Differences Between Yu-Kargzant and Yelm's Cults

[Joerg]

2 hours ago, Rodney Dangerduck said:

Disagree.  We had lots of fascinating campaigns where the PCs "saved" the Empire from the White Moon Heresy, Gbaji worshipping coups, malicious plots by Yolanela and other cliques, Pentan invasions, a corrupt and vicious DX Chancellor in alliance with Delecti, and misguided attempts to improve mankind.

And all that outside of the Dart Competitions/Dart Wars between the major houses?

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Frankly, much more interesting than avenging a cattle raid.  It is a more "modern" take on the overall flavor, less bronze age.

From what I have seen (in the British Museum youtube videos on their collection of cuneiform letters), quite bronze age, actually.

 

[Glorion]

52 minutes ago, Joerg said:

And all that outside of the Dart Competitions/Dart Wars between the major houses?

From what I have seen (in the British Museum youtube videos on their collection of cuneiform letters), quite bronze age, actually.

 

It was very Roman Empire in our campaign, which fits pretty well with how the Empire was portrayed back in RQ3 days. Actually, the GM for the campaign that preceded the beginning of our decades long Lunar campaign,  ran a downright modern version of the Lunar Empire, in which Mostali was actually a computer code. My old LM scholar Glorion was actually awarded a robot follower by a friendly dwarf. And in the Lunar campaign, Rodney had a PC named Gem who set up a mercantile company named gem.com. There were definitely dart wars between major houses, one PC was a major figure in her house which was involved in a longstanding dart war with another house that was a major undertow in the campaign, intertwined with the bigger stuff going on.

Edited March 2, 2020 by Glorion

[Glorion]

10 minutes ago, Rodney Dangerduck said:

As mentioned by @Glorion we had two Carmanian houses in a Dart War: Tark and Anister.  Not so creative on names 🙂

The Tarks ended up mostly going over to Charg, which was an RQ3 Blank Land, not a Storm Bull dominated area like in the Sourcebook. The idea we worked from, going all the way back to that early '90s modernist nonLunar campaign (set in around 1630 or so I guess), was that Charg was the last holdout of the original anti-Lunar Carmanian Empire. A more interesting idea IMHO than what's in the Sourcebook.

[Joerg]

1 hour ago, Glorion said:

The Tarks ended up mostly going over to Charg, which was an RQ3 Blank Land, not a Storm Bull dominated area like in the Sourcebook. The idea we worked from, going all the way back to that early '90s modernist nonLunar campaign (set in around 1630 or so I guess), was that Charg was the last holdout of the original anti-Lunar Carmanian Empire. A more interesting idea IMHO than what's in the Sourcebook.

Not mutually exclusive even now, as those were Bull Shahs who may have kept or built up those bull barbarians as their strike force.

[Glorion]

21 minutes ago, Joerg said:

Not mutually exclusive even now, as those were Bull Shahs who may have kept or built up those bull barbarians as their strike force.

Quite sorcerous in our setup, and even some attempt to use my particular sorcery ruleset, all based on knowledge (want to cast "Dominate Human"? What's your Human Lore, etc.) And lotsa Carmanian dualism.

 

[davecake]

I find Dune as a great inspiration for the warring houses, more so than the game of thrones houses. They already have the houses employing lots of weird specialists, and following weird mystic traditions, with a distant scheming Emperor, etc. And a tradition of assasinations that is innovative and draws on all sorts of weird tactics from all sorts of sources, and so is more like Dart Competitions seem to be. They even have a case of a breeding program to produce the Next Inspiration of the goddess. 

Always thought about a game that starts with the premise that due to losing a political battle, your PCs noble house (or at least your part of it) has lost their nice prime heartland satrapy land, and instead been given land on the Eastern edge of Empire just next door to possibly raging Pentans, and has another rival house trying to take you down while you are weak. 

Maybe more fun to have it later in the timeline, so your PCs will be around when Sheng comes back. Maybe one of your PCs will be a candidate to replace this corrupt Red Emperor? 

 

[Glorion]

14 hours ago, davecake said:

I find Dune as a great inspiration for the warring houses, more so than the game of thrones houses. They already have the houses employing lots of weird specialists, and following weird mystic traditions, with a distant scheming Emperor, etc. And a tradition of assasinations that is innovative and draws on all sorts of weird tactics from all sorts of sources, and so is more like Dart Competitions seem to be. They even have a case of a breeding program to produce the Next Inspiration of the goddess. 

Always thought about a game that starts with the premise that due to losing a political battle, your PCs noble house (or at least your part of it) has lost their nice prime heartland satrapy land, and instead been given land on the Eastern edge of Empire just next door to possibly raging Pentans, and has another rival house trying to take you down while you are weak. 

Maybe more fun to have it later in the timeline, so your PCs will be around when Sheng comes back. Maybe one of your PCs will be a candidate to replace this corrupt Red Emperor? 

 

In our campaign, the Red Emperor first disappeared into eternal sloth, and then disappeared altogether, actually leaving the Senate in charge of the Empire, as we had a very Roman Lunar Empire. The Senate leader was a pawn of an ultra chaotic ultra powerful immortal Brithini sorceror, who went toe to toe to a draw with the Crimson Bat, who only survived partially due to the efforts of my Natha priestess on behalf of the sadly misunderstood Bat. Who subsequently became the Great Hero of the Empire by a brilliant speech in front of the Senate, with much help from her Danfive Xaron backers, which toppled him. She then naively made the mistake, as a brand new reluctant DX champion, of suggesting the head of the cult as new head of the Senate, with short term excellent but long term disastrous consequences. He may well have slain the greatly weakened Emperor, but in any case did his best to make sure there would not be another one. She was too modest to propose herself.

[Glorion]

14 hours ago, Rodney Dangerduck said:

I keep wanting to post some of our Lunar stuff in the "How does your Glorantha vary" thread.  Haven't had time.

But short story on the dart war is that the Lunar govt. favored the "Anister" side, the very young "Arya Tark" fled to Charg and befriended their young heir.  This kind of fits @davecake scenario, just on other side of the Empire.  (And Dune is a nice reference!)

 It's unlikely to end well for the Lunars. :-). Though we have returned to Sartar in 1626 so may be a while...

And now we are doing your standard Sartarite campaign with almost all Colymar PC's and a plan to follow the official timeline, which was definitely not what our Lunar campaign was doing.

[soltakss]

On 3/2/2020 at 10:42 AM, Akhôrahil said:

This is what the Yelmites do every time they're conquered - "Hey, the new boss is actually the real Emperor, so it's all good and we're not actually conquered!" Then as soon as the new overlords show any weakness, it's restoration time!

When Sheng Seleris conquered Dara Happa, he was not accepted as Emperor and specifically did not become Emperor. In fact, the Red Emperor knocked off Sheng Seleris' nephews when they tried the Ten Tests.

The Shah of Carmania did not become the Emperor when he conquered Dara Happa, in fact he HeroQuested and re-enacted the Dividing of the World to split the lands between his sons.

So, since the Red Emperor became Emperor, nobody has become Emperor.

[Akhôrahil]

1 hour ago, soltakss said:

So, since the Red Emperor became Emperor, nobody has become Emperor.

Well... except the Red Emperor (hey, he's Carmanian now, isn't that odd!) again and again...

I can't remember who posited the Lunar Empire making contact with the Arrolians, and the latter going "Who the heck is that, that's not my Red Emperor, I know what he looks like!" when they see the current Red Emperor.

Edited March 6, 2020 by Akhôrahil

[Jeff]

On 12/17/2019 at 4:36 PM, Richard S. said:

Are there any major mechanical differences between the Yelm writeup in RQG and the Yelm cult as worshiped by the Dara Happans? Do they offer any different spells or have different requirements? At the least, I'd expect they that they wouldn't have the Golden Bow subcult and would have an Imperator subcult. What would the Imperator subcult look like in terms of requirements and magic provided?

Going back to the original post - the Yelm cult in RQG is the cult as found amongst the Pure Horse People of Dragon Pass. Note that Ernalda is listed as the associated cult and not Dendara. That's the result of the Feathered Horse Queen.

[davecake]

10 hours ago, soltakss said:

So, since the Red Emperor became Emperor, nobody has become Emperor.

IIRC correctly each new Incarnation of Moonson repeats the Ten Tests ‘just to prove it’s him’. 

[Jeff]

26 minutes ago, davecake said:

IIRC correctly each new Incarnation of Moonson repeats the Ten Tests ‘just to prove it’s him’. 

Each new Mask invokes the power of the Ten Tests and offers any how doubt his legitimacy to name one test each. If the Emperor fails, he would be revealed to be false. But if he succeeds they would lose their holdings and status forever for themselves, their kin, and their heirs. Four great families challenged the Red Emperor in 4/51, and all failed. Others challenged the Red Emperor in 5/43, and again in 6/41. Everyone has always failed.

[soltakss]

1 hour ago, Jeff said:

Everyone has always failed.

Because he is the Red Emperor.

Sheng Seleris is destined to defeat, cook and eat the Red Emperor, stopping him from coming back and becoming Emperor himself. I am not sure if he passes the Ten Test, though, as he didn't take them before.

[Nick Brooke]

On 3/6/2020 at 9:41 PM, Akhôrahil said:

Well... except the Red Emperor (hey, he's Carmanian now, isn't that odd!) again and again...

I can't remember who posited the Lunar Empire making contact with the Arrolians, and the latter going "Who the heck is that, that's not my Red Emperor, I know what he looks like!" when they see the current Red Emperor.

That was me, an idea I developed for our 70-player Malkioni freeform How the West was One (1994), blathered about on forums and in website posts for the rest of the nineties, and finally printed in my article Holiday Glorantha: Arrolia in Tales of the Reaching Moon #20 (2002). There are bits and bobs on my former etyries.com site, cunningly hidden in the Malkioni Sects section: http://etyries.albionsoft.com/etyries.com/sects/arrolian.html