Sir_Godspeed

80 horses for a small hamlet, regardless of its importance as a trading entrepot or taxation centre, seems ABSURD. Especially considering how much of a status symbol horses are in Sartar.

Will floods be such a big problem up in their native region? Granted, parts of the New Fens lie inside their zone of control, it seems, but generally Pralorela seems to straddle the Ralios-Maniria watershed. I suspect the Aldryami see Heler as a constituent part of Grower, more specifically as a part of Eron, the Nurturing Waters. (Note that Arroin has been mentioned above, but my source below used the term "Eron" in the equivalent passage.) The elven concept of theism isn't really theism as we understand, but appears to be more a kind of nested pantheism, if that makes any sense. However, it is apparently closer to theism than shamanism (though I suspect the difference is irrelevant for Aldryami, but that's speculative). Here is the source. It's from 1998, so might be superceded. But it's a helluva lot more interested to me than just going "the Aldryami worship Orlanthi gods with different names", which seems to be how they're presented in a lot of media. https://wellofdaliath.chaosium.com/home/gloranthan-documents/greg-sez/greg-sez/aldryas-own-story/

It's also more fun, imho.

I believe there was a thread a little while ago where some people attempted to calculate the proportion of animal riders living in Prax and the Wastes proper, and seemingly most of them live in the Wastes. I'm not really qualified to say much more, since Prax is one of those places that has been described intensely for several decades, most of which I haven't read.

But "man BECOMING a god" seems to be a-okay.

Somewhat of a mix of deism and emanationism, not entirely unlike Gnosticism (which is perhaps fitting since the Malkioneranism tradition is heavily based on Gnosticism, if I've understood it correctly.)

I was trying to distinguish between characters in the game, many of whom are probably Yelm fans, and players in the real world, who it seems to be more than not have a negative view of Yelm. For both of these, getting a feminine, or bigendered Sun (or even Yelm) would be shaking up their view of things, albeit in different ways.

It's also interesting from the perspective of RW players who more or less come to view Yelm with a lot of disdain (like a lot of us here).

The Doraddi knows that in Glorantha, all Empires are destined to bring turmoil and destruction, and so they have deliberately established an anti-Empire as it were, so as to maintain as idyllic an existence as feasibly (and mytho-typically) possible. That's the purpose of all those "we already tried that" stories. Continuity over greatness. That's also why the Kresh are riling them up so much. Empires inherently mean trouble.

Not in the slightest. As a general rule, I tend to prefer not to "lose" cultures/factions/groups in fictional universe. The idea of the Lunars or Orlanthi having to disappear bums me out (although the canon does allow for some survival of Lunars in *some* sense).

I've lately been mulling over the idea that Shargash might, in addition to the Red Planet, also be the setting sun, the evening red, etc. This thread is a pretty good place for that theory, since it doesn't really fit anywhere in the chronology and causes more headaches than it solves. But I kinda like it nonetheless.

As far as I understand, Orlanthi notions of rulership derives from marriage to the sovereignty powers of the Earth. Orlanth is not an exception to this; he is the model for it. I honestly think, at least in deep time, that the Dara Happans believed the same, but they either forgot, or consciously supressed it, hence Aether and Gata's relationship, followed by Yelm's much more patriarchal marriage to Dendara, who is severely neutered in nature compared to Ernalda. Hm. There's some myth-theorizing here that's better left for another thread.

Thanks for the elaboration, Jeff. I've been a bit disappointed that the LBQ seems to be treated as just some random ressurection spell, but your contextualization makes things more meaningful.

I kinda love this idea.

The Earth Cube is a D6 floating in some nerd's red solo cup of Mr. Pibb's (other beverages are available).

Belintar is actually a Yeerk from the Animorphs books.

Trolls could export lead (or even other metals), chitin for various uses, other insectoid secretions or byproducts, trollkin slaves, etc. They might like to import other metals, finished products (luxury items, tools, etc.).

And the Vadeli are literally the same, just different outcome.

She is the Earth Avenger, so that makes sense. Though this summons images of crazy, blood-drenched Aldryami berserkers*, which is both terrifying and awesome. (*I know that it's Uroxi who are called berserkers in Glorantha, but I find Gorite rage hard to describe in other words.)

The most important thing is that you take care of yourself.

Don't stress it, they can safely wait until you've poured over the Guide and Sourcebook.

Yeah, it's not a clear determinator (for example, Pentan nomads seem to organize in pretty large-scale tribes even though Pent has abysmally low density, but then mounted nomads play by somewhat different rules than sedentary folks), however, what I will say is that Sartar (and Tarsh and/or Drsgon Pass as a whole) can't just be seen in terms of population density as a whole, rather it seems we find significant concentrations in the more fertile lowlands along the waterways, contrasted by very low densities in the high mountains surrounding them. This means that if we look with a more fine grain, we might see a better view of things. I'm not sure if there is an equivalent density-contrast within Oranor. But as you said, there are cultural differences at play too. The other aspect is of course that Sartar and Tarsh lie along an extremely profitable trading route, which makes economic stability desireable, which arguably promotes higher levels of organization (and arguably makes them able to punch above their weight in terms of manpower, since they are disproportionately wealthy - which sounds weird to type as we tend to think of Sartarites as "salt of the earth" barbarian types). Brolia basically lies in the arse end of nowhere by comparison. It's all a bit speculative, of course. I would never discout the influence of Alakoring's Rex Cult. Myths legitimizing and lending magical potency to certain political models is a very real and significant thing in Glorantha.

Ralios, Kerofinela, Talastar, Heortland (the Volsaxi are a kind of super-tribe, aren't they?), Maniria (Ditali, etc. are tribes, aren't they? Or tribal confederations?) I *think* the Umathelan Orlanthi organize in tribes, but I can't recall whether their named groups are explicitly named as tribes. Beyond that, I'm not sure.

Apart from the political angle, I'd suspect population density to be the main factor for tribal formation. The denser the population, the more likelihood for large-scale political organization. Of course, this is a bit too demographically deterministic, but it's more of a rule of thumb.

Very often when we discuss the Sky, we tend to either talk about it solely as the realm of the Fire/Sky Rune (and its associated entities/deities), or alternatively as a result of the various injuries/invasions it has endured (Lorion, Darkness, Storm, Chaos, etc.). However, it seems to me that the Sky is actually something more than this, which I find interesting. We of course have Sky/Fire entities themselves represented in the constellations, but we also have Storm (Orlanth's Ring), Draconic entities, possibly Earth (depending on how one views Dendara/Entekos and the Doraddi Sky Witches), Sea (Lorion), Moon (well... the moons, obvs.) possibly Darkness (The Red Planet is... complicated) and so on. Some of these are "invasions", yes, but I don't think all of them are ultimately the cosmic equivalent of "battle scars". Rather, I think it's an intriguing thought that the sky itself naturally reflects the cosmos for some reason or other. In the same way the Underworld might have certain properties beyond just being dark and cold (sleep, regeneration, hibernation, imprisonment), the Sky might have certain qualities beyond "simply" being the elemental domain of Fire (Order? Schematics? Reflection? Introspection? ) We have stars signifying the lost location of the Spike (Polestar?) Stars signifying the apotheosis of mortal into godhood, even if they have no explicit association with the Sky, and celestial entities associated with other things on the surface. I can't help but think that there is SOMETHING going on here beyond the Yelmic-Plentonic "the sky is all that's great and clean" and the runic-elementally reductionalist "fire lol". I don't have any formed theory, but my my thoughts tend to coalesce into the notion that the Sky naturally or consciously reflects matters either on the surface world, or in Glorantha as a whole. Why? I have no idea. But I like that it adds a dimension to the sky that makes it more closely tied into the whole "world-machine" (to borrow a Mostali term) as opposed to just being a mono-elemental, distant realm. Controversial notion: The Sky Always Belonged To Everybody. Maybe I'm overthinking it. But that's why we're here, right?