Qizilbashwoman

unlike the Druze, however, they do accept converts!

i.e. 𒀭 (dingir)

ponies, not lions. yelmalihippones

this is just NFT thinking for nerds instead of incels

lmao as a child of the 80s I now think of them angrily smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee

los yelmitos y los yelmaliones

yeast is Darkness rune

well, and also: why do we have sacred ball events on such and such days? (Why is the Superbowl on the second Sunday in February?) the answer is sometimes the same as "what determined the width of the booster rockets on NASA shuttles?" Because that's the size that fit through the train tunnels that shipped them to Canaveral. What determined that size? The standard railroad width. What determined that? The average carriage width in colonial Britain. What determined that? The road ruts in Britain. What determined that? The Roman roadbuilders. Where did they get that width? The standardised size of ruts and roads in the Roman Empire. What determined that? The width of the war chariots of Rome that became the norm. What determined that? The size of farmers' wagon-widths in early Rome. The size of the booster rockets that sent NASA into space is determined by the common size of produce wagons in Rome 2500 years ago. If you ask someone when Easter is, it's the first full moon after the vernal equinox. If you want to know why, you're about to eventually learn a lot about the Babylonian standard calendar and how it is based on the zodiac signs of a very ancient reckoning (the dates didn't even match in Babylon thanks to the procession of the equinoxes!)

god save me from football

I want to start by saying: I think we need to remember that we should provide for a wide acceptance of physical sex markers separate from gender. The question is: how do they relate? Well, differently in Esrolia than in Orlanthi society, and traditional Pelorians have a different ideal than either of those, and the Zzaburi? No idea, sir. One thing to note about matrifocal/gynofocal societies is that they aren't inverted patriarchy. They're quite different in structure. The center of community is based on birth. Women and their politics are central to communities, which are typically organised into large housing structures for women. Men live with their birth families, and while they may have important ritual roles in some societies, like the devoutly Muslim Minangkabau, they are sidelined in governance and society. Marriage is often not established; the Mosuo, for example, have basically sleeping chambers at the periphery of the big houses where women can meet their lovers at night; men arrive and leave in secrecy only at night, no matter how long the relationship has existed, and have no contact or relationship with any children that might be theirs. Instead, a woman's brother[s] are the "fathers" from the time of birth on. Men are expected to face outward; they travel outside the community to earn status and money, to prosecute raids or wars (which are declared by women, who rule, but appoint males as war leaders), and engage in trade routes. (The Prophet Muhammad was hired in his youth by Khadijah bint Khuwaylid to run her company's trade routes into Syria Palaestina; an example from a non-matriarchal society of this exact process. She later proposed marriage based on his acumen and skill and provided shelter for him when he received revelation and began preaching much later on.) If you want to look at some systems, Judaism theorises as six-sex system. It has two well-established gender roles, male and female, but classifies people under six sexes, and these adhere to the gender roles as appropriate. The sexes are zakhar "male" ("outie", i.e. has a ßenis), nqeva female ("sheath", i.e. vagina), androginos (a Greek loanword that indicates someone that is neither male nor female), tumtum (a person who is indeterminate; they may have male appearance or female appearance, like a genderfluid person but for sexual appearance), aylonith ("little ram"; apparently female, but does not undergo female puberty; google güevedoces for an example of how a kind of aylonith exists in the Latin society of the Dominican Republic, because it is a real thing), and saris (apparently male, but does not undergo male puberty, either naturally or because of eunuch status. This is a loanword from Akkadian sha rish, "one who leads", and meant a eunuch in that language). These sexes have been theorised by the rabbis to establish how they fit into the very established two-gender system of Judaism, which places great importance on circumcision of males and nidda or "family purity rules" that apply to people who menstruate. We need to think about how this might affect a strongly matriarchal society like Esrolia, where there is definitely a strong focus on uterine family and gynofocality like we see in the Mosuo/Iroquians/Minangkabau. I also think it is interesting to this about how sex roles might be reproduced in a six-gender system based on the Elemental Runes. I can see different ways that cults of the Gorites would accept a wide array of, say, Jewish-style sexes as appropriate to the role: sure, nqevoth are "women", but tell me there aren't people who masculinise their bodies by resculpting their breasts magically (or not, I guess), or sarisim, who might have been thought "male" but are now not. Most Fire cults tend the opposite, accepting only "men", although I'd bet the Weeders and their "dirty" volcano lord accept anyone. Air cults might not care. Water definitely doesn't care!

i mean, they get to eat a free meal and then someone just gives birth to a new troll, win-win

as a trans woman, I'd just like to point out that a desire for bodily change is varied in every community; binary trans people don't all want physical changes and nonbinary or gender-fluid folks can and do engage in body modification. My ex is nonbinary and their desire to not fall onto the gender binary is not the same as their body dysphoria, which they chose to treat in a manner almost identical to my own (hormones, some surgery). Neither of us represents any kind of standard in our communities, though. I know trans people who only wish to present as male or female, not to alter their bodies per se, or not to alter them significantly. My point is that gender is complex and some people have strong feelings about their bodies not congruent with how the larger society understands gender to work. I wouldn't suggest Gloranthan humans are any different. Maybe Helerings can choose to learn a spell that shifts them to another form, letting them woo an Ernaldan one season and get bred another. (Sorry, that's just my youth speech there.) Don't ask me about other races; in my Glorantha, Trolls are so strongly "matriarchal" because anyone can give birth, it's about status and power. Trolls either change reproductive organs like some species do in the real world or they don't have reproductive rolls like we do. The "matriarchs" are older, powerful Trolls, which males are small and young. Male gods like Zorak Zoran represent young males seeking glory and power; once they become female, everything changes for them. This is why Argan Argar is so "surface": he's actually male, and so was the Only Old One, even though they are old and powerful. Exposure to Gbaji stripped this from affected Trolls. What makes Trollkin creepy is that they have non-Darkness bodies. And Argan Argar is their patron: he's kind of a pervert to Mistress Race Trolls, insofar as that word means "a society finds a gender and sexual role distasteful or offensive". Also he wears sunglasses and a parasol. How can I be homophobic? My bitch is gay.

so there aren't any more Helering people? Works for me I guess. I thought they were present in some tribes along rivers, but if that's changed I'm okay with it

As always, nothing is clean in Glorantha: Most Helerings are actually ethnic minorities in Orlanthi land. They are "blue people" (Orlanthis can dye their skin, but Helerings are actually blue). They are descended from Water people who entered Kerofinela ages ago and they worship Heler. They live in their own communities on the rivers and they function as their own group of fishers and boaters. The name Helering is confusing for this reason, because it means both "you worship Orlanth" and "you are a separate sub-society of mostly Orlanthi-affiliated peoples descended from Merpeople who invaded the land, and also most of you worship Heler".

air isn't "manly"! Air is the model of Orlanth, Vinga and of the other Air gods; Kero Fin has Air and Earth aspects. Your rune is the single largest signifier of your identity in Orlanthi society, and it aligns with important social roles. Air is bold, inspired, larger than life, heroic. It is the heights of the Middle Sky, the breath of life, and vigor. It is also reckless, risk-taking, and quick to anger. It is also excess, manic energy, and ego. Valind and Vadrus are also Air. In Orlanthi society, Air is thought of as being mostly associated with people we'd call men, but that doesn't mean it is manly. It does mean you have more in common with other Air rune people. These also put you close to Air's rival, Moon, which has some of the same aspects! This is again why we must be careful to evaluate a culture's own self-representations; male and female here are our genders.