John Biles

A copy of the Abiding Book signed by one of the witnesses of its creation. A trial transcript from the trial of a rampaging Trickster put on trial by a God-Learner tribunal. The list of his crimes ends with 'And one Motion Rune violation'. An official Dwarven War Report of one of the seasons of the war on Zistor. A massive folio of diagrams related to Zistor and the Machine City The travel journal of a team of healers who seemed to always end up solving mysteries more than healing. A formula for synthetic blood developed by a God-Learner. Intended to 'help keep Vampires under control'. A small statuette of Hrestol dressed as an apothecary. A diorama with a collection of gods from various cultures, assembled to bless the wedding of Ernalda and Monster Man. (Someone with the right knowledge can tell each god is actually symbolic of a chemical or substance and this is enchanted to aid in various kinds of chemical synthesis. It just was left this way by the last user.) A crystal sphere the size of a fist; if you gaze into it, you see a beautiful city shaped like the law rune, seen from high above. (This is a representation of Solace. As imagined by its creator.) A bowl of water in which a stone turtle floats; careful study shows that the parts of its spikey shell which rise above the water depicts the land masses of second age Glorantha. This shows the world as understood by one of the cultures of the East Iislands. A small bowl which fits comfortably in the palm of your hand; spend 1 MP and it comes to life, burning with fuel-less flame which looks oddly like the Flame of Sartar... if that flame was lit, anyway. A 10 gallon glass cylinder without a lid, with a thick layer of some old powder on the sides. The skin of a dragonnewt, encased in a translucent green fluid inside a sealed glass container. (The dragonnewt in question is stuck awaiting rebirth until someone releases his skin from the fluid. Dragonewts literally cannot perceive the container.) An enchanted lens which doesn't seem to do anything. (It reveals invisible runes, a common trick in the second age and largely abandoned ever since. But given the lab's origins, *something* should have invisible runes.) Once potent but now just old goo containers of magical ink turned into goo by the passage of time. A glass container holding two pints of a silvery metallic powder which is not actually silver ((It's chromium!)

This suggestion is based on how lizard skin is processed into lizard leather. First, you salt the skin to preserve it. Once you're ready to go to work, you bathe it to get the salt off. Then you soak it in lime (not lime juice, but the stuff made from marble) - this removes scales, nails, mucins, natural greases, and fats. It also splits the fibers so the collage in the skin can be worked. But then you have to delime the skin because if left on too long, you get goo. Citric or Acetic Acid are ideal. Then you pickle the skin to make it even more acidic so your tanning agents will work. The next step is to get a special tub which won't be destroyed by the special dwarven chemicals you need which convert it from organic skin to in-organic leather. You then shave the leather to degrease it and make it an even thickness. You then get a clay pot and soak the leather in a special bath using hard to get water and elven herbs to make it supple instead of stiff. Then you hang it to dry and carefully clean it. Then you can dye it and it's ready to turn into armor.

To quote Discworld (Carpe Jugulum): A discussion between the witch Granny Weatherwax and Omnian missionary Mightily-Praiseworthy-Are-Ye-Who-Exalteth-Om Oats. “And that’s what your holy men discuss, is it?” “Not usually. There is a very interesting debate raging at the moment about the nature of sin, for example.” “And what do they think? Against it, are they?” “It’s not as simple as that. It’s not a black and white issue. There are so many shades of grey.” “Nope.” “Pardon?” “There’s no greys, only white that’s got grubby. I’m surprised you don’t know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That’s what sin is.” “It’s a lot more complicated than that—” “No. It ain’t. When people say things are a lot more complicated than that, they means they’re getting worried that they won’t like the truth. People as things, that’s where it starts.” “Oh, I’m sure there are worse crimes—” “But they starts with thinking about people as things.” Treating others as objects to get what you want is the fundamental sin of the occulted (the illuminated who go to the dark side as you put it). Illumination tells you that the distinctions on which you base your world view don't exist, they're all made up and arbitrary. Ideally, this means you have compassion for others, because you and they are one, in the end. But the occulted take it as 'I can do anything I want and everyone else exists for my gain; I need have no regard for what they want; laws and limits do not exist'. This is sometimes combined with 'I have gone extremely bonkers due to mystical insight and I now have a really insane plan', but not always. The EWF's leaders were pretty high on their own supply, while Arkat and Argath just didn't care about anything except revenge. Because here's the thing - illumination removes all fear and protects you from supernatural punishment for breaking the law. But it does nothing to get rid of your passions. And those, now unchained, can easily lead you to become a force of destruction that Chaos can only dream of matching, most of the time. It can also lead you to thinking you can monkey with Chaos and it will be just fine. This is like trying to build things run by nuclear power when you don't fear radiation. Failing to recognize that illumination won't actually get rid of your dark qualities is why Sheng Seleris happened.

Arkat's war on Nysalor/Gbaji started because Nysalor's followers were spreading diseases and then 'curing' them to win people over to their cult. This act of deceit is where the name Gbaji (deciever) came from. The effort to stop them ended in disaster, but he survived and losing his Brithini allies just made him madder. And each step caused him to more and more flush any ideals he had down the toilet in the quest for enough power to finally destroy Nysalor. Accompanied by anyone he did have any affection for dying in the process. Only when Nysalor was dead and he'd basically trashed everything save Kralorela did he finally look at the wasteland he'd made (and called peace) and tried to do better - I'm pretty sure the main goal of the Arkat cult is to ensure no more Arkats. Or at least, that's what he hoped, but by now, there's a bunch of factions and most of them are bonkers in their own way. The interesting thing about Arkat is that he shows how the quest for revenge makes you into a monster and lays waste to the world. He started out with understandable righteous anger at what the cult of Nysalor was pulling and in the end, he became the perfect soldier caste person - a killing machine shorn of all pity, hesitation, or guilt. Too late, he came to regret that. And then he tried to close the door behind him with his cult, but he failed. Arkat collected the tools to make the perfect vengeful madman, and then Argath repeated his sins for similar reasons. But did even more damage.

I can rob Chaos and it won't be a crime.

Mostali live to fix the World Machine and the Brrithini live in order to live more.

When you gaze into the Abyss...

Weirdly, there's a link to it on the Pelgrane site... but it doesn't work. Anyway, I have it!

Storm Bull wouldn't understand systematic oppression if you told him for a thousand years. If you can't fix it by direct, personal violence, he's not interested.

The obvious origin of the potato to me is that it was *grown on the Spike*. Plenty of sunlight and high elevations. (I also can't help but imagine there are wild potatoes in Prax but no one realizes because only the green leafy bit is obvious and gets eaten by herdbeasts.)

If they have balloons, the Red Moon was obviously a huge red hot air balloon / zeppelin. But this gives me another thought - we now think Earth's Moon is the result of Proto-Earth being hit by a Mars-sized planet called Theya which then fused and then spat out chunks which coalesced into the White Moon. So obviously the birth of the White Moon in Glorantha is the fruit of the Red Moon hitting Peloria, and then parts of it bouncing up and fusing into the White Moon of the Fourth Age. Sure, this kills everyone in Peloria, but no one likes them anyway.

I'm sure that mental contact with the lunatics who control the Crimson Bat is both easy and safe.

The official position of the last 10 years seems to be that Ompalam *is* chaotic.

You left out how the dwarves are eaten by undead when they try to do this and how the water mysteriously refuses to flow into the canal.

Since Europeans didn't originally live in America and flee it due to a bloody apocalypse, it doesn't really come off similar to me.

Why would Babeester Gor, who is focused on stacking corpses, teach the Food Song?

So why didn't Ompalam die with the other gods?

What happens when Orlanth and Ernalda die due to the Lunars shows this is wrong - cut off from the divine magics of Orlanth and Ernalda, starvation and death ensue; society totters on the verge of collapse. If Argath does end up killing the gods, then the Fourth Age will start with another hideous Glorantha apocalypse even if the destruction of the Red Moon doesn't basically obliterate Peloria. The current edition of Runequest tells us: A central theme of Glorantha is the relationship between mortals and the gods, between the mythical and Mundane Worlds. Gloranthan religion and magic are basic to existence, and accepted by everyone. The gods are acknowledged, experienced, and exert powerful influence upon the world. The most prevalent religious practice in Glorantha is polytheism (Page 7) In Glorantha, magic plays a decisive, even primary, role in warfare (Page 8 ) Despite its similarities with the Bronze Age, Glorantha is very much a magical and fantastic world. (Page 11) Magic isn't gravy and showing off. Intertwined with religion and philosophy, it's part of life all the time. That being said, arguing from the Runequest rules does have the problem that it's mainly oriented around the adventuring life. Which is even more blatantly magical than normal life. Yeah, exactly. Given you don't actually roll until harvest time, given how the rules for it work, it seems to me like you could apply it at any point, within the rules of the game.

Trolls left the Underworld when Yelm burned his way through Wonderland. A place no doubt home to dead fire spirits, still burning things and looking for Troll souls to burn. Now if you know how to find the escape routes, and can fight or dodge the spirits, and you can dodge or eat everything else in the underworld that wants a piece of you before you get to the ruins of Wonderhome... then sure. Of course, some of those old escape routes are clogged and others got repaired by Dwarves and some are now flooded, etc etc.

It is well known that Godunya is not a dragon, he is a giant chicken. Well known outside Krlaorela, whose survival depends on continuing to be fooled.

Infinity + Fertility = Uleria. This is used to tap Uleria's power, mostly for reproduction. Not that Dwarves want to talk about it, but it's worn by Dwarves doing that duty and increases the chances of getting a better breed of dwarf out of it.

The infamous Goddess Switch of the God-Learners revolved around goddesses in different lands of different grains; I have the impression every grain has its own goddess.

As the goddess of the crops, she seems pretty strongly linked to time to me, and she functions as a midwife among other things for everything else, so...

Ernalda dies after Orlanth goes on the Lightbringer Quest, then is alive again by the time he returns.

Satyrs are more or less a nature spirit in mythology, exist in Glorantha, and are male.