metcalph

They're going to be announcing an Elden Ring mod in which you're one of the Masters of Luck and Death trapped in the Tournament since the death of Belintar. The only real worry that Fromsoft has is that the average Gloranthan fan would have some clue about what is going on which they feel will detract from the game.

After the fall of Furthest (1630 ST or therabouts), the King (implied as Moirades in the text but probably Pharandros) is described as being killed (KoS p20). There's a bit of obscurity about the details, one tradition saying that he was captured and killed while the other has him being captured but nobody knew what to do with him, before Mularik leaps up and kills him. p106 has him being sent to the City of Wonders in exile, which smells like face-saving BS since the city had been destroyed long before.

There have been plenty of cases in which the defending army has been destroyed but the attacker is unable to take the city (the Assyrian Siege of Jerusalem is a good example where we have both sides of the story). Argrath's retreat from Bagnot is precisely the type of detail that gets left out of any heroic retelling. Fazzur's power base is the city of Dunstop and Kodros Island. They do deals with Argrath because their real enemy is the King or Moirades and Ethilrist's sack is still a vivid memory. Tarsh is rich. With the Revolt in the Redlands and the White Moon Rebellion, the opportunity not to pay taxes is quite good especially since the Provincial Overseer got eaten by a Dragon.

Yes. There's a Leika "the mayor" mentioned under Argrath's Companions in King of Sartar p146. Or the City King could be the Homeguard Companions (Jenesta the Grim, etc).

Storm Pantheon works better. Several gods (like Waha) would be hard pressed to be described as lightbringers. https://wellofdaliath.chaosium.com/home/catalogue/publishers/chaosium/cults-of-glorantha-previews-2019/

The comments I made for epitome also apply to exemplars - they do not mandate the cult to be a public one. One can make good deeds in the world and protect the good name without being public. Let's take a non-gloranthan example - Batman...

I don't see the text as requiring that the Arkati set a public example, and to infer that from epitome seems to me a stretch. Consider the epitome of a secret agent or a humble person; are they well-known or not?

IMO the Arkati do battles via HeroQuests. The Arkati of one city gather together and perform a heroquest which strengthens their magical defences and sends magical calamities (e.g. the ten plagues of Egypt) upon their enemies (the Arkati of the neighbouring cities). They also carry out magical assassinations but it costs resources that could be used against the city next door (to wit; curse the evil Archon with worms or make his city's crops fail?) and they have to know the target's name to have any great chance of success.

The RBoM rune spell is Mold Stone which has no additional POW cost whereas the equivalent Maker Magic is Shape Rock. Shape Metal likewise has no additional POW cost whereas Shape Iron does and is restricted to a specific metal. I think the Mold Stone is magic that humans gain from worshipping Flintnail and that the Rock Dwarves still use their Maker Magic. I am unsure how Flintnail manages to teach Shape Metal considering it's kinda outside his area of expertise. The idea of dwarven equivalent of Malkioni caste magic as opposed to their described Maker Magic is an interesting one. I think it morely to be associated with Diamond than to be associated with the metals (as they already have the Maker Magics for that). I believe the Dwarves in general would not have access to RQ sorcery and that the Silver Dwarves who do, don't like it as it conflicts with their belief that the Material World is the highest form of reality.

Some people might consider it chaotic but Tapping is wholly lawful.

Maker Magic costs POW. Thus the Dwarves have an incentive to use it as little as possible. They are more likely to use some factory following a Rube Goldberg crafting scheme rather than to cast a simple spell. Rather than use a spell to create water into wine, they are more likely to fill a cauldron with wood and water, boil that for a lengthy period of time and add tincture - made by another complicated process - to the distillate to make wine.

I think Dwarf Alchemy should their steampunkish vibe and be a different beast than other sources of alchemy. They would actively avoid using sorcery or Maker Magic as much as possible. Their means of making potions would be convoluted crafting schemes. A human taking a dwarven potion might suffer 1 general HP of damage as it's not suited for humans. The dwarves sell it to them any way since they don't care. For potions, I generally lean model them after the Fallout CRPG rather than spirit magic or sorcery. Thus: ALL-RAGE: Induces a berserk rage. Popular among some Iron Dwarves. MONO: Induces a trance state which allows the User to focus intensely on one task at hand. Popular among some Iron Dwarves who don't like ALL-RAGE NO THOUGHT: User becomes a suggestive automaton capable of simple tasks. Disturbingly popular among some dwarves who find it difficult to cope with the drudgery of their tasks. MINDFUEL: A salt made from Quicksilver and ingested as a powder. User becomes prone to dazzling attacks of inspiration. etc. The Quicksilver Dwarves attempt to push these potions and others onto the dwarves of other castes and even among some humans. They won't take payment in coin but rather favours and the like. The Gold Dwarves see it as contrary to the Plan (insofar as it subverts their roles as supervisors of Mostali society) and do what they can to curb their use.

The reason I put it later is that there's only two gods in the Fire Pantheon - Yelm and Yelmalio - that have any influence in Dragon Pass and their impact isn't large (Sun Dome County and the Grazers)

I think the scheme will follow the that outlined in the Sourcebook. After Storm and Earth would come Moon, Darkness and Chaos thus providing enough for most campaigns. Fire and Water would be in the third wave.

There is a branch of Arkati who believe the answer is Yes.

They get access to rune spells for being an initiate. The sacrifice of additional powe was to fuel Magasta's Pool, I'd thought.

I think the Trolls can roam up to the forest borders but once they go in, they become pincushions. The trolls try and reduce the size of the forest by herding trollkin in their direction and the elves try and increase the size of their woods. Hampering troll attempts to raze Redwood once and for all, is that only the Gash Tribe has any desire to take over the forest. I think the trolls, the elves all worship the river and tributaries when it runs through their lands. I don't think either has boats - that speaks of a technological sophistication that isn't known for the region - the troll galleys are in Jrustela and the United Foresters may have started in Fronela.

Methinks that's Aranea you are remembering.

There are the immortal Brithini who have been alive since before the Gods War. The oldest of them is Zzabur who considers himself human. There also the Agitori of Pamaltela.

As far as I see it, an Orlanthi Thunderous worshipping Heler would normally get access to his special rune magics (Rain, Flood etc) but not any magics of his associate deities - that is nothing from the river gods, the grain goddesses and so on. If he were to show up at the River Temple or Grain Temple, he would get the magic that the god or goddess provides *Orlanth* rather than Heler. To benefit from Heler's associates, an Orlanthi would have to develop an identity as a Helering, like sacrifice a point of POW to join the Helering cult. So in Orlanthi lands, Heler would not have a separate cult but his dedicated worshippers can be found attached to the temples to Orlanth, taking on the roles of Heler in the rituals. A similar situation exists for Barntar.

Heler comes from a different family of Gods than Magasta. Heler and Triolina are the offspring of Sramak and Daliath (Body and Mind) while Magasta is the son of Daliath and Framanthe (Mind and Spirit). So Heler's non-association with Magasta and other Manthie isn't due to his isolation from the sea.

I think part of the turbulence is that people are assuming there's no cost to having a shrine to Heler or Barntar. But I don't think that follows. A minor temple to Orlanth isn't normally going to have shrines to Barntar and Heler, it would more likely have a shrine to one or the other. So a minor riverine temple to Orlanth would have access to Helering rune spells while a minor hillside temple might have Barntaring spells.

They also shared the same temple in New Pavis. IMO Irrippi and Buserian Sages can worship at the Lhankor Mhy Temples and get rune points replenished. They just can't sacrifice for rune magics that are alien to Lhankor Mhy (such as IO's Madness) or for rune magic from LM's associated cults.

Nearest I can think of is Sandy suggesting that Dragonewts only get experience gain rolls when they die.

They could also use the Illusion Rune from Thalurzni Mikaday (borrowing from Zhaungzi's parable of the Butterfly Dream). They use a rune spell (like Argan Argar's Become Other) to spend time as a Dragonewt or a Human (if a 'newt) and use the resulting transformation to acquire mystical awareness and achieve illumination.