Darius West

The Long Winter, the Dragonrise, the withdrawal of the Lunars, as well as the arrival of the Wolf Pirates and Kallyr and her Sartarites will definitely make trade more dangerous. It is likely trade has been bad for years now. However, every leader in the area is going to want to get trade flowing again, even if they are bandits.

I think children become observers of the more public side of ceremonies, acting as de facto lay members. Cults will likely be welcoming of children who want to observe the public performances as that might be all that is needed to encourage their future recruitment. There are of course the child gods of Voria and Voriof, and Yelm the Youth and Teelo Norri and so forth. I think the mythology is "suckled in mother's milk" in Glorantha, and from the moment you are born there are mysteries you become part of. I think much like Christmas, there will be activities for children to participate in during Sacred Time. Orlanth might offer Sylph rides. Ernalda will offer sweet things to eat. Issaries will trade for toys. Lhankor Mhy will introduce educational games. Chalana Arroy will run a petting zoo of injured animals. There will be dances, songs, pretty ribbons and bunting, appeasing of spirits with offerings, animal rides, and so forth.

This is a really good point. The fact is, Chalana Arroy can give you a new set of testes, so what then becomes the neuter gender? This is another good point that begs the question of how Orlanthi culture decides what is neuter. There aren't too many female eunuchs, after all.🤔😉😅 Your point about trickster shamans is a point well made too. It occurs to me that maybe the Orlanthi neuter sex might primarily apply to species other than humans that have an actual neuter gender like dragonewts.

Agreed. The numbers of eunuchs in Orlanthi society is likely to be low, even in places where Maran Gor and Barbeester Gor are popular. On the other hand, what about people who are born with an obvious sex, but who feel no interest in sex? Or people who are determined to be infertile? Or people whose sex organs are obviously too malformed at birth to function? There are likely a number of other such categories and exceptions, and if the Heortlings are going to have a neuter sex, then it is likely going to need to be a larger rather than smaller as a category in order to be socially useful in the language imo.

Hmm... This makes the neuter sex somewhat problematic. Obviously they can enter physical maturity, but not sexual maturity. We also haven't quite established what the neuter sex actually means to Heortlings. There are no deities within the pantheon that are identifiably neuter afaik who would oversee such rites. As such, we have 2 questions to ask: 1. What do Heortlings qualify as a neuter person? (a) To whom does this extend? (b) To whom might it extend, but in fact does not? 2. Which deity oversees the rites for neuter people in Heortling society?

Mosaic hermaphrodites can also logically exist IRL with both sets of human sex organs in working condition. It involves the incomplete subsuming of a fraternal twin in utero. It is also the time honored term for what some people have now chosen to re-label "intersex". Like I said, if an hermaphroditic person wants me to use new term (with all its associated poverty of history and meaning, and potential for misunderstanding) for them, I will likely oblige at their request, but I won't change for people who aren't just to fit in with their odd preferences. I can't understand why someone wouldn't want to be a child of the two most powerful pantheistic divinities of ancient Greece anyhow. It's kind of awesome. Besides, Heortlanders don't recognize intersex people, they recognize hermaphrodites, look it up. And this is as it should be. Glorantha is a Bronze Age society where there is every chance that such a rare occurrence in their community would be considered unusual enough to be of divine importance.

If they ask me specifically not to call them that, I will likely oblige, unless they are rude about it, in which case I will double down. They also need to provide a decent alternative term, as intersex doesn't have a clear meaning if you stop to consider it and could easily be misinterpreted.

Well, they're wrong. This is the accepted scientific term and has been for hundreds of years. I intend to keep using the term. You don't hear about intersex fish for example, some species are hermaphroditic, well, so are some people.

So... Is this some sort of cult thing? I mean... I know Glorantha has lots of cults, and they're cool and all, but you know, is this like a "CULT" cult? Awkward question, I know...😅

You're correct, and the other two sexes are neuter and hermaphrodite. So when we say 'neuter', do we mean someone who was born without sex organs, or has had their sex organs destroyed, or simply doesn't have any sexual impulses, or someone who is infertile? The meaning here as it applies to the Heortling culture is unclear. As for hermaphrodites, stats tell us that 1 in 2000 people are born intersex, so, for a clan of 1000 people, that's about one ever 4 and a half generations (given a 15 year generational turn-around which is normal for a bronze age society). I think we can assume that the issue of hermaphrodites and their initiation would be sufficiently unusual that the Clan Ring would be able to take council with the individual and their kin and come to a suitable accommodation among the cults represented within the clan.

The logical answer is that the cult of Vinga holds Vingan puberty rites and the cult of Nandan holds Nandan puberty rites.

This is such a good idea. Kudos JRE! I love it. You've thoughtfully observed and used the lore and cleverly integrated two pretty divergent themes in a pretty inspired way. Should it ever come up, My Glorantha Will Vary to incorporate this. If it isn't canon it should be.

I don't think Gringle is in the same league as Gold-Gotti. Gold-Gotti is able to finance an entire regiment as well as running the finances for Argrath in the longer term.

Best answer imo.

I'm writing a Gloranthan fiction right now and am 200+pages in. The working title is "The Golden Phalange". It is a humorous adventure/murder mystery set in Prax around Pimper's Block and Hender's Ruins.

That is one pretty miniature. The detail is pretty great. I love the tattoos and those little shoelaces. Damn. Could they have done a clear sylph, or perhaps a white and grey one? That would be my only (largely irrelevant) gripe. Purely a matter of taste.

Most Prax beasts are very useful to their tribes as they eat grass and produce a supply of milk (drink) and meat (food). Praxians will use buckets made of cuir-bouilli for milking and may well carry fresh water in water-skins. Water-skins will be more important to Ostrich and Bolo Lizards as they don't produce milk, but these tribes (like all Praxian tribes) will have numerous beasts from the other tribes in their herd. Praxians will have pots or sacks of stored grains they have foraged that they can't obtain easily, as well as stores of medicinal herbs, some of which can double as foods. They will catch and store unseasonal rain water if they have the means, but during the seasons when it falls regularly and reliably (Storm and Dark) it is normally plentiful or is fallen as snow, and so it isn't a priority. Due to the fact that Praxians often have an excess of milk, they have learned to make cheeses, some of which are good. I have created a list of Praxian cheeses if you are interested.

Hmm... From what I am reading here I am beginning to think that if you don't go mad in the Sex Pit you're doing it wrong, and that is not something I want to consider.

Yeah, I doubt that is true. I am 99% sure that Gunda makes it to the Hero Wars proper as I have seen her in the board-game. Then again, you know heroes, they get comic-book style "come back from death" skill. It is literally in the rules.

Incorrect apparently. I am reliably informed that Elmal is the same as Yelmalio these days and therefore is Orlanth's ally, horse master and loyal thane. But don't take my word for it. In fact don't take anyone's word for it, I agree with you Erol.

To this point I would like to make a bit of a caveat. I think that men can follow an otherwise all-female cult as laymembers and vice-versa unless the cult write-up specifically forbids it. Lay membership is extremely important to small communities, as it can help maintain shrines where there aren't enough initiates to make up the numbers, but you can pad them out by putting in laity. Of course this may not sit well with the people who now have to pay this fresh tithe, but that is where generous council members and chieftains will foot the bill to keep the cult going, and the laity just turn up to the service and spend their MP. So, if nothing else, it is very likely that men can join BG as lay members.

Deserts tend to have plenty of poisonous plants that will make you feel "Discorporate". That is what the threshold of death is like. Can anyone lay hands on the info on the Black Mushroom Drink from the Black Elves of Munchrooms in Trollpak? Praxians love that stuff, to the point where Waha has rules that specifically mention it.

Actually Emus taste like a combination of turkey and wagyu beef, in that the skin is really loose and fatty but the meat is lean and kind of red. I ate it in the Northern Territory at a specialist Koorie restaurant. Ostrich has the taste of turkey but is a lot stringier and tougher imo (I ate it in Africa). As to riding an emu, well, while they are a large bird, they are plenty smaller than an ostrich, and while they are a bit aggressive, they are nothing on a Cassowary. Cassowaries are the Stormbulls of Avians. Have a watch of this (only 1.5min): Cassowaries aren't good pets (unless you hate children, and have self destructive tendencies) I strongly suspect that the Rinliddi Bird Empire was destroyed when they tried to domesticate cassowaries. The Papuans have a cunning trick for capturing and keeping cassowaries. They stalk them and come at them from behind, bundling them into a sack so that their heads and their legs are sticking out, then they tie them together, often transferring them to a similar position between 2 solid pieces of bark. From this position the bird can't get leverage to kick or use their full peck. They can still peck, but sensible people keep themselves away from the "business end". For the record I have never eaten cassowary, but they have tried to eat me when I was a kid. I would totally eat one given the chance though.

I was under the impression that after the death of Orlanth and Ernalda at Whitewall that the Air Rune passes to Valind and the Long Winter begins. To remedy the situation Kallyr goes Hero Questing with her friends and as a result Rigsdal becomes the new Orlanth, taking back the Air Rune, and suddenly the Orlanthi get their magic back again. This is where all the HQ references to "Orlanth Rigsdal" come from. Or is this not how things went down? AFAIKT it used to be.

The Sex Pit should not to be confused with the Ball Pit.