Cults And Their Runes

[PhilHibbs]

Here is a list of all the cults that I can find the runes for, that are mentioned in the RQG rules. This is for ease of copying and pasting if you want to refer to a cult and quote its runes, for instance for the purposes of cult runic compatibility for associate spells. I have gone for sub-runes where appropriate, so Yelmalio gets Light instead of Fire. I have not done that with the moon rune variants though! On the other hand I went with the game mechanical Stasis rune for Lhankor Mhy rather than the more authentic Gloranthan Law rune.

Since the forum limits the number of emojis in a single post, I am breaking it up into groups and reserving a number of posts for future expansion. Seven should do for now, that's a nice round number, but if I do the full G&GOG list then that might not be...

Core Rulebook and Bestiary Cults:

Aldrya  (Bestiary only has the first two, Well of Daliath says all three)

Argan Argar 

Babeester Gor 

Bloody Tusk 

Chalana Arroy 

Daka Fal 

Eiritha 

Engizi 

Ernalda 

Eurmal 

Foundchild 

Humakt 

Issaries 

Kyger Litor 

Lhankor Mhy 

Mallia 

Maran Gor 

Odayla 

Orlanth 

The Seven Mothers 

Storm Bull 

Telmor 

Thed 

Waha the Butcher 

Yelm 

Yelmalio 

Yinkin 

Zorak Zoran 

Edited March 13, 2022 by PhilHibbs

[PhilHibbs]

Others, listed as "associate cults" but lacking full writeups:

Asrelia 

Barntar 

Danfive Xaron 

Deezola 

Diros

Etyries 

Flamal 

Good Shepherd

Gorakiki 

Hon-eel 

Hykim and Mikyh 

Hwarin Dalthippa 

Irrippi Ontor 

Jakaleel the Witch 

Lady of the Wilds (none)

Magasta 

Mahome

Mastakos 

Red Goddess 

Ronance 

She Who Waits 

Teelo Norri 

Three Bean Circus 

Ty Kora Tek 

Xentha 

Yanafal Tarnils 

Yara Aranis 

The Young Elementals (none)

Valind 

Voriof 

Edited March 11, 2022 by PhilHibbs

[PhilHibbs]

Reserved for future expansion

 

Edited April 19, 2022 by PhilHibbs

[PhilHibbs]

Reserved for future expansion

[PhilHibbs]

Reserved for future expansion

[PhilHibbs]

Reserved for future expansion

[PhilHibbs]

Reserved for future expansion

[Scotty]

Corrections, additions

1 hour ago, PhilHibbs said:

Others, listed as "associate cults" but lacking full writeups:

Barntar 

Deezola 

Diros 

Flamal 

Good Shepherd 

Gorakiki 

Hon-eel 

Hykim and Mikyh 

Hwarin Dalthippa 

Irrippi Ontor 

Jakaleel the Witch 

Lady of the Wilds - none given

Magasta 

Mahome

Mastakos 

Ronance 

She Who Waits 

Three Bean Circus

The Young Elementals None (they are elementals)

Valind 

Voriof 

 

[Jose]

1 hour ago, Scotty said:

Corrections, additions

 

Uhm, I have Red book of magic. Ronance's spell "pathway" use the Earth rune and Good Shepherd's "Seal Soul" use Life rune. Those  are different Runes than in the cult list. 

[PhilHibbs]

5 hours ago, Scotty said:

Corrections, additions

Would a cult with the Cold rune use Darkness to cast spells? The way I see it, there's a difference between the actual Gloranthan cult's runes, and the RQG mechanics cult write-up.

Edited March 11, 2022 by PhilHibbs

[Lordabdul]

I assume that this is specifically for helping with copy/pasting on this forums, which is great for that, thanks Phil.

For those who just want to look up a deity's Runes, the Well of Daliath prosopaedia has this information (although I see some differences especially around the Runes that we don't know are still used in RQ or not, like Cold or Light)

Edited March 11, 2022 by lordabdul

[Bill the barbarian]

4 hours ago, Jose said:

Uhm, I have Red book of magic. Ronance's spell "pathway" use the Earth rune and Good Shepherd's "Seal Soul" use Life rune. Those  are different Runes than in the cult list. 

Which browser  are you using, I can report that some versions of Safari are problematic. Acrobat seems to work.

[PhilHibbs]

22 minutes ago, Bill the barbarian said:

Which browser  are you using, I can report that some versions of Safari are problematic. Acrobat seems to work.

The printed book agrees with Jose. Earth and Fertility/Life. So indeed it does seem odd that Ronance, who has Movement and Spirit, gives a rune spell that uses Earth, and that Good Shepherd, Spirit and Man, gives a Life spell. I'm not saying it can't happen! Personally I would have left Storm Bull giving Shield to Eiritha, even though he gets it from Orlanth.

Edited March 11, 2022 by PhilHibbs

[French Desperate WindChild]

Seems to me that rbom describes all the « canonic » divine spells

 

as all these spells are described with the core rules book runes

i only conclude there are two types of god’s runes:

 

the RQG gameplay runes : Valind is air + darkness as @PhilHibbsproposal

 

the roleplay / flavor runes : Valind is air + cold as @Scotty answer 

but i could have misunderstood all the previous threads about it

 

[PhilHibbs]

43 minutes ago, lordabdul said:

I assume that this is specifically for helping with copy/pasting on this forums, which is great for that, thanks Phil.

For those who just want to look up a deity's Runes, the Well of Daliath prosopaedia has this information (although I see some differences especially around the Runes that we don't know are still used in RQ or not, like Cold or Light)

Yes I wondered what to do about Cold and Light, I went with Darkness and Fire because I was thinking of RQG mechanics. No character is going to have a rating in the Cold rune. I have accepted Scotty's corrections though.

Some of these I got from The Well of Daliath, e.g. The Lady Of The Wild (Spirit), Gorakiki (only lists Darkness in Cults Of Glorantha Preview).

p.s. just added Red Goddess and Yara Aranis. Missed them on the page change.

Edited March 11, 2022 by PhilHibbs

[Jose]

3 minutes ago, PhilHibbs said:

Yes I wondered what to do about Cold and Light, I went with Darkness and Fire because I was thinking of RQG mechanics. No character is going to have a rating in the Cold rune.

Well maybe someone who has seen the new cults book/Prosopaedia could tell us if some cult Runes are wrong.  I am not going to argue if some cults/spells change Runes. What Chaosium do with that is OK for me. 

Edited March 11, 2022 by Jose

[Richard S.]

Cold, light, heat, dark earth, and all those others are just more specific versions of core runes anyways, so I don't think it matters too much if Valind is listed air/dark instead of air/cold, among other examples. There's very little practical difference between "Yelmalio has the Light rune" and "Yelmalio has Light powers from the Fire rune".

[Jose]

1 hour ago, PhilHibbs said:

The printed book agrees with Jose. Earth and Fertility/Life. So indeed it does seem odd that Ronance, who has Movement and Spirit, gives a rune spell that uses Earth, and that Good Shepherd, Spirit and Man, gives a Life spell. I'm not saying it can't happen! Personally I would have left Storm Bull giving Shield to Eiritha, even though he gets it from Orlanth.

In Ronance's and Good Shepherd's cult VS spells Runes, I supose it will be explained in cults book. I hope the layout is finished for the gods book. 

[Shiningbrow]

7 hours ago, Richard S. said:

Cold, light, heat, dark earth, and all those others are just more specific versions of core runes anyways, so I don't think it matters too much if Valind is listed air/dark instead of air/cold, among other examples. There's very little practical difference between "Yelmalio has the Light rune" and "Yelmalio has Light powers from the Fire rune".

Except when it is... 

Your Yelmalian who can't use Fire suddenly joins a Fire cult at full percentage. Or a Valind worshipper joins a Darkness cult.

(FWIW, I'm not a fan of this Fire/Sky combination either)

[Shiningbrow]

@PhilHibbs Gustbran?

[Richard S.]

9 minutes ago, Shiningbrow said:

Except when it is... 

Your Yelmalian who can't use Fire suddenly joins a Fire cult at full percentage. Or a Valind worshipper joins a Darkness cult.

(FWIW, I'm not a fan of this Fire/Sky combination either)

I don't see an issue with either of those. Yelmalians are usually forbidden certain fire spells, sure, but the power that Light spells ultimately derive from has always been Fire/Sky. Same with Cold and Dark - they aren't separate powers, Valind is just described with Cold to make it more explicit that he doesn't provide powers over Shadow.

[Shiningbrow]

2 hours ago, Richard S. said:

I don't see an issue with either of those. Yelmalians are usually forbidden certain fire spells, sure, but the power that Light spells ultimately derive from has always been Fire/Sky. Same with Cold and Dark - they aren't separate powers, Valind is just described with Cold to make it more explicit that he doesn't provide powers over Shadow.

I get it.

It just unnerves me, in that it reminds me of the logical fallacy of Division... all parts of a whole have the same properties as the whole...

[Scotty]

19 hours ago, Jose said:

Uhm, I have Red book of magic. Ronance's spell "pathway" use the Earth rune and Good Shepherd's "Seal Soul" use Life rune. Those are different Runes than in the cult list. 

Yes, both don't really exist outside the Paps, it's only Eiritha and Ernalda cultists that can use them (they can use those runes to cast the spells). For iconography use the ones in the list, or the rare shaman who has them as a spirit cult.

15 hours ago, Jose said:

Well maybe someone who has seen the new cults book/Prosopaedia could tell us if some cult Runes are wrong.  I am not going to argue if some cults/spells change Runes. What Chaosium do with that is OK for me. 

Runes are from the upcoming Prosopaedia.

15 hours ago, PhilHibbs said:

Would a cult with the Cold rune use Darkness to cast spells? The way I see it, there's a difference between the actual Gloranthan cult's runes, and the RQG mechanics cult write-up.

Yes, just as Yelmalio uses the fire rune.

[Jose]

3 hours ago, Scotty said:

Yes, both don't really exist outside the Paps, it's only Eiritha and Ernalda cultists that can use them (they can use those runes to cast the spells). For iconography use the ones in the list, or the rare shaman who has them as a spirit cult.

Runes are from the upcoming Prosopaedia.

Yes, just as Yelmalio uses the fire rune.

Thanks, that clarifies the doubt for me. I am fine with that. Henceforth that would be the correct runes for me. 

[MagikarpHunter]

She Who Waits is considered the "owner" of the Moon Rune, rather than the Red Goddess? That's interesting.