Darius West

Page 28-29 of the Glorantha Bestiary is where you will find good starting info on Baboons. Along with Agimori, Morokanth, Basmoli, the Baboons are a foot tribe of Prax. The information in the bestiary is somewhat rudimentary, offering only the background professions of Troop Baboon and Apprentice Shaman. The Baboons of Prax largely don't get involved in human matters. They don't fight over oases and herds, and take the Red Moon as a signal of submission from humans to the greatness of Baboons. Humans are likely somewhat suspicious and skeptical of Baboons, as they are beast men from Prax and sometimes seem a lot more beast than man. To suggest humans will simply accept Baboons into their sacred mysteries is a stretch. Baboons are outsiders even from Praxian society, dwelling at the fringes of the nomad culture, and definitely barely a part of it. I don't see many cult organizations rushing to accept Baboons into their ranks, and most will be treated with the disdain that Melo Yelo meets from the Yelmalios. They might make it to Lay Members, but they will have to prove very fanatical and competent to make initiate, and will need to be far better than all potential human candidates, because any human will be promoted ahead of them. This is not to suggest that such a character can't succeed, but they will be turning their back on their own culture in order to try to become part of a human culture that really doesn't want them there without really good reason. In terms of starting history, Baboons have not been substantially involved in humanity's wars, for example they are not mentioned as even being part of the Battle of Moonbroth, and it is likely that many of the military engagements had no bearing on a Baboon's family.

Unless the rules have changed, I thought that Woad offered both Countermagic and AP, like a shield spell, only with longer duration? Also, not many Yelmalios qualify to cast Sunspears, in fact I think it might be the High Priest, and that's all. I doubt many Lunars have access to Sunspear during the Cradle. Agreed. They are good rules and they play well. They are a formation that can turn initiates into slayers of rune lords.

I am going to suggest that there are in fact dragonewts born within time. I strongly suspect that at least some of the EWF converts to the Draconic Path may well have reincarnated as dragonewts. There is also the issue of Dragons becoming more active during the Hero Wars, as anyone who has had their stacks scorched in White Bear and Red Moon can relate to. Surely some draconic mating rituals will take place in that strange time? But would we even know what we were looking at? Lol, yes, the prospect is disturbing. Then consider that some dragonewts have advanced on their path to warriors without mastering how to eat, and they literally die of starvation every incarnation because the sensation of swallowing food is too weird and offensive to them. They are a species to whom death is meaningless provided you don't try to keep their skins. Agreed. I also suspect Hykim and Mikyh were draconic revolutionary philosophers who offered alternative paths.

Argrath has a pretty good record on the win/loss scale, and yes, I like commanders who win, and I don't see any reason to apologize for that. Kallyr kept doing the same things over and over again expecting a different outcome. Argrath is offering new and better answers to the same problems that have been dogging the Orlanthi for centuries when it comes to the Lunars. The Sartarite Magical Union is just one of his reforms. The Sartarites have repeatedly shown that their warriors are as good or better than the Lunars. Sartarite leadership has lacked much vision of how to actually do more than defend. Even their 1602 stab at the Tarsh Reaching Moon temple was more of a defensive measure than a true military offensive with plans to keep going. The real problem of the Sartarites has been their lack of coordinated magical support, and their pitiful supply of troops. With the resources of Prax and the Holy Country, the logistics and finance expertise of the Goldgotti, the Sartarite Magical Union, those Western Cataphract Mercenaries, and the awesome Wolf Pirates, Sartar finally has a King who can drive off the Lunars and potentially liberate their conquered peoples. That is what his name means after all. It's nice to breathe free air again. Kallyr certainly played her part, but you won't see Argrath getting shanked on a hillside by Lunar Assassins. Ask Gimgim's ghost.

This is an interesting scenario idea, but getting enough people who just happen to be able to breathe water together, and who would be interested enough in Aldryami treasure to bankroll the necessary magic might be a bit of an ask. I suppose that the party of adventurers from the River of Cradles Supplement and their tattoos might be up to the task. Finding enough frog masks might be a tall order for other parties, plus the need for appropriate weapon skills for underwater, and decent swim skills... Not impossible, just tricky and expensive, and without some notion of what the payoff might be, or even if there are enough of the wrecks to salvage, potentially not worth the risk. The most likely parties to be interested would be the Aldryami themselves no doubt.

Yes, that's what I said.

I would point out that the Heortlings have 3 thief deities; Eurmal, Orlanth and Lanbril, as well as Finovan who steal cattle. The take-away message is that Heortlings are larcenous, and the Orlanthi saying "nobody can make you do anything" really means nobody can make them stop stealing. I would agree that Lanbril was created to provide a specifically thiefy deity for Pavis, no question, and we are now retrofitting Lanbril into other places. On the other hand, we have the Griselda stories that serve to give Lanbril a lot of potential depth and point to his presence in Alone and Adari. I have also read (somewhere) that Esrolia has a large Lanbril presence in their cities, especially in the poorer areas. As to urbanized societies not having room for Lanbril, most societies try to get rid of thieves, big surprise, but criminals persist in most settlements despite this fact. Lanbril is not the sort of cult that lets people come and join; they will either be a crime family that recruits or a syndicate that finds ways of controlling new members through blackmail or threats etc. The really hard part will be for Lanbril cults to get more than basic shrine spells. As to the unusual mechanical and alchemical tricks of Lanbril, they strongly hint at a Mostali connection imo. Basically Lanbril will be largest where urban populations are largest. Lanbril is absolutely a god of a criminal underclass and that requires poverty and population. I think I read somewhere that he originates in Southern Peloria but I don't remember where I read that.

It is worth mentioning that it is called the Elf Sea as it was once home to the Aldryami fleet who sailed their living tree ships on it. It is also home to Elf Sea Salmon that migrate up and down the rivers and get eaten by all the huge dinosaurs. Elf Sea salmon have a 4 year reproductive migration cycle. While the Elf Sea borders the Elder Wilds and there are elves about, there don't appear to be any Murthoi living there. The Elf Sea is likely considered a bit of a nuisance by locals as it is potentially a very useful waterway that is rendered too dangerous to use by all those aquatic dinosaurs. No doubt there is a deity associated with it who has ties to Maran Gor or Dragonewts, and either loves or hates the dinosaurs. I wouldn't rule out the possibility that the Elf Sea deity is a child of Magasta who has a thing for monsters "like papa does".

Happy Sacred Time to you and your Kinship Group, readers. Totally agreed. At least the Rainbow Mound holds up as a decent introductory adventure, but Apple Lane is not a well thought out settlement. It is likely that a Chief's hall is often the primary source of clan hospitality if one cares to consider the matter. The advantages: (1) The Chief gets to greet all newcomers and assess them. (2) The Chief gets credit for all hospitality offered. (3) The weaponthanes are likely present in the Chief's Hall drinking his mead on clan retainer, and so it is easier to guard the newcomers, plus the newcomers are honor-bound to defend the threshold. (4) Newcomers are a good source of intelligence and just plain news and gossip, and a Chief will see the value in this. The disadvantages: (1) The chief is responsible for the newcomers and their actions as their host. (2) Hospitality can be expensive (3) Getting easy access to the chief might be just what an assassin wants, but a good Humakti weaponthane may well detect their intentions well in advance. On the other hand, a Chief shouldn't be seen to shirk such a threat. Now this is not to suggest that some people won't make a good living by providing accommodation to travelers in the form of an inn or tavern. Obviously any such establishment will need to be on a decent thoroughfare to be remotely profitable. I would see such places as primarily making their money from a few different sources, such as (a) locals coming in for a drink (b) Issaries mule caravans using the inns as a caravanserai (c) farmers and artisans going to and from markets and cities (d) all the other human flotsam that the road drags in. As to the issue of purchased hospitality, well, it is likely a lot more Issaries than Orlanth in its orientation. You get the hospitality that you pay for, and have only a general obligation to behave in a civil fashion. It is likely that many such establishments will run themselves a bit like Geo's, but the resemblance will be superficial, as Geo's is actually a cult, and most Inns will likely be at most, neutral ground. Importantly, Inns will serve as a base of operations for visiting merchants much of the time. Will they visit the local Issaries outfit? Yes, but most of their customers are likely to be non-Issaries, depending on what they are selling, and selling your wares to a drunk customer is generally going to net you a better price. In terms of begging hospitality from outlying farmsteads, this option is often not considered by players, and the number of times they would rather sit shivering in the rain rather than try to figure out whose house that is, is both paranoid and amusing imo. The fact is, most Orlanthi will offer a traveler a measure of hospitality, even if it is only a roof over their heads for a night. Even if your clans are feuding, sometimes you can expect hospitality, as that sort of gesture can be an overture towards ending the feud, or (of course) a prelude to an ambush, depending on how players handle themselves. Most people will be happy to take in a stranger who reveals themselves and their intentions, and all the more-so if they are known to be honorable and have a good reputation. As to cities, well, most people go to cities with business in mind and will generally either be going to stay as someone's guest, or at an inn, or at a temple. Tribal Chiefs may well retain a residence in a city, but clan chiefs probably won't unless there is a very good (lucrative or political) reason to do so. City Guards are likely to be less attentive than clan guards, as they have different duties, and issues of Orlanthi hospitality will not be foremost in their brief. They will get a large number of visitors every day, who they will need to assess for tax purposes, warn over weapons, assess as to their general threat to the population. City guards will not do an official Orlanthi challenge to every visitor as they will be employees of the city's ruling council, who are likely to be members of multiple clans, tribes and guilds. Some cities are the seat of a tribal king, such as Clearwine, and they will operate in a more traditional fashion, but Jonstown, that lies between multiple tribes and clans will not, as it is certainly ruled by a City Ring. It may well be that city dwellers when first confronted with a clan patrol going through a ritual Orlanthi hospitality challenge might find it a bit humorously parochial, but will likely bite their tongues and not say "welcome to banjo country y'all" for fear of being stabbed. Everyone from Orlanthi culture will know the proper form even if they have never used it in their entire life.

Not me. Kallyr loses way more often than she wins and keeps dragging my clan into trouble. Even her victories seem more like defeats. As a general she makes a good sergeant.

The Telmori are basically chaotic hsunchen. They had it coming after the annihilation of the Maboder tribe. If you sow the wind you reap the whirlwind. These are modern sentiments that have no place in a bronze age environment if we want to get serious about roleplaying cultural sensibilities. While we are at it, we should perhaps ask ourselves whether slavery is better or worse than death? I absolutely agree with this. In KoDP there was that part where Agrath lost everything, even Sartar, and had to start again from nothing. Similarly, the Lunar Empire also rises and falls according to wanes, and there is the distinct possibility that even the draconic dismemberment is just another wane prefigured in the story of the Lunar Goddess' myth from the start, and she is already beginning her walk back as Gerra. In the board-game, the Tarsh Exiles form their own coalition of forces that are almost equal to Sartar and the Lunars too. Most importantly, once you start a game, the GM and the players are already changing Glorantha's history and telling a new story, and really the amount it follows the canon is entirely discretionary. Both the Lunars and Sartarites have an appalling capacity for bouncing back from an apparent ultimate defeat built in to their mythologies. I sometimes wonder if perhaps the end of the war was actually a negotiated peace. The moon agrees to be dismembered and return as the White Moon. Argrath kills the gods that are creating the template for the ongoing seemingly eternal conflict. A collusion of both sides to create an end to the madness?

They have the most just system, but on closer analysis, it is not the best in terms of outcomes. ORLY. And why are they always from the same families? Superior breeding or does money speak louder than merit? After all, a rich man's son gets tutors that a poor man's son never will. Arguably an Orlanthi stickpicker might rise to be a Chief, or a Lunar beggar rise to be a venerated illuminate sage with equal or greater facility. Yes, Hrestoli rise to a level of bare 90% mastery and then get shunted into their next class. But I task you, how many great fighters become wizards and discover that all those blows to the head as warriors have rendered them punch drunk? There are plenty of warriors who would have made better farmers, plenty of wizards who would have made better warriors, and plenty of nobles who would have made better wizards. What you Hrestoli need is some sort of hat you can put on children as they enter their majority, that can consider their temperament and abilities and sort them into an appropriate caste; a sort of magical career guidance officer that can measure an individual's potential objectively, rather than letting the children of privilege continuously rise. This is very similar to what the Stormbull barbarians say of their fallen. "If he was a good Stormbull he will join his god in the Eternal Battle, and if he wasn't a good Stormbull, who cares what happens to him". It rings of the Rokari purges against the Hrestoli who argued "Kill them all, for the Invisible god will know his own"; a flippant comment that justifies atrocity with and hypocrisy that forgets that Malkion wants us to love life and this world. There was a time when the Hrestoli were the dominant interpretation of the Invisible God in the West, but one might well argue that the true meritocrats are the Rokari Realists, who have risen from nothing to cast Loskalm and Hrestoli from their former southern holdings with singular ability. Ideals are illusion. Reality is truth. Place you foundations on the verified truth rather than trickster dreams if you truly seek to build a better world. Too many were the Hrestoli Lords envisioning a higher Makan while their Seshnelan subjects suffered austerities they were never trained for. Man may not live by bread alone, but better bread than starvation, however pious.

There is for the most part, a somewhat strict caste delineation between Talari, Zzaburi, Horali and Dronari. In most sorcerous societies the warriors don't know any sorcery, and nor do the other castes. Now this is obviously not true of all sorcerous societies, but sorcery is tied primarily to the rune of Law, so processes of logic and order are pretty intrinsic to the thinking of these societies I would argue. To become a reliable sorcerer is time consuming, and as with most things, if you spread your efforts too thin across too many disciplines you become a jack of all trades and a master of none. I am not saying that dilettante sorcerers can't exist however. Yes, Gerlant and Ethilrist are both likely related to Arkat by blood, and likely raised somewhat Hrestoli due to Arkat's pragmatism. Meriatan is also a Hrestoli. These guys are also heroes, not your average Zzaburi caste born Joe Sorcerer. I also don't see any of them exercising the raw magical power of Zzabur, like closing the oceans and separating Brithos from Glorantha. Arkat was pretty much a Brithini convert to Hrestolism by the time he left the West and became a Humakti, and this was the company he kept. They are westerners and knights before they are really sorcerers I would argue. I would agree that those of Hrestoli background might not be afraid of fieldwork, but they are your classic dilletantes. They spend X years trying to master agriculture, then X years trying to master fighting, then X years learning sorcery, then X years learning how to rule. You need to ask yourself, how many smart kids get out of the farming caste only to die in battle before ever becoming sorcerers because they had low HP or no damage bonus? And how much weaker will a 40 year old Hrestoli sorcerer be, who might have been a sorcerer for 8 years, as compared to a Rokari who has spent 25 years on sorcery? The Hrestoli system is great in terms of its fairness and apparent (but hugely overstated) social mobility, but when we scratch the surface we find that the rich families can pay to have their children tutored while the poor cannot. Also, ultimately the system promotes people to rise not to the level of their greatest competence, but to the level of their incompetence. Some people fail as farmers and stay as farmers. Some warriors die, but others will stay as warriors because they are too incompetent to rise. Some will make it to wizards, but then some of them will fail to rise any further, will they be great wizards therefore? I think not. Finally the cream of the crop will rise to be the Talari caste of nobility, and while they likely don't have a stat under 15, you still have to wonder how these noob nobles who rose purely on their merits will actually handle their new power. You also need to worry about the lack of recognition for artisans and merchants, as well as miners and timber workers etc. within the Hrestoli system. In short, while I like the career path of the Hrestoli and their meritocracy better from a player perspective, I think their sorcerers will be way too handy with a lance and sword, and like good jocks, will be struggling with their sorcery homework. For sorcerers they will make damn good warriors, but are they really sorcerers? Really they rise to the level of their incompetence and then stop. I like meritocracy, but the simple fact is that caste specialists who have 17 years more experience in their born field will be better at their jobs, and they will like archiving, and order, and fear fieldwork.

I see what you mean metcalph. I would still include the Mostali in your "pure sorcery" list however. I accept that the Western societies have for the most part made accommodations with the theists and shamans. I mean, look at the snake legged lineage of the Kings of Seshnela, am I right? No doubt the Brithini would view this as being entirely polluting, and the fact that the humans partaking of these "abominations" have lost their immortality is proof of the fact that they have strayed from Malkion's true message. The fact is, most sorcerous societies have adopted levels of other systems to make up the deficit in power that pure reliance on sorcery would enforce. As to whether the Vadeli and Brithini are powerful or not, well, I would argue that they actually are amongst the most powerful civilizations on Glorantha. The Brithini have Zzabur after all, who literally closed the oceans, before making the sub contient of Brithos go invisible (or something). The Vadeli may be a shadow of their former selves, but they are basically arms dealing chaos wizards who follow a philosophy of logical psychopathy. They may not be enormously strong, but they are often described as being the worst people to run afoul of in Glorantha. Similarly the Dwarves are going to haul the landmass of Slon into Jrustela soon. They might be weaker individually than the shamans and theists, but the sorcerers move collectively with serious world shaking grunt when they get going. Presently we don't have rules for scaling the sort of power these societies can wield with sorcery. We should also perhaps mention the sorcery of the Eastern Isles, the pseudo sorcery of the Kralori Exarchs, Lunar Sorcery, Delecti, Orathorn, Muse Roost, and whatever the sorcery of Pavis' Iffinbix cult was all about.

I totally agree lordabdul so let me add some gloss to support your position. Sorcerers are scientists, philosophers and alchemists, unequivocally, but fundamentally this is all about researching mathematical relationships in nature. This is all about literacy, mathematics and research. Sorcery is about understanding why nature does what it does and then manipulating those tendencies. Runes are the essential building blocks of Glorantha, and just as wizards in Ars Magica manipulate the world of Platonic ideals to create magical effects, the sorcerers in RQ are manipulating the pure forms of the Runes, that their training has taught them to interact with via their magic points. In a way, every Sorcerer is a bit of a Lhankor Mhy at heart. He likes order, and archiving things, and is secretly a bit intimidated by field work and its risks. It is also hard to become a successful sorcerer. You need to develop a number of propensities that you don't start with. Now you might take the cowardly way, and hope to inherit resources, but successful adventures are potentially so much more rewarding. For example, any magical crystal is potentially a staggering boon for a sorcerer. Every sorcery spell is basically the same as a spirit spell, except that it varies because it can be manipulated by the sorcery skills in a way that spirit spells cannot. For those who would disagree, I draw your attention to the RQ3 Lunar Magic which allowed spirit spells to be manipulated by sorcery skills. Sometimes the result would be better than sorcery spells, and sometimes not. The upside of this is that when a sorcerer uses a magic crystal, it potentially amps up his spells a great deal, and if the crystal supposedly only works on spirit spells, don't believe it won't work on sorcery spells even better potentially. The upshot of this is that sorcerers fear going into danger, and so they will research whatever they can about the expedition they are planning, as research is their true strength. A sorcerer is a man with a plan and is likely working to a hard schedule and deadlines if he has set foot outside his tower. Some sorcerers are not so organized, and have more of a sense of how to improvise, but sorcery is not a magic system that lends itself to improv, and so a disorganized sorcerer is likely to have very indulgent friends, or be quite dead quite young. Another thing it is worth really making an issue of is that sorcery stacks with other magic. If you lay down a countermagic, you can still have a friendly sorcerer cast a similar spell on you. As a result, when a sorcerer meets a shaman and a theist, if they co-operate, they can synergize their magics, and this is the basis for the I Fought We Won battle hero quest imo. Similarly, any good power gamer like Argrath will have done that Hero Quest and will have potentially learned the secret lesson involved. It is all part of the RuneQuest Sight that was the apogee of Sorcerous achievement.

You make a really good point Phil. The runes of the weeks are set up in terms of duels in my mind. These runes effectively merge into each other. Disorder produces the need for Harmony. Harmony ends in death. Death is defeated by rebirth. Life forms habits with stasis but becomes complacent. Movement shakes up that stasis but creates misunderstandings of Illusion. Misunderstandings are sorted out by Truth but then the damage is done and disorder asserts itself. I like to see this as "the dance of the Net". That when the gods used the net to trap Kajabor, they set themselves into oppositions, holding the net, and that net itself became both a trap and a garment for the new god. The trap orders the entropy and turns it into the more manageable collapse of Time, and the tendency to fall apart is mitigated by these oppositions. Disorder gives way to Harmony. Death gives way to Life. etc. Of course the real world is not like that, and everything is harder to comprehend and predict, or every year would be a mirror of every other year as the day orders are always the same, yet clearly history doesn't care and does what it wants on whatever day is convenient. Remember also that this whole calendric order is a God Learner construct. Do the runes really affect the world in this order or is that just confirmation bias? We hear harmony, we look for harmony. We hear death, we look for death. Is this all just an elaborate imposition of order where none intrinsically exists? We might well ask why every year in Glorantha IS different. I'm sure Mostali see this as a failure of the movements of the world machine. And of course the answer is simple. Entropy is caused by heat, so we need to put out the Sun until the mechanism is properly restored. Oh wait, we tried that...

Remember that any semi-permanent settlement is utterly predicated on 2 things; water and feed. Now oases are a pretty reliable source of water, but if the area gets over-grazed the nomads will be forced to decamp the area to follow their herds, water or not. The alternative is to split the herd up and graze it separately in pockets while the main plains regrow, but that creates a huge vulnerability to raiders who can pick off the smaller numbers of guards, herders and animals in detail. If there were Oasis people involved in irrigating the Oasis, as there are in Prax, then the regrowth might be faster. Now, back in RQ2, Eiritha had a skill called Find Water, which was essential to survival in the Wastes. They would know where to look for hidden pools of standing water in among the rocks of arid hills, and which plant life signaled a good place to dig to get at ground water. To be fit for human consumption that water will still need some basic filtering and boiling though, or Malia's little surprises will get you. Shamans may also be able to find various water spirits in the desert that will lead them to supplies. The war between Praxians and water is inescapable for both parties. Now, as to Chaos in the area, remember that goats love deserts, and actually close crop plants down to their roots, promoting erosion so only goats can live there. They are omnivores too, and willing to feed on nearly anything. While not all Broos are goats, they are a good model for a chaos and its relationship to a local ecology. Frankly there is a HUGE benefit for Chaos to occupy those areas. If they can graze the area hard, then the Stormbulls cannot keep a herd there and have to leave. It is a chaos victory based on destroying enemy supply. If there are no Stormbulls in the area, then Chaos is less threatened and can spread to other areas with greater ease and exert more overall power. As with most decisions in Prax, much depends upon resource availability and everything is a calculated risk for ALL sides at ALL times. Stormbull only somewhat serves as a means of guaranteeing co-operation between Praxians. There is always the implicit threat that if one tribe predominates in an area that they may rescind hospitality to other tribes. You need to remember that Praxians DO NOT see settlement and civilization as a virtue. Praxians are a nomadic culture, and they know all too well that settlements are a trap. How many times have they seen settled people being trapped into slavery due to being unable to survive in the desert? The Oasis people... Pavisites... Sartarites... Lunars... etc. A settled and sedentary life is the antithesis of freedom to Praxians; it is tantamount to slavery. To paraphrase he band Ministry's song "Jesus built my hot rod" "Nobody with a good mount needs to worry about nothing...Where you come from is gone. Where you're going to weren't never there, and where you are ain't no good unless you can get away from it". All the same I don't want to derail your plans, and there are loads of workable alternatives to consider. If Praxians have neither the means nor the motive to settle the area, it needs to be said that they aren't the only team with an interest in the doing so. For example, Sheng Seleris' empire once occupied the area, and may have seen some value in providing a caravanserai with fortification due to the potential threat of chaos in the area. It is also possible that some chaotic warlord/hero quester might have seen some value in a permanent settlement in the area in order to ruin Stormbull ritual use of the area. Trolls are also always an option, as they can eat anything and hate chaos, and could happily live in a cave system in the area, potentially sharing it with Stormbulls due to Zorak Zoran and Stormbull's long standing friendship. There is also the fact that not all Stormbulls are nomads; some are Uroxi, and Uroxi don't have the same nomadic prejudice. As a longer shot, you might have the area once settled by Kralori, Teshnan or Jrusteli long ago, and the nomads now camp in the rubble, forcing slaves to do slipdshod maintenance on the defenses when they can be bothered to force the issue. The Hoggars are probably the best real world analogy, though possibly they are a bit too high imo. When you play a shaman in RQ3, you come to see the spirit spell list more as a suggestion than anything set in stone. These are spells that can be taught with a use of divine magic, but spirits can still teach those spells. In truth, while we often have a Conan-esque vision of what Stormbulls are like, they are not stereotypical barbarians like that at all. Whenever possible a Stormbull will charge his enemies with a lance or shoot them with a bow from the back of a fast moving mount. Hand to hand combat on foot is not something Praxians have any love for whatsoever. Strength can be very useful in combination with Berserk in an enclosed environment. Hunting chaos through caves is a supremely dangerous undertaking for Praxians as they lose most of their combat advantages. Provided they can get their knife-axes around corners, the High Llamas are likely the best, as the potential for 3d6+Dam Bonus+bladesharp at a good strike rank due to superior reach is very effective (and using Strength spell for a potential +1 to 2d6 extra damage bonus is tempting). If you haven't read the scenario "The Black Broo of Dyskund" it is pretty much the RQ gold standard for cave fighting imo.

Peloria has it coming. If you keep exporting genocide, eventually you will become the new net importer. Some people call it Karma, but it's really just reciprocity.

Yeah, Conan and Lancelot are Mary Sues as well. Heroic literature is full of nothing but Mary Sues. The Hero Wars will be a series of Mary Sue pissing contests to see whose Mary Sue is bigger. Yeah, I know, that just sounds like Rob Roy guest starring in A Man Called Horse, right? Actually no. While Argrath has a Draconic Mystic in his retinue, the fact he was taken into the Arkati by Mularik Ironeye and accepted as Arkat reborn suggests he is the ordinary type of illuminate via his trickster. Really it might be argued that the unwritten magical tradition of Mysticism is well due some rules clarifications. He releases Sheng to break free not only Sheng and his ability to wage war on the Lunars but to free many other souls trapped in the Lunar Hells. What a nice source of powerful motivated recruits? Is he? Is he really? Or is he the guy who can best do the job and the rest just gets fudged and propagandized by noisy minstrels and a dedicated legal team?

I see this story of Argrath failing in the Ritual of the Net as being very similar to that of King Arthur and the head of Bran. Arthur digs up the head of the pagan god Bran declaring that henceforth that the strength of men would protect Britain, and becoming the protector of Britain in Bran's place. It seems much the same thing happened with Argrath, but really, what do you expect from an illuminate? I'm surprised he stayed "on message" as long as he did. Consider however that the gods are in fact stagnant and ossified. Their story changes by iotas every time some desperate mortal hero quests, but for the rest of the time their fate is not dissimilar to the Iron Maiden lyrics of the song "Powerslave". The name Argrath means "liberator", and in fact, his greatest act was to liberate mortals from the tyranny of the gods, and liberated the gods from the slavery of the trap they had placed themselves in by becoming gods. Sacred utumas all round.

I think Delecti should be hero worshiping Archidomedes.

No, the snakes and spiders ate it all.

Australia also has a feral goat problem.

Is that praxian riding a weasel, or trying to insert it?

Worse... It becomes the Ex-Smoking Ruins, and the bards will not stop talking about it.