Richard S.

Shamans are generally seen as weird, scary, but necessary outsiders among Orlanthi. They live apart from most of the community, but receive some support in return for warding off bad spirits and other dangers the priests can't deal with. Exorcisms, especially of disease spirits, are one of their most popular services. If your party is going to be staying among the Orlanthi for a while then the shaman may want to consider joining the spirit cult of Kolat, Orlanth's powerful wind spirit brother (it's a spirit cult so they'll still be a Waha shaman too).

I find this pretty interesting. Does this just mean that the Yelmalians identified with clan and tribe before their temple? Or were the temples abandoned until the Provincial Kings came along?

Yeah, there's no mystery about Elmal and Yelmalio. Everyone knows it. Everyone. Even the Runegaters who still call him Elmal accept that he's the same. Monrogh didn't just claim it was so, he proved it, and those same proofs can be reshown today. And also, at the end of the day, like it or not, Jeff is the current arbiter of Gloranthan canon. What he's said on this thread isn't an interpretation or theory, it's the truth about what happened in Chaosium's Glorantha, which is generally the Glorantha from which all others vary.

It's worded a little weirdly in the SRD, but I believe the intent is still the same as in HQ1, where both sides stand to lose the same amount of AP. So if you only bet 1 AP sure you'll take barely any "damage" if you lose, but if you win your opponent will also take barely any.

I wonder how Gustbran (and potentially other crafter cults) affect this, since his initiates are able to cast enchantments.

I'm guessing that Aeolian nobles include groups similar to Orlanthi Thanes, since they are at least partially Orlanthi.

It's possible - likely, even - that what "Rightness" means differs with the school. Rokari Rightness is different from Hrestoli Rightness is different from Aeolian Rightness. Or, it could just be that non-orthodox groups just don't care about losing the benefits of caste.

Following up on this, perhaps it could be argued that Illumination is the "shortcut" version of Draconic Mysticism. Similar goals, but much more immediate temporal rewards for much less effort. Something to think about.

I get what you're getting at, but Yelmalio's whole identity was forged during the Darkness, long after Yelm's death. His only significance while Yelm is still alive is as one of Yelm's sons. Every important myth about Lightfore, regardless of what you call him, was written independently of Yelm - in fact, his independence from Yelm is one of his most significant aspects, which is why the Sun Domes tend to hold themselves apart from other solar cults (though they technically still need to respect Yelmites when they come to visit).

Perhaps another valuable point to be made is that, since Elmal = Yelmalio, Elmal's mythology is a part of Yelmalio's. As it stands, you really can't talk about how one or the other has better or worse myths because, at the end of the day, they're the same stuff. Yelmalio guarded the stead, Yelmalio stood atop Kero Fin holding the last light, Elmal lost his fire at the hill of gold, Elmal trained the first pike regiments in the darkness.

The issue, again, is that for Yelmalio we've only seen significant material published for an out-of-the-way, isolated, hidebound temple who don't really have a lot of ties to the other sun domes, and there hasn't really been any room in that material to explore his mythology besides the highlight. Elmal and his worshipers, on the other hand, have had a major role in two video games and two excellently detailed supplements, which has provided an opportunity to flesh out his mythology much more. The simple fact is that Yelmalio may well have a richer overall tapestry simply because he's never gotten the focus that Elmal has, so we've never gotten to see it. Considering that Jeff has access to all of Greg's notes and in general is the curator of all things Gloranthan right now, I think it's safe to trust him if he says that Yelmalio has more powerful myths, regardless of what we have seen from the outside, and just hope that either the cult book or heroquesting book will flesh them out.

I'm not sure if this is the case anymore. In the current Chaosium canon, it seems everyone's settled on Yelm and Yelmalio being the big and little sun, respectively, though cultural names may vary.

Both the cult and its mythology have changed a lot over the centuries, according to what people needed from the little sun, and even nowadays it's hard to pin down a "modern Yelmalio cult" since each temple is largely independent from each other. Sure, pike and shield may be the current hotness among the central genertelan domes, but the dragon pass one is famed for its archers as well, which won them the battle against the Kitori. Praxians Yelmalians who are tribesmen instead of living at the Sun Dome almost certainly specialize in mounted archery: see the Impala tribe. Other variations, such as the Elmali and Kargzanti, probably use more typical light spear cavalry. Yelmalio is a wide and varied cult, and both him and his worshippers can be pretty much whatever you need them to be.

I don't think there is an Elmal-specific Hill of Gold, I think it's the same for all the little suns. Yelmalio making peace with Orlanth would come later, after Orlanth had taken his weapons already. In fact, Orlanth returning his weapons was probably a part of them becoming allies.

Whoops I meant to say Elmal

Rules wise, the only difference between Elmal and Yelmalio in RQG is that Elmal doesn't have gifts or geases and gets Shield from Orlanth rather than Yelm. In all other respects he's the same as Yelmalio, including the lack of fire magic. This is the first time we've gotten a Chaosium Runequest writeup for Elmal (or it will be once the cult book drops), so unless you're talking about the old Hero Wars/Quest version whatever you saw was either Mongoose material or fan-made. In-world, he's only worshiped as Elmal in Runegate, due to their Hyaloring ancestry, but pretty much everyone agrees that they're the same god, the Little Sun, along with other names such as Antirius and Kargzant (not Yu-Kargzant though - that's Yelm). The biggest difference between the little sun as Elmal and the little sun as Yelmalio is that Elmal is subservient to Orlanth while Yelmalio is technically subservient to Yelm but in practice is pretty independent.

Will the PDFs of these products be rereleased with Questworlds branding at some point? And if so, will the same happen with other materials such as S:KoH and the HW/HQ1 books, or are they going away forever?

Yelmalio is also associated with horses, especially when called Elmal.

Everyone seems to have hit the major points. Yelm is an associate of Yelmalio (though not Elmal), and in Dragon Pass the only people who worship him directly are the Grazelanders, under the name Yu-Kargzant. Yelmalians technically are supposed to defer to Yelm priests, though in practice there's not a whole lot of interaction and the little sun generally keeps himself independent of the larger solar pantheon, especially among the Orlanthi. Of course, it should be noted that everyone does still recognize Yelm as a critically important god, being the sun and all, it's just that the Orlanthi don't like him on a personal level, Yelm being the stubborn, demanding, oppressive rival of Orlanth. Also a slight correction to what Darius said: as of the current age, Orlanthi acknowledge that Elmal and Yelmalio the same little sun, and while both names may be used most people call him Yelmalio. There's not a huge difference between the cults, besides that Elmal is associated with Orlanth instead of Yelm and doesn't get the gifts and geases of the sun domers. Neither offer fire magic, the little sun bled away its most intense heat in the darkness. Some older material doesn't adhere to this current version of things, and if you want to use that then all power to you, but this is how it's gonna be in RQG stuff moving forward.

Yeah that's been the vibe I got from them for a while too, but the revelation to me that cults are present in Malkioni lands and are where many non-Zzaburi get their personal magic shook that perception up a little, so I'm no longer sure.

So does this mean Rokari-dominated areas actively suppress cults?

Well let's look at his geases: vegetarianism, no armor, love horses and earth, celibate, etc... Yeah, I think it checks out.

It did have CoC stuff too, yeah, and the hero wars stuff shouldn't have been affected. If it was intentional I hope they give us a reason soon. I already bought most of the books I wanted from it but it'd be unfortunate for it to be gone for good. I hope it was just a mistake of some sort, though the fact that things like the ILH are harder to find on DTRPG now makes me worried (you can still find them with a search, but they're no longer in the Heroquest category on Chaosium's page).

https://wellofdaliath.chaosium.com/home/gloranthan-documents/greg-sez/aldryas-own-story/ This at least lists them as children of Halamdrya, distinct from Aldrya's children.

I thought the white elves were children of the elven sun god?