Akhôrahil

Same here. Otherwise you can’t even improve them with Occupational Experience, which strikes me as ridiculous.

[Your mercenary or volunteer unit] finds itself left behind in [far into enemy territory] when [the war] ends, and you have to fight, negotiate and survive your way back home. (This is obviously the Anabasis, but also the story of the Czech Legion in World War I, the Chain of Dogs in The Malazan Book of the Fallen and the campaign premise of the Band of Blades rpg.)

Agree about Animal Lore.

I really enjoyed the idea that the Lunars are trying to introduce a crappy ersatz thunder god, and absolutely no-one is impressed but the quislings make a show of playing along for political reasons.

Oh, you're moving that from Yelmalio to Elmal? Intriguing... I'm also really interested in what "normal" Elmal and/or Yelmalio worship in Biliniland would look like. My line so far is that while there is clear and definitive traditional Yelmalio worship down in the lowlands (Endeel and the Lingsting Sun Dome), the Orlanthi clans usually aren't even fully clear on what the difference is supposed to be - one clan might worship Elmal but under the name Yelmalio, and so on.

I was similarly interested in pre-Theyalan Talastari gods, and thought gods like Hagodereth, Hethana and Varnaval seemed intriguing.

This became an enormous headache in the original World of Darkness, where most published campaigns turned into "the PCs get to stand around watching the fan-favorite NPCs do the important stuff". I was involved on the sidelines for V5, and a major piece of the design was "we have to avoid that, and make the game about the PCs again". We'll see how the Argrath Campaign handles things, but unless handled deftly, there's a huge risk that the timeline of the future gets nailed down in detail, that the PCs can't do anything about it, and that the important people (i.e. not the PCs) get all the plot focus. I liked how KoS/HW/HQ did its very best to avoid that, with its multiple-choice Argraths. I think Exalted had the best idea - essentially "the game starts here, and while we will fill out the setting, there is no metaplot for the future".

Personally, I'm getting sick and tired of Sartar in general at this point, and with all the Jonstown Compendium stuff coming out, honestly "yet another Sartar Clan campaign" is among the least exciting things I can imagine. (However, I'm probably an outlier, so go ahead and do what you feel like doing - that's far more important than trying to please me specifically! But goddamnit would I love a Safelster, East Isles, Fronela or Fonrit campaign!)

That’s what happens when you don’t thank them properly and respectfully for their sacrifice.

Or for that matter, how they can use it reliably when they don't receive any skill in it. Not that there are any rules-consequences for failure...

Yes, exactly. He's presented as one in the rulebook and the lore, though. Hence the mismatch.

Shargash, probably? Solars as a rule seem more fond of soldier and officer deities than warrior ones, but Yelmalio can't even do that.

It's not overrated when Yelmalio is on the list of good picks for gods for a warrior, but that character will then be constantly overshadowed in fights even by many non-warrior characters due to bad magic. Even if you don't believe in game balance, you should probably believe in niche protection.

I would say rather, CA will call on heroquesters, but success in the HQ is not guaranteed. We know from the Goddess Swap that gods aren’t immune to mortals, nor can they count on their worshipers to always sort things out.

Eastern Mystics must be unusually annoyed when people try to worship them!

Understanding of the metaphysics.

Or one to fix five! #trolleyproblem

Interesting, I would have thought that was part of Worship, but this is a great point. At the very least, you should be able to Augment with Peaceful Cut.

I wonder If it’s possible to do ”attack” worship - if a god cannot resist worship, you might be able to make some kind of ”injection attack” using deliberately misconstrued worship. You might sacrifice inappropriate stuff, perform sabotaged rituals, recite made-up myths, or perhaps the MPs you sacrifice might be tainted (chaotic, originating from inappropriate sacrifices, and so on)? The god won’t be the least bit happy about this, but as you’re probably some kind of Illuminate, God Learner or other actor capable of defending yourself against Agents of Reprisal if you’re doing this kind of thing, that might not be enough to stop you. I mean, what does happen if you perform human sacrifices to Chalana Arroy, and can handle the divine defences? Could you generate, at least locally, “Bloody-Handed Chalana”?

Yes (p. 436). Ban also makes a heck of a lot more sense - a priest can boss over his temple, but your Initiate status is between you and your god.

With the Sami, fishing was a big deal.

I think they are so heretical that they pose as just regularly heretical, because otherwise even other heretics would think they went too far.

It also makes sense to consider whether this is a "natural" transfer, which should be a lot more acceptable. An older woman moving from Ernalda to Asrelia is business a usual (I would even support being allowed to bring Rune Points along in this case). Transfer to Humakt or Chalana Arroy due to re-life sickness, this is surely known and accepted as a natural thing that the priesthood don't get to stand in the way of.

P. 181: "This skill is also known as butchering. It includes the ability to dismember an animal in the quickest and most efficient way, and the ability to divide up a prey animal in the traditional manner." I also use it for skinning, where relevant. I do think RQ3 had the better solution, though.

Absolutely agree, but that's because pulling the sword is a separate action. The same duck, Slowed (SR 13 for the fist), should not be incapable of attack, IMO. I would say the attack happens on SR1 next turn, but the ruling that you get to do it on SR 12 anyway isn't crazy either.