Darius West

While there may be very old Dryads and Mostali, the intent of this challenge seems to be to name a given individual.  Here are some ideas:

Androgeus was around Before Time.

Given his size and the fact he is bigger than many mountains, we should consider quite how old Gonn Orta might be.

Allegedly Kyger Litor is still at large in the Castle of Lead.

For that matter, does Yelm count?  If Yelm counts, what about Uleria?

On 1/26/2023 at 10:19 AM, Ali the Helering said:

No such thing as a free lunch😁

Tell that to the Bat.

7 hours ago, Erol of Backford said:

Interesting thought that some of the boat sheds would be carved into the cliff face.

This would be far easier in a land of Earth Worshippers, gnomes and potentially Gemborg Mostali being hired.  Plausible.

On 1/26/2023 at 9:41 AM, Joerg said:

Hardly for free - at the very least, you have to listen to the sermon while the soup is dished out. And you are really really really expected to clear the table, wash your bowl etc. afterwards.

Bread.   Is potato.

I think Arachne Solara likely has the most in common with the Egyptian deity Neith.  Neith is the preparer of ways, and a primordial goddess whose weaving is associated with spiders.  Similarly Arachne Solara keeps the Sun in his course in the sky, keeps the dead on their path to the underworld, and created the compass rose of the directions and even the Lozenge itself with her eight legs and the weaving of her web.  She is the wyter of the world, but arguably all deities might be wyters at some fundamental level, but they gain new powers every time they cross some arbitrary total of adherents giving them POW and MP.  Most importanty however she is the devourer of Entropy and the Mother of Time.   Darkness was the first Element, and it is therefore no surprise that the primordial goddess of Glorantha is connected with the spider goddess Aranea, who carries the Fate and Darkness Runes, especially as the Fate Rune is described as Arachne Solara's Web.  

But there is a mystery there... Why does the Fate Rune have six legs not eight?  I ask you to look at the Luck Rune.  It has 4 "legs", but if you flip a duplicate Luck Rune upside down and combine them, they forms a Fate Rune as four of its legs become two.  Good Luck plus Bad Luck (Luck Rune inverted)=Fate.

Is Arachne Solara benign?  I suppose the answer depends on how much you enjoy living in her world. Your Answers May Vary.

On 1/17/2023 at 5:12 AM, Eff said:

Who was hanging with Glorantha/AS when she organized herself into the basic lozengitudinal shape?

Four corners, four sides, eight legs, Lozenge.  Just add spider goddess and her adhesive webs.

3 hours ago, Ian A. Thomson said:

I have a bundle of sketched ideas, but sometimes things change during development. You could always start a discussion thread and see what juicy ideas appear

I seem to recall the idea that this sorcerous cult strongly promoted a healthy breakfast?

We are getting into off topic stuff.  I'll PM you Ian.

On 2/1/2023 at 5:54 PM, Ian A. Thomson said:

There is so much complex and rich background lore that some is bound to be contradicted by accident. Plus a lot is open to interpretation. Maybe the statue exploded and big chunks went everywhere? 🙂

That seems perfectly reasonable to me Ian.  Think how big the statue was...  Now it collapses in a heap.  Parts could go anywhere.  Imagine the racket it caused!  I'm surprised there isn't a Maran Gor Holy Site on the spot given how much the earth must have shaken.

Now as a resident Pavis Expert, when are we gonna have a long talk about Iffinbix? 😉

2 hours ago, Shiningbrow said:

This is a bit confusing - especially the first part. (not that the RQG makes it especially clear).

Can you be in Orlanth and not a part of one of the listed sub-cults? Especially if you're female!\

And, if you've initiated into Barntar in one part of the world, as a separate deity in their own right, are you also automatically an initiate of Orlanth in the rest of the world?

Okay, to say it in other words.  Without the primary deity, the subcults couldn't exist.  Lightning boy is on the cusp of this, being an entity in his own right, but the sandals of darkness are just objects, for example.

As to the second question, the current interpretation is that Vinga is just Orlanth as a female.  Thus it is assumed that all Orlanth Adventurous initiates get subcult initiation too.  On the other hand, given that Ernalda doesn't let men join her cult in any officiating role, why does Vinga get such royal treatment by Orlanth?

While Barntar is a Thunder Brother, he is also a deity in his own right.  If you are a Barntar initiate, you are not automatically an Orlanth initiate, but that being said, if you are a Barntar initiate, you effectively get a "90% off deal" on your Orlanth initiation imo.  We know that many Orlanthi hide their colors from the Lunars by "becoming Barntar worshipers", as Barntar is perceived as a peaceful cult, but they can re-initiate as Orlanthi without any difficulty, possibly as part of a midnight ceremony where the whole clan flips its colors prior to an uprising.

These are good questions Shiningbrow.  The fact is, the Thunder Brothers  and their cults are pretty equivocal.  Are they post-time hero cults that have been retro-engineered into pre-time subcults, possibly via God Learner interference?  I seriously hope that the forthcoming Gods of Glorantha supplement explains these issues to everyone's satisfaction.

On 1/30/2023 at 10:20 AM, Agentorange said:

However by the time you get to Sartar his worship is very confied. His shrines are only to be found inside Ernalda temples and nowhere else. Indeed only Ernaldan cultists bother to worship him and his worship only take place within the Ernaldan temples.

is he a subcult, an associate cult, a hero cult....some of the above, all of the above ?

I offer this definitional clarification, but it is only my opinion on this sticky problem Agentorange...

Hero cults relate to powerful exponents of a given cult who have achieved a unique power AFTER TIME BEGAN.  They aren't gods, but they are important within the cult.  DDB, given his name doesn't sound like one of these, even if he was once a human hero.  His non-personal name suggests that he is a Pre-time hero to me.

Sub-Cults are totally subordinate to the primary deity.  Their worship rituals are not performed outside the primary deity's temple and form a kind of secret initiation.  While the sub-cult is demonstrably not the same as the cult of the primary deity, it doesn't really exist except in reference to the primary deity any longer.  A classic example is Orlanth's 4 magic weapons.  While Lightning Boy is a separate god to Orlanth and the source of his lightning, he is now just a power within Orlanth's worship system, and nobody else has access.  Back to the DDB example, because of his independent Esrolian temple, DDB is not an Ernaldan subcult, not least of which being because DDB is a boy, and Ernalda is a female cult.

Associated Cults are cults where separate deities share their power within their pantheon, based on the relationships the deities formed Before Time (or post God Learners, but having mentioned it, let's not open that can of worms).  For our purposes Mastakos is a good example.  Mastakos was captured and subjugated from the Water Pantheon by Orlanth.  Mastakos is not a subcult like Lightning Boy however, for despite having to provide not 1 but 2 high powered Rune Spells to Orlanth, and serving as his chariot driver, Mastakos is still independently worshiped, has his own separate temples (water folk, and perhaps Larnstings), and even reserves powers which Orlanthi cannot get via the association (shapechanging).  Following these rules, DDB is therefore an associated cult imo.

On 11/26/2022 at 12:55 PM, EricW said:

How does that invalidate my point?

It only invalidates it insofar as if you want to pass as a non-chaotic, you can't do so.  You're chaos tainted.  Stormbulls might sense you.  Detect Chaos spells will find you out.  You will have big problems with the "any chaos= all chaos" lobby.

On 2/22/2022 at 10:12 AM, Nicochan said:

What does a common Dragon Pass initiate know (the things that commoners usually know even before becoming adventurers or Heroquesters) and think (the stereotypes, the perception, the reception, the acceptance or rejection)  about:

Mostali?

Aldryami?

Dragonewt?

Uz?

My approach as a GM to such things is that when they stop overnight at an inn or travel with a caravan, they trade stories about such things, much as sailors discussed far ports and strange encounters back in the "golden age of sail".  Everyone (except the most bigoted enemy culture perhaps) is curious about such things.

Similaryly, every time the characters encounter an Elder Race they can have a tick in their appropriate lore.

The racist stereotypes:

Mostali:  Boring little detail obsessed beardies who have neat toys.

Aldryami:  Physically weak, stealthy, poo obsessed vegetable based weirdos.  Look but don't touch.

Dragonewts:  Cloud cuckoo land lizard folk. They make no sense whatsoever.

Uz:  Brutal cannibalistic monsters whose only redeeming feature is that they aren't chaos.

On 1/24/2023 at 10:59 AM, Zulfikar Zaban said:

Our 5th session in and my player playing Vishi was missing pretty much every roll, then he drops to zero hp. Fortunately another player was able to heal him some. Then his high llama got decapitated. Needless to say I think my player was feeling rather discouraged. That was near the end of the session., any recommendations for my next session? I thought maybe Vishi could meet with his high llama in the spirit world. Any recommendations or ideas of how I could make this interesting so maybe my player will feel encouraged? Thank you.

I really like Vishi.  Take it from a player, Vishi needs to buy some armor and some actual fighting spells.  He runs around in a blue tunic and apart from the fact that he's got a dagger-axe that hits like a train, he's potentially one missed parry from death.  Very glass cannon.

If you want to improve his mood, a week after the death of his llama make him dream that he's following the tracks of his llama that has wandered off.  In his dream he sees a truly huge high llama max SIZ and STR), and wakes up.  The following day, cousin monkey or someone sent out hunting finds the tracks of a heavily laden high llama.  If he tracks the animal, he finds it is a large and heavily pregnant high llama cow.  A night or two later, she gives birth to a high llama that has the same markings as the beast from his dream.  Is this his old mount reborn?  Yeah, probably, and potentially with better stats than before because Eiritha knows it was a good llama and Vishi will need one for the Hero Wars.

Being reborn is faster and safer and an awful lot less effort. 😆

On 5/27/2022 at 5:27 PM, David Scott said:

2800m based on Pavis GTA maps.

Head is over the real city, right elbow mani's fort, left foot main quarry. It basically covers the middle of the big rubble. Not over the north quarry.

I am concerned that there isn't any part of the statue over North Quarry, and only a leg over Main Quarry.  Wasn't the whole point of the quarries that they were mining out the statue according to lore?

On 1/16/2023 at 7:38 PM, Soccercalle said:

The cradle is a great scenario but it is sooo looong with a lot of fighting. My players like roleplaying but is not huge fans of spending whole sessions just running battles.

Heh, if you think the Cradle Scenario is long, you're gonna LOOOOVE the Hero Wars.   That being said, French Desperate WindChild's suggestion of using Battle Rolls is a good one.

On 1/9/2023 at 3:31 AM, Agentorange said:

The nature spirits presented in the bestiary are all ( as far as I can see ) modelled on the idea of Greek nature spirits: Oreads,Dryads and so on. And so are all female.

Which begs the question are there any male ones  for RQ/glorantha ?

You raise an interesting point Agentorange.

In Greek mythology, the male counterpoint to female nature spirits were generally Satyrs, the randy sons of the god Pan.  Nymphae and Satyrs were considered to be Genii Loci (Spirits of place) within the Greco-Roman myth system.  Genius Loci however is etymologically the origin of the Arabic term Jinn, and Jinn are described as spirits of heat and fire that live in the wilds of the deserts.  There are distinct similarities between Jinn, ghosts and faeries in Earth mythologies.

In Glorantha however, the Continent of Genertela had a catastrophe during the Greater Darkness, in that Wakboth killed the Giant God Genert, and thus removed the male principle from connection to the Earth.  This is not the same in Pamaltela, where their male Land God Pamalt is still very much alive.  On this basis however, one might say that some Giants of the mountainous variety are children of Genert and therefore male Earth spirits, were it not for the fact that there are also female giants.

On 1/6/2023 at 1:01 AM, Soccercalle said:

Can a human have a Dragonewt Rune? 

The answer is yes.

For a human to get the dragonewt rune requires them to get the potentially lethal "Split brain/split tongue" surgery that allows a human to progress beyond 25% in Auld Wyrmish.  The human must also have the permission of the dragonewts and be able to initiate into their Path.  Obviously this happened a lot during the EWF and represented humans becoming Draconic mystics.

On 1/11/2023 at 7:09 PM, davecake said:

In terms of RQG Runes, Dragonewts should not have the Man rune.

Sorry to go all Godlearner on you, but all creatures in Glorantha have a little bit of all the runes.  Runes are like atoms in Glorantha.  

Now for a dragonewt who is sick of the Draconic Path, they may potentially slip off it.  If they go and join another "human" cult, they will get the runes of that cult like anyone else.  It would be hard for the dragonewt apostate to join a man rune cult, but Aldrya accepts other races and she has a man rune, so a dragonewt who initiated with Aldrya could get a man rune concentration that way, and gradually become more human imo.  It is odd, but not impossible.

On 1/17/2023 at 9:19 AM, Akerbakk said:

I'm pondering a possible houserule for my table and would love some feedback, or ideas from the crowd.

I would love to figure out a way to link Characteristics to skills. I looked in the BRP Big Gold Book and although I like the Skill Category Bonuses optional rule (p. 31), this feels a bit crunchy for the way CoC 7e runs. I am considering something simpler like "Spend a point of Luck to add a Bonus Die to any skill under 50% if you can explain how your Characteristic (over 75%) will help you."

Thanks all 🙂

IDK if you play Rune Quest, but in the RQG main rules pages 57-59 there are rules for how different stats affect skills in RQ/  They are called Skill Category modifiers.  This means that in RQ base skills are higher.  It might be worth a look.  I have considered including this in my CoC games.

I also have a couple of house rules you might enjoy...

(1) If players have forgotten something their character would probably remember, they get to roll Idea to recall it.  This is handy for people with busy lives.

(2) A common knowledge fact that characters would know about a period like the 1920s that players might not know can default to an EDU roll.

On 1/11/2023 at 2:40 AM, SaxBasilisk said:

5) The battle is silent on whether Merlin is there, but the implication is that he isn't. I'm on the fence about what I want to do with him.

When I played Battle of Badon in Pendragon, Merlin showed up on the last day and issued people with 1 healing potion each.  It was enough for us to rampage through day 4.

On 1/9/2023 at 2:41 AM, Jeff said:

I don't view Harrek as being particularly authoritarian at least in the modern sense of things. He leads through raw power and possessed with the divine fury of the White Bear. Bödvar Bjarki, Heracles, Edward Teach, Conan (with Gunda as a Bêlit figure), Gilgamesh, Rostam, etc. He expects to be obeyed by those who follow him, but he hardly has a regime to speak of. The Wolf Pirates are loyal to him because he is the White Bear - he's proven his strength and brings victories, plunder, and wealth. When he announces that he is going to raid, other Wolf Pirates flock to him! This of course is part of the reason that he is such a pillager and plunderer - he generously rewards his followers and allies!

Now Harrek doesn't do diplomacy or negotiation. He's not someone who can hold disparate groups together. But he's likely shrewder than people assume.  

I beg to disagree.  A person who rules by fear is very authoritarian, perhaps the definition of authoritarianism.  The term "authoritarian" is defined as demanding obedience rather than individual freedom.  I think regardless of who you are, if you don't obey Harrek when he tells you to do something, you'd better get ready to D.I.

True, wolf pirates flock to him because he wins, and he may grant you a share of the plunder when he does.  This sounds like literally every authoritarian strongman who ever declared a war of aggression in history.  The fact that Harrek thrives on a disordered (not chaotic) environment speaks to his personal preference for such things, but if his underlings don't jump to and obey him... SLASHSLASHSHASH at SR1. 

On 1/4/2023 at 12:07 PM, QuestingAce said:

I think he (Argrath) is kinda a boring authoritarian. I haven't liked how the important npcs are presented. Not for any canon reasons, but they lack the style, substance and utility I look for in gaming material.

I don't see Argrath that way at all, and authoritarianism isn't the way Orlanthi govern.  In a land where one of the laws is "nobody can make you do anything", that sort of thing "won't scow".  Chiefs and Kings have a certain amount of authority, but they more than most understand that they rule only with the consent and trust of the governed, which they have to constantly earn by choosing the right thing to do and being better at the job than other candidates.  While the Monarchy of Sartar might be determined by blood, the chiefs of clans and the kings of tribes are substantially meritocratic, because the ring will listen to the people, and if they fail the people, they will vote with their feet.

I see Argrath quite differently.  His early life is one broken by war.  Then he is driven from his home and forced into Praxian slavery.  Eventually he wins freedom and respect from his captors.  Then he becomes a Big Rubble adventurer, sword trainer, and wind lord.  We don't quite know when he becomes an illuminate.  He Hero Quests with Gonn Orta, and is pivotal in the White Bull society of the Praxians before he gets caught up in the Cradle and meets the Wolf Pirates.  

Now Harrek the Berserk is an authoritarian, and when Argrath stands up to him, and argues for why the Cradle needs to be left to go on its way.  Harrek petulantly kills Argrath for his temerity, but accepts his argument.  Argrath gets resurrected, but takes months to recover.

I see Argrath as mercurial, highly intelligent of the lateral thinker variety, and a seeker after the magical secrets of the world.  I see him less as a warrior and more of a "wizard" for this reason.  Argrath is powerful because of what he knows, probably more than he is for how he fights.  I do think Argrath is manipulative, and an intriguer, certainly a great negotiator, but he grew up being hunted for his few drops of Royal blood, so he needed those skills to survive the assassinations (we all know how he hates assassins).  I think Argrath is a military genius, and I think he is a reincarnation of Arkat who was born to be the shadow nemesis of the Red Moon Goddess.  Given his multiple failures, we cannot call him a Mary Sue like Jar Eel, or a brute like Harrek.  He's an interesting character.

18 hours ago, Rodney Dangerduck said:

Since a real world friend is having a "significant" birthday, it begs this exceptionally nerdy and geeky question:

In Glorantha, do most cultures use base 10 for their counting and math?  Base 12 like some ancients?  Or something else?  (Thumbless Morokanth?)

The currency at least seems to be a variant of decimal.  So do keymiles for that matter.

On 1/4/2023 at 9:34 AM, Agentorange said:

if you want to make it really hard, have some morokanth players trying to build a  herdmen business in mostly human surroundings
" Take your stinking hooves off me, you damn dirty tapir ! "

Now THIS sounds like a game I want to play. 👍

5 minutes ago, Eff said:

That's not really relevant to whether he's contemptible or not, as compared to his repeated failures to Thomas Becket Mularik, the parts where he runs and hides without a fight...

There's also the part where he needs to be saved by a large bird from writing checks with his mouth that his body can't cash. 

We don't know what informs those decisions.  They could easily be allegorical slang for something else entirely.  For all we know, hiding is actually part of a stealth mission, for example.  Sometimes hiding is how you defeat sorcerers.  It's scissors paper stone, rogue wizard warrior.  Rogue beats wizard by striking from surprise.