Akhôrahil

Definitely. Until we get the Hero Rules, shamans are the absolute masters of POW vs POW rolls, and no-one who's seen a shaman with Multispell up and spamming Demoralize would think them bad in combat.

Not the Lightbringer book, so it may take a couple of years before the shamanism and spirit cults book gets out.

Deceiver, Destroyer, Liberator...

Interestingly, it's still one of the very best professions, because of just how amazing one extra free POW yearly is. Early on, you start as probably the one person in the party who is good at handling spirits, as well as with the Lore skills. Ideally, spirits should turn up often enough to make you feel like you have niche protection. Good POW means that you can use powerhouse spells like Befuddle and Demoralize (and Sleep depending on how your GM feels about that), and no-one's going to be sad if your provide back-rank healing. Pack a few reserve weapons for when you run out of MPs. I think one issue here is how the default Shaman cults in the core rulebook are Daka Fal and Waha, which are not the most immediately useful adventuring cults (Daka Fal can be really cool, but mostly when you've gotten into the game and added a few Rune Points more). Horned Man and a bunch of Spirit Cults once that book shows up should help out a lot with this. Our shaman feels a lot more active from Kolat, with the cost-effective ability to release an Air Elemental from the bag and then commanding it back in at the end of fighting.

By the way, does anyone else think that Heal Body maybe shouldn’t regrow limbs, or at least not instantly? It pretty much completely supercedes Regrow Limb, being instant. I’m sure a substantial percentage of Ernaldan have it too, making CA a lot less important for anything but really specialist healing - in a small village, it seems very likely that some farm-wife could do most of the healing a CA hospital can provide.

I think Kolat should definitely have Large Air Elementals.

True for reasonably new characters, but a more experienced Orlanthi PC could do it several times, or all season with Extension (mine tend to have 10-20 Points of Rune Magic after six in-game years).

”Cattle Raid” in the GM screen pack should work. Cut away an opponent or two if you want to balance it.

Getting eaten by a dragon is one of the better ways to stop resurrection, though.

The Beast Rune is actually a D4 as seen from above.

For another dumb theory, it's easy to imagine Ralzakark, with his multiple bodies, being a "job" in the way the Red Emperor or the Pharaoh is (was). Just with multiple parallel and not merely serial bodies. You can become Ralzakark in the same way you can become the Red Emperor or the Pharaoh, except you can do it while the bearer of the mantle is still alive and it's non-exclusive (just as Arkat Reborn seems to be). Under this interpretation, Ralzakark with the Scorpion Arm is at least more original than the Unicorn Emperor (but where the Unicorn Emperor usurped the majority of the Ralzakark mantle), and the "Ralzakark" defeated in Hahlgrim's War could have been a pretender (or even two pretenders!) to becoming Ralzakark. It would also explain how "Ralzakark" can come back to become the Monster Emperor even after "final death" (LoT) - sure, that Ralzakark is dead, the same way a previous incarnation of the Red Emperor or the Pharaoh can be dead, but you can still become the Ralzakark (or one of them). You could even argue that when the God-Learners wake Ralzakark, what happens is that someone manages to claim that currently empty job description. (To make it even dumber, maybe the Bright Empire Ralzakark wasn't the original either. The Thing With Many Bodies, anyone?)

Thunder Brother costs 4 points to summon by the Bestiary (Thunderous only), at least for the sample one there. What muddles the waters is that some rulings have suggested that you still need a special summoning spell for it.

Core rulebook says "With this spell, the caster asks the deity to send a cult spirit of some type."

Summon Cult Spirit allows you to decide the type of spirit you summon.

Even the regular S/M/L elementals feel generic and a bit bland. Flint Slingers would definitely be Cult Spirits, although I imagine Spirits of Reprisal can’t easily be used for tasks outside their job description.

Alternate future history where it's Jannisor Moonchaser and not Sheng Seleris.

I would agree that this is a poorly designed rule. It would probably work better if only Summon Cult Spirit existed, and then every cult had a list of its cult spirits (including elementals where applicable). You could also get some gaming goodies out of this by, say, having a shrine that allow people to learn to contact an otherwise unavailable cult spirit.

Someone makes them in bulk. It's like it's some kind of... enterprise.

The Iron Crown is so confusing! One would have thought the Iron Crown was lost (first to Pentans and then Balazarings in the Battle of Highbridge) in 718 (as there aren't that many famous battles between Votanki and Pentans), but this predates Alakoring Dragonbreaker by a couple of centuries. So I guess we most postulate a second ambush of Votanki against Pentans a couple of centuries later with the same outcome, and also not involving Alakoring even then? So the Iron Crown epic must be about an even later king? (Or I suppose there could be two Iron Crowns...)

It's not a game. It's the game.

King of Sartar supports that at the very least ”Sunspear” is an in-world term. And I think there would be a significant ludonarrative dissonance if PCs didn’t know what magic they were using. Conceivably Shield might not be known as ”Shield”, but surely the caster is aware he or she is invoking battle-protective magic?

The Dresden Files RPG rulebook is supposed to be an in-world artifact, with the objective of teaching people about the supernatural and how to oppose it, much as Dracula was in the world as well.

1. I would require a shrine or site - some of the time, but not always, you can find a shrine to your god in the temple of an Associated God (this becomes guaranteed for big temples). There's the risk that you won't be able to pick up any new Rune Spell, though, as shrines only teach the one Rune Spell and you might already know it. 2. I picture Hunters deliberately seeking out shrines that offer the magic they're looking for, much like Eurmal worshipers are forced to. This is good roleplaying fodder as well. 3. Hunter gods are likely to have a lot holy sites that are only intermittently used - when you encounter one, you clear it up, maybe sacrifice, do your cultic thing, and leave it for the next guy. 4. I don't think you can get a full week out of Sanctify, at least not merely for increasing Rune Points, and you'd be guaranteed to miss out on the new spell. 5. Even if there aren't regular shrines, they might pop up temporarily on occasion. I would assume that any Great Hunt will put up a shrine to Foundchild among with the others.

Oh, I like this!