metcalph

Not seeing any evidence for this.

Since the artists in the Guide were given the text of the illustration to work from rather than the text being a description, it seems a bit churlish to describe the small horse as one of Jan's misfires.

The write-up does state: So yes, Rune Magic is available to the Cult of Pavis (placing him in a similar situation to Lhankor Mhy) except that the magics can only be used within the borders of Pavis. I would as a result give common rune magics plus city harmony (and perhaps city fertility). The higher magics such as the summoning the Elementals, the Harmony of Parts, Door to the Room without Doors etc remain sorcery spells.

The smallness of the horse is intentional. As the legend states: "His horse, little more than a pony in height, is nonetheless strong enough to carry both the armored soldier and to wear scale barding." The cause as Jeff has indicated in the past is the use of ancient Brithini strengthening spells which can only be cast on a horse that size even though bigger ones can now be grown.

The Glorantha Bestiary p147 describes heavy cavalry as a rider wearing heavy armour but no mention of barding for the horse which would even a greater weight constraint. The Guide p204 has a picture of four prominent people on horseback in Fronela inm a military context but only one (Meriatan) is riding a horse with apparent barding. The Horse is clearly supernatural by the way it snorts cold fire. Lord Death on a Horse's horse may have barding but the image is too small to be sure. A Seshnelan warrior is shown on a horse with barding p406. Ethilrist, Jannisor, Hwarin Dalthippa etc are shown mounted without barding. So my guess is that it exists but only in some parts of the west (I'm not sure if it exists in Carmania for example). Most Gloranthans including those in the west find it easier to have magical or enchanted mounts instead

It's not just Orlanth. Carmania also has Idovanus: the Invisible God as the Sun and GanEsatarus: the Invisible God as Darkness. The Uz and Safelstrans probably have myths about sorcery being a secret of Subere. Kralorela may, through,Goduna's teachings have the Invisible God as the Cosmic Dragon. The Mostali have Earth as the Invisible God and call it the World Machine. The Invsible God as water is probably taught by the Waertagi.

I think (infer really) the aim is to have it a week after the 5% berserkers (self-identifying here) get their copy as the RQG rulebook is already in the warehouses but it won't be sold until next week to avoid clashing with sales of the GM Screen Pack. So my guess is the 28th.

On the wall or on the banner? The figure on the Wall is supposedly the Pillar Goddess upholding the Emperor although it looks more like KetEnari, the City Goddess instead. The trampled figure on the banner is the Devil as the scene is the Full Victory, the sixth step of the seven steps of the Red Goddess (cf Pavis: Gateway to Adventure p396-397)

There is the Closing where the Sea was a malign hostile force in which dwelt monsters. Nobody would have worshipped the Sea positively then and would have offered dread sacrifices in a propitiatory fashion. What people would have worshipped are river gods. Even now with the opening, the sea would be a source of dread. The nearest gods of the sea are the grim vengeful deities of the Malasp who are friendly to humans so they can plunder them later. I don't think there would be a god of coastal fishers, rather any fishing would be carried out by the Vadeli who are fearless enough to do it (and pin the blame on others). Towards the west, there would be Fonritan fisherman from Afadjann but they would operate with an atmosphere of mistrust as suspicion.

A lot depends on how you think the Detect spell works. Does the focus of the spell twist and turn towards the target (and then to the next nearest target)? Does the spell provide a aura visible only to the caster? I think the first is more likely as the equivalent sorcery spell Geomancy (p395) uses a pointer and a map (or equivalents) to provide information. So Abelard is casting a detect enemies against three hidden enemies or which the second one has a countermagic. The spell picks out the first one and then Abelard senses the spell is being blocked without picking up the location of the next enemy. The spell will not pick up the last one. As for the detect spell taking down all the countermagics in an area, a middle path might be to subtract the MPs used in taken down one countermagic before applying it to the next. Returning to Abelard, whose second and third enemies have countermagics 3 and 2 respectively. Abelard casts a detect enemies spell boosted with four MPs. When he senses the second enemy, his detect spell knocks down his countermagic but it only has 1 MP left. This is insufficient to take down the third enemy's countermagic and so Abelard's spell is blocked.

There are slave collars (described in Cults of Prax p114)

Outlining a partial history of Ogre Island. Circa 920 ST, it is a refuge for God Learner heretics fleeing persecution elsewhere. They were tolerated by the Pavisites and the EWF in that they could be relied upon to spill God Learner Secrets for safety. An example of such a God Learner is Barbelo the Stone (Middle Sea Empire p45) who fled from Jrustela. Barbelo is reportedly killed by a Storm Bully which is probably Jaldon's sacking of the city in 927 ST as he is unlikely to have arrived after the Closing. Now the settlement survives the fall of the God Learners elsewhere. I think although they knew the Forbidden Secret they due to their circumstances were not active practitioners of it (ie they didn't have the resources to warp myths) and this saved them from extinction. Stepping forward to the Seventeen Foes period. Although they would be one of the stronger groups arouund, they seem to provide very few of the Seventeen Foes. The most likely candidate is Kagtang Four-magic who is a mightly spell-caster and the four magics reflects the God Learner view of the cosmos. At this time, they are probably intensely disliked even by other Pavisites. By 1200 ST, they have taken to evil demons for protection. They are probably behind the creation of the Chaos Market (what later became the Devil's Playground). Barbelo the Stone was accused of Atyar worship although that may have been a defamation. By 1500 ST, they have become Ogres. They are probably the origin of the statement in the Guide p108 that "Ogres hold a dark and evil view of the universe, claiming that their god Cacodemon is the Creator, temporarily taking refuge in this world to reform it to its original image" which is unusually philosophical for psychopathic cannibals but understandable as being adapted from Malkioni philosophy. The change probably came about due to their continued reliance on the Chaos Market/Devil's Playground.

Circa 920 ST (Pavis gateway to Adventure p35) there was a God Learner settlement which was known as Sorceror Town. In 1200 ST (Map p38), the place is now known as Sorceror's Island of which the description is Circa 1500 ST (Map p40), the Cacodemon temple appears. The description is: So the Ogres are descended from God Learners (perhaps Barbelo the Stone who is mentioned in the Middle Sea Empire). During the Troll Occupation, they turned to chaos and became Ogres. As to why they are no longer apparently there, they probably took advantage of some magical act (the Dragonewt's Dream, the breaking of the Troll seal around the Rubble) to occult themselves so their stronghold cannot be magically visited.

An example of an Issaries Bandit is Golgotti Guildersnatcher (Borderlands and Beyond p195) who as well as banditry sells fake truestones, phony slave bracelets, so-called POW matrices and 'Maps".

Except that Zistor wasn't the Machine God. That was Zazistor who was confined to Zistorwal according to the Middle Empire Empire Book p47.

I don't think Elmal is worshipped in Ralios. If anything, Ehilm and Galanin are acknowledged as the Sun Gods there.

Conversion to the Lunar Way is probably the most common circumstance under which one changes the elemental rune.

I did once think of calling them Parakeets.

What is said there is "They were hunter-gatherers led by the Hero Aram Ya Udram and worshiped Orlanth." while the Harandings are described on the same page as "hunter-gatherer people who worshiped Orlanth and Ketha". A fairly significant difference I think. Whatever Goddess Aram worshipped in the Great Darkness has been subsumed by the worship of Gouger and his sacrifice to the Bloody Earth,

The mother of Gouger (Glorantha Bestiary p70)

We don't know where Orvano Hill is though.

She is? The Bestiary p152 says nothing about Maran Gor and even denies that they are either pigs or dogs. No. The Aramites and the Harandings were and are separate tribes. The Harandings lived in Pig Hollow in Kethaela while the Aramites lived in Dragon Pass.

The specific association is that the hollow (created during the great darkness) is named after the Snake-pipe. Yet in the actual temple, there's little to no sign of any snakepipe associations. Given that the Skull Ruins are not far from Rich Home, there's little reason to insist they must be seperate civilizations.

The WF 15 map p72 is for the Battle of Night and Day circa 379 while the Second Council Map (Guide p715) is for a century before. Plenty of time to move the spirit of Orin Jisteel from the Skull Ruins to Denkarst. Try the Rich Home culture (Name from Eleven Lights p129) in what is now Snakepipe Hollow from where Baroshi comes from.

They could but they are very cautious as they want to live forever. They will only commit troops when victory is certain and are far more likely cut deals in which other people (Esvulari etc) do the heroic fighting for them while they do the boring work of logistics and guard duty. Both I would say. They won't call it spirit magic but know it as an inferior form of magic to sorcery pretty much as Applied Math is an inferior form of Pure Math. They won't know or cast any spells that attack people (such as disruption) as that is Wizard's work and leaves them vulnerable to caste crime and aging. I do feel they should also have access to Rune Magic (Greg's Arkat novel has the Horali doing innate magical stuff) only they don't worship the Gods to do so but perform lengthy purification exercises (based on their past history they were big on the Purification Rune is a precursor of the Moon Rune) and cast it based on their runic affinities. Again their rune spells would be mostly basic and they wouldn't know anything to attack anybody.