Akhôrahil

Orlanth is tanky AF - everyone’s got Shield (everyone that matters at least, yes I mean you Yelmalio), but Orlanth also packs Woad (king of long-term protection) and Earth Shield (king of absorbing arbitrarily high amounts of damage), and is far and away the most likely to receive the superb Bless Champion. Add Heal Body for when damage slips through anyway. Probably the most tanky cult if you exclude Trance cheese.

Note that Issaries still somewhat qualifies under this, due to Spell Trading. 🙂 (Honestly, if you’re looking to min-max your group, one Issaries worshiper is indispensible. It’s far and away the best support cult.)

This is the way I would expect it to work, but p. 77 - which is exclusively about character creation - says ”Cult Spirit Magic: Befuddle (2 pts.) and Glamour (2 pts.) at the normal point cost. Any other spirit magic spell at twice the normal point cost.” Taken as written, this has to refer to starting Spirit Magic. And in turn means you can never start with five points.

Some might, and for an excellent mythical reason - the situation is parallel to the Great Darkness, when BG was born from Ernalda’s dead (or perhaps ”dead”) body to guard it. The context couldn’t be more mythically appropriate if it tried.

It also exposes itself to the mundane world when it casts spells, which means it either actually has to manifest, or it does something similar: "If the fetch casts spells against a target in the Mundane World, only then can the fetch be targeted by spells emanating from the Mundane World."

I don't think it's quite correct to say that the fetch is a separate entity. The fetch is your magical self - it's a part of you that you have separated as an aspect of you. So it's neither free nor controlled - it's you, or a part of you. Yes (p. 356): "During combat, the fetch acts independently from the shaman, but uses the shaman’s DEX strike rank."

This is correct, although it's probably fair to think that in the absence of any other information, Humakt geases use the same system as the gifts.

First, let's do best: Obvious but boring answer is any shaman cult, assuming you've reached Shaman. Also Red Goddess, if Lunar Magic stays the same as in RQ3. Or Lhankor Mhy if you have Sorcery. Humakt still has the outstanding gifts, very likely making him the best regular no-magic cult. Yelmalio is pretty good when you discount the atrocious Rune Magic. Worst though? Good question. Possibly Waha since you can't even get proper Heal. And Eiritha has really bad Spirit Magic and a bunch of restricted spells. Engizi also has a minimal spirit magic selection.

While I agree with this intuitively, the rules have roll or player's choice in both cases, so it's kinda unfair to have rolls in one case and not the other. Humakt: "Specific gifts are chosen by the player, or can be rolled by the gamemaster." Yelmalio: "An initiate may take a gift and its geas ... chosen by the player or rolled by the gamemaster."

Further: https://glorantha.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Witches https://glorantha.fandom.com/wiki/Three_Sky_Witches https://glorantha.fandom.com/wiki/Cannibal_Witch https://glorantha.fandom.com/wiki/El_Jazuli Also multiple cat witches, so that seems to be a thing: https://glorantha.fandom.com/wiki/Jenestra_Cat_Witch https://glorantha.fandom.com/wiki/Irnara_Cat-Witch https://glorantha.fandom.com/wiki/Dorasa_the_Cat_Witch https://glorantha.fandom.com/wiki/Yerestia_Catwitch https://glorantha.fandom.com/wiki/Garanarios

This is probably the largest (non-canonical) description of Brolia: https://www.pensee.com/dunham/glorantha/brolia.html

You should go around insulting any horse you see.

I wonder what the tactical implications are here. With poor Ride, they can't really maneuver too well, and especially not over poor ground or at top speed. Certainly nothing like Mongol tactics or Parthian shot, as these require excellent horsemanship. They don't have the mobility or speed of proper cavalry. They are complete garbage in mounted melee, since there they no longer have access to anything that saves them from their poor riding skill. So it means that they are extremely vulnerable to enemy cavalry, which can both chase them down and then annihilate them in close combat. Perhaps the proper use for them is to have them as a mobile fire base - if they can use their at least acceptable speed to get into a good position, they can fire from there, and at least escape melee from foot infantry. They could also conceivably be used as dragoons, ready to dismount in order to fight properly, but still able to fire from horseback. I imagine proper cavalry would be unimpressed.

I wonder what Impala riders think about getting horse-related gifts and geases…

However, for the same cost of one geas, you could instead get +10% to Ride which nets you an effective 35% and brings you all the other benefits of actually being able to ride. This seems like a far better deal.

I think Doctor Doom did it even better.

I think it’s questionable whether being good at shooting but bad at actually riding is a good recipe for missile cavalry, tbh. Isn’t it both easier and more effective to just learn how ride? (Not that isn’t a funny thought to imagine Yelmalio cavalry fumbling their horses…)

Weirdly, Basmoli are commonly described as non-human, although it's not clear what they would be instead for the humanoid part.

While not in Sartar, in that case I want Top of the World in the running as well. Kero Fin is Orlanth's mom's mountain and his birthplace. Top of the World is his mountain.

No, the excellent map on pp. 110-111 in Dorastor: Land of Doom. It's not all of Dorastor, though.

The point is that the Reputation score doesn't measure what people think about you - it measures your fame, for good and ill. It's about whether you get recognized. It's of course possible to note what someone is famous for, but this is outside the rules mechanics themselves. Honor, on the other hand, says something about your personal qualities.

Because getting honorably killed still sucks? No, because apart from the obvious religious stuff, that would entail something much worse - oathbreaking. This puts the finger on how Honor doesn't completely hold together as a system. Only an honorable combatant has to accept honorable duels, but everyone has follow the laws of hospitality. So is honor a martial virtue, or can that cottar without an Honor score still be reasonably condemned for dishonorable behavior? I have toyed with introducing a "Standing" score on a per community basis, where your Standing would be a combination of your social status (which will often be significantly about resources) and your reputation. If it's denominated 1-100, it would indicate in what percentile of the social group your character is considered (cue "the 1%" jokes).

It really isn't. Sure, a good GM is going to keep track of such things mentally or by notes, but Reputation is a number, and that number explicitly measures your fame (or infamy). You can't say anything about someone's qualities merely by knowing their Reputation score.

It is not. That’s whether you’re known. You can have a High Reputation because you’re universally loathed.

I actually gave a Gagarthi NPC a Dishonorable passion, but that meant he went out of his way to actively act against rules of honor. And I don’t think a low Honor is any weirder than a low Reputation. You’re not going augment with it, but it’s a good metric.