Richard S.

I think Thed and Mallia's cults are technically just large spirit cults. The line between rune cult and spirit cult is more than a little hazy.

I was reading through Griffin Mountain and the way the elves and dwarves are described in the encounters section struck me as kind of odd, given how we seem to look at all the elder races nowadays. They feel much closer to humans, in terms of personality and background, and there's a whole lot of breaking what are now racial taboos going on, yet they seem to be intended as just usual members of their species. Hell even the dragonewts are described in a less alien light, just a weird one. Personally I do like this, since it is nice to see elder races other than trolls presented in a not-so-weird light, but I'd like to know what others think of it. Also I'm curious whether y'all think people like Rockheart and Strongbark's parties could still fit in current canon. I know my Glorantha has some room for non-hereticapostate dwarves who play chess and go on adventures, or elves who join troupes or were raised by Balazarings, but it's interesting to see how y'all deal with this sort of stuff.

The survival covenant myth isn't about how humans and animals became different, it's about how praxian riding beasts and praxian people became different. The separation of human and animal is a thing from much further back, likely the middle to late green age as things were starting to diversify, and a few of the Hsunchen tribes are probably the only people to give it much thought.

Sun County has about 19000 people, though only around 4000 are Yelmalio initiates. It's only the Yelmalians who are going to be cremated.

I wonder if Hsunchen tribes have something similar to the Praxian's "Call Founder". That'd be a potent bit of "higher order spirit magic" I think, collapsing the divide between the otherworld and the material temporarily to let their gods manifest.

The biggest advantage spirit and rune magic has over sorcery is, as you mentioned, speed. In a one-on-one thaumaturgic duel the shaman can sic half a dozen spirits on the sorcerer and be blasting them with spells before the poor wizard can even pull a spirit-killing rabbit out of his hat. It's slightly different if the sorcerer is prepared with an arsenal of inscriptions and pre-cast spells, but they'll still be hard put to it. IMG at least, shamans also have an easier time than sorcerers in getting willing aid out of spirits, so they can make alliances with and summon all sorts of powerful beings, especially ancestors. Sorcerers can pull off summoning tricks too of course, but again it takes more time and with their will-to-power attitude it's less likely their spirits will be willing allies, thus taking more time so they can be controlled. In a full battle involving multiple sorcerers and shamans alongside normal warriors I'd say the odds are more even, since the sorcerers have more protection and thus time at their disposal, but I'd still give the edge to the shamans since their spirits can ignore the battle to go mess with the sorcerers. I do think a fully prepared sorcerer is more powerful than a similarly prepared shaman, but the problem is that the Uncolings do rely on hit-and-run tactics with smaller groups that don't give the sorcerers or their forces enough time to adequately respond. AFAIK there's not a concentrated effort to go and wipe out the Uncolings. And of course, like Jajagappa mentioned, there's plenty of shamanic stuff that's been hinted at that we haven't seen in rules, like the soul winds (though I think Horned Man might have something about them in the cults book?) and summoning allied gods.

Pages 125-145 in the Guide have several timelines scattered throughout. The third age has a more detailed timeline on the Well: https://wellofdaliath.chaosium.com/home/gloranthan-documents/timeline-dragonpass/ .

The Templars themselves might not have much fire magic, but they probably keep one or two Oakfed worshipers on call to cast Cremate Dead when needed. There's also going to be people who know Ignite, which could be used in a pinch, though that doesn't solve the wood problem like CD does (or have the same magical impact).

I think in an interview Jeff mentioned it'd be near the end of Q2, but don't take that as gospel. I'm setting my expectations for the late holiday season just in case.

Shamans typically won't live within a "civilized" area, but they can either be called in or gone to when you have problems with spirits that your priests can't handle. If a shaman does take up residence in a town or city they'll be sort of like a local wise man or woman, living in their dark old house at the very end of the lane that people do their best to steer clear of. It's certainly not impossible, just rare, since a) it's generally rural or nomadic people who have established shaman paths, b) many shamanic practices are disturbing and/or dangerous to those not used to them, so urban shamans often get ostracized, and c) spirits are generally more plentiful and more accessible in places without a lot of people around (not because civilization impedes the spirit world or anything, just because the places spirits congregate are often avoided in the first place).

The beasts get to eat the bounty of the earth directly, receive the respect and protection of the people, and are guaranteed to go straight to Eiritha when they die. The people get the service of the beasts for labor and sustenance.

From the Guide, there's four races of humans: Agimori (Pamaltelans), Veldang (also Pamaltelans, but slate blue), Vithelans (Kralorela, Teshnos, East Isles, and Vormain), and Warerans (the rest of Genertela). Nearly everyone in Dragon Pass is going to be Warerans, though of course the Men-and-a-Half are Agimori and you'll definitely find some Veldang and Vithelans around the holy country. It's not really a terribly important thing in Glorantha.

The pdfs on chaosium.com still haven't been updated

The Core Rules don't have any creature rules but the Bestiary has pretty much everything you should need in terms of nonhumans (your specific examples are pages 73 and 158 respectively). Neither the Core Rules nor Bestiary provide statblocks for humans so you'll probably have to design ones, but there's a Colymar Militia statblock on page 16 of the GM Pack's adventure book which could probably be easily adapted to be a soldier or guard in Pavis. I don't own any of the adventure books so there might be statblocks in those that'd work too that I'm not aware of. Edit: some advice based on how I make NPCs. 80% of the time for nameless generic dudes all you need to know are characteristics (I like to distribute scores of 10, 10, 10, 12, 12, 14, and 16), hit points, the armor they're wearing, 2-3 each passions and runes between 60-80%, 3-4 weapon skills between 40-70%, around 5 points of spirit magic, 1-3 rune points and spells. Example: Lunar Soldier, Initiate of the Seven Mothers STR 16, CON 14, SIZ 12, DEX 12, INT 10, POW 10, CHA 10 14 hit points, wears a light scale hauberk and open helm Honor 60%, Loyalty (Unit) 60%, Loyalty (Red Emperor) 60% Moon 70%, Death 60% 1H Sword 70%, Medium Shield 50%, Spear 50%, Bow 40% Befuddle, Bladesharp 2, Protection 1 2 Rune Points Madness, Reflection

Could Waertag's voyages work? They're discussed a bit in either Revealed Mythologies or The Middle Sea Empire I think.

I'd just rule it as 5, that seems the standard for miscellaneous actions. That or DEX SR if you're feeling generous, though I might go DEX+SIZ in that case since larger people have to move more weight. Hush, before the dwarves hear you! We can't risk them learning that we know how adventurers are just highly advanced Jolanti!

I believe the Carmanians still worship him, and he probably has some followers among the provinces, but Yanafal is just a much more useful god for most Lunars due to imperial support of the cult and his connections to the other Seven Mothers and new gods. I doubt it's anything to do with "respect" or some vague concept like that, it's just that Yanafal better fulfils the needs of dedicated Lunar soldiers.

Mountains are heavily associated with Stasis, which is why Acos and Mostal were so heavily tied to the spike.

Hmm. Giants seem to have some connection to the earth, and there was allegedly some sort of war between dragons and giants in the distant pre-mythic godtime. I wonder if that's related somehow.

So maybe all the EWF's strange draconic plants came from their rediscovery of Maran Gor back when she was a more typical earth, maybe even grain goddess?

The Jonstown Compendium allows only Runequest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, Runequest: Classic and Questworlds: Glorantha material at the moment. 13G, or 13th Age in Glorantha, is an adaptation of 13th Age's Archmage engine to Glorantha, but due to I believe licensing stuff it's not allowed on the JC. Runequest: Roleplaying in Glorantha (https://www.chaosium.com/runequest-roleplaying-in-glorantha-hardcover/) is pretty much the Gloranthan rpg at the moment, as no Glorantha content has been released for Questworlds yet and 13th Age in Glorantha hadn't seen any support since its release. If you know how to do RQ2 stats at least you should be fairly comfortable with RQG, as long as you can figure out Runes and Passions. And to be fair, even if there was Questworlds: Glorantha material out now there's no real need to make stats or anything, it's effectively a statless/make-your-own-stats system.

I think their deal was technically something like "the mountains receive light first and give it up last, but their snow never melts", but I thought it could be interesting to think about if they actually made an alliance rather than just agreeing to leave each other alone. Probably an appropriate thing for a heroquester try out, at least.

This topic combined with Texas getting the one snow it's gonna get all year is making me think of a spirit cult spell myself, basically an unknown part of Inora based around "what if she and Yelmalio hit it off a little better at the hill of gold?": Snowbright 1 Points Ranged, Temporal, Stackable This spell causes a 10-meter radius circle of fresh snow to emit an uncomfortably bright light. Anyone within the circle using skills that require sight to use, or anyone outside trying to target someone inside with one of those skills, suffers a -10% penalty per point of the spell. Extra points can instead be spent to increase the radius by another 10 meters.

I'd imagine, since the Flame is the manifestation of Sartar's (the person) spirit, it could have been something akin to a spirit combat beatdown until he's too weak to keep the flame going anymore.

I think starting skills should just be Orate +15%, Speak Stormspeech +20%, Sing +10%, and Sword +10% like regular Orlanth Adventurous. Maybe replacing sword with sling.