JonL

I suppose I prefer the classic approach to their diet since it's already a twist and inversion of the expectations of the Prax situation. The change-up becomes kind of a double-reverse-Shyamamalan twist, and lacks much impact if you haven't already spent many years with the prior setup. Sign me up for Gern-drawn chariots though.

Vadel realized that the Zeroth Law is that those who do not follow the Law shall age and die. Systematically breaking the rest of the Laws gives them the juice to break Law Zero.

He's also briefly seen on Sakaar in Thor Ragnarok, and joins in the big battle in Avengers Endgame. (He makes another What If appearance as well, but I'll leave the details unspoiled since it's current-ish.)

Another interesting take on Redalda is what the Carpenters came up with for Valley of Plenty. It's more distinct from the Elmal cult rather than the paired cult we got in SKOH, and focusses more on the animal-husbandry (so to speak) angle (Fire+Horse rather then Fire+Truth). If someone wants to go with a horse breeding & riding focussed cult with special selective breeding ritess, magical braids, and secret gaits (and can still use Fire to blaze up weapons or warm hearts as the situation demands) it's great. Also of note: Even with the distinct Elmal & Redalda orders, both in VoP are explicitly co-ed, as is the cult of their daughter Andred - a sort of justice hunter.

Sure, but at least the Boggles voted Remain.

Sure. I can imagine taking that as a model for scale and re-adjust to HQG's take where a majority of Elmali followed Monrogh to Vantar but the rump of the Elmal+Redalda complex remained the niche Sun cult tradition in places without a Sun Dome nearby (as the Yelmalions, quite pointedly, left). If the Yelmalio:Elmal:Redalda propertions were still roughly 3:1:1, and that 5750 figure includes traditional Elmali, a throwback balance would be Y3450:E1150:R1150. A better approach though given how the other numbers have grown would be to treat 5750 as all Monroghist Yelmalions. In that case, the 3:1:1 proportion puts Elmal and Redalda each at 3833. That's once again pretty close to Humakt & Issaries. None of these numbers are precise of course, and it's all ultimately arbitrary, but that's roughly how many Redaldans would be around if you wanted the HQ-style Heortling Sun cults to fit nicely within a RQG-like balance in your Glorantha. OK, since we ended up there, let's talk Elmal v. Yelmalio in the context of gender roles and women's place in cults and society. Ironically, the E:R gender parity in SKOH is probably something that was indirectly brought about by Monrogh's schism. Those who left probably skewed hard towards men, and bachelors especially, given the Sun Domers' less equitable posture towards women (cover those salacious arms, ladies) and peculiar marriage rules. Those who remained would be those who were not discontent to begin with and with reasons not to leave: deeper ties to the communities they defended, healthy extended family relationships, respect for their native traditions, and general contentment with Loyal Thaning it up - rather than being seduced by the idea of strutting around in gold armor, aping Pelorian patriarchy, oppressing serfs, and stabbing people for money. In the wake of the surprise exodus of Monrogh's (dudebro-heavy) apostates, the remaining Elmali would suddenly find themselves less represented within the rump cult relative to the Redaldans and simultaneously more reliant upon them for mutual support in the face of their new rivals. If any of the remaining Elmali had not already regarded Redaldans as equal partners, I imagine they were cured of that blindness in short order. The place of women in Sun Domer society is odd (and maybe some new book is about to come out and tell us that Vantar is way different from Mo Bustra in this respect, but the previous descriptions of the Vantar crew have been indistinguishable from their better known coreligionists). They admit women, but they're only equal-ish. They encourage them to be in supporting or subservient roles, dress modestly, etc. but as Vega illustrates they can climb to the top of the pile if they can beat the crap out of every chauvinist that stands in their way. It's unclear to me what her marriage options would be within cult law. Could she wed a Nandani and maintain her standing? I suspect Belvani would try to use that against her. You can see where, to me at least, a Glorantha with this sort of conflict and contrast dynamically in play is a more interesting Glorantha than one where Elmal is a passe footnote and Redalda is just Hippoi in a dress. I especially appreciate Redalda being there as a warrior option for women that doesn't involve the weird gender disconnect from normalcy that swirls around Vinga at times (to say nothing of Babeester Gor) and without any contention that she's really "just" Elmal in female form. It's easy for me to say that of course, as I don't have to write 100 cults. Uralda's myth in KoDP is great, and the costumes in the art are too much fun.

Alas. While I can of course keep playing with the Glorantha where where Redalda has as many followers as Humakt or Issaries and the Elmal+Redalda complex casually has gender parity like it's no big deal, I wish more would have been written about it.

I don't see where anything in the Guide contradicts what you previously laid out for the cult distributions, though obviously you know what you're writing in the forthcoming cults book. While I respect your enthusiasm for the revised Glorantha you are currently in the midst of forging and wish your efforts nothing but success, please though, consider how the way you framed your evolving perspective there might feel to someone who as a newcomer only a few years ago paid $100 for the Sartar books in part on the strength of your having written at the time that they were on the short list of works that Moon Design would use as a foundation going forward. While it's fine for Chaosium's Gloranthas to vary, the new approach to the idea being different from the old doesn't require framing your earlier work as invalid any more than the 1942 full-orchestra arrangement of Rhapsody in Blue makes the 1924 version wrong. <deep breath, exhale> That having been said, where does Redalda fit into this new picture? Am I correct in assuming that you are lumping her followers along with the Elmali holdouts into the enlarged Yelmalio total (up from 3k in the previous work), or do they sit within your Other bracket? While there are some horse connections, Redalda-as-such doesn't figure into Yelmalio lore at all that I've seen, and the Sun Domers' marital practices are of course a bit peculiar. What is the picture like for Redaldans this new model?

Still pondering this. Quick initiate headcount check for mainly-women cults via Sartar-KoH: Ernalda: 40,000 Esrola: 5000 Asrelia 1500, Maran Gor: 1500, Ty Kora Tek 1500, Vinga 1500 Redalda 1000 Babeester Gor 250, Kiero Fin 250 I'm not pointing these numbers out trying to stir up some kind of rivalry or competition here (ponders new posts to the Pop Star Captain thread). What I'm getting at is that while Vinga may be the most common path for ladies who take up arms (with Maran's followers heavily clustered up among the mountains), Redalda's 1000 is a more prominent presence than we'd expect from the discussion in this thread so far. They're not even super clustered at Runegate, with only 100 there, per Sartar Companion. Further,(ignoring recent retcons for the moment) the counts show just as many Redaldans as Elmali (1000 remaining after Monrogh's movment). Think about that. A clan's loyal thane, cavalry captain, etc. is as equally likely to be of either sex, and this is totally normal. For comparison, look at a few other members of the One Thousand Club: Humakt, Issaries, Lhankor Mhy, Urox, Yinkin. Redaldans are just as common as any of those, and unlike specialist warrior cults like Humakt, Urox, or Babeester Gor they (and Elmali who did not follow Monrogh) are pro-social, marriage & community friendly rather than sacral outsiders. Circling back to all the marriage role-modeling and elemental pairing stuff that went round above, the Foreigner Marriage may contain deeper secrets than it seems at first. The Redaldan path seems to reconcile more dichotomies than just the obvious one.

Let's toss some more attention Redalda's way. She and her followers manage to buck (so to speak) a lot of these dynamics. Feminine + Fire. Riding through hills & plains with the wind in their hair, kicking ass and upholding Truth, yet also being comfortable with matrimony and life centered around upholding a community. There is no contradiction between tending the hearth and defending it. In particular, I love how her & Elmal's partnership involves the two of them doing things together and supporting one another hand in hand in a way that is very different from Orlanth & Ernalda's dynamic. This too is womanhood in Sartar. (Must... resist... urge... to start... Elmal... vs... Yelmalio argument...)

I expect that Lanbril followers are tacitly accepted by Grandfather Mortal, and that long-running organized crime families actively cultivate both connections.

Redalda is femme Fire, as was Osara in 6 Ages.

You're certainly entitled to change your mind, even in print. 🙂 If you feel inclined to share, what do you see as the benefit to this revision? You are obviously under no obligation to justify your creative choices to randos on the internet, but if you're in the mood it might aid in understanding. (If that belongs in a different thread, that's fine too.) Well, if the God Learners were confident that two Goddesses were the same, what could possibly go wrong? 😉

Personally, I see Dendara with Ernalda's rune set as we've seen in the Cults preview to be a misstep. The Guide has Light & Harmony for Dendara while Oria is their Earth & Life mother. Lodril & Oria and are all about the plowing & germinating (so to speak) while Yelm & Dendara are above that sort of thing. Those differences tell us quite a bit about how both the urban Dara Happans & rural Lodrili see the roles of men & women differently from one another, and from their neighbor cultures.

As I see it, the "'All' means roughly six-out-of-seven." bit is key here. The normative cases are understood and expected to be big humps in the middle of distribution curves, with folk outside that band being also expected and accepted as valid by all.* * For values of all that also mean 1 in 7 could be intolerant jerks or something, but everybody else knows they are wrong. Remember also that the runic associations are also culturally defined rather than essential. The Heortlings may think Earth = Feminine and Air = Masculine, but Pamalt is Earth lord across the sea, and Pelorians know Sky = Masculine to be typical and think Orlanthi are bad and wrong for having too many Air men. Heortlings may think their culture norms reflect essentialist truths about the world, but we who can read about the other cultures recognize that their perspective is not universal. (The prevalence of Earth goddesses and lack of Earth gods in Genertela is also likely reflective of Genert, Tada, et al having been slain in the Gods' War.)

There is also Enferalda, the aspect of Ernallda who is sick of your bullshit and will smack you upside the head, possibly with a frying pan.

I now imagine an Illuminated Lanbril Ring in Safelster infiltrating various Arkati sects to cross reference their lore in ways that God Learners would envy, all to facilitate heist heroquests.

As a semi-related aside, I love than Lanbril is so sneaky that his name only appears in the Guide once, and it's not even on the list of gods. Just enough presence to establish his continued existence in the setting, but not one word more. I like to think that Lanbril's followers have their own versions of other gods' myths where some side character (charioteer, minion, bearer, healer, advisor, guide, etc.) to the main god or hero was in fact Lanbril in disguise, using whatever the central conflict of the myth is as cover to make off with some choice loot (especially things that might otherwise be thought to be destroyed or lost-forever in the less-informed version of the tale). I bet they smuggled the tech behind Whumpers and such out of The Fall of Zistorwal by heroquesting to it as Mostali who confiscate contraband items to keep them from falling into the wrong hands.

Reference image: (Original comic panel without infinite beard, because everyone should get to check out Kill Six Billion Demons, it's outstanding. )

Gotcha. 😉

You might perhaps inquire as to whether they might be able to transact privately to liquidate surplus legacy stateside inventory that they can no longer advertise for sale since selling the trademark. I recall Palladium selling all their Robotech minis in bulk to Miniatures Market when they lost that license, and a well regarded maker of dice has been quietly selling surplus new-old-stock copies of a classic RPG's 3rd edition which they published back in the 90's at cons for decades. It never hurts to inquire.

I'd look closely at QuestWorlds, Cortex Plus/Prime, and Fate before trying to hack Pendragon into something that can mechanically highlight the themes you're looking to center. Pendragon was groundbreaking for integrating things like Personality Traits, Passions, etc. into the classic RPG mechanics of its BRP foundations, but other games have gotten to stand on its shoulders for decades now, and have tools better suited to engaging with conflicts around identity, love, acceptance, and so on. Rather than working out how skill bonusses should differ between a shopkeeper's son in Boston and a farmer's daughter in Oklahoma, you could be deciding things like "OK, my stress tracks are going to be Safety, Acceptance, and Pride."

This feels like the truth. Further, the nomenclature for rotational directions is likely something like Skywise and Windwise (though the Lunars no doubt seek to supplant Windwise with something like Phasewise).

Of course, for all their sound and fury, the heart of the conflict was a love that their pride would not admit. Many lives would have been spared if only they could have faced one another in honesty.

Being flat, Glorantha's sundials would thankfully all go the same direction, though in Pamaltela, you would read it from the bottom of the dial rather than the top, clearly. Perish the thought.