Tindalos

The Obsidian and Blood novels by Aliette de Bodard. 

It's a series about the High Priest of Mictlantecuhtli, and is effectively a supernatural detective mystery series. With blood sacrifice. 

Its approach to religion, magic, and the divine realms help make it incredibly appropriate for Gloranthan inspiration. Especially for underworld cults. 

Gerendetho is the Dara Happan name for Pamalt. 

Also isn't there a giant turtle in

(Spoilered just in case)

14 minutes ago, Nick Brooke said:

Capybara People or GTFO.

Those are just fuzzy Uz!

3 hours ago, French Desperate WindChild said:

Is Barntar's look important for Barntar ? Is dark skin important for Humakt ?

On the other hand, I have remembered page 8 of the Red Book of Magic's section on How Does Rune Magic Appear, Sound, and Feel. There it mentions that when you cast runespells you do gain sensory manifestations to resemble your deity. Dark skin (or rather the caster taking on a blackish hue) is even mentioned, although for Babeester Gor rather than Humakt. 

It's just these manifestations have no mechanical effect, so even if Barntar's magic does make you look like a super fit Viking farmer, it doesn't affect your STR, CON, or SIZ. So Heler's magic may change your body to match the fluid god while it's functioning, but no change to your sheet otherwise. 

Of course, for something granting mechanical differences, I've already given my viewpoint, which has already been referred to by people in the thread. 😜

1 hour ago, metcalph said:

Or they could just be superior trollkin as stated in Trollpak p19

And maybe that's what ultimately makes a superior trollkin, with a lot of it being nurture over nature. 

18 minutes ago, g33k said:

Thank you!

What about the modern stigma around multiple births; that the "litters of trollkin" phenomenon has led to rejecting all those youths?

Was that just some fannish / Glorantha Variance, or is/was it canonical?

Page 92 of the Guide mentions "Since the Trollkin Curse, trolls have decreed all multiple births are trollkin." So still canonical. 

4 hours ago, Lordabdul said:

Changing sex isn't something that Heler did in the God Time, that's just what they are. Yinkin is sometimes a shadowcat, and sometimes a human with a cat head. Does that give you a magic spell to change your head or your entire body into that of a cat? No, you're worshipping the cat god, but you are still you, you're not him. Heler doesn't have sex-changing magic for the same reason Yinkin doesn't have cat shapeshifting magic

I mean, Yinkin does have some cat shapeshifting magic. Claws, cateye, and (through his grandparents) Transform Self. 

Two of those are even shared with Odayla. Just as his initiates can cast transform self to become a bear, or Telmor's can to become a wolf, Yinkin's initiates can become alynxes. 

A better example of this is Storm Bull.

Page 81: Unlike the core rulebook, Eiritha does not have Storm Bull or Waha as associate cults. (Maybe an intentional change, but just in case)

2 hours ago, jajagappa said:

We've been reading King of Sartar wrong - the following is the draconic mating ritual: "Those which would do such a thing then lurched into the sky. Those which would do such a thing brushed aside the burning light of the Red Moon which could destroy even them. The Storm Dragon then clutched the great bulk of the crimson orb with all four of its taloned feet, and wrapped itself around the Moon with its tail, wings, and long neck."

A similar ritual seems to happen between Murharzarm and Nestendos to boot!

"The great cold monster lashed itself forward and sought to bite Murharzarm. The god broke its teeth with his scepter. The monster then wrapped itself around Murharzarm from his left foot to his chin, encoiling his body seven times, and lifted its great head to stare at Murharzarm in the face. But the god was not paralyzed like prey."

2 minutes ago, jajagappa said:

Esrola is also counted among the Six Sisters (Ernalda, Maran, Esrola, Delaeo, Delaina, and Orana) though the Prosopaedia only references the latter three under that heading.

Interestingly the Prosopaedia has "see also" notes for the Six Sisters for those goddesses, but the only entry for that is the Boundry Spirits near Battle Valley, unless they are intended to be one and the same.

Fortunately for myself, and anyone else who has apparently been devoured by Kajabor, the prosopedia does list a few goddesses in that vein.
Ana Gor, Delaeo, Dew Maid, Delaina, Eninta, Evening Star, Holder, Huraya, Imarja, Mahome, Morning Star, Orana, Rainbow Girl, Silonia, Voria.

None needed to run a game, likely counted as part of the ten thousand godddesses, but enlightening (enearthening?) none the less.

On the other hand, the text of Nochet in Harmast's Time does talk about the Great Wheel House as still in existence, and mentions it's too strong to be destroyed, even if it is broken and abandoned.

Comparing the maps of green and dark ages Nochet, it may have been in a similar location to the old Garzeen Temple (abutting the marshes/old riverbed). It's possible the ruins may lie beneath the Great Square, or were finally disassembled to help build the walls of the Sacred City.

3 hours ago, Darius West said:

I stand corrected.  It takes about 24 bushels to feed a human adult for a year. IDK where I heard that a Bushel was a years supply of grain.  My memory is failing I fear.

It was Ernalda's Bushel, a unit of measurement in King of Dragon Pass. To quote from the manual:

Quote

The Bushel we use as the unit of food in KoDP is the amount of food it takes to feed one person for a year. A normal bushel is just a medium-sized basket, but our Bushel comes from the Godplane: these are Ernalda’s Bushels, and the Earth Mother’s basket holds enough to feed one of us little people for a year.

Another potential source of "Lodrilism" could be the Eiritha Hills themselves. In times of great danger, the goddess' rest may be fitful, and the hills rumble as she stirs. She also provides the highly fertile mud that nourishes the land.

6 hours ago, Eff said:

Or we could place them further afield, in hilly eastern Ralios, or somewhere off near Teshnos, and make them a product of diffusion through Dorastor/via the Celestial Empire. The options are plentiful for making them as innocuous as the flooded fields of domesticated wild rice or stands of maize plowed by ox-teams. However, as with the cities themselves, it is still an aesthetic decision.

This discussion could probably do with its own thread, but your mention of Ralios does remind me that northern Ralios had llama people, (guide 225, 389), which don't appear to be the same as the Aepycamelus riders of Prax, which suggests a similar terrain there as in the Peruvian highlands, and thus, ahem, fertile soil for our potential potato placement. 

There are still potatos Glorantha, they're just found on the southern coast from Seshnela to Kethaela, where they attack boats to drain people's blood. 

The headgear worn by the nobility on the Gods Wall, and similar examples (see examples in this thread) are actually diadems. The large domed section is actually the nobles' heads, as the sky people ancestors of the Dara Happans had large pointed heads (see also some Alkothi in Six Ages). Head binding was also practiced in some dynasties

Modern Sky people typically only appear on the surface world for war, and so their high-domed helmets are assumed to be merely decorative. 

14 hours ago, scott-martin said:

Where's the harvest spell? How many player characters use it every year? The Grain Goddesses teach Bless Crops and Barntar teaches Plow for the sowing but does Ernalda support her own unrecorded version of Food Song on the other end of the cycle?

Of course mechanically it could also come under the Farm skill, like how it does for butchery and Peaceful Cut, or how Alchemy similarly can cover magic-but-simple-kinds. 

Magic doesn't need to mean spells, although they often go together, and in some rulesets, I believe Peaceful Cut was a spirit/battlemagic spell. Potentially in some rules variants you could have a Harvest spell similar to that, or Food Song. 

Of course, when it comes to Crafters, guilds, and faith, certainly IMG I think spirit cults will also be remarkably popular as options, sometimes as "mere" intercessors between them and other gods. One place's cult/guild of potters might worship the local nymph of the clay pits and pray to her for aid in making their region-famous jars. 

9 hours ago, Joerg said:

Does Heroforge enable darker hues of skin? These are all a lot paler than how Sartarites are described.

Lots of options, depending on how you wanna do things.

Fortunately it only costs money to have them printed or turned into tokens, so easy enough to experiment.

13 hours ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

I have never thought of the Uz Argan Argar initiates as having abandoned Kyger Litor.  They would remain lay members.

Certainly, but the Kitori aren't Uz, and it's possible that one of the reasons is early proto-Kitori giving up their uz-ness.

17 hours ago, svensson said:

Well, if you look at it another way, an awful lot of what makes human is tied to Ernalda [or local equivalent], though I grant you that KL's influence is much more universal across the species. Husband-protectors may come and go, but if the harvest doesn't come in everybody suffers.

Well, there's also hunter gatherers who don't so much have the agricultural focus. I'd say it may be more like Kyger Litor's fellow man-rune cult, Daka Fal, about who it's been said that all mortals are lay members of his cult, whether they like it or not.

Of course, a lot of what we know about the Uz is specifically about the Dagori Inkarth Uz. While they may think of themselves as the perfect example of what trolls should be like, it should be noted they do have a lot of influence from the Zorak Zoran cult, so much so that around 1 in 5 trolls is a member of his cult. Only Halikiv is more devoted to the god of Hate, where a quarter of all trolls follow him.

It's possible that other troll communities have differing cultures and a less warlike nature, such as on the Shadow Plateau.

Highly YGWV section:

Thanks to the work of Nick Brooke, that version should now be updated as well, thank you for the reminder!

5 hours ago, jajagappa said:

The text from the Guide is actually incorrect.  Old Wind Temple is at the north end of the Storm Mountains while Stormwalk is towards the south as seen on the Argan Argar map.

Of course confusion also arises in that the Storm Mountains are also known as the Stormwalk Mountains (Guide, page 246) and that the Old Wind Temple is itself home to the Stormwalkers.

28 minutes ago, Soccercalle said:

Thanks. I thought it was in Sartar as it is described in the Sartar Companion book for Heroquest.

 

It's within the borders, it's just that Sartar extends a bit further down on the Praxward side of the mountains, thanks to the Dundealos.