metcalph

It's not quite that clear. The Man of Gold teaches the Vaybeti how to live of fish and pigs, which does not seem a mostali activity to me. Also Gold is a symbol of rule among the Malkioni - he could be one of the Yellow Vadeli (mentioned in the Guide p527, which makes his desire to spy on the Tadeniti and access to mostali boats. Of course there are problems with the Man of Gold being a Vadeli as well (why would he be upset that the Vaybeti reached Kovano?) What's even more curious is that the Vaybeti isles seem to be based in Kumanku which raises the question of why this myth is doing in a book about Jrustela? A possible solution - the Man of Gold is Aurelion. He would have to be a Vymorni rather than a Vadeli but if true, we could use the myth to figure out stuff about the cult of Aurelion, now within the cult of twins, namely: Fire-making Spear and net hunting pig and fish hunting stone-carving and shapeing. hatred of elves Aurelion is no longer a volcano deity but a sun god grafted onto the volcano worshippers of Caladra under the myth that they were twins. Needs more work, I think...

The best reference is the Guide which says I note the three gods are distinguished. My guess is that Veskarthan is the Volcano God of what is now the Shadow Plateau. After he was conquered and enslaved by Argan Argar, Caladra of the Vent took up the leadership (as the only other contender Quivin had his head kicked in by Maran Gor). Hence Vesktarthan is worshipped as a father god, Kudja the first man and Caladra the God of the Vent.

Actually predates Tales #7. The God Learner experiment origin is found in the Gods of Glorantha Prosopaedia I have no idea with this reflects Greg's views at the time or was a Huberism or what. In any event the idea that the cult of Aurelion has a variant view is now somehwat defunct with the Olodo of Jrustela being from Slontos. A somewhat more serious problem is that the Seshnegi settled northern Jrustela where Aurelion's Breakewater is, yet nobody says anything about the Aurelion worshippers at the time. Looking at the Guide I see: Which is quite a change from how he was previously described. My guess is that Aurelion was a Sun God worshipped by the Jrusteli and that he became roped into the cult of the Twins if it still exists (Meething Hall which is supposedly located in Slontos is not mentioned in the Guide or the Middle Sea Empire). Edit: Found a reference to the Twins Caladra and Aurelion in the Guide p243 but not described as the Volcano Twins.

I think the Black Elves are not a hive mind but literally one fungus as in a walking humanoid fairy ring. The tendrils between the black elves are magical and grow within the shadows which is why the Black Elves like dark places so much.

Fomb Duck is a Spoonbill.

Esrolia: the Land of 10,000 Goddesses p13 labels the tributary past Helerdon the Whitefall River, the river past Kosh the Hrenal River and the River past Roskoth the Malthin River.

If you wonder what the customary practice is for a such a scenario (ransom from a bandit who had just looted a lunar caravan?), then there is no answer for custom deals with generalities not unusual circumstances. There is no right way to split up treasure (Borderlands lists three). Nor is the Tribal King (or clan chieftain) entitled to a share. What is done is to gift a portion of the treasure to the chief or king to make him feel important (and more importantly to avoid him putting the heroes at the top of his shit list). As for the question about what to do with hot loot, again there's no answer. (I seriously doubt that a bandit's ransom doesn't consist of large portions of obviously-stolen-from-a-lunar-caravan loot but most heroes would be either to stupid or too greedy to care. There is no customary way of laundering hot loot so that it becomes legitimate (and even if there were one in Orlanthi law, would the Lunar authorities care?). What the PCs shoudl to is a) give the loot to somebody else in return for goods of equal value b) find some way of ensuring that the fence doesn't fink on the heroes if he gets caught and questioned by the Lunars or c) hope the fence doesn't put two and two together and start blackmailing the heroes with what he knows.

Disappointingly the items for sale in both Borderlands and Griffin Mountain are rather pedestrian although there's lungers, an enlightened chimpanzee and a perch for human sized birds of an unknown race (not the roc which is probably related to Condor). IMO Orathorn is a large hollow bubble halfway between the World of the Living and the Land of the Dead. It's smaller than the Hellcrack which surfaced during the Gods War releasing the trolls (Senbar is a more recent surfacing). The undead servants are actaully residents of the Land of the Dead magically compelled to serve the sorcerers. The Sorcerors are there to keep Orathorn balanced between the two worlds. They are unpaid but it's also cheap immortality. So what happened during the Nights of Horrors was that the sorcerors were raising another geological bubble beneath to the Lunars and trap them within the land of the dead. The panicked Red Emperor summoned Chaos which, combined with the close presence of the Land of the Dead, punched a hole in the cosmos and unleashed a raw invasion of chaos. Whoops Apocalypse so to speak. The only flaw is that the battlefield of the Nights of Horror is not shown on any map which is damned odd. I do think Orathorn was substantially developed by the Celestial Empire as a stately pleasure dome for Sheng Seleris and is stocked with Yurts full of treasures and demonic guardians. The sorcerors themselves have diverse origins from the lands surrounding Pent and beyond. For example there might be a sorceror from Kralorela under the New Dragon's Ring, a Huan To from Sendar, a Carmanian Magi etc.

The description of Orathorn in the Guide ("They have ventured out of their lair only once, to their regret, in the campaign that culminated with the Nights of Horror". p372) makes it sound like at least some survived. FWIW I'm still stunned at how close Orathorn is to Gonn Orta's Pass.

A compromise - the glued area tears off the zombie without it even noticing.

Me, I'm mildly perturbed by the shift in location of the Dog-Rat Valley. Previously it lay to the northwest of the Quivini mountains but now it is on the south side.

Who is more powerful than the Emperor's temporal representative?

You are judging the Lunar Empire by modern day governmental practices whereas they don't understand what is meant by secular powers. For example, the question is not whether the Temple of the Reaching Moon should pay tax to the Satrap but whether the Satrap has managed to make the Temple to pay tax to him. The Temple Priests in addition to their deity have clan loyalties. Any Satrap worthy of his title should be able to lean on a clan or two in order to make the temple cough up some money. In RW history, this is where religious institutions got the incentive of forging charters to give them tax-free status

Trollball illustration from Into the Troll Realms

I see three periods for the Artmali - the Colonial Period, the Imperial Period and the Chaotic Period. COLONIAL PERIOD: the Artmali have descended from the Blue Moon. They are strong in the Tides (not just attracting the waters of the world but also sensitivity to the occult powers of the Cosmos) and have little use for material things. The buildings are simple huts, stone caves and other basic quarters. Because the Artmali settle where the Tidal Forces are strongest, many of these places are later known as important holy spots nowadays even if nobody has any recollection of the Artmali ever having lived there. IMPERIAL PERIOD: The Artmali connection to the Tides has waned and they seek solace in material things. The first stone buildings appear becoming increasingly elaborate as the period progresses. The buildings are recognizably archaic Fonritan in style (the Fonritans came from Tishamto which had been conquered by the Artmali). Their weapons are simple tools of stone and bone at first but their seafaring contacts teach them how to work bronze and they pick up Iron from the Iron City. They learn of Sorcery from the Vadeli and acquire tame beasts from the Desero Hore of Umathela. They have written inscriptions (I was going to say looks like Linear A but many of the glyphs look Pelorian so I'd say proto-cuniform and petroglyphs. CHAOTIC PERIOD: The Artmali have lost contact with the tides and they crave a replacement. They turn to Chaos *before* Wakboth enters the world. Their gods are Vovisibor, Pocharngo, Seseine and Ompalam. The old stone cities are buried over and forgotten while new hideous temples to their new gods are erected, The cities of the south are largely cleansed by the Firefall and lie within the Nargan. The cities of the North were devastated by Vovisibor's death which leaves rather more of their civilization to survive. What can be found? There won't be any major One Ring-style artifacts found in the ruins - the God Learners and the Fonritans looted the whole place back in the Imperial Age. Treasure-seekers would be better of heroquesting to the Artmali cities in the Storm Age and learn the secrets of the Artmali straight from the source. What would be useful to any would-be heroes would be the artifacvts with which they manipulated the tides. These would date from the early Imperial Period when they had to use tools to do what they used to do naturally. Some examples might be: DROWSING WAND: Not just used to find sources of water but also troves of tidal energy. Mostly they are made from ordinary wood but some speak of wands being made from wood that grew on the Blue Moon. A special trick is known where such wands can transform into a watery serpent that could fight for the user for a time. CANOPIC JAR: What the Artmali used to store their tidal energies in. The jars are sealed and feel heavy but when broken open, they are empty and lighter in weight. They usually hold a rune point associated with a specific rune which could be used in place of on'e own rune magics. The secret of using them is uncommon but not unheard of, the secret of refilling them is much rarer and making new ones is unknown. TIDAL WELLS: These rare wells are filled with water that has been blessed by the Light of the Blue Moon. The waters glow when the Moon is in the sky and turn black when it is in the Underworld. The glowing waters burn while the black waters freeze. These wells were apparently used in Artmali metalwork in place of tempers. Later the Artmali adapted these waters to toughen human flesh but how they prevented water damage at the same time is unknown.

Inns.

Yanafals is not a Lunar War Goddess which she is said to worship. She could easily have the Death Rune from a subcult. And she is an officer commanding the Mirinite Swords, not necessarily a member of the swords themselves.

Another way of looking at the KefTavar/Bisos thing is that during the Dawn Age loads of Praxians migrated to what is now Charg. As a result, there would have been considerable religious synthesis of the two traditions even if their mythologies didn't match.

The Emperor may have granted an exemption but that can be eroded. First the Satrap asks for a donation. Then the donations become regular. Then the regular donations are formally recognized as a tax.

The story of the wolf pirate that visited corflu is told in two places. There's an interesting detail between the two. First off, here's Bituarian: And here's the objective version: Being rejected by the Wolf Pirates has to be quite a let-down as he still had truestones in his inventory (he gave one to the Gray Sages for investigation into Morak and another to the Chalanan in response to the Lightbringer summons). No wonder, Bituarian left that tidbit out of his memoirs. The comment about the Wolf Pirates looting the coast is interesting. Whereas would they be looting besides Corflu? The nearest human settlement would be God Forgot which about 150 miles away.

Diovena is a devotee of a Lunar War Goddess (Sartar Companion p12). Hwarin Dalthippa is the most likely as she commands a Mirinite regiment and is from a country conquered by Hwarin. Ruganath being a Tarshite would probably worship either Yanafal Tarnils or the Seven Mothers. As to whether they are Rune Lords, they probably are.

I figure that the Pelorian/Dara Happans called the Vingkotling Rams for the same reason that English get called Anglo-Saxons, the French Gauls, the Germans Teutons and the Hellenes Greeks etc.

Ralzakark is obviously summoning the Sky Terror.

He had free dental care when he became a troll. Without anesthetic.

The idea that Moon-boats were made from reeds stemmed from a desire to make Yestendos (Darjiinian God of Reed Boats) relevant. The lunar handbooks spoiled this somewhat by giving the Moonboats to Vargar the Sky Mariner, which seemed an unnecessary profusion of names to me. That reed boats are highly impractical compared to ordinary boats was intentional as it made the Lunars use obsolete vessels for magical effect, something which was coming through in Greg's writings viz-a-viz chariots and the like at the time. But the idea that moonboats are made from reeds is not actually something he's ever written AFAIK.