Nel

A compilation from many sources of Gloranthan artworks:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/399624166913332855/

Some RW pics reminding Prax:

http://www.glorantha.com/for-those-of-you-who-wanted-the-references-for-corys-prax-landscape-picture-here-it-is/

The Vale of Flowers in Dagori Inkarth:

https://scontent-syd2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/18199411_765344003625597_8148362330157816664_n.jpg?oh=bd15984ec5bb7accb5b78477f51b0a0f&oe=5978B05D

The Monkey Ruins in Prax:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/brpcentral-uploads/monthly_2017_05/592cf0ac12c59_ScreenShot2017-05-30at9_35_05am.png.d36b8360f11c5b18b14a5785bce75ac7.png

My Gloranthan Calendar has been improved thanks to hkokko and soltass:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bz3yUt8lNxwhcEw4TmJpUzZ0b2c/view

The format of every entry is:
- Number of the day
- 3 runes identifying day, week and season
- Celebrating pantheon (Underlined) (in different lines when there's more than one)
- Name of celebrated god (Bolded if it's its high holy day)
- Name of the festival (Italicized)
- Source and page where that worshipped god is explained (Bracketed)
- Source and page where that festival is explained (Bracketed and underlined)
Eventually, a second god might appear after a +, it means that this second god plays a supporting
role in the festival of the first referred god.

If you happen to notice some mistake, misunderstanding from the sources or omission, please let me know.

I'm working on my calendar:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bz3yUt8lNxwhcEw4TmJpUzZ0b2c/view

So far, I'm in doubt about which pantheon these deities or festivals belong:

- Baraku: Fonritian and Umathelan?
- Black Sun
- Bloody Tusk
- Burayha Xolani
- Caladra & Aurelion: Kethaelan?

- Donandar

- Dorasta
- Frog Woman: Wastelands?
- Golden Bow: Pure Horse?
- Golden Eagle: Storm?
- Golden Horse: Pure Horse?
- Hanjethulut & Orjethulut: Fonritian?
- River Horse: Praxian?

WoW, so much information!

My humble calendar is far away from what scholars as Tindalos know and compilers as hkokko organize.

Let's see when I can update and upgrade it.

By the way, just for the record, I'm not a Finn, just a Catalan interested in languages.

Minäkin olen kiinnostunut!

I've just updated my Theyalan Calendar (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bz3yUt8lNxwhcEw4TmJpUzZ0b2c/view), and would be interested in adding all those holy days.

Wikipedia article about the Lexicon collaborative writing game:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexicon_(game)

Spanish readers might find useful this (unfinished) Lexicon game elaborating Teshnos:

http://glorantha.fronteriza.es/index.php?title=Lexicón_de_Teshnos

Acording to HQ:G p.172, sorcery works by applying one of the four principles to one or more runes.

Those logical principles are two pairs of opposite verbs:
- Summon / Dismiss
- Combine / Separate

And two lonely verbs:
- Command
- Tap

I somehow felt it was incomplete, and thus, trying to restore the balance, I searched the opposite verbs that are lacking to those two lonely principles:

- When a sorcerer commands something, he is ruling over it: It obeys the sorcerer.
The opposite of commanding is setting free, allowing it to act freely.
So the balancing principle of COMMAND is FREE.

- When a sorcerer is tapping something, he is draining its "itselfness", what causes it to be it.
The opposite of taking away essence is giving existence.
So I name the balancing principle of TAP as VIVIFY, despite a stone is not alive.

Anyway, with these two new pairs, we envision the forgotten and forbidden tecniques of the God Learners:
"Freeing" and "Vivifying"!

And this immediately reminded me of Zistor and the Machine City.

What do you think?
Am I missing something or am I elaborating too much?

I translated my game Tresquera into English:

Journey is a game where the player writes a travelogue while describing places, people, insights and experiences randomly generated.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bz3yUt8lNxwhNk02dEt5Q1dtcmc

22 hours ago, Mankcam said:

Personally I think HQ Cthulhu would work well in terms of game mechanics (...)

Cthulhu Genre Pack for HQ2

http://rpggeek.com/filepage/92685/cthulhu-genre-pack

Title: Letters of Love and Hate

Authors: Gray Sage Tella and Sword Sage Hojiv

Year: 1616

Subject: Letters of Love and Hate  is a compilation of the 15 letters sent by Hojiv and Tella, two Lhankor Mhy initiates, while travelling together from Esrolia to the Janube River States. None of them eventually returned.
- Tella was a Gray Sage from the Jelenkev library. Her mission was reporting about the doctrinal source of the Ulerian cult raised in the city of free love, Zoria, which was recently freed from the Ban. She successfully arrived to Zoria and managed to send 3 letters from there, each one more confusing than the previous one.
- Hojiv was a Sword Sage from the Hevduran Dege library. His mission was learning about the combat techniques used in the Kingdom of War, recently appeared from the Ban. His last letter was sent from the Cursed City.

- Route: Nochet, Handra, Noloswal, Southpoint, Sog City, Iron Gate, Semple, Heisinoket, Mouse Tower, Halkomelem, Perfe, (Hojiv: Cursed City) (Tella: Riverjoin, Zoria)
In blue the places reached by ship
Places where a letter was sent from are underlined

- Ships:
- From Nochet to Noloswal via Handra: Trireme "Over towers"
Cargo: Parchment and wine from Clearwine (to Sog City); cloth, metalworking, water from the Allspring river and wine from Clearwine (to Drocholinn in Jrustela via Noloswal).
- From Noloswal to Sog City via Southpoint: Longship "Pewr's granddaughter"
Cargo: Iron, parchment and wine from Clearwine (to Sog City)

Quotes:

- Hojiv's 6th letter.
 

Quote

Clayday, Harmony, Fire 1615. Cursed City.
Two days ago Qolle, Ngafang's son, shared the bodies of his two recently captured enemies. That youngster ate the first bite of flesh and drank the first gulp of blood, but no more, for his predating partners and their relatives devoured every piece of meat without thanking him for the feast. Anyway, Qolle looked to be satisfied. Later on, the usual dogs' brawl for the bones was the excuse for some betting, joking and drinking. Everybody left the celebration after hurrahing the young warrior when he nailed the enemies' skulls onto the pike next to the door of his house.
I haven't had yet the chance to watch my host Riymow fighting, but he taught me a few more words. I'll list now some of the several words they have to say "Enemy". I'm told there are many more.
- Enemy (Generic meaning): Tayçeq
- Personal enemy: Gelling
- Community's enemy: Çuqer
- Current enemy: Dorgi
- Previously defeated enemy by the speaker: Muyay
- Enemy who previously defeated the speaker: Powom

- Tella's 9th letter.
 

Quote

Fireday, Fertility, Earth 1615. Zoria.
Overmorrow Outer Pleasure shall be celebrated. Sorry. My mind confused. Let me try again. Since I was penetrated by the Zorian dialect I can't reason properly. In two days, another of the orgiastic festivals is going to be hosted in the Arched Square. My blisser explained something about an "outer pleasure", but I wasn't able to understand what she meant. She contrasted the experience as the opposite of an orgasm. Anyway, this time I'll try to watch that festiival without getting involved. But this difficult. Since me welcomed by Ulerian priestesses I feel myself less me, more empathically others. Feelings. Zoria is a city ruled by feelings. Pleasant.

Some more pictures of Komarkan noblewomen

Actually, the Gloranthan small city of Halkomelem reminded me of the Halkomelem language spoken in Canada and USA.

Skimming through a grammar I found a sentence that recalled the Orlanthi and their alynxes:

Quote

ɬəpusct ʔiʔ ɬéy'x̌təs tθʼəsməyəθ
Our cat eats the deer

The suspicion that the natives of the Gloranthan Halkomelem were Orlanthi increased after reading this mention to Yelm:

Quote

səwʔtɬʼeʔəʃətəmʔs tθʼəsəmʔʃaθət ʔəwʔmis tɬʼpil
And the sun was invited to come down

But all the theories I was beginning to forge were ruined when I read this quote by the Bright Emperor:

Quote

stɬʼatɬʼəm əʔwʔənθes ʃstθʼetθʼək'ʷs tθʼəkʷeyəl
I should be the light of the world

So, the RW Halkomelem give contradictory hints about the origins of the Gloranthan Halkomelem.

Sorry to derail the thread.

After reading Runeblogger's three wonderful posts in Spanish about this year's Kraken (1, 2 & 3), I checked its web and found a section about a card game(?):

GloranTarot

The brief says:

Quote

 

Host: Topi Pitkänen

Get introduced to GloranTarot! We believe that this card deck reveals the workings of the world of Glorantha. The GloranTarot deck is designed to be totally compatible with HeroQuest. It is designed:

    to replace the D20
    to represent and juice up Hero Points
    to be used as a game system of its own (especially for Heroquests)

It is truly fast and simple, yet superbly dynamic and play-tested beyond reasonable doubt.

It was also announced four years ago, with the same text.

The picture features four cards:

http://the-kraken.de/images/games/glorantarot.jpg

Number, Rune, Finnish text, (my own translation into) English

6     Spirit     Haluttu     Wanted
6     Communication     Naamioitu     In disguise
7     Magic     Sota & Kuolema     War & Death
7     Death     Monistuminen     Multiplication

This sample raises some questions:
- Is it supposed to work by playing a card instead of rolling a d20? In that case I guess that numbers range from 1 and 20. But then, how are masteries handled?
- What's the use of Runes? Are there only these four runes, as a poker deck, or are there as many suits as runes?
- And what is the text for? "War and death" looks to be an augment, "In disguise" looks like a plot resource for the PC, "Wanted" looks to be a flaw or a plot resource for the GM, but I can't guess how to use "Multiplication".

So, in short, what do you know about GloranTarot?

12 hours ago, Corvantir said:

Most of my players are rather fluent in english, they are usually able to understand the meaning behind the original names.

When they meet something new I give them the name I am used to or I translate it on the fly. How it sings in french tells me whether I give the original name to the players or a translation.

Translating on the fly is quite risky, and I wouldn't be so confident in the fluency of "English as Second Language" speakers.

A word-for-word translation might result in nonsensical constructs if we don't know those words' history and semantic meaning, that is: not just the definition appearing in the dictionary.

For example, when finding a name like Stormwalk Mountains, we are shocked by the juxtaposition of two antithetical substantives: Storm + Walk.

The position of "Walk" tells us that it doesn't work here as a verb, neither does "Storm". It's not a "Storming walk" nor a "Walking storm".

The average ESL speaker (and the on-the-fly translator) would immediately think of the substantive "Walk" as something like "A trip made by moving calmly on the foot", in Spanish "paseo".

Stormwalk = Trip on the foot made by the storm

No way!

So let's check more meanings of "Walk" as a substantive. The Wiktionary's 9th and 10th entries define "Walk" this way:

Quote

(historical) A place for keeping and training puppies for dogfighting.

(historical) An enclosed area in which a gamecock is confined to prepare him for fighting.

And, in my opinion, this fits the description of the Stormwalk Mountains in S:KoH p.116:

Quote

Upon its slopes, Orlanth tamed the Storm Bull to be his follower. Upon its peak, Hendrik the Free hides in splendour in the ice and snow. Orlanthi priests perform rituals to tame Urox and to gain his blessings against Chaos. Followers of the hero Gorangi Vak can tame the ferocious sky bulls that live on the top, gaining powerful flying mounts.

Notice that I bolded three times the action that gave name to the mountain: the taming of Urox by Orlanth.

By taming him, Orlanth didn't weaken Urox, but walked him "to be his follower" ... as if the Storm Bull was a puppy!

Thus, the translation of Stormwalk Mountain into any other language should evocate this meaning, rendering "Stormwalk" as "the place where the storm tamed", not "the place where the storm moved calmly on the foot".

Since I don't know any noun in Catalan meaning "taming field", I change the focus on who tames (the storm) instead of what is done (the walk, the taming):

Stormwalk Mountain = Muntanya Tempestaadondadora (Taming storm, Storm that tames)

Adondar is a verb meaning "Force anybody else to get used, Force anybody else to obey, Tame, Turn into docile"

Yes, "Tempestaadondadora" sounds strange and it's much longer than "Stormwalk", but at least it can be properly pronounced by Catalan speakers and they can relate it's meaning with the history of the mountain. Otherwise, they would pronounce a couple of senseless syllables which they should mnenotechnically relate to the mountain.

This is the task of translators, conveying meanings without the reader realizing it.

By the way, the first edition of HeroQuest in Spanish translates Stormwalk Mountain as "Montaña del Paso tormentoso" in page 227. This is another non literal translation, taking "Walk" as "Paso" (Pass) and "Storm" as an adjective "tormentoso" (angushing, torturing).

I don't criticize this approach because, as you have seen, an exact translation requires reformulatig the whole syntagma. That's easy to do in isolating languages like English or Chinese, not so in synthetic languages like Catalan or Spanish, and very difficult in agglutinative languages like Finnish.

11 hours ago, Runeblogger said:

I'm curious: how do you translate Swenstown into Catalan?

Unlike Jon, which I translated as Joan in Jonstown (Vilajoan), Swen (eventually deriving from Sven) is a Scandinavian name without previous adaptation into Catalan (nor Southern European languages):

So I would just adapt Swen into the rules of Catalan pronuntiation and ortography:

- w > v

- despite being written with an "e", it's not prononunced as /e/, but as /ɛ/, marked as "è"

All in all, Swenstown = Vilasvèn

11 hours ago, Runeblogger said:

Do you also translate "Argrath" or "Arkat" and just call him "Liberator"?

Neither Argrath and Arkat are "speaking names". An English reader is not reminded of any further significance after reading them.

Of course, they could be also regularized with the ortography of the players' language. Just taking into account the written forms, Arkat would turn into Árcat, and Argrath as Árgraz, in Spanish.

But I wouldn't do it: Translators don't use to adapt ortographically isolated nouns, like Arkat and Argrath. Only the ones appearing with proper substantives or adjectives, like Swenstown, which has a "town" that must be translated.

On 10/31/2016 at 8:24 PM, Iskallor said:

The Finnish translations I have have the names all in Finnish. 

 

Beware!

This might result in your players asking awkward questions such as

"Onko talossa Talosa jumalatar?

13 hours ago, Runeblogger said:

However, there are other names, like Boldhome, Jonstown or Wilmskirk that I don't feel like they're worth translating, because translating them produces names that I like less than the original.

I disagree.

English speakers understand names as Boldhome, Jonstown and Wilmskirk.

Why shouldn't Spanish speakers understand them too?

In my games, every English "speaking" name is translated into Catalan:

- Boldhome = Llar-ardida

- Jonstown = Vilajoan

- Wilmskirk = Esglesiola de Guiem

As a GM, it's my duty to keep the flavour of those names, and forcing a player to use English names he doesn't understand would obscure their meaning.

A question for non-English speakers:

When you're playing at a table, speaking your own language, do you use to translate Gloranthan place names and personal names in English?

I do, and I'd like to know your opinions about it.

Names like Boldhome, Jonstown, Shadow Plateau or Whitewall have transparent meanings in English, and thus should be translated when they appear in a non-English languaged game. Otherwise, their meaning would be lost and non-English speakers wouldn't understand the origin or the reason after that name.

Let's imagine the opposite example, an English-speaker GM saying something like:

- Your troll character heads towards "Altiplà ombrívol", a land where sunshines don't bright nor heat.

For an English speaker, "Altiplà ombrívol" is just a place name, without evocating anything. But if I tell you that "Altiplà ombrívol" is the Catalan translation of "Shadow Plateau" then you'll realize that the previous sentence truly carries further meanings.

Here you have the link to a pdf I made featuring a Theyalan Calendar and its main holy days:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bz3yUt8lNxwhcEw4TmJpUzZ0b2c

Every line depicts:
- Number of the day
- Runes of day and week (every page is a season)
- Worshipped god (bolded if it's a relevant holy day), name of the celebration, source and page explaining it, and pantheon.

Sources are referred so that they are easily consulted:
- GtG = Guide to Glorantha
- P:GtA = Pavis: Gateway to Adventure
- SKoH = Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes
- ST = Storm Tribe
- TR = Thunder Rebels

There is also info from Cult Compendium and King of Sartar, which I don't own.
In those cases I used the Glorantha Wikia as a useful resource:
http://glorantha.wikia.com/wiki/Glorantha

Please tell me if anybody spots mistakes or improvements.
- Nel

PD:
The same pdf translated into Catalan is here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bz3yUt8lNxwhMVItdlRBMjJNa2c/view?usp=sharing

The linked pdf is the chronicle of the journey a kafl trader takes from Ralios to Holy Country.
The order is quite pressing because he begins at Walim during Storm season and he must get to Nochet before Sacred Time.

It's written in a day a day basis, ressembling a travel log, because it was written as a diary: one entry a day.

Eventually, it's not a fanfiction, but the actual play of a game of mine, Tresquera, which helps spicing stories with random events according to the acrchetype of the main character.

Unfortunately, it's written in Catalan, but any reader of Spanish or French would be able to understand it.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bz3yUt8lNxwhMHlNRXh3eUxXYk0

By the way, the Fan material policy is featured in the last page.

Reading through Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes, I found some contradictory facts about the Evil Emperor Yelm:

* How did Yelm defeat Orlanth during the 1st contest, the Contest of Music?
- By performing a Court Dance, according to S:KoH p. 96
- By playing the Harp, according to S:KoH p. 104

* When did Orlanth kill Yelm?
- On the battle of the Extinguished Field, according to S:KoH p. 40
- By wielding Death during the 4th contest, the Contest of Weapons, according to S:KoH p. 96 and GtG p.117

Also, could you tell me about the Evil Emperor Malkion?
According to GtG p.387, his cruel sorcerers and inhumans dwarves enslaved Orlanthi people during the Gods war until they were freed by Orlanth.
I haven't find any other mention of Malkion as a/the Evil Emperor, and that title looks to be applied by Orlanthis only to the Bright Emperor (aka Yelm) and the Emperor of Dara Happa (the earthly representative of Yelm).
Is this an errata, and GtG p.387 should say Evil Emperor Yelm instead of Evil Emperor Malkion?

Summarizing your very useful comments, every culture uses a different four directions scheme according to their own traditions:

Dara-Happans and worshippers of the Solar pantheon use the Overseers as reference:
- North: Asharthcha
- South: Nemarthshar
- East: Indarthrad
- West: Vanarthurd

The rest of the Lunar Empire -and Gloranthans with not yet known tradition- use the colors of the Pillar gods:
- North: White
- South: Red
- East: Yellow
- West: Blue
I smiled when I noticed that the Lunar Empire struggles to expand towards Red.

Using Jumpers as the Cardinal points would be perfect, but there is no Southern jumper, and I can't imagine a merchant from Pavis heading One Night Wish towards Corflu.
- North: Kalikos
- South: ?
- East: Theya
- West: Rausa
Jorg proposes Erindamus as South, but it doesn't apear in the GtG index. According to http://glorantha.wikia.com/wiki/South_Star, Erindamus is a dog god of Saird (the lowland valley between Jillaro and Mirin's Cross, at the Lunar Provinces). Such a under-rated deity from such a irrelevant place! He doesn't look to deserve to name a reference point.

And lastly, the Cardinal points might be the lands of the Demigods dwelling at the borders of the Middle World:
- North: Altinela
- South: Sakum
- East: Vithela
- West: Luathela

Of course, Doraddi, Kralori, Westerners, and so on, use different names.
Even trolls would have a different scheme based on their Darksense!

Using North, South, East and West as the cardinal points in Glorantha is rather dull to me. That's why I'm looking for names that carry some mythical meaning.

My first idea was using the Pillar Gods that support the Sky Dome, such as the one in GtG p.155:
- North: White Pillar
- South: ?
- East: ?
- West: ?
Unfortunately, I haven't found his name nor any word about the other three Pillar Gods.

Another idea, based on GtG p.159, was using the border places as the cardinal points:
- North: Altinela
- South: ?
- East: Vithela
- West: Luathela
Alas, the name for South is lacking.
The South point in the map of GtG p. 159 is occupied by Sramak, but that river surrrounds the whole Middle World.
Another option would be naming South as the Sea of Fire, but it breaks the harmony with Altinela, Luathela and Vithela.
According to the Revealed Mythologies, the southernmost point of Pamaltela is Sakum (http://glorantha.wikia.com/wiki/Sakum), but it doesn't look to be canon anymore since Sakum doesn't appear in the Guide's index.

My last try, and the one I prefer the most, would be incarnating the cardinal points into the Gods dwelling there:
- North: Valind
- South: ?
- East: Theya
- West: Rausa
Again, the name for South is lacking.

In GtG p.625 there's a depiction of the Household of an Umathelan Merchant-Captain. His wife, described as a Kormarkan noblewoman, wears a headdress already used by Iberian women 2,000 years ago, as the one from this stone bust:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_of_Elche

But instead of drawings and pictures of old sculptures, I have also found pictures of real women incarnating that old goddess.

I'm downloading the Prive of Sartar webcomic since its very beginning, and I'm enjoying the comic and its related comments. It's a pleasure to notice so many details and discover the stories behind them.

My only complaint is that it takes me a lot of time to read the whole chaper because I'm waiting for it to be finished before reading any single page.

Thank you very much for all your replies.

I've got ahead many names, details and sources to check.

What can you tell me about the trolls from the Blue Moon Plateau?

According to the 1st volume of the Imperial Lunar Handbook (page 12) they are winged, but I haven't found any mention of that in the Guide to Glorantha.