Magic in Fonrit

[Harrek]

I started the "Fonrit resources" -thread, but this set of questions is more suitable for this thread. I have collected information about the gods of Fonrit and areas nearby. I try to make a document for myself and my player about what gods/cults are available to have a more structured view of the setting. The information is too scattered to various volumes, and I needed to write down a simple document to summarize the info. 

Nothing is my invention, I collected the list from various sources.

- Are the gods in right section? If not, to which section should I remove them?

- Am I missing some gods (for sure, but which)? I try make the list as complete as possible. It is not fully canonical.

- What Fonritan names are used for the gods known also in Genertela? For example Eurmal is Bolongo.

- Who worships the these gods? For example, the 17 Glorious Ones seem to be worshipped mainly by masarins and their household.. 

- Which entity is spirit, which is god etc. Any errors?

- Other things you'd like to comment?

Where the magic comes from?

Fonrit and nearby areas

 

Common magic (earth spirits, nature spirits, city wyters, ancestors, fishing spirits etc.)

 

Great God

Ompalam, god of slavery. Kind of great god, god learner variant of Invisible God. Other gods are Ompalam's slaves, doesn't give much in return of worship (for example magic).

 

Garangordos & 17 Glorious Ones

(state supported cults, more like hero cults/guild heroes than actual gods, worshipped mainly by masarins and their household)

Garangordos, the conqueror of Fonrit

Mandakusour, The Spirit Binder of the Glorious Ones.

Aininlahay, Known as the Pure One of the Sweet Water and Grandmother Earth.

Bendaluza, the city maker.

El Jazuli, the Earth Witch, "Sister Witch"

Mouladehas, The Common Man, knows the skill of smelting, and smithing.

Echeklihos, "Sister Whore", goddess of harems, sex and prostitution.

Chouanaibos, The Falcon, god of boat building, navigation, and exploration.

Zienbeski, goddess of milling, brewing, and producing culinary masterpieces.

Abdamedric, The Great Warrior, known as the Man of the Two Swords. The main war cult.

Malubadou, god of healing and medicine.

Udayankos, god of leopard and falcon training.

Lohanasen, goddess of irrigation.

Tenoarpesas, The Golden One, the shackled sun. He reclaimed the power of slavery.

Galagorib, goddess of cutting precious stones and making jewelry.

Alakhainas, god of wool spinning and carpet weaving.

Abalibost, he learnt how the pelts and ivory of game animals could be used to make beautiful objects, which in turn created trade.

Lallamimou, goddess of perfume making.

 

17 Hero Tyrants

(other state supported cults, actual gods which give full spectrum of magic like "full" cults do. Mainly worshipped by masarins and their household, some of these gods are related to specific cities)

Darleester the Noose [Afadjann], state god of Afadjann and a weapon used by Garangordos to enslave and/or kill the veldangi.

Ikadz (Kareeshtu)

Evukindu, the Eunuch Warrior (Afadjann specifically)

Jokotu the Murderer, spirit society like Blackfang? Said to be brother of Garangordos, murdered him.

Hanjethulut -Zorak Zoran

Orjethulut - Humakt without truth/honor aspect

Burayha Xolani, the Good Doctor.

Calari the Hunter, dancing/jumping Leopard Man, manhunter cult of Jann's secret police.

Ernamola the Milletmother, local Ernalda variant associated with millet.

Ennung the Digger, digger and toiler

Fida’ls, sun bird, a bird aspect of sun god, Yelm or Yelmalio variant?

Karkisso the Seer, Fonritan knowledge god.

Kokef Ados, lord of the bazaar, Fonritan trade god.

Gark the Calm, God of eternal peace, eternal life, and undead.

Seseine, goddess of seduction and lust.

Tondiji, God of the city of Tondiji, and master of all within his walls – even other gods. Worshipped only in Tondiji.

Tentacule (Kareesthu) the High Slavery God = "the good slave"

 

Independent cults

(rebellious gods and/or gods of the independetn but also state supported pirates)

Baraku – Fonritan version of Orlanth, rebel/pirate god, mainly worshipped in Sarro

Selarn the Thief - thief god of Afadjann, aspect of Lanbril. Offers one special spell plus the normal thief cult spells.

Um-Oradin - god of piracy (not anyway canon, invented by Simon Bray. I like the idea so that's why he is included).

Dormal

 

Pamalt pantheon

(worshipped mainly by lower social classes in rural areas?)

Pamalt

Asrelia

Ernalda

Ankimdu the Farmer

Lodik – Lodril

Bolongo – Eurmal

Uleria

Varama, Doraddi sun spirit (or god?), the great fire (Oakfed + some sun magic?)

Daka Fal

Nyanka, goddess of child birth and life.

Rasout the Hunter, basic hunter cult + some own magic.

Basmol

Maran Gor

Babeester Gor

Ty Kora Tek

Farana, Pamalt's wife

Gustbran

Jmijie, the wanderer, homeless god.

Keraun, the good wind, cloud connection = Orlanth aspect?

Magasta

Mahome

Noruma, aka the Horned Man

Lamsabi, non-violent thief god of Fonrit, aka Lanbril.

Sikkanos, the bad wind, dust storm = Gagarth?

Yelm

 

The Old Gods

(worshipped by who?)

Annilla

Artmal

Bolongo

Cronisper

Dehore

Earth Witch

Lodril

Magasta

Yanmorla

Yelm

 

Wizardly orders etc.

The Invisible God in general

Siwal sisterhood– birth control magic

St. Ebbesh – hedonistic fanatics

What else?

 

Veldangi gods "The Oppressed Ones"

Tolat

Annilla (Veldara)

Hungry Goddess: Ancient goddess of Fonrit, worshiped by the blue-skins. Aranea?

Serartamal, the Blue Moon

 

Chaos cults of Pamaltela

Seseine

Gark the Calm

Sidana

Lemure

Gloomshark

Primal Chaos

Vivamort

Thed

Than ?

Atyar ?

Thanatar ?

Malia

Khrarst

Cacodemon

Ikadz

Pocharngo

 

The Hsuncen of Fonrit and nearby areas

Hsa - tiger hsunchen (Laskal, pop. 15000)

Konnos Khaite - gnuu hsunchen (Laskal, Jolar, pop. 30000)

Ngwena - crocodile hsunchen (Laskal, pop. 10000)

Olmakau - hippopotamus hsunchen (Laskla, pop. 5000)

Pujaleg - bat hsunchen (Laskal, pop. 120000)

Rachami - vulture hsunchen (Laskal, Fonrit, pop. 5000)

Tanuku - milk antelope hsunchen (Jolar, Kothar, Tarien, pop. 40000)

Te Huantal - jaguar hsunchen (Errinoru, Fonrit, pop. 25000)

Vlakvarki - warthog hsunchen(Fonrit, Laskal, pop. 25000)

 

[metcalph]

Comments:

You should really list the source by each name or at least provide a list of references.

I wouldn't say Ompalam was a God Learner variant.  He has been worshipped in Fonrit since the Storm Age.  A Vadeli variant might be more accurate.

I had serious reservations about the Fonritan material in Revealed Mythologies and portraying the Glorious Ones as a supernumerated Necklace of Pamalt, the whole thing just falls down.  For example, since when are perfume making and falcon training core parts of Fonritan civilization that requires a specialized deity to represent?

Likewise many of the names are just too long.  God's names should be snappy two or three syllable names rather than four or five syllable names than convey little more than one's commitment to linguistic verisimilitude.

Some of the material you have is simply duplicating each other.  If you are using Varama, you shouldn't also list Fidai'is as both are meant to be the Fonritan Sun God (Teneorpasas is the hero who was chosen to incarnate Solar powers, while Ehilm is another name for the Sun as per Guide p553).  Yelm (under whatever name) is not worshipped in Fonrit, only Yelmalio is.

The distinction between Gods and Spirits should be junked as it was largely a product of the Hero Wars RPG.  The Fonritans worship Gods who provide Rune Magic.  Some Gods may provide spirits instead (like Telmor or Kolat) but they are still Gods.

Why are Annilla and Serartamal listed as separate gods?

Why is the Siwal sisterhood so big on birth control magic?  Can't women aspire to something more?

 

[Harrek]

1 hour ago, metcalph said:

You should really list the source by each name or at least provide a list of references.

That's absolutely true. 

Sources:

Guide to Glorantha

The Revealed Mythologies

Enclosure #2

https://notesfrompavis.blog/2017/05/27/gloranthan-cult-one-pagers-renewed-main-page/

https://wellofdaliath.chaosium.com/home/catalogue/websites/moondesign-com/archive-of-of-old-glorantha-discussions-on-moondesign-com/magic-slaves-fonrit/

https://wellofdaliath.chaosium.com/gods-of-fonrit/

https://www.pensee.com/dunham/glorantha/fonrit/1page.html

http://www2u.biglobe.ne.jp/~BLUEMAGI/Fonrit-e.htm

https://basicroleplaying.org/topic/11524-fonrit-resources/

 

 

1 hour ago, metcalph said:

I had serious reservations about the Fonritan material in Revealed Mythologies and portraying the Glorious Ones as a supernumerated Necklace of Pamalt, the whole thing just falls down.  For example, since when are perfume making and falcon training core parts of Fonritan civilization that requires a specialized deity to represent?

There are specialized deities in other parts of Glorantha also. According to GtG, the main exported goods from Fonrit are: Cloth, Gems, Gold, Herbs, Ivory,
Metalworking, Pearls, Perfume, Shells, Slaves, Spices. Seems that perfume making is quite important to Fonrit. Not less important (from my point of view) than Minlister for Sartarites, for example.

2 hours ago, metcalph said:

Likewise many of the names are just too long.

I agree😁

 

2 hours ago, metcalph said:

Some of the material you have is simply duplicating each other.

That's true. I try to make a list for myself, where I can see which gods are worshipped in different layers of society, or in different areas in nearby lands. For example Ikadz is worshipped both by nobility of Fonrit, and by actual chaos worshippers, like broo. I try to make a list, where I can check (if the pc's meet a veldang slave for example) what are the possible cults for certain group of people.

[metcalph]

7 hours ago, Harrek said:

There are specialized deities in other parts of Glorantha also. According to GtG, the main exported goods from Fonrit are: Cloth, Gems, Gold, Herbs, Ivory,
Metalworking, Pearls, Perfume, Shells, Slaves, Spices. Seems that perfume making is quite important to Fonrit. Not less important (from my point of view) than Minlister for Sartarites, for example.

But those specialized deities are not central to their worshippers existence.  It's like saying that Minlister is one of the lightbringers.

 

[Sir_Godspeed]

As mentioned above, some of the above are just doubled up, because some of the older sources used Orlanthi names for what were obviously meant to be original Doraddi (or otherwise) deities. For example, Revealed Mythologies mentions Lodril, I believe, when it actually means Balumbasta. I gather that this was mostly a case of Greg using the established equivalent in these unfinished texts until he worked the other stuff out. 

Asrelia, Ernalda, etc. should similarly be replaced by their rough Doraddi analogies, so more or less Yanmorla and Aleshmara, respectively. 

The Doraddi and assumedly Fonritans as well, don't see the sun within Time as the same as the one that got killed during the God Time, but rather a new being, so Yelm is pretty much irrelevant to them. 

I didn't know they worshipped Yelmalio, but apparently writers love stuffing him damn everywhere, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. 

7 hours ago, metcalph said:

But those specialized deities are not central to their worshippers existence.  It's like saying that Minlister is one of the lightbringers.

 

It's likely that some of the more specialized gods are indeed only worshipped by a fairly small group (guilds, masarins, etc.), but if they are worshipped by elite prestige groups, their public image might be overinflated beyond how many worshippers they actually have. I mean, not a lot of us own Ferraris, but we all know about the brand, you know? 

We could take the analogy further and just spitball that maybe some of these niche prestige gods are the patrons of some popular festivals or holidays, (The Day of Fragrances! Cue perfumes being lavishly spent by the masarins, public cooking, dancing, music, intoxication, slaves being kept docile with bread and circus, etc.), sort of like some elite sports car manufacturers made their names through building winning race cars. Not perfect, I know, but I'm trying to keep a constructive spin on it. 

As for the names, I agree they aren't very catchy, and probably underwent a less rigorous try-out process than the classics like "Yelm" or "Orlanth", etc, but maybe if we go in with the attitude that the listed names are their full, formal titles, then whoever is RPing over in Fonrit can draw up some more common everyday monickers. 

[metcalph]

1 minute ago, Sir_Godspeed said:

It's likely that some of the more specialized gods are indeed only worshipped by a fairly small group (guilds, masarins, etc.), but if they are worshipped by elite prestige groups, their public image might be overinflated beyond how many worshippers they actually have. I mean, not a lot of us own Ferraris, but we all know about the brand, you know? 

Try as I like, I can't ever imagine perfume making and falcon taming to be sources of political power and I don't think it productive to rehabilitate subpar material.  More importantly, I note that the Guide cuts the supposed influence of these gods down significantly.

 

[Jeff]

Not all of the Glorious Ones are equally glorious.

But here's the cheat sheet to understanding how the Fonritian pantheon works:

At the top is Ompalam. That's the cult of the slave masters. The range of magic is pretty minimal, but gives the masters complete control over their slaves that have been subjected to Ompalam's magical rites. Note that most slaves are agricultural slaves and don't go through this enchantment. Tentacule is a variant of this.

Then we have the Glorious Ones who are basically Pamalt's Necklace (I'll give the Genertelan names - Pamalt, Ernalda, Asrelia, Lodril, Aether, Chalana Arroy, Gata, plus local deities like Jmijie, Keraun, Nyanka, Rasout, and Yanmorla, and a few others) worshiped with a civilised twist.

Then there are a few Chaos gods and remnants of the Artmali - Jraktal, Seseine, Gark, Hungry Goddess, etc.). 

Add in a few Genertelan cults - Humakt, Maran Gor, Orlanth, the other Lightbringers, Dormal, etc. - and you are pretty much there. 

[Harrek]

Thanks Jeff, your explanation will simplify things a bit. That's good, because I was quite confused after reading all the source material about the gods of Fonrit.

[davecake]

On 3/19/2020 at 5:37 PM, Jeff said:

Not all of the Glorious Ones are equally glorious.

Yes. There are 17 of them because it was a necessary number to make the magic work - one for each of the Doraddi Witnesses. But not all of them were equally important heroquesters - some were of distinctly lesser importance and influence so their cult has survived only as more or less a Guild patron deity, and probably that only by virtue of the support of the rest of the cult. Some only got a role at all due to internal politics of the original conspirators (Alakhainas, for example). Some of them forged a new civic identity only mildly related to their original cognate role, and so are more important. There clearly was process after the heroquest where the different leaders contended for power and influence in the empire they were jointly building by conquest. Some played a major role in the heroquest and became magically more important, or may have risen in importance with later notable leaders. Part of it is that translating roles from a society of mostly animist relatively un-hierarchical mostly plains nomads to a civilised, urban, very hierarchical, mostly theists means some roles don't translate.

For example - Dama is not a major member of the Necklace of Pamalt, but his role as God of the Dead makes him important to animists - he deals with ghosts and helps talk to the ancestors etc and I think becomes a patron of activities including both oral history (stories of the dead) and of some activities done at night, including some social ones (the history becomes the songs, and then dances, and so becomes part of the social fabric if not with much social power, as well as being magically important). That translates in Fonrit to his cognate, Udayankos, just being a patron of music - which isn't, as an activity or profession, given a lot of social power, though individuals may be highly regarded, and it doesn't need a priesthood or magic to sustain itself, certainly not a god of rigid centralised rulership, so we find his priesthood oddly noted for the arts of falconry and leopard training because they failed to control music as a profession. The cult clearly failed to make itself an important power of the hierarchy (I suspect they associated themselves with a traditional style of music that failed to be popular outside temple rites) and now is important only because its one of the 17 so must be incorporated in all the large format rites. 

The god Keraun is a beloved goddess in Kothar especially - the typhoons in Dark season and Storm season are mostly really unpleasant across the marshes where only goblins etc live, and are a welcomed source of water across the Kothar plains. She is the primary benevolent weather deity to them  (in contrast with Sikkanos, the deity of bad weather - who would be a Vadrudi like Gagarth or Ygg in Genertela). But in Fonrit the Keraun typhoons are destructive and dangerous. And her cognate role, Lallamainu, has to symbolically represent the North, and so the Veldang, and she is given a role that Garangordos has designed to be unpopular and unimportant. But by luck she seizes on becoming patron of what seems a very minor trade - perfume, one with very little role at all in the Doraddi plains, associated with trade to the North (for the Doraddi meaning elves and jungle inhabitants*, rather than coastal trade). They are able to translate it into a very profitable trade - and so what to the Doraddi is a mostly benevolent and practical weather deity, becomes in Fonrit pretty much just a trade guild deity. 

 

* this trade to the jungles to the North is later supplanted by the Kresh providing many of the same goods but fresh and locally available.