Ali the Helering

I have always felt that this is an implicit element to the Cosmic Horror of it all. The inexplicable should not be explained.😈

I give them a thousand opportunities for self-destruction, but never kill them

Actually, it doesn't, but it is the most obvious fracture point. When Greg revealed Elmal, I was highly resistant since I liked playing Yelmalions. However, mythologically it was appropriate. Personally, I think that the understanding of religion per se was best exemplified in Thunder Rebels and Storm Tribe, with the simplification since being a real loss. What it comes down to is Glorantha, and how Greg hooked each of us. That will determine our vision, and our personal canon.

Indeed. Being a trickster could even mean behaving normally in every way, while declaring yourself an Eurmali.

I made no reference to SKoH, so no, not that. Even if it were, saying it isn't canon doesn't mean it wasn't in the past. While HM wasn't canon, Storm Tribe was.

Nonetheless, you asked for sources. There they are. Repudiating them now doesn't mean they don't exist and weren't established and published canon for years.

"Greg Stafford and friends" writing in HW Storm Tribe. Elmali are Hearthguards (p48), Victorious Sun Day ritual bonfires to destroy his enemies (p49), Truth Day trials by fire (p49) - the only holy day shared with Yelmalio, The Long Night when priests "burn with the infusion of Elmal's renewed sacred flame, and this allows them to heal" (p50), "Heortlings dedicate the first hearth of any stead to Elmal. As such it is kept aflame all day" (p50) Elmalharan Feats of Dry Field, Sunripen and Resist Frost, Redaldan Rekindle Hearth Fire (not shared with the main Redaldan cult) (p54) Yoskati agents of reprisal, preventing warming by sun or fire (p55) "In the morning his brightness burned" (p57) "Greg Stafford and Jeff Richard" writing in The Book of Heortling Mythology) "The vengeance of Elmal the Burner was so great that the wall melted" (p86) "The crops were warmed by a flickering Elmal" (p121) A short perusal (15 minutes) - when time permits i will give a deeper reading

And yet Elmal does, or did before he was neutered.

A small matter of fire and horse magics, perhaps?

Actually quite common across the Ancient World - the Bible speaks of 'the fatmost parts'. I still like the pragmatism of the Nuer - when a cow sacrifice was called for, if the individual couldn't afford it then they cut a cucumber in half, throwing one half away to be consumed by the spirits.

Ah, but is it eldritch, squamous and rugose?

Just a few years ago, when they realised the error of their ways after reading a new publication...

May I recommend 'Musiques de l'Antique Grecque' by the Ensemble Kerylos?

In the early 1990s a musicologist published a paper suggesting that markings against the earliest documentation of the Biblical psalms might be the relics of musical notation and (if IIRC), suggested that it could be related to some marks on Bronze Age Egyptian monuments. I don't think the idea ever gained much traction, though.

Or a durulz rolling under the pikes and chopping off the legs of the Yelmalions. An unexpected tactic, but very effective at disruption.🦵😒

Gotcha. I follow the concepts of ritual magic in my games, so we will inevitably differ. Your Cthulhu Will Vary😁

There have been various stories involving vampires only being vulnerable to the holy symbols of their own religion, so perhaps terrain features would only work for true believers. One reason for occult items being rare is that they should be really difficult to make in the first place, unless the powers behind them are deliberately using them as booby traps for the unwary. (Dear God, not another Lost Ark! How many is that this year?)

Only to about 1/6 of the world's population, so I can see why it wouldn't bother you. (By the way, I am a Christian minister!)

Arguably 5000 BCE. Traditional enough? Wonderfully crafted grimoires have a nasty tendency of going unopened, unread, and torched at the first opportunity....

I imagine they will cope without your cent. As for your reasoning, it is off by a mile.

When I was in college in the early '90s a Hungarian pastor studying with us threw away another draft of prayers, adding to the growing pile around her. I asked her what was wrong, and she replied "Why do you have to have a language with gendered pronouns?" I had, and have, sympathy with her viewpoint.

Dai-Ichi Life Insurance are the third largest such company in Japan, active in the USA from 1975. Is it possible that their sales personnel were a persistent nuisance to Greg?

Yup, just saying what the historical archaeologists said when I was there.

I am afraid I cannot remember precisely, since it dates from touring castles 40 years ago. There were also many purely lead mining areas as well, so I wouldn't expect it to be localised to that extent. As you say, it was at gatehouses.

Apparently traces have been found under 'murder holes', so it was used. Lead was a by-product of silver mining as well as a directly mined metal, so it was reasonably accessible in the medieval, particularly since lead output doubled during the post-Black Death recovery.