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All about Broos


Lordabdul

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23 hours ago, lordabdul said:

Where can I find info on Ralzakark and his Broos?

 

The RQ 3 module Dorastor Land of Doom has a large amount of data but I have a feeling you will be searching elsewhere for a copy. 

Just found this about reproduction from Borderlands, It being kind of gross I will give trigger warnings and hide it below...

Cheers

 

A broo can mate with any other organism of suitable size and produce broo offspring. Each birth gives rise to a single larval broo, capable of movement at birth, and already possessing teeth. Every such mating, unless the target animal is already pregnant, will invariably produce such offspring. The larval broo will grow as a parasite in the viscera of the victim, and burst out of his abdomen at full term, causing 2D6 points of damage to the victim, healable by magic or by time. The gestation period for a broo is two seasons +1D8 weeks. The new larval broo invariably will try to scuttle away from “mother” and escape into the wilds.

If other broos are present at the birthing, they will try to catch it and raise it with them, permitting it only what it can take from them by stealth or strength. Few larval broos die under this treatment, but only because of their renowned hardiness. Broos are known to keep small flocks of sheep, goats and the like in order to continually increase the numbers of their tribe. Broos are also known to sneak into the corrals of Praxian beast-riders in order to beget young upon their beasts.

[/spoiler]

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5 minutes ago, lordabdul said:

Ah yeah nice, I have Borderlands & Beyond but didn't think to check in there -- I have mostly kept it untouched on my shelves so far.... so much to read!

Yes, but as someone else has stated, perhaps the current definitive source for the Broo. Give it a spin, you will not be sorry

I have Borderlands as I said so the page will not be the same but the main data is Referee’s Handbook>The People’s of the Campaign>The Broo

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22 minutes ago, lordabdul said:

... I'm still having trouble putting together the "Broos as agents of pure Chaos" and "Broos as volatile-but possible-to-bargain with faction". I guess there are just different Broos with different pack leaders ....

Don't forget that Chaos is infinitely mutable, including that it can sometimes present as "volatile-but-possible-to-bargain-with".

And it IS possible to bargain with... until it isn't.

I consider most "civilized Broo" as simply  not currently expressing  their primal Chaos.

Of course, Chaos can produce ANYTHING... including beings of limited Chaos who are normally/usually agents of almost limitless Chaos.  It can even produce "controlled Chaos."  But nobody can really tell -- not for certain -- if it's actually controlled, or just not-yet-expressing...  Always a risk!

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37 minutes ago, lordabdul said:

Where can I find info on Ralzakark and his Broos?

Dorastor, either the official RQ3 Book, or my website. 🙂 Also, Lords of Terror and The Book of Drastic Resolutions, long out of print.

 

36 minutes ago, lordabdul said:

What's the reference for this? Or is that in your Glorantha?

I seem to recall reading it somewhere, but can't remember where. Maybe Borderlands, or Elder Secrets.

20 minutes ago, Bill the barbarian said:

Yes, but as someone else has stated, perhaps the current definitive source for the Broo. Give it a spin, you will not be sorry

Broo are also in the RQG Bestiary, which is probably now the definitive version.

 

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14 minutes ago, soltakss said:

Also, Lords of Terror and The Book of Drastic Resolutions, long out of print

Forgot those, but note that Cults of Terror the RQ 2 classic version of RQ 3’s Lords of Terror is available as a PDF here...https://www.chaosium.com/cults-of-terror-pdf/ I assuming lordabdul really does not care if the stats are RQ 2 or 3. Hey you have cults compendium, no @lordabdul? Cults of Terror is included there I believe.

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20 minutes ago, g33k said:

I consider most "civilized Broo" as simply  not currently expressing  their primal Chaos.

Have a look at The Scorpion and the Frog, it illustrates how a civilised Broo is likely to behave, as it 's nature is to spread disease, be cruel and mate with things.

This is one of the reasons why Ralzakark's Castrati are to be feared, they have given up their prime Broo feature to serve Ralzakark.

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44 minutes ago, lordabdul said:
3 hours ago, Joerg said:

possibly ones that the oprogenitors might civilize as followers

Ooooh wait... are you talking about a farmer who knows that a couple of his cows have Broo larvae in them, but decides to let them hatch and then adopts the larvae and tries to turn the resulting Broos into, errr, pets?

That would have to be a hardened Lunar College of Magic alumnus... And no, not pets, but fighters.

No. Civilized broos do keep herds for adding to their numbers, and others might stealthily impregnate a herd and keep nearby.

I wonder how well broo larvae are able to synchronize their births, given the chaotically variant term of pregnancy (seven weeks difference is a lot), and if they can do it, how they do it. And whether adult broos can read the signs and reliably predict the impending broo outbreak

 

44 minutes ago, lordabdul said:

MY GOD, JOERG.

At best demigod - I allow myself the illusion of possessing free will.

 

52 minutes ago, lordabdul said:

I'm not worried about the survival of the larvae after it hatches. Sure, it slithers its way out to the woods and then it's probably fine. I'm wondering about its survival rate while it's still gestating.

I don't expect the broos to be pro-lifers - any unborn larva is just an infected herd beast. It isn't that hard for broos to hold down herd beasts. At least those that have enough civilization (like advanced language - e.g. Tradetalk - and material culture) to be able to trap wild herbivores for the act.

Livestock isn't productive during pregnancy. Milk production usually only lasts while the calf is near, domesticated cattle or sheep might be tricked to react to humans milking them by extending that period somewhat, but at a guess only half of the females of the herd will have milk, while the other half is pregnant or busy getting impregnated.

Keeping pregnant beasts near the farm has no real benefit (other than getting the vleece off the sheep), so any beasts without direct use to the owners get sent to distant pastures and receive a lot less scrutiny than beasts that are milked daily. (That's where my question about impregnation of pregnant beasts comes into play.) Sure, there will be head counts and a check for injuries and other signs of predator activity, but wild broos might be able to pull off their impregnations stealthily. Feral broos are a lot more likely to mix impregnation with random killing and eating, being somewhat less effective in their procreation.

 

IMO broo larvae need to be under supervision within a week from hatching to avoid remaining feral for the rest of their lives. Without supervision, they won't really adopt language and similar thinking, and be rather mindless monsters little better than herd men. They might be trained to recognize simple orders much like dogs or other domestic beasts may be trained, but that's it. Wielding a club or simple spear may be taught without much of a language barrier, though, and part of that behavior may be instinctive or species memory (they share descent from a Storm god with the Orlanthi, after all.)

1 hour ago, lordabdul said:

So for Wild Broos, they might fight for you in exchange of some Mallia/Thed sacred object you happen to own, for example...

Pot calling the cattle black? If you have a sacred object of Malia or Thed and haven't destroyed it yet, yes, the broos might follow you, as you are obviously a holy person or at least supporter of those cults. They may just as well decide to fight you to get those goods, so you had better be strong enough to intimidate them against attempting.

The usual payment/tribute to "allied" broos will be food and equipment, and probably some herd beasts for entertainment, too.

The problem with monster retainers is that they are monsters. Keeping a company of berserks as your retainers is bad enough. Broos are several times worse.

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Telling how it is excessive verbis

 

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3 hours ago, Ian Absentia said:

...

The bigger question is -- and this is directly pertinent to the original post -- how did anyone aside from the likes of Ralzakark gather together a contingent of broos large enough and cohesive enough to constitute a "unit" on the board of Nomad Gods?  And how did anyone parley with them to orgnise against the Lunars/Sables?  Or did the broos simply see an ongoing fight and decide that it was the right time to prioritise and focus their aggression against an enemy that the Praxian tribes had put on their heels?

!i!

Chaotic intelligence. Some Broo, especially Thanatar worshippers, would be very dangerous indeed.
 

The capacity for strategic planning of a super intelligent dark knowledge worshipper who has consumed a library of scrolls on strategy would exceed the capabilities of most normal non-chaotics.

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1 hour ago, soltakss said:

Broo are also in the RQG Bestiary, which is probably now the definitive version.

Yeah, the RQG Bestiary version has a very similar text to the what's in the older books, but there's still a bunch of stuff left out, like the finer details about Broo birth, or the distinction between Feral and Wild Broos.

1 hour ago, Bill the barbarian said:

Hey you have cults compendium, no @lordabdul? Cults of Terror is included there I believe.

Yeah I have it, plus the PDFs of the original 2 cult splatbooks. I'm considering getting the actual originals (ahem cough cough).

54 minutes ago, Joerg said:

No. Civilized broos do keep herds for adding to their numbers

Oh right you were talking about Broos keeping a herd of their own. And yeah, one of the sources I caught up with (can't remember which book) indicates that it's not uncommon for Wild Broos to do that.

54 minutes ago, Joerg said:

I wonder how well broo larvae are able to synchronize their births, given the chaotically variant term of pregnancy (seven weeks difference is a lot), and if they can do it, how they do it. And whether adult broos can read the signs and reliably predict the impending broo outbreak

Yeah good point. I think maybe the "2 seasons + 1d8" is for a batch of larvae, as opposed to each larva independently? But yeah, adult Broos who might want to get the larvae into their clan would need to know when they would hatch. Maybe they have some magic to do that, but if it requires coming back to the herd to cast it, they might be spotted, or leave traces behind. I'm sure that, as soon as they get a whiff of Broo activity around their herd, any farmer would try and get the local shaman/priest to inspect the animals. So maybe that's part of their weekly or monthly routine perimeter checks. It might make a good intro adventure for young Sartarites.

54 minutes ago, Joerg said:

Sure, there will be head counts and a check for injuries and other signs of predator activity, but wild broos might be able to pull off their impregnations stealthily.

Yeah, but, again, the Broo pregnancy itself (lasting ~2.5 seasons) would need to be equally unnoticeable in enough cases to make it worthwhile for the Broos (if the animals get preemptively slaughtered in 99.5% of cases, it's not going to sustain the Broo population).

54 minutes ago, Joerg said:

Pot calling the cattle black? If you have a sacred object of Malia or Thed and haven't destroyed it yet, yes, the broos might follow you, as you are obviously a holy person or at least supporter of those cults.

I was more thinking about how you might have stolen that sacred object only last week, just for that purpose :) The talks with the Broos might be very tense but hey, you can swear that you only got those items from someone else.

54 minutes ago, Joerg said:

The usual payment/tribute to "allied" broos will be food and equipment, and probably some herd beasts for entertainment, too.

Yeah that works too. Not as fun, but makes more sense :D

Edited by lordabdul
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5 minutes ago, lordabdul said:

Yeah I have it, plus the PDFs of the original 2 cult splatbooks. I'm considering getting the actual originals (ahem cough cough).

 

You keep you lanbril lackeys away from my library good sir!

 

8 minutes ago, lordabdul said:

It might make a good intro adventure for young Sartarites.

If not a thoroughly yucky one

Okay every one roll for sanity as the happy mother gives birth to... RUN AWAY!

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20 hours ago, soltakss said:

They might be female, as Thed does not allow female Broo to worship her, so they need to find another cult.

Sorry to tag in late but I was banned for that thread about the X-Cards. Chalana Arroy healers who aren't just Bonesetters are required to be female, and while @Joerg makes an interesting argument that all Broo are female, I think his argument is a case of YGWV for most people as texts have said specifically that Thed hates the rare female births.

I think we can assume Ralzakark the Unicorn Broo (damnit I always misspell his/their name) has actual female broo Chalana Arroy worshipper(s).

Also Broo double as opponents because they also are cattle raiders, but you have to get the cattle back before they turn them into bombs.

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31 minutes ago, Qizilbashwoman said:

Sorry to tag in late but I was banned for that thread about the X-Cards. Chalana Arroy healers who aren't just Bonesetters are required to be female,

Sorry, but that's not the case. Ernaldan priestesses need to be female. Chalana Arroy priesthood has no sex or gender requirements.

31 minutes ago, Qizilbashwoman said:

and while @Joerg makes an interesting argument that all Broo are female, I think his argument is a case of YGWV for most people as texts have said specifically that Thed hates the rare female births.

If the perception of male and female is inverted, then Thed's hatred (or at least indifference) toward the ovipositor-less individuals would be towards the males who cannot further her infection scheme.

 

31 minutes ago, Qizilbashwoman said:

I think we can assume Ralzakark the Unicorn Broo (damnit I always misspell his/their name) has actual female broo Chalana Arroy worshipper(s).

Statistically, some are to be expected, and Ralzakark offers an alternative to the cult of Thed which may make this approach more attractive to non-ovipositored broo, but since there is no sex requirement for Chalana Arroy healers anywhere, the base for your reasoning is faulty. The same quota can be expected in Ralzy's Humakti.
 

Telling how it is excessive verbis

 

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12 minutes ago, Joerg said:

Chalana Arroy priesthood has no sex or gender requirements.

why did i think Chalana Arroy's White Ladies were women and male members were the magic-less Arroini Bonesetters? Was that older lore that got retconned?

13 minutes ago, Sir_Godspeed said:

They're stealing good Orlanthi jobs. THE SHEER NERVE.

hahahaha

to be fair, though, i think this is literally the most common job in Genertela after "the person who collects firewood for a living"

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13 minutes ago, Qizilbashwoman said:

why did i think Chalana Arroy's White Ladies were women and male members were the magic-less Arroini Bonesetters? Was that older lore that got retconned?

No idea. The myths have lots of female magical healers (see all those subcults), and the magicless healer is the son, but that affects the deities, not the cultists.

Neither Cults of Prax nor Rune Masters excluded males (the CA male was a Rune Lord, while priestess and lord-priestess were females, though). King of Dragon Pass had a few male CA ring members.

Ernalda had the "females only" dogma during HW/HQ1 publications. Maran Gor had that.

 

13 minutes ago, Qizilbashwoman said:

to be fair, though, i think this is literally the most common job in Genertela after "the person who collects firewood for a living"

Only in the Barbarian Belt. In Malkioni lands this is a side job for the military, and in Kralorela crime and theft is done in more civilized ways. Dara Happans don't raid cattle.

Telling how it is excessive verbis

 

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15 minutes ago, Joerg said:

Dara Happans don't raid cattle.

technically they requisition it

15 minutes ago, Joerg said:

Ernalda had the "females only" dogma during HW/HQ1 publications. Maran Gor had that.

Ernalda has females-only for Rune-Priest, Babeester has it for the whole cult, Maran Gor merely requires men castrate.

I like to think YGMV of gender in Greater Theyalia in terms of rune. If you are Earth rune, that is what we are calling female. Wind is what are calling male. Orlanth is Wind personified, hence the Earth goddesses anger at Her pregnancy ("Vinga"). It's like Zeus getting knocked up in the traditional way.

Nonetheless, an agreement was made that (not-broo) pregnancy is actual pregnancy because gender is not organs. That's why we have boobs with wind and no boobs with Earth, and, according to 13th Age Glorantha, six genders. I count six genders as moon, earth, darkness, fire, water, wind. Theyalans have taken to not liking moon lately 😉 but that's unfair to the most of the world who don't even know what a Lunar is.

This makes our explanations in English confusing. When Eirithia says only women, Prax is not Theyalan and maybe they mean "with a vagánia" in Praxian, a language isolate with a foreign culture.

Sorry, just thinking out loud.

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47 minutes ago, Qizilbashwoman said:

why did i think Chalana Arroy's White Ladies were women and male members were the magic-less Arroini Bonesetters?

It looks like "White Ladies" is an informal term for Chalana Arroy initiates and priestesses, I don't see any book actually formalizing it much. They got that name probably because most priests are female, but there's indeed no requirement. I have no idea what Arroini Bonesetters are though? I can't find any reference to those in any of my PDFs. Where is that from?

28 minutes ago, Qizilbashwoman said:

I like to think YGMV of gender in Greater Theyalia in terms of rune.

Interesting but kinda weird to me because Runes already drive personality traits... that would reinforce gender stereotypes similar to the "women are moody and bossy" we get on Earth.

Personally, depending on who I get in my next group and what they find fun/not fun, I might put in a bit of gender politics, with Esrolians being TERFs that gatekeep access to higher positions of power, while Ernalda/Babeester/etc. temples in other parts of Dragon Pass might be a lot more vague about gender/birth requirements. I haven't thought about it much yet though so I might change my mind.

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@lordabdul Just edited this as it seems that I had deleted the actual answer you sought.

2 hours ago, lordabdul said:

I have no idea what Arroini Bonesetters are though? I can't find any reference to those in any of my PDFs. Where is that from?

The Arroin are healers who follow  a different path from CA

Quote

Her son, though, no longer had the power of mastery of the magic world. Instead, he was bound to do the things which had survived his woundings and had not been damaged. Therefore he formed the Arroin sub-cult of his Mother’s cult, whose skills lie in abilities rather than powers.

From Cults of Prax

Quote
  • Noted for her kindness and purity, she (Chalana Arroy) aided Orlanth, Issaries, Yelm, Humakt, Ernalda, Hykim, and others in several tales. Her son, Arroin, beloved by all the world, was begat by one or all of these god
  • ...They (the light bringer) were met by Flesh Man, who was witless from seeing the death of the whole world even before it was over... Arroin used his powers and almost healed the fugitive with healthy magic. But Flesh Man still fled. Chalana Arroy chose to lay aside her passivity and act
  • The tale of the Lightbringers is told elsewhere, but the tale of Arroin needs telling. During the Darkness, he was loved by all, and protected by every living thing which could help him. In return, he helped everyone whenever he could. Even so, his fate was wretched, for lie attracted the emptiness of Chaos to him, and each time he tried to heal Chaos his magic powers broke. He was wounded several times, and at the end lay near to death himself.
  • Finally, he hid in the physical plane, and so survived long enough to see the Dawning, and to greet his mother back to the world. But his powers were never the same.

CoP page 65

 

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28 minutes ago, lordabdul said:

Interesting but kinda weird to me because Runes already drive personality traits... that would reinforce gender stereotypes similar to the "women are moody and bossy" we get on Earth.

In Theyalan territories, people with vaginas are Earth rune like 95% of the time and people with penises are Storm like 95% of the time.The exceptions are just that. These numbers are upheld also among the Pol-Joni - there's a breakdown in one of the books of runes by ethnicity in Prax.

Vingans and the Earth equivalents are very rare.

These numbers are not accurate to Praxians! Eirithia demands the Fertility rune, not Earth, and runes tend to accord with tribal patron runes.

Suggesting them that rune = gender in Theyala is not exactly unbelievable. It's a very gendered society, and yet it has more genders than our own, which counts out to the same number as there are elemental form runes. They don't say "women", they say a word that means a person that has an earth rune.

Esrolians might not be the TERFs, Eirithians might be! They're about pregnancy and birth processes of animals and they are associated so strongly with Praxians. Esrola is about the fertility of the whole land and is strongly Theyalan - Esrola has about zero presence in Prax.

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2 minutes ago, Qizilbashwoman said:

In Theyalan territories, people with vaginas are Earth rune like 95% of the time and people with penises are Storm like 95% of the time.

Isn't it 85%? That's what the "Orlanthi All" was supposed to be, with 15% not following societal norms ("1 in 7 or so").

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6 minutes ago, Qizilbashwoman said:

In Theyalan territories, people with vaginas are Earth rune like 95% of the time and people with penises are Storm like 95% of the time.The exceptions are just that. These numbers are upheld also among the Pol-Joni - there's a breakdown in one of the books of runes by ethnicity in Prax.

Vingans and the Earth equivalents are very rare.

These numbers are not accurate to Praxians! Eirithia demands the Fertility rune, not Earth, and runes tend to accord with tribal patron runes.

Suggesting them that rune = gender in Theyala is not exactly unbelievable. It's a very gendered society, and yet it has more genders than our own, which counts out to the same number as there are elemental form runes. They don't say "women", they say a word that means a person that has an earth rune.

Esrolians might not be the TERFs, Eirithians might be! They're about pregnancy and birth processes of animals and they are associated so strongly with Praxians. Esrola is about the fertility of the whole land and is strongly Theyalan - Esrola has about zero presence in Prax.

In Sartar it is closer to this (total population):

Air Rune 36

Earth Rune 36

Fire/Sky 5

Lunar 5

Others (including more of the above) 18

In Esrolia it is more like this:

Air Rune 19

Earth Rune 44

Darkness 6

Water 4

Fire/Sky 6

Lunar 1

Others (including more of the above) 20

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42 minutes ago, Jeff said:

In Sartar it is closer to this (total population):

Air Rune 36

Earth Rune 36

Fire/Sky 5

Lunar 5

Others (including more of the above) 18

In Esrolia it is more like this:

Air Rune 19

Earth Rune 44

Darkness 6

Water 4

Fire/Sky 6

Lunar 1

Others (including more of the above) 20

Marsi Jeff

Not sure what "others" means, it's a little confusing.

Sartar isn't Theyalan anymore, it's hybrid, so it's cool to see the numbers. The Lunar numbers are far lower than I expected unless you include both Old and New Sartar?

Esrolia's about what I expected! Earth is spot-on, and Air-Darkness is where we'd expect given the Kodigvari ending and the Kimantoring.

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13 minutes ago, Qizilbashwoman said:

Marsi Jeff

Not sure what "others" means, it's a little confusing.

Sartar isn't Theyalan anymore, it's hybrid, so it's cool to see the numbers. The Lunar numbers are far lower than I expected unless you include both Old and New Sartar?

Esrolia's about what I expected! Earth is spot-on, and Air-Darkness is where we'd expect given the Kodigvari ending and the Kimantoring.

Others just means that it is some distribution of the other elemental runes I am not sure of. So in Sartar it might be 3 more percentage points for each Element (including Water and Darkness) and in Esrolia slightly more than 3. Or maybe more in one and less in another.

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