Richard S.

48 minutes ago, Qizilbashwoman said:

how does one pronounce kuschile, because my head reads it as "kuss CHIL leh" (u as in look)

I read it something like "koo-SHEEL" or "koo-SHEEL-ae"

Axes, swords, whatever's on hand probably. I doubt there's a ton of uniformity in what secondary weapon they use, even within the same temple, since even as a source of professional mercenaries they're not full-time soldiers.

23 hours ago, g33k said:

I'm guessing it's much too soon for any change of status.

The stage (as mentioned in the OP above) of " ... off to copy editing ... finishing art direction ... drawing up some charts ... etc ... " is a very time-consuming stage, a very laborious process.

I note, in particular, the "art direction."  That means Ian was still describing what was wanted, collecting example/inspiration pieces, etc.  The artist(s) hadn't even begun work on those pieces of art, for which no art-direction existed.

And after SOB finishes draft, along with Ian's "charts etc" and all that art, it still needs to go through layout; at a guess, that would be the next stage we might get word of (although sometimes Chaosium seems to include "layout" into this same stage, and not break it out as worthy of separate report).

All true, but it still would be nice to get some sort of update on where we're at. Maybe some previews or design notes like we got in the leadup to Runequest. For already being halfway through the "year of Questworlds" there's been remarkably little of it.

To be fair, afaik it's been established that dead spirits do eventually lose their memories of their old life and get reincarnated into someone else. How that meshes with being able to summon specific ancestors to the nth generation I'm not sure, but maybe those are more like "memories" of the ancestor rather than the actual spirit they possessed in life. Either that or the timelessness of the Other Side has something to do with it. So it seems fine to me that Zzabur can both accept death being the end of the ego and that the dead can be communicated with.

13 hours ago, French Desperate WindChild said:

By the way, we have the underworld and surface/middle air cults specialised against chaos, what about see and sky ?

is water, by nature, not impacted ?

is the red moon / nysalor the sky answer ? (Kind of aikido opposition = your strength is my strength = illumination)

 

Or both sky and see have some gods to fight chaos ?

Not every elemental "pantheon" has to have gods to fill every niche, especially since the elements are by no means completely separate factions, and the concept of them being organized into pantheons is just a way the god learners categorized them for scientific purposes. The god of Anti-Chaos for the whole world, not just the "Air Pantheon", is the Storm Bull -  Anti-Chaos is another name for his personal rune, after all. Kyger Litor and Baroshi have some anti-chaos powers and associations, but they're not fully anti-chaos gods.

Probably just a nameless thunder brother. Lord knows there's enough of them for Broyan to just have one in his pocket.

On Elmal sources:

His Storm Tribe writeup gives him Blazing Spear under his Combat affinity. His S:KoH writeups lets initiates use Fire for what what are essentially Fireblade and Firearrow, summoning Urzani, creating warmth, and burning Trolls and Chaos. If we count Mongoose, Fireblade, Firearrow, and Ignite were cult spells, and Sunspear in their second edition.

Not taking a side here, just listing what I've found.

2 hours ago, Eff said:

it is essential that Ernalda clutch the Little Sun between her massive thighs

God I wish that were me

2 hours ago, Eff said:

I don't quite understand why Heortland would have effectively-nihil presence of Little Sun worshipers. Sartar's Elmal->Yelmalio people have to have come from somewhere, and while the Alda-Chur and Alone people are coming from Tarsh, you'd still have to explain the Runegate clans, miscellaneous Elmali from the main body of tribes who would naturally form the Vaantar population once that's established. It all seems to say to me that there's some kind of Little Sun presence in Heortland in the 1300s, and unless we're positing that the Little Sun's worshipers moved disproportionately northward, or that Belintar oppressed them to the point they became a meaningless presence, they still ought to be there in 1620 because they're not subcultural. They were integrated into the general culture at the time.

I wouldn't be surprised if many of the Heortland Elmali immigrated to the Sun Dome along with their Sartar cousins. They wouldn't have as close a tie to the revelations going on, sure, and don't have the pressure of a prince trying to deal with a Darkness problem and prevent a civil war, but there was probably still some attraction to them in the idea of an independent solar theocracy. Also the Kitori were a problem to Heortland too, so that might have caused some Elmali to go lend a hand.

Not saying there aren't Yelmalions in Heortland, my earlier guess was definitely way off, but with the Sun Dome being fairly close I think it's reasonable to assume a similar migration to what Sartar experienced.

Just now, Ironwall said:

Jeff posted that even at 1% of the population Esrolia would still have 10,000 Followers of Yelmalio. although im assuming heortland has a similar percantage

 

Ah, I missed that

5 minutes ago, Ironwall said:

Where in Heortland might one find a small Yelmalian Sun Dome if esrolia has 10,000 than there's at least a few thousand yelmalians in heortland

Where are you getting that Esrolia has 10K Yelmalians? The entirety of Dragon Pass only has around 16K, and he's got much more importance there than in Esrolia.

I'd guess there's a minor temple in one of the larger cities of Heortland, shared by the probably only a hundred or so Yelmalians in the region, but not a full blown Sun Dome.

Something is Chaos when it has a connection to the Chaos rune. It's not always an obvious distinction, but it is a pretty definite one. Chaos isn't caused by or the source of immorality or evil, though the majority of Chaos things probably are. Though people often blame things they don't like on Chaos, regardless of whether or not it's actually Chaotic.

2 hours ago, Ironwall said:

Wouldn't be surprising if the yelmalio cultists were concentrated in and around a specific city

Little Vanntar is a small neighborhood in Nochet actually. There's also an area called Elmal's Town right next to it, funnily enough. I'm not sure what the status of Y/elmal/io was when the map was made, but I guess Yelmalio just has two temples in Nochet now. I'd guess Elmal's Watch is used for if they do stuff with the Orlanth temple.

Elmal = Yelmalio. As far as I'm aware, no one in Glorantha sees them as different cults, and even before then the issue was more that the southern Orlanthi didn't know about Yelmalio in the first place.

3 hours ago, g33k said:

I mean... RQG core book has Ernalda & most of the Lightbringers already... Orlanth & Issaries & Eurmal & Chalanna Arroy & Lhankor Mhy.

And I think those are essentially "longform" write-ups, aren't they?

No, RQG just has short form: bare essentials on backgrounds, requirements, and benefits. Long form is what you find in CoP, CoT, etc.: full mythology, organization, social position, relationships, and more details on benefits.

There's also always augments, meditation, and ritual practices to increase your casting chance. It takes a bit longer, but it's not like you're going to be casting Healing Trance in the middle of battle.

2 minutes ago, g33k said:

So IIRC we are getting Xiola Umbar in the new Cults duology (and Prosopaedia, I presume).

I was hoping for a bit of a sanity-check.  I'm working from the RQC Trollpak (pp95-98) + RBoM.

Are her Runes still  (from Trollpak)?
Same Rune-magic & spirit-magic as per Trollpak (I haven't double-checked that all XU's magic still even exists in RQG/RBoM; but I can adjust if not) ?

TYVM anyone who can assist me with these.

Still Harmony/Dark/Life according to the Well's prosopaedia. I'd assume the same magic as well, though I'd check RQ3's Gods of Glorantha to see if anything got added. the GoG writeups seem to be closest to what RQG uses.

16 minutes ago, None said:

Doesn't mean it can't happen, nor that it wouldn't be interesting. 😃 Personally I'd love the hilarity of discovering the awkward truth that a Prince of Sartar (or King of Dragon Pass) is descended from Sartar on his mother's side but is actually descended from Yelm on his father's side.

After that you just have to lean back and watch the political fallout if that ever became public knowledge. Or some other ambitious descendant of Sartar caught wind of it.

(Not to mention how weird and ridiculous it would be with someone descended from Orlanth and Yelm both. Although for all I know there could very well be a few of the Pure Horse people who are. Unless there are no human descendants of Orklanth left, I'm unsure about that despite finding it hard to believe.)

How would the Prince of Sartar being descended from Yelm be some sort of scandal? That'd be like someone saying they're descended from Genghis Khan: kind of interesting, but ultimately not that impactful. It's been a few thousand years since Orlanth and Yelm started having kids, people who could trace their ancestry back to either or both probably aren't uncommon. Though most people don't keep track of their distant ancestors in the first place.

19 minutes ago, None said:

I didn't expect them to fly like the wind or even be that quick or manoeuvrable (unless they fly like birds) but I feel that flying or at least rising above the Earth (and potentially the Air) shouldn't be impossible.

If you feel it should be possible then go ahead and make a spell for it, nothing's stopping you. It might not be a power of any of the major solar gods as we know them, but ygmv.

41 minutes ago, David Scott said:

Not opposites exactly, but a wheel of who overcomes who. It's on the adventurer sheets: Air beats Fire beats Darkness beats Water beats Earth beats Air. It's based Zzabur's Sigil (Glorantha Sourcebook 194 or GtG 149). I'd have the shaman discover their own, see also 

IIRC, Dark->Water->Earth->Air->Fire is the cosmological arrangement, dark on bottom and fire on top, and is also the order in which the elements are usually presented in rulebooks. The wheel showing who overcomes who, Zzabur's Sigil, is Dark->Earth->Air->Water->Fire->Dark, and tracing the pentacle gives us the dark->water->earth->fire->air genealogy as well.

54 minutes ago, None said:

 

• First. Why is it only the rune that lives you the ability to fly? I can understand the idea with moving air but the rune is the sky rune I cant help but feel that you should be able to use it to at least float into the sky. I even distinctly remember there being a myth about Yelm doing just that ( or more precisely, floating away) when Ondra I believe tried to grab him.
   
• Second. Shouldn't there actually be Sartarites, as in Orlanthi/Theyalan Sartarites who are descended from Yelm and thus able to be initiated into Yelm?
  I mean. I doubt that Elmal/Yemalio suddenly bjust descended from the sky when he made friends with Orlanth and the just Orlanthi began to receive visions about how to worship him.
  
  I'm imagining that he arrived together with Pelorians that already worshipped him, and if so it is not impossible that at least some of them where descended from him. As Elmal/Yelmalio is just another name for Lightfore, who is as I understand it a son of Yelm that would mean that anyone descended from Elmal/Yelmalio is also descended from Yelm.

No clue on centaur stuff.

Fire/Sky could probably be used to let you levitate or similar, but flight generally is a thing of the middle Air since that's what you're moving through. In old HQ material I believe Air flight involved basically being carried by the wind, and you had to be constantly moving for it to work.

There are certainly non-Pelorians who're descended from Yelm, and honestly if the priests really wanted to it probably wouldn't be hard to "discover" a line of descent for any candidate. But the priests really like keeping the cult exclusive, and if Orlanthi did start to initiate to Yelm it'd lead to some serious friction, as shown by the "Monrogh incident". Also, it's easier to just join Yelmalio if you're Fire-souled but don't have an established Yelmic lineage, since the little sun doesn't care nearly as much about things like ancestry as long as you make a good soldier of the Light. I doubt he had kids in any case.

2 minutes ago, dumuzid said:

Excellent, excellent.  Is there any indication from RQ3 of what Pamalt's runes ought to be?  I'd guess Earth, Fire and Man from his myths, probably a double Earth like Ernalda under the current system.

It lists him as Pamalt/Mastery, but since neither of those are character runes I'd go Earth/Man. I don't think double earth, that indicates ownership and that's still Ernalda, or Fire, since he's a direct child of Gata and that's the domain of his uncle Lodril anyways.

Judging by the other cults, I'd say his RQ3 GoG form is most similar to what we'll eventually get. He has shamans and rune priests, though shamans may not become priests (though acolyte/god-talker is fine) since that position is reserved for chieftains. As a shaman cult, initiates can learn any common spirit magic, and Pamalt also provides Comprehension and Pamalt's Touch. Rune magic includes all common spells, Command Gnome, Earthtouch, and Gnome-to-Gargoyle. In terms of associated cults, Chalana Arroy provides Heal Body and Lodril provides Summon Lodril. I expect his full writeup will provide more associate cults, but I doubt the rest will change much.

The Glorantha classics have everything the Runequest Classics do and a little more. The RQC line has some designer notes, which are nice, and the overall presentation is far better imo, but if all you care about is material the GC line is best.

1 minute ago, svensson said:

There are canon sources in RQG that discuss human elf-friends participating in Aldryami Fertility rituals... and getting STDs from it! 😆 And KODP has clan events where men are seduced by dryads with some pretty dire consequence depending on the Magical protections of the clan.

So obviously humans can and do participate. The question is whether that participation results in children.

IMRQG, the fertility of such interactions depends on how strong the human is in the Earth and Fertility Runes. Even if the human is particularly strong in those Runes, they have to roll on their Runic attunement. A fumble indicates the aforementioned STD. Children from such unions are either Aldryami or human depending on the species of the mother. Such children will be strong in the appropriate Rune of the other parent... a man and a dryad might conceive an Aldryami Green Elf child that's strong in the Man rune for example, or a human woman might conceive a child strong in the Fertility rune.

[As I understand it, humans can't possess Form Runes that are foreign to their natures... Plant or Dragonewt Runes for example]

Personally I'd let a human gain another Form rune through a heroquest or somesuch, but it'd be a seperate rating rather than part of a binary. Or maybe it would turn into a form rune trinity of 33/33/34?

From a Jeff facebook post, which you can find on the Well: https://wellofdaliath.chaosium.com/home/catalogue/websites/facebook/runequest-on-facebook-january-2021-highlights/#ib-toc-anchor-17

Quote

 

"Are there are “half-elves” in Glorantha?

The answer is of course. We know adventurers fall in love with dryads, and those spirits of Fertility and Plant no doubt produce offspring, which humans would indelicately call “half-elves.” Given that the elves are also Man Rune entities, this is entirely mythically appropriate. This also means that there are no doubt half-elves that result when humans and elves mate, half-trolls when humans and dark trolls (let us not imagine what would happen if a human and a mistress race troll mated), and even half-dwarves. In fact we know this to be the case, for Lord Pavis was the son of a human and an aldryami, and Karandstand Half-Troll had human ancestry, and so on.

And if your character gets a high enough Elemental Rune, perhaps they are verging on that sort of thing all by themselves!

There might also be half-rivers, and even half-winds!

This of course is how the world was created."

 

I believe Ginkizzie is a Half-Dwarf, too, or a half-dwarf-three-eighths-human-one-eighth-elf 😛

8 hours ago, Badder said:

I am a complete historical novice. I am very curious if others (or Kloster) could provide more information on why the Romans were able to move so far? I see the implication that there was no supply chain, and I would appreciate more information. (And perhaps some sources for more reading).

Thank you.

I believe the romans did have a fairly good supply chain at some point, which was another thing that gave them an advantage over some of their neighbors alongside the aforementioned roads.