Tindalos

Durulz-ducks in central Genertela are actually unrelated to keets. They're a draconic race, descended from dragonewts -- like magisaurs -- hence them being found in Dragon Pass.

Their teeth are the most obvious indicator of this, but also their own mythology: "They claim to have once been the rulers of the world until their own sins and errors forced them into subservience to lesser races (elves, trolls, etc.) and, later, to humans." A remnant of their former draconic nature, and the all important sins of draconic resurrection that give rise to magisaurs and dinosaurs.

Also IMG the "villanovan" style crest that some Orlanthi wear (E5 in Armies and Enemies of Dragon Pass) are popular with them, and this is because it originated within the EWF, in imitation of the crests of dragonewt scouts.

35 minutes ago, M Helsdon said:

Am deliberating whether to give the Snake soldier crocodile armor, as I believe they are found in the Lower Tanier River.

They're mentioned in the RuneQuest Bestiary as inhabiting the coasts and rivers of southern Genertela, which would fit -- even if I picture the Tanier to have mugger crocodiles rather than the saltwater ones described in the bestiary.

And crocodile hide armour would look great, so I'm all for it.

10 minutes ago, Ali the Helering said:

I thought it meant Liberator 🤔

According to the sourcebook (page 206) and guide (459), you're right.

Theorising time in spoilers!

Thinking about it, there is one form of magic they're no worse at than any other species. 

Tusk Riders would make fine sorcerers, as their INT and POW are fine, and we all know sorcerers have no problem being assholes. 

Enslaving people's spirits? Perfectly fine with sorcery! Even makes it easier!

Plus you can learn Tap Charisma to get back at anyone who calls you an uncharismatic bore. 

34 minutes ago, David Scott said:

Chimneys which would need masonry don't seem to appear until Roman times, so are outside of the scope of Bronze age Glorantha. Underground the dwarfs likely use chimney systems but wouldn't look like anything we would understand as such (sorcerously controlled bound air elementals, for example).

We do have some examples of dwarven chimney work, in the Haunted Ruins. They're pretty much straight holes up from the ruins, heading through to the surface.

Another example of chimney work is Miskander's Tower, which may suggest that the secret of chimneys was stolen from the dwarves.

4 minutes ago, Sir_Godspeed said:

It's a bit like how doctors find medical dramas completely idiotic, or police find crime procedurals insulting, but police might enjoy a good medical drama, and a doctor might love a good crime procedural, or how engineers have debated for decades over how all the Ewoks didn't die during the Death Star's explosion, or how a population demographer absolutely gutted A Song of Ice and Fire's maps as ludicrously lopsided. Sometimes, when it comes to enjoying fiction, ignorance can be bliss.

On the other hand, sometimes it's fun to watch these things, even if they're not "accurately" presented.

Ignorance may be bliss, but equally knowledge can be fun, and lead to other things.

I mean, to use a couple of threads from your post, the person who came up with the Dothraki language in Game of Thrones got his start as a kid trying to understand one of the alien languages in Star Wars!

1 hour ago, jajagappa said:

And that was one of the problems with HW/HQ1 in that they tried to come up with obscure little deities for each and every function.  

One of those annoying differences in what you see as a problem or not.

Orlanth's had subcults since the earliest day devoted to items taken from other gods. What's the problem with having subcults devoted to Orlanth as a farmer or Carpenter?

51 minutes ago, lordabdul said:

Yeah there's not much... I asked about it in the Gloranthan Lore thread, but it was ignored so I guess Jeff doesn't think it's interesting. You can actually tell it's not interesting to the main authors because AFAICT there's not a lot of mention about cutting people's resources in times of war -- even though I think resources and trade were a big factor (and sometimes a trigger) in many classical era wars and politics. Instead, the focus in Glorantha is almost always on alliances and magic and myths which, I guess is really what Glorantha is about. It's telling how the Lunars focus on expanding the Glowline and bringing about the Great Winter instead of, you know, taking control of the few mines that Sartarites rely on to build all their armour and weapons. Nope, when armies clash, nobody asks who built their shields, the same way (to quote Grant Morrison) nobody should ask who pumps the tires on the Batmobile...

Of course, the usual fan answer to that was "Alfred, obviously."

Ignoring the mundane aspects of life in Glorantha because (to quote Grant Morrison) "It's a fucking made up story, you idiot!" feels at odds with the importance of Ernalda and the fertile earth in the setting. So I sincerely doubt that feeling was behind any answer you got.

While the best stone masons are the Mostali, they rarely share their secrets, leaving most masonry the province of Lodril and equivalents -- as well as their children.

In Dragon Pass, this probably falls under the aspect of Gustbran the Workfire. While more commonly seen as the god of the forge or potter's kiln, he would also be responsible for lime kilns as well, essential for mortar.

53 minutes ago, GAZZA said:

Are there vampires in Glorantha that do not worship Vivamort, or is that the only route? (Similar to how you could have zombies in RQ3 that were not ZZ zombies - ZZZs? - if you used the spirit magic or sorcery spells to create them).

While the vampires in the bestiary are part of his cult, there are others who may not be. The Dancers in Darkness are utterly devoted to Delecti himself, not Vivamort.

Given vampires themselves can't cast spirit or rune magic, it wouldn't surprise me if there were sorcerous routes towards the state, especially since both dancers and regular vampires are noted as having the potential to be potent sorcerers.

47 minutes ago, Diana Probst said:

I'm hoping for things in the list on https://wellofdaliath.chaosium.com/home/gloranthan-documents/glorantha-2/canon/

That list's outdated unfortunately, and Cults of Terror's 95% canon will be more accurate to RQ:G than a couple of things there anyway. 

29 minutes ago, soltakss said:

Vampires used to have double hit points in each location, which made them awesome in combat, but that has gone now in RQG, unfortunately.

I assumed their doubled CON helped with that, since it boosts both their locational hit points and their more general pool. 

There was a guide to this in Cults of Terror (page 55), reprinted in the Cult Compendium (page 286) under the cult of Vivamort.

At their basics, vampires have a weakness from four of the elements. Air elementals can scatter a vampire in mist form for a few hours; fire damage can't be healed until the next Vivamort holy day; earth curses the vampire to need to rest in their grave dirt or they lose their powers and eventually existence; running water acts as a barrier, and will actually destroy them upon immersion (holy water could also be made by water cult rune priests), and the sun strips a vampire of most of their powers, leaving just their enhanced strength.

Just now, Joerg said:

Yeah. I tend to think that he got these from Thed or Malia before they went horseshit crazy.

Agreed. Like how Lhankor Mhy's spirit of reprisal is a "tamed" version of Brain Fever.

1 hour ago, Joerg said:

are not that dissimilar from STDs.

And sometimes similar things may afflict you for spiritual reasons.

Since marriage is sanctified by divine oath, adultery could cause Orlanth to strike you down with impests in some very uncomfortable places.

9 hours ago, Shawn Carpenter said:

I strongly agree that a set "spell list" is not the way to go with HQ or QW, but I think a solid list of cult specific examples are very helpful, especially for new players and GMs.

Agreed to both.

But of course, with cult specific examples, there's the nice benefit of the mythology involved.

As examples, you could mention "what [my god] did."

To use Orlanth as an example, you could sum up some of his myths for various effects: Orlanth brings rain to his people, Orlanth confronts dragons, Orlanth unites many different peoples, Orlanth claims treasures from his enemies, Orlanth rides upon his own breath, Orlanth speaks wih foreigners, Orlanth mediates between his kin, Orlanth romances the Earth, etc.

Assign them to runes, and while it does become a bit of a "spell list," it also is helpful in remembering why you can do such things, could help springboard players to discover new things about Glorantha ("In my clan, we know Orlanth was able to cross water in a single breath, so I can leap this river like he would be able to!") and could just be fun.

3 minutes ago, Shiningbrow said:

If an Elmali/Orlanthi does a Heroquest, and decode to hang around the Hill of Gold and backstab ZZ after he takes the fire powers, taking those fire powers off ZZ and gifting them to the Elmali (creating a new myth), would the Yelmalio temples also suddenly get fire powers as well? (Or would it be presumed that they still don't have that myth?)

There's an interesting piece on this in Arcane Lore, part of the Stafford Library.

It's called Revisiting the Hill of Gold, and discusses a potential "path" a Yelmalion could undertake to gain the fire powers back from Zorak Zoran, and the progression to gaining them back as a full time cultish thing.

Likely it would just be a peculiar local detail, and the piece mentions it's part of the reason why different temples have different versions of their myths.

14 minutes ago, g33k said:

I'm afraid your link is broken ...

Oh whoops, hopefully that should have fixed it?

Either that or it's a typo, and they meant Diplodocy!

On page 216 of RQ:G it's described as a chestpiece of turtleshell, wood, and bronze.

It's favoured by Humakti, especially amongst the Grazelanders who associate it with the cult of Hiia Swordsman.

While it has been depicted as just a large turtleshell over their body, it could also be something more like this. (Although using thongs or similar to connect the plates of bronze and turtleshell rather than chain.)

Specifically the references for his death in KoS are:

"He was killed when he would not relinquish, and his heart turned to stone." (30)

"Terasarin ruled for eighteen years, but was killed when a stray moonbeam blinded him as he climbed a cliff to escape a hungry dinosaur." (116)

"Terasarin, son of Tarkalor. Crowned 1582, died in 1600 by a dinosaur." (154)

"1600 Prince Terasarin killed by Lunar sorcery. Stead fortified." (181)

So it's quite likely the dinosaur was arranged, and was part of a Lunar assassination via magic. (If you want to be literal, it may actually have been the Moonfire spell from RQG 396)

1 hour ago, Joerg said:

About the Elmali betraying Jarosar - not insinuating anything, but wasn't this mightily fortuitous for Tarkalor? The somewhat less legitimate heroic son of Saronil who was ignored when his nephew got elected as king?

Tarkalor had been involved in the retaliatory assassinations in Nochet, as far as I am concerned. Possibly using Night Jumper magics to hone in on the Great Troll bodyguards that House Norinel likes to show off. We know that the sons and nephews of Saronil were perfectly willing to play foul to the Esrolians who had conspired against Sarotar, the glorious leader of their generation (and who by Tarkalor's own admission would have become an even greater king than himself). What qualification did Jarosar have over Tarkalor? And previously, what qualification did Jarolar have over Onelisin and Tarkalor? It appears to me that Jarolar was somewhat isolated from the rest of the royal family, but politically well connected, and the same kingmakers supported Jarosar after Jarolar's death. I wonder what Hofstaring and his youthful companions Gringle and Minaryth did in those years.

It's also worth noting one of Jarosar's children -- Saronna -- was murdered in the Holy Country as well, slain by dark demons. This may have been another name for Aransanda, or they may have been sisters.

Sartar's descendants did seem to fall to assassination a lot, up to and including Temertain.

20 minutes ago, MOB said:

The list of Yelmalio gifts and geases is by no means definitive or limited to what is there.

True, but I'd assume it's also culturally varying. 

No sense someone living in Ralios ending up with communication with Impalas if there's none around. 

And likewise, an elf getting "eat no birds" might as well have no geas all. 

3 minutes ago, soltakss said:

Right, I might just have to write up the Elmal Cult of Dorastor. It won't be pretty and you won't like it. Elmal, the Krjalki Thane of Orlanth, as worshipped by Hellwood Elves.

That does sound interesting!

And it makes sense for Talastar, as the likely source for when Vinga faced off against the demon Erladivus.

3 minutes ago, soltakss said:

Good, I never much liked that idea.

That's good for you, less fun for those who liked the variety of that era. But each to our own.

21 minutes ago, Jeff said:

You really consider Elmal the only interesting god and mythology?

No. I consider Doburdun, Humat, Heliacal, Balurga, or Riyesta equally interesting. It's just Elmal as a good example.

An age when total homogenization had yet to happen.

7 minutes ago, Manimati said:

That is precisely how we felt when Greg "gregged" us when he introduced Elmal. Greg did explain how and why it happened in the RuneQuest-Con convention booklet of 1994  "The birth of Elmal or, why I screwed up your Glorantha".

Apart from we're now told that never happens, that despite Elmal having been around he's effectively just a historical figure.

And that the different names and varieties of gods, outliers like the Darsenite thunder god, are now fallen forgotten by the wayside and everyone's now happy with unified gods.

Just now, Jeff said:

Sorry, I mean Jarosar. Yes, the friend was an Elmali. And the Elmali thorough screwed Jarolar and Jarosar. The growing Yelmalio cult on the other hand aided Dorasor in settling New Pavis and aided Tarkalor against the trolls.

Ah okay, so the Lunar magic reference is mistaken, or did the Elmali use lunar magic?

But I'd assumed the Elmali not helping was the start of the Yelmalian rebellion, what with them doing things like turning to Yelm worship to rise up against their rulers as well.

I'm hoping we get to see more of this history stuff, along with the Yelmalian myths.

Although I will admit to being disappointed the Glorantha I fell in love with turning out to only having existed in the First Age.