metcalph

1 hour ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

However the phases of the moon will affect MP costs of the sorcery spells, that is clear.  So during the full moon Lunar sorcery is going to be cheap.

This is a big change from even Heroquest: Glorantha. 

What's the Lunar Magic skill that affects more than just spirit magic?

On the specific examples, in the old GoG rules Speedart with 2 points amp would have been +10% to hit and +2 damage.  With 3 that went to 15% and +3 damage.  Demoralize is unchanged as far as I can see.  

3 hours ago, Eff said:

Referring to him being described as a pupil of Zzabur in the Guide. Hypothetically possible in the right Gloranthas, but suggestive.

Pretty sure that's Ostorious Archmagus, not Talar Malaskan Phillippe, you are thinking of

4 hours ago, Eff said:

This does seem to scan with God Forgot and Malaskan Philippe's apparent caste-hopping.

Malaskan Philippe is an Officer, not a Warrior.  Even where he's commanding troops, he's always described as a Talar.

2 hours ago, Eff said:

3. gwymirs: Obsoleted.

Gwyymirs were a rank of elite Brithini warriors in Arkat's Saga and the narrator of that tale hoped to become one but thought Arkat would become one first.

There is an early unfinished Stafford tale "Aftal the Waertag" which was printed in Missing Lands and indicated to have been written in the mid-60s.  It also mentions the Deri which appeared in the Guide and the Little People of Jrustela, who are probably now Timinits.

2 hours ago, Jason Farrell said:

That's extremely disingenuous considering that is one of three solutions Soccercalle wrote. 

Listing other poorly thought-out alternatives doesn't make the "Let Them Eat Cake" attitude any better.

2 hours ago, Soccercalle said:

I get that some deliveries can reach the warehouses at different times and that is not a problem if we talk about 2-3 weeks difference. But if THE SAME warehouse (seems to be Australia) always get the stuff 2-3 months later than the other something has to change in order to enhance customer satisfaction.
This can be done in two or three ways. 1) Close the outlier warehouse and have the people there order from other warehouses (Fedex or DHL from EU to Australis is 2-4 days which will better for the consumers than waiting 2-3 extra months, even if the price will be higher). 

I'm just happy at this point that Chaosium isn't taking your advice.  

Looking through the Book

• The genealogical tables for many of the ruling houses have been changed from a powerpoint presentation to actual coins of the rulers.
• There's a piccie in the Xeotam dialogues.
• The sketch map of the Gloranthan Underworld has been replaced by the Cosmology of Glorantha that was in Cults of RuneQuest: Mythology.
• A map of Golden Age Glorantha has been replaced by a Map of the same period from the Guide to Glorantha.
• The same is true for the maps of the Storm Age and Great Darkness.

3 hours ago, Wheel Shield said:

Update. I am assuming The Lunar Way is coming too, but this says what it says, and predictions seem to be folly.

Judging from Jeff's articles on Facebook, which have been Lunar themed over the past few days, its release seems to me to be near.  Aetherworks, the presumed milestone before release, is a bit more pessimistic.

14 minutes ago, French Desperate WindChild said:

by the way, is this notion still relevant  :  gods (like Orlanth or Yinkin) are different than great spirits (like Kolat or Fralar) ?

No.  It's more like the Gods have a preference for the type of magic that they give.  

26 minutes ago, Shiningbrow said:

Would a dwarf soul go to the underworld and meet up with Daka Fal? If not, I don't see how there could be anything identical to Resurrection. (especially if, as asked above, dwarfs don't have souls (as humans consider them).

Dwarves don't have souls in the same way they do not have sexual differences.

26 minutes ago, Shiningbrow said:

Dwarfs practice a type of sorcery, and there's no real good reason (actually, there is**... :p) for them not to be able to repair it using Maker Magic.

Using Maker Magic is an admission of defeat.  The Material World is the Highest Form of Reality and the other worlds are inferior worlds warped by rogue magics.  The Dwarves do not use Maker Magic to commune with the World Machine for they are in the World Machine every single day.  Instead they use Maker Magic because they are not totally of the World Machine and that their own Souls hold them back.  Maker Magic is a necessary recalibration of the Self rather than a vision of the Divine.

That said, there are many dwarves who have fallen into error and believe otherwise.  They are Perverts - Report Them.

26 minutes ago, Shiningbrow said:

(**however, there's the issue of 'growing' a new arm, which should be frowned upon, as going against makers... but, I suggest, there'd be similar magics that could attach an arm - but won't need to be from a fresh corpse - they could just make/shape one out of other substances - clay?? In Bestiary, it says that Jolanti get repaired the same way that weapons and armour are, so it wouldn't surprise me if the same is true for the dwarfs - ie, some sort of Repair spell... (which makes me wonder, since dwarfs don't use spirit magic, would a Repair spell work on them? Can they heal naturally??)

Dwarves can and do use Spirit Magic.  It's not Proper for them to do so.  Jolanti and Nilmergs are Tamestones which Dwarves would like to be but manifestly are not.  Repair spells do not work on their flesh.  There are artificial arms in Glorantha (Aruzban Ironarm although Greg once told me he thought his arms reached the ground).

Instead of regrow limb, the mostali would be more likely to surgically attach a spare limb from a fresh dwarf corpse.  If loses were particularly heavy, the limbs might be noticeable mismatched so you might see a dwarf with two right hands.  

Braindead dwarves have their brains scooped out and a special control module for a small nilmerg to operate as if it were a mecha.  The control units are expensive though and the dwarves use them only when a particular dwarf's body is reuired - ie it is one of the select few that can enter a magic vault.

I think that some iron dwarves take an alchemical conconction that turns them into a revenant (Bestiary p123).  These would be used to guard isolated places of critical importance.  

As for Dwarven Humakti, their name for the God is Iron.  

2 hours ago, Darius West said:

Zzabur is/was mortal.  We can be sure he broke caste, and used spells to increase his longevity.  Now, however he has been zapped out of existence along with Brithos since the Second Age.

Zzbur is a God who thinks he is mortal.  And I doubt he has broken caste or destroyed himself.

Probably Zzabur.

18 hours ago, svensson said:

@French Desperate WindChild @metcalph

And yet the tribes have consistently been portrayed in multiple editions as highly biased against horses and the people who ride them. Horse riders are singled out in raids, the horses themselves draw fire,

The canonical of contact between the Horse Riders (ie the party) and Praxian Horse Haters is the Borderlands scenario: To Giantland!  There the Praxians, miles away from the nearest US Calvary fort, do not immediately shoot our heroes and their mounts full of arrows and leave them to die in the Wastelands.    Instead they bar entrance to an oasis until the party can prove itself in a slanted contest.  Yes, the Praxians don't like horses in the same way that many Europeans do not like Russian Tanks but that hatred is not a visceral one overall.

18 hours ago, svensson said:

the PJs are written as having a tenuous perch at the edge of the Plains because of excessive raiding by all the Tribes.

I dunno where that comes from.  The Pol Joni live in the Good Place and the Better Place which are good grasslands and their hold is hardly tenuous.  

4 hours ago, Ian A. Thomson said:

Are Yanfali and Humakti Rune Lords expected to fight ritually whenever they meet?

My brain tells me that this is a thing. Yet another part of my brain says that i made it up

Was this ever a thing, am I extrapolating from some other ritual contest I once read about, or am I just making the whole idea up!!!! :)

CoR: the Lightbringers says "The two cults are respectful rivals of each other." p109.

The nearest example of a ritual combat from a rival cult comes from Trollpak p99

Quote

The high holy day of the [Zorak Zoran] cult is Darkday of Death week
of Dark season. On that day, cultists like to challenge lone
Humakti to single combat and then gang up on him for an easy kill.

12 minutes ago, svensson said:

As for 'The PJs don't care what the Praxian tribes think', I would think that the one thing the Bison and Sable tribes would agree on is ridding the Plains of the Non-Covenant heretics and their filthy beasts! Should that be the case, the PJs would be well-advised to find some sort of accommodation with the Tribes, or else their very existence would be in jeopardy.

The actual statement about Waha and Horses is "Waha dislikes horses, for they are animals of Yelm, the sun god, and are not of Eiritha." (CoR: the Lightbringers p143).  That's a long way from ridding the Plains of all horses.  

Edit: and the Pol Joni themselves have 7% Waha worshippers (CoR: Mythology p155), so the cult itself is somewhat flexible on the matter.

I kinda think that politics circa 1630 has been utterly changed.  Perhaps a good comparison might be Roman Britain before the legions left and afterwards.  Given that in 1620, the Trader Princes were being supplanted by Greymane, I don't think anybody is going to remember them circa 1630.  

The main change is that Harrek and his Wolf Pirates rule the seas.  There's going to be loads of Wolf Pirates (think Sea People invasion) at the coastal ports, not just Yggites but also Quinpolics, Teshnans, Umathelans, Fonritans, Masloi and Teleosans.  All of them are seeking to make a name for themselves and quite of few of dreams of becoming a king of someplace.

Caladraland with its shitty coastline will be less vulnerable to Wolf Pirate raids than elsewhere BUT it also has the largest collection of diamonds in Glorantha.  So there's no way the Wolf Pirates are going to pass this up.  They will have likely seized Porthomeka and are using it as a base for sending epic armies into Caladraland.  I think by 1630, the low temple will have been besieged several times and sacked once but the High Temple and its treasury lies out of reach.

Given that the High King was a creature of Belintar, I really don't have much hope of its survival around 1630.  The High King with his crown was probably killed in battle and his head made into a drinking cup.  Power has instead become centered into the Dual Priesthoods - the civilized priests of the Volcano Twins and the savage priests of the Vent.  The main army of Caladraland is not the tribal militia but ironically bribed wolf pirates and prisoners-of-war recruited into fighting for the two Priesthoods.  With the demise of the High King, the local tribes are pretty much independent.  They do send their best fighters to fight for the Dual Priesthoods in return for access to worship at their temples but do so largely as skirmishers and raiders.  There's no sense of a larger country to fight and die for nor are they as daft to go fighting toe-to-toe with the Wolf Pirates.  Also assisting the Dual Priesthood is Gemborg in return for a steady supply of oil and coal.  Their aid probably comes in the form of iron weapons, and siege engines flinging disorder kegs and chained shot.  

Rhigos has probably been smart and paid hefty tribute to the Wolf Pirates in return for independence.  They would still have gangs of Wolf Priates doing pub crwals and the like.  

9 minutes ago, jajagappa said:

The Wasp Riders are not part of the Kitori, and I think are generally considered neutral at best, and often foes. (I picture the wasps raiding and attacking Kitori beetle larva for food.)

I really don't see how the Wasp Riders could be foes to the Kitori considering their location.  The only people they are said to be hostile to are the (obscure)  Bee People of the Holy Country (KoS p86).  And why would they need to raid the Kitori when the latter could quite easily give them beetle larva via other means?

Most of the information about the Kitori comes from:

Quote

The Kitori tribe in the Troll Woods of the Holy Countrypeculiar one, for it includes a troll part and a human part, each equal to the other, though they do not interbreed like foul tusk riders. Many, both troll and human, think the Kitori take the Argan Argar ideals to excess, but outside opinions will not change the tribe’s ways.

Trollpak p52

There's also the Become Other runespell (Red Book of Magic p16) which for 3 points allows someone to change from troll to human (or vice versa) up to half a day.  

I imagine they have separate clans with the human clans worshipping Argan Argar and Ernalda and the Troll Clans worshipping Argan Argar and Kyger Litor.  Judging by how the Kitori have treated their human neighbours over the centuries, their human  members identify as Kitori more strongly than they would as Orlanthi.  I think the human clans are paired with a shadow clan of trolls with the local Argan Argar cult providing common clan leadership.  

.As for how the Kitori are encountered in the field, they might have mixed contingents  with human pike and troll skirmishers.  They may have access to the Wasp Riders who live in their lands and whose relationship with the Kitori is unclear.  The Wasp Riders would worship Gorakiki-Wasp which would be associated with Argan Argar - so are they part of the Kitori, allies or what?

14 minutes ago, Shiningbrow said:

If one happens to awaken a certain demi-goddess from a certain published scenario, and marries that demi-goddess (even if it's only a year marriage), would that not make them an Heir of Vingkot? Certainly their child would be... no??

The demigoddess was a wife of Vingkot and a daughter of Tada.  This is not normally thought to make one an heir although William the Conqueror did try a similar argument.

A semi-serious post which was provoked by a recent thread about the Engrioni (wot Greg used to call the knights and the Men-of-All).

Cults of Runequest: Mythology p100 states that Malkion "was Pure Reason within the Perfect City but came
forth to descend into the material world".  Wot Hrestol and subsequent followers were doing was to reverse that descent so that they might rise towards Pure Reason.  Since the Malkion knew the entirety of the Law in teaching others of Caste, the Men-of-All hope to Ascend by combining all Castes within themselves.

How this might work is increased Rightness gains per caste mastered (instead of 1, you might get 2-4) but the downside would also be larger.

Can't find an online image but if you have seen Dune 2, there's an excellent shot of a gladiatorial arena in the Kingdom of Ignorance operating under the Black Sun.

1 hour ago, Akhôrahil said:

Vargast has a lot of expensive stuff on him, worth well in excess of his ransom value.

In RW terms, this would be known as negative equity.  Clearly Vargast has made some bad decisions in his past.