M Helsdon

Interesting. Hmm, my attempt to write a history of Saird (and the Sun Dome Temples) appears to be premature and nugatory... 8-( Peralam appears to translate as Hill of Gold according to GRoY, page 30. I also believe your Kemel the Dutiful served Heliacal the Sun based on the Dawn chapter in the Guide to Glorantha, and Heliacal seems to now be Yelmalio based on the entry for New Lolon.

In The Guide to Glorantha, 23 pages out of 754 are specifically about Dragon Pass (several pages are maps). Perhaps another 25-30 pages provide material directly relating to Dragon Pass. Your complaint seems to be about the coverage of the region in other published material, but that's hardly surprising because it was the focus of most of the Chaosium house campaigns, and the published world has its origins (in published form) in the board game most recently called... Dragon Pass. It's also a fact that in the world, Dragon Pass is at the crossroads of a continent because it is virtually the only easy pass in a gigantic mountain range that bisects the continent. History is going to funnel through there, much as the Middle East of our world has been the crossroads between Europe, Asia and Africa - and what a lot of history comes from that... In comparing Glorantha with Tékumel, I would also note that the Tékumel Sourcebook aside, virtually all the published Tékumel material relates to Tsolyánu or to Tsolyáni characters going elsewhere. For example, the most recent Kickstarter... https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jeffdee/kurt-hills-fantasy-atlas/description Deep in the heart of Tsolyánu...

The history of Glorantha is filled with events that different groups claim to have caused... Many of the events in or near Dragon Pass have parallel 'causes'. Within Glorantha, given the nature of the cosmos, local events often have non-local causes. From Cults of Terror... The Sunstop The year 374 was critical for Glorantha. At that time many synchronous events of tremendous magnitude culminated to force an impossible act to occur. In central Genertela, the great Genesis of the Perfect One reached a climax. In Fronela, the wizards engaged in a thaumaturgical contest with a powerful heathen god, promising a great sign of their strength to destroy their foes. In eastern Genertela, in the land of Kralorela, the latest of the Dragon Emperors meditated upon a potent symbol, whose consequence and inner working was unknown. Without realizing it or not caring about it, he called upon the Dragon's Eye to shine upon him. In Pamaltela, a hundred thousand elves, led by their god of nature called Pamalt, sent their energies coursing through the world to call upon a good spirit to come to their jungle to help combat a virulent rot besetting their inner fibers. Dragon Pass is mythically and universally a cause of local and non-local events because it's the primary site for Dragon Nests, and the home of a bunch of obscure Air Gods.

I'm using the names given in Pavis: GtA, augmented by the Guide. It's possible where the two lists differ, you are giving the local names? Have added your names to my list - grrh, lost my reading glasses - having to sit way back from the screen. Would be interested in seeing that, please.

Yelmalio doesn't appear to be a Dara Happan deity in the 3rd Age, but a southern 'barbarian' one.

I knew of the former, but not the latter ones. What I'm interested in is where the name Tharkantus came from! The -us is a Dara Happan masculine ending, and -kantus appears in a few Dara Happan names, but the actual source of the name beyond Severinalus (and published material on him is slim) eludes me.

Yes - I'm not going to drill down further, as the map would become very cluttered in the few centres of Yelmalio worship. There are only four or five regions where the cult has a significant presence. I imagine that the range of the Yelorna cult in Ralios and Prax would increase the coverage, but neither appear to be large.

Only the significant ones. I only know of a few Halamalao sites. The intention was to map significant Yelmalio temples, and a few of the outlier shrines to give an impression of the centres of the cult.

Great temples: 1. Peralam Vanch 2. Daughter’s Road Holay 3. Domanand (Mirin’s Cross) Holay 4. Vanntar (Sun County) Sartar 5. Little Cafol Sylila 6. Laramite Hills (Kareiston’s Temple) Imther 7. Linstingland (Lingsting Sun Dome) Talastar 8. Zalador Hills (Zalan Sun Dome) Holay 9. Orenair Sun Dome Aggar 10. Upper Forantin Sun Dome Aggar 11. Ever-New-Glory Tarsh 12. Goldedge Tarsh 13. Karia March Delela in Ralios 14. North Dona (Northbank) Janube River in Fronela 15. Mo Baustra (Sun Dome County) Prax There are many lesser temples including: A Alda-Chur Far Place B Dykene Balazar C Elkoi Balazar D Garhound Prax E Pavis Prax F Salantor Aggar G Serene Victory Jarst H Southbank Janube River in Fronela Extinguished temples include: x Billiz Aggar y Hesterneo Esrolia z Masassakar Aggar Sereventh Sylila

What's really annoying me is I'm certain I read about Jaldon's Wrong River somewhere many years ago - before I owned anything other than Chaosium RQ books & boxed sets. Can I find the reference now? Nope.

Possibly named in the campaign mentioned in the Guide (and Kos) when in the early 15th century: 'Derik [Poljoni] needed no prompting to exact his vengeance upon the Praxian nomads after they treacherously invaded the Dundealos lands and pushed onward into Tarsh. Derik faced their leader, Jaldon Goldentooth, in battle and struck the mighty Hero down, but was wounded himself and lay unconscious for a month afterwards.' See also Yarandros, KoS, page 98, who hires Animal Nomads, apparently including Jaldon, and fights 'the enemy Riding People [the Grazers?]' before raiding across the southern empire. The only other historical time Jaldon might have been in that part of the world was as part of the Invincible Golden Horde.

A number of Gloranthan shields; the top four rows are grouped by Element (Moon, Air, Sun, Earth) whilst the lower two depict shields carried by members of various Pelorian regiments. Note that only a few regiments carry uniform shields.

https://plus.google.com/communities/102577244714186267235

The spirit in question is the spirit of the caster? It's the Conservation of POW Law, where expenditure of spirit buys limited (mostly external) effects. 8-)

The Zebra Tribe/Pavis Survivors have been extant in Prax for centuries; the Pol-Joni are a recent arrival, and their limited range, in No Man's March, demonstrates how peripheral they are. The Pol-Joni are reliant upon Sartar for survival, and they've been hurting following the Lunar Occupation. The relatively large presence of Pol-Joni in the Sartar Free Army shows just how symbiotic their relationship with the Sartarites is - the latter have relied on them as a line of defence against Praxian incursions; the Pol-Joni have relied upon Sartar for their survival - easy access to metal, for example. The Pure Horse folk were eventually pushed out of Prax, which isn't too surprising given the long-standing conflict between Praxian and Pentan.

'Glorantha' started far from Dragon Pass, but Dragon Pass subsequently became knitted into Glorantha and overtook the original focus of what is now Fronela. Runes are utterly universal to every culture of Glorantha: the basic building blocks of the very different mythic traditions.

So anti-horse that it was necessary for the ancient Pavisites to 'disguise' their horses as zebra.

That's because all the sources we have are written from the perspective of being within Time.

Hmm, the Runes are both the underlying reality of Glorantha (which can be ignored in-game as much as the quantum world underlying our world can be ignored) and a set of symbols. As symbols they are a shorthand for certain characteristics and attributes, much as in our history alchemical symbolism was at one point understood as representing not only the nature of the world and the basis of personality. In some ways, as recorded in our language (phlegmatic, melancholic etc.) they still are... As such Runes are a bit more useful in sketching out personality and nature, than, say, AD&D Alignment, but in HQ and RQ the variety of Runes and the fact they are more influences, not hardwired rules governing behavior doesn't make them totally literal and mechanical. So far as I am aware, no system makes them so definitive? I wouldn't be entirely surprised if the Runes model the ancient Four temperaments to a degree, given how Glorantha is a cosmos where the ancient beliefs are literally true, such as the Near Eastern flat Earth under a sky dome. Melancholic Earth serious, introverted, cautious, suspicious Phlegmatic Water thoughtful, reasonable, calm, patient, caring, tolerant Sanguine Air lively, sociable, carefree, talkative, pleasure-seeking Choleric Fire excitable, impulsive, restless

Very slow or very short races... Note that one of Velakol's spells is Mobility...

Bear in mind that a human (and a herd-man) can produce about 1.2 horsepower briefly and sustain about 0.1 horsepower almost indefinitely, a morokanth chariot pulled by herd-men is going to require twelve to twenty four herd-men to pull it, depending upon the load. A bronze rim is going to add to the weight and to the stress on the wheel. A herdmanpowered chariot might move at a brisk trot, for a while, but without magical power, bursts of speed are going to be limited.

Real world Bronze Age chariots varied enormously in construction and weight. I suspect for a Morokanth 'chariot' a four-wheeled cart or an early Sumerian battlewagon drawn by onagers would be a better model. Even so, a human powered cart is going to be fairly slow, and I suspect you'd need a fairly large team of humans to pull it any distance. In Glorantha, other than for ceremonial and ritual use, and chariot racing (which still seems to be canon in the Lunar Empire - not so sure about Nochet) chariots only seems to be used in warfare by the East Wilds Orlanthi (fairly light, drawn by small sturdy ponies) and the Pelorian Deretinic chariots, which are basically horse-drawn mobile battlefield artillery pieces. For the Morokanth, riding in a man-powered cart would be a status thing.

There's about half a page about the cult of Polaris as a war god in Wyrms Footnotes 15.

There's a non-canonical write up here: http://www.nikkeffingham.com/runequest/polaris.htm Polaris/Rigsdal features to a limited degree in the forthcoming The Coming Storm, in part because of Kallyr's relationship to the god. The Runes of Polaris seem to feature Light, Truth and possibly Stasis.

Looking around the latest map of Notchet I can't find the famous Hippodrome. There's a location named the Golden Racers, but no race track. Has the hippodrome been erased from official Nochet?