Akhôrahil

True. It's actually impressive as all heck that the Skanthi have lived in the same place for 1500 years and weathered the upheavals (Lokamayadon, the EWF).

Presumably forced into it by losing in the Theyalan Wars leading up to Night and Day, but yes. Losing their ethnic identity in the post-450 churn makes sense to me (Arkati violence helps). Talastar was a mess. Any remnants are probably cultural and linguistic artefacts, which are hard to separate from early Theyalan influence on the Talastari.

I’m thinking the Skanthi are involved here as well, as Heortlings incorporated into Talastar by Lokamayadon during the Theyalan Wars. Possibly even other northern Heortlings dragooned into it. Edit: Duh, the text basically confirms the Skanthi, as they were Penenthelli, and the most Lokamayadonized part as well.

The Infithtelli was one of the Winter Tribes. History of the Heortling Peoples say (p. 10, c. 100-150 S.T.): "3000. Another 3000 or so have migrated northwards (Talastar)[...]" Does anything ever come of this later? Do we know where in Talastar they ended up? Were they simply assimilated (if not right away, then during Lokamayadon, who at the very least must have had them under his command)? 3000 people in the years 100-150 is a pretty decent number.

No. There’s no stopping a player character with a lenient GM. 🙂

It's a good thing it grows back! 🙂 I like this a lot - it feels very Gloranthan that you wouldn't necessarily need specific magical technical expertise to create a magical item, but that it could happen in other ways.

Important to remember that the caster only has to provide the first point of POW. This makes it a lot less onerous. And if you're a priest, the money goes to the cult... which you can probably in turn control to a significant extent. If you're the head honcho, you're essentially paying to yourself.

My PCs would love it if it's always cloudy, so that they can do their favorite thing, spamming Thunderbolts....

Even allied spirits aren't disembodied spirits - that's the whole point! If it's manifested in the regular world, inside a creature or object, it's embodied and goes by the normal rules. It should probably work as any other character, although you're completely within your rights as GM to say "hey, it's a dragon - it takes centuries for these guys to improve!" After all, they wouldn't want that centuries-old dream dragon they're about to fight get seasonal experience on its combat skills... 🙂

One has to wonder if this is philosophically sound, though - everything about the Moon is that it's neither stasis nor free change, but cyclical. Like it says in Carmina Burana: "semper crescis aut decrescis" The practical benefits of the Glowline are obvious, but it might still have been a mistake from a more mystical standpoint, locking the Moon into stasis. Does this explain things about the Empire is getting messed up? Is it a coincidence that its fall starts at a would-be Temple of the Reaching Moon?

While not the actual rules, I really like the solution that your Move Silently gets shifted one level of success. After all, if you are perfectly soundless (as even a failed Move Silently roll would suggest), it will be impossible to hear you even on a critted Listen. +100% to Move Silently would work as well.

Soloquest online, passage 153: "Roll Vasana’s Lance attack and contest it with Vostor’s Kopis parry. If Vostor parries successfully, he reduces the damage by his kopis’ hit points. Any overwhelming damage is then applied to his left arm and reduced by his armor. " I can't see why damage would carry into Vostor's left arm specifically - he's right-handed and he's parrying with his kopis.

It's hard to find since it's at the top rather than among the skills.

Wings of Mercy, p. 125: "It allows anyone who touches it to cast the Heal Rune spell without spending a Rune Point, using only the magic points required." No Rune spell of that name - presumably Heal Wound is what's intended?

Sad truth: most ”mad scientists” are actually mad engineers.

But we still do get Infithtelli in Talastar (HotHP p. 10). I had completely missed that before. I imagine the tribe gets disbanded by Lokamayadon and they disappear from history post-Arkat? Might show up as bloodlines, maybe.

I picture the Skanthi just maintaining some (but probably a fair amount, considering how conservative they are) of their Penenthelli customs. The bit about the Infithtelli migration into Talastar is fascinating though - do we know where they settled, or anything at all after the Battle of Night And Day? Did they leave any marks? The Talastari don't strike me as particularly Bull-centric. It's sheep and rams all the way for them. The Brolians are likely bull Orlanthi though. Odayla should be a big deal among the Skanthi as well, as one of the three gods they had at the Dawn.

The terminology is actually really tricky here - Talastar can be: a) The entire region of Brolia, Anadiki, Talastar "proper" including Biliniland, Skanthiland, and sometimes even Lakrene. This is what the Guide includes under the Talastar chapter header. Maybe we should call this "Greater Talastar", but it might be a construct of a view from above, like Lunars using "Talastar" as a synonym for "Western Pelorian Barbarians". I don't see Brolians and Bilini feeling they are one country. b) The land of the seven Talastari tribes, minus whatever parts of them are under Lakrene rule. I think this is the best use, personally. Let's call this "Talastar Proper". c) The seven tribes area minus Skanthiland (i.e. Biliniland and the other five non-Skanthi tribes). The map in the Guide suggests this. d) Less sure about this, but some maps use it for the land of the five Talastari tribes that aren't Skanthi or Bilini. I'm unclear about whether Opand of Voraneel was even theoretically king of Anadiki and Brolia, for instance. I can't imagine the Brolians came for White Shirt Day - it was probably just the seven tribes minus the Skanthi. On the other hand, why not go big while you're at it? Really looking forwards to this - the Risklands-related parts of the Spider Woods module look like a lot of fun!

Chalana Arroy Resurrection has become massively cheaper (one year's income instead of ransom value), so something like 80L instead of 500L for a Free person. But it has also (sensibly, IMO) been stated that Resurrection is low on the list of CA priorities (the Rune Points might just not be there, or saved for something more important, or you're just not relevant enough). Interestingly, this means that if you accidentally kill someone, it can be worth at least trying to get them resurrected instead of paying wergeld.

Several of the Land Improvements (p. 100) make no sense economically by the rules. A +5% bonus to the Income roll or Farming roll for a Hide of land will typically be worth less than 3L yearly on an 80 L-producing hide. This means that improvements like Irrigation, Road (on non-rolling terrain), Shop and Stable/Barn, with a higher maintenance cost than this, will be a net cost even after the initial investment. A Standing Stone is good, though!

The cost of a Road (p. 110) is 400 L in the table, 40 L in the text. While it's possible that this is about different lengths of road, the text only has a flat cost of 40 L without indicating the length (presumably enough to negate the income penalty on the hide?). Either way, it's a mismatch.

The discussion about "Frame, Light" and "karbantos" in Chariots (p. 95) seems to lack context. What is a "Karbantos"? Who uses it? What is its stats? What does it cost? There is no way to actually use the "Frame, Light" modification.

Ammunition, p. 73: Is it intentional that several of the variant ammunition types have no game-technical effects despite often being described as though they have it? Presumably Blunt arrows shouldn't Impale, for instance, and likely do less damage as well? Should lead sling bullets do more damage than stone ones? What damage does a Target arrow do if you shoot someone with it?

Lance: Described as 1H in the table on p. 62, described as two-handed in the description text on p. 67 ("used with both hands").

This was really excellent, and I don't say that lightly!