JRE

That would fit with Jrustela and Umathela being silver exporters, as former Jrusteli power centers. But is the silver coming from mines, or recovered hoards in Jrusteli ruins, after they pillaged Glorantha's silver for four centuries? Casting coins, unless you decrease a lot the melting point of metals, will require a lot of wood or charcoal, and also good quality iron moulds, as a bronze mould will melt as well. So following the historical record and the example coins shown in the Guide, the Kralorelans are the only ones to cast coins. Thinking back, the problem with bronze coins in Glorantha is that you will need hardened bronze (is high tin bronze a thing in your Glorantha? It is in mine) for the dies or soft bronze (add some lead) for the coins. Or as indicated above, iron dies. Or magic, as we know Lokarnos magic can make wheels out of bulk gold.

Dwarves in Genertela seem uninterested in sea power and ships, but you can be sure they do not forgive or forget the Vadeli. So I would have any open Vadeli Dwarf conflict be in Jrustela and Western Pamaltela, Jorkar's and Dashomo's Seas. I suspect it is so dangerous to others than even Wolf pirates without Harrek tend to avoid the area. You can justify almost anything with dwarves, though the Slontos dwarves do not appear to use gunpowder artillery in their concrete ships. Not that they are really needed when you have giant explosive harpoons and repeating ballistas. Probably it is to keep the cannon secret out of others hands. If you want dwarven ships in Wenelia, the best choice is usually the simplest. They are pursuing a Vadeli ship that is fleeing with some secret, blueprint or object they really want to recover. Dwarves usually prefer a lower profile than Mount Drum, except in areas they fully control, but there is something similar in Magasta's Pool, though larger, Iron City (not very imaginative, I know, but nobody knows its dwarven name). They have what is probably a godkiller weapon, though I am not sure if it is to shoot something coming out of the pool, or something trying to get in. I suspect even a three mile long iron bolt will not help against an iceberg hundreds of miles long.

In the case of Fazzur, and I knew how to get into his bedchambers, I would trade for teleport spells and matrixes, and have the teleporter ally spirit stay behind in the chosen interrogation temple. Then the bag on the head, making sure we get also any ally spirit (to make tracking more difficult) and apply a barrage of spirit and non-damaging spells to keep him unbalanced (and hopefully demoralized or befuddled). We would consecrate the bedchamber to avoid inpromptu DI, and then trust one of the teleports overcomes his POW. I would rely that Fazzur will not throw his life away, so the main objective is to get out with him without DI. If you had a sacred relic, and if not in a highly defended location, just staying close with the Relic and taking him flying with a huge air elemental could be enough, but I would not expect him not to have anti air and earth elemental defences. A more elegant but ruthless method would require an Eurmali with 13+ Runepool, Swallow and a traded Guided teleportation. Swallow him, teleport, vomit the corpse and ressurrect him in the temple. Now he is yours.

If he can cast spells, he may have a large spirit block on him (several times if dispelled) while he waits for the bodyguards, any Lunar wyter in the area, and general troops and priests to intervene. Capturing him should be hard. And if not impeded, he could always DI away. In his case POW loss is almost sure better than capture.

There are two aspects that always concern me about Gloranthan coinage. Where are the Sartarites getting their silver, and why, in an area with plentiful bronze deposits, they do not use bronze for coining, rather than their enemies silver. Bronze has been used in most of European history as a coinage metal, replaced later by brass and other cheaper alloys. The Lunars have religious reasons to use and spread silver. The two only regions in the Guide that export silver are Jrustela y Umathela. The only declared importer of silver is Teleos, which I find also surprising considering their limited material culture. I suppose, due to the mythical origins of the metals, that the Blue Moon plateau is rich in silver, and that would explain where the Lunars get their silver. It would make a lot of sense for Argrath to issue guilders made from bronze, much larger than the clacks and probably worth more. Greek coinage had bronze coins worth around 4 times the value of a copper coin of the same weight, while many other ancient coinmakers just ignored copper due to the low value and vulnerabily to corrosion. The plentiful bronze could make relative values different, but it is still a much better coin metal than copper, so I am still concerned about the absence of bronze coins in Glorantha. In the meantime they must be refacing lunars, though that is viable only when they are winning... In Roman coins, gold is worth around 10-12 times the weight in silver (though actual precious metal content is less than in Glorantha, and can be extremely low), so it fits with the Gloranthan values. Silver is worth 15-20 times more than Bronze, which is worth twice more than Brass, which is worth twice more than Copper, so we lose the nice tenfold impact of Gloranthan regularity. The exception would be the Chinese, who used copper for a long time, and were the first to recognize that money's value was nominal and not associated to the precious metal content, which is why they do not use precious metals as coinage. The Chinese copper coin metal is alloyed with lead and with some tin, so it is not pure copper, and made that way so it melts more easily, as the Chinese cast their coins, rather than using dies like the Europeans, and we suppose most Gloranthans, from the examples in the Guide. The coin examples in the Guide show typical weights similar to ancient coins, though copper and bronze would typically have also larger and heavier forms. Roman sestertius were 25-30 g (around 1 troy ounce) of brass, or half that of bronze, and there was a bronze double sestertius that was worth half the basic silver coin, the denarius, which was similar to a lunar coin (0.2 troy ounce). In Roman terms, the clack with the proposed weight would be worth only 1/60th of a silver lunar, but typically there would be a heavy 1 ounce coin that would be worth ten times less than the lunar. Lead has never been used for coinage on Earth, except to debase and make easier to melt other metals.

In past editions, if you could avoid touching it, a pristine piece of truestone would force a rune level to put all their rune magic in it, so you could strip them of magic and get a powerful magic item with exotic magics. Pity untouched Truestone is very rare and we are not sure how it works in RQG. Important prisoners are always kept in sanctified ground to overcome the divine intervention in literature. I suppose that with a sufficient show of force the Rune Lord will not start casting while tied up. Blindness is also a good tactic, for both the rune lord and the ally, because many spells require you to see a target. So a leather bag on the head, allowing also to asphyxiate them if they put up too much resistance, another bag for the ally spirit if it has senses separate from the Rune Lord, and get them unconscious fast and take them to a temple different from theirs. In RQG it is important to know how full is their rune pool, as if it is full, escape by divine intervention is almost guaranteed if conscious. If the rune pool is low, they may prefer becoming a prisoner to risking a portion of their soul, hoping for ransom. How many players would prefer paying ransom to losing 1D10 POW? All of them I know. Once they are in the temple the high priest may order the wyter to just neutralize any magic they cast. Expensive in POW but probably unbeatable. The consecrated ground from a spell could be dispelled or dismissed, so depending on the Runepool it may be only a temporary solution. I am sure the dwarves have sorcerous objects that impede spellcasting, and may well be the source of the first Praxian slave collars. Sorcery also has interesting long duration spells limiting specific runes or types of magic, but they are not available to non-sorcerers and require a lot of preparation. They can also drain MPs, that would cause unconsciousness and limit spellcasting. Our PC really likes it as a pacifying spell, used from a long distance, though it would be hard to affect a Rune level. As Nick says, the elegant heroic solution would be to find a myth where their deity is imprisoned or immobilized for some time and get them to assume the role. If you want interrogation, you could find or make a new myth and see if it sticks: "Orlanth spills the beans..." may be difficult, but "Orlanth pillow talks with Ernalda" could work and fill both requirements.

Of course, they are Ernaldans. I think in Gloranthat there is a lot of transfer between associated cults, much easier than what usually happens with PCs. So Ernaldans in times of conflict and war may (even if it is only a small fraction) transfer to Maran Gor, and use their accumulated Runepower on Gorite spells. Once the bad times pass, most return to the fertile bosom of Ernalda, though a few will stay with Maran, a reminder of the destructive power of the Earth, and keeping the powerful magics that will still be needed in the future. In the same way, many Babeester Gor Axe maidens may switch later to Ernalda (if Death is not strong in them) or Maran Gor, though there will be some that will go directly from the maiden to the crone, either Ty Kora Tek or Asrelia. I expect that will be part of the Earth pantheon book, including also what is the role of Voria as the Life alternative to Babeester Gor, though it seems many of her place is taken by Ernalda, at least at the initiate level, but also what to do with devotees without kids but not taking the Death path.

Each time I read "Cult of Silence" I have Disturbed cover of "The Sounds of Silence" running in my mind. So I envision people using long duration Illusory sight sorceries to communicate with flashes of light, "neon lights", and using high intensity illusory sound to actually suppress any sounds below the intensity threshold. From that whimsical starting point, it is clear to me the Cult is strong in illusory sorceries, and long duration visual spells, including mute TV style communications, lacking words as such, just images, color codes and cartoon like imagery. And use of illusions for almost anything. I assume from the eradication of mindlink and mindspeech in the rules that it is reserved in Glorantha to allied spirits and similar soul appendages, so I do not expect the secret of the Cult to be mental communication. Their real power is that you never know if what you experience is real or an illusion, and the overwhelming silence makes it even easier for the illusions to be more believable. They can be still around, masquerading as anything else. You can still cast spells with a spoken component and the illusory silence will make it unhearable anyway. Their magic does not use words but mental constructs and complex images of the spells, between a complex ideogram and a mandala. The base script for sorcery spell skill limit would be "Visual imagery", which is used also for communication among the cultists. Their abandonment of words means they probably escaped the attention of the Gift Carriers of the Sending Gods. It may well have been their purpose.

The interpretation of Shiva as Time rather than Death is more poignant in Glorantha, as some people are able to reject Time's influence in a limited way, so they will ignore the simmetry in the saying. In the original form the Hero is as dead as the opposing soldiers, if you take the long view. But in Glorantha there are ways to cheat time. And that will be specially clear to any Brithini Horali. I would consider Krishna, or whoever teaches the philosophy to the Horali, to be a Talar intermediary, and within his functions both educating the Horali and being read the philosophy by a Zzaburi. I am pretty sure they can read, but tradition requires that such a document is formally read once by a zzabur. The Talar can then claim to remember perfectly, while refreshing his memory as needed. On the other hand, I expect their emphasis on the Abiding Book and Hrestoli progression, as well as simple efficiency, would have the Jrusteli Marines being well educated and able to read and discuss complex ideas, as they are already learning sorcery. I expect the Jrusteli to graduate thousands of Men-of-All every year to administrate and expand the Empire, approaching Education systematically as the path to power. The Jrusteli Man-of-All response would be to accept the saying, but consider their aim is not to become a hero, and therefore an instrument of the divine (as a Horali would do), but to become the speaker, and wield the power of the gods themselves. The Anti-Oppenheimer.

It adds a little complication, but mechanically I would consider sub runes as modifiers on the main rune affinity. An Inora god-talker could have only 50% Darkness Affinity, but add +30 Cold, so the effective Cold affinity is 80%, without requiring them to be full Dark. A yelmalion could alternatively have a -30 Heat, so although he has 90% Fire affinity still has trouble with heat spells, or a +60 Light, while keeping Fire at only 30%, though that will make them dumber than others. It would also allow Lodrili with low Light, which probably will please Yelmites. In most cases I would apply the modifiers mainly based in homeplace and cult, and would not have effect in stats and other high rune effects, except for specific magic effects, and possibly chrome, such as high Fire (Heat) affinities having a tolerance for high temperatures.

I consider it was the First Council who remarked that all the weapon enhancement spirit magics that people used were very similar, despite the many different names, and popularized the Theyalan equivalents to the spell names in the rules. But I still use local names as people are people and spirit magic is the reliable personal magic everyone uses, powered by your own spirit, more of a tool than a wonder, so no matter what the priestess called it, people will change it for their personal use. I also find that bludgeon / bladesharp / ironhand is probably a single magical effect, enhance weapon, but people unconsciously apply limitations depending on how they have been taught. But that is IMG.

For pure adventure seed reasons, I would have a delegation of Vadeli in Fay Jee buying slaves and shipping them to places unknown. Good background evil if you need something bad to happen. It would also mean slave caravans from Yellowstone to Fay Jee, or Esrolians going to Fay Jee to ransom family from the Vadeli, or even hire someone to negotiate with the Solanthi to ransom a captive. I can easily see such a Brown Vadeli go-between, specialized in finding missing captives... It makes sense to move slaves away from their homeland, so there may well be exchanges of Ralians and Esrolians among Solanthi and Pralori. The Romans did it all the time, as language is also a barrier to escape.

I consider most temples will be shrines, often in associated temples, so as indicated above, limited spell choice. However a great Hunt works effectively as a great temple, and that is, for me, the main reason most hunters nearby will join. Not for the very unlikely chance to become a Master Hunter, but the opportunity to sacrifice magic and get new powerful magic hunting magic. Adding the difficult to account community with people that get you and understand how you are, that can share important knowledge or useful tricks. Foundchild also has a strong shaman spirit cult tradition, and I play that each shaman may contact a different aspect (or for powerful ones, aspects) of Foundchild, so if you get one of those shamans to accept you in their ceremony, you may well get to spend POW and get a different spell.

We all know that the lone Marshal wandering the frontier bringing Justice Truth is clearly Humakt's territory. I always see BG as part of a system of two triads, the fertile and unfertile Maiden - Mother - Crone triads, though we will see how it is developed in the Earth pantheon book. BG is the Maiden of the Death triad, so her path leads to Maran Gor and Ty Kora Tek, though unlike the others she still could take the Ernalda-Asrelia path, though it will not be easy, unless her Death is low and she has been focusing on Earth rune affinity. Although it is not foreordained, that means, for me, that the cultists are not as self-reliant and isolated as the Humakti, because usually they have access to specialists, as said above. If the mission requires someone with people skills, maybe an old but still hale Asrelia priestess may join to supply additional skills and magic, or one of Mom's husbands may be pressured to join to help, with needed magic or skills. A quite different community than Humakt's dudebros. One fights because he is good at it, and wants to be even better. The other fights because it is necessary, and some people merit a whooping, or a traumatic castration, or to be annihilated, and nobody else can do it. One spurned his family, the other is first and foremost a daughter. All of this coming from a male, so it certainly needs a female point of view.

Just a comment on the military equipment. Most of it will be inherited, so the cost for the household is low, unless there is a catastrophe and the militia is crushed and pushed out of the battlefield, so weapons and armor cannot be recovered. Bronze is easy to repair and much more resistant to corrosion and the passage of time than iron, so it is typical for a sword, spear heads or pieces of armor to be passed through several generations. That is why so many Greek citizens or Romans could afford the whole metal armor heavy infantry equipment, because the one who inherits the land also inherits the equipment, and the position in the militia. Those are family heirlooms, and why it is important to retirn with your shield (and implicit your armor and weapons) or on it (supposing your body is recovered and you return also with them). Except for very rich people, or religious donations, armor is rare in burials because it was needed for the following generation. That is why we know much more about weapons than ancient armor.

The names will change, depending on the teacher and users, but the main spirit magic will be well known, whether it is called sharsword, sharpaxe, cutting song, bloody cuts, enhance edge, strike one, cut thrice or cut, cut cut! Adding numbers is silly, but IMG people will know if it is small (1-2) medium power (3-4), large, (5-6), huge (7-9) and ridiculous (10+). Returning to the main question, a problem with spirit cults is that opportunity to recover Rune points are rare, and unless you are the officiating shaman recovery will usually be limited. So societies give you more flexibility with your runepool (several spells rather than one) and more opportunities to recover them, even if I consider it mainly as associate worship. So I would have a Riverhorse spirit cultist attending the yearly ceremony, in one of their sacred places (oasis, flash flood torrent or spring), in sea season, movement week, waterday, recover 2D6 runepoints with a succesful worship, and with limited bonuses compared to a theist, and it would require someone able to summon River Horse in the physical plane to get an extra recovery that year. A Thirstless society member would recover only 1D6, but they would have also an opportunity with Frog woman or Dew maid and more importantly, in Zola Fel's holy days in a Zola fel sacred site, which probably includes most temples.

Considering the Persian style full armor, it could be any. In Persia it would be a man, of course, and now I wonder if the image has been reversed or the clibanarius and the YT scimitar are left handed. I love this Angus McBride style illustrations.

I usually look first for associated deities, as they are the ones that may share shrines and would be the good candidates for dual initiation, though BG only has Ernalda and Maran Gor, which do not really fit in the concept. It may be better with the Earth pantheon book. I see Yinkini as mostly loners, while Avenging Daughters, while they may be alone in a mission, actually are a part in the bigger Earth structure, so not so fitting as a lone hunter except in a very personal quest. I envision them more straightforward, announcing publicly their mission and then casting Detect Enemies to see who may object, or pursue whoever starts running when they arrive. Play to your strengths.

Looking to Earth, most gambling deities are either those associated with good fortune, often with some trickster aspect. The more gambling, more tipically will a specialized gambling deity, like the Roman Fortuna, rather than one aspect in an overworked deity, like the Greek Hermes or the Hindi Lakshmi. Only one major deity, so far, has the Luck rune, which makes me think there will be several local deities with it as well. It is interesting that the two known (at least to me) links to the Luck rune are in Kethaela, as Gambling is more prevalent in material rich cultures. So I would expect that Asrelia has that role in Ernalda strong cultures, while some aspect of her, or a specialized deity will take that role in others.

We do have a duck character, and the main thing in our experience is to play it straight faced but without pulling any punches, being always ready for spontaneous comedy. Sometimes it is the duckiness, sometimes it is the small size, sometimes it is just the player being fed up of people talking to the humans in the team (besides the two PCs they usually move with a teamster, a wagon driver and two guards, whose main role is to protect the mules and the wagon while the players worry about other things). In the past I have had players that tried to play the comedy role as the main role, but it gets tiring very fast. I do forbid making weird voices just because you are a duck because it gets also hard unless you have a great voice mimicker. Understanding is better than a moment of easy laugh. But things like duck throwing (with low size and magically enhanced strength a duck can fly quite far) acrobatic leg tangling and headbutting the groin with an iron helmet will be usually funny.

A powerful heroquest will force your enemies to adapt to it, and if they do not react with enough force (such as leaving the citadel almost defenceless) it may force a minor Orlanth relic to actually become Orlanth's heart and an Ernalda priestess become the sleeping goddess. You still need a hero able to strangle Ernalda, however.

A mystic would say "we are all gods, but we have to learn to let all wants go, and leave our godhood, to leave this universe. Those capitalized Gods are those who want things so strongly that they become one with their want, and at a certain point they no longer are an individual, but a mechanism of the Universe. To avoid the entanglement is the only way to be free. Illumination deceives you, thinking you are free, when you are even more entangled with both your old and new viewpoints. Gods in Glorantha can only do a limited set of things, but their mortal followers can "train" them to do new things, usually at the expense of something else. As such, they are the World and its natural laws, though mortals (people who still are free) can change the laws. But then the new law becomes part of you, and you are in the path of imprisonment and godhead.

My point is not that they avoid gods and religion. They avoid priests and leaders, in the same way most humans prefer to avoid the attention of those in power, because nothing good comes out of it. Attend with your colleagues and family the temple, but in the ceremonies they will be the ones playing the mass of extras, impressed and frightened and asking the different gods (the stars of the show) to do something for you. Yes, it is impressive, and it shows why things have to be as they are, but I would not like to be part of the extras when the trolls arrive or when Aroka devours rain. And I would not do that role often, unless I am becoming one of those Rune career initiates that are starting PCs. Spirit magic is nice, because there is no tax on its use. You learn it and you use it. Most people middle age and up will have their CHA of spirit magic useful to what they do or the needs of the family. But I have most ordinary people with little or no RP. Because they do not have as much POW to sacrifice, because recovering the magic takes a lot of time and days spent in that, and because, IMG, it requires deep secrets of the cult that most people are happier avoiding. It may well be the influence of previous rulesets where Rune magic was not common or used by "normal" people.

Gods are jealous, spirits seldom are, unless you deal with their traditional enemies. So it will not be easy to join the Thirstless if you are already a Burner, but otherwise, as long as you do the right sacrifices, you get the magic without a continuous commitment like a god. More like Spirit magic, of course.

Feel free to use them as you need. Sorcery increases their abilities through increased Damage, and resistances. The Duckmis qualified to be a Sword, but remains an initiate as his duty is incompatible with those of a Sword. In our campaign they have been moving from 1616 to 1622 between Pavis, Sartar and Nochet, writing a history of the Lunar conquest of Pavis, a biography of Fazzur, and a record of Kallyr's rebellion. The player aims to be one of the authors of the Composite History of Dragon Pass. They have left the Dragon Pass, as they are no longer welcome among the Lunars, and they are currently traveling in Ralios, but they could well have stayed as rebels.