Thoror

Are you talking about The Reminiscences of Paulis Longvale? That's in the Cults Compendium too.

Oh, that makes sense. Thanks!

Ugh, finally! I've waiting the first one for years; the second one didn't seem so important to me until I learned that it would cover the Later Hero Wars (that's an exciting first) and that it would replace SToK and its companion. Is it really going to be a complete guide to Sartar AND a Boy King/Great Pendragon Campaign style book to boot? How long it's going to be? (because that sounds like a reaally big book).

This one (and its sequel Men of the West), if you are interested in the military side of things. They are not canon, but they respect canon as much as they can and the author used a lot of sources to write them, several of which not so easy to find.

Sartar Rising 3-Gathering Thunder is not on DTRPG, please consider uploading it.

I'm all down for republishing Dorastor as part of Runequest Classic. Also Sun County. They are important milestones in the history of Glorantha, more than interesting, and deserve the chance to be reborn for everyone who missed out.

Sartar Rising 3-Gathering Thunder is not for sale. Not in Chaosium, not anywhere (the first two volumes are in DTRPG).

That being said, if there's still some proofreading to do... I think I'm pretty good at it, so you can always send me the text; I'd do it for free (the text would be its own payment). (... Hey, there is no harm in trying, is there? 😉)

Thanks, I wasn't sure.

Sound about right. That or, if you believe in the theory that Gbaji was the real winner of the duel, it broke because its legitimate owner had died.

I'm confused, so I'm going to leave here several quotes for us to consider. - Arkat has always had the Unbreakable Sword: Whatever the truth, Arkat possessed a powerful weapon before he left the island [Brithos]: the weapon was called God-Cleaver, reputed to be the Unbreakable Sword. [The Guide to Glorantha, page 128] Arkat’s initiation into the cult of Humakt in 426 was hailed as a victory by the Swords (high priests) of that cult because Arkat’s weapon had always been the Unbreakable Sword, supposedly wrought by Humakt himself. [The Guide to Glorantha, page 129] - Arkat won the Unbreakable Sword well after the start of the Gbaji wars: Sometimes Arkat was halted [by the Golden Empire]. Then he would stop to HeroQuest, and return with some new and devastating wonder. On one of these HeroQuests he won Humakt's Unbreakable Sword. [Dorastor: Land of Doom, page 9] - Unbreakable, huh? Well, Arkat, I hope you kept the receipts: The Deceiver was dismembered by Arkat's great sword, which broke from the task. [The Guide to Glorantha, page 386] Numerous ancient magical treasures of the lost Feldichi race and the Bright Empire, including pieces of the Unbreakable Sword (...) lie hidden in Dorastor. [Dorastor: Land of Doom, page 4] So yeah, when did he win that stupid sword? Why had something so... breakable the name "Unbreakable"? Where is Arkat's Saga when a guy needs it? So many questions! Only in Glorantha, folks.

But those texts changed the history of literature for the better. Others could argue about the benefits of many outweighing the wish of one. Although I respect your opinion, you're clearly a person of principles.

Chaosium has not said anything about not owning the rights. So, even if they don't technically own them, that doesn't seem to be a problem for them. That being said, I accept the explanation they've given. It's their business to run, not mine.

I don't see it that way. That's not a "last will" kind of wish, and even if it was, should Max Brod have burnt Kafka's unpublished work like the latter asked him to? Like I said, it's complicated.

I would use internal Gloranthan logic to explain it: it's because, with the Hero Wars, the Greater Darkness comes back, and the only possible way to end such an event on a happy(-ish) note is with I Fought We Won. Of course your heroes won't meet anyone else's heroes in the process. Maybe (if both sets of heroes survive) they will meet after the end, and know that somehow they have fought together all along.

I get this, but at the same time I find it kind of unfair. Greg isn't around anymore to ask him a copy, no matter how trustworthy you are or how thoughtful your feedback could be. Last year RPG giant (less of a giant than Greg. but still giant) John Tynes sent me something (I'm not going to say what, which will underscore my point), and I haven't shared it with anyone. And I never would, not without his express permission, because he trusted in me, a complete stranger to him, and that kind of trust is absolutely sacred. But John Tynes is alive, and there is no Greg Stafford to trust in me, and there will never be. It's complicated. That said, I don't share nor approve Hijabg's comment. These are the people behind the aforementioned Gloranthan Classics, the Guide and the Sourcebook and the upcoming Cults of Glorantha we are talking about; of course they want to share Glorantha with us. But Chaosium is a business which they have to manage as best as they can, no matter how frustrating can it be to people like us without any stake in said business.

I'm just speaking for myself: I would buy Arkat's Saga, but I'm not really interested in buying that. I know how important it has been in the history of Glorantha, but precisely for that reason a big part of its content has ended up elsewhere: the Runequest Companion, Wyrm's Footprints, the Guide and the Sourcebook... And personally, I prefer books to magazines. Moreso the Runequest Classic edition products; I don't find them very interesting because most of it was reprinted in the (very awesome) Gloranthan Classics books. But hey, those came after a pretty successful Kickstarter, so what would I know about Gloranthan money-making.

Journey to the West is awesome (that one I have read, and it's much easier to find) and very much recommended; just not about a Hero Wars-esque magical conflict. It's about a pilgrimage to the West (duh) in order to get the sacred Buddhist texts, although it has plenty of gods and monsters too.

The Hero Wars drink from many sources: the Illiad, the Mahabharata, the Shahnameh... But there is one 16th-Century Chinese novel which, to me and without having read it, seems to be one of the closest things to the Hero Wars that exist in classical literature, and sadly I don't think I'll ever have it in my hands. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you: Investiture/Creation of the Gods (Fengshen Yanyi). From the Wikipedia: The novel is a romanticised retelling of the overthrow of King Zhòu, the last ruler of the Shang dynasty, by Ji Fa, who would establish the Zhōu dynasty in its place. The story integrates oral and written tales of many Chinese mythological figures who are involved in the struggle as well. These figures include human heroes, immortals, and various spirits (usually represented in avatar form, such as vixens and pheasants, and occasionally as inanimate objects such as a pipa). Bewitched by his concubine Daji, who is actually a vixen spirit disguised as a beautiful woman, King Zhou of Shang oppresses his people and persecutes those who oppose him, including those who dare to speak up to him. Ji Fa (King Wu of Zhou), assisted by his strategist Jiang Ziya, rallies an army to overthrow the tyrant and restore peace and order. Throughout the story, battles are waged between the kingdoms of Shang and Zhou, with both sides calling upon various supernatural beings – deities, immortals, demons, spirits, and humans with magical abilities – to aid them in the war. Yuanshi Tianzun ("Primeval Lord of Heaven") bestows upon Jiang Ziya the Fengshen Bang, a list that empowers him to invest the gods of Heaven. The heroes of Zhou and some of their fallen enemies from Shang are eventually endowed with heavenly ranking and essentially elevated as gods, hence the title of the novel. Come on, I can't be the only one who thinks of the Red Emperor of the Lunar Empire vs. King Argrath of Sartar while reading about this King Zhou of Shang vs. Ji Fa of Zhou conflict. Sadly, this thing is out of print and expensive as hell, but for every Gloranthaphile lucky enough to find and afford it I think it's worth of checking out.

The Forgotten Realms mythology is a mess, and not in the good, deliberate Gloranthan way. The biggest examples are the Time of Troubles and the Spellplague: two ridiculously big shakeups which only happened because D&D released new editions. For that kind of D&D-style, comparatively-mindless fun mythology I very much prefer Pathfinder/Golarion.

Eh, fair enough. I still love the Stafford Library, though.

Yeah, precisely why I said "maybe". I had thought about Tekumel, but regrettably I don't know it well enough.

That would be awesome, but it doesn't seem likely. Maybe I'm wrong (I wish to be wrong), but I don't see the intelligentsia coming to consider Greg what he really was: one of the greatest creative minds of his time and the only creator (except maybe Tolkien) of constructed mythologies whose work has come close to capturing the complexity, ambiguity and overall-richness of real-world mythologies. But hey, there have been others Vindicated by History. Only time will tell.

I cherish it. I do. It was on 9/11, exactly one month before, which is part of the reason why it hit me as hard as it did.

Your products are awesome, man. I consider them essentially canon, and I will until, you know, "real" canon comes in to prove me wrong.