Charles

Amazing work, Martin

Page 198. "whereby the gods that still were voluntary abdicated their free will within the temporal world rather than lose their All into the maws of nonexistence." were voluntary -> were, voluntarily Page 204. "The world was built by the gods, and they still lived nearby. They no longer walked and lived among men, but they could be sought and found by the devout, and there was great interplay of energies between mortal and deity." Maybe still lived nearby -> still live nearby Page 204. "The followers of the deity were bound to adopt and maintain the attitudes of their immortal source of power, which meant that the deity still exerted influence upon the changing world of men. The cult members carried on proxy wars for their divine lords." maybe - The followers of the deity were bound -> The followers of a deity are bound - which meant that the deity still exerted influence - > which means that the deity still exerts influence - cult members carried on proxy wars -> cult members carry on proxy wars Page 204 "Yelm is the Sun God, son of the Primal Aether and Lord of the Middle Fire. His rival was Orlanth, son of Umath the Primal Storm and King of Storms." His rival was Orlanth -> His rival is Orlanth (or change to "Yelm was" for consistency )

Page 172. Box. Is the Lunar sacred time only 7 days?

Page 49. “Dryads: These tree spirits are very much like the dryads of classical Greek mythology.” - this grates. All the rest of the book is in-Glorantha (that I have seen so far)

Page 131. laid greet schemes - greet -> great

It’s an in-world depiction of the God-Learners understanding of the Underworld

parts of it do I believe that the Underworld is vast, much more than any Gloranthan being can really understand

Page 63. ‘population southwards downwards the’ downwards -> towards ?

Page 6. "The southern route was lost" - shouldn't this either be the northern route (assuming starting in Ralios) or something like "the southbound route in"? Page 7. The Sweet Sea should be noted as a huge lake, otherwise to newcomers this appears to contradict the previous paragraph "no direct contact with any other sea" Page 7. Suam Chong -> Suam Chow (it's correct a few lines down) Page 11. threated -> threat

This referred to MoLaD. At the time, I did not remember Arcane Lore as an alternative/better source.

That's deliberate. I saw an opportunity to write a HeroQuest that looked as if it could be fun, have a bit of mystery, and not have to do all the hard bits. So that's what I did.

I semi-recall (from before the Guide, likely way back from RQ days) that the God Learners interfered with the cults of Lankhor Mhy and Issaries to make them more useful in the course of their experiments and meddling. I'm not sure if this is still canonical. There are many different forms of Illumination. But basically, they are all different paths to the same place (powers and effects). Draconic knowledge, Nysalorean, Kralorean mysticism, and many other less known forms. In my opinion, about the only difference is a tendency to different moral stances - the more rigourous / disciplined paths generally result in fewer 'people' that break the world. People is relative here, no-one that is Illuminated is truly human.

I believe that many Gloranthans have the same misunderstanding. "Our hell is in the Underworld. Our neighbours' and other enemies hells are in the Underworld. Therefore the Underworld is hell."

Totally agree! Furthermore, it is likely that the troll hell is somewhere in the sky.

Mostali, I suspect, from the amount of time the spend in front of the laptops and phones.

Yep, that stick figure sketch is my sole attempt at dipping my toes into art direction. Opinionated but think it was a pretty good attempt ? There is one regret. I used the beast rune instead of the dragon rune ? I would have loved to have given an in-Glorantha explanation for the creation of the picture. Something like it was commissioned by Argrath to help in the creation and training of the Sartar Magical Union. But that would make it an 'anachronism' in the timeline of the Guide. @Jeff and I had spent many, many hours discussing the structure of the otherworlds and how to keep the best parts of the separate otherworlds (one for gods, a different one for spirits and yet another for essences) while hugely simplifying and making a better fit with many of the stories. What we concluded was that the best explanation is that the different magical traditions see the other worlds in such different ways that they seem to be talking about different places. At the end of that discussion, Jeff suggested I drew something less technical and more story based than my previous diagrams. So one Sunday afternoon, I sat down and drew the above in around 2 hours. I chose to start with a view of Kero Fin from Sartar, and tried to make a perspective from a specific place on the map. Then I drew my imagination of how a powerful sorcerer would view the magic of the location. Then the Theistic view, specifically, a Sartarite/Orlanthi view. And finally how a powerful Shaman would view the magic of the same location. I still think that the Underworld is a different place to the the God place. And the cultures that we are most familiar with do tend to think of it as dark, dangerous and unfriendly, even hostile. But some parts of the Underworld are not dark (but always dangerous).

and how about Issaries First Trading Trip @ https://web.archive.org/web/20050211183932/http://www.runegate.org:80/glorantha/FirstTradingTripMyth.html

I'd completely forgotten that. 15 years ago! Brain melt - must be caused by my sons ;-)

If you read the Green Age descriptions carefully (perhaps later in this process ;-) ), you'll find that it starts with relatively undifferentiated descriptions like stone folk, dragon people etc. Only in the Golden Age do the 'modern' racial names like Mostali and Dragonnewts emerge... This is entirely deliberate...

I had a load of fun creating the icons and runes based on Jeff's drawings and was flattered beyond amazement when several of my designs were incorporated into the front cover illustration of Vol 1 of the Guide.

You say this. You may believe this. Can you prove it? Among the many possible interpretations of YGMV, one that I submit should be taken to heart - there are many ways to play Glorantha. RQ; HQ; 13G; KoDP; freeforms; board games; and coming: card games and the I don't know quite what to call it: The Gods War. What I enjoy is not your preference, and I accept that you know what you like and that's OK. Can you accept that I prefer something different?

Martin, What an awesome achievement! I cannot thank you enough, I and, I suspect, many others will benefit from your efforts. Charles

Or purified Hofstaring to the point he won the ultimate prize, beyond life and death, of breaking out of the cycle of re-incarnation and becoming a worshipped Hero with a permanent place on the God-Plane. Hofstaring was already an acknowledged Hero, ageless and well over 100, having been a companion of Tarkalor, before he was bodily taken to the Lunar Hell. It's not that your interpretation is wrong, many Gloranthans might agree with what you wrote.

YGDV YGDV - Your Glorantha Does Vary and you are welcome to your interpretation. I welcome these kinds of constraints as they lead to better stories (for me anyway). And the exceptions to the constraints can make a great story even better.

Completely disallowing a Humakti to quest into the parts of the Underworld where their most holy events took place would mean that there could never be a Humakti Hero (capital H Hero) and would demean their worship of their god. However it would be completely apposite that any Humakti, that significantly failed a death relevant challenge in an Underworld Hell, would not be able to return to the Middle World, i.e. permanently dead.