metcalph

The Red Overseer of the South embodies strength. He will attack the heroes by kicking their ass. The White Overseer of the North embodies wisdom. He will reason with the heroes to convince them that their current course is unjust. The Blue Overseer of the West embodies sovereignty. He will command the heroes to submit before Yelm, confess their crimes and sacrifice themselves. The Yellow Overseer of the East embodies insight. He will become aware of a hidden flaw of the heroes and use it to shame the heroes. Depending on how much God Learner wisdom the Lunars have absorbed, you could also give the Overseers powers from the directions (South - Sea of Flame, North - Glacial Attacks, West - Violent Emotions, East - Peace and Understanding). Lastly their tools. It is my impression that their tools are golden age re-interpretations of the fragments of the world body (see Jokbazi IV-25 on the Gods Wall). The Ketstick is a Shape Portion, the Compass a rabbit's head/Bird portion, the Plumb Line an arrow head and so on. The overseers originally bore the actual fragments of the first god and by the time of the golden age, these fragments had become understood as something that made sense in Golden Age Dara Happa.

According to the RQ3 writeup of Waha (Tales #15), he is revered in Peloria and Fronela as a God of Butchers and Slaughterhouses (to wit, the Peaceful Cut). I don't see the need to invoke Gerendetho as caretaker of the Land among the Hungry Sable since Waha isn't a caretaker of the land by any definition. Moreover since the Hungry Sables are nomadic, Gerendetho would be a men's god more than anything else. I'm somewhat mystified by Gerendetho's main claim to mythic fame, the creation of the Hungry Plateau. It seems an overly colossal bit of civil engineering for rather a petty dispute. My guess is that the people of mythical kostaddi had some compulsion to level the mountains of the Plateau and plave their waste in what is now Jord. Instead of one great mythic action, it was a longterm cultural effort which may be related to the city of Senthoros. The best idea that I can come up with is that since the Sky and the Earth were seperated, Gerendetho decided to recreate the good old days by creating a new land closer to the Sky. The Granite Men did not like this for obvious reasons but since the Gods War rendered the Hungry Plateau worthless, the feud with Granite Man is all that anybody can remember.

The closest rune that I can see for Genert's Rune would be the Power Rune (ie the one that Pamalt has) which is close to the spear that Gerendetho prominently bears on the Gods Wall. Turos who is somewhat similar is given the Man Rune in Pavis: Gateway to Adventure.

They were given places in the area. It's just that they were rewarded with better places than the Hungry Plateau. As per sidebar p313 of the Guide, the Sable Tribe was given Kostaddi while the Bison received Sylila and Vanch. Being given the Hungry Plateau as a reward would be kind of like giving invaders the local tip as a reward for seizing a city. I think instead the Hungry Plateau was settled some time after the battle of Argentium Thi'rile by Sable overlords worried about the decline of their native traditions.

Xamalk's invasion of Luatha actually comes from Greg's notes about chaos which were printed in Tales of the Reaching Moon #8. The notes survive in some form as part of Appendix F in the Guide (Baldrus the Black Reader of Nochet now Belstos!). Xamalk was explicitly mentioned in an early draft of the Guide as destroying the land of Rombotongo (which in the published version is now Herespur). Given Xamalk's lack of mention in Revealed Mythologies, I do not believe he has any important role to play in Vithelan mythology. Any reference to Xamalk is I think a God Learnerism caused not by their explicit identification of Herespur as Xamalk or whatever (Attacking Vithela after being defeated on the other side of the world doesn't sound right to me mythically - it's like Storm Bull defeating Vovisibor beneath the block). Rather the God Learners attempted to create a mythical Xamalki invasion of Vithela in order to wreck havoc on the Eastern Seas Empire and integrate the Parloth into the Monomyth.

Gathering Thunder does not complete the Sartar Rising campaign - a fourth book was intended to do this with the Dragon Rise. What Gathering Thunder does have is a scenario about the raising of the Boat Planet, which isn't that great and has a number of issues with it (Issaries Inc was having problems at the time). There are other scenarios but they do not seem to be intrinsic to the Sartar Rising campaign, ie they can be run as stand-alone.

My thinking on Caladra and Aurelion's magics. Most people initiate to either Caladra (Lava) or Aurelion (Oil & Coal). I'll leave aside the question of whether Aurelion's magics stem from the earth rune or the fire rune as his magic can be distinguished from Caladra's through the use of "an incomplete list of what Aurelion's initiates use his magic for". By themselves, they are one rune cults. Magics of the Harmony Rune can only be cast when an initiate of Caladra is paired with an initiate of Aurelion. These are spells inherited from the God Learners I think (contra the original cult-writeup) the pairing of initiates is the equivalent to marriage rather than a twin soul-mate. An Caladran can marry/pair with an Aurelionite regardless of sex but a Caladran cannot marry another Caladran and so on for Aurelion. I'm not so worried about the Fire in the Earth kerfuffle as as it sounds very Dara Happan. Given that the people of Caladraland were supporters of Palangio, I would be very surprised if they didn't have some Dara Happan influences.

I think Peaceful Cut and Summon Borabo Nightmare should be best understood as ritual charms; in other words, the ritual is the charm through which the spirit can act or depart. The spirit magician needs to observe a taboo for the ritual charm to work: Peaceful Cut - never create a ball of tails, Summon Tribal Founder - be a tribal khan, Summon Borabo Nightmare - never break a tribal taboo. Rituals by theists are really a lower class of heroforming/feats. Instead of being a devotee heroically expressing the feat, the worshippers painstakingly recreate the myth in order to bring about the feat.

Apparently not. Harrek joins the Wolf Pirates when they attack his ship of the coast of Seshnela. I assume that he took the first boat out after he plundered Sog.

According to a Gregly article in Tales #10, the Wolf Pirates were founded by Orstando Blackwolf who fought the Loskalmi and led the Pirates to Three Steps before the Sack of Sog.

Yes, but you use it to identify cultures when it properly should be restricted to types of magic. Describing the Praxian's magic as a mixture of rune and spirit magic is good. Describing the Praxians as spirit worshippers is too broad a brush to be useful and perpetuates the worst of the Hero Wars/HeroQuest 1.0 schemata. The Basmoli migration to Genertela is amply mentioned in the Guide. Hence I don't see the need to dispute it considering that other Pamaltelan groups (Men and a Half, Zaranistangi) have also made the journey. Your point about different racial stocks can be easily be resolved by having the groups learn how to take human form _after_ their geographical separations. The Enerali are not Hsunchen but Orlanthi. The Enjoreli/Tawari are native born. .

The Sages use sorcery as an aid to their meditations. The Monk's exposition of the Gods War (Mashunasan Tells Us - Revealed Mythologies p70-71) is little different in scope from the Malkioni studying the Gods to do sorcery. The mystical martial arts was mystical in nature according to the only rules treatment (Hero Wars). Greg's great revelation about classifying magic according to type came much later (A spell is something that you know etc). Personally I would drop any mention about theism and animism in such analysis as it's reliant on outdated materials. In particular: The Kolatings aren't what you call a distinct culture but rather part of the Heortlings. The Odaylans are in Peloria in the Dawn Age. Individual Odaylings will have ranged far and wide even to Kethaela but I think it a mistake to think of Odayla hunters as being an actual cultural presence in Kethaela. Yinkin maybe but not Odayla. Gorakiki would not be distinct from Kyger Litor and the main troll influence on nearby societies would by Argan Argar who gives rune magic. I'm dubious as to whether Praxians could be analysed solely as animists considering that of the two described for HQ2/Glorantha, both Waha and Storm Bull have Rune Magic as well as spirits. I don't recall any reference to Elemental Tribes among the Hendriki. The Five Foreigner Tribes (History of the Heortling Peoples p65) may be elementally divided but since one of them is the Durevings, I feel the theory needs a wee bit more development before it can be regarded as fact. For Imarja, I would prefer to describe her as a heroic bringer and teacher of Vithelan Wisdom rather than a mystical religion. I doubt that Velhara the Lady of the Wild is worshipped as a mystical religion, instead she's a spirit representing that which cannot be tamed. Assuming that you have shifted from the Hendriki to the Eleven Beasts Alliance of Fronela, I wouldn't describe the Theyalan missionaries as inclusive. That would mean they were intending to incorporate Hykimi rituals into their own practices which doesn't sound right. The Theyalan missionaries were teaching their own mysteries and I doubt there were any similar stories between them and the Hykimi (the Talastari who did have similar stories which the missionaries used had been Orlanthi in the Storm Age). As to the wisdom that the Theyalan missionaries taught, I think it not about element forces but 1) Sacrifice to the Gods, 2) the I Fought We Won Secret and 3) Theyalan farming and other practices. The distinctions between the Living and the Dead was, I think, a Gray Age concern (ie Daka Fal) rather than a Dawn Age One. I would prefer to describe the Pendali as a fusion of Basmoli (who were Fiwan from Pamaltela rather than Hykimi) and Likiti cultures. Yes, they could worship the earth without harming their Basmoli lion-worship traditions but a slight wrinkle to all this is that Basmol is Dead. The Serpent Kings did not IMO combine worship of the Earth with Brithini sorcery as their Malkioni magic was Hrestoli in scope. What they would have had was a majority of people worshipping Likita and related gods while the Hrestoli and wizards viewed themselves as having withdrawn from worship of these Gods to proper union with the Invisible God. Only after the demise of the Serpent Kings were the actual Malkioni numerous enough to argue that everybody should be Malkioni. I wouldn't describe the war with the Pendali as being rooted in hostility to Hykimi beast magics. The Serpent Kings were hostile to the Pendali as they resisted their rule. The Lion Society of Seshnela may have had its origins in friendly Basmoli willing to fight alongside the Seshnegi and their shape-changing practices evolved over the subsequent centuries to whatever they have now (both Rindland and Tanisor are described as semi-barbarian Guide p405 which sounds like something Rokari wizards approach by looking in the opposite direction).

Originally sorcery could be done merely by thinking. But now because of the degenerate state of the world, most people have to use applied magics (Kachasti - speaking, Tadeniti - reading, Kadeniti - objects etc) to perform sorcery.

I hardly think what was written for RQ3 Gods of Glorantha over twenty years ago is relevant to the Eastern Isles today. All it may have been meant to indicate was that they had exotic magic not otherwise described. The Eastern Islanders do have sorcery but it is hardly combined with the Island Gods. There are three groups 1) the Sages, 2) the Valkaraians and 3) the low Sorcerors after Martalak. Not to mention that it was originally the God Learners who first classified magic into one of three types (latest version Guide p135). So what did Gloranthans think about magic before?

Unfortunately Jeff has since expressed misgivings about this particular myth.

I don't think the Church of Ishara actually exists anymore. It's not mentioned in the Guide and doesn't fit with the Trader Princes as they are currently depicted.

I think the Alien Combination Machine stems from the Machine City. An early myth about Lhankor Mhy have him being gifted the Marking Bones o it would be kind of odd if he was carrying advanced tech at the time.

These still exist. A good example is the cult of Flintnail in New Pavis in which the stonemason skills are cast using the Stonemason keyword.

There are no longer any Saints Blessings - Everybody just has spells (or states of being) derived from a Saint's philosophical discoveries. The chain of veneration still exists although it is no longer called veneration. Once could refer to spells derived from the Abiding Book as being a liturgy but I think the current thinking is to make everything part of general wizardly duties. In other words, the participants in the ceremony may or may not believe they are worshipping the Invisible God, it depends on what their wizards says. I guess that in the rural areas, the wizards tell the poplace that it is worship necessary for entry to Solace while in the more sophisticated urban regions, it's seen as magical taxation/tithing.

I think this misconstrues what a Malkioni School is. School is not used as a substitute for faith or creed but in the sense of a philosophical school. The only people who would be properly be said to belong to a school are the wizards. Everybody else are their supporters and retainers. The non-wizards may learn spells, they may believe in an Invisible God (or not) they may follow whatever philosophical guidance their wizard gives (Don't worship Saints! Don't worship Gods neither! And absolutely no spirits!!) but they leave the heavy duty of thinking about Big Stuff to the wizards. A Rokari merely means a follower of the Philosophical Tradition begun by Rokar. They will not primarily identify themselves as Rokari. They would be more likely to describe themselves as a man of Seshneg. If pressed, they might refer to themselves as a worshipper of the Invisible God Makan (while looking confusedly at the nearby wizard who just received a massive headache). If pressed to identify the schools of Malkionism, they would pump for the Malkioni (us), joyful degenerates (Hrestoli), dirty stinking pagans (Arkati) etc.

The Malkioni have been reverted to Greg's original vision of a society dominated by wizards rather than a pseudo-Christian Church. The medieval details in prior Gloranthan publications were the result of, I understand, severe time constraints in the making of the Genertela boxed set which required substantial filler and so the medieval material was just parachuted in. Subsequent publications just simply accepted it.

It's not clear that the counties belong to either Heortland or God Forgot. The map on p246 is for Malkonwal, not Heortland. I've a feeling that the Counties are responsible to the God-King directly rather than the KIng and Governor of Heortland. A stronger argument would be to note that the population sidebar lists 628K people in Heortland. Malkonwal has 300K, the Hendriki have 273K, the three counties 52K giving a total of 625K. Not conclusive as to the nature of the Marcher County people (the 5K of Refugee are still God Forgotten) but culturally Heortlander rather than God Forgotten seems a safer bet.

I think the Knight Fort in the Nomad Gods is an innovation to represent a starting place for the Holy Country and that the actual knight forts are further southwest off the map.

I think the reason there are no dragonewts in Pamaltela is that Bolongo killed the Dragon Langamul so all they have are spirits instead.