Jeff

As I've said, the Hero Wars are not Total War as that concept is understood in the Modern Age. It has plenty of pauses, truces, and even shared ceremonies. Ethilrist knows personally Argrath, the Red Emperor, and Harrek. And that is despite getting killed by Harrek. These are heroes - they fight their battles personally. They confront the gods, and the powers of the cosmos personally - and so can your characters. Get your head out of 20th or 21th century warfare and think Alexander, the Pandavas and Kauravas, Achilles and Hector, Cú Chulainn, and Thutmose III.

As an aside, by 1625, Joh Smith has entrusted his caravan operation in Balazar to his children, and he and his wife now dominate the Issaries temple in Jonstown. He's even a member of the City Ring.

The Hero Wars are not "total war" in the way that concept is normally understood. They are a war of Heroes, which has cosmic ramifications in a similar way that the Kurukshetra War did. And many of those ramifications were not planned or expected.

Any proper Sun Dome Temple.

I have always been fine with the jump to 1D6 to 2D6 etc.

Not in the Third Age. Orlanth is one of Ernalda's husbands, and the most widely worshiped. However, their son Barntar is more popular among the Esrolian farmers than Orlanth (who is more popular among herders and is a war god). But the cult is enjoying a resurgence in popularity, likely because of a combination of the large numbers of Sartarite and Heartlander refugees in Nochet, and because the Queen of Esrolia strongly favors it.

Well all of those games are also BRP.

Between Call of Cthulhu, RuneQuest, and Pendragon, BRP-systems get a LOT of love. I think you mean a BRP game that is none of those.

The Red Emperor's interests in Talastar are radically different from those in Dragon Pass. So different as to be almost the opposite.

Who is asking and why? The most likely answer is that is the way the cosmos is structured, with Earth pulling things down.

Any weird outsider asking you questions that upset cult secrets is obviously a Lunar agent.

Especially since objectively he is the most successful anti-Lunar fighter the Sartarites have. If he's a Lunar, EVERYONE is a Lunar. To be honest, the only person who should know this stuff is the GM. It is actually kind of shame how obsessively people on forums talk about this stuff, as what your players should know is: 1. Illumination is a weird part of the Lunar religion. 2. It comes from Gbaji, the God of Lies. 3. It drives good men crazy and gives terrible powers to evil men. 4. People familiar with the Empire's customs say it is taught through strange riddles. That's enough. Now have fun.

Mysticism doesn't "win". Nor does shamanism, sorcery, polytheism, etc. If anything wins, it is compromise, but even that always sews the seeds of the next conflict. The wheel keeps spinning.

That's why I want to look at my originals. If I recall, that made it very obvious.

Yes. What David is posting is Greg's first drawings of the chits. Originally Fate was going to have some meaning - I think Argrath and the Red Emperor both got it. Later he decided against it. Even later he got William Church to draw figures on the chits. But I am at a lake today, so can't look at the originals.

Yes. I can't recall offhand which heroes got the Fate Rune in Greg's original scheme.

I personally prefer using Facebook. Especially stuff that is play-oriented. Our FB community is large, active, and more oriented towards new players who are less likely to whinge about how we aren't using RQ1 or such stuff. I "do" post here, but FB is my preferred media for interaction. As an aside, I find that some of the threads (and even specific posters) at times function as the equivalent of a Tap spell on my creative output. This is a bigger problem on BRP than FB. That's my problem not yours, but I don't see that changing and is another reason I prefer interacting on FB.

I would say you are wrong. As would Greg.

I thought I posted a pretty extensive overview of the battle, or was that just of the Battle of Heroes?

More precisely it is a secret known only to the higher members of the cult - the true elect,

Yes.

This thread has long since stopped having anything to do with Argrath. If you want to continue musing about Illumination, create a new thread,

For a human joining the cult of Aldrya is similar to a human joining the cult of Kyger Litor. Lay membership is easy, but initiation is drastic. You are not a mere human being afterwards but Aldryami.

A month, not months.

Not really. The main party line in Esrolia is that the Earth Mother has many husbands. Orlanth is one of them, and the most relevant in social life. But there are many others and all have their necessary role. Flamal, Yelm, Yelmalio, Argan Argar, Magasta, even Storm Bull - all loved and protected the goddess. But it is self-evident that it is Ernalda the Earth Mother who is the central figure the others dance around. And thus it is self-evident that her priestesses are the central figures in society.