Richard S.

You'd probably have until the ritual wears off, since IIRC it's an enchantment on the ship itself, not something directly caused by the presence of Dormali. I'd also think that most sailors would be Dormali to some degree, though I don't know for certain as I've never studied Gloranthan sailing, so if they all died I think there'd be much more pressing problems than the closing.

Perhaps semi-related: "Peloria" is actually the name of a process through which normally irregular flowers become regular through repetition of the special irregularity. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/peloria I wonder if Greg and later authors had this in mind when designing the land. To me, it seems perfect as an allusion to the idea of all these unique cultures gradually being absorbed into a larger classification.

HOLD UP If the Abiding Book's appearance in 635 was a manifestation of the Devil then that would put the next Devil birth at 1235 or so... which is suspiciously close to the birth of the Red Goddess!

So does that mean the Abiding Book is false?

Yeah, that was my other theory. But really, I do think it's kinda stretching it to say there are these cycles when all we know is the first through third ages.

Another possibility: there is no cycle. We have three ages of Glorantha which we know about, that's not a lot. Just because the third mirrors much of the first could mean nothing, and in all honesty most of the third age, historically and culturally, is completely different than the first or second.

Well, if the devil is indeed reborn every 600 years or so like Argrath claimed, were there any important events that happened around 975? Considering that Nyaslor was born in 375. Or course, you could claim that the devil really appeared sometime after Nyaslor's birth too. All in all, I think the second age isn't a part of the regular hero/devil cycle. It was an intermediate age between the first and third, an age of mortals like Argrath claimed the fourth age would be, unrestricted by the godtime and defined by humanity's ambitions. In fact, it's my theory that the fourth will be a repeat of the second, the fifth a repeat of the third and first, the sixth the fourth, and ad infininitum. An age of gods and an age of man, cycling for eternity until the day when Chaos finally reclaims its own.

Pah, your speak as if dreaming and waking are different, self-absorbed dream as you are. The world is a perfectly truthful lie with OUROBOROS at the center and the outside and nowhere and everywhere all at once. Self and reality are not, all is subjective as all is illusionary but oh so perfectly real. I am a dream but by my awakening I know I am dreamer as well and am split in half, and so all of the dream is of me and I of it. Only the fools know there is a barrier between dreaming and waking. They do not know the true secret of OUROBOROS so they see with both eyes but still hold one shut for fear of illusion being illusionary. Alright, serious answer. I think people's imaginations in Glorantha are pretty much like their own otherworlds. IIRC there are even Vithelan sorcerers who deal with dreams much the same way Shamans do with the spirit world. They can have their own denizens, environments, and such which are just as real as the other otherworlds but contained within one person (or multiple in some cases. Hell, Glorantha itself technically only exists in the imagination of people :P). On dragons and dreams, one of my personal theories is that dragons, their kin, and draconic mystics view the world and themselves as the dream of the Cosmic Dragon, the concept/being of Ouroboros, or some other entity we don't know. Due to this, they can cast magic by basically treating reality as a lucid dream since, if they're a dream, then that means by extension they are a part of the dreamer and thus the dream is really their own. The EWF masters believed the Cosmic Dragon was the source of reality and so everything within their dragon dream began to take on draconic characteristics which could not exist beyond, which is how they could have all their unique animals and crops which disappeared after their fall.

That makes sense, though I wonder how that works out for barbarian nests whose rulers are mostly dead/trapped in the egg dream. That would also mean that all the nests except for Dragon's Eye probably disappeared after the Golden Horde was through with them, which could have some interesting implications.

The book burning/sacrificing thread got me thinking on what types of books exist in Glorantha, specifically novels. I know that in most of Glorantha literacy is very rare and so most of their entertainment is oral stories and plays, but in more civilized regions like the Lunar empire and Kralorela, where literacy is more widespread, I imagine reading could be another common form of entertainment. And if there are books produced purely for entertainment, would they be completely fictional or would they be retellings of popular myths and the like (or is there a difference)? On a related note, would knowledge cults like IO and LM collect and preserve works of fiction?

Most dragonewts eat regularly, like normal people, and many tailed priests have developed a reputation as gormets. I seem to remember an example of them using human skin leather, but most of their leatherwork is made from dinosaurs iirc (maybe dead dragonewt bodies too?). They likely make much of their material goods via singing or dreaming it into the proper shape, like they do with dragonbone, however they also probably have advanced knowledge of stone and wood working which lets them build some of the impossible architecture they're famous for. I think I may recall something on them using dragon eggshells for some buildings, but I can't remember a source so it's probably just something I made up. On the topic of dragonbone, I believe that dragonewt bone serves the purpose just as well so most dragonbone weapons are actually made of that. The high quality stuff, though, is real dragon bones mined or recovered from dead dragons.

Yeah, we were talking about the actor with the mask, sorry for the confusion!

If you look at it closely I think it's pretty clearly supposed to be a dragon. There's even scales detailed on the cape.

Rune Spells.

While technically non-canon, Dara Happa Stirs says the Sun Dragon is the human mystic Hurarbargarten who unlocked a dragon form through the Yelm Dragon cult and his elevation to the Eternal Dragon Ring. Interestingly, it also says that the Sun Dragon as embodied by Hurarbargarten isn't actually a True Dragon at all but is just the body of one still with the mind and soul of a human. The Red Dragon was one of those present at the Dragonkill and presumably existed before as well, so I wonder how the association could exist without a red moon to speak of. Of course, it could be a pre-existing connection from the godtime or just an example of dragons ignoring boundaries like death or time. It also seems to me that dragons are largely antagonistic to at least the empire if not the moon itself, considering how they aided Argrath against it and also how the dragonewts in the first age initially tried to resist Nyaslor, who the moon undoubtedly is tied to, until he enslaved them.

Stuff like this has always been curious to me, as a major part of the dragon path as practiced by the dragonewts (and presumably their human students in the EWF) was that elemental connections were something to be avoided at all costs, yet many true and ancestral dragons seem to be associated with if not rulers over certain elements (GSD with the Sun, Green Dragon with Earth, Aroka with water, etc.). My personal theory is that True and Ancestral dragons are close enough to Ouroboros that they can interact with the illusion/dream freely without losing themselves in it, and their bodies reflect a personal preference or self-inflicted duty rather than a true affinity.

Obviously they stole food from Kyger Litor's picnic.

In light of the recent solar threads, I was wondering where the Golden Sun Dragon fits into the whole mess. I know (or think I know) that it was an EWF mystic-turned-true-dragon (though not actually ascended, just physically transformed) who usurped the imperial family of Dara Happa and impossibly became the next emperor. I have also heard that it was the hidden draconic aspect of Yelm or Yelmalio, and was worshipped by both Dara Happans and Sun Domers under EWF control. Does it have any other importance beyond the EWF's time, or was it just a constructed god of theirs? Also, was it actually a god capable of providing Rune magic a la the gods its worship replaced, or was its cult just a path into the EWF's draconic mystic schools that didn't actually provide magic in-and-of itself?

Hm. Every source I've read says that he's the primary god for Pelorian peasant men to initiate into. In HQG his affinities were fire/fertility/disorder, the second of which especially led me to believe he was partially a farming god.

IIRC, Lodril gives lots of farming magic too and is one of the most popular men's god in Peloria, though his non-fertility aspects (fire and rebellion) are suppressed by the Yelm priesthood. He's much more than just protection against the cold.

Thunder Rebels gave an approximate of 80%, a value which still holds mostly true iirc.

On novels, the only one I know of that's most like a traditional novel is "the Complete Griselda", though there's loads of fanmade short stories and myths that you can find with a quick search. There's also the Stafford Library which is a collection of in-world reference materials and myths by Greg Stafford. I personally would love more proper novels set in Glorantha, but alas Chaosium doesn't seem to be interested in that at the moment. Adventures vary depending on the group, but should only take two or three sessions at most. You may want to block off an extra "session zero" for you and your friends to design characters and make sure you understand the rules and stuff too, speaking from experience. But anyways, welcome to the tribe!,

Well if they're 100 times smaller than our moon that still gives us enough space to work with if we consider that each moon probably supports a single culture at most. 14,600 square miles is still more land area than roughly 20% of our Earth's nations. They also probably don't have to worry about stuff like reduced gravity and oxygen due to their tiny size, as they don't operate by our laws of physics.

I need some illumination riddles for something I'm planning for my players. Anyone know/come up with ny besides the example in HQG?