Sir_Godspeed

You make a good point, and in line with my comment above, this feels satisfactory to me. (Not that my opinion is of any particular importance. )

I edited my post above after initially posting it. The main point remains the same, but just mentioning it in case. Gonna be honest there, I'm not super-fond of that kind of homogenization (unless it's a historical relic of a Pelorian immigrant community establishing their own temple in competition with more native Caladralander Nochet community), but I don't want to drag this into another needlessly involved forum theomachy.

I'm quite aware, but the usage depends on who tells it and to whom it is told. Not everyone is going to be aware of either, or make that connection (the Romans understood Zeus and Jupiter to be the same underlying god more or less, but different audiences probably preferred their respective names most of the time). Dumuzid provided their reasons for using the Pelorian name, ie. a Pelorian-leaning audience, so that's that.

This seems all right, although I'm on the fence of using Lodril for Veskarthan. Also, I'm not sure whether or not you'd like to include the phallic imagery of Argan Argar taking Veskarthan's "spear" in there, or whether it is best served as a separate myth.

Dang it, looks like I've had my five free articles of the month already. Anyone care to summarize the mention for me? 😅

I don't know who does this in Glorantha or in the Orlanthi culture, but some RW cultures raid and abduct children with the intent of adopting them, actually. The main example I know of, the Nilotic Nuer and Dinka peoples, are seminomadic, and so I suppose keeping the child isolated from their former family is easier than with sedentary people like the Heortlings.

But murder with a certain, almost chivalrous honor code (oath-keeping, fair play, etc., if I've understood it correctly). I agree that he's a lot more mercenary than these others though.

There's a great cover of Snakepipe Hollow (the one with the big mirror), and one for Trollpak that I decided against posting here because it gave me some uncomfortable underage vibes (which I admit might be purely my own hangup).

Oh dear, I didn't recognize that it was your blog. Still, that's purely a good thing that it is!

Well, I'm just going off google on this, but I found a few things: Here's a Spanish-language blog that seems to have delved into the topic before. It appears quite comprehensive, but I haven't translated the text and read it, so I don't know how much it explains or adds, but there's a ton of a covers there, at least: https://elruneblog.blogspot.com/2017/10/runequest-y-heroquest-en-japon.html And as @lordabdul suggested, it appears indeed that the art is by Takuhito Kusanagi. Here's one more from an online gallery of his, which has some that seem to be from Glorantha and others not: https://arthive.com/artists/7701~Takuhito_Kusanagi/works Also here are a couple that I believe are by him, but that do not appear elsewhere:

As a complete aside, I love Clamavi De Profundis, and I listened to that very song while I was homesick in India back in 2017. Lovely piece.

This. I mean, look at something like this, for example. It's mind-blowing. The above makes me think of certain French or even Eastern European artists, so it might not be natively Japanese, but it appeared in a Japanese edition, so I have no idea. There is of course the more "typical" manga-esque art as well. I understand if there's not that much to explain for you guys if all of this was done in-house by Japanese licencees apart from Chaosium/Issaries/Whoever, but hey, if it's possible, it would be a fun thing to include.

!Warning, these are very nascent fan ideas! I've been loosely working on my "Shargashite Mystery" idea, and one fairly recent idea that was put there is that Shargash is actually Yelm's son of a previous marriage/dalliance, prior to him ascending to Emperordom. In his youth (ie. the Green Age, when there was possibly a day-night cycle), Yelm courted The Lady of Night (Netta, Nakala, take your pick) and they had Shargash as their son (no idea about the Blue Moon personally, but I suppose it implies her as well). Soon things changed, the courtship ended, Yelm assumed Emperordom, turned the universe static (and generally appeared more authoritarian and puritan than his earth-loving father, Aether), and so on. He then married a more respectable/politically acceptable wife, and had a politically acceptable heir, Murharzam, as well as various other entities. Shargash was adopted into their marriage, but as a junior son, one that could never really be a legitimate heir. In the earliest incarnations, Shargash may have existed as a god of 1) slash and burn fire (this is mentioned elsewhere and isn't my idea) for agriculture or clearing land for grazing, and 2) possibly the evening red of the horizon (it's perhaps notable that the dusk occurs in the West, I don't know). It's only later he becomes a city god and war god (he may have been a planetary god all along, but then Golden/Green age differences between planets and people and places and stories is deeply muddled). His dual nature of celestial and underworld plays a major role to this fan-made mystery-initiates I'm spitballing, making him a kind of liminal entity. This story is very hush hush, and may even be heretical among Shargashites IMG, but it's a powerful idea to its initiates and devotees. There is stuff that follows from this, but it's not directly relevant to this thread, as it's quite Peloria-centric.

And the wild Japanese art that it got back in the day.

Woah, language! Kids might read this!

That's liable to get you a citizenship, I reckon!

ARE YOU A FELLOW NORDMANN?

That's fine, but as I said, personally I envision that most of what theistic or animist societies would invest in a guardian/community spirit/wyter would instead be dumped into the chain of veneration or something similar. A Zzaburite might use some of that to summon and binding a guardian spirit, but personally I don't see that as the same as that spirit directly being maintained by the community and directly revered. That being said, you are absolutely correct in that most Malkioni societies are not as orthodox as the Zzaburites would like people to believe.

Personally, I suspect that in non-henotheist (henotheist in the wider sense of Malkionism by way of theism, ie. Aeolianism, etc.) Malkionism, it's the Law of Malkion and the Urban Principles that take the place of the community/harmony magics generally associated with wyters in theist societies. I suspect Zzaburites know that the castes need to perform or act in certain ways or what have you, to preserve those laws, which reinforces the communality. Talars probably take a leading role in that, too, albeit less as "choreographers" (like Zzaburites) and more as main actors/prima donnas, as it were. If that makes any sense whatsoever. EDIT: This is pure headcanon, btw. I just think it's a tad weird to make the presence and sustaining of a theistic being an obligate for a Malkioni society to function. I'm not saying that various Malkioni societies (like the Aeolians or the first age Seshnelans for example) don't do it.

Still is, I'd reckon. Unless one has very specific opinions about cartography, I suppose.

Damn, you're a machine, Helsdon!

If the plains of Prax had been something obscure and "exotic", then using an artificially archaic name would have made since, but considering that Prax is next door to the areas most players will find themselves in, "exotifying" it seems odd and unnecessary.

From what I've read here, I believe at least that it's Greg-original, but it might be in-universe as well, I just haven't seen anyone mention that.

Here is my personal take: poison in all its myriad forms is an umbrella term for how Death was proliferated, experimented upon and even took partial, incomplete forms during the Gods War. Throughout this process it sometimes became something different, either intentionally or by accident. Some of these substances existed prior to Death, much like the tools associated with Death (weapons, etc.), while others came into being as a result of Death. Others again are a mix.

But see, that's my whole point, Heortlings would never even think of their wyters in terms of slavery or bondage like you kinda quickly did with sorcerously bound entities. I understand that this might not make a whole lot of difference from a gameplay mechanical perspective, but in terms of social and cultural significance and meaning they're pretty significantly different. It's also different from a story hook perspective too - I mean, I doubt that if somehow the magical ties that keep Hauberk Jon around were to break he would do any harm to Jonstown residents. But some kind of spirit kept in place with sorceous rites? I see the potential for something going berserk for revenge being a lot more in the cards there. I'm just saying, I think the nuances matter. Tomato and cherries are both fruit, but a cherry pizza would be a very different thing, you know?