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Charles

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Everything posted by Charles

  1. Thanks Jeff ?? Expanding on the quoted part of the reply, particularly 'subject to its laws'. Absolutely agree. And those laws are not knowable or even constant. There's assumptions that generally hold in the better known areas - 'if you are in a hell then you are dead' is one example. But there may be occasions when this does not hold, particularly if it makes your in game story of Glorantha better.
  2. I have a perhaps heretical view on the Underworld, perhaps no longer canon but definitely formed while I was working with Greg to help document the structure of Glorantha to be a bit more understandable while allowing all the stories he wanted to tell. Of course, the structure has moved on since then, and generally for the better... The Underworld is the illogical ancestress and progenitor of all of Glorantha; everything that is in Glorantha, in the mundane or in the otherworld, has its roots in the Underworld. The parts of the Underworld that are best explored, both by Gloranthaphiles and also by human Gloranthans are the many Hells, where Darkness and Death are prevalent. But there are other less well known parts of the Underworld where other illogical powers are prevalent: Fertility, Fate, Disorder, Movement, Illusion and all the others, all of which in their raw state are as equally inimical to humans as Death and Darkness. I'm of the opinion that when a living being goes to one of the Hells in the Underworld, then they are dead, though perhaps only temporarily. I'm less certain that's true in other parts of the Underworld, but the other dangers can quickly lead to a similar outcome - you ain't commin back! Going and coming back on the path of a well defined and ritualised Quest is (relatively) easy, particularly with community support. Getting blown off course, or going without a well planned myth (or string of myths) to navigate from event to event makes it harder and harder to return. Performing a Quest always marks the Questor and the deeper and more difficult the Quest, the more obvious the mark. Fighting or otherwise finding one's way out after being mundanely or magically killed leaves the deepest marks of all. And of course, trying to fully define the Underworld is an impossible game. At its heart, underneath the deepest Hell, is the Chaosium.
  3. From the fragments of Arkatsaga that I have, and the dreaded conversation with Greg ... so this is quite possibly not 'canon'. For the Brithini, I understood that children were not necessarily of the caste of their parents, with numerological and/or astrological components leading to the assignment. Arkat was officially born into the warrior caste because the Brithini were unaware that his mother had another child before. If 'they' had known, he would have been assigned into the wizard caste. So he was trained as a warrior with the innate abilities of a wizard. This, plus the advanced warrior trainings given due to the the necessities of the upcoming wars that Brithini prophecies indicated, led to Arkat breaking through caste restrictions and becoming one of the most powerful 'humans' within Time.
  4. I can't remember the sources exactly. My memory is that Yarra Aranis was created by Moonson to suppress the nomads. Later she was somewhat repurposed to support the Glowline and later still the Glowline was used to repress and convert Storm worshippers. So my guess is that Agrath quested, likely with his Lunar Illuminates, to get inside one of her more important temples and gave Yarra Aranis to chance/choice to fulfill her original purpose of killing nomads. Likely this involved a quest challenge against the most senior priestesses of the Yarra Aranis hierarchy. Somehow Argrath offered something that they truly desired or needed as part of the challenge. Or put them in a position where the consequences of not accepting the challenge were worse than losing the challenge. Or, possibly, tricked them into accepting what seemed to be a relatively innocuous challenge - though I think this option is a bit of a cop-out.
  5. Unexpected by the clan does not mean unwanted by the mother
  6. I suspect that many of the men on the ring are involved as matchmakers too. And also worshipers, female and male, of Lankhor Mhy (knowledge of bloodlines, ancestors and history) and Issaries (it's their business to know everyone's business).
  7. This could start with the souls of the dead hanging around confused near their dead bodies, visible only to the few left with sight. Then, as the number of souls builds up, they start to manifest in their confusion. As the trouble continues, the dead bodies, in increasing numbers, start to demand food and other resources as if they still lived. There is no longer a border between the mundane and the underworld for Daka Fal, Issaries or even Humakt to detect. Hell on earth? Or worse?
  8. Are there any plans to update the PDFs to fix the errata?
  9. In my opinion, very, very, very anti-horse. If a Waha led nomad party comes across a weaker party of horse-riders, they will immediately (usually) try to destroy the horses and kill/enslave the blasphemous riders. The horses are destroyed, not captured or eaten. A Storm-Bull led party likely do not care so much but might try to kill, just on general principles. Of course, as always, there may well be situational modifiers that prevent that sort of reaction. For example, the Pol-Joni people forced their way in by repeatedly trouncing the nomads. I'm not sure about the reaction of an Eiritha led party. It could go either way. For example, I understand that some Pol-Joni Ernalda priestesses are welcomed at the Paps. On the other hand, Eiritha may reflexively support Waha.
  10. Charles

    Painters

    Yes. But specialist artists that can afford to initiate or dedicate to an artist god are extremely rare (at least, they are rare outside of the greatest of cities). So more generalist artisan gods seem more likely. There are artifacts of extreme magic that are paintings in both Boldhome and Pavis. So I'd suggest that many gods, spirits etc. are interested in art, not just artisanal gods.
  11. Charles

    Painters

    I think that there is comedy and even frequent mockery of worshippers and their gods. In my opinion, Gloranthans are not po-faced about religion (unless they are noble Dara Happans!). The gods do not have agency in the mundane world to avenge every or even any insult. Most of the defense of a god's honor is executed by their initiates, devotees and priests. And even spirits of reprisal are quite limited; I'd expect that they only attack initiates for extreme infractions and really focus their attacks on devotees gone astray.
  12. There are as many opinions on the nature of sequence and causality of the God Place in Glorantha as there are among Gloranthaphiles. I had a similar discussion while at Eternal Con. My opinion is that the mapping of events into linear sequences and ages is an artifact of our minds that live in an (apparently) 4-dimensional universe, where the time dimension is experienced but not navigable. In the God-Place, the time dimension can be moved on as we can move through the 3 space dimensions. Just like in 3 dimensions, there are barriers that are difficult to cross in the time dimension. More powerful entities (and more experienced heroquesters) are better able to pass these barriers. Many Gloranthaphiles disagree with me.
  13. And if the characters are quite experienced heroquestors, the GM should work out who their main and secondary heroquest foes are from the questing backstory, so that the characters can start to pick up hints of who it might be. Particularly powerful magic, such of the Eye of the Halfbird (from S:KoH) might even allow the veil of the otherworld to be pierced to see exactly who an enemy is. And one might want to sabotage an enemy in the mundane world to reduce their chances on the next quest or limit their options.
  14. My opinions... In an otherworld quest, the hidden Gloranthan rule of synchronicity means that, somewhere in Glorantha, someone is going on a quest where they have an encounter. Strangely enough, your character acts (has, knows) something like their opponent and they act (have, know) something like the opponent required for your character's quest. Usually, this happens at exactly the same mundane Time, but can be offset in time. So if your Sartarite character wins against a solar opponent, then somewhere else, some group have just failed in their stage, which could be in a Yelmalio temple. However, they may have intended to fail so that they can access a more important stage in their own quest. Generally, being killed on a quest outside some of the most powerful areas (such as the deep Underworld, through the hidden door into Orlanth's secret realm, etc.) does not result in death in the mundane world. But the resulting loss of power, prestige, etc. may lead to death. These analogies can stretch quite a way. Why shouldn't a powerful Ernaldan going on a quest could appear as a mountain to be climbed by an inexperienced Orlanthi? The synchronicity generally (but not always) works both ways - both sides initiate their quests at the same time. And, if not, there are signs that one is being drawn into a this world quest. If one sees the signs (omens, portents, feelings), one can generally take actions to reduce ones identification as an opponent - an Orlanthi could deliberately act in an Ernaldan manner. If one's god or pantheon has an appropriate myth of hiding, then yes. Eurmal has many such myths that will often work but almost as often expose the quester in an even more indiscreet fashion. But for most good Orlanthi (in the biggest sense of all, including Ernaldans), Eurmal's myth are personally inappropriate, whatever their utility.
  15. While in general the Orlanthi are pretty tolerant, they are also very diverse. Which would include a few clans being intolerant. But there would be a mythical reason for this. And it would also affect their clan and personal magic in quite strange ways. There are myths of Orlanth taking female form and role - if these myths are rejected then associated magic would also be unavailable. For example, maybe Barntar magic could be weak as Barntar is often seen as a slightly effeminate form of Orlanth. YGWV!
  16. Reading the Guide about the Orlanthi of the west Rockwoods and Fronela, it is striking how different are the gods that they worship.
  17. I'll have to re-read The Middle Sea Empire and pick some specific examples of meddling But my point is that, as Gloranthans (and us) accept these links as valid, it is difficult to tell whether these linkages were just previously undiscovered or whether their explorers deliberately (or even accidentally) created these linkages. I do accept that the God Learners' analysis of the mythology of Glorantha got far more right than wrong (far, far more) and also accept that their recognition of linkages was not what ultimately led to their doom*. But they were so powerful that they did have the capability to distort the otherworld and some of those distortions became so embedded as belief and practice that the otherworld is permanently changed. *Their doom was set in motion right from their beginnings, when they accepted a subtle form of Chaos as a foundation of all that they became, See The Middle Sea Empire P35.
  18. It can be very difficult to differentiate between the analysis and the meddling of the God Learners. Some of their meddling is obvious, though perhaps only in retrospect, such as the Goddess Switch. On the the other hand, it is entirely possible that some of their analytical questing actually created the links between the gods, not merely revealed them. Who are we to know? And how? In my opinion, some of their meddling was just too useful to resist, even when recognised. I believe that there are two strong examples. One is Lankhor Mhy with the merger of theistic and sorcerous magic - the analytical magic has broad applicability like theistic rune magic, while the results are very specific like spells, and never mind the Alien Combination Machine, which potentially makes a LM initiate a more powerful sorcerer than anyone from a sorcerous culture. The other example is Issaries, where Tradetalk seems just a bit too generic for a world like Glorantha (a counter-point is that it also works in Peloria, where the God Learners never went in strength). There are likely further examples: I have some suspicions about Chalana Arroy, but am not able to articulate them.
  19. Charles

    Genert's sons

    I think that there is plenty of mileage in exploiting the conflation of the different types of giants as an in-Glorantha story element. Many of the stories of the different kinds of giants originate among peoples that speak different languages. Why shouldn't there be mis-translations and mis-understandings? Never mind deliberate muddying of the waters by powerful foreigners that misrepresent the stories that they tell to push forward their agendas.
  20. Getting back to the original topic that I introduced Here's some supporting circumstantial evidence regarding Lhankor Mhy and wizards/zzaburi Guide to Glorantha (GtG) P38 - Lhankor Mhy scholars must wear beards, and both men and women of the cult commonly wear fake beards to make up for any natural lack of facial hair. GtG (P48) Facial hair is regulated by caste; wizards must grow long beards, whereas nobles must shave their chin.
  21. For the purest of pure practitioners, there is a difference in approach. Socerers know something; Spiritists have something; Theists are something; Mystics reject all of the above as entanglements in this world and the other world that delay and/or prevent their liberation into the Void (or All). Eurmali and some (many?) Illuminants embrace all approaches simultaneously. Most cultures are not that pure - in particular, some suggest that the Orlanthi approach to Theism is very much informed by their knowledge of Spiritism, and a very, very personal approach to worship. On the other hand, the Dara Happans approach to Theisim is usually through a priest that has (or claims to have) a very specific line of descent from an approved god and is perhaps 'a more pure' approach to Theism.
  22. I love the idea that different schools of sorcery, even those with similar areas of study, would have different styles of magic, particularly, for the more ritual magic. One school might work its magic by linking the targets of the magic to items and then physically push those items around a board (hey, war gaming!) to achieve the required affect. Another school might perform their rituals through hours of chanting, with more complex rituals requiring choirs singing in multi-part harmony. Or orchestras! For players, I'd suggest that usually these requirements should be relaxed and be built into the keyword. But, occasionally, acquiring the correct article, relationship, plant, animal or monster part etc. should become the focus of an episode. Or if an enemy has them bound and gagged, again story driven, their magic should be much reduced in potency (i.e. a high negative modifier).
  23. Following the tangent, see page 161 of the Guide. I worked with Jeff on the first draft of this picture. It shows a scene of a highly magical area of Glorantha, with views of how different styles of magicians would magically envision the same scene. I believe that this is the canonical approach to the magical worlds for theists, spiritists and sorcerers, that they are views and interpretations of the magical realms. The separate worlds are The Underworld, the Mundane World and the Gods War / Magical World / Hero Plane (3 of the many different names for the one place, Gods War being the most used in Glorantha during the Hero Wars period). And the borders do blur between the worlds in the Sky, the Outer edges of Glorantha, etc.
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