EricW

Wouldn’t being part of a pantheon which includes friendly chaos gods, and being a god which encourages illumination and has no qualms about using chaotic magic, wouldn’t that be an issue for lightbringer LM?

If they attack at the wrong moment they could get caught in a hero quest, perhaps representing Sheng Seleris and his hordes invading the moon. If they succeed they carry away magic stolen from the moon - perhaps magical immunity to some Lunar magic. If they fail, or rather if the Lunar loyalists realise what is happening and correctly enact the return of the Red Emperor and the defeat of Sheng, the raiders not only end up captured and in very big trouble, but they might end up magically damaged in some way, perhaps lose the ability to communicate with their god for a time (isolation in "Lunar hell"). But the rival khan winning implies the rival khan placing religious faith and the good of the tribe above temporal power - enacting the ritual defeat of Sheng would require the current leader stepping aside, and appointing a new khan during the heroquest (the returned "red emperor"), who could then magically and temporally defeat the intruders and win magical boons for their tribe.

Be a bit like gasoline on a BBQ - be sure you don't get your hands tainted by the chaos you are using 🙂

Ah but chaos is Oakfed’s mystical enemy - the fire is as hot as it needs to be to scorch away the chaos.

Say an illuminate who has the ability undetectable as law or chaos wears a chaotic magical ring? Does the ring detect as chaotic? What if the illuminate swallows the ring? Is it still detectable as chaotic? If the ring is detectable as chaotic even if swallowed, what about chaos ooze? At what point would the chaos ooze no longer be detectable as chaotic?

But surely the tainted silver would be consumed by Oakfed's fire - like nothing left afterwards.

What about the sleeping hero vanquished by the angry storm, who when he awakens will usher in an age of freedom, liberating followers from the very laws which bind Glorantha, granting vengeance to the oppressed, and bringing to an end the tyranny of law?

How about Lunar damage to the mythic landscape? The PC participants in a minor quest, to bring blessings to the tribe, and everything goes horribly wrong - the PC is unfairly blamed for failing a critical part of the quest, bringing bad luck to the tribe. They are exiled in the hope of expiating the bad luck.

There is one very specific time when Troll and Elf stood together - I fought we won. A hero cult where the lesson is divided we fall, that division between Elf kind and Troll kind invites the return of chaos, would fulfil this mythic requirement.

Illumination would also work :-).

Resurrect the victim- find the body, dedicate themselves to restoring the wrong.

Penitents do have a choice though - they can accept their just punishment and take their chances in the afterlife, or accept a final opportunity to redeem themselves in this life.

I would have thought riddles would be made available. Illumination might even be seen as a form of therapy, liberating incorrigibly wicked sinners from the constraints of their self destructive beliefs, helping them embrace the grace of the goddess. The goal after all is for people to change their behaviour, and becoming illuminated is a path to profound self realisation and change. Of course, sometimes it goes horribly wrong.

Eurmal tried to do the dragon seed soldier thing with a pinch of bum fluff but it all went horribly wrong... OK that theory probably isn't cannon...

How about a child in the crowd. Argrath lashes out, drawing gasps from the crowed - until Argrath holds up the poison pin which was in the child's hand. The child of course is not what they appear to be.

Beware the Stickpickers - Beat-Pot Aelwrin was a kitchen slave. Argrath is the son of Stickpickers. Trickster gives terrifying magics to those whom the rest of society despises and ignores. One day they will rise! 🙂

After Argrath returned from his visit to the dead god learners, "more god than man", he gets to rewrite the rules - just like the Lunars were attempting to do. Temple of the reaching storm, right? 🙂

I suspect a sorcerer shaman would have to be illuminated up the wazoo to cope with the contradictions between the sorcerous and shamanic traditions - and would probably be hated by everyone if anyone figured out what they had done. As for seeker of truth, sorcery fits with truth seeker, Lhankor Mhy sorcerers seems a natural fit. Thanatar an even better fit. Not so sure about Shamen. I mean a Shaman would be more in touch with the Gloranthan reality that there are many irreconcilable truths, they might looking upon "seeker of truth" as hubris, a fools errand. Just look at how much trouble those God Learners caused, when they tried to fit their one size fits all model of cosmic truth onto Glorantha, and ignored the spiritual warnings they had made a horrible mistake.

One of my favourite movies. Made in the 1930s with special effects decades ahead of its time, the sanity of the kindly protagonist finally snaps as he repeatedly exercises his magic. Great movie for cultural background on the 1930s as well.

I would see insane talents as part of the character, they are part of the character's deteriorating grip on the human view of reality, a bit like accumulating mythos skill. As their grip on reality fails, their insights into the mythos give them an increasing possibility of developing terrifying new abilities which only serve to accelerate their fall.

Vampires are sorcerers (?!). So it might make sense for Humakt temples to sometimes maintain a small cadre of sorcerers, to try to counter the sorcery of particularly powerful vampires - unless they are prejudiced about sorcery because it is vampire magic. Perhaps venerated Humakti who are too old to keep up with the kids study sorcery as part of their strategic planning role.

I find it difficult to imagine a third age trickster reading a book for long enough to learn sorcery. A trickster might steal sorcery skill on a heroquest. Having said that there was once a god learner school dedicated to Eurmal on Slontos, which tried to create a Trickster great temple. The school sank beneath the sea. Nobody knows if any of the tricksters at the school noticed. A place where god learner sorcerers dedicated their lives to learning the infinite range of possible trickster spells would be indescribably strange. There is no prohibition against Tricksters using their magic on each other.

Elric at the end of time was an interesting solution to this dilemma. The sorcerous antihero Elric finds himself in a fantastic realm where gravity is warped for the convenience of the locals, and casual miracles are everywhere. He immediately recognises the inhabitants as the gods of chaos, knowing them by name. Which immensely confuses the people he names, because they are scientists, not chaos gods.

When Wakboth ate the other world there was very little left - Humakt survived, at least until the point he was plunged into the body of the serpent. The dragons survived. Trickster might have survived, he wasn't in the net when Wakboth started munching on the gods. And Argrath "distributed that which was good" from the dead body of the serpent - though I'm guessing those who fought for the wrong team weren't head of the queue for that handout of magical goodies. I guess it really hinges on what was left. Did those who were extraordinarily powerful retain a connection to what was left of the otherworld? Were those heavily invested in Lunar magic crippled by the Moonfall? What magic did Argrath have left after Orlanth was eaten? Did he retain his draconic powers, and whatever he scooped out of the remains of the serpent, or was losing those powers and becoming a mortal again the price of liberating Shargash? Even if gods and paths to the otherworld survive, are they paths that any mortal can discover and walk? What happened to all those Orlanthi who took to the air when the moon was torn asunder? Did they all suddenly lose their magic while cruising in the middle air?

I expect it's one of many places of extreme magical experimentation inside or adjacent to the empire. Kind of like a chaotic magic version of Bletchley Park - small communities dedicated to extreme philosophical and magical exploration, funded by military or civil research grants, or rich patrons. When you think about it, one of the major lessons of the goddess is that by judicious use of chaos you can achieve apotheosis. So why not try to follow her path, or forge a new path? The Lunar pantheon is full of immortal Lunar heroes who were mortals who made it, achieved permanent residency on the moon. For every notable hero I'm sure there are plenty of wannabes inspired by their example - people who see the Lunar mysteries as a path to unlimited power and prestige. This hypothesis also potentially helps explain why the Monster Empire became such a raving cesspit of unconstrained horror - as the war turned against them, the search for super weapons to stop the barbarians would have risen in priority, care and concern about contamination and consequences would have diminished, and their many breakthroughs would have flooded the empire with horrible magic.