Akhôrahil

I'm not sure why you want so very few Rune spells - even small cults have a good deal more than that! That said: * Cult * Summon Small Fire Elemental, Cloud Clear, Sunbright, Sunripen. I would also create a Rune Magic spell for endurance/survival/steadfastness, the way I think Yelmalio ought to have as well. * Associated Cults * Orlanth provides: Shield Redalda provides: Speak With Horse Ernalda (technically Esrola, but the rules don't tend to break her out): provides Bless Animals Subcults: Rigsdal (Night Watchman, gain Catseye), Redalda (entrance for women, the way Vinga is for Orlanth)

Yeah, Elmal is clearly the XO, not the NCO - the trusted second-in-command. This also works well with the horse thing - Elmal leads the away party on horseback.

Is there a source for this, or is it your interpretation?

I like the compromise position that Yelm is the sun disk and Elmal transports it (by horse or cart).

See Yelmalio, who is remarkably ineffectual and even provides geases that make the recipients suck at their job.

Not everyone, but for PCs, it’s (unfortunately) something of a no-brainer - it gives you stuff (or at least access to stuff) for free. The GM should probably make sure to create some hassle for PCs when they overdo it, like having subcult leaders call on them to do particularly annoying jobs for them.

Some of these may even be restricted in various ways - while the spells of the Four Weapons are fully integrated into Orlanth Adventurous in Sartar, in other places you would have to join the right subcult before you could even access them (and they could potentially be stingy with memberships if so inclined).

That makes every kind of sense, thanks!

What’s the in-world explanation for Hazia being so widely illegal? Wars on Drugs are hardly Ancient World phenomena, are they? I can easily see puritanical Sun County having an Opinion, but why do the rest of them, especially the Lunars, bother?

One interpretation would be that Wakboth is trapped under the Block. But because he was killed, he went to the Underworld next, because that's what you do.

Personally, I do see the Darkness rune as associated with decay, and it's hardly coincidental that Malia packs the Darkness rune.

I think this is sensible.

Agree - there are enough landless people that even a cottar job isn’t unattractive. By historical standards, 40% off of 80 acres isn’t terrible - Roman peasants might have 10-15 acres and making it up by labor for the landowner, although the level of rent+tax in the system we’re presented with is extremely high. If you have to go looking for cottars, there’s no telling who you will get, though. Trouble might easily arise. Herder might be - I think there are three kinds of herders: youngsters (like in the GM pack), pros (people doing it as a long-term profession), and ranchers (herders owning at least their own flock, which should qualify them for Free SoL). Also, I think the Cottars are subjected to less risk - they get provided their seed, they’re not fully on the hook for bad harvests (they have to pay half of what they get, not half of theoretical field yield), and so on. They’re poor, but their poverty might be less volatile. Free farmers must at the very least have access to cattle - that’s how they produce the oxen they need to qualify. I tell my players they need 8 cattle to keep this up (can’t remember where I read it).

BTW, I disagree about this - tenant farmers are a (semi)permanent underclass with families and kids, IMG.

60L is unlikely to be able to support a Free SoL post-taxes/tithes/failed income rolls, and Fishers and Herders are listed with Poor Standard of Living in their professions, which is what we use for this table. Free SoL starts with 80L income for the professions. Cottars are going to be a substantial minority of the clan, probably secondary only to Free farmers.

It might have been a more playable design if both this table and the random yearly event table generated a crisis rather than an outcome. The child will die unless. Raids cause an economic loss unless. And so on.

Smaller modifiers would do it, but then, modifiers of just a few percent feel tiny in a BRP context.

You can't extrapolate from wimpy Middle Men to Dúnedain or elves. They're just better than us. There's just no way elves accumulate minor aches and niggling injuries as the years go on until they're completely crippled.

Child mortality to 15 for poor people going by the table is 96%. This is like nothing in history. (For Free, it's around 50%, which is probably roughly historical.) Potentially, if you can't maintain your SoL.

BTW, the child survival table is really weird. If you're wealthy, survival is automatic. If you're poor, child mortality is absurdly high.

Lords of Terror: "...the actual person emerges as a member of the scorpion race. He retains all his former skills and spells..." (this is for the more advanced use of the spell)

So I used this in play last session. One Orlanth PC was looking for a God-Talker advancement, and wanted to found a shrine halfway up Thunder Mountain in Talastar. The party have already been there twice in This World-heroquests and met Vorios (even assisting him against a Gagarthi heroquester), so they felt like they had something to work with. Starting out with divinations, they were given a vision of Vorios slamming one hoof down on a slab of rock, leaving a deep scorched hoof-mark pressed into it. Doing their best to guess the location, they made their way up the mountain. A Kolat shaman in the party interrogated a wind and bribed it with magic points to get directions. Approaching it, they stumbled on Barstan Ram-Friend (Secrets of Dorastor) who gave them lavish hospitality out of various loot, and wasn't hard-pressed to be convinced that a Ram-related shrine was a good idea. They built a ceremonial cairn, sacrificed, and called a Storm Ram to the location, after which the would-be God-Talker was informed he would have to prove his worth, Rodeo style. Both Extended Bull's Strength and shaman-prolonged regular Strength was brought out, after which first a successful unarmed attack (to grapple it) and a series of three rolls on the Resistance table followed (they were very happy to discover how Storm Rams don't weigh as much as one would expect). The Storm Ram was hence convinced to act as a wyter (potentially not the most consistent one...) and the shrine was consecrated. Aside from the regular qualities, we decided that the shrine provides a good place to pick up a Storm Ram allied spirit, that any Storm Rams and Air Elementals Summoned there come with an Extension 2 pre-applied, and that it teaches a special Summon Huge Air Elemental spell (which is so far of doubtful utility as no-one even feels ready to try to control large ones yet). Solid product!

By the way, two sessions ago we finally saw one PC go all-in with his crap-ton of Rune Points in a Scorpionman fight, doing a full Odayla bear transformation, Protection 6, some Impede Chaos, and Berserk. That was quite a sight, and at least two heads were ripped clean off, along with any number of limbs (one of them his own foreleg)!

It says "the actual person", so I would assume everything is as intact as it can be, including in principle initiation status, rune levels, and so on. A lot of cults will likely be impossible to maintain, but in principle you could even snatch a god-talker, create lay members to the cult, and teach spirit magic that way. K'rana in Lords of Terror maintained her Humakt worship and teaches it (as best she can) to her tribe. Being dead and returning to life can't destroy your fetch, or self-resurrection would be impossible. The person's spirit is still there in the reborn Scorpionperson, after all, and your fetch is just your magical self.

The one you just grabbed, ate, and did the Ritual of Rebirth on? 🙂