Jeff

As most of you all know, the Invisible God will not be making an appearance in the Cults of Glorantha - as sorcery really needs a full treatment, and the so will be getting its own book. At its core, all variants of Malkionism are ways of addressing the following questions. 1. What is the relationship between mortals and gods? This ranges from treating the gods as nothing more than anthropomorphised natural forces (like with the Brithini) to permitting worship of specific deities as favoured emanations or agents of the Invisible God (as is common among henotheist Malkionism). 2. Who is allowed to learn sorcery? This might be a small elite (hereditary or meritocratic), potentially everyone but practically restricted to a few, or everyone. The last is very rare except among a few transgressive sects. 3. What is the relationship between sorcerers and the rest of society? Sorcerers are sometimes removed from society as a "sacred" caste surrounded by taboos and restrictions. In other societies, sorcerers are the rulers of society. And in still others, they advise but do not rule. 4. What is the ideal form of human society? Malkionism encourages people to look at abstract ideals as the perfect form of something (and that sorcery is the technique of bringing the material world in compliance with that perfect form). But what is the ideal form of human society? Logically human society is divided into castes or classes, but how are those chosen and comprised?

There will be a lot of material on Jonstown soon.

A Hsunchen uses Beast to do their magic. They are beasts after all. If the Hsunchen becomes too much Man, they cease to be able to be Hsunchen. You planning on playing a Gold Wheel Dancer?

It was a strange review IMO. I made a very deliberate decision not to include Pamaltelan or Jrusteli or even Teshnite/Kralorelan monsters unless they are likely to appear in the "core lands". And other creatures he seemed upset about not appearing may not actually exist in Glorantha.

We deliberately dropped the thrust weapon penalties - as they were really fiddly (and I recall my buddy Mike O'Connor demonstrating how silly they were in practice).

Your Fetch is pure Spirit. You are Man (or Beast) as you are a mortal, physical entity that either lives in society (Man) or lives with nature (Beast). We concluded there is little actual game value to having a Spirit Rune in conflict with anything else. So if you want to put the Spirit Rune on your character sheet, draw it on. There are plenty of Runes that aren't an important part of a mortal character (unless you are an elf - then swap out Beast with Plant).

We didn't see them as being Glorantha or RuneQuest. And also we both thought snakes were pretty cool.

New Uz content, not reprint.

Greg and I both disliked weapon snakes. So we dropped them all.

Our RQ games at GenCon were all full up. Todd Gardiner is doing a fantastic job working with conventions and game stores to support RuneQuest play. That being said, I would LOVE a LFG thread here. The more the merrier.

We have no interest in doing a 5e Gloranthan game. Let D&D be D&D. Let us be us.

I emphasise that this is a RuneQuest forum to encourage you to think what that means in terms of the RQ rules. Otherwise move this over to the general Glorantha forum.

Mike is a fantastic CoC line editor and is doing a brilliant job. But CoC and RQ are very different lines and what works for one line does not always (or even usually) work for the other. Jason Durall is doing an amazing job on the RQG line and you don't have long to wait for the next few products.

This is a RuneQuest forum, so no that is not correct. One of Kallyr's followers might be a Mastakos initiate who has Guided Teleport to a location in the Sky World. Although the only associate of Kallyr I know who can travel from the Mundane World to a specific place in the Sky World is Kallyr herself.

It is a lot easier to put together a Cthulhu supplement at this point in the line than it is for RuneQuest.

There is an archetype in Glorantha of the Light God who descends to the world to shine through the Greater Darkness and greets the Dawn. He is not the distant Light, too pure for the world, but one that suffers through pollution and strife, and yet remains bright. This archetype has many names - at the Dawn, he was called Kargzant or Antirius in Peloria, Elmal in Dragon Pass. He is known to the elves as well. They were all held to be separate gods until Nysalor revealed that they were all the same - the Little Sun or the Cold Sun. Which is Yelm-alio (little Yelm). In the late Third Age, most of the Yelmalio temples recognise each other, even if there is no over-arching organization to the cult. The last to do so was the Elmal cult in Sartar, which had the Revelation of the Many Suns around 1560 or so. Now even the Light Temple of Sartar is recognised as one of the grandest of the Sun Dome Temple of Yelmalio.

There are no blank lands. See the Guide.

Throughout all Glorantha, the Rebirth ceremonies of Sacred Time are of the utmost importance. During the two-week long ceremony, all god-worshiping people act out their sacred myths of death and rebirth. Every cult, every culture, every species has an important role to play in preserving the cosmos. Across the whole world. everyone summons their gods and spirits, and the physical plane trembles with their presence. Even the cynicism of the God Learners never tainted these critically important rites. Ever since the first Dawn, people have gathered regularly at the end of the year so that the cosmos can be reborn. They celebrate the good and the bad, the living and the dead, the actions of the gods and the heroes so that everyone contributes to the rebirth of the world once again. This is the time of celebration, of ceremony, and of difficulty and of sacrifice. The fourteen days of Sacred Time are set outside of Time. Normal activity ceases.Extraordinary activity supersedes everyday desires. The realms of mortal and gods merge, and through the consecrated actions of mortals the world is renewed and reborn. The holy actions of mortals rejuvenate the gods. On the first day, a sacred area is delineated, a circle within which the worlds come together and become one. For the next three days, all of the deities known - even enemies - are called in to witness and help, and to receive honor and sacrifice. Animals appropriate to the gods are sacrificed and their blood is sprinkled on the people and their homes, upon their tools of work and of war, to bring power to them; then the rest is poured into sacred pits to feed the goddesses and gods of the dead, and the ancestors who are there so that they too may come out for the celebrations and dance and pray. Finally on the end of the third day, the followers of Humakt cut themselves and offer their own blood to the God of War and Death, and then most of them afterwards go and take up positions of defense, to watch for any enemies who may try to slip into the rites to foul them. They strengthen the perimeter and cut it off from the outside world, and afterwards any participant who crosses outside that line will see and feel the difference between the ordinary world and the sacred world. On the fourth day, the Seven Lightbringers are honored. These seven are the saviors of the world. All seven deities all come together and are worshipped. At the height of the ceremony, the seven depart on the Lightbringers Quest in a tearful and dreadful ceremony. It is a day of mourning and fear. The Seven Lightbringers participate in secret and dangerous rites until they return a week later. On the fifth day the worshippers must call upon other gods and spirits – even some normally hostile - to help them survive. The sixth day is dedicated to Issaries, the god of communication who bears the power of the sacrifices and worship to the other world to the gods. On the seventh day, everyone except the seven involved in the Lightbringers Quest gathers together. The boldest re-enact the battle of I Fight We Won, and face the armies of Chaos alone, but together they defeat the Devil. Everyone is tested by these rituals, and this is the most dangerous part of the ceremony. Real Chaos creatures are faced, and it is not unknown for people to be killed during the rites. The next day, Chalana Arroy is worshiped without violence or animal sacrifice. Those injured the previous day are healed and those killed are revived. On the eleventh day, the Lightbringers must return from the Underworld with Ernalda. It is a day of great joy and celebration. The gods and goddesses awaken to join the celebration and share in a great feast in celebration of the Lightbringers. Time begins, Chaos recedes, and the world is healed. The next two days are dedicated to the reunion of the gods and goddesses of Life, when the bodies of the world are reinhabited by their immortal parts. The celebrations are relaxed, save for those who are devoted to the deities who act during them. Most people visit the rites for at least a short while, but also go to visit their friends and give small gifts and share food and drink. The last day is sacred to Lhankor Mhy, the sage and seer, and during the night the dedicated worshippers meet in secret, then on the next day they look to the sun and prophecy for the community, and for whomever beings to them a gift appropriate to their station. Then, as night approaches, the community is led by the united priests and priestesses in a dance and many songs, to close the sacred time, and bring the world back to normalcy. When the sun sets, the rites are officially over. The Humakti guarding the perimeter cut down the barrier, and the power of fourteen days of celebration, worship, fear and love are released to the world. The next day is the Spring Equinox, the first day of the Sea Season, when the life of the world can be seen everywhere.

In what will be the published description of Elmal, that subcult receives no more Fire magic than Yelmalio. Less even, as it doesn't have Yelm as an associated cult.

Worse was when I was asked play a dark elf sorceress. As long as the focus was roleplaying, or magic to help in the (unimportant for rules mechanics) social situations, I was fine. But in combat, I had no idea what to do as spells seemed to modifier other things which modified other things. and I just ended up asking other players, "Ok, what should I do?".

The last time I am going to say this - Kralorela is not the real Bronze Age China any more than Dragon Pass is the real Mycenaean Greece. It is the China of our myths - the Serica of Pliny and Ptolemy. That being said, big influences for me were Mark Lewis' "The Early Chinese Empires", Sawyer's "Ancient Chinese Warfare", Visually you can't go wrong with Watson's "Art of China to AD 900". and Li Feng's "Early China". And If I recall I had been reading Dalton's "Taming of Demons" and I'd be lying if I said that wasn't an influence. But at the end of the day, Kralorela is Glorantha (albeit pulled through those lenses, rather than through the Mahabharata, the sagas, and the Iliad) and not ancient China. Any more than Dara Happa is Babylonia or Assyria.

Vormain is very much Sandy's creation and Kralorela is Greg's. Keep in mind, Kralorela is not China - it is the mythic China that worked itself into Greg's imagination.

Oh definitely! To be honest I still need someone to hold my hand anytime I play a d20 system. Whenever I am a player, the action stops completely as I ask questions like "what am I able to do again?"

Barntar falls into Orlanth. He is usually worshiped as subculture of Orlanth and Ernalda, and only occasionally independently.

For what it is worth, long before I was in charge of the revival of RuneQuest, I found RQ's combat system extremely simple once you get used to it. At worst you need to look up the Fumble Table from time to time.