Darius West

According to the new Cults of RQ: Lighbringers on page 75, the Cult of Buserian is the same as Lhankor Mhy.  Apparently they aren't separate deities anymore.  The only difference is that Buserian is associated with the Yelm Pantheon, not the Lightbringers. Go figure.  I had always personally imagined them as being really quite different, with Buserian worshippers being deeply interested in filing systems and astronomy.

That means your LM Yelmalio can be a Buserian worshipper afaik.

Records suggest that weapons would become caught in Viking shields, and with strength, the shields were used to disarm opponents.  This demo seems to show how that could happen.  Some Viking duelists would let their enemy batter away and shatter up to seven shields, allowing them to tire out before the duelist would then finish them from a relatively fresh position.  Records suggest that disposable shields were quite real.

Okay thanks for the clarification.  I misread the section and thought Fetches became embodied in animals like allied spirits.  My bad.

New Question:

So what about the situation with cults like Waha where you can be a Waha Khan and gain an allied spirit, and a Waha Shaman and gain a fetch?  The Allied Spirit can be in the animal, but the fetch cannot be.  How do the Allied Spirit and the Fetch interact with each other?  Can anyone discuss what they can and cannot do for each other?  It wasn't covered in the rules afaik.

I was just perusing the Red Book of Magic and on page 40 I discovered the spell "Dead Place Ferry".  Does anyone know which deity/cult grants this spell?

I'd like to draw people's attention to question 5 for purposes of something I am writing.

On 10/29/2023 at 5:50 PM, Darius West said:

(5) If a shaman dies, what happens to their fetch if it is embodied in an animal?  Does the animal die?

If a shaman dies, but self-resurrects, what happens to their fetch, if it is in an animal?  I'd love to hear some opinions.  Thanks Scotty for your detailed response btw.

10 hours ago, ajs said:

I haven't found anything specific but suspect Dragonewts don't automaticaly show respect to the healers of Chalana Arroy

Anyone got any specific information?

 Dragonewts likely don't even know what a Chalana Arroy is, other than a human with a green sash.  They have no religious ties to the Lightbringers, and thus no duty to protect or honor healers.

Remember also that the dragonewts alive today are the drop-outs and no-hopers of the Dragonewt Community.  All the talented mystics of the Dragonewts have long since become True Dragons.  There are even dragonewts who still haven't figured out "I need to eat to live", and basically starve to death, then have a fresh incarnation.  Many dragonewts behave strangely.  This is partly because they are part of a very alien mystical tradition, and partly because they are literal dumbasses. 

It is worth pointing out that none of the tribes and clans presently alive are related to the EWF clans.  All the EWF clans were annihilated, so their tombs are fair game.  

Also, my mummy says cursing is bad.

On 11/23/2023 at 5:48 PM, g33k said:

the nature(s) of many/most of the individual plagues (e.g. not "frogs" but rats; not "hail" but a severe Storm Bull windstorm; etc)

Hmm... Remember how Valind seizes the Air Rune when Orlanth dies?   Sounds a bit "dogs and cats living together in sin" doesn't it?  All a bit apocalyptic....?  Why not hail in Prax?  Everything else is upside down...

On 12/4/2023 at 1:03 AM, Nick Brooke said:

Greg Stafford, Sandy Petersen and Steve Perrin all demonstrably thought that Glorantha - and more specifically the Lunar Empire - had potatoes. They've been a feature of Glorantha since the earliest publications (see threads above: White Bear & Red Moon and Cults of Prax both featured Lunar potatoes). 

Jeff Richard thinks the Lunar Empire doesn't have potatoes, because nor did the Roman Empire, and we know that the two are identical in every way. (Or something like that.) So he's tried to retcon potatoes, with hilarious results.

Well, potatoes are one of the hundreds of cultivars we owe to the Incas.  

On the other hand, is there any way in which Glorantha is harmed by the inclusion of potatoes?  I can't think of one.  If they come from some far away place, then they were clearly introduced by the God Learners.  They are a realistic catch-all means to introduce anything anachronistic.

Why, just the other day I was wandering the streets of my suburb and considering the origins of all the plants in people's yards.  They came from every settled continent courtesy of our own God Learnerism.

On 12/5/2023 at 7:42 AM, kalidor said:

Is she friendly with the lightbringers pantheon?

Oslira has a connection with Orlanth Thunderous due to being conquered by him when she tried to molest Kero Fin.

Oslira is much like Zola Fel except she gets different Rune Spells.  She provides all standard Rune Spells.  Obviously she gets Summon/Dismiss Water Elementals of all Sizes.  She also gets Breathe Air/Water. Command Crocodile, Command Fish, and her personal spells Flood and Control Flood.  Initiates can buy River Eyes and Glue at half price.  Associate cults give Command Water Bird, Bless Crops (Rice), Stabilize Earth, Heal Body, Cloud Call, Ride River Horse, Fear, Cloud Clear, and Float.

This info is taken from RQ: Gods of Glorantha preview edition, and may well be superseded when The Water Tribe Gods of Glorantha is released in the next couple of years.

3 hours ago, Ali the Helering said:

However, currency does not require coinage. 

True, there have been a number of commodities that have served in place of specie.   Salt.  Cocoa beans.  Cowrie shells.  Blankets.  Flint nodules.  Bronze Axe heads.  Animal pelts.  Some are easier to carry than others. 

The issuing of currency is important, and something that most rulers would want to control, asserting Fiat currency in this time by deciding what the medium of exchange would be.

2 hours ago, radmonger said:

Coinage, and the Issaries cult in general, is not doubt an anachronistic god-learnerism. But it clearly does exist, and i very much doubt Sartar would be a place of large cities and rich trade without it.  It is structural, not just a decorative flourish.

Cities developed long before coinage was ever considered.  I would also argue that Sartar doesn't really have large cities apart from Boldhome.  The Sartarite economy is largely decentralized and agricultural, with only a tiny portion of the population living in any cities.  Life at this stage is still all about the agricultural surplus.

Just now, Akhôrahil said:

Fortunately, this isn’t the line of argument you need to take into consideration when you’re a Humakti. The question is ”is this dude honorable and refrains from misuse of Death?” They’re not grading on a curve.

FFS, sending ducks to die is always the correct use of Death.  You know it, I know it, every Humakti knows it, and so do the Ducks. 😤

On 5/5/2023 at 12:44 AM, Lynne H said:

If the camera doesn't have a silicon chip, it should be fine

Except that every camera used with CCTV has a chip in it these days, unless the system is a total antique.  I would imagine that in a world where certain people are in the know about magic, the primitive old systems may well stay in service for exactly these emergencies, fossils or not.

On 1/26/2023 at 8:33 PM, radmonger said:

Organising that kind of rationing system seems to me to require a implausible level of literate bureaucracy.

On the contrary, a great many ancient civilizations operated this way.  Most Bronze age cities had a rationing system in place as an extension of Royal patronage and power.  What they didn't have was Currency in the Bronze Age.  The oldest coins appear to date from 680 BCE.  Of course Glorantha had the Second Age and God Learner mints to sort that out.

On 11/28/2023 at 3:25 PM, Rodney Dangerduck said:

True.  Pretty sure that our Humakti PC, and perhaps several others, will desert Argrath should this happen in our campaign.

As if the Lunars or the Tarsh Exiles would do anything differently?  This is what happens when you give power to illuminates.  This is how they behave.

12 hours ago, Manunancy said:

Though if you go traipsing around showing it off to any and all, your clan chief or high priest might feel somewhat grumpy about it - up to thinking you're polishing up your heroic credentials in preparation of an attempt to replace him...

No argument.  Characters who don't properly Loyalty (Clan)/Brown-nose (Chieftain) deserve what they get.

11 hours ago, g33k said:

IMG, it's possible to make the argument that it isn't income, and you may even be able to make that stick, depending on circumstances; but remember that Glorantha is not a modern society with a huge body of tax-law in place (I suspect the Lunar & Kralorelan tax-codes are rather larger & more complex than Sartar's).

I strongly recommend that your character hire themselves a properly accredited Lhankor Mhy lawspeaker next time these issues arise.  There are in fact precedents in Orlanthi Tax Law that go back all the way to the Marks on Bark.  If you are dealing with sufficiently large sums, it may well be worth the coin to hire a Tax Professional with enough Customary Practice to find you the loopholes you need.  Of course there are some unsavory operators in this field, as Thanatari have often turned to the worship of the Severed God specifically to gain the legal expertise they need to avoid excessive taxation and get a head in the world. 

On 11/23/2023 at 8:32 AM, Scorus said:

So my players are about to have the first of what I expect to be many meetings with Argrath (post-Dragonrise). I've read King of Sartar, Black Spear and other earlier pubs with him, but while those do well at his history and legend, they don't speak as much to his personality, so: How should I role-play him? By this time he is Illuminated and at least semi-Draconic, and influenced to one extent or another by Harrek, Giants, the Bison Tribe, the White Bull, his Colymar/Sartar upbringing, and who knows what else! I assume he is very strong in a wide variety of runes, including opposing ones since he is Illuminated. Would you play him as kind? tyrannical? just? power-hungry? arrogant? questioning of himself? mild-mannered (from Illumination)? volatile (as an Orlanthi)? extroverted? introspective? mature? immature?

And "Yes" may be accurate but is not, in fact, helpful. 🙂

On page 232 of the RQG there is an image of Argrath accepting Vasana's oath which he posted on r/roastme, so here goes.  You can clearly see that Argrath has a very big nose, the true majesty of which modern artists struggle to depict, or do not know about.  Argrath's mighty nose  marks him out as a scion of the Royal House of Sartar, and an Orlanthi holy man, as he can draw upon more of the power of the Air than other men, for is it not writ in the holy of holies "blessed are the big noses"?  It is a magnificent monster of a nose !  Bestial ! Heraldic in its ugliness !  His gigantic nose hangs minotaury over all proceedings he oversees like an inverted question mark, and augurs other bull sized parts the White Bull may possess.  There is not a woman alive who doesn't quiver at the thought of gazing, nay falling into, the terrible abyss of those cavernous nostrils, for it is a symbol at once both phallic and vaginal, such is it's power.  You wonder how he drank the Giant's Cauldron?  Now you know it wasn't with his mouth alone ! This feature makes Argrath a lord among men for they dare not, nay cannot, meet his gaze.  Onlookers fall silent, as they dare not stare at it, and yet they cannot quite look away.  Argrath's prodigious proboscis points ever towards destiny, and where the nose goes, all eyes must follow, for such is its' power and charisma.  Kallyr Starbrow had many fine and heroic gifts, but she was a failure.  Had she but been born with a nose like unto that of Prince Argrath's, history might have been written differently.  Crowds stand transfixed by the power of it as Argrath orates.  People forget his speeches, but they never forget his nose.  This is a nose that points to revolution, to conquest, to victory, and ever sniffs out the weak and  rotten heart of the Lunar Empire.  It is a nose that will rip down the Moon !  By this nose he rules !

You wondered why so little of Argrath's own words were ever recorded?  Well now you know the reason.  His scribes were distracted and muffed up their shorthand.

On 11/22/2023 at 11:03 PM, ChrisWentWhere said:

No, I didn't think that there was. Which is why the person in charge of the mount has their skill capped at their ride skill. I'm just wondering it the other person on the back of the High Llama would be similarly capped at the rider's Ride skill? Or their own ride skill? Or something else? Or not at all...     

I suspect that the passenger is limited by their ride skill.  They won't control direction, but they can scythe their dagger ax at enemy heads as they pass by.  Considering the implacable speed of High Llamas and the +10 to hit location leading to 60% of their hits being head hits, you will inevitably begin to make a series of increasingly rude and politically incorrect jokes about the outcome.

On 11/22/2023 at 10:34 PM, David Scott said:

Painted Wall (GtG 455) and the Seven Picture Walls of Artash (GtG 457) are wall like features in the Wastes, but nothing like the Gods Wall.

It was you that said Painted Wall is the Praxian God Wall.

I know I did, but I couldn't remember what the forum topic was called. 🥺 

There is no Kuschile High Llama Archer skill.

Doesn't Prax have its own equivalent of the God Wall devoted to its many spirits ?  Wasn't there a forum topic discussing it?

2 hours ago, jajagappa said:

Is it not Umath, his own father?

After all (GS p.106, reprint of old WF article): “He was born,” says a prayer, “with great noise, deafening, disabling, like thunder in a cavern, like living in a horn.” His visage, according to legends among the Rathori, “Rolled over the earth with anger, rumbled across the sky with greed, filled the space with his grey brows and thunder.”

 

Thunderbolt might be tied to having the primary air rune?  Or maybe thunder alone is?  IN either case, it seems odd that air elementals don't have a thunder power if that is the case. 

On 11/15/2023 at 10:34 AM, bronze said:

Do the air gods possess inherent power over rain and lightening, respectively domains of water and sky deities? 

No.  These are powers wrested from other pantheons in battle.  Heler and Mastakos are both water pantheon deities who were incorporated into the Orlanth pantheon after Orlanth raided into the water realms.  Lightning Boy was originally from the light pantheon.  I don't know where thunderbolt comes from, as it seems to be a power innate to Orlanthi storm voices.  One might argue therefore that Thunderbolt is an inherent power of Orlanth, but not air gods in general.