Eff

I always took this as related to the statements that Humakt and Uleria were preeminent among the gods who listened to Rashoran and took heart rather than seeking annihilation. Certainly, Humakt's involvement in Sedenya's Godquest is quite ambiguous...

The black pudding and Blutwurst at Earth temple dinners just can't be beat, though!

Humakti don't go on rampages in and around Ezel, either, so there's clearly ways to have animate dead people that are at least grudgingly acceptable. I suppose the cheapest way out would be for a Lhankoring to engage in a lengthy disquisition about how ZZ zombies aren't actually undead because when they eat brains they're just empowering the Dark within themselves or peeling the Fire parts of the body out of people to feed their god's Fire within.

Well, in this case specifically, I decided to invoke the use of copper in stills in the real world, since I was concerned with an almost Malkionic "how does the intersection of Separation and Earth manifest itself beyond sacred guardianship"?

Distillation isn't necessarily brewing! But here's a take on the origin of distilling: Once, the earth was washed by the sea, warmed by the sky, caressed by the wind, and cooled by the dark. There was a wedding happening. There were many weddings, in those days. Ernalda married Orlanth and that kicked off the whole thing. Elmal married Reydalda, and then Esrola married Elmal, and then Heler married them both. Vingkot married two wives, one bright and one dark, one warm and one cold. It was a wedding season. And whenever she felt like it, Ernalda would marry Orlanth again. Weddings meant quite a lot, but among the most important things was making the Eight Known Drinks. No one could have a wedding without all eight. Eurmal had tried having one with only seven and he had had to be driven out of the tribe again. Vadrus had then been inspired, and had weddings with only five or sometimes six, and so those of his children he married off in that fashion had monsters for children of their own. Minlister was the brewer of the Storm Tribe. No one was quite sure where he'd come from originally. Some said he was from the Dark. Some said he was a child of Elmal and Esrola. Some said he was made by Ernalda. Everyone wanted him as their friend, and many were the enemies of the Storm Tribe who sought to steal him away. As Humakt said one day, sharpening his sword, there truly was never a dull moment. Today, though, Minlister was a bit drowsy as he brewed the Eight Known Drinks. His wonderful cauldron could brew anything with just water and Minlister's special touch, but, alas, he didn't bother to change out the amphorae as he made his batches. So when he was done, the wine was mixed with the wheat ale, the mead with the barley beer, the rice wine with the cider, and everything was plain and simply a mess. It is at this moment that Babeester came into the brewery. Babeester was not overly fond of weddings, for she found them totally uninteresting in and of themselves and she was usually standing guard during them. But she was always appreciative of a good drink, and so she never complained about weddings. But she spent the preparations as well out of the way as possible. So she wandered in, looking simply to look and breathe in the lovely smell of drink brewing and breathing and aging. But as she went to the first amphora and inhaled, her nose wrinkled. "Ah," she said, looking up to see where Minlister had been gnawing on his cauldron in a fury, "That's what's going on." "I'll have to brew them all fresh!" Minlister cried, not really paying attention to her. "Perhaps I can help," Babeester said. "You?" Minlister asked, noticing her for the first time. "I swear," Babeester said, "on the Styx that I will need none of your pottery and will do what I can entirely without your aid." Minlister shrugged. "Okay," he said. And he went to brew more batches, because he was unsure. Babeester went and gathered some of her aunt's experiments with pottery, and then went and gathered odd bits of glasswork, and finally set to work. She poured in the mixed and muddled drinks, and swirled them about, and finally saw what was what within each, and then poured each into their own bowls. And then she threw out what was left. And in this way, she separated each, the essence of each of the Eight poured into its own container. But when she was finished, she realized that what she had made was something new. There was far too little of the drinks to fill more than a single amphora, if that. She tasted one, the essence of rye beer, and ran shouting for Minlister. The two of them tasted them all, and realized that they were good and strong, far too much so for anyone to drink like they would mead or wine. So they sealed them up, and only shared them out a little bit at a time, and diluted them strongly whenever they did. But Babeester continued to work with them, and discovered many secret drinks that she shared with no one, not even Minlister, which she used in her sacred work from that point on.

Clearly, Time is flawed. There should be 7x7 months in a Gloranthan year, for 343 days of Lunar bliss. That means we need an additional season, and another week of Sacred Time...

An immediate thought: the field traders running the caravans could very well be the relatives of the Trader Princes proper. I have never read Blood over Gold, though, lol, so I have no idea how validated my suspicions about the transformation of Malkioni life in Wenelia were in said previous vision. I would probably run with "Manirians never picked up the Alakoring reforms and their politics had the warlord/king as just one position among many until Greymane emerged", if only because that provides a nice third "traditionalist" faction to opposed the Young Lions. (Now if only we could conjure up a fourth and assign lionish representatives to each!)

I actually made holiday-themed Moscow Mules with grenadine and Midori for festive coloration once for a party. They were... halfway a success.

It's actually currently debated whether distillation dates back to 3000 BCE or merely to 200 CE, but it's well within the range Glorantha draws on. Distillation of alcohol is not known until well into the Middle Ages, so I would definitely keep it a cultic secret that's only produced in small batches, outside the Mostali who presumably use it to clean things and drown out the horrors of seeing plants growing.

If we're talking about that kind of spirit, something that is a very My Glorantha Has Varied: "The Babeester Gor cult preserves many secrets, many of which are entirely tedious and of no interest to anyone who is not part of the cult. However, one particular secret that they know is that of distillation. With the appropriate pottery, metal flasks, and/or glassware, any Axe Maiden can distill liquors. Generally, these are not available except in cities or in particularly wealthy temples, and the batches produced are small.Liquors produced are fairly well divided between brandies, whiskies, cordials, and shochu/soju, though the last is relatively rare, as the Babeester Gor cult is almost absent in the rice-growing regions of Glorantha. These spirits are normally stored within the Earth temple itself and shared out for momentous occasions. Within the temple, they are more commonly used for temple orgies, high holy days, and to celebrate new priestesses.In addition, the cult possesses the recipes necessary to distill special liquors with names like Fireball, Mad Dog, and Master Hunter. These potent drinks may be used to induce or enhance a berserk fury when drunk, and it is said that for an experienced Axe Sister even looking at a little flask of Master Hunter is enough to induce such a fury. It is said that these bear the same relationship to regular liquors as Widebrew does to beers and ales."

My assumptions (I have had some thoughts on working towards a campaign/setting in Wenelia) is that there's a power vacuum that sees the Merchant Princes trying to reclaim their former preeminent position in the face of opposition from Handra and the New Coast, the Pralori expanding their influence eastward with Greymane gone, and then of course Arstola as the center of the Reforestation. And then you have Ramalia in waiting as a bomb ready to go off and the situations in Safelster and Seshnela ready to spill over. And then I realized that I was unsure if there was any kind of canonical look at the near future of Maniria.

More or less as the title says. Does Greymane die at the Battle of the Pennel Ford? Do either or both of his sons survive? I assume Hardral's pro-Esrolian/Kethaelan faction is in the ascendancy afterwards, given that the Lunars are gone and won't be back until the 1640s or so. And in general, what's happening in Maniria, especially Wenelia, between the time of the Guide and the time of Runequest Glorantha?

Canonically, all Gloranthan cultures are accepting of homosexuality. What follows is mostly speculation/invention. Sources are generally quiet on public sexuality, but as one of the main contrasts between Loskalm and Seshnela is that Loskalm is more restrained where the Seshnegi are more given to sensuality, I would suggest that Loskalmi probably hold sex and sexuality to be something of a private thing, not something to be expressed in public if you can avoid it. Jonatings, however, are culturally substantially much more Orlanthi. Orlanthi are canonically much more open to public displays of sexuality, but instead there's a distinction (expressed via the differentiation of both bed-marriages and love-marriages from regular marriages) between expressions of desire and expressions of love and expressions of social ties. I know very little about Janubians beyond the Arrolian Confederation. Lunars are fairly open to sexuality, but IIRC one of the Arrolian cities is ruled by Solar priests when it comes out of the Ban. They would probably be even more prim than the Loskalmi. In any case, Zoria, with its firm commitment to free love, would be deeply disorienting for Loskalmi, Orlanthi, and probably most human cultures (Lunars would attempt to embrace the disorientation as clearly leading them towards enlightenment) but for a variety of reasons. Trolls may or may not care. Uleria's city should definitely be strange to visit for anyone who's not one of her god-talkers, IMO.

Hmmm. Is Joy as universal a goal for Malkioni as the Ascended Masters seem to be? (E.g. it's only Rokari and allied schools that largely reject it.)

I think this is one of the key reasons why people venerate Ascended Masters. While they can't grant you magic directly, they can teach you pre-packaged spells that are the equivalents of the lesser spirit magic and Rune magic other people practice (this is where talars on horseback with flaming swords or ghastly giggling come from, IMO/IMG) and these can be used by you relatively freely and without violating caste restrictions necessarily (maybe if you're Brithini, but Brithini are all immortal and every dronar could conceivably be a full sorcerer by now). Obviously, the greater your logical connection to the Ascended Master the easier it is to commune with them for those lessons in practical magic. (One of the hidden secrets is that thanks to women's slightly greater degree of inter-caste mobility historically, technically anyone can claim descent from Talar, Zzabur, Horal, and Dronar if they need to...) The Rokari are definitely suspicious of this, but not so much as to actually crack down on it compared to the zzaburi gently steering the talars towards ancestor worship.

You could, if you were so inclined, recast Hrestolism versus non-Hrestolism as being an extended philosophical debate about whether empirical evidence or reasoning is more important in the development of a coherent philosophy. Of course, pragmatism would suggest that you not go full New Hrestol Idealism and require all the zzaburi to first have worked with their hands and fought with them too before they get around to the study of the laws of the Creator...

My thought would be Bad Dream Enostar and his vision of saving the people of Pavis by becoming eaters rather than eaten. This is probably not what's intended, of course.

Well, New Hrestoli Idealism rejects Makanism and God Learnerism pretty thoroughly, while the Rokari are still using that early God Learner creation/discovery, the Abiding Book. So in that sense, Loskalmi can feel more confident they're safe from God Learning, because they've surely purged all the dangerous aspects, right? Right? Of course, the real fireworks would come from mixing God Learning with an idealism that sees the material world as inherently corrupt. The original God Learners were, at least theoretically, simply trying to understand the world better. I'm certain plenty of Loskalmi have big ideas of what they'd replace the current world with...

Kuschile is still canon, but I think has been moved to "technically Kargzant" while remaining Yelmalio ruleswise?

Well, the painting in question is so striking that it's the first thing that comes to mind, lol.

Unfortunately I had a computer glitch before checking this all the way, but the vast majority of urban Dara Happans live in the Tripolis, Elz Ast, and a handful of colony cities, it seems according to the Guide. The exception being Kostaddi, where the entire population is culturally Dara Happan. So I think that the Oslira valley itself is culturally Dara Happan to the hilt but that this vanishes very quickly outside those river banks.

At Sacred Time, every year, when the world is remade, the difference in time between Earth years and Gloranthan years is made up in an instant. This occurs, in Dragon Pass, at the part of the ceremony where people who believe blood has iron in it are ritually rebuked and cast out, to hearty boos.

The introductory text has Valare claim that Teelo Imara is Entekos personified, and the revelation she develops is that it's the opposite: Entekos is an emanation of the Great Sedenya (and thus the mystery of Dendara/Entekos is satisfied for Valare Addi: she has proven they are both really the same being as emanations of Sedenya, which is unfortunately not quite useful for most people..)

Well, the Entekosiad proves ("proves") that Dendara (and Entekos) are manifestations of Sedenya, so I definitely don't think you need to join an openly Lunar cult to be a Lunar Dendaran. I disagree that the Yelm-to-Sedenya pathway is less problematic, though. I think that there's an obvious reason why Sedenya's Masks are all feminine, even when the the associated deity is normally noted as masculine (Verithurus, Zayteneras) or is otherwise noted as genderfluid (Rashoran), and this would mean that Dendara-to-Sedenya is femininity to femininity and Yelm-to-Sedenya is going to involve masculinity to femininity and thus a severe case of Gender Exploration (and the turmoil this causes is thus a step on the way to opening the third eye for Illumination). (In turn, this is probably why the Lunar Way stalls out in Tarsh initially and makes very little headway except as a political accommodation in Sartar and points south- this "mechanism for illumination" is only really effective in a Pelorian context with strongly opposed genders and in an Orlanthi perspective where gender is less firmly oppositional, a different mechanism is needed. Hon-Eel provided that for Tarsh. It's a shame that those pesky Hero Wars keep dragging Jar-Eel's attentions away from developing a new revelation for Sartar and Heortland...)

Well, my thoughts on the Lunars are as follows: The Seven Mothers have specific cults that seem almost bureaucratic in nature, as does Etyries and presumably Valare Addi, Kana Poor, Hwarin Dalthippa, etc. We know from the Guide that there are "culturally Lunar" people, who presumably are raising their children in a Lunar fashion. The Sedenya cult proper is only open to those who have been Illuminated, or to those who have been Sevened, depending on the source. (I would go with Sevening being necessary for advancing beyond basic initiate status, just to keep the cult theoretically within RQ playability). There does not really appear to be a Rufelza/Red Moon cult as such, and if it exists, it probably has an extremely limited membership, perhaps solely Crater Makers and Moonboat operators. There are seven different Masks of Sedenya just sitting there... So my thought is that "culturally Lunar" people, instead of their kids being "members" of the Yelm Youth or Young Dendara Adventures cults, instead progress through the Verithurusa-Lesilla-Gerra cycle as part of their lives. If they become Illuminated, or if they wish to seek Illumination, there is the Rashorana cult, which operates the various official schools of Illumination. And then beyond that, there's the Orogeria/Ulurda cult, the Natha cult, and the Zaytenera cult, which are all gods you would normally be initiating into the cults of after being sufficiently Illuminated but which are also drawn upon indirectly. And then there are Lunar citydivinities, which were actually what got me on this thought process- why is Glamour almost entirely culturally Lunar? Because being a citizen of Glamour means participating in the worship of the goddess Glamour and doing so continually exposes you to the Lunar Way and forces you to think in Lunar terms. But with that said, the majority of Lunars are also members of the same "subcult" model I've laid out for Pelorians as a whole. (I also suspect the Issaries, Lhankor Mhy, and Chalana Arroy/Erissa cults are similarly segmented in Peloria). You're still performing those labors, so unless you're a bureaucrat of some kind or able to support yourself as a mystic or sorcerer... (The main inspiration for this is monasticism in South Asia and to a lesser extent in East Asia- the ideal of Lunar society is to become Illuminated and then Sevened, but this seems inconsistent with a large culturally Lunar population- "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" is a good title but experiencing kensho while changing an oil filter is not a good idea for getting that filter changed. So Illuminates are an ideal that most people pursue once they're "retired". Player characters, of course, are maniacs who do go straight for opening their third eye to Sedenya's light.)