Korolan Islands and Fires of Mingai

[Goldennose]

Hi,

There are two new books set in the Korolan Islands of the East Isles, now available from the Jonstown Compendium.

First of all, I would like to thank all the wonderful people making the books and in any way helping creating them. There are many of you, and without you the book would not be here; Tania Rodriguez-Kaarto made awesome covers, Neil Gibson´s layouts, the artists Juha Heinänen and Wille Ruotsalainen, all the proofreaders and the playtesters and their help in making the contents much better than they originally were. Juuso Welin´s contribution in particular was huge, with his better versions of the maps in the adventures. David Cake for his really hard work on the Mysticism and Martial Arts. But most of all, Nils Weinander for his interest in the project, valuable contrubution and access to his old texts of the Korolan Islands. I have had great time with making the books, and will happily continue doing more.

About the books.

Korolan Islands, the first volume in the series of the Hero Wars in the East Isles, is a source book. It descripes the setting, including keets and sorns, the local island gods (Parondpara) and the bigger gods (Parloth) worshipped in the Korolan Islands. More will become available in the future books. In the book there are loads of information about the Mysticism and Martial Arts. The are new weapons and armors. Homelands, Occupations and Background Tables for the creating the Adventurers. In the back of the book are lists of islands and gods. 91 pages and lots of pictures.

Fires of Mingai, the second volume, is the book of adventures. Two of the Korolan Islands get a more detailed description. The places of interest included and the major characters are fully statted. The is a rumors table. The four full adventures are The Nest, The Hill of Red Top, Korolan Games and Fires of Mingai, and it is a campaign. The book has 129 pages with lots of maps and arts.

Hopefully the buyers are happy with what we have created, and most of all, I hope folks really play the scenarios. It would be awesome to hear how they went. The playtest campaigns our playtesters had, were all very different to each other. That is of course how it should be.

The Volume 3 is hard in the works at the moment. It will have a new set of full adventures, fully detailed Tamoro and Luvata islands, and more of the ships and of seafairing than these. It will also introduce more new gods.

The books are found here.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/411738/Korolan-Islands-Hero-Wars-in-the-East-Isles--Volume-1

and

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/411742/Fires-of-Mingai-Hero-Wars-in-the-East-Isles--Vol-2

Hannu Rytövuori

 

Edited October 26, 2022 by Goldennose

[Gallowglass]

Both books were excellent! I especially liked the Mysticism and Martial Arts rules in the first book. They integrate well with the existing rules, which already have 3 magic systems and a ton of options! Congrats to @davecake for that! I made a couple of characters just for fun and they turned out roughly as powerful as a player character from Dragon Pass, but not too powerful!

I am wondering if you plan on including any of the following in future books- 

1. More example schools of martial arts and mysticism? With more austerities? I don't mind coming up with more options myself, but it's always nice to give players a solid writeup that they can look at. 
2. Writeups for any of the following cults: Hensarava, Enevar, Kabalt, Thella, Prosendara? They come up a lot in the mythology, and seem like some of the more prominent Parloth in the East Isles. I think some of them have writeups in other places, but I'm very curious to see your take on them (especially Dream Magic!). 

Someday I'd love to see homeland writeups for other parts of the East Isles, like Mokato and Hanfarador, but that seems like it's outside the scope of your project. 

I also had a question about the final adventure in book 2, spoilers follow-

Spoiler

The motivations of Karhana, and the Karkal priests in general, seem unclear to me. Why have they continued human sacrifice for so long? If Goldennose corrupted the practices of the cult in Mingai, it seems like over the course of hundreds of years, someone would have noticed. Especially given that the Parloth temples usually bring in people from other islands. I might tweak the story to have the spirit of Goldennose be covertly possessing the Karkal priests every few generations, waiting for an appropriately evil host like Karhana to come along. 

 

I hope to try running these adventures for some players, although I don't know when. Keep up the great work!

[soltakss]

58 minutes ago, Gallowglass said:

I also had a question about the final adventure in book 2, spoilers follow-

  Hide contents

The motivations of Karhana, and the Karkal priests in general, seem unclear to me. Why have they continued human sacrifice for so long? If Goldennose corrupted the practices of the cult in Mingai, it seems like over the course of hundreds of years, someone would have noticed. Especially given that the Parloth temples usually bring in people from other islands. I might tweak the story to have the spirit of Goldennose be covertly possessing the Karkal priests every few generations, waiting for an appropriately evil host like Karhana to come along. 

 

 

In my opinion ...

Spoiler

The priests just like to cover their backs. Each one becomes a Priest and then the King, but doesn't think of the consequences. They have to sacrifice to keep going, leading to their corruption. Maybe each is led on that path in a different way but all succumb.

 

 

[Goldennose]

14 hours ago, Gallowglass said:

I am wondering if you plan on including any of the following in future books- 

1. More example schools of martial arts and mysticism? With more austerities? I don't mind coming up with more options myself, but it's always nice to give players a solid writeup that they can look at. 
2. Writeups for any of the following cults: Hensarava, Enevar, Kabalt, Thella, Prosendara? They come up a lot in the mythology, and seem like some of the more prominent Parloth in the East Isles. I think some of them have writeups in other places, but I'm very curious to see your take on them (especially Dream Magic!). 

More about mysticism and martial arts will be in the forthcoming books for sure. There will be the martial arts school of the Luvata Island in Vol 3, but even more in the books that follow. In Vol 3 there will be cult writeups of Enevar and Prosendara from that list, but others will have to wait for other books. In all there are six new Parloth/Adpara cult writeups in Vol 3.

Unfortunately you will have to wait a while for the Dream Magic. We have a plan to have that in the source book about Haragala, that is possibly/hopefully coming to be Vol 6.

 

14 hours ago, Gallowglass said:

Someday I'd love to see homeland writeups for other parts of the East Isles, like Mokato and Hanfarador, but that seems like it's outside the scope of your project.

There will be more, but not Mokato or Hanfarador for a while. The plan is to continue making these books, so you never know. There are plans to have fully descriped Sironomandidi in Vol 4, a sandbox setting together with the already published materials. Haragala is also hopefully coming, but there are other books before that.

Thank you for your kind words.

[Goldennose]

14 hours ago, Gallowglass said:

I also had a question about the final adventure in book 2, spoilers follow-

About your question, I like your idea, and surely that would work. Maybe even better. Do have it in the way you think suits you and your group best, as with everything. I had kind of thought it the way Soltakks wrote.

[davecake]

18 hours ago, Gallowglass said:

I especially liked the Mysticism and Martial Arts rules in the first book. They integrate well with the existing rules, which already have 3 magic systems and a ton of options! Congrats to @davecake for that!

Thanks for the kind words. I worked pretty hard on them. 

 

18 hours ago, Gallowglass said:

I made a couple of characters just for fun and they turned out roughly as powerful as a player character from Dragon Pass, but not too powerful!

That was very much my intention, that a martial artist character or mystic would be roughly as powerful as a character that used different magic, but feel distinctively different. 
 

18 hours ago, Gallowglass said:

More example schools of martial arts and mysticism? With more austerities?

Very definitely yes. 

 

18 hours ago, Gallowglass said:

Writeups for any of the following cults: Hensarava, Enevar, Kabalt, Thella, Prosendara? They come up a lot in the mythology, and seem like some of the more prominent Parloth in the East Isles. I think some of them have writeups in other places, but I'm very curious to see your take on them (especially Dream Magic!). 

Those are all planned for future books, some already in progress. 

18 hours ago, Gallowglass said:

Someday I'd love to see homeland writeups for other parts of the East Isles, like Mokato and Hanfarador, but that seems like it's outside the scope of your project. 

They will probably happen eventually, but we’re not in scope for the first couple of books. 

[Gallowglass]

8 hours ago, Goldennose said:

There are plans to have fully descriped Sironomandidi in Vol 4, a sandbox setting together with the already published materials.

That’s a great idea actually. I was rereading the East Isles chapter from the Guide and Sironomandidi struck me as having lots of potential. You’ve basically got a mega dungeon cave system with its own towns, ancient secrets, elder races, etc.

Coincidentally the Thousand Thousand Isles folks are also releasing a book about cave societies. For those who don’t know them, they are a group of creators from Southeast Asia (mostly Malaysia I think?) who make system neutral setting material inspired by their homeland’s mythology and history. It’s meant to be used with OSR D&D type rules, but you could easily insert their stuff into Glorantha. Here’s a link to their Instagram in case anyone wants to check out the stellar artwork. 
https://instagram.com/wearecentaurgames?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

On their IG they even have a picture of a boar-man, inspired by the local babirusa wild pig. I think this is how I’m going to imagine your Mralotaurs from now on!

[Nick Brooke]

Here's the main page for A Thousand Thousand Islands. It's a series of rules-free art zines by Zedeck Siew (text) and Mun Kao (art), packed with imagery and almost poetic idea seeds for South-East Asian inspired fantasy roleplaying, and if you're playing in the East Isles you'd be crazy not to look at them for inspiration. I'm a massive fan.

[Goldennose]

15 hours ago, Gallowglass said:

On their IG they even have a picture of a boar-man, inspired by the local babirusa wild pig. I think this is how I’m going to imagine your Mralotaurs from now on!

Amazing coincidence. But surely looks cooler from what i came up with drawing. 🙂 It definitely looks like a Mralotaur. All their arts are amazing.

Edited October 28, 2022 by Goldennose

[Ulla Taalasmaa]

These are great books, but why are there no thief occupation included?

[Goldennose]

3 hours ago, Ulla Taalasmaa said:

These are great books, but why are there no thief occupation included?

Glad you liked them.

The reasons for there being no Thief included. There are a couple of reasons. Thief did not suit well with the starting point setting, that is the Korolan Islands. It did not fit well with the adventures in the Volume 2 either. There was no fitting Parloth cult in Vol 1 for that. There will be Thief and other new occupations in the future volume set in the Haragala island, and Champaya City in there. Thief will by then have Parloths to choose from, and thief will likely fit the adventures set in big city better. Use the Thief occupation in the Corebook, and make the little changes it needs in the setting of East Isles.

[davecake]

17 hours ago, Ulla Taalasmaa said:

These are great books, but why are there no thief occupation included?

What Hanna said. Of course theft occurs in the East Isles, but professional thieves are something that happens largely in large urban centres, and they don’t really exist in the areas covered so far. 

[Goldennose]

Upgraded versions of Volumes 1 and 2 with added handouts are now out.

* Some of the arts have been upgraded. 

* New handouts are added to both volumes. Volume 1 has a new area map of Korolan Islands and Sironomandidi. Volume 2 has new VTT maps from the adventures, including player facing versions. Korolan Games sheet for counting points is now added as a handout.

* Edits on texts are done for both volumes from El Runeblogger's suggestions.

Edited August 31, 2023 by Goldennose

[Jason Farrell]

It's always nice to get updates and additions to JC books.  Thanks for that!  I hope to see a volume 3 in the near-ish future.

To be honest, I like the original art style better, though.  Some of the changes seem like odd ones to me.  The original cover is better imo, for example.  I would personally prefer to see the interior art be more like the original drawings than the more filled in, painted looking pieces that replaced them if and when another volume comes out.  Just my 2 cents.

[Goldennose]

Good to hear feedback. Every picture that has been changed in the books is mine, originals and the updated versions. Tania's, Juha's and Wille's arts have not been touched. I was not happy with the varying styles my pictures had, so I made them to be more alike.

Vol 3 is most definedly coming. Texts all ready, adventures playtested multiple times, proofread and all. Needs still bit work on layout and arts.

Edited September 1, 2023 by Goldennose

[Goldennose]

Talking about originals. Here are some of them. The maps were later decided to do to be VTT ready. 

[Goldennose]

Vol 1 is now Silver...  Thanks for your support.

[Goldennose]

The third book is out, and includes six new cults, ships, a new martial arts school, two new Korolan Islands (Tamoro and Luvata) and new adventures. 140 pages.

Here is Anotora in Tamoro island and the cool cover of the book by Tania Rodriguez-Kaarto.