Akhôrahil

It's probably a matter of degree. The crappier your fields are, the more you have to rely on herding and hunting, and there's a tendency for this to lead to a more warlike nature (if for no other reason than that you're out of options otherwise). The British in India classified some tribes, mostly hill-based ones, as "martial", seeing them as better recruiting grounds for local soldiers due to a stronger martial ethos. In Glorantha though, this also has an actual impact - if you're a War clan, you focus more on the Death rune than the Life rune, which will make you better fighters and worse farmers. Since so much of clan warfare is raiding, even a larger Peace clan may have troubles bringing its numbers to bear, and paying a reasonable tribute (which they can afford, being better farmers) will make sense for both sides.

Why would you even want this! Feeding horses is already an issue! But of course, there's also the Black Horse Troop, so I guess this is a thing. Now I have a horrible image of these horses "grazing" on the bodies on a battlefield...

"You'd better watch out..." as they say. Also: it can come as no surprise that a trollkin with a luminescent nose will get put down by the others.

Meanwhile, the Orlanthi are out of luck, because you just will not get working Alynx-sleds.

Something we don't hear a lot about but that must surely be super common is sledging. In many real-world areas, winter travel was actually easier due to frozen ground and sledges. A lot of wood-cutting transportation in pre-industrial Scandinavia took place using sledges in wintertime. You can get sleds into places where a wagon would never work. Plus rivers become highways.

I'm mildly surprised that no PHP other than the Grazers ever successfully found (and long-term implemented) the solution "get slaves to do the forbidden work for us while we maintain our good magic". It doesn't exactly seem like a stretch.

I do like the aspect where you may have to seek out another temple or shrine - this supports pilgrimages - but neither the point of POW (which increases Rune Points anyway) nor passing a few skill checks that you can prepare for and are likely within your cultic skill set anyway should be a big issue.

Although maybe she can blast you into your own Dark Night of the Soul if she overcomes your POW with hers?

The results of mysticism should probably be extremely variegated - I don't exactly see Teresa of Ávila leaping around doing Kung Fu in the tops of bamboo forests.

I take this to mean that Yelm is the ruling god but with weaker magic than would otherwise be the case, while the tribes worshiping the Four Winds are a large minority.

I trace SR for SR during the round, so it will depend on speed, positioning and action selection. This is not Rules As Written, though. One of the best ways of managing this is that you declare that you're protecting someone during Statement of Intent, in which case you don't have to fiddle with changing your SoI in order to intercept. (Similarly, our healer likes to declare "I will heal people if and when they need it".)

Meanwhile, I find RQG:s subcults a bit weaksauce - pick up as many as you like without even any cost to it. Gotta catch 'em all? (Hopefully, the Cults book will introduce complications or costs to doing this.)

Yes of course, but it illustrates that ditching your shield when you run away is standard. You probably leave any metal leg greaves at home as well, because I cannot imagine that running in them is much fun. And considering that a medium wooden shield costs 60% of the value of a cow (!!), tossing several of them during a retreat makes a significant economic impact on the raid.

We should distinguish between cattle raids and other raids here, too. The non-cattle kind will tend to be nastier, bloodier and a far bigger deal, and the War clan will definitely do more of that.

The problem with a shield is that it's big, bulky and heavy, and would get tossed if you have to run away (hence "come back with your shield or on it"). So I can see the argument - if you get caught out on a cattle raid, you have to run.

How often do you think an typical clan cattle raids? About once yearly in Fire Season? (You would be subjected to a cattle raid about as often, for symmetry reasons.)

-20 in HW due to Misapplied Worship, i.e. using the wrong kind of magical system to approach an entity. Like Aeolians trying to approach Orlanth through sorcery. Very few people think it was a good idea these days.

I think this is how we're supposed to think of Tarumath?

Right. Just because you could do anything - "everything is permitted" or perhaps "do as thou wilt" - doesn't mean you should. But any moral restrictions to your actions are now completely up to you, personally, in an existentialist kind of way. A Humakti who gets Illuminated is not forced to adhere to Humakti rules any longer, but can still decide to, possibly even doubling down on them. Aware that they are in a sense arbitrary, but still committing.

I sometimes imagine Brithini immortality as a successful (for a value of "successful") denial of the Man rune, but this has a bunch of issues to it and probably doesn't actually work. Perhaps a denial of the change to the Man rune introduced by the killing of Grandfather Mortal instead? Replacing parts of the Man rune with the Law rune? A Law-based caste system is clearly related to immortality in Glorantha, as Dwarves do the same thing and with the same consequences for failure (or in the case of dwarves, "failure").

The large focus on Nysalorean Illumination with its frequent outcome of "nothing is true, everything is permitted" seems like short-changing the mystical tradition as well. No-one would do Kabbalah and then suddenly realize that no divine laws apply to them any longer.

I'm sure it can be really scary though - not just the cold, but trolls and ice demons abroad.

I think this definition is a little restrictive. There are Christian and Muslim mystics as well, who often don't practice ascetism (at least not a very strong one - excess should typically be avoided). There's an ecstatic aspect to it that is almost universal, though, as in Sufi whirling. The idea is to achieve direct contact with an otherwise inaccessible Ultimate, whatever that is pictured as being (God for Christians, unsurprisingly). So an Old Wind Orlanthi mystic might seek to achieve a direct connection with Transcendent Orlanth (painting himself blue, breathing in a controlled manner, and reciting the Laws of Umath and Orlanth). * This was an idea I had for such an Orlanthi mantra recitation: No-one can make you do anything. No-one can make you do anything. No-one can make you do anything. No-one can make you do anything. No-one can make you do anything. No-one can make you do anything. No-one can make you do anything. No-one can make you do anything. [repeat]

Winter pelts would be one simple reason. Moose can be easier to hunt in snow (they’re not nearly as good at running in it). Just doing something instead of just sitting in the hut. My Odaylan hunters sleep a lot in winter, though.

Winter hunting could be another.