metcalph

I'm not interested in the unpublished stuff but actual published material. The Prince of Sartar Webzine associates the Moon Rune with God Forgot, not the Man Rune. Belintar has the Moon Rune, not the man rune. And the Six Guardians panel actually shows three main runes - law, man and moon, so I don't think the man rune is "modified". Rather I think it represents the old Zistorite philosophy of Man (Rune) seeking Henosis with the Invisible God (Law Rune) through the Purification (Moon) Rune. I don't see evidence of the Moon Rune in other parts of the Holy Country. Just Earth, Fire, Storm etc. And what do you mean by extracted? It was already well-known in the Holy Country before JarEel came along. Belintar's appearance as an actual Hamsa means that it would have been readily used as a symbol of him throughout the Holy Country. He's even wearing it in the picture of him in p238. And when people are going to attached the six runes to them and associate them with the Sixths, what rune do you think they are going to associate with God Forgot? Even accepting the premise of this for the sake of argument, is it seriously your suggestion that nobody thought to look at the similarity between the Moon Rune in Belintar (which everyone can see!) and the Modified Man Rune until JarEel came along? I find that hard to believe. I don't know who the Gundestrup rulers were and I don't find bizarre segues into obscure real world trivia to be at all informative. Now that much more is known of the Holy Country, the Zistorites with their doctrine of the Purification Rune and the use of the word perhaps, the actual origins of the Wand becomes much clearer. And for your information, there does happen to be a small event known as the Dragonkill which would have prevented anybody from Peloria from reaching the Machine City in the early days of the Empire. The spiral map is not canon and is a remarkably weak reed to base your argument upon it (I'm not saying it's wrong, mind you, it's just that I would prefer a more developed theory than a mere sayso that the Moon Rune was unrecognized until JarEel came along) . And I'm sure that the God Learners no matter how unwise they were would have been able to know whether the Purification Rune was in fact a Chaos Rune. The Spiral Map text description in Arcane Lore does not mention Kethaela. I know El Penjelo thought it might be a map of the Holy Country but even if the map was accurate when published, there remains the fact that considerable time has passed since then, a few of the names on there appear nowhere else and most importantly, Greg's thinking on the White Moon has changed. So I really consider it an interesting piece of historical trivia much like the rest of Arcane Lore.

Do the Heortlings know that it keeps searing away the chaos at the heart of the Print (or even if this is an actual fact)? I don't think so. All they know is that it behaves differently than other rivers and that difference is connected to the Print. Ergo evil. All it suggests is that Belintar is happy with it. There's nothing to suggest the "sea powers" are fine and my contention is that they may not be. Sounder's River is out of sight, on the other side of the mountains and, most importantly, flows naturally. But the issue isn't giving the sea entities access to land, the issue is defying Magasta's call and endangering the world as a result. The Syphon is the only river that does this and is widely described as evil for doing so.

Except that -ar is implied to be a lunar term rather than a Holy Country one. According to the History of the Heortling Peoples, the three provinces were North Province, Central Province and South Province. Does it obey Magasta? No. Ergo it's evil. That's a bit of a big leap to make. Elsewhere, we see things done by Belintar that do not make him universally beloved. What's to stop the Fish Road up the Syphon be a cause of great discontent by the Mirrorsea Ludoch?

On the subject of the Elemental Division of the Holy Country, each sixth seems to have a counterpart that isn't subject to Belintar. Heortland - Volsaxi. Caladraland - Thonble or the Western Allies Shadow Plateau - Kitori God Forgot - Jab? Esrolia - Old Woods Mirrorsea - Who knows what lies beneath?

Source? Considering the Moon Rune is part of Belintar, I strongly doubt that it's discovered by JarEel. Since the Wand of the Seven Phases of the Moon comes from the Machine City, the most obvious answer is that the Moon Rune was known there as the Purification Rune of the Zistorites. There's a big difference between using that old and uncertain reference as a map of the Heroplanes and using that to assert that nothing exists on the otherside of God Forgot.

p249 - the House of Black Arkat gets placed in Arkat's Hold. Ever since Troll Gods, this was placed in Heortland for some odd reason and the story of Arkat's Hold never made clear (until now).

What the God Forgot section lacks is any discussion of the relationship between the land and the Moon Rune (which we know exists from the Prince of Sartar webzine)

Caladraland. Kind of needs a sidebar as to why the land is called Caladraland whereas the Big Volcano God is known locally as Veskarthen. p243 the method of choosing the High King of Caladraland is slightly less overwought than it was presented in the RuneQuest Companion (He's now a High King and the length of his term is not specificed). Strikingly I wouldn't be complaining if Caladraland were mentioned to have a constitution because those were pretty common in the mediterranean. Nice to see Thonble finally on the map.

I would like to have known more about these invasions but the real question is why is "neutrality" so important to Belintar? It's not as if there was anybody else who could impose sanctions upon him for infringing the supposed neutral status of the Holy Country. This suggests that his navy had attempted to annex Handra and Melib. The real thing I'm not getting here is that after a setback in Kralorela, he's called off the entire enterprise. That's not something that Sheng Seleris, the Red Emperor, the God Learners or the EWF would ever contemplate. So what is Belintar's thinking here? And an example of a dog that did not bark, apart froma few battles against the Volsaxi, there is a complete lack of any military campaigns into Dragon Pass or Maniria, something that would have interested an immortal God-King at least once. The obscure Lunar agitators among the Ditali. The real question is how the Lunars managed to reach the Ditali considering that the approaches to Maniria are blocked by the Holy Country and that going incognito in the Holy Country seems a tad far-fetched (it has happened with the assassins against the House of Sartar) and more importantly somewhat modern. p242 - the Master of Battle. One thing that strikes me in the list of Governors in History of the Heortling Peoples is that the Governors seem to be the main military commanders for the Holy Country in Heortland whereas according to this, there should at least be a Duke. Alsothe Holy Couyntry had a massive army but seems to do very little with it (other than getting slaughtered by Greymane and his thugs).

My understanding is that the Fronelan Hsunchen (like many others) at the time were incomplete, they didn't have a fully fledged religion that provided the answers for everything. The classic Hsunchen culture as presented in the Guide and elsewhere is largely a product of God Learners trying to indentify their mythic origins.

Not disputing the pan-Fronelan nature of the Syndics, Loskalm did have Amlaria the Priestess whose grave is at Midtasker (She fought alongside Svenlos who is a colleague of Snodal but not one of the Syndics). Second you are confusing Loskalm as it is now with what Loskalm was like before the Ban fell. I doubt that it was so doctrinally uniform then. But the Timeline says he and his companions disappeared. Not that their souls left their bodies on a heroquest. The way that their return is written implies that they have returned alive and whole to their lands to find disaster. Which conflicts with the brief statement that they disappeared or that people only spoke to the Syndics as ghosts after the event.

Merely because Northpoint is described as a northern capital doesn't mean a dynasty ruled in each place (the name Beijing literally means Northern Capital as opposed to the Southern Capital of Nanjing). If the two dynasties ruled in different places, then they would be buried at different places rather than at the same place. By naming alone, Eastpoint would be the Eastern Capital but there's no need for a third God Learner dynasty there. There's many different faces of Eurmal as a look at the Sartar Companion indicates. Just because Eurmal is worshipped in Fronela does not mean that all of Eurmal's magic will be known there. The epithet Friend of Men suggests a Firebringer (Sartar Companion p258) and I fail to see how Hrestol becomes an Eurmali.

Harrek wakes in the westernmost portion of Rathorela in 1594. He can reach the Sun Dome Temple and the Greenfields as they have thawed the previous year. Immediately there's a big question: what has the Greenfields thawed to? The lands surrounding them are all enclosed by the Ban for at least another year. My best guess is that the Eastpointers reached it with Moonboats in an effort to reach Riverjoin and other places (repeating the success of the Legion of Infants). The use of Moonboats for transportation would also explain why Harrek was hired by the Satraps of Darjiin as they are the only ones who still know how to make them. The newly emerging Kingdom of Jonatela is a problem as the King of Jonatela doesn't emerge from the Ban in 1610 by which time Harrek has already killed the Red Emperor and skinned the White Bear. However if we use the Moonboat hypothesis then Harrek could have reached Western Jonatela which is part of the kingdom now and may have considered itself to be the Kingdom of Jonatela until Congern came along. At some point, Harrek is kidnapped and forced to fight as a gladiator (becoz it makes for a better story than simply being hired as one) in the Lunar Empire.

p212 - "Seeing stones". When reading this I usually go "*Cough*Palanatir*Cough*". Hence I've been trying to find a non-mirror version. p212 - Mouse Tower. I find it interesting that a God Learner is ruling in Akem although I see from the historical maps that Akem was part of the Middle Sea Empire (but was it part of Frontem?) p215 - I wonder if Harrek's sacking of Sog City was part of the long ago mentioned Greenleaf Rebellion. p216 - Smiles at the text box of the origins of the Janube river. p220 - I get the impression that Arnstor for the lowest reaches of the Janube is rarely used now is because it has become part of the Kingdom of War. p222 - "The Kingdom of Loskalm has recently formed the Brotherhood of the Swallow to wage a holy war against the Kingdom of War." What strikes me about this passage is that the Swallow doesn't seem like a particularly robust response to the atrocity that is the Kingdom of War. I would be more persuaded by a more mythical creature (Phoenix etc) but as it can't be changed, I'm wondering why a swallow? p222 - I like the description of Jonatela that follows as it becomes a more vibrant country than that presented in the Genertela Book. I do have a slight case of the giggles when I see or hear Stomble because it reminds me a bit too much of the Wombles. p227 - Loyal Stone and Olotha both worship stones that fell from the sky. Jonatela seems to have had a problem with Meteorites in the Gods War. p228 - I wonder if the Yellow Bear is the son of Androgeus.

P200 - There's a tension in the text at various places concerning the Ban. The text box at p200 says that Snodal's Ghost was spoken to. The Timeline on p141 says that Snodal and his companions disappear. The text on p145 speaks of Snodal and his companions returning to find that disaster has befallen their lands. The description for the city of Ease has Snodal's tomb. Now this isn't new to the Guide (I noticed it long ago in the Genertela Book) and there may be some simple and elegant solution. But the apparent answer that I get (Snodal returns to Loskalm, dies, is buried in his tomb but the body then disappears before being contacted by magic) isn't pretty. p201 - (Map) the Swamp at the mouth of the Sweet Sea is curiously unaffected by the Ban. p204 - (picture) Meriatan is wearing a curiously ornate suit of armour for a devout mystic. p205 - (sidebar) Meriatan and Gundreken have an interesting history together. p208 - Two God Learner dynasties ruled in Frontem? The records speak of the Adalla family who provide the first and last kings (as one who put down a Perfecti revolt). So who is the other? p210 - Omphis has a severed head symbolism that is awfully reminscient of Thanatar. Although it could be a retelling of Gawain and the Green Knight.

I don't see what the problem is. In Tales #10, he's reported as joining the wolf pirates outside Seshnela. Ergo Harrek took a ship south from Sog where it was boarded by the Wolf Pirates. He joins them to sail to Three Steps. There he raids the Holy Country. Then seeking more information about the Wolf Pirates, he sails to Ygg in 1617. There is virtually no problem here.

Harono, Sun King of the Sky People (the Ono) according to Esrolia: Land of Ten Thousand Goddesses.

The King of Dragon Pass is a title that you get if you marry the Feathered Horse Queen. Thus Sartar was wooing her in order to become King of Dragon Pass when he was already Prince of Sartar.

Starbrow's rebellion

One thing to consider is that the Theyalan might be a bit of a creole from the various peoples they have absorbed. Thus you can have two words meaning the same thing because they have different origins.

King of Sartar p147 the Mularik Fragment

Given the Glorantha Sourcebook, I'm pretty much of the opinion that Genert's influence extended right across the continent and that Brilliantia (from the Eleven Lights) and Genert's Garden are much reduced forms of it in the Golden and Storm Ages respectively. A productive exercise would be to go through the mythologies and see who is most like Genert. In the Entekosiad this might be KoCharal while among the Ralians, he could be Utriam (Guide p373). In many places Genert has been replaced (by Yelm, Orlanth, the Dragons and the Malkioni) and and eventually forgotten

Map p194 Trilus and Dykene are built rather far from Dragon Pass. Map p195 Orathorn is awfully close to Gonn Orta's pass such that in the final adventure of Borderlands, people could have reached it by making a wrong turning. Greatway has had an interesting about-face in its trading priorities.

p168 Pteranosaurs! The first mention of flying dinosaurs I have seen in a while. p169 The presence of the Feathered Horse Queen at Kallyr's surrender was a big surprise to me considering both the Sartarite and Tarshite histories say nothing about her.,

p166 the section on Fronela omits mention of the Greenleaf rebellion (mentioned back in RQ3). I now think it was before the Ban and part of the White Bear Empire. p167 The rewritten section omits mention of the Luatha and Dragonewts. Map The most striking change for me is how thin Seshnela was (I know the change to a thicker Seshnela was made in Genertela: Crucible of the Hero Wars). Likewise the Wastelands seems much smaller.