Tindalos

You did miss out page 646 as well. Where it mentions Orlanthi call the sun disk Yelm, similar to the Sourcebook where he's again mentioned as the sun disk on page 100. The sourcebook also has the nice bit about Orlanth naming Elmal to rule the world while Orlanth was on the LBQ on page 117, and yeah it also mentions Yelmalio eclipsing Elmal in Dragon Pass over the page. Which if this is also part of Yelmalio's mythos is a really interesting one. Also, the mention of Elmal being among minor gods, without context, may create a bad impression about what minor gods means in that context. Other minor gods mentioned on page 37 of the guide include Chalanna Arroy, Eurmal, Maran Gor, and Storm Bull. Making Gods didn't give the impression that the Elmal cult was destroyed, it describes his first converts coming from the Elmal worshippers who wanted to join the new solar religion, and about him being chosen as leader by half the Pavic tribes. One implication I have seen with regard to Yelmalio is the decreasing of importance when it comes to the sun, and them being more associated with the Lightfore. If this is an erroneous inference, I'm very glad about that. It would be a shame for the Orlanthi to lose two suns.

The balance between Heler's Rain and Elmal's Cloud Clear? Also Elmal's version of Bless Crops presumably. Yelm's magic would be useful for helping the crops, that's more Lodril's remit with Earthwarm. And of course, as page 288 says "This is the name by which the deity is best known (and not necessarily the name used by the deity’s worshipers)" which is very helpful. Many worshippers are gonna be using the same basic cult write up, but they'll have their own god, they'll recognise outsiders names for them, but just like how the pure horsemen know the sun is Yu-Kargzant, variants will exist elsewhere. And it's more interesting that way, helps make cults and mythology feel alive.

Well from the latest version of the write up I've seen, here.

Geas-bound warrior who carries light with them.

Except maybe in Pelanda. But I agree, there's more there than just relative power. But fitting stuff is nice. And of course there's the irony of the version most famous for losing their heat aspect having the most fire magic. The guide and sourcebook say Elmal and that's good enough for me. The Sun-as-Horse is sometimes an aspect of Yelm and sometimes an aspect of Yelmalio, depending on the time, found as Kargzant, Beren, Galan(in/a), etc. Just like the Bird aspect is likely Sun Hawk and Tholm.

The answer given in Cults of Prax (which I'm pretty sure was before Lightfore had been revealed to most folk) was that to mountain dwelling people like the Orlanthi, the sun was a source of light but not heat; and Yelmalio was only not associated with the sun in lowland places (like Peloria) where the sky itself was seen as the source of light. To make it worse, Lightfore is sometimes the son of Pole Star (as seen in the Gloranthan Sourcebook), so you know, even more fun there.

Around the same as Odayla, Engizi, or Yinkin? Half as important as Maran Gor? Sits fine with me.

And the guide as well. Going with this post here as well, Elmal as the Orlanthi sun god is still how I'd go with it. With more of "Yelmalio the sun of mountain people" as in CoP rather than "Yelmalio as the planet along the sunpath at night" theme. Elmal Yelmalio is probably a popular title, especially where other sun gods are popular; but given the Sun Domers and the neighbouring tribes are enemies, it could also be troublesome among the Locaem, Lismelder, and Colymar.

You mean like Moorgarki or that work Cragspider did? IMO I can understand people who've been playing with fire using Elmali for a decade, being told he's the main sun god of the Orlanthi, and an important god might be a little frustrated at being told they're wrong for relying on the material that they had available, and the characters they've been playing based on that are wrong because what was once canon isn't.

True, but what's taken can be regained. Just as Orlanth took Yelmalio's lightning at the hill, and Zorak Zoran took his warmth, a quester can get those back. If enough people do things "wrong" you can end up with a group devoted to it, and if they gain power from being "wrong" I see no reason why they wouldn't come up with a myth about it.

I imagine there may be a rare subcult of Little Sun with access to salamanders and fire magic, only admissible to those who've defeated Zorak Zoran. Given the ability of HeroQuests to be smaller parts of other quests, there could be other myths like "Elmal rescues Mahome from the trolls" which Monrough proved as a section of the hill of gold where questers deliberately seek a "wrong" outcome.

The most recent version of the write up for Elmal I've seen is here, where he still has gifts and geasa, but rerolls the one about not talking to Orlanthi.

Maybe some variation in dinosaur types comes from such matings. A maranite stegosaurus with a dragonewt stegosaurus might have kentrosaurus offspring.

The imp of the perverse begs me to suggest that the Musk Ox is actually the child of Storm Bull and Thed.

Just to ask a curious question, would these musk-ox people be related or separate to the Noyaling Musk-Ox herders of Fronela?

Of course there's the alternate theory by the God Learners that they may have interbred with existing ones. (GtG 79) Unproven, but it opens up possibilities. Of course, the EWF would have probably claimed both and that the dragonewts failed due to being tempted by the dancing Earth goddess before she became wrathful.

Although Garstal Shavetop mentions in the guide, this theory may not be valid because surely they could commit more than one of these sins and end up as the same kind of hybrid creature you dismissed earlier.

The GM's pack does go into a lot more detail, but while the layout is different, a lot of places are the same or similar. The Thane's Quarter to the Upper City, South Village as the home of the Ernaldori to the Lower City. The Old Gate and Ramp are part of the Sacred Way which you can still see spiralling through the city. The Funerary Mounds to the Necropolis, etc. Even the hill fort's name, Brondagal, is the same. The only actual things I would say could be classed as "missing" in this one are North Hill and its Humakti shrine. I admit I've been a pain on this very subject, but it's interesting to see how things look.

Okay, time to get a little wild here, and some rampant speculation is involved. Just as it's been clarified that the Galanini were not "true" hsunchen/hykimi but merely associated with them by others, I'd like to suggest that the Tawari/Enjoreli/Lofak are similar. They're what may be called an Orlanthi people, although Orlanth is a very distant figure to them, instead worshipping the Storm Bull, his mother, his wife, and his son. While Minotaurs are sacred to them, they lack the traditional shapeshifting magic, and likely would only be able to transform through summoning Bull Spirits. My guess is there may have been a wide bull belt -- or if you'll forgive me, an ur-culture -- many of whom got absorbed into the local peoples as they needed to, learning to ride horses instead of bulls, and settling. Others changed in other ways, possibly even the praxians with their beasts as well. There's also a likely connection to the Barntar cult. One of the early Orlanthi events given in KoDP and SKoH is Barntar taming the Bull and harnessing oxen to plough fields. This strikes a chord with the mythology of Bisos' father, KefTavar, whose brother was castrated and so in vengeance KefTavar hardens the ground to make them reliant on Brother Ox.

Further. When the Andam Horde attacked Pelanda, they were accompanied by bull riders, likely the ancestors of the northern bull people. And not for nothing did the Brolians who took ruled Talsardia (now Charg) have Praxian allies. They may have stretched as far as the Shan Shan, given the ancient western name for the hoofed animal mother (Eiritha/Uralda/Busenari) was Lofak.

Hadrosaurs (including trachodons) are counted as separate from magisaurs in the RQ:G Bestiary. They are somewhat similar though, possessing similar stats to the largest magisaurs, although with the intelligence of the smaller ones. A kind of best of both worlds situation.

It's a theory shared by some God Learners (GtG 79), and it would explain why some normal dinosaurs are vegetarians, while all original ones are carnivores. Plus, humanity doesn't have a completely singular origin, with created peoples, divine intermarriage, etc. I suppose one trick would be to get members of the Jaskali tribes and work out how similar their tongue is to the Kralori language and Auld Wyrmish, as presumably they share origins and are derived from draconic tongues. But that's the sort of thing that makes me a target to the gift carriers.

And of course his trident looks a bit like a trishula, which seems fitting for him.

Well "saint" is still used as a term for Ascended Masters, heroes and immortals, and similar (GtG 51, 382, 729) And it makes sense Malkion would have some martial aspects, he taught Zzabur how to ensorcel, Dronar how to work, Talar how to rule, and Horal how to fight (GSB 86). While others may have surpassed him in some areas, Malkion would have known how to fight. Presumably this is why he was murdered, because he couldn't have been slain easily in a fair fight.

On the other hand, page 384 says "Once a Rune or technique has been mastered, it cannot be unmastered." If you can learn more techniques after Enhancing your INT (and assuming you pull it off while the spell is active) then you're likely to keep those runes/techniques around, but you wouldn't be able to learn any more until you Enhanced your INT even further than before.