Charles

My guess is most marriages are among clans of a tribe but a noticeable minority are inter-tribal. For most clan members, marriages would be arranged by households and bloodlines, however, for close relatives of the upper ranks, there likely will be clan ring involvement. Given a clan size of 1,500 I'd guess around 20-30 marriages a year, about 20 of them first marriages (some really nasty back of an envelope calculations ). For the clan to be involved in every marriage would mean that at least one person would have to have full-time support from the clan to travel both inside the clan and outside to find suitable partners. However, the clan might well give some guidance to the most senior members of each household about what relationships the clan would like to strengthen by marriages.

Really, each of the borders between each of the 'planes' are fuzzy. And are fuzzy in several different ways. Below, barrier means magical border between planes, often but not always between the Mundane and the HeroPlane. On one day, it may be harder to cross a barrier and on another easier. Holy days are known to influence this, as are the phases of the moon and wanes for Moon worshippers. In some places or regions, a barrier is stronger or weaker and in some very magical places, a barrier does not exist or completely changes form, e.g. Hellcrack to the Underworld. Certain areas have a lesser barrier to the GodPlane for aligned worshippers, e.g. the region around KeroFin for Orlanth worshippers; Temples of the Reaching Moon. Some magical tools change the strength or nature of a barrier, e.g. the Eye of the Halfbird. Being in the presence of a Demi-God erases the barrier between the mundane and the HeroPlane, e.g. Moonson, Belintar, Harrek, Ralzakark and many more. There's likely several other influences that I can't recall or half recall as a write this: community support; the needs of a story; and more.

BTW, all of the above only matters to a few of us Gloranthaphiles. For all but a few Gloranthans, they see the magical worlds exactly as their priests or sorcerers or shamans teach, and those rules work for them, and well enough that they need no more. And for players in a game, each of the games systems set in Glorantha have rules that guide how it all works. And that works too.

Because of my history of working in this area, Jeff asked me to get involved while he was writing the Guide. The pic on page 161 of the GtG Volume 1 is the result of our discussions. What the pic means to me to me is that the different mythical perspectives see the same world in different ways. Each of these views is useful and can be used to affect the world and each are complete enough to set the practitioner on the road to Transcendence. In the centre of the pic is the vista of Kero Fin, looking west from across the CreekStreamRiver valley. Across the top are the three magical perspectives of the same landscape, as would be seen by extremely proficient sorcerers, theists or animists using their respective magical visions. What this means to a Gloranthan is that the HeroPlane and GodPlace are here and now if you have the magic to access them. The Gloranthan's magical approach does constrain what they can see and what they can do. Basically, you can get to the HeroPlane if you are magical and can get to the GodPlace with more magic (or Essence or Spirit, depending on your approach). The borders between the mundane world and the HeroPlane are fuzzy and deliberately so. For example, I believe that if a Gloranthan travels far enough from home, then eventually they start to operate as if permanently on the Hero Plane. This is what happened, as an example, to Harrek, Argrath and their companions as they circumnavigated the Homeward Ocean. And this becomes even more extreme as one travels further from the centre. Eventually, a sailor can choose whether to sail up into the Sky or down into the Underworld. Some effects of the magic of the HeroPlane, GodPlace etc, mean that some places are more aligned to a perspective than others and are easier to get to for the respective magical approach. This means that they tend to see their magical worlds as separate, but to a God Learner or strong Illuminate, or demiGod, they are One. And underpinning them all is the Underworld, which not even the greatest can fully understand.

More explicitly, I’m of the opinion that most Illuminates are Heroes (not all), however most Heroes are not Illuminates. In particular, the upper hierarchies you mention are mostly Heroes or equivalent, in addition to being Illuminated.

Does this assume that the Uroxi have Hero class representatives in each locale? As far as I understand, the only area where Uroxi even make it to ‘Uncommon’ is Prax and the Wastes. In Heortling/Orlanthi areas, they are rare. Illumination is extremely rare, though it becomes less rare during the Hero Wars. Most Illuminates are Hero class, and the rise of a Hero in Glorantha almost always attracts an opponent that is just as famous and powerful, at least until their inevitable clash. I’d find it a little boring if every Illuminate were inevitably opposed by a Uroxi. In the stories of the early Hero Wars, there only appears to be one rising Hero class Uroxi (Orgwaha Blue Llama?). And to a large extent, Argrath appears to have co-opted the Praxian Uroxi via his leadership of the White Bull society (likely from before his Illumination, but this association seems to continue post-Illumination). Of course, this is my Glorantha and yours will vary.

One possibility is that the magical side effects vary by who is doing the perceiving, in addition to who is doing the casting. As outliers, a troll’s primary sense is ‘hearing’, a dwarf’s is touch, etc., so their experience of magic could be very extremely different. Within a species, perception may be culturally influenced.

Which method does each player prefer? What story do they want to tell? Do some of them feel this is all too onerous, please just roll it? Maybe each character can have a different experience that best suits the preferences of the palyer

During initiation, the magic of the ritual causes runes to be tattooed on the newly young adult. Whether that is self-tattooed, or by an elder wise in the ways of magic, or just magically appears is up to the GM and story. And whether the forms of the tattoos are actually truly inspired by the magic or are the choice of the tattooist is also story driven. The pre-initiate and clan/family/social organisation should often have a good idea of their runic inclinations. Some especially strong children manifest magic early, which is often not appreciated by parents and clan. Or maybe the runes are drawn / finalised after the two years of mens' initiation, where the initiate works with a god-talker of the clan's choice then another year with a god-talker of their own choice. If the elders notice unwanted runes, they may drive the young adult out or, in extremis (such as Chaos), even try to kill. From my reading of one partial version of the Harmastsaga, there are clan tattooists, who are magically inspired to tattoo runes, including lineage runes that the tattooist does not necessarily recognise (so Kodig's lineage rune for Harmast, or the Sartar rune for an unknown scion of that house).

Do you really mean: are any further publications planned in that campaign line? I’m guessing the answer to that question is no. Jeff, as the primary author, appears to be pretty busy with the other Chaosium lines that have bigger audiences than HeroQuest, eg. Call of Cthulhu and RuneQuest. I believe that Ian Cooper has enough material in draft status for a HeroQuest book, containing ‘off-stage’ material from the Red Cow campaign (and perhaps more). He ran the Dragonrise heroquest from this for a small group including me at a con and it was marvellous! I hope to see it published in the next few years. While I prefer HeroQuest to the other Chaosium systems that I’ve played (or run), I believe that it makes complete sense for Chaosium to focus on the systems with the bigger audiences. They need the revenues from those audiences to keep publishing the high quality material that we expect.

The clan questionnaire ( https://www.glorantha.com/site-apps/clan/sartar.html and https://www.glorantha.com/site-apps/clan/pavis.html ) separates the question data from the 'engine'. Which means that if you know a very little JavaScript programming (actually, pretty much any programming) and some HTML, you should be able to create new online questionnaires.

My feeling is when most of us hear "Trickster" we think of of the far gentler "Prankster". However that's _not_ the archetype Greg wrote of - a Trickster does these things because they have no choice. When Greg spoke of being a Trickster Arkati Shaman, he meant that he was driven to investigate the myths more deeply and that caused him to destroy what some people loved - see the recent resurrection of the Yelmalio/Elmal wars for an example that was far more hurtful and divisive the first time around. He told us that he was unable to not do it.

Could you explain that? See if you can find Storm Tribe for the first complete description of a trickster (which may no longer be canon). Tricksters usually have little or no control over their impulses, emotions, body functions or magic. They are miserable and pathetic creatures except sometimes when they are transgressing. When bonded, they get some limited control over themselves, enough that they can mostly function in society.

The Orlanthi are my favourite Gloranthan culture for storytelling. They are not and should not be anyone's dream of a 'perfect' culture. They are violent beyond almost all Earthly cultures and times.

It's perhaps useful to add that Orlanth Adventurous and Yinkin and quite a few other Gloranthan gods will be happy with a prankster worshipper.

I'm writing this based on what Greg Stafford wrote and spoke of, not conforming with desires of many Gloranthaphiles to have Trickster be a prankster with cool magic and without having read any of the latest (pre)publications. Orlanth tolerated Eurmal before the Gods' War and gave a limited protection in return for bonding. And during the Lightbringer's Quest, Eurmal betrayed the group and then helped them escape. For these reasons, Eurmali may be allowed to live (perhaps worse than thralls) under the 'protection' of an Orlanthi chieftain or king. Their alternative (pre-Argrath) is to die because they have no protection from the elements or from anyone that cares to beat them to death for any reason (or for no reason). In some of Greg's talks and writing on Tricksters, it was unspoken but fairly obvious that the fate of many 'neuro-atypical' was to be tagged as tricksters so that they could be ejected from society without divine retribution. In most of the cultures that Greg designed, there are some very positive aspects blended with very very negative aspects. An Orlanthi King or Chieftain gets several things from bonding a Trickster. First, and likely most importantly: RESPECT. Only rich and strong Orlanthi can afford the costs and risks of having one around - eventually the Trickster WILL betray the person and/or the community. Second: a scapegoat - no matter who did what, in almost all cases short of obvious chaos worship, the trickster can be blamed and then beaten or maimed as punishment. Third: access to unusual magic /stronger communal magic. And magically, Trickster gets some control over their own body and magic that they do not get without the bond. They will frequently be beaten but only with the permission of the chieftain and usually will be fed and given some access to community. No other Gloranthan culture has ritualised this protection to this extent. Because Tricksters are generally so outcast, they do not get the chance to organise and they maybe oppressed to the point where they are unable to organise / never learned to organise. And given the whole betrayal thing, Orlanthi don't want Tricksters to organise and teach each other, so won't allow it and will destroy / barricade / destroy Trickster shrines where possible.

When I started this pic / diagram, I wanted to make it an in-Glorantha document. However, I couldn’t work out a story for it. It’s specifically drawn from an Orlanthi/Heortling perspective, with the pre-eminent association of the Red Moon with Chaos. I chose a specific point on the Argan Argar Atlas as a viewpoint for the geographical view. For the in-Glorantha story, I would like this to have been drawn by one or more associates of Agrath as training material for one of the groups within the Sartar Magical Union. Likely, there’s more than one contributor, to give the different world perspectives. A worshipper of Lhankor Mhy might be able to give the sorcerous and the theist perspectives. Likely, the group lead (not necessarily an actual artist) would be Illuminated to bring all of the perspectives together. BTW, I made a mistake in the original. I should have put the Dragon or Dragonewt rune where I put the beast rune.

With the Guide to Glorantha, I understand that the 3 worlds are considered as different perspectives of the same thing. See page 162 of Volume 1 for the way that the 3 different major types of magicians might view the magical landscape of Kerofin and surrounds - I drew the layout that became this pic. A theist sees the magical world as full of deities and typically interacts with the magical world by entering it in the the role of a god. A spiritist sees the magical world as full of spirits and typically interacts with that world through bargaining with the spirits. A sorcerer sees the magical world as a place of abstract forces that may be manipulated through knowledge. Most entities in the magical worlds may be successfully approached with any of the magical systems, though they may be most usually or most easily contacted by one of the 3 main systems. My offline life has meant that I haven’t kept up to date with later publications.

I suspect that many of us tend to overthink it, and assume it's documented. I'd look to how oral (or semi-oral) cultures work today, for example modern gangs, juvenile and criminal or places where warlords violently compete to run the show. Basically, might makes right combined with traditions, some barbarous, some wise.

From https://wellofdaliath.chaosium.com/home/gloranthan-documents/glorantha-2/cultures/orlanthi-initiation-rites/

I'd turn it around and ask: can you play, tell or write a plausible story to <whatever>? If the story passes everyone's plausibility checks then yes. If players/gms/listeners/readers come up with plausible objections then no. And the answer in one gaming group will be different to the answer in another gaming group (forum, auditorium, whatever). And that's because Your Glorantha Will Vary. For many of us purists, that's an unsatisfying answer. We want to find the one true right answer. We want to read and write the stuff that becomes accepted as canon. On the other hand, as @Jeff has pointed out, that really only matters to those that want to go through all the effort of writing and then editing something for formal publication by Chaosium.

In my opinion, there is no single truth, no correct single list. There are many patterns that are usually true but, in specific instances, are broken. And it's kind of fractal, you will find the same meta-pattern of general truths but specifically broken at all scales from the very local to cosmic. Never stop trying. I've spent much time exploring and savouring the mysteries over nearly 40 years.

Running a forum with a view to keeping up with technology, keeping the history for the long term (we are almost 30 years as an online community) and managing the occasional flame war is actually quite a difficult ‘task’. And given the great diversity of skills needed, can be extremely expensive. We (as a community) have piggy backed off many ‘free’ providers that profit or hope to profit from us. Some of the providers have been community members who’s ‘profit’ has been the continued maintenance of our community. When looking at the alternatives, both for the community and for Chaosium, I’m not sure that there’s better than opportunistically taking what’s on offer from the ‘free’ providers.

bought