EricW

Is the underworld upside down? So if gravity pulls towards Gata, does the Styx flow on the underside of the Earth? 😉

Divination - open your mind to the Cosmos. CoC - the Cosmos wants to eat you.

Nyarlathotep is an educator, in at least some of his masks. Like the Church of Starry Wisdom, who worshipped Nyarlathotep in his guise as the haunter of the dark, would have caught many glimpses of other forms of their god in the hideous visions their worship granted to them. The only impediment to this deeper understanding might have been the sheer horror of what they were witnessing would likely have turned most of their brains to jello.

Wonder what happens if they attempt the LBQ? Of course they might need human victims to play some of the roles.

Lords of terror suggests illuminates are immune to excommunication. As for being bound to the lunar cycle, their lunar magic would be bound - but would their other magic from non-lunar sources also be bound? I thought illumination was in part about transcending cult limits. I guess you could interpret it either way 😉

Eurmal caused catastrophic damage in God Time, helping to kill Yelm, Grandfather Mortal, Flamal, its a long list - by passing death around for laughs he probably helped kill more gods than most chaos demons. The only reason Eurmal is not one of the lords of ruin is redeemed himself, at the last moment he pledged to help Orlanth fix all the harm he had done. Even after the dawn he continues to be a major pest - like I said Trickster is responsible for the EWF.

I'm troubled by the use of ban against illuminates. Does Ban work on someone who is pure of heart, someone righteous, who is perfectly in tune with the strictures of their god? Because illuminates always register as righteous, even the gods can't tell they are apostates. As for the moon rune test, someone could simply claim they were out of magic. But if you allow them back to the temple, they'll demonstrate their piety by regaining their spells from Orlanth or whatever, and maybe sacrificing for something which gets them out of there.

Maybe point out that even bonded tricksters are a menace. Trickster did some shockingly treacherous things after he was bonded, both during the Light Bringer Quest, and long after. For example, Trickster was responsible for the Empire of the Wyrms Friends - the original human dragon speaker learned dragon magic, because Trickster split his mind and tongue, and gave him the ability to teach others how to do the same. The EWF caused colossal metaphysical damage to Orlanth and other gods. I have a theory, non-canon, that Trickster was also responsible for the God Learners. I mean, just picture the scene - Trickster decides to play a prank on the sorcerers, so he causes the Abiding Book to appear, which destabilises the world by convincing sorcerers to take an interest in manipulating divine magic. So Orlanth yanks the chain around Trickster neck, says to him "you broke it you idiot. go fix it". Trickster responds by creating the EWF - "See Orlanth, fixed it - now there is a powerful empire to oppose the God Learners. The God Learners are strong, but they will struggle to comprehend the dragon magic of the EWF. You can say thank you if you want". After the collapse of the God Learners and the EWF, as the Golden Horde marches on Dragon Pass, Orlanth says "How are you going to fix this mess? We cannot allow humans to kill all the dragonewts, otherwise the Dragons might in their anger go on a rampage which destroys all Glorantha". So Eurmal travels to the place of dragons, yells "dinner time!". The dragons wake in anger, look around:- "its him. get him guys!". Then Trickster flees to Dragon Pass, with a vast horde of dragons chasing him - he only gets away when the dragons become distracted by all the fresh food rampaging around Dragon Pass. 🙂

People don't necessarily know where the Eurmal shrine is, and it could move around - so for example, the shrine could be in the toilet this week. "I need to take a p*ss". Trickster regains his magic by wetting himself. That kind of thing. In addition there are lots of Trickster shrines in unexpected places, not just in organised temples. I think a trickster who is power crazy is likely in for a rough ride. Accumulating power sounds very organised for a trickster, not really Eurmal's disorderly thing - Eurmal always seems to me like someone with the emotional maturity of a 3 yr old, grabbing pretty baubles because they look sparkly, telling outrageous lies to get what he wants, messing up his own plots because he can't remember the plan, trying to get cuddly with the beautiful axe maiden temple guard glaring at the suspicious MAN lurking behind a bush (she's giving me attention!). So Eurmal would likely play nasty pranks on a follower who takes life too seriously. Of course, another way to play it, a power crazy trickster would want to go on lots of heroquests to gain access to new powers. But trickster heroquests cause complications. Consider the most powerful trickster heroquest, the stealing of death. Ever wonder why Trickster agreed to be bonded to Orlanth, and go on the lightbringer quest? Because he didn't have a choice. Everyone, literally everyone in the world, wanted to kill trickster. Thanks to all the carnage Trickster had caused, stealing death, then giving it to random people to mess up the world a bit more, then stealing it back and giving it to someone else, the entire world was hunting Trickster. Trickster agreed to go on the LBQ because he was hiding behind Orlanth, hoping that nobody would see him, and he didn't know what he would do to survive if Orlanth abandoned him. Even Orlanth probably wanted to kill trickster. But Orlanth foresaw that just maybe trickster could redeem himself, by helping to fix all the catastrophic damage he had caused. In a game world, if a trickster tried to follow this path to gain access to strange heroic abilities, he would need every scrap of those new magics to survive the consequences of his quests. Every time the trickster character steals death and gives it to someone else, I suggest it would be a penalty on the trickster's daily encounter rolls. The world for a trickster following the path of their god just gets scarier and scarier - there would be this growing parade of increasingly terrifying hero opponents and chaos monsters who wanted blood. The trickster hero would increasingly be the focus of enemy god divinations advising their most dangerous followers "get that person, and you shall receive a magical reward". And of course, while Trickster was running around with stolen death, every Humakt, Zorak Zoran, or Thanatar death cultist rune lord sense assassin or other magical ability would register trickster as the top of their most wanted list, someone who was interfering with their ability to receive magic from their god, one of the premier enemies of their temple, someone who had to be killed immediately on sight to set the world right. Every Yelm worshipper, Yelmalio warrior, elf warrior, would register trickster as an enemy. Even Lunars might sense the Trickster as a premier enemy - Yanafal Tarnils would register Trickster as an enemy of death cults. Imagine having people like that on your trail! I think you can have a lot of fun teaching your power hungry trickster humility. Trickster magic is powerful, so much potential, but the path of trickster is not the path to conquering empires or ruling behind the scenes, trickster is the path to personal humiliation. If a trickster tries to be power hungry, it always goes spectacularly wrong is some bizarre and humiliating way.

YGGMV, but if this was the case the first age empire of light could have been crippled by enemy priests identifying dark side illuminates to their god. The dark side illuminated healers spreading plague weren’t destroyed by spirits of reprisal, they were rounded up by Arkat and killed. Illumination IMO is like foul Thannatar magic except instead of carrying a few heads of slain and bound enemies, who are forced to use their divine magic in the service of chaos, the illuminates do it to themselves.

Orlanth is dead suggests Lunar spies are everywhere stirring up trouble and mistrust. Some of the dirtshines, high ranking child hostages returned by the Lunars after years of indoctrination, would be illuminates. I think illumination would still be recognised as a factor, everyone knows the story of Lokamaydon. But yes, the accusation would likely be the offender is a Lunar spy.

I think there is a strong case illumination prevents excommunication, so if someone incurs the displeasure of the local religious leaders yet retains their magic, expect the accusations to fly, at least in private. As for setting up a new temple in defiance of authorities, that would likely draw a severe reaction. During the first age illuminates plundered gods by setting up false temples, so a suspected illuminate outcast setting up a temple in defiance of religious leaders could be seen an attack on the faith by degenerate chaos worshippers.

The One Ring gave Frodo divination skill, but the magically enhanced vision Frodo gained didn't really help him. If someone starts using divination skill in the vicinity of a mythos horror surely they would start seeing images of what will happen if the party fails to stop the plot. The presence of a powerful mythos being influences planes other than the mundane, and they haven't successfully stopped the conspiracy yet, so the mythos being is still on track to win.

During the sunstop the elves were strengthened - perhaps they started to appear in places where previously they were just a rumour or a memory.

Argarath sacrificed the gods to liberate the world from the risk of Wakboth. Arkat sacrificed himself, transforming again and again until he defeated Gbaji in the form of a troll.

Perhaps this is what cult hopping does to illuminates - metaphysically they actually a bunch of different people, merged into a single body while they are alive, but the bonds are weaker when they pass from the mortal plane. Ralzakark when he returned was a bunch of different physical beings as well.

Bhuddhism has a rich tradition of pacifying or appeasing demons. Angkor Wat was a royal tomb dedicated to Vishnu, but very quickly became a Buddhist temple. However much of the Angkor Wat site has fallen into disrepair. I think you could have a lot of fun with this. Which demons where the priests attempting to propitiate or subdue? Is their mission slowly failing? I love HP Lovecraft's concept of thin spots (brilliantly portrayed in Stephen King's Crouch End) - places where the fabric of reality is weak. Maybe all the temples were built to prevent something from entering our world through a thin spot. There was a science fiction story Cats Eye, about a displaced person in a future SciFi world who found he could communicate with animals. One of the places visited in the story was an ancient alien ruin. The scientists had a machine which could weaken the walls of time, creating a shadow show of the distant past, but when they switched it on in the alien ruin they got more than a shadow show. HP Lovecraft also had a machine which weakened the barriers in his story From Beyond. Who knows what wickedness or foolishness might be attempted in such a place.

Yet there are trans-humanists in Glorantha - heroes like Jareel, Harrak, Zabur and Ralzakark. Arguably anyone who heroquests has taken their first step on the path to trans-humanism.

Robert Goddard, father of liquid fuel rockets, demonstrated a Bazooka to the US Army in 1918. But if you say wanted to take down a bank vault you might be better with a small field artillery piece.

How about Snake Pipe Hollow itself? You could have a lot of fun with that. Perhaps the Red Emperor wants to declare a special administration zone, similar to the deal the Lunars offered to Orlanthi who settle Riskland on the borders of Dorastor.

Eurmal is the Orlanthi god of change. He brought death into the world, kicked off the entire second age by splitting someone’s tongue, innumerable other outrages and affronts to order. It’s just when it all gets too crazy and out of control Orlanth reminds his bondsman he promised not to break the world, and promised to help clean up the mess.

Mythically trickster seduced Barbeester Gor, so things are likely to get complicated very quickly with the temple guards if there is a trickster in the party - real love hate thing. They might demand the trickster wait outside with them.

Jar-eel had heroic abilities almost from birth, no doubt the result of some serious heavy duty magic. I think Arkat was the "son of Humakt" because you know, if you win the unbreakable sword and overcome an astonishing series of challenges people are going to say nice things about you. Or consider all the candidate Argaraths, they all had a chance to win the prize by virtue of their heroism. But Jar-eel is likely the outcome of a genuine compromise bending effort to infuse a human with god like abilities.

Depends what drives the merger. Usually when big companies merge there is a good reason, and the top execs of the junior company get some top positions in the senior company. In Glorantha a reason for merging is better access to magic - bigger congregation, larger temple. Plus you have more warriors to drive off the next broo incursion.

Kon tiki expedition https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kon-Tiki_expedition Azores expedition - https://m.dw.com/en/trans-atlantic-voyage-in-a-reed-boat-falls-apart/a-2772793 primitive boats have made impressive journeys