Austin

1 hour ago, Kloster said:

So do I, but my son 'discovered' that some of his players had strange dice results.

As GM I end up rolling a lot of dice hidden from players, but I try to also even it out by making big important rolls using the same dicebot as them. Things like the struck location on a special or crit, rolling to dodge a crit, divine intervention, etc.

Also I freaking love styling on my players when my monsters crit a dodge and avoid a near-certain decapitation. It's hilarious and they get so mad. (I roll that die publicly when we play in person, too. It's kind of become a tradition in our group.)

2 hours ago, jajagappa said:

Looks like a great start to defining a typical Esrolian city!  

Thank you! I really appreciate your comments and time. I will note that, as I re-read over my notes, I feel like I forgot an important aspect: beliefs. Not just the roles of the different cults in Esrolian society, but what their followers believe the world is, believe about right and wrong. I suspect that will be a way to help differentiate some of the cults in my mind, especially things like the husband-protector cults.

3 hours ago, jajagappa said:

One reason why the cult of Asrelia is so powerful is that they control the city granaries and are the "treasurers" for the Earth temples and the houses.  Even if they delegate the day-to-day rituals of collecting to other Ernalda priestesses, they will be the ones who know how much there is, where it is, and likely whether it should be disbursed for further use.

...

As part of the Earth Temple complex, worship of Asrelia is not confined to a small set of elderly folk - Asrelia gets full benefit of the size of the temple and will have priestesses accordingly.  The Grandmothers of the leading houses will hold those positions.  Others who have retired will just be initiates of Asrelia.

How many total priests/priestesses would you expect in a city, as a portion of the population? Part of my thought processes re:Sylthi in particular have been minimizing the number of Rune Masters, but I haven't done more in-depth work on population and economy modeling yet. That's a great point on Asrelia's role with the granary. Perhaps some shenanigans with which house the citizenry go to for their grain, a sort of silent voicing of their support... Big fan of ambient conflict as a source of adventure.

4 hours ago, jajagappa said:

They are (or should be) the city militia (not that it serves as any sort of "police" - which is really non-existent - the Houses enforce local discipline within and amongst each other), particularly as gate guards and wall watch.

That makes sense. I see a majority of males being involved with the heavy labor portions of living, with warfare-like roles of less value. I believe there's notes in 10K on the frequency of mercenaries in Esrolia. But, there's definitely initiates of the husband-protectors too, and the individual priesthoods are probably traditionally associated with particular houses, or client houses of one of the nobles.

In my city, I'm focusing on three noble houses: Netha and Pareninna, and then the "new" house, Lorel (defined as new since it settled into the city after Belintar, but it's been there over 200 years now). A significant number of the members of all three live outside the city proper, but I haven't finished my gazetteer of Sylthela yet figuring out the dynamics. The city itself has 3,000 people, according to the Guide, so probably no single house has all of its members in the city, and maybe not all of the guilds, too.

4 hours ago, jajagappa said:

Three, you need to include the Market.  A city without a good market is not a city.

Is a marketplace automatically a temple? Coming from RQG, I'd define a market as any space within a Create Market spell, but wouldn't say that automatically designates the place a temple. I know there's at least an Issaries shrine, a shop which fronts to the Foreigner's Market.

4 hours ago, jajagappa said:

This should be a very important part of city life.  It's where houses/clans from across North Esrolia send promising youths to learn the scribal arts and potentially become scribes/sages.  Remember all that grain and tribute which has to be counted and recorded?  Remember all the marriage arrangements, and tribute arrangements, and trade deals?  Someone has to record those!  All Houses need and want scribes.  All guilds need and want scribes.  And whoever controls the LM temple ensures the price to train a young scribe/sage is paid - more wealth to the city.

Indeed! While the Hevduran Dege Library is infamous for its itinerant masters, the Sword Sages of Lhankor Mhy, more practically it is the training center for much of the communities along the Whitefall river in need of scribes. On holy days the various noble houses send persons (in effect couriers, but persons of status, not laborers) to get required records distributed, written, and stored in the archive. The HDL maintains some measure of independence from the three houses due to its antiquity and unique traditions, but the houses naturally are always trying to get someone into the position of Chief Sage, for that vote on the council. It's one of the major political factions, albeit one which is broadly neutral to internal affairs.

4 hours ago, jajagappa said:

Vogarth is also the Strong Man.  So, your city laborers will worship him to make their tasks easier.  (And there's always building going on in these cities - particularly repairs after all of Greymane's raids)

Is there somewhere to find out more info on Vogarth, by any chance? When I was doing research I had very little success.

4 hours ago, jajagappa said:

Rather than "King", you might term him "Warlord".  It avoids the connotations of kingly equality with the queen, and covers one of his most important functions, protecting the city.

I'll keep it in mind, though I prefer "King" aesthetically. Maybe something like "Husband-King" or "Lord Husband"...

4 hours ago, jajagappa said:

You might simply treat her as the figure invoked to help restore peace, to "bind" things together, etc. More the collective spirit that keeps Esrolia together rather than disintegrating into fragmentary and squabbling city-states.  Put statues of her everywhere, have everyone acknowledge her presence and blessing, but otherwise she does not offer any specific benefit.

Interesting, sort of the wyter of Esrolia. In 1625, I find myself quite attracted to the notion of squabble, despite all the Grandmothers Council attempts. I recollect that Samastina claims High Queenship of Esrolia, but I'm not convinced that's terribly rock-solid. Sort of a, "you send grain to Nochet along with pretty words, and I won't make more substantial claims." Of course, she'll eventually want to consolidate power.

Someone was asking about North Esrolia—Helerdon in particular—over in the JCCC group recently. I've been in the idea-generating stage writing up the city of Sylthi, and went off on a big rambly tangent. I realized that I'd appreciate feedback on what y'all over here think about my picture of Esrolian religion, and hope that it might be interesting, too. There's good odds I'll post more material as I work on it and it gets tidier, if people have continued interest.

As I said, my direct interest is a writeup of the small city of Sylthi. I'm not trying to produce a detailed, super-elaborate description of Esrolian religion, but describe broad characteristics and then focus on the specifics and details at the city level. The material here is also a rough draft, not a polished and refined product. It's how I'm currently thinking about the topic.

Sources: I haven't found many sources on North Esrolia/Sylthi in particular—or really on Esrolia in general—which is what attracted me to the region. The primary source is, of course, the Guide to Glorantha, and the Stafford Library's Esrolia: Land of 10,000 Goddesses is also important. In particular the chapter "What My Mother Told Me" is relevant. Much of the rest of the book I find interesting, but more thought-provoking than actually informative.

Throughout, I've tried to be reflective toward published canon, rather than treating it as sacred and unalterable.

OVERVIEW

Esrolian cults fall into three broad categories: Earth cults, Husband-Protector cults, and minor cults. Every local culture worships deities of the Earth, and every local culture worships one or more husband-protectors of Ernalda. The "minor" cults vary widely from city to city, and are difficult to generalize. This shall be demonstrated in the latter portion of this essay. Throughout, I shall use the minor Third Age city Sylthi as an example of how these generalized trends manifest in a particular culture.

It's important to remember that, while generalizations can be made about Esrolian religion, the region does not represent a homogenized culture; in modern terms, she is in no way a nation-state in the sense her Orlanthi cousins, the kingdoms of Sartar and Tarsh, are, at least to some degree. Despite persistent regional identity since the Dawn first as the Kingdom of Night through three hundred years as the Holy Country of Belintar, each of the former Sixths has maintained independent cultures, and their overlords have generally ruled with a hand favoring non-intervention. At the start of the Hero Wars period Queen Samastina is the Queen of Nochet, and consequently claims authority as High Queen of Esrolia. But not all cities recognize this authority, even if they send "tribute" downriver. Nochet bears cultural weight proportional to her population, but is not a centralized authority for the region. Each city-state is her own.

The nearest thing to a central authority lies at Ezel. Meaning "her home," this massive temple-city is the place most sacred to Ernalda in Glorantha, and consequently may well be the most sacred piece of geography upon the whole of the Lozenge. Her priestesses here bow to no one within the sacred temenos, and any entity which is not depicted in one of Ezel's thirteen great temples, or among the lesser shrines, is not considered deserving of worship. It should be noted, however, that new entities can be discovered shewn in this mytho-mystic place, as was demonstrated when Belintar led the priestesses to himself in an alcove previously unknown. Still, the authority of Ezel is connected to place, and does not spread through the region. Consequently each city's Earth temple echoes this and remains its own theocratic entity which interacts with, but is not generally submissive to, the cults of other cities.

The city-state is the basic political structure of Esrolia, built up of myriad houses and guilds. An Esrolian house is about parallel to an Orlanthi clan, in terms of size and function. The status of an Esrolian house varies more widely than a clan, with some noble houses dominating populations and resources which would be impossible for a single clan of Heortlings to achieve. They operate through an elaborate system of "client" houses, marriage alliances, and mercantile contracts. Status is broadly associated with antiquity. Politics and religion intertwine at the house stratum. Noble houses typically dominate priesthoods.

A given city has two important temples, the Earth Temple and the Temple of the Husband-Protectors. Any number of minor temples or shrines may exist, depending on the local culture. These additional deities are typically the locus of one or more guilds—houses organized around a single craft, rather than bloodline. About half the time, the city's temples are placed into a sacred precinct, a temenos, surrounded by a low wall. This wall clearly designates where magical activity begins and ends on festival days and Sacred Time, rather than letting the energies flow across the whole of the city. This is both a blessing and a curse for cities so-organized. These temples centralize religious, political, and economic activity. They are the city's beating heart.

These various temples determine who sits on the city council. This body is similar to the ring of an Orlanthi clan. Built of representatives from the different walks of Esrolian life, the council determines law, distributes resources, and overall creates a harmonious life for all Esrolians. (Note: this is intentionally over-stated, and utopian.)

EARTH CULTS

Like everywhere else, the worship of the Earth is the most important cult for human survival. Unlike everywhere else, in Esrolia it is also the most socially prestigious cult. Ernalda is the Queen of the Universe, and the bringer of all good things. Fertility and Harmony are greatly valued by all Esrolians—including males—and the Earth cults demonstrate this. The entity directly worshiped by the Earth cult is the local land goddess of the city, who is a daughter of Ernalda or Esrola. She is also the communal spirit, the wyter, of the city.

(In RQG game terms, this cult is identical to the Ernalda cult. At most, it may have a few spell changes, restrictions, or a localized subcult. A plethora of names could be used for different land goddesses of regions, cities, and even the farms of individual houses—but it can all be abstracted as the cult of Ernalda.)

Several other entities associated with the Earth are worshiped by the Esrolian religion. Countless, for it is indeed the land of 10,000 goddesses. They cannot all be addressed here, but the most important deserve mention.

Asrelia

Asrelia is the Grandmother, and most important of the Earth goddesses after Ernalda herself. She is the source of wealth. A house's Grandmother is typically an initiate of Asrelia, and it is through mimicking Asrelia's myths that the Grandmothers have established and maintained their authority. Despite the mother's position as queen (whether of a city or the Universe), the Wise Old One retains power and authority of her own. In some cities, the queen's Grandmother is the true ruler (even above the city council!).

Barntar

Barntar is a favored cult of Esrolian men, the son of Ernalda and Orlanth. He emphasizes Orlanth's aspect as God of Farmers, and allows the men of Esrolia to contribute to her Fertility in some small way. He has a shrine in most Earth Temples.

Babeester Gor

Most Earth Temples have a shrine to Babs as the avenger of the Earth, and her dedicated warriors are the royal bodyguard of the queen. Any person accompanied by them is explicitly on the queen's or the council's official business. Rune Lords remain rare, associated only with independent temples in the metropolises of Esrolia.

Esrola

Worship of Esrola is generally subsumed into the Ernalda-worship of the local land goddess.

Imarja

I have no idea how I'm going to approach Imarja in my Esrolia. The swan-goddess of femininity is fascinating, but seems to need an unusual, more mystic approach than other deities. Perhaps she's the source of a feminine Illumination, in addition to the Lunar Way, Nysalorean Illumination, and Draconic Illumination?

Ty Kora Tek

Ty Kora Tek is not generally worshiped in the Earth Temple of a city, but she is one of the city's important deities. At the very least, the priestesses maintain a shrine to her nearby, in the local necropolis. This is typically outside the city wall. It's common for even a small city to maintain a temple to the Goddess of the Dead, and a single priestess to maintain the necropolis and sing prayers to the dead.

The Earth Temple

The Earth Temple of a city is the institution with the most influence on who is the city's queen, for the city queen is also the High Priestess of the temple. Depending on the city's size, there may also be a second priestess, or even a Chief Priestess who oversees other priestesses. In general, the queen has authority over the Earth Temple, embodies the local Earth Goddess during festivals, and directs how to spread Ernalda's blessings, but the Chief Priestess oversees the temple's day-to-day affairs. She typically does not come from the same house as the city queen, save in cities where a single house has obtained a complete monopoly on political and magical power. Often, she comes from a client house, or from a rival house with which the city queen made alliance to secure the queenship.

The Earth Temple is the center of a large network of political, magical, and economic activity. Much of a city's manufacture is directed toward it, and then distributed ritually through the social framework of houses, client houses, and guilds during festivals. The temple is an administrative center. In some small cities, it is a manufactory in its own right, particularly when a city has few guilds focused on a given craft. At the level of a town, the Earth Temple is the center of all crafted goods, the place where all crafters do weaving, pottery, and redsmithing in community.

Example — Temple of Ernalda Sylthela

Sylthi worships the goddess Syltha, who is the land goddess of the immediate region. They define Sylthela as anywhere within a day's ride from Sylthi, although this obviously varies depending on the nature of the horse, and if anyone stops the rider while they're performing the ritual to define the city-state's boundaries. While the historical House Syltha went extinct during the Adjustment Wars, House Netha refounded the city through a pact with Syltha during the period between the Dragonkill and Belintar's arrival in Kethaela.

As the city queen, Queen Yarlina of House Netha is the High Priestess of the temple. Her cousin Hazulelda is also a priestess, and runs the temple's day-to-day activity. This is primarily administrative, acquiring grain brought in to the Earth Market, ensuring the granary remains filled and maintained, and distributing it to the citizens. She is technically a Chief Priestess, but has only one priestess directly beneath her, from House Pareninna, a position given as token appeasement. House Netha has a firm grip on Sylthi.

The temple's primary shrines are to Asrelia and Babeester Gor. A small fire burns at the entry, which serves as a shrine to Mahome, but few people worship at it, preferring instead to enter the temple proper. The temple priestesses are also responsible for maintaining the necropolis, and their aunt Yarmanda is a God-Talker of Ty Kora Tek.

Unusually, Queen Yarlina's great-aunt Grandmother Hazulda is a full Rune Priestess here of Asrelia, rather than a God-Talker, due to the lack of a temple.

HUSBAND-PROTECTOR CULTS

The husband-protectors of Ernalda are a multitude, of which traditionally Orlanth is most eminent. In practice, the husband-protector a city's religion focuses upon depends on its history, its current politics, and its magical needs. A city which historically struggles with drought and a dearth of rain will often focus its resources in worship of Heler, rather than Orlanth, while one near the Shadow Plateau may have a tradition that every third city king must be a worshiper of Argan Argar. The Esrolian attitude toward gods is opportunistic. Ernalda takes on whichever husband can provide what she needs in the moment, and her worshipers do likewise.

Orlanth

Orlanth is most often worshiped in the subcult of Orlanth Thunderous. Due to the death of King Broyan, and the historic fear of a Vingkotling heir by the Esrolian Grandmothers, Orlanth's more warlike and pro-active aspects—namely, Orlanth Adventurous—have been discouraged. Nonetheless no one denies that, when he's present, Ernalda favored him as lover, father, and husband. Even if he is a bit of a deadbeat murder-hobo.

Argan Argar

Worship of the God of Surface Darkness has lain fallow for a long time, since Belintar slew the Only Old One. It remains minimal in 1625, but is starting to see local resurgences. He is most valued in cities near the Shadow Plateau, where the ability to interact safe-ish-ly with the Uz is of use, or in places in extreme fear of outside harm and willing to make pacts with ancient, inhuman powers. Argan Argar is in particular worshiped as the husband of Esrola, not Ernalda.

Heler

One of the thanes of Orlanth, Heler is often seen as a fitting substitute by economically-minded Grandmothers, for he brings rain and good things. I don't have a strong personal conception of Heler, so his role in the Esrolian religion isn't well fleshed-out for me, either. In particular, I'm not sure how to handle his genderfluidity, but I think it opens up the opportunity for some really interesting stories in matriarchal Esrolia.

Flamal

Another god described as a husband-protector, and another one I don't have strong feelings toward

Elmal

Again, still formulating my thoughts here. I'm not sure the "steady thane" story works well, considering the historical Darkness focus in the land. I can see him being important in North Esrolia and the Longsi Land, near the Old Forest, due to his relationship with High King Elf. I do like calling him Elmal here better than Yelmalio; I think that culture clash is interesting, and provides an opportunity to roleplay the Sun Dome versus the Loyal Thane.

The Temple of the Husband-Protectors

In conjunction with a city's Earth Temple, the Temple of the Husband-Protectors provides the basic forms of magic and belief for Esrolian culture to thrive. A parallel can be drawn here between the generalized "Lightbringers Temple" found among some Orlanthi; this is typically a minor or major temple which serves as a holy place for Ernalda's husband-protectors as a collective entity. One husband-protector is supreme at any given time. His priest is considered the City King. A city's wealth can be roughly measured in how many husband-protector cults it supports. While performance of many religious festivals and feasts, and the support of priests, God-Talkers, and initiates can be cumbersome for a city's economy, doing so elevates the city's Earth Temple's status in the eyes of its neighbors. To provide such great bounty to those who can offer little in return is an act of great Fertility.

Ultimately, despite the vainglorious title the City King has little real authority. Only in occasions of strife do the husband-protectors have power and use in the city. Otherwise, he provides a tiebreaker vote on the city council and joins the queen when she holds court, but does not rule.

Example — Sylthi's Temple of the Husband-Protectors

In Sylthi, the Temple is adjacent to the Earth Temple. It has a large courtyard, and traditionally focuses on Orlanth Thunderous as the primary husband of Ernalda. However, his statue is now absent from the courtyard, instead placed in one of the eaves, and the yard left bare. The city king presently is the adventurer-cum-merchant King Dur-Gaddi Leadfoot, an uzko and Rune Priest of Argan Argar. He was declared king, to many's surprise, not long after King Broyan was slain by Kitori. Queen Hazulda was behind his ascension, and has made pacts with his family back in the Shadow Plateau in an effort to re-establish bonds with the Uz who ruled Kethaela peacefully for so long. Orlanth Thunderous is still worshiped, alongside Heler. Heler rarely has the kingship, and so his is one of the few priesthoods in the city which is occasionally filled by those not of a noble house. The city's Grandmothers and council rarely choose a Helering as king because their temple's Heler priest owes loyalty to the High Priest in Helerdon, per ancient agreement they upheld when House Netha re-founded the city.

The husband-protectors have few official duties beyond the actions of religion. Consequently, they are seen as layabouts by the overworked priestesses and initiates of the Earth Temple. Naturally, one couldn't possibly entrust them with further duties, being so slaggardly.

"MINOR" CULTS

While called minor, there's often nothing trivial about other cults of Esrolian religion. They are minor when considered within the context of a whole city's culture, but can, and often do, wield significant political and magical power.

Family Cults

The most frequent additional cult are family cults. These cults are organized around the worship of a house's founder. The house Grandmother is the priestess, and can speak with the founder or other ancestors to ask advice, tell them how the family's doing, and even lean on them for magical support. Often, this is only the case with noble houses. A guild also often worships its founder, but rather as their wyter and in association with the guild's god.

(In game terms, this is a cult of Daka Fal, probably without shamans. If there are shamans, I definitely want them to not be the "ooh look, I run around naked! I have weird taboos!" form of shamans we see in other materials, because of the prestige involved.)

River Cults

Many of Esrolia's largest cities sit on a river, which provides transport of goods, and food for the locals' living. Rivers used mostly for food have little prestige, but the economic impact of heavily-trafficked rivers raises their status extensively. Typically, a city on a river has a minor temple to the river-god, and one city along its length has a major temple, which the other river priests owe loyalty to the High Priest. This worship is often in conjunction with worship of Diros, the boat god, or Vogarth Big Man.

Merchant Cults

Two main merchant cults are common in Esrolia: Argan Argar, and Issaries. Issaries is generally favored, but Argan Argar has a significant historical foothold in the region due to the Only Old One's influence. These cults are worshiped by a guild, and sometimes shared between multiple.

In Sylthi, both cults exist mutually, although they don't share the same marketplace. One guild, the Fat Women, worships Issaries at the guildmaster's shop, and Argan Argar worship is centralized in the Temple of the Husband-Protectors. With Dur-Gaddi's ascension, uzko merchants worshiping Argan Argar have begun visiting the city more often.

Other Guilds

Many other gods are worshiped in this same manner, with the worship centralized by one or more guilds. The major example of this is Gustbran, the Redsmith's god. Nearly every city has a small guild dedicated to him, lest the city be reliant upon another for their metalwork. Noble houses will occasionally command people assist the local Redsmith's Guild in order to be sure they have access to their magic.

Lightbringer's Cults

The Lightbringers are honored, but not focused upon as a pantheon in the sense they are among Heortlings. A given city may have a minor temple to one of the Lightbringers, and Chalana Arroy often has a shrine in the Earth Temple. In Sylthi, the only Lightbringer worshiped as part of the city religion is Lhankor Mhy, at the Hevduran Dege Library (which, curiously enough, is actually older than the refounding of Sylthi—it wasn't destroyed in the Adjustment Wars, and remains an extant relic of God Time architecture).

Small Cults

Many small, localized cults exist throughout Esrolia, such as hero cults and spirit cults. I don't want to go into depth here, because 1) I don't know a lot about them yet, and 2) they're often weird and iconoclastic. One example of this is the cult of Vogarth Big Man, a hero worshiped as psychopomp in Sylthi, because he guided the dead back to the Necropolis in the Silver Age. (I don't know a lot about Vogarth, but came across that story, and I enjoy that extrapolation, and the idea of the spirits of the dead traveling downriver with the psychopomp.)

21 hours ago, Loïc said:

About this White Bull campaign...

Is there any chance, in the end, to have it published either as book or as a Cult of Chaos scenario (or just a short campaign script)?

I believe it's an in-house campaign playtesting Robin Laws' forthcoming Pavis & Big Rubble campaign. So it should come to publication eventually.

Are you playing with an established group, or finding new people to play with? I've been using just Discord, with a dicebot, and then snipping images or sketching then scanning to give people an idea what areas look like. Miss my hexgrid & minis, but I've found going pure theater-of-the-mind is serviceable.

I suspect we don't have too much trouble playing over audio-only because we've been playing together for a while. I can imagine it being more difficult with a new game group.

9 minutes ago, Vile Traveller said:

Well, that's your problem, right there. Technically, traditionally, and tectonically no book including heroquesting rules can ever be published.

(Dethstrok9, this is referring to a long-running joke in the fan community that Chaosium has promised "heroquesting coming next year!" for longer than I believe you or I have been alive.)

37 minutes ago, 7Tigers said:

Jeff also proposes a lot of ideas of products people could develop in Esrolia alone, with a very different flavor than Sartar & Prax.

Yep! Hah, that was my question. I've got something in the early first draft stage in that region (which didn't end up actually on his list...).

Just now, g33k said:

Any word on when the recording will be posted?

It's up in MOB's post .

I got to hang out for the Twitch stream, and it was good fun. Thanks to Chaosium & Jeff for doing this!

56 minutes ago, Dethstrok9 said:

Ahh, okay. Are there any supplements for RQG which include locales other than the Dragon Pass? Or for time periods other than 1625

Caveat: Someone else can almost certainly be more authoritative than me.

No, and no.

I believe the long-term plan is to do supplements set in as many different regions as they can, but that's gonna take time. Lots of time. Jeff mentioned some Lunar stuff and some Kralorela stuff in a recent Q&A, but I'd understand that to be more "things Chaosium would like to do" than "it's reasonable to expect this within even the next three years" for example.

Old stuff doesn't really expand a lot outside of the Dragon Pass region geographically, to my knowledge. Most of the old material is set 5-10 years before the new edition, ~1615-1620 instead of 1625. The old RQ edition released by Mongoose was set in the Second Age. I actually picked up a few books of it used, but I'm not super familiar with them--mostly just skimmed for comparisons. That edition has a significant negative reputation in the Glorantha community.

I should emphasize that that points at old GAME MATERIALS. There's a huge amount of general setting stuff out there, from the Guide to Glorantha to the apocryphal volumes of the Stafford Library. There's still an emphasis on DP/Sartar throughout the material, to the extent I'm familiar with it, but those additional publications do run all over Glorantha.

Pure speculation, but I believe there's better odds of getting weird stuff beyond Dragon Pass from the Jonstown Compendium* than from Chaosium, at least for the immediate-to-intermediate future. Right now, there's Andrew Logan Montgomery's Six Seasons in Sartar which uses the RQG rules, but is set closer to the "RQ Classic" time period, with notes (I believe) for moving up to 1625, and @Nick Brooke & co's Rough Guide to Glamour is set several hundred miles to the north, in the capital of the Lunar Empire; IMO it's more a setting/fiction book than a "gameable materials" book, but I'm pretty sure the authors disagree with me . That's not negative evaluation, though; I quite enjoy it.**

I'll not speak on specifics, but to the extent of my knowledge a majority of JC plans-in-progress circle the general Dragon Pass area, and the general "Sartar & the Lunars" background. For what I'm personally working on, I've been sticking to the region because that increases ease of access for players. It's hard to play a game set in Ralios if all you have is the Guide and a lonely fan-made book of adventures!***

Anyway, bit long of a post, but (to steal Rick Meintz's tagline), I hope it helps.

*Disclaimer: affiliate link. If you wanna see what I've specifically worked on, check out the link in my signature!

**I swear Nick, I'm gonna get you a review. I'm currently waiting on my physical copy for a re-read... and it presently is stuck in Minneapolis. The review shall be Soon™. As penance, I've added footnotes to a forum post.

***I'm sure people will disagree with me on that, too. I like the Guide, but I don't think it's at all usable for an actual tabletop campaign.

16 minutes ago, Dethstrok9 said:

On reddit I was told there already are Puffin people called Keets...Is this true?

IDK if they're puffins, but I think the Keet's are like way the heck out in the east, on the isles. I know they're not featured (yet) in RQG, but outside this edition's materials my knowledge gets sketchy reaaaaaal fast.

23 minutes ago, Dethstrok9 said:

Why Puffins should have replaced ducks...

Careful, them's fightin' words in these parts, for some folks...

28 minutes ago, 7Tigers said:

Hum! Well, then, let me propose, by Steve Maurer, from 1990:

Ooh! Thank you kindly.

2 hours ago, Shiningbrow said:

I certainly hope that's true... Otherwise, really, you'd have to be quite old before even attempting just 1 HQ, given the number of years it would take to get into the many hundreds of % required to be effective (rather than merely lucky).

The friend who got me into RQ has been playing the same character since his teens, over a decade now. On and off a bit, but generally consistently. His dad, their GM (I've never really played in that actual group myself) loosely used old superRQ notions for heroquesting. He has his broadsword attack % over 200, maybe over 250 now. Naturally, over the course of play, without magic. They still haven't done Other Side heroquesting because of the general skill penalties (my friend's character is by far the most skilled).

The rules I remember him describing were things like Skill/2, Skill/5, Skill/10 or even Skill/20 for while in the Other Side, depending on the quest's difficulty and other elements. Then, when you returned, your skill was multiplied back up to normal. So if you gained D6 experience on a Skill/5 quest, your Middle World skill rating could skyrocket. But yeah, it takes years of play to get "tall enough" to heroquest under the superquest model.

There were other elements, such as spells being persistent, and magic points not regenerating, because time doesn't pass. But certain locations might let you restore magic points, like a holy place, or completing a certain challenge. I never saw a document for these rules. Just stuff from repeated conversations with my friend (who GM'd us), about where he hoped to take his own character.

I've used some portions of those rules. Not really the skills element, but the time-stopped magic points. I ran an adventure where my players accidentally jaunted onto the (or a?) hero plane, and that felt like it worked well. I also allow use of Runes like skills when in magic places, like while heroquesting. So for example, when the Humakti was ritually defending the walls of New Pavis last Sacred Time, he just rolled his Death Rune to drive off the Night Tribe instead of an actual combat against described foes.

Steve Marsh's website was still up, last I knew, and had his heroquesting-in-RuneQuest materials available. I don't believe I've ever found Maurer's, or any of the other designer's, versions of early SuperQuest despite a moderate amount of searching.

Just now, Kloster said:

finding fantasy influenced metal seems not too hard.

Oh, it's probably a third of the genre! I'm most curious about the other direction--we have Elvis in Glorantha, has anyone done Ozzy, or Kirk Hammet? etc. Or also just general themes, like all the weird punny stuff from rock & roll and funk which has slipped in. The episode in particular called out Empire of Wyrms Friends/EWF/Earth, Wind & Fire.

Though now I'm especially tempted to go muddle something together involving Harrek and the City of Wonders...

1 minute ago, Bill the barbarian said:

Heavy metal, I thought.

Heavy and shiny ain't exclusive!

39 minutes ago, Nick Brooke said:

This was the songbook we used.

Oh, I am going to  abuse  delight the hell out of my players with these. Pure gold. Silver? Precious metal which is shiny and people compulsively acquire.

Just curious, has anyone gotten the chance to play Last Faction Hero yet? I picked it up, but due to the stay-home orders haven't had a chance to play.

12 hours ago, Bill the barbarian said:

Curious, so are we! Want to know more? We do too, we go to windwords.fm for our Glorantha info, why don’t you come along?

Great episode, guys (and not just cuz you said nice things about my stuff once again ). Perfect listening for finally finishing up my read-through of the Rough Guide. Got a letter for ya, if you're looking for listener letters this month:

Quote

Dear Wind Words,

Last month's performance of Pelorian Rhapsody was magically hilarious. Music's obviously been a huge influence on Glorantha, both in Stafford's imagination and in later contributors like MOB, Nick, Mike, and Chris. Have there been any other Gloranthan songs--parody or otherwise--created in the past?

Austin

I'm also curious about other music-genre influences on Glorantha, but wasn't sure how to get that more tightly-worded for y'all. Especially metal, speaking as a metalhead myself . I've definitely thought about digging out my bass and trying out my hand at songwriting again. The Gods War has tons of great metal themes, and I bet the Lightbringer's Quest in particular would make a killer concept album.

24 minutes ago, Akhôrahil said:

One has to wonder how this meshes with having to spent 140% of your income on the combination of cults... is this some kind of The Producers situation where you have to make sure to never earn anything?

I'm pretty sure there was an explanation somewhere--maybe Well of Daliath errata, but I thought it's actually in the book--that you donate your required percentage of whatever's left over after your main cult. So, the Rune Lord/God-Talker in this situation would give 90% of their main income to their RL cult, and then 50% of what's left over to their GT cult, and the last 5% of their gross income is discretionary spending.

Presuming they aren't, like a Storm Khan, the leader of their temple and have access to the treasury.

14 hours ago, Sir_Godspeed said:

Personally, I must admit I have a bit of an insistence on that Dronar guilds (masons, engineers, merchants, smiths, jewelworkers, you name it) might/can have some sorcerous spells passed down as part of their common rituals and training. Whether they view it as sorcery, or just as "the customary gift of guild traditions" is up for debate. A mix of a fellowship of professionals and a mystery cult, if you will.

This is, I admit, mostly rule of cool, but it's also inspired by the various sorcerous roles of the different Danmalastan peoples (Kadeniti, Tadeniti, Kachisti, etc.), as well as the mention of the two ancient Brithini Dronars living in Akem. Smith and Tinker, they are called, and they reportedly have an "ancient rivalry with Nida". Sounds to me like if you're going to compete with Dwarves, sorcery would be a good aid. 

If you're interested in modeling that in a game, the worker guilds in The Design Mechanism's Sorandib in the Thennla setting for Mythras has some interesting rules for chorus-leaders and workers doing magic in unison to create objects of high art and artifice.

2 hours ago, Redmoongodess said:

The title is obviously lunar propaganda.

Can neither confirm nor deny.

HEORTLINGS OF SARTAR

This month's installment of Monster of the Month is now live! Monster of the Month is a series of new bestiary entries for Chaosium's RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. In addition to statblocks and behavior, most entries include supplemental detail and advice for gamemasters and/or new adventurer options for players.

41 minutes ago, Nick Brooke said:

You may be thinking of this old piece I wrote: it's not canonical, but it was thoroughly sourced by cross-checking oddities from King of Sartar against primary Gloranthan sources.

I think I was recalling the Zin letter you quoted, yeah, in conjunction with other stuff. I've not read your essay before. At some point I'm gonna have to do more digging with this theme, Great Sister, and the White Moon Movement; I suspect my game's meta-plot will be getting moved in that direction, since my players are growing both anti-Lunar and anti-Argrath.

3 hours ago, DrGoth said:

Now, the Red Goddess is, at least in her re-ascendancy, a lot younger. A lot earlier on her path.  Has she made mistakes? Yep (hello, crimson bat, for starters). What if she started trying to fix things?  Maybe she needs to , to become the white moon again.  But she's now bound by the cosmic compromise, having proved her place in it by the actions at Castle Blue.  So maybe she has to act through a determined band of worshippers (ie, the PCs). Maybe they have to persaude Jar-Eel (the Lunar emperor being a lost case).  Jar-Eel and the PCs having to deal with two slavering barbarian hordes on the one hand (Argrath and co and the Pentians) and the recidivist elements of the empire on the other while dealing with the magical aspects of this, possible culminating in a great heroquest to save/retrieve the world from ruin, looks to me like something that has story potential.

I seem to recall a version of this as a canonical story. May have been lurking somewhere in King of Sartar's footnotes; if I get time, I'll go hunting. Basically, Argrath has to overcome his hatred of the Red Moon in order to succeed with his revenge, and likewise Argrath is the cosmic reaction generated by the Red Goddess for her to transcend herself, and become the White Moon.

Of course, the Lunars of 1625 don't know this, which is why the Empire wants to silence the White Moon Movement.