Where Planets Roam

[John Biles]

Am I correct in thinking the planets of Glorantha roam through the Sky, above the Middle Air where the Red Moon hangs out?

(Including the Boat Planet, once Kallyr raises it?)

[Akhôrahil]

7 minutes ago, John Biles said:

Am I correct in thinking the planets of Glorantha roam through the Sky, above the Middle Air where the Red Moon hangs out?

(Including the Boat Planet, once Kallyr raises it?)

Yes, on the "surface" of the Sky Dome. (The reason the blue moon can't be seen is because it travels on the outside of the Sky Dome.)

[Joerg]

1 hour ago, John Biles said:

Am I correct in thinking the planets of Glorantha roam through the Sky, above the Middle Air where the Red Moon hangs out?

(Including the Boat Planet, once Kallyr raises it?)

On the Sunpath, though obviously sufficiently far apart in altitude that eclipses don't result in collisions, on the Southpath (Shargash, Artia, Twin Stars), on Orlanth's "spiral" rising straight from Stormgate to Pole Star, along the Sky River in case of the Boat Planet (avoiding the "city" around Polaris), and totally irregularly in case of the Juggernaut (the only extant planet known to collide destructively with other objects).

This makes me wonder who had "right of way" in the Lunar Temple dedication dance choreography that suffered from an intrusion of 11 (or only 7?) objects on the Ring. The dancers on Orlanth's Ring did interact with the other dancers, often destructively.

[The God Learner]

9 hours ago, Akhôrahil said:

Yes, on the "surface" of the Sky Dome. (The reason the blue moon can't be seen is because it travels on the outside of the Sky Dome.)

It now strikes me that I'm unfamiliar with the topography of Gloranthan Sky. In particular, what is outside the Sky Dome? I thought it was mainly roiling chaos. Is there further structure than that? 

 

[jajagappa]

49 minutes ago, The God Learner said:

In particular, what is outside the Sky Dome? I thought it was mainly roiling chaos. Is there further structure than that? 

Which part of the Sky Dome??

There is the dome through which the stars appear.  This is the "lower" dome and is what is blanketed by Xentha every night.  The planets and Sun cross the sky below that.

Above the "lower" dome is the Celestial Realm.  This is the world of Sky beings and is always light (i.e. Night occurs below it, so no night here).  There are forts around the star holes to guard against intruders.  It includes the Celestial River, the Celestial City, etc.  (i.e. the Constellations reflect the parts of the Sky World above).  

Then there is the "upper" dome which is where Dayzatar and Ourania dwell.  Dayzatar guards this from the forces beyond which is the roiling Chaos.  

[The God Learner]

17 hours ago, jajagappa said:

Above the "lower" dome is the Celestial Realm.  This is the world of Sky beings and is always light (i.e. Night occurs below it, so no night here). 

Interesting, and thanks for the explanation. Would that mean the Blue Moon is actually regularly bathed in light while traversing the Celestial Realm?

 

[David Scott]

In the 90s Mike Dawson did a sideview of Glorantha that showed the layers of the world. It was based a on drawing by Greg Stafford. Other than Codex 1, has this appeared anywhere else. Although clearly a god learner artefact, it's very useful for illustrating this kind of thing. Can anyone point to a pic?

[scott-martin]

1 hour ago, David Scott said:

In the 90s Mike Dawson did a sideview of Glorantha that showed the layers of the world. It was based a on drawing by Greg Stafford. Other than Codex 1, has this appeared anywhere else. Although clearly a god learner artefact, it's very useful for illustrating this kind of thing. Can anyone point to a pic?

Striking how clearly it resembles the human head from this angle. I haven't seen it anywhere else.

 

Edited August 7, 2020 by scott-martin

[jajagappa]

3 hours ago, The God Learner said:

Would that mean the Blue Moon is actually regularly bathed in light while traversing the Celestial Realm?

IIRC the Blue Moon is a strange one.  It might climb up the "outside" of the Dome before plunging downward, but don't have my sources right at hand.

[The God Learner]

1 hour ago, scott-martin said:

Striking how clearly it resembles the human head from this angle. I haven't seen it anywhere else.

Very interesting map, though it of course raises further questions! For instance, are the dawn and dusk gates rather than on the ground actually situated on the border between middle and lower air? And what are these Godswar Bulges that appear here and there? It looks like the ocean one could have been due to Umath permanently deforming Glorantha. 

[Akhôrahil]

I was not aware of the Inner Earth? What is that? Gods Realm part of the Earth cube (although the Earth isn’t a cube in this schematic).

Edited August 7, 2020 by Akhôrahil

[The God Learner]

1 hour ago, jajagappa said:

It might climb up the "outside" of the Dome before plunging downward

That was my understanding, which raises the question, which of the Sky Domes? I assumed it was outside the Blue Sky Bowl.

Edited August 7, 2020 by The God Learner
Wrong Sky Dome

[David Scott]

1 hour ago, The God Learner said:

Very interesting map, though it of course raises further questions! For instance, are the dawn and dusk gates rather than on the ground actually situated on the border between middle and lower air? And what are these Godswar Bulges that appear here and there? It looks like the ocean one could have been due to Umath permanently deforming Glorantha. 

It was interesting when it can out! Of course this was all years ago and I'm sure I remember Mike at Convulsion '94, bringing Issue 2 and Greg telling us all about it. Have search through the super Glorantha library: https://glorantha.steff.in/digests/

There's a lead here: https://glorantha.steff.in/digests/GloranthaDigest/vol08/3168.html @metcalph may remember more 🙂

[The God Learner]

4 hours ago, David Scott said:

It was interesting when it can out! Of course this was all years ago and I'm sure I remember Mike at Convulsion '94, bringing Issue 2 and Greg telling us all about it.

I'll anyhow reuse it for my game, such as it is. We can see that the LBQ requires quite a lot of walking to reach Yelm at the bottom of the map, and also that Yelm nowadays makes the same trip in about six hours. I like that sort of detail. 

4 hours ago, David Scott said:

Have search through the super Glorantha library

Oh dear, the sort of heroquest for which I might be too old. For what it's worth, the keywords "Godswar Hell Bulge" only appear significantly in the message you pointed out. 

[The God Learner]

6 hours ago, Akhôrahil said:

I was not aware of the Inner Earth? What is that? Gods Realm part of the Earth cube (although the Earth isn’t a cube in this schematic).

I'm thinking the same. Since the big hole through it named 'Homeward Ocean' was created by the implosion of the Spike, I will allow the very adventurous to dive there for Spike-era artifacts stuck to the walls, etc. The deeper the better. 

[Joerg]

On 8/7/2020 at 2:13 PM, David Scott said:

In the 90s Mike Dawson did a sideview of Glorantha that showed the layers of the world. It was based a on drawing by Greg Stafford. Other than Codex 1, has this appeared anywhere else. Although clearly a god learner artefact, it's very useful for illustrating this kind of thing. Can anyone point to a pic?

Gianni Vacca uses that perspective as the game board for "Last Faction Hero".

 

IMO there are quite a few realms beyond the Sky World, probably including some of the draconic testing grounds like Kapertine, described in Ingolf Dragonfriend's steps toward Draconic Enlightenment (which he had) and Ultimate Liberation (which he failed to reach). Soul-rending, tearing apart the self under the onslaught of the energies of the Ultimate.