Scorpionmen. Is there chaotic snakemen?

[Manu]

Hi,

 

Is there myth of chaotic snakemen? Snake is strongly related to Earth (Ernalda cults and even Pamalt is represented as a snake man). Then there could be some chaotic snakemen, no?

[AndrewTBP]

There are Chaos snakes, yes. RQ2 p. 98:

Spoiler

While there are a number of the usual garden-variety snakes in Glorantha, one faction of the snake family was heavily influenced by Chaos during the great battle of Darkness against Chaos during the Gods War. Since then, strange sorts of belly crawling types have sprung up in ruins and waterways.

I can’t search my Dorastor book like my PDFs, but it wouldn’t surprise me to find Chaos snake men there. Most folk might call them snake broos until proven otherwise. 

Edited June 10, 2022 by AndrewTBP

[svensson]

1 hour ago, Manu said:

Hi,

 

Is there myth of chaotic snakemen? Snake is strongly related to Earth (Ernalda cults and even Pamalt is represented as a snake man). Then there could be some chaotic snakemen, no?

There can if you want there to be. After all, Chaos corrupts all life and Your Glorantha Will Vary.

Step 1. Decide on base Attributes [STR, POW, etc.]

Step 2. Decide on baseline racial features [Venom bite? If so, how skilled are they at biting and how potent is the poison?]

Step 3. Assuming you want them to have legs ['snake people'], all you have to do is look at the Human /Biped Hit Location Table, shave one location point off of both the left and right leg and apply it to the tail. So: Right Leg 01-03, Tail 04-05, Left Leg 06-08, all other locations remain the same.

Step 4. Apply Chaos Features as you would with Broo.

And, boom, you're done.

[AndreJarosch]

1 hour ago, Manu said:

Hi,

 

Is there myth of chaotic snakemen? Snake is strongly related to Earth (Ernalda cults and even Pamalt is represented as a snake man). Then there could be some chaotic snakemen, no?

As far as i remember there are no chaotic snakemen in canon Glorantha. 

But YOUR GLORANTHA WILL VARY. 

A location infested with Snake Broos?

A valley in which (Dragonewt like) chaotic Snakemen exist?

Maybe they a jungle snake(men)s and live in the jungle of Teshnos or in Pamaltela?

P.S.: For stats i would recommend to use the Call of Cthulhu stats for Serpernt People. 

[Jape_Vicho]

No canonical snake-men AFAIK but there is the Stoorworms, which are chaos-corrupted dragonkind. They have no legs or arms so they look like snakes but huge, with draconic heads and poison breath. They are pretty formidable, luckily they also have no intelligence (Glorantha Bestiary, p. 105). Also even though broos are usually depicted goat-like or at least mammal-like, there should be plenty snake-like (and anything-like) broos too.

Edited June 10, 2022 by Jape_Vicho

[French Desperate WindChild]

what is "good" with chaos for a gm is that anything  could happen

of course our glorantha may vary but in case of chaos, if you don't  remove some canon story / cult / feature, you can create what you want, you are canon 😛

 

[JRE]

I would expect Earth cults to be quite proactive destroying any Chaotic snakemen, as they use snakes as guardians, so they would orefer to erase any connection with Chaos. 

Conversely, where the earth is weak (Prax, The Wastes) you could have corrupted earth guardians that appear mixes of humans and snakes. Former members of Genert's army or of Tada's retinue that survived by being corrupted by Chaos.

Not chaotic, but in Sunken Seshnela you will have human-snake hybrids, trapped in tombs and dungeons underground by the Westerners, probably mad after centuries underground. King Froalar is an example, but surely there were many. 

It is interesting that there are some reptile hsunchen, but no snake hsunchen. 

[Joerg]

There is a chaotic snake-person in one of the RQ3 Renaissance scenarios.

Spoiler

A Tale to Tell, a scenario in the Shadow on the Borderlands book, has a chaotic Lamia mothering ogre children as consequence of a rape in a Sun County village.

 

[Brian Duguid]

14 minutes ago, JRE said:

It is interesting that there are some reptile hsunchen, but no snake hsunchen. 

Snake Hsunchen were one of several tribes of reptile Hsunchen mentioned in the Broken Council Guidebook, along with the lizard people, wyvern people, crocodile people, turtle people, and chameleon people.

The Guide to Glorantha has canonical snake Hsunchen in Errinoru, in Pamaltela, the Yaquma Anaconda people (page 544).

Revealed Mythologies has the Adder and the Anaconda as two of the sixteen Fiwan, or Old People, the original "Hsunchen" of Pamaltelan mythology (page 43).

None of these are likely to be chaotic, of course.

[soltakss]

7 hours ago, Manu said:

Is there myth of chaotic snakemen?

The closest thing is the Lamia, which is not described in the Gloranthan Bestiary.

I have the Book Wyrm, which is a Lhankor Mhy guardian creature, who guards libraries and hisses at anyone who speaks too loudly. They can turn bad and become Chaotic.

[Erol of Backford]

Back in 1982 these were cool and deadly to lower skilled adventures, not from RQ but gives you some ideas... I plan on using them in Sog's Ruins whenever I sort that out.

  

Edited January 27 by Erol of Backford

[Ironwall]

Chaos is chaos. There has probably been an entity both sentient and not that has existed for every conceivable and inconceivable form.  As stated above perhaps a child or servant of genert. Maybe a race descendent of asrelia or even try kora tek turnes to chaos after being sidelined after the green age and golden age ended. Maybe a snake was tainted by chaos and turned into the snake version of that lunar demon bat. Thier is a plethora of ways to introduce a snake chaos entity with or without a connection to a earth diety

Edited June 11, 2022 by Ironwall

[EricW]

On 6/11/2022 at 2:47 AM, soltakss said:

The closest thing is the Lamia, which is not described in the Gloranthan Bestiary.

I have the Book Wyrm, which is a Lhankor Mhy guardian creature, who guards libraries and hisses at anyone who speaks too loudly. They can turn bad and become Chaotic.

In that case Thanatar has access to chaotic book wyrm guardians through Treack Markhor?

Edited June 12, 2022 by EricW

[soltakss]

2 hours ago, EricW said:

In that case Thanatar has access to chaotic book wyrm guardians through Treack Markhor?

Maybe, although my Book Wyrms guard Lhankor Mhy's Ivory Tower.

In our Holiday Dorastor Temple of Heads, there is a HeroQuest that, essentially, allows the Adventurers to access the Gloranthan equivalent of Disc World's L-Space, travelling from a Lhankor Mhy Library to the Ivory Tower, then to Thanatar's Library and finally to a Thanatar Temple. Book Wyrms guard the Ivory Tower, but could follow Adventurers into Thanatar's Library, in which case they could be captured and become his guardians.

Maybe Treack Markhor did something similar.

 

[EricW]

2 hours ago, soltakss said:

Maybe, although my Book Wyrms guard Lhankor Mhy's Ivory Tower.

In our Holiday Dorastor Temple of Heads, there is a HeroQuest that, essentially, allows the Adventurers to access the Gloranthan equivalent of Disc World's L-Space, travelling from a Lhankor Mhy Library to the Ivory Tower, then to Thanatar's Library and finally to a Thanatar Temple. Book Wyrms guard the Ivory Tower, but could follow Adventurers into Thanatar's Library, in which case they could be captured and become his guardians.

Maybe Treack Markhor did something similar.

 

I think that one would deserve a SAN check, both the mind bending journey, and the realisation that Lhankor Mhy and Thanatar might have a stronger connection than anybody admits.

Thanatar's library would also be a hideous experience, perhaps a library which eats adventurers. Copies of every book ever consumed by a cultist, all the knowledge stolen from the world, including really evil tomes which contain forbidden knowledge like the God Learner secret. An enormous temptation to stay and read - but whoever stays and reads has to fight the urge to stay forever. If they fail to resist temptation they themselves effectively become a piece of knowledge which Thanatar has consumed and removed from the world. 

Edited June 12, 2022 by EricW

[soltakss]

3 hours ago, EricW said:

An enormous temptation to stay and read - but whoever stays and reads has to fight the urge to stay forever. If they fail to resist temptation they themselves effectively become a piece of knowledge which Thanatar has consumed and removed from the world. 

That is also a danger in the Ivory Tower - The feeling of wanting to stop and read all the scrolls, or to put them into some kind order, after all, it won't take long ...

 

[Dissolv]

I would definitely put these in Pamaltela.   Not sure why, just an intuitive feeling for it. 

[Darius West]

On 6/10/2022 at 6:54 PM, Manu said:

Hi,

Is there myth of chaotic snakemen? Snake is strongly related to Earth (Ernalda cults and even Pamalt is represented as a snake man). Then there could be some chaotic snakemen, no?

I believe there are chaotic Yuan To snake-men native to Kralorela.