mightier, nearest to his place of victory and close to his Raging Storms? We experience those often, worst of all being the terrible Copper Winds.

For what it is worth, every time Greg or I have described Rune Magic it is the caster either wields the power of the god or IS a manifestation of the god. And this is often irrespective of your beliefs or those of your fellows.

Wow. That is just weirdly off mark. Look Yelmalio and Elmal are the same god, whatever you want to call him. I've walked through the story it seems like a thousand times, so just search for one of the many times I have had to do that. Big picture, there is a Yelmalio cult network that extends from Fronela to Prax. These are the Sun Dome temples. Most were founded in the First and Second Ages. In the late Third Age, the Hendreiki sun god Elmal was proven to be another name of Yelmalio and that revelation resulted in a great outburst of creative energy for the Yelmalio cult. The Sartarites and Lunars both support the Yelmalio cult - if for opposite reasons. The Sartarite princes support the cult because it is hostile towards the Red Goddess (unlike Yelm); the Lunars support the cult because of its neutral stance towards Orlanth. Jeff

Maybe 1% of the population in the Holy Country follow Yelmalio. The area was part of the Shadowlands for over a thousand years. That being said 1% of the population of Esrolia means there are more than 10,000 initiates in Esrolia alone. Lodril is a far more important Fire/Sky deity in the Holy Country.

I'd also suggest checking out how Ancient Greek poetry was actually sung to music:

Ghosts are not undead. They are not undead for purposes of Detect Undead or Turn Undead. They are spirits of the dead who linger around the Mundane World.

Correct. And Orlanth only gets it through Eurmal.

The same thing exists with Call of Cthulhu, Ringworld, or any other BRP game. As far as I am concerned, that is a huge strength of those systems. You can play incredibly diverse characters.

Donandar is a very specialised cult. He's not a healer, doesn't fight spirits, and never incorporated Multispell. He entertains. And that's fine as far as I am concerned.

There are plenty of cults that work fine for traditional fighty-stabby adventurers: Orlanth - THE cult of Adventurers. And of Storms, Kings, and Heroquesting. Humakt - THE cult of people who fight with swords. Storm Bull - THE cult of people who fight Chaos monsters. Babeester Gor - THE cult of people who like to hit things with Axes. Yelmalio - for people who fight against the Darkness. Yelm - THE cult for people who like to shoot fiery arrows or stab with flaming spears. But if you play a follower of the Entertainment God, Scribe God, or the Pathfinder God, or the Healing Goddess, or the Trickster God, or the Great Goddess of Earth, Fertility, and Women - well you might not find your Rune magic particularly helpful in a fighty-stabby context. And that is PERFECTLY fine. If the players want to explore those cults, I'd suggest making the adventure ideas be more about concepts other than fighty-stabby.

Here's a little snippet from Donandar that gives you the common instruments in much of Genertela: Instruments associated with the cult include: · Percussion: Drums, tambourines, bells, castanets, cymbals, and gongs. · String: Harps, kithara, lutes, and lyres. · Woodwind: Bagpipes, horns, noseflutes, reed pipes, and trumpets.

No, why would someone who is devoted to Music, Dance, and Theatre necessarily devote themselves to Storm and War, or Earth and Fertility, or whatever? They sing songs, dance, tell stories, put on presentations, or whatever. If for some reason they decide to get into a battle, well their god isn't likely much help (but wait! Donandar has a subcult that provides cheap Bladesharp spells!). But why the heck are they doing that? There are plenty of cults that offer very little for the traditional fighty-stabby adventurers who wander around looking for treasure in old ruins. But those cults offer tremendous opportunity for roleplaying, and for doing other sorts of activities.

The comment about "basic survival rune magic" is IMO phenomenally ill-placed. Donandar provides magic associated with what he is. He's a god of Music, Dance, and Theatre. That's it. If you are a warrior, Donandar is not going to be providing you with war magic. But if you want to put on a magical performance, he's your god.

Wow how wrong can you get! Donandar provides Group Dance, Harmonise, and loads of Illusion spells, as well as Switch Places.

I'd just use Act myself. I'd imagine it is more like shadow-puppetry and Act lets us portray different people.

As David Scott correctly points out, ghosts are not undead. They are spirits tied to the mundane world. Humakti have no more dislike for them than they do for other spirits.

Peter is right. There is only one reference to Jostharl Dangmagsson: Jostharl Dangmagsson, Arnoring Clan, 1525‑1535; who was killed fighting against the Lunars. And that a full century before the default setting.

Annilla is your best bet. She even has the spell Invisibility.