JRE

If you take the Jack of all trades adventurer types, sorcery certainly does not do much for the effort required. But what if you have a sorcerous support, one in each ten warriors, for instance, but at a ratio much higher than the wizards assigned to the military. Add Sorcerous long duration bonus to your short duration spirit and rune magic, and you have a big benefit, just at the cost of having 10% less frontline combatants (though maybe effective second line ones). I am thinking of magics such as Boon of Kargan Tor, Neutralize Armor or Ward against weapons, which can have significant effects with long durations. In our game, even quarrels are ensorcelled to +2D6 Dmg (Boon of Kargan Tor 8), Neutralize Armor 10, which goes much higher for main weapons before a big fight. Because that is the big difference. In most cases a Bladesharp or a True sword spell will be cast by the user, except in some special cases with large extensions. In the case of sorcery it is almost sure the caster will not be the one using the ensorceled weapon, and the fighter will add, if possible, their own Bladesharp (mainly for the hit bonus) and other magics. Similarly, the flexibility of Sorcery would fit with forming materials and construction or long term support. Although we have no official version of the old Form / Set spells, the flexibility of spells like Dominate would indicate you could affect many materials from a base spell, probably based on element. As well magic such as Preserve Item feels more a Farmer caste magic than a wizard one, and another example of a multi-use spell, as you can preserve almost anything. A special case is all the Ship related and ship combat sorcery magic. Most ships will benefit from having one or several sorcerers onboard, while I doubt many wizards will enjoy being ship sorcerers. As the rulebook stands (and even with the RBoM adding some power to Rune and Spirit Magic), the sea must be dominated by sorcerous cultures, as indeed it seems to be the case, with the open question of Kralori magics. We suppose the Quinpolic league were closet Hrestoli, so they would be open to teach sorcery to others, and that means they may be in high demand in all ports East of Seshnela.

In game terms, as this is the Runequest forum, I would propose that in Malkioni society you may have a non-wizard learning some basic forms and runes. However that learning will be limited and under wizard supervision. As sorcerous efficacy requires the maximum free INT, that makes those that learn sorcery less likely to use spirit magic. That would allow learning and using material manipulation spells for artisans, detection spells for traders or sorcerous combat boosting spells for wizard assistants among the warriors. Command is a likely first technique, as it allows access to all techniques, at a higher cost, and is less socially awkward than Tap (probably the first technique for Brithini and Vadeli, however). Then either an element or a power. In static Malkioni that should be all, but Hrestoli may keep learning. That would mean non-wizards may be very skilled in a few spells, but may well have to pay a lot of MPs. Among the Hrestoli (both Old and New) that shows an interest in traversing Hrestol's path, and it will be much easier than among less mobile sects. I can imagine using the wrong sorcery spell may be grounds for excommunication among the Rokari. Which means that it will happen anyway, as once you begin with sorcery, it gets easier. That would make Malkioni society quite flexible, as they would have a wide toolkit of magic to tackle a problem. However anyone with access to sorcery will be watched by the wizards. In Safelster secret societies surely teach also specialized magics, and it is the source of rumours and accusations among neighbours. Guilds (Farmer caste on paper) may well have their own secret magics, to supplement their arcane knowledge such as angle transposition or concrete formula.

I wrote this for the Uninitiated thread, but I think it fits better here, with some additional ideas. A Sartarite male Orlanthi worships Orlanth, king of the Gods, the awesomest dude ever, and also pays homage to his beautiful wife, Ernalda, his friends and comrades, and children and helpers. A Wind voice models his or her life on Orlanth's, and almost all they do is filled with mythic overtones. A Rokari Dronali rain man (I am fully improvising here) will ask the cloud master Humath for his help, as set up in the old agreements between men and spirits, as has been done for ever. No worship, no imitating the cloud guy, no modeling his life on him. He is the guy in the village who was chosen by the previous Rain man and confirmed by the Lord and his wizards. It is possible that due to some mythic resonance his wife is the corn mother, as dealing with the land directly is reserved for the kings, but most likely she is not. He still spends his personal power to link with Humath and access his magic, and he leads his fellow villagers at least once a season to keep the old compacts, more frequently if needed. But he still is a good farmer, doing his caste duty to make sure the fields flourish and there is food for all. He still takes part in the weekly worship with the wizards, because they are the ones that keep the world on track and all those agreements that allow you to do your magic, and because the community requires it. I expect that many Rokari have a mechanistic view of God and the world, and their duty is more maintenance than worship, but our rain man gets the impression that God was more hands on in the past, when the kings really married the land and the rebel spirits needed to be clobbered in the head quite often to be kept in line. He still prefers the current days, with the high and mighty far from the affairs of the common folk. The village wizard talks often with him, both as part of village management, but also to make sure he remains theologically firm, with no hint of idolatry or of undesired spiritual drift. No temptation to blast people with thunder or wind, at least, even if possibly he could.

I would prefer if they are both Mostali pumps that need MP to keep functioning, and the spirit cult they set up, supported by Sartar, to make sure they always had enough MP to keep functioning, and who through the years now have developed their own personality and preferences from their worshippers. So much that now they can grant some magic from Orlanth, and it is useful as a way to bypass his death or Lunar restrictions on worship. So I would treat them as a Boldhome specific Orlanth subcult, but whose magic still works in the Windstop, and that is separate from standard temples so the Lunars could not close them. I would give them the Increase and Decrease Wind spells, though they argue which sister gives which. So not so suitable for adventurers, except in tunnels...

In my view Ralios is flooded by Arkati / Empire of Peace / Autarchy remnants in ways that outsiders cannot understand, distracted by all the petty conflicts between the factions, when actually the Safelstrans, the Orlanthi and the Trolls were all modeled and crafted as a weapon by Arkat. Something the Seshnelan / Tanisor kingdom will painfully discover. There is probably as much influence of Arkat in Lustria or Otkorion than in Safelster, and also, despite the efforts of many troll matriarchs, in Halikiv and specially Guhan. It is just less evident. So for visiting arkati, it is not only Henotheist sorcerers or troll friendly suspicious characters. That slightly weird Sword from the other side of the mountains and his Wind Lord friend with a personal cloud, may really be devotees of Arkat Humaktsson, and know the secret that sometimes you have to betray someone to save them. We have recently seen the troll swarms from the West, and I am sure they have brought plenty of Arkat Kingtroll cultists. They will not feel welcome in Dagori Inkarth, once their mission is fulfilled, but there are many other troll strongholds. And with Belintar gone, there are may options in Kethaela. I am sure they have been facing Lunars in the Hero planes, but now they can do so in the physical as well. Considering populations, even a small help from Ralios is huge for Sartar, and I am sure there are many Arkati, open like Mularik but also secret, in Argrath's new army. Though how the Ralios Orlanthi react to the Rex version that they do not follow may be interesting.

I suspect you are not going to like my perspective. It varies... It varies depending on the Malkioni tradition, and it depends on the sophistication and education of the worshipper. As in the RW. Most Zzaburi probably consider the Invisible God inapproachable and not making any actions by itself. But the actions of righteous Malkioni in principle strengthen him and set the universe in the right direction. Hrestoli complicate the things, as Joy of the Heart implies that there is a sliver of the divine in each of us, and that is what allows you to do the right actions even if they go against Malkion laws, because the divine in you (or the divine inspiration, that would be the IG acting through you, but rejecting any divinity in mortals...) knows better. It still has a high risk of getting you excommunicated, and many traditions today reject Hrestol's teachings. It is still the most influential, mainly because he supports individualism and personal responsibility, so the one most likely to change things. Both Arkat and the God Learners were Hrestoli, after all A typical non-zzaburi worshipper may well conflate Malkion with the Invisible God, which may be even pushed by some zzaburi while others will be horrified by the confusion. So lots of bearded male guys in the sky, which actually has nothing to do theologically with the Invisible God. With the humans ease to adscribe personality tp inanimate or natural forces, only the most prepared of the Malkioni will avoid ascribing similar traits to the Invisible God, expecting it to be on your side and against your enemies. Combined with its silence, you have a recipe for a fragmented religion, as actually is the case.

I confess being one of those that consider that the known Gloranthan history, after Dawn, is a decreasing amount of magic that forces people to be heroic with less. But I have always accepted it is my own interpretation of the slowly decaying Godtime, less immune to Time than the gods believed, and spread thin as the number of worshippers increase. As time progresses there are many more humans (and less of the other sentient races) but the number of meaningful heroes seems to decrease. Heroes as the ones able to redefine reality. The Lunar Empire, despite its own propaganda, is a shadow of what the EWF achieved, which is almost nothing compared to the potential of the Sunstop and the Bright Empire. I also think that getting rid of the Godtime is the only way for humankind to get out of the cyclical trap that is the Godtime, as repeating the actions of your god is virtuous, so repeating their mistakes is presented as a virtue, rather than a recurring error. Rather than killing the evil emperor, seduce him, go drinking together, move somewhere else... But do it differently, at least. Greg was fond of presenting the current world as the end state of Glorantha, but as others have mentioned he saw magic in this world, and the way from one to the other is unknown. However we often ignore the high capacity for rebuilding allowed by fertility magics. Some catastrophes depopulate large areas, but they always recover fast. The fall of the EWF almost depopulated of humans Dragon Pass. The Dragonkill depopulated it again and then killed most of their neighbours.

Killing the gods should be taken with a grain of salt. And paraphrasing Gibson, There is still magic here, but it is unevenly distributed. I suspect even the illiteracy plague may be better for human long term options than a Sheng Seleris / Ralzakark combo building pyramids of skulls all over Central Genertela and lording it from the unconquerable Black Death Star. Things can always get worse.

I really like arkati and they have been one of my key interests in Glorantha. Humanist (in some cases trollist) secret societies that try to decrease abuse of the Godtime and in general humans attempting to become gods. The fragmentation and secrecy means that whatever you decide may not fit with published material, but it would be true for a different bunch, up to including chaos, illumination, pursuing illuminates, or whatever. They are the Gloranthan analogues to Girl Genius Othar Tryggvassen, who wants to kill all sparks even though he is also a spark, and has no qualms in using his powers to achieve his ends. His endearing and ridiculous antics have inspired many of my arkati, though he does not do secrecy. As for how they can appear in Dragon Pass, the black arkati, as shown in the Smoking Ruin, are a good fit with the strong troll presence and long human troll inteeaction through the Only Old One, specially with Belintar gone. I would expect you will have some arkati vibes as well from the Manirian Trader Princes, and that can offer an opportunity to see other faces of Arkat, including former mercenaries that may have joined such a secret society. And all secret societies may have a foothold in Nochet, so that is another excuse to add some arkati conspiracy. Knowing more about the Lunar Empire and its supposed links with Gbaji/Nysalor), or following strange claims that one of the faces of Arkat is Samastina's lover...

My dwarves do use wax cylinders to record vocal instructions, mainly as a way to transmit complex orders to "simple" mostali without the benefit of gold caste overseers or when there are doubts of written orders being misunderstood. Those same "simple" Mostali have discovered how useful those cylinders are to share their own experiments in rythm and musical expression, from machine generated noise (those aeolipiles whistling, the hammer mills hammering, the presses pressing...) to percussion, but going also into interesting pneumatic or vibrating instruments in the hands of lead, quicksilver or copper dwarves. Dwarven music is repetitive and relatively simple, but can combine hundreds of elements into a music that can be held for days, and it is great for counting time precisely. They do not consider it music, but as communication, quality control and rythm management. However the amount of rest periods dedicated to making music shows that many dwarves find it pleasurable. Think Aphex Twin with hammers and rocks rather than electronics, and with eerie whistles thrown in.

My own belated take on this is that most unicorns will belong to the ancestor cult of Father Unicorn (assuming all unicorns are male, and opening a huge can of worms about Unicorn reproduction). Yelorna is an associate of Father Unicorn, and probably gives access to secret spells such as "Get pregnant from Unicorn", which I hope is used on mares or other ungulates. After all the riders must stay virgins, so they cannot be mothers. Probably each Yelornan band will have a Yelorna spell that is taught to the associates, which means the unicorns. Associating with Yelornans is a win-win situation for unicorns, compared to wandering alone through Prax, or even in small herds. Eiritha does not seem right for a band of all male intelligent beasts, as they seem to be outside the Covenant.

For me the difference is one of attitude. A Sartarite male Orlanthi worships Orlanth, king of the Gods, the awesomest dude ever, and also pays homage to his beautiful wife, Ernalda, his friends and comrades, and children and helpers. A Wind voice models his or her life on Orlanth's, and almost all they do is filled with mythic overtones. A Rokari Dronali rain man (I am fully improvising here) will ask the cloud master Humath for his help, as set up in the old agreements between men and spirits, as has been done for ever. No worship, no imitating the cloud guy, no modeling your life on him. You are the guy in the village who was chosen by the previous Rain man and confirmed by the Lord and his wizards. It is possible that due to some mythic resonance your wife is the Land speaker, but most likely she is not. You still spend your personal power to link with Humath and access his magic, and you lead your fellow villagers at least once a season to keep the old compacts, more frequently if needed. But you still are a good farmer, doing your caste duty to make sure the fields florish and there is food for all.

The real problem with the West is that actually they are as varied as Central Genertela, from Praxians to Sartarite to Lunars, so there is no single right answer. From what has been discussed in FB and echoed here, only the wizard caste is forbidden the use of "other" magics, and that seems right as they are the keepers of sorcery and the ones that use it for the benefice of society. All right Malkioni participate in weekly ceremonies of Worship of the Invisible God or of some of its masks, depending on the tradition. That is one of the unifying parts of the cultures. You worship, you give magic, the wizards do great spells with that magic for the benefit of all. In normal peaceful times, most of that magic goes back for the benefit of the Dronali, but that is as it should be, even if in proportion Talari and Horali get more magic benefits that they put in, as the Dronaly support the other castes also magically. That may be game mechanics spells such as blessing all the sickles and scythes before the harvest, or less defined magic such as blessing the land or keeping harmful spirits out. In addition, each land / culture will have additional contact with magic. In Seshnela we have been told the Horali arrange themselves in societies that worship powerful spirits, usually as ancestors, and get special magics from them, We also know the land goddesses are still powerful and influential among the Dronali, so I suppose any Goddess speaker will be Dronali, though considering the unclear status of women in that society and how rokari practising wizards seem to be all male, that could be one of women's roles in that kingdom, accessing the other magics that wizards do not handle. Meanwhile in Safelster we have a coexistence of cults, secret religious societies (only a few of them openly arkati, though most will have also some divine patron) and official wizard caste mages making sure the right magics are applied. Rather than parish priests, inquisitors and agents of the crown as they are in Seshnela, they are more functionaries, a specialized guild that makes sure the people worship right and their magic is used in the benefit of the state, but that does not exert any special control on the people's beliefs or practices. Yet totally necessary for the state, and that is why ceremonies are still widely attended, and most Safelstran, even the Black Arkati in his skull helmet and leaden mace, call themselves Malkioni, followers of the Invisible God as revealed by Malkion. Moving North we have a clear mix in Loskalm, as those with little ambition still follow the old traditions, while those that embrace New Hrestolic ideals start to learn and practice sorcery from a young age, as it will be a cornerstone in the Men-of-All progression, as the only common magic among the Castes and the hardest to master, though most will also learn and often use the specific magics of each caste as they move through them, although never as well as those that are content in their place and do not aspire to be anything else, and who can then afford to really master their caste's skills, including magic.

For me the real fear of Maran Gor is that any Ernaldan bitter enough can switch from Ernalda to Maran Gor while keeping her Rune Pool. That means that if you make enough Ernaldans desperate enough, your fields will turn fallow, earthquakes are daily events and dinosaur stampedes become commonplace. The Shaker Temple shows what may happen if sweet Ernalda's husbands are not enough, and Earth needs to defend and avenge itself. Famine and devastation for all. So Maran Gor is always a minority cult, except in very dire times. Then she is needed, and hopefully the survivors will be able to return to Ernalda's way.

We have some names, but nobody went and claimed responsibility, possibly fearing a devastating Lunar reprisal, or even an Orlanthi anti Dragon reaction. I think both Kallyr and Argrath let people believe they had something to do with it without going out and saying it. Orlaront Dragonfriend is generally assumed to be involved, and later he was one of Argrath's companions, but the Sourcebook says even he was surprised by the dragon's apparition. So at the end it Is Minaryth Purple the only sure name. The description in the Glorantha Sourcebook is taken from KoS Composite History of Dragon Pass. It is possible it was not the intended result, but a change happening, an unintended return of the Hidden Orlanth ring returning Orlant's ring to the sky by challenging the Lunars at their strongest. But as the Dragon then proceeded to menace the Moon, that seems unlikely to me. Argrath's saga is unreliable, but has the clearest description of the Iron Ring. In that (pro-Argrath) piece we have Argrath as leader, Orlaront and the purple sage (surely Minaryth). In King of Sartar's miscellaneous fragments Minaryth Purple appears as one of Kallyr's companions, her caster, which would point at her, as Argrath was busy in Pavis at that point.

I really like the idea of the dwarves and Giants reaching an stalemate after the Jolanti wars, and then moving into trade. They share similar spaces, so it makes sense to reach an accomodation. That could mean most of the goods stolen from cradles were actually dwarven in origin, which would make them more valuable to the Jrusteli, who could understand or even reverse engineer them, as a good part of their magic and technology was stolen / traded by the dwarves. Not to mention the difficulties of crafting small objects for giants.

You are not the only one, and although I should have seen it coming, that is why my own founding myth ended up as almost a Lunar apology, as they seem to be the ones willing to break that vicious cycle. But you could also take the view that the entities trapped in the Godtime are really undead, so their forecast destruction at the end of the Third Age is just a deferred affirmation of their death in the Greater Darkness cataclysm. I can see many Western sorcerers taking that view, as they are the ones that consider deities as resources to exploit, cyclically forgetting that humans can touch the divine and change it by heroics, so it is not as predictable or immobile as they expect, usually when it bites them back. I accept there was a storm entity named Orlanth, which accumulated great power, stolen, wrested from enemies and inherited from family and friends. But the Orlanth of the Third Age that millions of people experience owes much more to human heroes within time, and the tidal wave of millions of dead worshippers going to their afterlife in his stead. Adapting the god to the changing world. Sudden change requires new gods, but the old gods, at least those that persist, slowly adapt to the world, or they adapt the world to them. It is a two way road, because as the Bronze Age setting, the timelessness of the Godtime is a lie, or more accurately a metaphor, useful but not true when you scratch.

In most of western Europe it was the fox, with different local names. Ravens are wise, but they seldom part with their wisdom.

Steam is water reacting to exposure to fire by repeating the invasion of the sky. As we do not have enough fire, it cannot reach too far and returns back down, as you can notice in your hearth or chimney over a boiling pot. I suspect cycles of evaporation and condensation (distillation) are part of Heler's sacred rites in dry areas, as it is the only way to get "pure" or rain water on demand, apart from magic. That would make also Heler a possible source of distilled strong alcohol, by using that same equipment on alcoholic liquids. Firewater can well be one of the secrets wrested from the sky, at least for some Heleri. Joining with a beer brewer would justify giving some Orlanthi clans uisge beatha. It is true I dislike linking the Gloranthan elements to states of matter, as we already have elemental association with metals, which are solid (with one partial exception). Most solids are earth, most liquids have varying amounts of water, and most gases have Air, but it is not only that. As happens in magic or in people, I prefer modifying runes, such as water and stasis giving ice and water and motion (provoked by Fire, but not containing Fire) steam. Stale air, whether by Fire, Tapping or enclosed areas, is worse to breath and can eventually stop sustaining life, but nobody is really concerned about oxygen levels, just that the Stasis / lack of Motion separates it from Orlanth's breath.

I at least propose several magical and alchemical anticonceptive methods in Glorantha, if only to allow women to break women from the pregnancy - nursing - pregnancy cycle. If you can choose when to get pregnant, you will have less kids, but I hope happier and healthier. Lots of happy consensual sex is always better. Or as a gipsy blessed / cursed me once, thirty years ago "May God repay you with many attempts and few children:"

The real question for me is whether Glorantha is expanding, stable or contracting. I propose an expanding Glorantha, and that is why the New eventually will win over the Old powers.

This was mostly stream of consciousness, though It came out much more Lunarized than I intended. So I edited some draconic and dwarven parts that did not fit with the rest and allowed the Lunar parts to remain.

In the Real world I am an atheist positivist and humanist, with some existentialist undertones, as expressed by Jacques Monod. It colours a lot my own approach to Glorantha, which tends to be quite God Learnerist, though I still hold the closest position will be that held by the clay dwarfs. That probably makes my own take more a dwarven point of view than a general truth about Glorantha. As such it is mechanistic and descriptive, and expressed as a clear justification why dwarves do not use Rune magic. The big difference between the RW gods and religions and Glorantha in the third age, as I will leave out for the moment other ages and the pre-Dawn, is that the transactional nature of religion is much more evident, as rune magic works, and it works differently than the other kinds of magic, which are based on the self and universal laws, whether it is spirit formulas powered by your own energy, or alterations to the world laws, once again powered by your own spiritual energy. In the case of Rune magic, you link and represent a deity, sacrificing / linking part of your soul with that deity in exchange for being able to use that link to manifest the deity's power. In this descriptive form, deity is any otherworld entity that can provide magic in exchange for a soul-link. I scratched off the otherworld as we know people who are in the mundane world, superheroes and demigods, that provide magic outside the compromise or the Godtime. It may be interesting to differentiate if Jar Eel does really provide the rune magic of the Moonsword cult, or if she is just a proxy and the magic really flows from her ancestress the Red Moon, but it is clear you can get power from entities outside the compromise, such as the Red Moon while she walked Glorantha, even if the compromise tends to push back strongly, so I maintain that you can get Rune magic from creatures in the world. Most cults follow entities within the compromise, which means that they are integrated in the magical fabric of the world, their magic can be accessed in reliable ways as the entity itself is now outside time, and usually it is contacted and linked through trips to the otherworld, recreating certain events of power. This would apply also to most Spirit cults, as despite the name, the entity would be a deity according to the definition, and those entities are caught up in Arachne's web, whether it is Oakfed, Lanbril or Lightning Boy. The interesting part are those deities that appear after the Compromise, as they do quite regularly. Most join the compromise and are integrated in the Godtime, in many cases becoming an aspect, or a modifier of an existing deity, and are usually classed as divine heroes or masks, though in a few cases they keep an independent existence. But how can a mortal become a deity? The definition does not explain it, as it is purely descriptive, but we can speculate. Where does the magic come? I think most will agree it comes from the spirits of the living beings, with some differences on our world, as rock and other materials can be living in Glorantha, and we can assume the world itself was alive at the beginning, and that surely was a lot of power. Where does the magic that the deities use come? From their own spirits, as many were powerful creatures in their own, but also from the spirits of those already gone but that they captured for their own use. So Orlanth not only has access to his own personal spirit, but also that of most of the storm tribe that he gathered as they were lost in the Gods war, those followers they had before time, and those of their followers since time came who were soul linked with Orlanth or one of his aspects / masks. I do not know if before Dawn and the Compromise deities already soul linked with their followers and that allowed them to manifest the deities’ powers, but I expect the answer is yes. As the deities were less constrained then, I expect the connection was more straightforward. Swear your soul, or a similar connection, and you will get power in exchange. No surprise that many logicians, whose leaders rejected such faustic deals, and many hsunchen, who relied on their own spirits, and possibly a link to the original Glorantha entity that was the initial source of all magic, were tempted to enter those deals in the hard times of the Gods War, despite the potential consequences for their souls. Other entities just devoured and used the power of the devoured or were able to extract the magic from the runes themselves, but most those practices were classed as Chaos and were curbed by the Compromise, so now they have to use the same system as all the others. So how can you become a deity within Time? You can build up a huge amount of power, and that could be the mechanism used by some mystics turned deities, possibly including Sheng and the divine aspect of Kralorelan Emperors, though usually they become a source of Rune magic after their death / departure from the world /joined the Compromise. You can access some available power in the God Time. It may be a destroyed entity, or a forgotten one, or a corner that nobody really cared about. Or you can latch to an existing entity and subvert it, taking power from it for your own purposes. That usually backfires, as the Compromise protects its members, as the GLs found out. But you need some link to the power trapped in the Godtime. In theory you could get some power from souls linking to you without you giving them anything in return, and if you get enough marks, you could be able to power up a limited amount of rune magics. Unlike the real world, the temporary persistence of the dead souls make this kind of pyramid schemes viable in Glorantha, though usually they require huge death tolls, or the destructiveness of Gark. Some critics of the Lunar Empire will indicate this is one of their techniques, but it has been used in other highly populated areas, such as Fonrit, where a huge underclass can be used as a power source. The big advantage of being linked to the God time is that no mundane catastrophe can undercut that power. The disadvantage is that the Compromise will both tempt and threaten you. The definitions I use mean that many deities will be very human, as they are really built up from human souls, while other will be totally alien, as they arise from the sea deeps, hell, plants or devouring exo-gloranthan hunger personifications. As for the founding Myth, I am still working on it, and this is long enough.

One of the basic points in my Glorantha is that it must be true both for a quicksilver dwarf (who may well be aware of the atomic rune theory) and has access to a dozen different gases for different purposes, from firedamp (methane) to choking gas (chlorine) and one of the Stormwalkers, who intrinsecally knows that all the air is just Orlanth's breath, and it is their internal breath who keeps them flying, supplemented if necessary by Orlanth's. That said, I do not see how air being a whole with different qualities in different areas would affect pneumatic phenomena. If you blow, you exert pressure. How much pressure can Orlanth exert? And as you suck air, you can suck other things, such as water, dust, or fire, though you would need to be fire resistant to do it more than once. Poison for me has no fixed elemental link, as it can have many origins. I would expect most gloranthans consider poisoning to be an induced rune imbalance. But it can come from darkness, such as lead, but also from some plant getting into you and trying to colonize you (hemlock) , even some beast (animal poisons), or corrupted air (how most Gloranthans would see the dwarven deployment of chlorine bombs) that chokes you and takes away your ability to breath, while the dwarf will know it comes from mixing spirit of salt and certain ores. The touchstone would be whether you can use Tap Air on a Chlorine cloud, or a firedamp cumulation, or manifest an Air elemental from the concentrated fumes from roasting limestone to get quicklime (in the RW it would be CO2, in Glorantha I would say it is dead air). I say yes, as that fits with the definition of air, despite lacking oxygen or nitrogen. That would differentiate gases (that you cannot normally separate from air) and suspensions, such as fog or dust haze, which are water or earth mixed with air, and would be recognized as such, if only by the thin film of water or dust you get afterwards.. The all versions is true would include one of us, so natural phenomena, without intervention of magic, work as they do in Earth. Syphon for instance, or the Skyfall, is magic, as is the Red Moon or the shadows over Dagori Inkarth, but also Kero Fin or the Tower of Xud..

It feels strange for me as a chemist, but in Glorantha all air is air, but like people, some air is stinky, some air is nice, and some is really toxic. But for the Gloranthans those are qualities of the air, not a matter of impurities or mixes. Though we all know still air will go bad more easily than moving air, as it will happen also with water. Fire will weaken the air, can even make it lifeless, and even taint it with dead earth as well (soot). Too much dead air can also kill you. As for what happened before Umath, most people do not worry. You just did not need to breathe, as plants or fish do not need to breath. Animals and people came later. If you travel there you may need some time to adapt, and you better have a strong element association to traverse the elements, but you will not need to breath. It was not invented yet.