Akhôrahil

Although Daka Fal used to be an associated cult of Kyger Litor's (and at a guess, will be again), so supposedly it's available to trolls as well?

Yeah, just jails. Why have a prison when you can have a DX-run re-education work camp somewhere horrible instead?

Mmm, I run Illumination more as an elite state, something the overwhelming percentage of people will never achieve (and probably even fewer chaotics, as mental discipline and intellectual excellence tends to go poorly with chaoticism in most cases), no matter how practical it is. The Lunar Heartlands is almost certainly the most illuminated place in Glorantha, and I can’t imagine more than a couple percent of the population are Illuminated.

In my book, this would absolutely require Illumination - Vivamort/Nontraya is the archenemy of Ernalda (and I see Land/Grain Godesses mostly as local variations and subcults of Ernalda). Without Illumination, Spirits of Reprisal would hit you like a brick. It’s only one step up from Humakti vampires. Of course, you have a partially Chaos-aligned Dorasta, which makes this more feasible. But even so, there’s an obvious tension between a fertility cult and vampirism (which is all about stealing life).

My take on Dorastor is that I keep turning it down from 11. 🙂

Even when it’s something very different from my own view - I just jumped in my seat at the Neverdead text where there’s a pro-Undead (!) Earth Great temple with multiple Vampire-priestesses (!!) and 200 (!!!) god-talkers there. I mean, not in my Dorastor, but the idea of an obscene little Illuminated Earth cult there is still a nice idea regardless.

You need Unknown Armies for your Pornomancy rituals.

Aren’t those (possibly excluding Arkati) the same thing? I meant that I’m not sure that Arkat was accepting of Chaos, which would indicate that he wasn’t Nysalorean/Rashoranically Illuminated.

I can't say how canonical it is, but it's stated outright in Cults of Terror/Lords of terror/Cult Compendium "The illuminated one will know as truth that chaos is, in itself, neither evil nor inimical. This secret knowledge is the source of the other five benefits of Initiation." I would add that "accepting" here doesn't mean "like" - your phrasing of "neutral" is just as good. There's nothing special about Chaos in the eyes of the Illuminant. I suppose you could argue that Arkat's problem wasn't with Chaos in general but with Nysalor in particular. (I personally don't think it's meaningful to talk about what gods are Illuminated or not. You will only interact with gods through the raster of your myths anyway. It doesn't matter in the slightest what they "really" are outside of their myths, if it's even a meaningful concept.)

Are there any cults where you have to become human to join?

“The real Argrath was inside you all along.”

It is, and there’s not a lot to be done about it. Reading the Glorantha Siurcebook is one of the more accessible entrance points, but even that’s not so easy. Fortunately, you don’t need a full and wide understanding. Start in a small corner, the more remote the better, and you may never have to learn about Harmast Barefoot’s 12 Heroquests or the details of the Lunar bureucracy. It’s not exactly sword & sorcery - if you want a genre description, it’s more sword-and-sandal. More Troy or Harryhausen, less Conan or Elric. There are places in Glorantha that would support sword & sorcery (like Safelster), but they have never been detailed. And Glorantha has a much, much heavier focus on culture and social context than sword & sorcery typically has. You’re more likely to be a farmer who takes up arms to protect his clan, than a rootless wanderer like Conan or Elric.

I swear my first thought was "post-modernist ritual, huh?".

HQ writing is so good. Reminded me to go back and read up on Odayla and Yinkin in the far and away best source for them, Storm Tribe.

Huh, really? I always liked how minor but still relevant many were, like "always use Peaceful Cut on frogs" for Frog Woman. That adds a ton of flavor! EDIT: Damnit, Nick Brooke beat me to it!

Yes, basically, but there will still be a Horned Man cult in the Cults book. And didn’t he have a cult in GoG, with spells like Axis Mundi?

I was thinking the exact same thing.

Horned Man (inexplicably not in the base game, but you can run him just with Spirit Cults) and darkness-related Spirit Cults that you make up or borrow from old stuff is probably the easiest. Kyger Litor has a lot of shamanic content, but you likely have to be a troll.

That fortunately, they are insane?

Hope you can tell us more - there seems to be more of them around than one’d think!

I would probably chalk that down to “uncaring”, rather.

You can detect Illuminates by how they don’t register on Sense Chaos even when they should. (We had fun about that Lunar broadsheet with “Storm Bulls - trust your senses”. The joke’s on the Lunars - Storm Bulls can’t read anyway...)

No-consequences abuse of cults he belonged to would seem to be an indicator...

I would imagine that Draconic Illumination doesn’t include features like acceptance of Chaos, which is core to Nysalorean/Rashoranic Illumination. Where is this stated? Supposedly the Solars had their own pre-existing concept of Illumination.

Both Gorakiki Mosquito and Gorakiki Dragonfly scare me. This is great! Synthesize that into Orlanth, God-learners! Oh man, that won't go over well with any visiting Yelmalians. 🙂