Jeff

Jomes fights at Dangerford, Battle of Queens, and, if he survives that, at the Battle of Heroes.

All international shipping is messed up right now. We are still waiting for the book to arrive in our US warehouse.

Jomes Wulf was given Wulfsland as his own grant, while keeping his active command within the Provincial Army. After the Dragonrise, he and his soldiers fled to Alda-Chur. Along with Jorad Sideburn, Jomes now serves as one of Pharandros's senior field commanders.

Let me emphasize this - Glorantha is Bronze Age in terms of basic human technology. And the reason I say this is that bronze - an alloy of copper and tin - is the main metal used by the civilised human cultures. And that's all that means. There are a lot of implications from working with bronze instead of iron, but it does not mean that we end up exactly duplicating Salimbeti's swords. The humans of Glorantha are not Babylonians, Hittites, Vedic Indians, Minoans and Mycenaeans, Egyptians or whatever, although if you want, you can get insight and inspiration into Gloranthans by looking at them. But at some point the comparisons break down - historical terrestrial humans did not have immortal dwarfs teaching them crafting techniques (although some remembered a few stories of this happening), they didn't have dragonewts or Gold Wheel Dancers or immortal Brithini preserving lost laws. Their gods were already more removed from them and their hero questing techniques were less developed. So we know Glorantha has coins and has since the Gods Age. We know that they have ships that can leave the sight of land for several days. And so on. As a result, if you think that Glorantha must conform to the confines of any historical culture, you are missing the point.

Not so much God Learning as the process of mutually recognising deities that occurred in the First Age. The Orlanthi recognised the Dara Happen Yelm as Orlanth's solar rival, and the Dara Happens recognised Umatum and Rebellus Terminus as the Theyalan Orlanth. Buserian was recognised as the Dara Happen name for Lhankor Mhy. And so on. As both languages and peoples coexisted within the High Council for the Lands of Genertela, these sorts of mutual acknowledgements of major deities were inevitable.

Atrox is gone. We went back to Greg's original intentions for Ethilrist, which fit into the stories far better.

I dropped Bastard Swords - as far as I am concerned they are pretty much a rules construct. 1D10+1 damage instead of 1D8+1. Greg was never particularly happy with them. Originally we were going to drop greatswords (or two-handed swords), but they were far more popular with players and writers (and much easier to justify). So that's fine - at some point in the Second Age, the Shadowlands had their human bronze workers make two-handed swords for their great troll slaves. Some humans use the weapon, although it is nobody's cultural weapon. But hand-a-half swords? Nope. (Added to Swords and Daggers Q&A)

As in any human society, logic and reason must make certain compromises with tradition and power. This is the same dilemma the New Hrestoli face. And actually the New Hrestoli are far more similar to the Rokari than either would be comfortable acknowledging.

Actually most of the Manirian population are Orlanthi farmers, with a fair number of Pralori and Mraloti. The dense forests are in the north, in the Arstola Forest. So if you imagine the countryside, it is not so much dense forests, as farmland. More humid subtropical, like the US Southeast, or parts of the Adriatic coast.

The pseudo-Malkionism in Maniria is pretty far-gone from Rokarism. They accept the Invisible God, and recognise the Trader Princes as the talar caste. The Trader Princes claim descent from Froalar and Garzeen, and thus worship Issaries as their direct ancestor. Their cult practices are by now nearly indistinguishable from Lightbringer worship elsewhere in the Holy County, except that the Trader Princes gain their power and authority from their descent from Issaries. The Orlanth and Ernalda cults dominate the rural majority, although the local Grain Goddess is often worshiped independently, and Caladra & Aurelion, Lodril, and Heler are comparatively significant cults. In short, they don't look much at all like what was in Blood Over Gold.

Rokarism holds that only through reason and logic can the Invisible God be revealed. Syncretism and anthropomorphism, let alone superstitious traditions, obscure that pure reason - at best they only obscure the Invisible God. At worst, they lead to spiritual degeneration and lead mortals to attempt to replace the Invisible God with their own will. This was the great error and failing of the God Learners.

1. Yes. More or less. 2. Members of other cults can join Daka Fal as Lay Members. They can learn spirit magic or get skill training. Initiation is into a shamanic path - look at Daka Fal's magic. It is pretty much all geared towards summoning ancestors and getting their aid. It is a different process from wielding the power of the gods and the ancestors distrust the gods in general (this is the cult of MORTALS not of the gods).

Some of the Sun Dome Temples have long-standing agreements with local rulers - for example, the Goldedge Temple is sworn to provide soldiers for Furthest. Others, like THE Sun Dome Temple of Dragon Pass or Sun County in Prax, maintain complete autonomy and hire out as mercenaries to whoever they chose. Obviously, if the ruler in Boldhome is rich and powerful (and reasonably friendly), it is stupid to hire out to his enemies. All other things even (payment, likelihood of success, friendliness, etc.), if forced to choose between offers from Sartar and the Lunar Empire. the Sun Dome Temple in Dragon Pass traditionally goes with Boldhome instead of Furthest or Glamour. Yelmalio and Orlanth are neutral; Yelmalio is hostile to the Red Goddess. But of course, if the Lunars look like they will win, offer more money, and use the Provincial Government as their go-between, the Sun Dome Temple will cheerfully sell their services to Furthest.

We stopped using the term "saint" precisely because people understandable ported over Catholic saints part and parcel. Through the history of Malkionism there has been a tendency to create cults around various entities who are lesser than the Invisible God, but are nonetheless worthy of veneration and worship. Some even provide Rune magic! This goes back to before Dawn, when Malkion became a cult figure for those still devoted to the right way and Talar, Hrolar, and Dronar all became cult figures for their castes. Hrestol became a cult figure, followed by several of his pupils. Many of the leading figures of the Gbaji Wars got cults as well. Some of these cults were associated or syncretized with other cults, such as Talar and Issaries, or Xemela and Chalana Arroy. Some were combined with Daka Fal worship. The distinction between god and hero gets awful blurry here. During the Second Age, cults like Issaries, Chalana Arroy, and Lhankor Mhy got disseminated throughout the lands ruled by the Middle Sea Empire, and their association was sanctioned and even encouraged by the God Learner philosophies. With the destruction of the God Learners, many Third Age Malkioni have experienced radical spiritual re-evaluations. Rokarism has pared back these syncretic cults, seeking the pure message of Malkion. New Hrestolism, in contrast, has radically reinterpreted Hrestol's teachings and tried to create a perfect society and world. Many of these new Malkioni movements would be almost unrecognisable to the Dawn Age Malkioni.

I'll just give you the same advice I give to anyone writing for us. Start with the Glorantha Sourcebook, RQ Core Rules, RQG Bestiary, and the GM Pack. Grab the RQ2 Pavis, Troll Pack, and Borderlands. If you want to get a feel for the whole lozenge, get the Guide to Glorantha. Get really excited about the Cults Book and the Sartar Book that should be out later this year (at least in PDF) - those obviate the need to read Cults of Prax, Cults of Terror, and a host of other books. If I really wanted to understand the engine of the setting, I'd get a copy of White Bear & Red Moon (also called Dragon Pass) and Nomad Gods, or at least wait excitedly until we rerelease them both. And that's really it. If you want to run a few "dungeon-crawling" adventures, grab Snakepipe Hollow and Big Rubble from RQ2. And the RQ3 Dorastor Book and Sun County are also worth grabbing. But really there is nothing I'd consider essential reading.

This is pretty much spot on. As aside, Count Serternas is not only a personal friend of Fazzur Widread, but managed to maintain cordial relations with the surrounding Orlanthi tribes. His decision to aid his friend in the conquest of Heartland in exchange for a large payment of gold was "purely professional." I view him as far shrewder than his Praxian counterparts.

As was aepycamelus which appears to have weighed 2200 pounds, as opposed to a typical bison bull weighing 2000 pounds. The high llama is also much taller than a bison.

I am not thrilled with the idea of published partially complete drafts of unpublished books. I think that only ends up making it far less likely that the books ever get completed. It also ends up with people speculating on the nature of the setting based on early drafts which Greg (or I) might cheerfully throw away, reject, or modify.

or maybe the WIP Is a dead giveaway that this is a work in progress. Seriously, sometimes people make me regret giving out drafts of material.

There is work on Talastar-Dorastor going on, but no announcements beyond the fact that the work is being done.

The material on the Grazeland pantheon in King of Sartar largely predates the Feathered Horse Queens and the period of intense transmissions between the Grazelands and Sartar. To make it really easy, here's a cheat sheet of the main deities of the Grazelanders: Ernalda. She has many titles including La-ungariant, but she's Ernalda. She's the most important and powerful cult in the Grazelands. The Feathered Horse Queen is the incarnation of Ernalda and the leader of the cult. About 35% of the population. Yelm. A distant second, he is often called Yu-Kargzant, but he's Yelm. No Imperator subcult, but the Golden Bow is very important. About 20% of the population. Orlanth. Primarily Orlanth Thunderous/Barntar, the Orlanth cult is the main male god of the farmers, but a significant number of Horse Lords worship him as well. They are intensely loyal to the Feathered Horse Queen. About 15% of the population. Humakt. The War God of the Grazelanders, the Humakti are fanatically loyal to the Feathered Horse Queen and primarily come from the farmers. About 5% of the population. Maran Gor. The Goddess of Earthquakes is important here, and is followed by about 5% of the population. Seven Mothers. A substantial number of farmers and Horse Lords have embraced the Lunar Way. About 5% of the population follow the Seven Mothers. Other Lightbringers. About 7% of the population follow the other Seven Lightbringers, with Issaries and Chalana Arroy being most important.

Here is the Bison breakdown: BISON Cult D100 % Orlanth 01–05 5 Eiritha 06–39 34 Chalana Arroy 40 1 Issaries 41–42 2 Daka Fal 43–49 7 Humakt 50–56 7 Storm Bull 57–63 7 Waha 64–93 30 Foundchild 94 1 Seven Mothers 95 1 Yelmalio 96 1 Other 97–00 4

The Cults Book contains a fully updated cult breakdown by tribe. Any tribe in particular?

I have no interest in publishing more unfinished manuscripts that appeal to a handful of people. I'd much rather finish them and publish the finished product that appeals to a broader audience.

Sure - just add that to your notes for the NPC!