Akhôrahil

The closest thing we could come to time zones is if Gloranthan light (like the Discworld's) is somehow slow enough that dawn and dusk doesn't hit everywhere at the same time.

Bestiary: "Each Wildday, which happens to be the night of the Full Moon in Dragon Pass, each Telmori must change to their beast form and roam the countryside." So it's the day, not the moon phase. Days in at least the Sartarite start with the sunset, not the sunrise, so the sun sets, Wildday starts, and Telmori shift (presumably for the next 24 hours). This means that in some places, Wildday is not Full Moon (Dorastor and Talastar are examples), but this is irrelevant to Telmori shifting. The shapechange isn't tied to the moon, it's tied to the energies of Wildday.

Which does seem quite doable. Bless Pregnancy 1 - 3 seems like something anyone could and should get; above that it starts to get a bit sparse as you will lock up the spellcasting of a Priestess or other more advanced caster.

I think we're arguing different things - my point is that there's little reason any Heortling pregnancy should go unblessed. It's better if there's an expert at it, but if there isn't, then it can be easily fixed by personal sacrificing.

I can't imagine how anyone would want to go through a non-Blessed pregnancy when it's readily available. Even today, avoiding "any of the pains and sicknesses of her condition" and "during childbirth, she suffers only mild pangs and can control the timing of the birth" seem like they would be strong selling points, and multiply that several times over for bronze age medical conditions when the risk of death for both mother and child is severe. The cost of locking up one Rune Point for most of a year seems almost negligible. Yes, it might be preferable if someone else casts it (so that you don't have to learn it), but if that's not available, who wouldn't want to spend a point of POW for it and have one more Rune Point forever afterwards (including for later pregnancies)? The reward seems overwhelmingly stronger than the cost.

Agree - Wyter casting is either really inefficient (when done in most normal ways) or brokenly powerful (when you manage to abuse the multi-target casting, like resurrecting hundreds of people after a battle for a fraction of a Rune Point each or dropping a an Extended Shield 10 on every warrior in a battle).

I disagree with this. A completely newly initiated Ernaldan has 1 Rune Point. But if you take a look at NPCs in published products, it's pretty clear that the average initiate of a cult has 3 Rune Points or so. And who wouldn't sacrifice at least a POW for 1 Rune Point and Bless Pregnancy if it's not already otherwise available? This is a no-brainer. Bless Pregnancy not being One-Use is extremely generous. And while it does lock down Rune Point(s), you can get this time down to 2/3ds of a pregnancy (cast it in late first trimester) which then wouldn't interfere with Bless Crops (the heavyweight among what the average farmers need their Rune Points for).

I mean, I would be utterly shocked if no-one in Glorantha has ever been hit with a bear transformation curse (probably some tragic stuff about eating relatives, getting killed by them, or both). But it’s not a standard pattern.

While true, they would have taken huge losses among the younger children during the Great Winter, so to a significant extent this would just mean replacing them. No extra load from that. Migration caused by the famine was the larger factor, though. That doesn't significantly happen in Sartar.

Agree - this is the Curse, not the regular transformation. Werebears are just what the early game had instead of Rathori, correct? Just as the Sons of the Tiger became the Hsa?

Completely legit question - there's essentially no reason why every pregnancy wouldn't be Blessed with at least 3 points. More babies is not a good idea at most times - the clan is probably already at carrying capacity with regards to food - but fewer pregnancies (I assume Ernaldans can control fertility) with healthier and more powerful babies seems like a no-brainer from a game perspective. Nobles should by every reason shop around for even larger Bless Pregnancy spells - it's a solid investment in their offspring. 5-10 points should be quite achievable. My PCs obviously drop the biggest Bless Pregnancy they can find every time it comes up - it's a no-brainer in case the campaign lasts very long and the kids can be promoted into PCs. Although perhaps Bless Pregnancy explains the free points of characteristics PCs get during chargen...

I would have gone with the Tower of Lead instead, although it's not really a town.

If we keep going by RQG, even a basic Ernalda initiate with 3 Rune Points can spend well over 100 Rune Points per year (due to weekly minor holy days). Rune Point availability isn't really a limiting factor - you don't have to cut back on anything in order to drop a Bless Pregnancy 1 on every woman in the community if desired. There's essentially zero opportunity cost.

I think this was about regaining the population post-Windstop, though - if we imagine that fertile women make up 30% of the population and Bless Pregnancy is used, almost 5% of the population could be recovered yearly (the number of natural deaths will be reduced for a number of years as a lot of the elderly and the young died during the Great Winter already).

Do you mean the same kind of idea (creating a maximally representative Man, one thinks), or an actual continuation of the breeding lines?

The KoS text is explicit that Argrath asked for Sheng in particular, though. Sure, it might not be reliable, but it’s what we have.

I imagine either the Sartar box or the Argrath Campaign might contain a timeline in future, but there’s not really any definitive timeline out there yet (especially about the future).

Early Dorastor interspecies breeding makes Pavis seem positively normal by comparison.

Interestingly, they can have a long-term impact on population if they’re combined with migration associated with the famine - Ireland still hasn’t exceeded its population pre-famine after over a century and a half. But yeah, this doesn’t seem relevant for Sartar. Presumably Argrath will have some issues with recruiting once that demographic chasm arrives in the right age cohort, though.

Yes, he specifically asks for him, at least according to the source we have, King of Sartar: "The treasures of Heaven were available to him: peace, food for his people forever, personal immortality, friendship with demigods, a homestead in Heaven, and his own star. But all the gods were shocked when he asked for Sheng Seleris, an ancient enemy who had chased the Red Emperor off the earth, and had even scarred the celestial face of the Red Goddess when he was alive. But that demigod was beyond their reach, quarantined in a Hell which was made by the Red Goddess outside of their cosmos. The ancient gods could not do what they had said they would do, and as a result the whole of Genertela shuddered, and the Earth grandmother groaned, as if her bones were bending. The stars were afraid." Additionally, this sounds suspiciously like a Compromise breach, which only makes it worse (although it's sorted out when Argrath goes to get Sheng Seleris personally). (Also, note how Argrath could have asked for divinely-enforced peace here, and doesn't.)

Depends on exactly what you mean? I mean, the Monster Empire seems like the likely outcome of the Lunar Empire getting beaten, and Argrath's LBQ is certainly what makes them end up beaten. So the causal connection is there, but it seems slightly harsh (even to Argrath) to blame him for what the Empire does when it's losing. On the other hand, you can very much blame Argrath for the reasoning "You know what the world needs more of? Someone like Sheng Seleris."

The worst famines in history killed about 20% of the population (The Great Potato Famine had 15% and the Holodomor 13% as a comparison), and the Great Winter in Sartar at least is undeniably pretty damned bad - I have a hard time picturing less than 10% dead in Sartar, although it was likely considerably better in Lunar Tarsh (where emergency shipments or even just trade probably helped). Above 30%, and the population would have a seriously hard time recovering to 1627. So somewhere around 10-30%? If we agree that RQ models the available magic (re: Bless Pregnancy), then every fertile woman in Sartar can have 1.55 children per year if desired, which very quickly makes up for losses in total population (and clans like the Red Cow can bring out Orlanth's Rattle if they want to accelerate things even further).

I picture Lunar Arrolia (at least pre-recontact) as a nicer place than most of the Empire. Likely one of the best places in Glorantha to live (and then comes the KoW). As the White Moonies would agree, the militaristic, expansionist, Chaos-makes-a-great-tool Empire is part of the problem, not part of the solution. (Of course, the HeroWars don't exactly reward "nice".)

I mean, it's still your body, surely? 🙂 Otherwise you could shapeshift out of all kinds of targeted spells, and that would matter.

This is a misreading of the spell (although you can of course make whatever ruling you feel proper) - you don't cast it on a natural weapon, you cast it on yourself (or someone else) and then it affects all natural weapons. "Though the name implies it works only on hands, the spell affects the whole body, including maneuvers like head- butting and kicking. "