JRE

In my interpretation Demons are creatures native to one of the Hells, as opposed to people living in Glorantha's mortal domain, or mortal souls temporarily residing in Hell. As such they are not intrinsically chaotic, but they can be corrupted by Chaos. So yes, there are chaos Demons. As there are many hells, there are many different demons. That would make Uzuz demons, and I believe they would accept the title with pride, in the same way Zorak Zoran is the Lord Demon of the Legions of Death. So I suspect Lord Ethilrist will not feed his Demon horses with tainted chaotic meat, and the horses will not eat it voluntarily, though it is likely as demons they are immune to disease and will eat broo as easily as humans. I also play that the Demon horses do not feed only on flesh, but also on souls. A Rider can feed POW to their mount, when they spend time at peace. As for eating human flesh, I believe the potential ogre connection requires that your culture sees such an act as taboo, an abomination, not the act in itself. It falls under Wakboth's corruption, moral decay, rather than Kajaboor, physical decay. Most Orlanthi consider eating human flesh chaotic, so an Orlanthi that does so risks acquiring Chaos affinity, and that may well turn him into an ogre, but that will be much rarer than the stories tell. Meanwhile a Red Vadeli or a member of the Cannibal Cult or a Basmoli following secret Lion rites may well eat Human flesh often without any chaotic effect, because for them it is not a chaotic act. Uz see as normal killing and eating other Uz (except for Mother), and it is part of their death rites, so I would expect the Demon Horses do so too, so Demon Horse corpses are not normally accesible to others. The consumption of part of the rider's soul may be what links the horses with their riders, and it is necessary to keep the horses from returning back to their Hell.

I would have Ernaldans discourage the use of anticonceptive magic on themselves, but conversely they can roll Fertility to know if they are fertile or not, so they can use the knowledge to their advantage.

My own playing style has lots of effects that would be magical on earth to magnify the magic of the setting, usually family or cult magics. And to give extra use to the runes, so some of those minor effects may be impossible depending on your affinities. A few examples of what I have used, and a couple of player suggestions I accepted: Humakti can sharpen a sword without any tool, by focusing their Death (and rolling below Death affinity). Focus on your Beast affinity to have your sheep flock follow your whistling, as long as you are taking them somewhere familiar. Know at a glance if someone is pregnant, using Life. Ernaldans, Ulerians and similar cults. Focus your Death after sexual intercourse to make sure you are not pregnant. Maran Gor sells cheaply charms that increase your death affinity by 50 for this purpose. You know if you succeed or not, but you do not know if you and your partner were fertile to beging with. Does not work against fertility magic, from a holy orgy to a broo rape, or the Pregnancy spell. Use Harmony to know when food is off, and how to combine flavors in a good way, limited by the ingredients. Use your Stasis to know where all of your tools are in your workshop. Artisan family. Use your illusion affinity to improve slightly your appeareance without tools. Your hair untangles, your breath smells sweet and your clothes no longer seem creased and sweaty... These are minor effects, mostly tricks, though the pregnancy one could be quite major, without the failure penalty you get from augments, and without significant game effects. Normlly you have to learn them, from family, clan or temple, and usually you know only half a dozen, though a well travelled Eurmali may know hundreds. They are indicated in a general way in the character sheet, such as "Anticonceptive Magic +50", or "Family good with sheep", "Harmony cook" or "Dazzling smile". Others are powers I give to some cults, similar to the Orlanthi weather sense, such as the Ernaldan "life sense" or the Humakti "sword always sharp", or my Issaries "Well behaved mule". If a player wants, they can possibly get a new one, if I agree it makes sense, or they find someone willing to teach them and spend the time.

My point is that IMG the First age big councils did their big magics in the Sacred Time, and by pure magical firepower they forced other cultures in contact with them to do the same or be overwhelmed. That spread with the God Learners so it became the new magical reality. It will have different names and different rationales, but I am happy with all of Glorantha doing big magics at that point in time. I have most large magics ending at the beginning of the Sacred Time so even if you disagree with its justification, you still have to do rituals and quests, or your world is not remade. Of course these same rituals and quests are why the world has not really changed much in almost two millennia, and most events are cyclical. Maybe it would be better if conservatism was not built in yearly to keep things the same, but then people will call me an illuminate. Theyalans will tell you it commemorates the Great Compromise and the first Dawn, but I think that time is lost, and it really marks the moment when the Sun moved again after the Sunstop.

I believe the plentiful ritual and heroquests in Sacred Time mean that even if it is only defensively, most peoples will have their own rites and communal heroquests in that period. IMG most long duration magics stop working during the Sacred Time, which is why everybody is busy renewing them. Even long duration sorceries tend to fail in the high magical background, unless they have at least one full year remaining duration. That reinforces the global character of the event, though it may just be the days the Mostali take their holidays and the rest of Glorantha need to step up to keep the universe going.

I place the anticonceptive magic as something between charm and minor magic, below even MP cost, and I assume that there are many such magics that are below the game scale but that show that this is a magical world. From cleaning your tools or clothes to killing vermin, and all things that improve quality of life. I assume anticonceptive magics go with Death affinity, which is why I expect the use of charms, as many people will have high Life/Fertility affinities and therefore would be bad at anticonception. But I also consider high Death affinities are naturally infertile, and will need active magic (of the kind that requires MPs or RPs) to be able to conceive, so this may well be a minority view. Easy anticonception fits with the saying: "Sex is easy, Marriage is hard" as indicating few teenage pregnancies among the Orlanthi. Just remember to leave the Death charm at home when going to an Ernaldan rite, or there may be consequences, usually that it burns out and no longer works... As for who makes and supplies these charms, I would expect that is why people attend the Maran Gor shrines in Ernalda's temples, and a similar reason would keep Gorgorma's shrines in Dendara's temples, despite the displeasure of the male dominated cults. BG could justify it, and may supply such magic to its initiates, but it is not her real role, unlike the blasted Earth. Even in combat areas, I expect most people will be using magic to look better and be attractive, to protect food sources, from plant diseases to mice eradication, and to amuse yourselves in the long Dark and Storm seasons nights. And without spending tons of Magic Points. A small blessing to keep your breath sweet before a dance, or the wheat from spoiling. I consider their use is part of the normal skills or stat rolls, and the effect is mainly atmospheric, a reminder that magic is widespread.

Our own reading of the rules is that splitting requires a natural skill of 100, while decreasing skill happens with the actual modified skill. To make splitting more attractive we do allow the to hit modifications to apply to each attack, so a combatant with Bladesharp 6 and Sword trance with 5 MP and a natural short sword skill of 120 would have an effective skill of 200 on attack, so -100 parry if doing a single attack, though 170 in parry, but could split into two 115 attacks, which feels right when fighting several opponents, rather than wait till they are slowly disarmed or killed by failed attacks vs succesful parries. My players are often at a numbers disadvantage, and that shortens the fights. Bladesharp and Bludgeon increase the chance to hit by MPx5%, rather than increasing the skill, while Sword Trance modifies the skill, so the Sword trance bonus is split while the +30 applies to both.

I play that a spell in one script still is limited by your knowledge in that script, even if translated, because the magic is not easily translated. I allow to create a new spell in your preferred script using such a spell as a reference, but you still need a R/W roll to avoid wasting a season. That is why our sorcerer left Pavis with a growing knowledge of Old Pavic and Old Jrusteli, because they were the languages of the grimoires he found. His preferred script, and the one he learnt LM spells in Nochet, is Theyalan.

It is an interesting idea, though tragicomic, that the last red emperor was the one who integrated the whole, only to be unmade by Sheng once again. Though that would be a good reason why Argrath decided to bring the old demigod back.

Gloranthan magic changes many earth situations. Even if it is not a spell, outlawry surely is a magical status and not only a legal one, and that is why it is recognized widely.

The clan / tribe chieftains have another option, which is to declare the offender an outlaw. Killing an outlaw does not allow claiming a wergild, but I suspect the clan or tribe is not obligated to pay wergild for past offenses of the outlaw, either. On the other hand, as Argrath takes the throne I expect many outlaws will be returning to Sartar with the new Prince, changing from outlaw to a lawful member will mean any past actions will be subject once again to wergild, so a potential source of friction, specially if the matter ends up before the Prince. I suppose there will be a lot of politicking with the Sartar exiles and those that remained in Sartar. And unless they are welcome back, you may have some of the Prince companions being killed by enemy clansmen before they are reinstated.

Harrek is someone almost everybody is glad to see go away, and I suspect Argrath encourages his "friend" to set his new kingdom in Pamaltela, to avoid having Harrek sacking Kethaela regularly, now that as an ally of Queen Samastina he is bound to defend Esrolia. However for me the key reason for his departure to the south is the double whammy in 1628 of being Harmonized with Jar Eel, falling in love with her as he kills her, and losing Gunda. That changes him so much that he just takes a good portion of the Wolf Pirates and goes south. He still returns occasionally, and I can imagine Jar Eel visiting him as her duties allow it. The only one that really gets the other..

I cover both with Dodge, though I make them move away, depending on the attack, a dagger requires less movement than a lance or a charging turker. You need space to dodge, so no dodging in formation or a mnarrow space, dodging a cavalry line may force you to dodge other attacks (with cumulative penalties) as you move in the path of someone else, and if you dodge before your attack SR, unless you have a long weapon it will be impossible to attack back. Which is why soldiers wear armor and parry rather than dodge. And when possible carry longer spears than their opponents.

As for who killed Kallyr, I always found suspicious that the assassins teleported behind her, as that seems more fitting to Orlanthi. If they had been invisible, that would be more suitable. As well all Empire resources were either lost in the Dragonrise or committed in the Redlands, so they had to be Tarshite assassins, rather than Lunar ones (even if we assume you can find a pocket of Lunar magic in Furthest). I also find it surprising that Pharandros suddenly abandons the campaign after killing Kallyr and two tribal kings/queens, even if they came out worse in losses. So my preferred conspiracy is that the assassins were orlanthi, Fazzurite assassins working for Fazzur for years. Fazzur, even if no longer involved in the war, could reasonably expect the Emperor to send him once again to pacify after Tatius death, but that may have to wait years to raise a new army, and he wants to avoid Sartarite complications duirng the Tarshite civil war he has been preparing. So he nips in the bud the Sartarite Prince, believing that will keep sartar weak and divided for a few years. Pharandros recognizes the assassins and abandons the campaign. In this scenario Kallys's death is the opening shots of the Tarshite civil war.

My regular game has a Duck Humakti, so we decided beforehand on what is Honor for him, mixing Duck insecurities with the typical Humakti preferences, and the fact that he has sworn to use his life to protect someone else that saved him and his family during the Duck Hunt That way we know when he can use Honor to increase rolls (uphold what he knows is true, protect his charge, challenge duck killers) and what actions he may have to fail honor or decrease his honor (lie, refuse a challenge unless it is a trap or a rigged contest. abandon his charge, spending too long without paying his time and tithe to the cult...).

We all know there are different versions, and being Glorantha they are all true. My personal favorite version is that Ether was alway there, the distant dome at the top, the counterpart to the dome of darkness at the bottom (this is why for Solars up is positive and down is negative), and it was not created as such from Earth, but it is contacted by Earth, when Earth pushes to expand all possible space. Where Earth and Ether touch, part of Ether interacts with Earth, which humans understand as marriage, and another part moves further away, to keep their purity. But I would understand it with Earth reaching up to touch the dome, so she "mates" with both Water and Fire. Water keeps her separate in most cases from Darkness, but insects prove there must have been some contact anyway. Air comes in between, and as a jealous child, strives to keep their mother for themselves and the father away. Earth and Fire, despite having deities of all or no gender, are the only elements which generally personify a feminine and a masculine principle. The three curious godlings tale is usually told from the Darkness point of view, so for them Darkness was everything and Aether was a new interloper. But it would work as well if they just went, before Water separated, to the limit of the sky dome, and they just tried to interact with the no-Dark, which was their opposite. In that way, Water would be what Dark, once it is clear they cannot beat each other, separated from itself to keep them apart, the growing interface between Dark and Light. And Lorion's invasion of the Sky Dome is just the new element taking its place in between the two opposites.

Considering that Moonfall is somewhere between 50 and 100 years after her death (or more), it may just be any Vingan heroine spirit. It may even be her spirit. But it has nothing to do with her life or death. In the same way you could try to get Alakoring Dragonbreaker's help if you were going against a dragon, even if he has been dead for 500 years. If you go against the Moon, call her enemies.

I would assume LM inherits the Tap reluctance of Malkioni (separating them from Brithini and Vadeli), and probably enshrines it as a cult requirement, rather than a moral injunction, which is why many Malkioni (and players) end up tempted by the power of Steal Breath and similar spells.

I suppose the big advantage of the cultists less connected to the clans doing most of the non-war killing, such as Humakt and BG, is that often the negotiated solution will be a transfer to another temple, rather than an expensive wergild, if they accidentally treat a honorable cattle raider as a brigand. That is not an option with a carl or a thane, who have duties and family in the clan. Another reason why serious Death cultists are rootless except for their cult, so their acts do not affect others.

MGF requires that different Orlanthi clans do things differently. But all will take secret murder seriously. Some will have the family leading the investigation. Others will have dedicated people who do it, probably outsider types to avoid lynchings, too quick resolutions and an incomplete or wrong finding that would hurt the clan even more. That allows you to have a Duck Humakti hardboiled PI, a Lhankor Mhy Holmes analogue, and yes, the respected and neutral Gorites bringing the Fear of the Goddess to the oathbreakers.

Does that mean that Telmori within the Glowline are always in wolf form? I doubt it, but that would give Argrath an excellent way to spread terror in Tarsh while weakening the Telmori. I prefer it if in Glorantha werewolves, or other werecreatures are not linked to any Moon, but their own beast rune. However, out of respect for Nick, I have a suggestion. The Telmori source of power was Nysalor, who is now part of the Moon as Rashorana. So Telmori used to take wolf form in Wildday night. After the Red Moon rose in the sky, they became wolves also during the Full Red Moon. Horrified at becoming mindless twice a week, most of the Cursed ones drifted through Glorantha and settled in one of the few areas where the two days are the same, to turn only once a week.

As mentioned in the Bless Pregnancy thread, I was unhappy with the wyter rules, but I had not articulated it. But I think I have a workable system that although it makes wyters more powerful and active than in the rules, it also fits with the sources and the setting. As I am working a lot with sorcery users, I have also added some flavor for wyters in sorcerous areas. That also means the wyter “manager” may not be a runepriest or runelord, especially in areas with less cultic emphasis, so I call it “wyter link” rather than High Priest. The idea is to have abandoned or lost wyters that persist after the loss of their community, and that can be relinked and reinstated by recreating the community. It is also intended to make old communities, whether it is a military regiment or a village that has persisted for a thousand years, stronger that new ones, to highlight the strong tendency to recreate an old community rather than make a new one, because if you can access the old wyter it will be much stronger than a brand new wyter. Wyters are community spirits. As such they are linked to people and not to a place, even if it may well reside in a location and not have moved in centuries. That separates them from Spirit loci. If the people move, they can take the wyter with them. However, the wyter can survive without people with their own stats. Finding an orphan wyter and linking to it is usually preferrable to making up a new wyter. Wyters over the fourth level in the table (1000-3000 people) are functionally demigods and reside in the hero plane most of the time. That makes them very powerful but distant, requiring specific contact and manifesting usually only in Holy Days and major celebrations. They are not normally available as discorporate spirits, except when ordered by the wyter link. That distance makes many people support their local quarter or clan wyter rather than the whole city or tribe wyter. Initial POW, INT and CHA depend on the source of the spirit that becomes the wyter. If one person, it is their stats what form the basis of it. If a sacrifice or a cult spirit, that is the starting point. CHA increases by 2 pts each increase in size and decreases by 2 each decrease. It can also increase and decrease by fame and events, like a character. A wyter can act with its own initiative independent of its wyter link, if aware of a need, but that usually requires the wyter to be physically present. People who are part of a wyter’s community may ask for its intercession by rolling a POW roll in a percentile, but without actual POW loss. Special circumstances (proximity to the housing object, importance of the person to the wyter or their link) may increase the chance by x2 or x3. Maximum POW is the same as in the rules, but the wyter, if it has a cultic allegiance, can sacrifice Permanent POW to get RP, though they only refresh RP once a year, in their own holy day. It can also use matrixes embedded on their physical form, and it can learn and use sorcery and spirit magic, within the limits of its INT. It can also spend POW to enchant its holding object or animal, but it cannot enchant other objects or people. Sorcerous wyters usually spend their POW to empower matrixes with the spells they know. As usual maximum RP are linked to CHA. Some wyters may even get shamanic powers, but they never can grow a fetch. The linked person may not have an ally spirit or a fetch, as the wyter takes that same spiritual space. They communicate in the same way, and they can use any spell known by each other, and share RPs and MPs. In addition to its personal power, the wyter also has a Community POW pool, with a maximum value the same as the table, and used in the same way as described in the rules. The wyter only can use the Community pool as directed by the linked person, never on its own initiative. The special multicast effect can only used on spells cast using the community pool, not by using the wyter’s RP. A sorcerous wyter can also use its community pool to increase the targets of a sorcerous spell, with the same ratio, 1 POW every five targets. The Community pool is during the wyter’s holy day, depending on the wyter, and must be refilled afterwards. The wyters gain personal POW by POW gain rolls. They get a 5% chance every high holy day, and each five POW or fraction of POW sacrificed over the maximum by the community. Wyters also receive MPs in community celebrations and events, and can hold the excess MPs, up to double its POW, for one week, and higher amounts for one day. They can only receive POW during the wyter’s holy day or in a special ceremony officiated by the wyter link and the donors. Without a link a wyter cannot receive or use Community POW, but it can still act with its own abilities, limited by its own perception and mobility. Many wyters, especially old ones, have their holy day in the Sacred Time, because they have forgotten or lost any memory of the past. The remaining Community Pool will be used up in strengthening the community in some way, but also may go to the general Sacred Time ceremonies.

As a special spell, I would expect that in most cases only priestesses know the spell. Or the wyter. Sacrifice to the wyter and the wyter casts it on you or your family member. If using the current rules, get all the pregnant women together one season and bless all in one go. Make a party and celebrate, while you are at it. I am refining my own ideas about wyters to present as house rules.

If I understand the question, it is more about the ratio between sorcery using LM Sages, and spirit magic using sages. I normally restrict sorcerer sages to large temples, while small ones normally cannot afford having someone more specialized in knowledge gathering and emotion control, and do not have good enough teachers for sorcery anyway, as they must be focused in lawspeaking. Though you may always put a sorcerer in a small temple if needed, sent by arcane reasons, losing an internal debate or just disagreements on spirit taxonomy with the High Sage. The true paradise will be Nochet and other major ports, as there you can devote years just to master some magics, and probably learn other sorceries. But in most places you have a large temple of Lhankor Mhy you will have a specialized sorcery school. In Henotheist Safelster you may well have side by side a pure sorcery temple, teaching other sorceries besides the LM Grimoire, with a Lankstian lawspeaker school that just does not bother with sorcery as anyone interested will just go to the other one. Lhankor Mhy structure will be absorbed by the Zzabur caste in areas where castes are rigid.

My own take is that many people would prefer to sacrifice their extra POW to the local wyter than go through the whole rune magic acquisition, sacrifice, time at the temple, and having the priests and the gods take notice of you, unless they are already considering a rune career. That is one of the things that make the PCs and Priest NPCs quite extraordinary. I consider the Wyter rules as they are, with all spells costing POW, do not represent in a workable way community magic, as it is clearly better for the community to go for reuseable RP. However, it shows what I feel is the right direction, if there is a certain recovery, or return, or potential bigger effects than are possible with spells. The magic of the community, available in an emergency to most, but mainly controlled by the community leaders, and flexible enough to do different things, but if you use it for one thinh, like a cattle raid, it will not be available for other, such as pregnancies. IMG I have wyters possess a community pool, which works as described, from POW given freely by the people, but a certain percentile, dependng on the size of the covered area and the number of people, goes to the wyter itself, making it inherently more powerful, and it can sacrifice that permanent POW for conventional magic as well. That way a wyter, even of an abandoned site, can use magic without suiciding itself, but in a living area it also has access to the big community repository. Alternately I also consider that there may well be a MP - POW conversion, so in a community event that all pitch in, the clan may end up giving 3000 MP to the wyter, and that is enough to add 3 POW to the community pool, even if nobody sacrificed POW, only MP. It is like donating blood. You donate regularly, and hope that when you need it there will be blood for you as well.