Sir_Godspeed

And/or Serenha (Umath's only daughter). Possibly. Potentially?

But not impossible! (I get it, though, if we're going to preserve any kind of sanity about this some level of causality, even in the God Time kinda has to be supposed.) Glorantha is an incredibly selectively realistic and unrealistic universe. This could be a good argument, or it could be entirely irrelevant depending on whichever writer takes a crack at it. Block of rock floating in an infinite ocean and all that. I have no particular horse in this race, but there are some other things I've considered (they are all pure and utter speculation): - Giants? - Hrelar Amali was to a large degree reappriopriated from some previous structure, potentially an abandoned Kachisti city/temple? - Earth-shaping/Rock-shaping magic by way of Earth cults. - Do we know that no parts of Hrelar Amali were wooden? Not planks, per se, but magically purpose-grown? It is a temple of Flamal, after all, and even in death who knows what could be done. I get that it's more reasonable to look for RW-adjacent methods, but considering the examples we have from Glorantha that essentially amount to "and then they did a big ritual for lie a long time and *BAM* the thing they needed was there holy crap!", I'm a bit worried about getting "realism-myopia".

I assume some rituals were done like that. Improvise. Adapt. Overcome, as the meme says. ---- What's new to me here is mostly that 1) tribes seem more important than clans, although this might just be an artifact of how the text was written, and 2) Cattle being just another private good, unlike in some other prior Gloranthan representations(?) where cattle herds are to at least an extent a collective clan property doled out to households and also traded with outsiders for whatever reason. I think the clearest answer here is that there is a lot more diversity to how Orlanthi deal with this kind of stuff than four or five lines in some rulebook somewhere can properly get across. Although I admit I still have a soft spot for there being at least some flocks of cattle being held collectively by a clan (or temple community, etc.).

To clarify: the "if you don't like it" after the "ignore its existence" was heavily implied. The Guide already teases the Hero Wars disasters, but some Compendium stuff going indepth would be really cool, and probably hugely interesting for GMs with long-term plans.

Good news here: you can almost certainly ignore its very existence. This is pretty far into the future (a few decades, iirc) from the "present" of Glorantha, and imho is only one of several disasters that may or may not occur depending on the actions of roleplayers. Like the reforesting, the Mostali smacking Slon back in place, the Uz migration, Veldang revolution, and even the various ultimate fates of the Lunar Empire. But yeah, Glorantha seems to be stuck in a pseudo-cyclical destruction-revival thing. An imperfect echo of the God War emanating through Time, perhaps.

I think it's implied that there is something about the nature of the flood where it specifically targets certain geographical areas, and not others. It's not simply an elevation of water levels, it's more a kind of bulging and invasion of the land by the sea that is blocked from going down Magasta's Pool. I don't believe it was ever answered in this thread WHY it specifically targets Kethaela and Prax.

I think I'm repeating myself here, but isn't it just possible that she's another female Lightfore? If Galana can be that, why not Yelorna? I suppose the explicit reference to stars is a unique aspect of hers, but is it that far beyond what we usually associate with Lightfore mythology (as varied and conflicting as it is)? Given that in Orlanthi culture, Lightfore is weirdly his own dad (Elmal father of Anatyr, ie. Antirius, another Lightfore/Cold Sun), it doesn't seem too farfetched to me.

As others have suggested, the Pelandans are a separate culture of Pelorians aside from Dara Happans, with an ancient (pre-Time) urban culture of their own. If you've read the Guide, Glorious Reascension, or Fortunate Succession (the latter of which I've not read myself) the Entekosiad has an additional impact and sheds some light on Dara Happan chronology and mythology, and not to the benefit of the Dara Happans, imho. It's not the only culture featured in this book, and not the only one that has similar effects. Myths from Darjiin (another country/region of Peloria with a decidedly matrilineal or even matriarchal mythology) has some major ramifications for how one reads Dara Happan mythology too. Of course, as others have suggested, it might be better to read it in isolation for the first time. I'll argue that much like the Book of Heortling Mythology, it is not "only" interesting and engrossing as some kind of meta-commentary scholarly text, but also, to be frank, quite entertaining as a face-value collection of stories, with the added benefit that it's from cultures that are otherwise seen as mostly marginal.

- double post -

She made her mistake before writing the Entekosiad, didn't she? (I tried to find out how to put in spoiler tags, but failed) Prior to writing this book/going on the quest, she had a mission to prove that Dendara was the Red Goddess. The Red Goddess punished her and blinded her for this. Instead, the Entekosiad is a treatise (of sorts, in the very loose sense) seeking to prove instead that Dendara is Entekos. I'm not sure if it counts as a spoiler, but the closest we get to a conclusion is "Eh, kinda?" Correct me if I'm wrong here.

This thread is amusing. Here's an offering from the guys at Ninja Sex Party (largely SFW, I promise.)

It's a *very* eclectic read, more understandable if you've familiarized yourself with the other background material first, but it never gets easy, per se. I'm not sure what kind of input you want here, but I'm here for it. It's definitely one of my favorite texts in that it gives us a kind of validation that other perspectives aside from the Monomyth-adjacent ones are of ancient provenance with something to teach us and not simply "misunderstandings."

Unless the failures are part of a larger, overarching strategy not known beyond those Mistress trolls.

A reaction against cattle-herding Storm people, perhaps? Occuring either in the God Time or later.

It's interesting to note that Ehilm is considered to be the son of Lodik in Ralios, which turns a brotherly relation into a paternal one, or alternatively conflates Lodril with Aether Primolt OR the name simply refers to Aether Primolt (the latter which I think is the least likely considering Aether pretty much hasn't been overly active since sometime in the Golden Age). These differing genealogies (differing from the more commonly explored Theyalan-Pelorian synthesis, that is) aren't as unusual as one might think, since Pelandan mythology in the Entekosiad also gives Lodril (Turos) a much older provenance than Yelm. I know this is tangential to the question here, but my point is - sometimes I think we have this bias where we think the Orlanthi-Dra Happan version of things most commonly put down in books is more "true" simply because we've been exposed more to it, and than we "need" to make other mythic genealogies "conform" to it. (Unless Tawar/Enjorel (feel free to argue which is which) is Storm Bull and Bisos is actually more of a Waha analogue. Butcher vs. Priest. Both are essentially sacrificers and divine middle men. The timeline might be off though.) Lo-Fak is also the name of the Yak Hsunchen of the Shan Shan. Personally, I think this points to Eirithia more being "Mother of Hoofed (Herd?) Herbivores", a bit like Fralar is "Father of (Mammalian?) Carnivores". Somewhat abstract categories, admittedly, but not too hard to conceptualize. --------- Anyway, am I too far off the mark in saying that Yelorna is basically something like "Yelmalio as a Woman" and Yelmalio is "Yelorna as a Man"? Moreover, isn't "Yelmalio" a fairly new name for the Cold Sun cult? I know there've been multiple "waves" of the Sun Domer cult across Genertela (Tharkantus, etc.) so I'm wondering in what form the earliest Enerali would have known the Little/Cold Sun immediately after the Dawn. Was it indigenous to them or their Ralian neighbors, or was it always an import from across the Rockwoods or elsewhere?

That's pretty neat.

Ostan the Elder, father of Durev, is probably the woodworking god. He is said to have invented the wood chisel, carving knife, and importantly, saw. Durev is also a woodworker, but is more a kind of everyman, so might not be the dedicated deity of any particular craft. I find him to be in a bit of a strange limbo, since he actually plays a pretty big role in the myths, but any cultic role he might serve seems to be taken over by more specialized deities (Gustbran for metalworking, Orstan for woodworking, Barntar for animal husbandry and plowing). Also check out this thread:

Might be distantly related to Mostali, given not only their shared history but also their similar sorcerous philosophies, caste system and idea of Law/Stasis. I'm not sure what the exact relation between Stormspeech and Theyalan is. I'm guessing Theyalan is a kind of mixture between Stormspeech and Earthtongue for the most part, with smaller parts of Seaspeech and various other absorbed minority languages rolled in (the Vingkotlings absorbed a bunch of previously unrelated groups, after all). Praxian might also be mixed Storm- and Earthspeech, but derived in a different enough way that they probably don't overlap a whole lot. Just guessing here. Perhaps there some Beastspeech in there somewhere.

Languages in Glorantha is a tough one, since it was never really designed around linguistics (unlike Middle-Earth or Tekumel), and so the textual cues are kinda useless (for example there isn't really a consistent phonology to most examples of Gloranthan languages, not to mention morphology or grammar). I've said before that I don't overly worry, since not all settings need to worry about that, but it does create some situations where you're left wondering. We recently had a thread that debated how similar "Heortlander" and Esrolian would be, but equally valid questions are Heortlander and Sartarite, or Tarshite, or Doblian, or Sairdite, Caladralander, etc. You can even extrapolate this to the entire "Barbarian belt" of the Orlanthi around the western Rockwoods. There's also the questions of the myriad of (potentially distantly related) languages of the Pelorian Basin, and how they relate to Dara Happan proper (if such a language exists) and New Pelorian as a kind of lingua franca and administrative language overlaid across them. Western language relatedness more or less remains a mystery too. This is all complicated by the existence of several major empires intersecting at various points in time, that may or may not have created some trend towards mutual normalization (I'll avoid "homogenization" since that was possibly misinterpreted last time) within their territories. Moreover, there is the "elemental" heritage that creates bizarre cases without RW equivalencies, such as Fire people having similar vocabulary or even grammatical functions even though they may never even have met historically (same applies for other elements, of course). This can be explained magically/cultically, but also through the deep history of the God Time that features migrations and events we simply aren't privy too, or indeed events that kind of defy explanation. I mean, as pretty and inventine as Tolkien's languages are, he DID only limit himself to properly developing a few, and mentioned only a dozen or so in total. That's significantly less than Glorantha's at least hundreds or thousands of languages. At some point, for gaming purposes, you kinda have to leave out all the crinkles and wrinkles and create something that is legible for players. "All right, these dudes all pretty much understand each other, so for the purposes of gaming, it's the same language", and then go "well, these are a bunch of languages, but for the purposes of play none of you know any of them, so just disregard it." At least that's my take on.

I wonder how common it is in Sartar for neighboring steads (ie. compounds, hamlets, etc.) to merge into a single village/town. It would require them to effectively be neighbors, but perhaps with some minor landscape feature between (a brook, a small hill, a copse or trees) and their respective agricultural fields radiating out in different directions, basically. It's not the most sensible or practical arrangement, but perhaps there are other reasons for why it could happen (rival land claims more or less subdued until forgotten, family fission, mutually beneficial arrangement). Anyway, probably not the likely explanation here.

That temple is awesome.

I'll follow up on that, and ask: where are the main deposits of tin in Genertela? Is it known, or kept a bit under wraps? Is it is as limited in Glorantha as in the RW?

I googled a bit around, and someone somewhere said it was mentioned in Tradetalk #4?

Completely subjectively, I'd at least hope more than a decade. Preferably more than two. Because emotions, I admit.

Well, this one is weird, since it's predominantly a ritual and magical title and not a political one. ie. Tarshites do not suddenly bow to a Sartarite King of Dragon Pass, and so on (even if they might have to show some kind of ritual deference or maybe even pay tribute, I don't know, I'm sure there are like seventeen different treatises on what kind of honey the Feathered Horse Queen got as a wedding gift one time or other, knowing Glorantha. )