Sir_Godspeed

I had forgotten how similar they are. Got a chuckle out of me when reading it the first time. I was half-expecting the same laconic joke at the steadburning. While Old Norse might not be in vogue any more for visual representations, and while the Orlanthi have a more urban aspect added to them than the Iclandic did until industrialization, reading the Icelandic sagas is definitely a valuable tool to get a look into the mindset of an agricultural-pastoral clan society.

I looked it up, and apparently it's a Danish show set in Norway. This explains the somewhat bizarre names (these are a mix of very old-fashioned and somewhat exotic names by Norwegian standards), why the characters have the wrong regional accents (it's as if a story set in the Deep South featured Minnesotan dialects) and why it doesn't have high ratings over here. Of course, this is all pretty immaterial for non-natives, so it might very well be entertaining otherwise.

He's got no crotch dick - but two face dicks. Something something compensating.

The man had a huge impact on managing the Tolkien estate, editing unfinished material to as complete as possible forms, such as the Silmarillion, Children of Hurin, and more scholarly texts, and moreover keeping guard over the licenses to avoid some of the more crass offers. Absolutely indebted. Rest in peace, Christopher Tolkien.

Now I know that walktapodes are smooth as a ken doll down there. I'm not sure how I feel about this, good sir.

That sounds cool as hell, so go with it! I can't think of any specific precedence for it, but on the other hand I can't really think of anything that precludes it. It's a strange world - spirits go off the beaten track to the Underworld. The unusual happens! As for shamans - there are a few groups/ranks in Prax that are gender specific, but I'm pretty sure they are far in the minority, and mainly theistic. There was a thread about this a while ago.

And she is claiming dominion over the Middle Air, Orlanth's traditional domain.

Most Christians worldwide are still Catholics, so not really, actually. (and at any rate, the Protestants were inherently fractious, so not really comparable. You could arguably compare the Lunar Empire more to the Rashidun/Umayyad Caliphate, in that it was a relatively new/innovative religious movements tied to a rapidly expanding empire - but there's a lot of differences here too, and comparisons involving anything Islamic have an unfortunate tendency to spin out of control, so I'll lay this dead for now.) I do agree that Glorantha could probably still be "interesting", but the "status quo" would be markedly skewed in favor of this gargantuan central-Genertelan polity, for one. Maybe it finally collapses a few decades/centuries down the line. Maybe it undergoes major internal changes. Maybe it engages in a cold war with renewed Seshnelan imperial ambitions. Either way, storm barbarians seem like they would fade out of relevance, if Orlanth could truly be usurped not just locally, but cosmically.

Narratively, unless you're Kralorela, empires exist to rise and fall in Glorantha. Something drastic would have to happen in the Lunar Empire for it to just not come off as massively static afterwards. Although, that being said - you could use a hypothetical post-Hero Wars "stabilized" Lunar Empire as a huge RPG sandbox, I suppose.

One of the issues with making the world-altering magic empire win is that it feels thematically off, imho. Obviously, this is subjective, but it's a bit like making a timeline where the God Learners won. "Welp, what now, then?"

There's arguably some animal fertility stuff in there (I know the official RQ rules don't really emphasize that, but the background seems to do), but yeah, pretty much.

Not as fluid as a lot of the fluff leads players to be believe, imho. See examples above. Yeah, there's a thread from a while back that talks about this, although I can't remember which subforum it was in. Regardless, I think to some degree we have to accept that Glorantha is fiction and that slavish attention to realism isn't really the goal. If you want to envision a world without the discrimination of the physically disabled for example, then god damn, you should be able to do that, "realism" be damned, imho.

I think Jeff touches on something very important here. When we read background material about Orlanthi culture, it's easy to get the impression that everyone always acts according to the cultural schemae (ie. internally consistent set of norms) set out there. In reality, almost everyone cheats the system every now and then, gives up if it's too hard, is tempted, is biased, etc. People are flawed, and no cultural schema exists that can totally encompass that. Also, the cultural schemae is, of course, not static. If enough people cheat, then the cheat becomes the new schema. Then they collectively forget the old norms and pretend they always did it the new way. They might even get ancestors who agree - magic is weird like that. On the other hand, gods and magics exist that might spark reactionary movements. And lastly - might is right. It's very difficult to get around that. The Orlanthi may have a system of rights and obligations, but they are definitely easier to claim if you've got a lot of cousins and in-laws with spears and corslets backing you up and being willing to murder someone to satisfy your claim, to be blunt.

That's an astonishingly high percentage of sorcery wielders. The Rokari of Seshnela must be absolutely scandalized. With that kind of numbers one must imagine even commoners making use of sorcery one way or another. That creates an interesting dynamic. The question is, I guess, what for? I wish we knew a bit more about how the Arkati practices mixed with Malkionism for your everyday folks, not just the covert sorcerers.

Preliminary: the idea of unified, distinct and internally homogenous units called "cultures" isn't really something that exists in real life, but rather in the minds of people who classify social practices and manufactured artifacts (whether etically or emically), and so forth. I'm just mentioning this upfront so that we don't have to deconstruct the concept of culture later on in the thread, or get lost in intricacies. For the purposes of my question, let's keep it reasonably simple. My question, then, as the title says is this: do Safelstrans make up a "culture" in Glorantha? What I mean by that is whether they have enough common practices, history and beliefs that they view each other as partaking in some kind of commonality that they don't share with other surrounding groups? Or, alternatively, do the writers and publishers look at them that way? I ask, because they tend to be grouped together regionally, semi-politically (not unified, but clearly dynamically interrelated, like Greek city-states or the Tamil kingdoms), and historically (being the self-declared heirs of the Autarchy). However, it's very rarely stated outright. More often than not, they seem to be considered another Western or Malkioni group, which is fine on paper, but probably more muddled in practice/play. They also seem to be differentiated from their upland Orlanthi neighbors, so there's that. What are some major internal differences, or if they can't be seen as a common culture, what are some major splits? (Btw, I know that the Guide talks about sorcery, secret societies, kafl, wildly differing political organizations, etc. but these are more game-hooks, since the majority of peasants are unlikely to be hidden sorcerers in secret societies, if you get what I mean. I'm looking for a more down-to-earth, everyday take on them). EDIT: UNlikely. Wow, missed that.

Violence is always an option! Emphasis on the option! *vague Orlanthi cheering*

Also worth considering that an anti-Imperial Lunar does not have to be "traitor to their culture", since many Lunars in Dragon Pass are Orlanthi (minus the whole Orlanth Rex thing).

Forgive me, but everytime I see this thread, I had the urge to edit a certain meme:

Important thing to keep in mind when dealing with Star Wars: no, nothing makes any goddamn sense scientifically. That's because it's not science fiction, it's science fantasy. That comes with its own set of tropes, and largely precludes delving into hard numbers and maintain a consistent scale (although that doesn't stop fans from trying.)

Is it possible to play as an Orlanthi Lunar who believes that Sedenya and Orlanth can coexist in the Middle Air or something?

I've just looked around, and found that apparently Ryzel is the origin of New Wyrmish - but did it play a further significant role in the EWF? Or was it ever conquered by Slontos?

Okay, that first link is legitimately terrifying, far more so than any roar.

Here's an informative video on how birds form human speech. TL;DR: they don't have vocal cords at all, but rather shape their throat with muscles we don't have.

I think it's also due to Orlanth tricking Humakt into letting him borrow Death, or husing Eurmal to steal Death from him - I forget the exact myth, but you guys probably remember it.

I think what AA would gain from a Yelmic paternity is this general idea of atmospheric visibility, as it were. Yelm is atmospheric light, AA is arguably atmospheric darkness. Not quite celestial, I suppose, but imho "klos enuf". EDIT: And arguably, on a less elemental note, the general feel of masculine majesty and rulership in an otherwise matriarchal society. AA is a good mix and does not overly veer to either side though, it seems.