metcalph

Any differences between the two would have been long forgotten. In the Dawn Age, Praxians settled what is now Charg (Talsardia) and the Storm Bullmen there were effective at dealing with whatever hellhole the Bleak Land is supposed to be.

One snippet from the Fortunate Succession may make matters clearer Khordavu does not incarnate Yelm but Antirius. He worships Yelm and is perhaps the only person that can sacrifice to him. He can cast Antirian magics including magics that Yelm gives to Antirius (ie the Sunspear) and so can most of his followers. Yelm at that point is not a manifest god in the way that Orlanth or Antirius is but a God beyond the Gods like Vith or Irensavel. At that point, the cult of Yelm is pretty much the priesthood of Antirius who have Sun Dome Temples (Glorious ReAscent p63). When Anirdavu names the Ten Priesthoods (Fortunate Succession p17), Antirius is number 2 behind Dayzatar, not Yelm. It's my opinion that a Priest of Yelm as of 1621 would have been recognized as a Priest of Antirius in Khordavu's time. Later on, we get the curious case of Yelm have two Rune Lords - Sun Lord and Imperator. The Imperators were created by Khorzanelm but do not otherwise appear. It's my thinking that the station was forgotten after the Gbaji Wars but brought back in a de-illuminated context by Denesiod in the New Light Reforms - he calls them the New Officers (Fortunate Succession p68) The Sun Lords, I think, are originally the White Sun Lords of Karvanyar (FS p73) and relied on illumination even more than the Imperators did. They were heavily suppressed and rendered impotent by Karvanyar's successors but still survive although the name has spread even to the Grzaerlands (RQG p307)

Looking at this another way. In mythical Peloria, there was an Empire who worshipped the Sun and associated him with the Fire Rune. At the Dawn there were seventeen noble families who claimed priestly traditions that derived from that Empire (and which now form part of the cult of Yelm). There was sufficient information about the rites needed to become Emperor such that Jenarong became one in the Gray Age. The rule of the Horse Nomads had one main problem - they were too brutal. And their brutality struck against Justice so much that he reawakened the worship of Antirius in the form of Avivath (Glorious ReAscent p36). In the Dawn Age as a reaction against the brutality of the Horse Nomads, Dara Happans (led by one Khormesha) reconstructed the various strands of mythology to provide a coherent mythology that supported the City against the Nomad. Khormesha was a wise and good man, who obtained great understanding during his exile and travels. He was the first person who explained the Parable [...] of The First King. Furthermore, in his travels in this world and that he rediscovered the tales of the Anaxial dynasty, and the people thereby learned the causes of their plight Fortunate Succession p39 Now what is not done is the re-establishment of the Empire with Antirius as the ruling god. Instead the Ten Princes undergo an epic to restore the worship of Yelm. So it seems to me that Antirius's own mythology recognized that he was not the original sun god or the source of Justice and that the revival of the Empire required more than institutional worship of Antirius - it required the Emperor conducting successful worship to Yelm as the source of Justice, a gloranthan Manhatten Project As for the name Yelm, it seems to me that it survives in the Tower of Yelm or Yelm's Footstool, the biggest relic tot he ruling god and one which is not associated with any other god. This doesn't mean that Yelm was the name of the Sun God of the Golden Age Empire of Murharzarm. The name of the Footstool could have originally been the Footstool to the One Shining Overhead (to avoid piously mentioning the sacred name) with subsequent generations corrupting this into a proper name. So I'm happy with the proposition that the modern cult of Yelm is synthetic or suggestions that Yelm was not worshipped by that name in the Golden Age - the name and other sundry details may have changed but the core did not.

Yes. The Lhankorings even have a special instrument (the Alien Combination machine) that allows them to translate foreign spells into something in their own language. There are some spells which if known cannot be cast if the caster does not meet the right requirements (like being a Brithini) but there has never been a written example of a spell being impossible to learn due to philosophical differences.

That's correct - the Mostali use technology before they use magic. Dwarves use magic normally only at sacred time when they affirm their essential purpose within the World Machine. Used at other times, they are creating a change in what they consider to be fixed and perfect, which is an admission of error for a stasis-rune cult. Examples for what Maker Magic might generally be used for were canvassed in this thread:

My guess that Yojarl was a Celestial Empire magicians who sought to sidestep the Troll seal on the walls of Pavis. The Agipith root was necessary to enter a temple outside the walls to one inside the wall. The threshold is not the entrance to the temple but the space between the temples. There were several Iffinbix temples at first but most fell into disuse after the Rubble was never as rich as promised. All but one were abandoned when the Celestial Empire collapsed. The sole active temple lay within the City of Thieves (which could connect to any abandoned temple within the Rubble) but this too was quietly buried when the Dragonewt Dream occurred.

For the Sedalpists, I suggest: 1) Don't eat meat (fish excluded), don't eat meat (fish included) 2) Do not harm/murder/kill another or do not cause harm to fall upon another (i.e. the suspended rock in the air trick). 3) Do not mutilate the self (no tattoos, no body piercings, no intoxication, no austerities) 4) Do not suppress the wit of others (most agree the suppression has to be of a long duration but a few communities think even a five minute befuddle spell is wrong). Some expand this to include slavery and serfdom. As for the bonuses, some of the shamanic abilities can be rewritten as sorcerours ones (such as Magic Attack, Magic Defence, Spell Extension). I do not think Multispell (as per RQ3) is possible under the new sorcery paradigm but can think a effect which adds extra targets a sorcery spell is possible.

Eating meat isn't a caste restriction but a philosophical doctrine held by all Sedalpists (you could still treat it as a caste restriction for the purposes of the sentence you quote) Judging by the comments made by some RW practitioners, a bonus to Free INT seems most likely. If necessary, it could be a buffer against sorcery spells held in the mind (ie a Sedaplist with a+3 bonus can know up to three sorcery spells without his free INT being affected).

The Uroxi would feel some distant sensation of chaos in the presence of a Lunar holy place or artifact (I feel chaos in the area) but not a direct sensation of chaos (this is chaos).

Sorcerors don't generally deal with spirits directly so I doubt the validity of this aphorism. I prefer to describe what the Doraddi Magicians are like without mandating what they must be according to some philosophy (i.e. adoration, high shamanic ideal etc). The Doraddi deal with spirits as a feature. I don't think this is right. God-talkers are not "people who manifest the gods power on earth" but emissaries between the Gods and their worshippers. The RuneQuest: Glorantha rules imply that God-Talkers have a decicated one-on-one with a God but I also think that there are Pantheon-wide God-Talkers (after King of Dragon Pass) who confer with larger sections of the Storm Tribe. The Doraddi would not have God Talkers because they like to deal with spirits instead.. They would therefore have Rune Lords, Shamans and Spirit-Talkers.

The trouble with the categories in Revealed Mythologies is that Greg was throwing definitions against a wall and seeing if they would stick, In many cases, they were printed elsewhere before all the kinks were worked out or even if they were workable FWIW Adoration is described in Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes as: On the subject of Doraddi magic, I think from the Guide where it talks about the "High Shamanic Ideal" (Guide p25) is that the Doraddi view having as many spirits as possible to be a virtue. Hence if given the choice between learning some rune magic or some spirit magic from the same god, they would learn the spirit magic. Hence the Doraddi cults are more like Animal Nomads or the Grazers rather than the Heortlings.

Langamul is, I think, a Dragon and his death is the reason why there are no Dragons in Pamaltela today.

I had the impression they were a Fonritan group or based in Fonrit. Since they are friendly and thought to be illuminates, I infer that there's some hidden dark side to their friendship (because if they were totally above board they would be thought to be illuminates, wouldn't they?). They are not actually illuminates because the preceeding sentence describes where illumination is known and the only Pamaltelan region listed (Vralos) can be attributed to the Cult of Silence. I think from their name, they remain in close contact with the soil of Pamaltela and use it as a basis of friendship. Although small and widely dispersed, they do not suffer because they remain close to Pamalt. They ingratiate themselves with all inhabitants of Pamaltela (even Elves and Trolls) and make themselves useful by passing messages and gifts and the like. As for the dark side. The Near Ones are spies for some unknown power. Perhaps the Vadeli, perhaps Vovisibor. People who have attacked them have met ends from unlikely enemies that just happened to be in the area. The Near Ones' hands are clean but the history of such ends has become well-known that they have incurred widespread suspicion.

The main difference between the Bronze Age China and Kralorela is that the Bronze Age had a lot more noble families. The statewide. examination system didn't come into being until the Sung. So I really operate on the following scheme. Daruda et al: Shang Dynasty Yanoor - Zhou Dynasty Shang-Hsa (may his name be cursed) - Qin Dynasty Godunya - Tang with some elements of later dynasties. Sheng Seleris - Elements of Mongol, Khitian and Manchu. One way to turn make Kralorela more archaic would be to split up the mandarins into orders based on the Emperors. The followers of Daruda would be outright shamans, the followers of Mikaday are yer classic mandarins/Judge Dee types with other chinese tropes - eunuchs, warlords etc - corresponding to different emperors.

You at should give the names and page numbers of the mountains. The first glyph is that of Stormwalk Mountain (Map 29) and the curved lines represent the horns of Storm Bull. The second Rune is Quivin Mountain and probably shows the rune of Quivin. Since he is a Lodril-analog, a possible guess is a the lower half of the sky rune without the central dot to denote his conquered status at Maran Gor's hands. The third is KeroFin and the rune is the Storm Rune denoting her association with Orlanth. The fourth rune is Arrowmound. They represent the Arrows of Justice that Orlanth hurls into the world (Sartar Companion p208). That the arrows are also the staffs of justice is an association that was hitherto unclear to me.

Dragonewts hope to turn into True Dragons. Ancestral Dragons (also known as Elder Dragons) are the next level beyond. There's considerably more dream dragons then there are true dragons. IMO Dragons are so smart that can multiple dreams at the same time.

The Brithini and Vadeli do not deny that the Gods are Gods - they do not see them as worthy of worship. The Third Eye Blue's philosophy that they shouldn't be worshipped because they are doomed is similar. As for the origin of the 3EB, I've heard it said by the writers of the Broken Council Freeform (so well should of canonical authority) that they are descended from the Blue People/Waertagi, i.e. their blue eye is all that remains of their ancestral blue skin. Greg when I spoke to him about it sometime later seemed not to know what I was talking about.

Sartar Companion p32 gives a breakdown of the composition of the Clearwine Fyrd which is the Colymar tribe's "ready reaction force"

The Field School of Magic units are said to number 200 magicians each (Sartar Companion p84). There are two regiments of the University Guard that protect them (infantry bowmen) which implies 300 bowmen as defenders.

Eleven Lights p168-169 has a paper strength of the various forces that will fight at the Battle of Dangerford. It describes a strength of 1000 for foot regiments and 500 for cavalry regiments. (There's also 250 for the ducks who which probably means that three quarters deserted before battle)

On the subject of Enhance INT, I don't think arguments that the Malkioni don't have a strong association of fire magics to be compelling. For starters, the spells in the rulebook are spells known in Dragon Pass and most of the sorcerors etc there are Lhankorings (whose God loved the Light of Knowledge) and Pelorians (with strong fire associations) with the God Forgottens being a distant third. So Enhance INT could be a spell common in Dragon Pass and neighbouring lands but not in more sophisticated sorcerorous countries. I'm also of the opinion that there should be more than one way for a sorcerer to be powerful (i.e. Enhance INT should not be an essential part of a gloranthan sorceror's repertoire). So I think it would be more productive to speculate on how the Rokari, Safelstrans, Zzaburi and Hrestoli might enhance their sorcery without resorting to Enhance INT. A good starting point for the Rokari and the Zzaburi would be the Law Rune. They might use that knowledge to inscribe points in their other rune knowledges so they have a permanent bonus on their chosen magics without having to waste fancy magic points on Enhance INT everytime they want to cast a big spell. For the Hrestoli, I imagine the Magic Rune is used instead (to reflect their focus on Hensosis with the Invisible God) which behaves similarly. I think the God Forgottens use the Eye that Pierces the Veil although I see in the RQG rules there's already a spell called Pierce Veil which might be confusing (and also it's not psychedelic enough). Because the Safelstrans are so big on darkness associated Arkat, I doubt they would use Enhance INT. They would use a spell based on the Darkness Rune which being associated with SIZ increases the size of their spells.

So Cwm is the demon described by the Composite History of Dragon Pass as having "two arms, and an extra one"? That is almost Nysaloran...

P390 "This section lists and describes a sample of spells that might be known by sorcerers in the Dragon Pass area." Steal Breath is one such spell and it is not described as chaotic. So there is no problem as far as I'm concerned.

Tapping is inferred, not mentioned in the description of Arolanit and that was published a few years after RQ3 described tapping as basically evil. Even Gods of Glorantha foucssed only on the question of whether humans should be tapped and gave no idea of whether inanimate matter could be tapped. Hence applying RQ3 ideas about tapping to RQG is unwise. One could still argue that the Malkioni have a dispute about whether people could be tapped but this has lost its importance given that inanimate substances can be easily tapped. If Steal Breath is known by sorcerers in Dragon Pass with nary a hint of moral opprobrium then I don't think the west is going to be up in arms about the issue. There may be an artcile or two about the long-term effects of particular types of tapping in the west (ie Arolanit's light without radiance) but I doubt that notions of widespread environmental degradation are warranted - it's not Chaos.

The inspiration that Greg had for the Vadeli are the Cainists, a apocryphal Gnostic Sect that reasoned that the God of the Old Testament was the Demiurge who was distinct from the the Readl God and was also evil to boot. Thereby anything that he condemned (throughout much of the Old Testament) was actually good in the eyes of God. Which caused some small problems given the Old Testament's prohibitions of murder, robbery, rape, adultery, and incest. They are bad sorcerors who mysteriously have not been exterminated. Whatever other gloranthans think about the sorcery-using Malkioni, the Malkioni think of these guys in the same way.