Jeff

Why would you do that? The only reason for requiring that players sacrifice for a new rune point to learn a new rune spell is to just ease in knowledge of their cult's spells. It is not intended to be some power restriction thing - initially we were going to let you spend your rune points on ANY spell known by the cult. But we found that resulted in information paralysis.

I am hiding any discussion of the maps, as there was an error in them which is already being fixed for the final version.

No it isn't. North is not up on that map.

This is some material Greg and I put together that will likely be appearing in one of the near future RQ releases. Some interesting surprises here. SOCIAL CLASSES These are general terms. Each region may have its own special term, or even divide each these classes into more than one type. Regardless of the local name, the general social divisions are more or less the same. Social class generally extends to your immediate kin as well, and sometimes to your extended kin as well. Region Unfree Semi-free Free Common Free Wealthy Low Noble Middle Noble High Noble Total Sartar 10 16 50 16 5 2 1 100 Esrolia 30 25 25 10 5 3 2 100 Hendriki 0 16 60 16 5 2 1 100 Malkonwal 0 50 30 11 5 2 2 100 Rightarm Islands 20 23 35 14 5 2 1 100 Tarsh 15 26 35 15 5 2 2 100 Prax 15 0 52 25 7 1 0 100 Caladraland 10 25 46 10 5 3 1 100 Holay 25 25 30 10 6 2 2 100 Aggar 10 22 45 15 6 1 1 100 Vanch 20 30 30 10 6 2 2 100 Imther 20 25 35 10 7 2 1 100 Sylila 20 40 20 10 6 2 2 100 Dara Happa 35 35 10 10 6 2 2 100 UNFREE This is a person who is not free to do as they will, but instead is designated as property off someone or something else. The exact nature of a slave varies greatly. Domestic slaves have some skills useful within an educated context. Crafts slaves have some useful crafting skill. Labor slaves are unskilled and generally miserable. Ransom: none SEMI-FREE This is a person who is not property but is not a full free member of the community. A client of another person is typically semi-free as they are not independent of their patron. They are bound to their lands or professions, or work somebody else’s land, livestock, or workshop and are usually unable to leave without permission of their lords. They do have some legal rights and are protected by their patrons. Ransom: 150 to 250 L FREE COMMON This is a free person with legal standing in the community. They usually must have some property or other means of reliable income, and are expected to perform some responsible civic duties as well. Ransom: 500 L FREE WEALTHY This is a Free Commoner with enough wealth to be armed and equipped better than their peers. They might have military duties, like thanes; religious duties, like priests or scribes; or they might be wealthy farmers, merchants, or crafters. They have increased social standing and civic responsibilities. They may have reached this status through their own pluck, official appointment, or other means. Ransom: 1000 L LOW NOBLE This is the equivalent of a landed knight or chieftain, the lowest of aristocratic circles in many cultures. This is the equivalent of a chief priest of temple. Ransom: 2000 L MID NOBLE This is the ruling class – the equivalents of barons, counts, tribal kings, high priests, city mayors, etc., or important retainers of high nobles. They are generally urbanized in customs. Ransom: 4000 L HIGH NOBLE This is the uncommon nobility, of the highest rank. This includes the rulers of an entire region – kings or queens who rule over many tribes (such as Esrolia, Sartar, Tarsh, etc.), Lunar Satraps, and the Prince of Sartar. Ransom: 40,000 L

You are reading it correctly. Cults have plenty of skills that are associated with being a member that are not part of becoming a Rune master.

In places like Esrolia, Waha gets worshiped as a little associated cult with Eiritha the Cattle Goddess (who gets loads of names in polyglot Nochet). They worship cattle (as who wouldn't) but the little Butcher cult is effectively lay members. I think stuff like that is probably pretty common.

Bisos is the human-oriented aspect of Storm Bull, KefTavar is the primal bull aspect of Storm Bull. Esus is Eiritha. I believe Kereus is a Waha-analogue, but not Waha. Bisos on the other hand has most of the social functions of Storm Bull. Think of him as a demigod son of Storm Bull who gets worshiped while KefTavar retreats into the background.

Bison is the Pelorian Storm Bull.

None of the above, likely. Probably he's just a local cult with nothing more than lay members. No magic received, just Peaceful Cut taught from butcher to apprentice. But Waha gets worshiped nonetheless.

The Esrolians are Orlanthi - they fit all three requirements!

I've been thinking about this about. I am coming to the conclusion that I don't find it useful to divide the Orlanthi between "Heortlings" and "Alakoringites". Instead, there's a big mix of Orlanthi people. The key things that make you Orlanthi is: 1. You speak a Theyalan language; and 2. Orlanth is worshiped by a significant percentage of the population as a leading god (king of the gods, Storm King, Lightbringer, etc.). That's where the name "Orlanthi" comes from after all; and 3. You have a clan unit at the core of social organization. That is a loose enough system to include Sartar, Tarsh, Esrolia, Brolia, Otkorion, Delela, Jonatela, Huamanz, Kormorkan, etc, who meet all three requirements. Prax meets two, but doesn't speak a Theyalan language. Balazar meets one, but does not speak Theyalan nor has much Orlanth worship. Within the Orlanthi group are many different variations. Maybe at the start of the resettlement period, people spoke of "Heortlings" (coming from Heortland) and "Alakoringites" (coming from South Peloria, but now they get called "Sartarites" and "Tarshites". And then you have the Theyalan speaking villages in the Grazelands. In a historically ironic twist, "Sartarite" is likely what the dialect of the Volsaxi and Hendrikar gets called by outsiders (and Sartarites) - even though they predate Sartar and don't become subject to Sartar until 1628 or so. Anyways, Waha is the Butcher God throughout much of Peloria, Kethaela, and even Fronela. He's not a very important god, but imagine the amusement when your Bison Khan finds Waha's Friendly Meatshop in Nochet with a round cheerful "Waha cultist" running it.

She is very rarely a patron of brewers.

I agree fully.

The person in question expressed a hope that Mob and his family would get killed. People who make any sort of death threats or wishes against anyone at Chaosium (or heck just anyone) are not going to be tolerated here. We don't need a formal policy for that, as that sort of stuff happens very infrequently. Like only once. Let's put things in perspective - there have been four, maybe five people who have gotten stern warnings since 2015 (as opposed to the milder, "Knock It Off"). That's not many. One left the forum. One became a repeat offender and is now in a month-long time out. And the others are fine and product "citizens" of the forum.

With magic - they sing it into shape if I recall.

Gustbran is the god of Bronze-working and Pottery. Among the Triolini, Magasta is their crafting god (!). Dormal functions as a carpenter god for sailors. Minlister is the god of brewing beer and wine. Ernalda and the Grain Goddesses are the patrons of some crafts, and Lodril is the patron of nearly all crafts. Mahome is a patron of cooking. Iphigios is a god of sculpture.

Legally that is no difference.

The point is that we are not going to publish anything that bases Karse on Midkemia Press' Carse or Refuge on Thieves World's Sanctuary. Those are other people's IP and we will start fresh. You are of course welcome to do whatever you want with Karse in *your* games. But if you want any of that material incorporated in any future publication, it can't be derived from "Carse".

For the simple reason that we don't have any right to do that. Any more than we have the right to use a map of King's Landing for Nochet.

Same thing with Midkemia's Carse. That is Raymond Feist's IP. We respect it as his, and don't try to shoe-horn it into Glorantha. You can do what you want in your games, but aren't going to publish material on Karse based on Carse. They are two very different cities with a very similar name. Like Babylon Mesopotamia and Babylon Egypt. Or any number of Alexandrias.

Sanctuary is not going to be treated as the source material for Refuge in any Chaosium publication. Nor should it be. You can try to shoe-horn a 30+ year old out of print product which Chaosium long ago lost the license to, or you can come up with material that actually really fits the setting. And can actually be published.

I agree with our glorious overlord 100%. I am a lazy moderator and expect you all to possess enough self-restraint to let me remain a lazy moderator.

Peaceful Cut is a skill - it is proper and respectful butchery of an animal. Waha is known as a god of butchery not just among the Praxians, but throughout Orlanthi Belt, Peloria, Pent, and even Fronela and Ralios. The cult is the source of a skill called the Peaceful Cut. This is a skill which lets the sacrificed herd beast die peacefully and without fear, and also includes butchering the creature properly, without wastage. This skill is taught to all Lay Members free upon their acceptance into the cult. The God Learners discovered that even people who never had any contact with the Praxians practiced a variation of the Peaceful Cut - showing that the Butcher had more cosmic significance than merely being the ancestor of the Animal Nomads.

I've been the hold-up on this, as James Lowder and I needed to carefully review and edit the legal language we will be using for our OGL.At the end of the day, I was not comfortable hanging our hats off WotC's language (if indeed we were legally entitled to use their copy-written license which is explicitly not OGL - I know several other companies have done that but I still was not comfortable repurposing a license that in fact applies to another work altogether). But that review is finished and we should have the final document out soon!

Midkemia's Carse is not Glorantha's Karse. Glorantha's Karse is an ancient settlement, although the original settlement was on the opposite bank. Its fortunes have been linked to that of Sartar - the city is the terminus of the land route through Dragon Pass. It is an important trading centre, where ships merchant meet caravans and vice versa. The city was conquered by the Lunars in 1619, and lost to them in 1625. Since then it has functioned as a semi-autonomous city state that pays tribute (or protection money) to both Nochet and the Wolf Pirates. Architecturally I don't think it bears much resemblance at all to the Midkemia product.