dumuzid

Other useful examples might be other Disorderly gods. Shargash and Zorak Zoran are both Disorderly, and serve fairly similar roles in their pantheons. They're about death and destruction as much for its own sake as any other reason, and left unchecked they tend to create places no one sane wants to live. When they're kept in check by the community though, as when Shargash was still firmly on Yelm's leash as the Solar Empire's chief enforcer, the destruction they take such joy in can be turned to at least mostly productive ends.

That opens the question of what theistic cults a Dehore shaman would be likely to join, since afaik Dehore is not usually worshipped himself except as a spirit cult. I'd say the best god-cult for a Dehore shaman would be the god of whatever kind of darkness they tend to draw their spirit allies from: Argan Argar for Dehore shamans who deal primarily with surface darkness, Subere for those who specialize in dealing with the things of deep, perfect darkness.

There's two basic forms of troll shamanism. Korasting tradition focuses on ancestor worship and is analogous to the Daka Fal tradition among humans (Daka Fal is acknowledged among trolls as their common ancestor with humans and the other races, but Korasting is a more immediate ancestor-guide for trolls, being something like Kyger Litor's fetch). Dehore tradition focuses on interacting with Darkness spirits, including elementals, which may be troll ancestors but are not always so, and would be analogous to Kolati shamanic tradition in Orlanthi society. A male troll shaman might be more inclined towards Dehori practice; or rather, a male troll with shamanic inclinations will probably be directed towards a Dehore teacher by their clan queen, since the KL/Korasting shaman-priestess track is usually reserved for females.

The giant crabs in the RQ Bestiary are just animals, though big tough ones. sometimes animals just happen to be sentient in Glorantha though, or the Waertagi might magically bind a spirit to a crab to control the creature and give it its own magic. trained battle crabs, wild giant crabs martialed by appropriate Summon (Entity) magic, there's a lot of ways they could've put together crab sorties on land. According to the Bestiary, Giant Crabs will range inland a few kilometers most seasons; stories of waertagi 'using' the crabs may just be locals attributing unfortunate crab scuffles to Waertagi interference, or the Waertagi may simply take advantage of opportunities created by crab bellicosity and get blamed for the inciting incident. Any of these, and many more possibilities, could be the truth.

Unless they've got Darksee or equivalent magic the first Kimantoring response team up against that berserker can take most of the Sword Trance bonus away just by having their Argan Argari shroud the offender in a nice deep Create Shadow. Then an Orlanth initiate with Darksee (or Darksense) can crack em with a Thunderbolt, and a Gorian can step in to chop up what's left. e: or ex-Kimantoring House Guards after the Esrolian Civil War, but the same spread of magic and war cults applies

So, I said my next big post would be about a Unity Battle staged in-game, and that's true, but before that I have I another thing. Events in that game, and a post on these boards pointing out that the Black Horses of Black Horse County are technically just a kind of embodied Underworld spirit, gave my an idea. Introducing a friend to Six Ages recently also played a role. For whoever's perusal, I present: "Horses for Uz, an Argan Argar myth of the Storm Age" horses for uz.pdf

That's not the True Arkat, it's lacking Black Arkat:

if anything, that makes it more impressive.

Not exactly the same thing, but can ancestor ghosts worship in the same way as mortals? The ancestor ghosts shamans and Daka Fal initiates (and Daka Fal shamans etc) summon have RP and rune spells, after all. Does an Orlanthi stead with a sufficiently potent Daka Fal tradition usually have a few immaterial ancestors openly participating in ceremonies?

On that note, Malkioni societies have saints, do they also have Saint's Days? And would, say, an orthodox Rokarist army observe such Saint's Days in the field? Their sorcerers might be able to make observing days of nonviolence in the midst of war both practical and effective.

I think the simplest answer to this is that what KoDP and Six Ages call Clan Magic is an average of clan members' available POW and RP for the season: RP for blessings, defense, and power in the otherworlds; POW to feed the clan wyter for miracles and sacrifice for new rune magic.

The wyter will have INT 14, and probably the Spirit, Darkness and Harmony runes. I'm lobbying for it to have the Resurrect rune spell, based on both the thematic appropriateness of the spell and posts here, but I don't have the final say on that. At this point I'm really hoping to use the wyter as a deliberately spidery guardian for the community. I want it to bind the community together with its web, detect and snare enemies, and metabolize them into new resources and guardians for the community. Spirit magic to find and trap, spirit combat in conjunction with my character and other members of the community to overcome foes, then binding magic to weave defeated entities into the community's power structure. When the game resumes it should be the evening of the wyter's first High Holy Day, and I'm hoping to squeeze a lot of juice out of that.

that's a good question. on the one hand real-world humans have wielded pikes 3x+ their own height in great numbers; on the other hand, those are pikes, not solid swords. you're talking about the equivalent of 3m long sword in the hands of a 2m tall human, and that would be...I dunno, Sephiroth's sword?

How does Wyter POW regeneration work? Is it really 1 for 1, i.e. after casting the 10-point Resurrection, if ten people from the community each give a POW the wyter's topped back up? I'm gonna have to work out some Argan Argari 'if you offer POW to the town wyter, you're owed however much RP worth of magic from the community's initiates and priests' Equal Exchange scheme. And a side question: wyters function as allied spirits in most respects. Most characters can have only one allied spirit at a time. Does being a wyter's priest fill that spiritual 'slot' for a character, preventing them from gaining a conventional allied spirit under most circumstances?

the best part of playing a cultist of one of the husband-protectors is piggybacking on all those Ernaldan holy days.

I've definitely seen that phrasing before, too, though I've never read Cults of Prax. Fair enough. Certainly wouldn't be the first time the great matrons in Dagori Inkarth commanded one thing, while trolls living elsewhere went and did another and Jalkaleel, as a darkness matron herself, makes perfect sense as a Seven Mother who'd attract trolls. Well, thank you! He sounds like a fine troll, though one wonders what happened to turn him against the school at Molorios so.

This is an important question. The wyter was brought into its current position and state by two connected magical acts: 1) the successful staging of a Unity Battle that included humans from several cults and societies, dark trolls and trollkin, centaurs and minotaurs, and Flamal elves, and 2) a ritual conducted by a genuine Seshnelan sorcerer among all the participants in the battle who wanted to continue working together and found a settlement. The sorcerer framed what he intended as a gift to those assembled, but didn't explain in advance. He asked a speaker from each contingent to name themselves and voice what they wanted from the ceremony. Once everyone had spoken, his sorcery summoned the spirit into the center of the new community's site. Either the sorcerer or the spirit called for something to house it in, and when others hesitated my character offered the bronze lance he used in the Unity Battle. That is when the wyter-priest connection formed, and the last thing to happen in-game. Both in and out of character, I don't know for certain whether the spirit came into being at that moment, or whether it was an older being called to a time and place that suited it. The settlement site is very old, with several layers of previous habitation; the spirit could be a long-time resident, a composite of previous community guardians, something entirely new, or a mix of several such answers. The exact nature of the wyter's magic is still very much under development. Right now its only fully defined characteristics are the POW and CHA. All the wyters in the Bestiary have CHA, INT, POW, magic points, rune points, and 80+% ratings in at least one rune. 2/3rds of them have their own spirit and rune magic in addition to whatever their priests have; as you say later in your post, the Field School wyter doesn't have its own spread of magic, and can only cast rune spells its priest knows by spending permanent POW (though it does have rune points its priest can spend...), but can cast Madness with MP if its priest knows that spell. I'm not the only one with input on this process, but I expect its final runes and magic to express the diverse powers the community's weird array of contributors brings. As I write this, one obvious community heroquest that occurs to me would be seasonal and/or sacred time ceremonies to incorporate new cults and cultures into the community, and unlock their magical contribution to the wyter in the process. MP regeneration is definitely an issue, but I think we have a built-in counter to in the nature of the wyter's community. The contributors to the spell that created the wyter (and the Loyalty passion that underlies it) included cultists of Argan Argar, Ernalda, Maran Gor, Flamal, Arachne Solara, and Storm Bull. The cults of the first two in the new community will be run by player characters, and wyters can be incorporated into the seasonal festivals of their community's gods. I don't have the numbers at hand to do the math on it, but if every cult of the community incorporates the wyter into their seasonal rites it's likely to be brimming with MP. Its own holy day is Godday, Harmony Week of each season. There's two powers independent of rune and spirit magic I'd definitely like to see in the wyter: Communication and Shape-change. This community was founded on a Unity Battle, and one of my favorite elements of the Unity Battle myth is how Only Old One appeared to each group that contributed to the Unity Army as one of their own: always huge, dark and lordly, but as a human among humans, a dragonewt among dragonewts, etc. I'd like for the wyter to be able to inhabit its priest and give them the ability to take the form, and use the language, of each society that's contributed to the new community. Given its probably strong connections to Earth and Darkness it'd make sense for it to be able to form a body of its own from some mixture of those elements. A bite attack makes sense for a spirit with both serpent and spider characteristics. Finally, to get into this will require discussing some Smoking Ruin spoilers; any disinclined to see those, please avert your gaze:

Hachrat Blowhard? I see he's mentioned in the Guide as having destroyed an EWF library in the 10th century, around the same time Alakoring slew the Diamond Storm Dragon, but that single line of description seems to be the only mention of him in either volume. Do you know where a more detailed version can be found? And worshipers of the Red Moon? I had heard of Blue Moon trolls, and their partnership with the Lunar Empire, but not of trolls following the Red Moon directly. Makes sense though. Trolls can only see red, black, white, and shades of grey; the red-to-black moon would stand out to them. Well, I'd figure the trolls of Ralios worship Arkat as Arkat Kingtroll, a bit of an edge case. As for the Shadowlanders, yeah, I'd forgotten when I wrote the op, but History of the Heortling Peoples describes the trolls of the Shadow Plateau as worshiping Argan Argar and Esrola.

Almost anybody who knows about Glorantha knows about the ducks. They're adorable, they're ferocious. Don't mess with the ducks. Part of what makes them so charismatic is the ducks' sharing in their human neighbors' religion, more or less. There are duck worshippers of Orlanth, Humakt, Issaries, Ernalda etc. This is a rarity though, and the ducks are a special case, religiously speaking. Most of the sapient non-human species inclined towards theism have their own pantheons, the troll and elf pantheons being the most obvious examples. Some non-human cults are known to have human versions--humans worshiping Argar Argan while trolls worship Argan Argar, for example, or humans joining Flamal cults, or joint human and elf communities worshiping Yelmalio. Arkat is of course the outstanding example of humans initiating into non-human cults, going so far as to become a troll by adoption and metamorphosis before the end of his war with Gbaji. What I have not heard or read much of, outside of the case of the ducks, is non-humans initiating into human cults. I haven't heard of elves who joined Ernalda or Esrola's cults, or trolls who worship Orlanth (though I have heard of troll smiths who worship Lodril). Are there any general principles involved when a non-human seeks to initiate into one of a human community's religious groups? The act of initiation presumes a strong level of acceptance for the non-human; are there any known tests or caveats, beyond what's usually done, that the temple or cult testers would impose on a particularly exotic potential adherent?

Like the exact opposition faced on a heroquest sometimes differing from the 'traditional' encounter? Interesting.

Well, Zistor was sufficiently Chaotic that Only Old One called a successful Unity Battle against it, as was done against Gbaji in at the end of the First Age. Can't speak for the rest though.

So, without getting into the details of the campaign I'm in, my character just became the priest of a newly founded community's wyter. It's a weird community, and the resulting spirit is a bit odd as well (it's a huge spider with legs that become serpents' tails, bound to a bronze spear). My GM and I haven't worked out all its mechanics, but he rolled a POW of 28 and CHA 11 while generating it. My character gives it access to a spread of Darkness and Harmony magic, Rune and spirit; it will also have some more as-yet-undefined spirit powers. I've played a fully initiated shaman in RQ:G, but the relationship between a wyter and its priest seems a little different. This thing is a lot bigger than anything my shaman character directly bound, for one thing. Any advice on what skills my character should look into to get the most out of their new friend? Or thoughts on potential applications for the wyter out in the world? The Bestiary mentions going on heroquests to establish wyters for a particular community, and going on further quests with them to empower the spirits further; my character has ready magical access to the Gods realm and is a lay member of the House of Black Arkat, so precision questing to enrich the wyter is definitely on the table. The first Sacred Time after the community's founding is within a few in-game weeks too, so suggestions of anything jazzy that could be done with or for the wyter during those rites would be greatly appreciated.

Years ago I played in a FATE: Glorantha game about Manirian refugees settling a new home after the Reforesting begins, which involved befriending some giants during a high mountain crossing. The group eventually turned in that favor to bring the giants in to build a magical city for the refugees to settle in at the end of the campaign. The nice thing about giants is they can get up and do things without completely reshaping the countryside, like a true dragon would.

Re: keeping a ship afloat, most merfolk are air breathers who can spend long stretches underwater, including the more piscine malasp merfolk. the malasp specifically are described as having magically maintained 'bubble-nests' beneath the sea. merfolk probably have all sorts of techniques, magical and otherwise, for making something water-tight, and for shepherding water around. merfolk who'd holed a ship and gotten the surrender of its crew could probably command what water the vessel had already taken on to rush out with magic, then seal the holes. then it'd just be a matter of towing the human ship to wherever the merfolk expect a ransom from.

There is this evidence that Desdel had children: (Esrolia, p. 30) Now we could quibble over the possibility that the Desdel priestly family have just claimed the name, or the second generation of the family were adoptees of Desdel rather than blood descendants, all fair conjectures, but Esrolia is as much about mythic Esrolia as it's about Esrolia within Time, I think we can take as read that a family called after Desdel was present in re-founded Nochet in the Silver Age and probably the Dawn, though I don't know of any evidence showing how far they survived past the Dawn. I think the hereditary dedication to keeping up the Kimantor temple at Nochet speaks volumes too, because whatever Desdel's personal qualities, that mention in Esrolia is one of the only places he appears. He wasn't a Silver Age Hero, he wasn't on the Unity Council, he doesn't show up in such accounts as we have of big doings in Genertela in the Dawn Age. He was probably high priest of Ezkankekko's hero cult among humans during his lifetime, which probably made him the commander of the Kimantorings at Nochet, but...a lifetime of worshiping your demigod father, whose full legacy you were incapable of fulfilling? I mean, there's no mention anywhere of Desdel or Delagara, or any other of Norinel's children by Kimantor, exhibiting his shapeshifting or any other powerful inborn manifestation of Harmony magic. By far the most successful and powerful of Ezkankekko's children is the one he definitely adopted, Varzor Kitor. It's one thing to be a shadowlord, as the hereditary priest of Kimantor at Nochet almost certainly was, but to spend your whole life overshadowed by the legacy of your father (and, potentially, a dead sibling you never knew)? That's heavy, tragic stuff. Whoever he really was, Desdel was probably an interesting guy. As for a House Desdelaeo in Nochet, what does that appear in? I can only find Samastina's House Delaeos, in the Glorantha Sourcebook, which almost certainly takes its name from Delaeo, one of Asrelia's Six Daughters. Oh, I agree emphatically, that's why I usually preface any proposed chain of events with some variation "chronology is an illusion in the God Time." But while strict chronology isn't true in the God Time, and achronological movement is possible, there are still relationships that facilitate these paths of travel. That's the whole basis of Arkati heroquesting, finding these points of connection and using them to move contrary to the established, traditional flow of events. What I proposed is, as you say, a tradition for arranging a course of events in Greater Darkness Azek Lodarak and Nochet: specifically, it is a mythological scheme composed to incorporate the Lifebringers Quest as we have it from Heortling Mythology and the Norinel & Kimantor and Battle of Nochet myths as we have them from Esrolia in the same mythic complex. It could be performed by paired teams of questers and helpers in Kerofinela and Kethaela, or a composite group from those places (or a group resembling those themes and relationships etc.), for a variety of ends related to strengthening themselves against a mutual threat. The final scene of the heroquest would be a final meeting between the divine families: Argan Argar, Esrola, and Ezkankekko to one side; Orlanth, Ernalda, and Eurmal to the other. I'm not sure how the story ends, but there's definitely one ending where Orlanth reveals OOO's murdered son, returned from the Underworld, restored in ransom for Eurmal's violation of hospitality. There may even be a version of the quest that proves Belintar was Only Old One's son all along, come to prove his right to the throne, in a renewal of the Arthurian overtones to Argan Argar's defeat of Lodril I discussed upthread. The write-up for Ezkankekko's hero cult in Drastic Resolutions: Darkness definitely frames Belintar's conquest in terms of Ezkankekko testing him until he was certain the stranger was worthy to be his successor.