Sir_Godspeed

5 hours ago, Erol of Backford said:

TofRM 10 - The turrets and merlons are a bit weird to me on the ship. I'd expect turtle ships or monitors so they couldn't be boarded as easily?

  

It's just one artistic interpretation, I wouldn't hold it as gospel.

Another addition to an old thread - these might continue, I'm trying to catch up after my pandemic-induced hiatus - but the East Isles have Avanapdur, the Lord of Illusion. He is part of their Greater Darkness Era, except it was an empire of terrible splendor. Then it was revealed to be a lie, which was, iirc, basically their version of the Dawn. It's not QUITE on the money, but it seems pertinent if you ever bump into any East Islanders.

On 11/10/2022 at 4:57 PM, JRE said:

In the same stele he claims to have purified his mother's home of quarrelsome Egi, which may be why he is a single self instead of many. On the other hand he still knows the secret knowledge Moonson shared with Ethilrist many years before he was born...

The New Moon Empire starts by getting rid of the Old Moon traditionalists in the Moon...

Phargentes may have successfully integrated the different alters into a complete, holistic ego. Whereas before they were acting as competing modes, now the borders between them have been torn down and they're more manageable. 

Maybe it was Sheng that caused the split originally, since it was he who caused the masks to take the different bodies as well? Or maybe it was always unintegrated and Phargentes is truly a culmination of the Red Emperor process. I have no idea.

On 11/10/2022 at 9:13 AM, nabda said:

The size of these villages gives me a lot to think about though, even a smaller and depleted village could have numbers close to a healthy Sartarite counterpart. It will be a fine line to walk making something that can be a threat to a Lodrilli village, but could still be something a group of ~5 players can solve.

A very late reply, but I don't think this is too much of an issue since Orlanthi villages are SIGNIFICANTLY more militarized by default. Lodrili are intentionally demilitarized most of the time, with some notable exceptions. Simple numbers of accessible weapons and traditions of training militia aside, Orlanthi also have a significantly higher rate of adventure-capable rune initiates with useful, violent applications. 

6 hours ago, Darius West said:

I wonder if we will get a book dedicated to all the Thunder Brothers eventually?

Aren't several of those going to be included in the Lightbringers? How many - notable/prevalent - Thunder Brothers are there that won't be one of the 19 in the Lightbringers? Obviously, I don't know what all those 19 will be beyond the core crew of the actual Lightbringer Quest, but I'm guessing they're going to squeeze in Storm gods closely associated with Orlanth, so maybe Storm Bull/Urox, and maybe even Vinga and uuhhh.... well, Hedkoranth and Helamakt might be pushing it in terms of notability/utility for players I guess.

1 hour ago, Noirfatale said:

Wish me Godspeed.

 

Wish you what?


/j

Welcome!

Jeff's post makes me want to theorycraft some story of an "orphaned" Storm-associated people going renegade. Maybe not inherently Chaotic, but.... culturally inclined to seek it out for power in a world it deems hostile?

1 hour ago, Bill the barbarian said:

I'll bet this is an obvious pun and I will be deeply embarrassed when it is explained however... Please do explain if you would.

O-BULL-ix! Praise Storm Bull per the original illustration.

Incidentally, "Uncle Fulmakt" is one letter away from the Norwegian word for "Uncle Power of Attorney".

4 hours ago, Cloud64 said:

OK, you got me, those Asterix style 'toons are adorable - I'm a sucker for good cartoon  art. They're begging to be in a comic. Airunix and… I'll leave the name of the definitely-not-obese one who fell into a cauldron of magic potion when he was a baby to someone else.

Obullix!

I saw this timelapse of someone building a fantastical version of Babylon in Minecraft, and my mind quite quickly went to Dara Happa, perhaps epecially Raibanth. It's the wrong climate, of course, not so much sand and palm trees as it is continental dryness and irrigated floodplains, but I think the architectural style, and perhaps just as importantly the sense of scale is pretty spot on. Those palaces and ziggurats are probably unrealistically humongous, which is why I think they fit for Glorantha, where heroic and monumental scale is just a bit more on the nose than the RW Bronze Age. Seeing the little houses next to the impossibly massive statues, walls and towers is a good visual aid, imho.


 

Some great threadomancy here, but some of my favorite weirdnesses:

- Horses are sorta birds (this is a great teaching moment to show how the mythic logic of Glorantha throws RW considerations to the wayside)
- Dragons are actually dream projections of the ACTUAL dragons.
- Some of the metal mined in Glorantha are the bones of dead gods (great teaching moment to talk about the Gods War to initiates)

12 hours ago, Ironwall said:

I wonder what the Storm cults opinion on Lodril would be then. A nasty uncle who was willing to harm his nephews out of fear and jealousy? Would they be aware of any of Lodril's positive deeds they would at least know him as the father of Quiven and Ernalda (unless the myth about Lodril being her father never reached sartar). At a glance his wild tendencies could be respected by the equally wild Storm cults

I was thinking about this last night before bed, and I went back and forth. In the end I think I came down on a not so terribly exciting, but plausible answer. My impression is that most Sartarites and Heortlanders know of Lodril in mostly this way:

- He's the volcano god.

- He's one of the bad uncles who tested the sons of Umath 

- He's one of the bad uncles, and so every few years someone dresses up as him and have to learn how to make the costume and do the dance or say the lines, etc. 

- He's the father of the Lowfires. 

- He's Ernalda's dad(?) (Not sure how widespread this belief is). 

- Women or Earth-initiates might know him as a lover of the Goddess, a flawed one, I'm sure, as all the lovers are.

To me, most of these indicate that Orlanthi of south-sentral Genertela probably perceive Lodril is a fairly distant, not terribly relevant deity that plays a bit of a role in some founding myths, so more of an elder deity, and plays a bit part in the initiation of young men. He appears to at times be either beneficial or hostile, but overall is just peripheral. 

It's a bit like Hønir or someone like that in Norse myth. They're around, but have no immediate significant role in society overall.

I was debating on how the Lunars would change this, but honestly I suspect most people wouldn't know/care. There's no proselytizing. He is not a public symbol of the Empire like the 7M. Obviously this changes if they're people who are more familiar with Peloria as a whole (like some Orlanthi Tarshites, I guess), or indeed Caladraland, but these influences would probably give people different impressions.

For Esrolia the story is a little different, maybe? Southern Esrolia has a close relationship with Caladraland, and the Vent looms above them, so there's a constant reminder and probably semi-regular interation there, through trade, politicking, and general cultural exchange.

2 hours ago, mfbrandi said:

People say he is lazy — and we all like to laze about from time to time — but mostly it is his detractors who say this. I mean, he made the Gods Wall, and that seems like a bit of an undertaking. Fire types are not big on praising change/innovation (because Air associated?), but when we read things like “made the first cylinder seal” (GRoY — somewhere), I think we are probably not going too far if we say invented the cylinder seal. So a deity of farming, but also of invention, innovation, civil engineering (irrigation), and generally getting the job done. If getting the job done with minimum effort, all the better. I hadn’t given Lodril much thought before this thread, but he does seem to be a maligned character.

Yeah, I've always interpreted the comments about Lodril as basically upper-class chauvinism and classism. Of course the aristos think the peasantry and servants are lazy and indulgent. It's a meta-comment on Dara Happan/Solar society more than a comment on Lodril himself. I assume Caladralander culture contextualizes things differently. "Yeah, Lodril is the best farmer because his granary is always full and he can shower his in-laws with beer and pork. Check out that gut! What an absolute legend."

3 hours ago, Jeff said:

is the father of Ernalda

Somehow I never picked up that this is his role in the Orlanthi pantheon, I've always seen her as sorta sprung out of Asrelia through parthenogenesis or something, but then maybe the Earth temples just like to downplay that aspect in art since it's usually not hugely relevant to them?

(I guess it mirrors the Entekosiad, come to think of it, which I realize is probably a distant concern, lol).

38 minutes ago, g33k said:

She is the head of the Uz' spider-cult of Aranea; the High Priestess thereof; that doesn't preclude Arachne Solara (indeed, one has to wonder at Aranea's relation to Arachne Solara).

But Cragspider does seem to have all manner of odd alliances & affiliations!

Yeah, I stand corrected! She does have an Aranea connection. 

Makes me wonder if there's some special connection between Aranea and Arachne Solara though. Not something blatant, but maybe something subtle.

2 hours ago, jajagappa said:

Correct.  She is something more.

But did she start out as a troll?

Regardless, as far as I'm aware, her "spiderness" is due to her relationship with Arachne Solara, and not any kind of animal totemism as such.

2 hours ago, JRE said:

In my opinion hsunchen, though it is a Kralori term, is actually a God Learner concept, and they joined together peoples that themselves have very different origin myths. Being the meddlers they were, and that they liked to tidy other peoples myths, I would expect that the fact that hsunchen have similar structures and myths could simply be a God Learner project.

 

The first part of that is all but confirmed, I think. The latter is a great nugget to think on and spin from.

One interesting example here are the Sofali, who are turtle Hsunchen. Not sure if they change shapes or have some other relationship with Sofal. Iirc, Sofal made an oceanic journey during the Lightbringer quest, so at least they cover some kind of aquatic turtle, wether it's a sea turtle or a freshwater one. 

Anyway, interesting confluence of Sea and Earth (if we lump them together with reptiles for sake of ease). 

Still lays eggs on land though, so maybe merely a "guest" of the sea.

5 minutes ago, French Desperate WindChild said:

that opens a new perspective for me.. Something  more global than I understood from @JRE

to be sure I understand your answer, do you mean that Hsunchen are just human as other, no difference except their religion/belief/philosophy/way of life ?

I did not see it anywhere before, but I probably missed it ?

 

I think the Xeotam Dialoges kind of imply that Hsunchen abilities are geneological and get weaker with interbreeding, but I don't think Xeotam is intended to be a reliable narrator, he serves more as a kind of spokesperson for Safelstrian(?) perspectives in various Malkioni concepts. I could be wrong. 

I have to admit, I lean towards Hsunchen-status being something more than mere biological descent. Partly because that's boring and restrictive, and partly because paleolithic hunter-gatherer cultures don't majorly go for strict century-long genealogies to establish legal right of inheritance and the like. These are fluid, dynamic societes, and I think it's thematically better if Hsunchen are able to intermarry and adopt outsiders into their traditions, including shapeshifting. 

On the other hand, I also think it is neat if we can have people of biological Hsunchen descent who can "discover" their abilities. Perhaps a bit like the Seshnelan Beast Societies (although you can just as easily argue that this is a tradition thing too). 

Basically, I want my cake and eat it, and I don't think that's really a problem in this case.

Is that how Chaosium views it? No idea. 

------

As for the OP's question, I believe I also asked something similar. I wondered why only human Hsunchen existed and not Troll or Ludoch Hsunchen. 

If I recall correctly, the answer Jeff(?) had is that the Elder Races are much more closely tied to their ancestor gods, and so are more "settled" in their particular mode of culture/religion.

44 minutes ago, Akhôrahil said:

Biting gnats can make a real number on reindeer, too.

26 minutes ago, jajagappa said:

Broo flies. 🙂

 

We have reindeer botfly in the RW that lay parasitic eggs under the skin and in the tissue, so it's pretty close!

Not sure that really fits the "sprite" description though. If they were insects, wouldn't they just have written that? Unless we're dealing with some kind of Timinit subrace (but then, why the Mislari mountains specifically? Wouldn't they be doing better along Valind's Glacier or in the boreal forests?)

37 minutes ago, Akhôrahil said:

My thought about something that kills horses but merely annoys or mildly hurts people might be some kind of (possibly large) flying insect-like creature that comes in flocks. Like a perhaps scarier gnat.

Well, the tsetse flies would be a good fit, but thematically they're better associated with Pamaltela, which has its own anti-horse thing going on.

My initial reaction was to think it was "Dara-Ni", but that's a ways off, right? And likely younger, and only marginally phonetically similar.

What's the name of the ancient civilization in Dorastor again?

28 minutes ago, scott-martin said:

The Japanese stuff is great. A tangent makes me desperate to give them an Algonquian ambience but haven't made it past "Da-shi" in Ojibwe, "the many" or "the quantity," "the collective." I love the notion of them being either very small or sometimes very large, the primal original inhabitants of the range. Since some stories suggest that the Mislari were made to separate Maker from proto-elf and proto-dwarf nations from each other, maybe the ones who survive into history have characteristics that we'd associate with both today. Either way, my gut is that Ethilrist got his "goblins" from somewhere.

A relict Genertelan population of red elves? 

Some sorta rock-gremlin? 

The aforementioned Hsunchen? 

Some sort of Storm spirits? (Inora's depiction with lots of little creatures around her comes to mind)

My understanding was that "Hell" is one of those words in Glorantha that sounds like it SHOULD be fairly specific, but which is really more descriptive. A bit like "Demon". A "demon" isn't a specific type of entity, just really any given hostile spiritual entity from your culture's point of view. By comparison, my take would be that "Hell" would be any given Underworld/Otherworld location that your culture deems disagreeable. I'm sure there are "hells" on the Red Moon, for example. That being said, there might be a general consensus that capital-H "Hell" is basically just a synonym for the old Uz Wonderhome, which is why you have Uz referring to some of their number as "Hellmothers" and the like: they've adopted the term because it's useful when speaking with non-Uz as a form of exonym.