Jump to content

Orlanthi crafting


radmonger

Recommended Posts

There is a discussion on the RQ Facebook group about orlanthi craft gods; i think this is better discussed here.

Crafters are, naturally, a possible occupation for the Sartar homeland. You are not going to have a material culture like that of Sartar without specialists making pottery, weapons, carts, buildings and tens to hundreds of other distinct things.

Also, I agree with the consensus that the is no widespread 'rune cult' of crafters that is a peer of Issaries and Lhankhor Mhy. You can't just take every name from the book of heortling mythology and write them up in rune cult format.

Mythologically, Mostal is the Maker. You are not Mostal, nor his kin, so you don't know how to make the things he does.  So where does craft magic come from?

  • Some crafts secrets are only know to outsiders, like Third Eye Blue.  These are presumably ancestor-worshipping spirit cults. Steal a secret from the dwarves, you get to spend your entire afterlife as a spell-dispensing machine.
  • Some crafts are only practiced in the cities. Sartarite stonemasons can clearly do non-bronze age things, so in the absence of friendly aliens, they must have some kind of magic. Is it a guild that teaches rune-like sorcery, or a cult that teaches sorcery-like rune magic? 
  • Some craft secrets are wrested from sprits by a shaman. These show up suddenly without context, are widespread for a generation, and then fall out of fashion just as suddenly. they never outlive the shaman. So 1613 was the year every orlanthi princeling and merchants daughter had a wooden flying toy.
  • Some craft is done as a clan specialty, representing a magical secret known by the clan wyter or ancestor. so only the wind whsilte clan knows how to make wind whistles.
  • Most craft is done in the home, produced for family members without payment. As such is the domain of Ernalda, not Orlanth. Ernalda worked as a seamstress in Yelm's palace, and she has daughters who have mastered every domestic craft. One of the roles of Issaries the trader it to gather together those handicrafts, by exchanging gifts with their producers. If they then sell them in the marketplace for coin, that is how the magic works.

But a full-time crafter  has an occupation and associated income. Which means they are not followjng that kind of archetypal Ernaldan gender role. So their deity and cult of choice with be Nanda. This doesn't actually provide them with crafting magic. Glorantha, sans magic, is a bronze age world, not a stone age one. So not all crafters _need_ magic do do their work. Instead, Nanda provides them with the magic they need to follow their occupation within traditional Heortling tribal society.

 

 

Edited by radmonger
  • Like 1
  • Thanks 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, radmonger said:

I agree with the consensus that the is no widespread 'rune cult' of crafters that is a peer of Issaries and Lhankhor Mhy.

We like to go on about Lodril as an agricultural deity, but I suspect that his remit is wider. For the farmers, he is responsible for canal irrigation, right? One suspects also agricultural tools. But he built the Gods Wall and invented the cylinder seal, IIRC. So Lodril and family should do for crafting and engineering when no other cult seems right.

If he is not mentioned much, it is because he is disdained by Orlanthi as an embarrassing “foreigner” and rival whose innovations were “not invented here.”

1 hour ago, radmonger said:

So not all crafters _need_ magic do do their work.

Spot on, I think — even when your god is the patron/inventor of your trade, don’t suppose you always need spells to conduct that trade.

  • Thanks 1

NOTORIOUS VØID CULTIST

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Back in 2016 Jeff gave a snippet about Guilds

"And here is an excerpt on guilds:

Guilds

Gloranthan guilds are quasi-kinship societies organized around a craft or occupation. In most cases, a member is “adopted” into a guild. Guilds also serve as cults to their patron spirit or founder, and offer regular sacrifices and feasts. In most cities, one must belong to a guild to have the right to practice a trade, but the guild has some sort of collective liability to outsiders.

Each guild tends to be independent; belonging to the Redsmith Guild in New Pavis does not make you a member of the Redsmith Guild in Boldhome! In large cities, there may be more than one guild for the same occupation — Nochet is notorious for street fights between rival guilds."

 

Each guild a spirit cult to a patron or founder taking the form of wyter for the group. Each guild member largely worshipping traditional gods,  but revering the spirit of the guild founder or guide. They would be taught cults skills and possibly magic.

  • Like 3
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

In my Glorantha a weaver (at least in Sartar) is indeed an Ernalda cultist.  There is plenty of Gloranthan reference to Ernalda weaving,starting with King of Sartar.   Whether it is in the home or more likIely in the village or temple Loom House; whether  a full time job or part time,  makes no difference.  In either case it is an activity associated with the goddess.  Perhaps the assembled women in the loom house pray to Ernalda.   Certainly weaving can be a cult - taught crafting skill.  But there is no cult-taught weaving spell in the RBOM.  Maybe weaving can feature in Crossing Over into your heroquest, since it appears in legends. 

IMHO weaving requires no particular magic, this is cultural.  Just as generosity is an orlanthi virtue, but you don't need a spell from Orlanth to be generous.

However a weaver - not every weaver - might have some magical aid, for example a set of magical loom weights that enhances weaving skill or speed.

Other crafts do have cult  associations.  Baking and bronze working are both associated with Gustbran in existing Gloranthan documents.  These will be cult taught skills and there are spells in the RBOM that will help work with fire.  

I do not have a particular god in mind to associate with carpentry.  It seems to me that carpentry is too basic and widespread a skill to belong to an obscure spirit cult, because too many people do it.  Making a plow is associated with the Barntar sub cult. But how about making a house, or a door, or a box, or a bench. or a wooden bowl or spoon, or a fencepost?  I can't deal with the proliferation of cults that assigning  each item a different cult source would imply.  Nor can the average Gloranthan sacrifice MPs and learn separate Worship skills for an infinite set of cult gods and spirits. We need a few major ones instead.

Making arrows (fletching)  is definitely a specialized craft.  Like carpentry, it is very widespread, even hsunchen do it.  No one has yet written up an arrow making cult with arrow making temples.  Do you want a fletchers' cult? Maybe. You do you. Do you have to have a fletchers' cult? I think not.   Maybe a guild with a wyter in the city.  But not in the village, or in the nomadic hsunchen camp. 

Maybe widespread skills don't need a cult.  But specialized ones with both  "secrets" and spells might need a cult.  Organizations like guilds need a wyter. But that wyter  is to make them stick together, not necessarily to teach skills.  My inn (to be published)  has a wyter to make the staff stick together, but may be exceptional in that aspect.   But the wyter doesn't teach spells to sweep the floors or wait on the tables.  The cook is a lay member of Mahome and the manager (seneschal) may be Ernaldan or Issaries.  

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 minutes ago, mfbrandi said:

We like to go on about Lodril as an agricultural deity, but I suspect that his remit is wider. For the farmers, he is responsible for canal irrigation, right? One suspects also agricultural tools. But he built the Gods Wall and invented the cylinder seal, IIRC. So Lodril and family should do for crafting and engineering when no other cult seems right.

If he is not mentioned much, it is because he is disdained by Orlanthi as an embarrassing “foreigner” and rival whose innovations were “not invented here.”

Lodril is basically the god of all the hard, thankless work the Pelorian peasants have to do so the Yelmic nobility can sit in their high chairs being all suitably majestic. Lodril's "Ten Sons and Servants" are effectively representatives of these laborers, given their own special names to set certain professions apart. Coopers, carpenters, bricklayers, foremen, etc. These are all connected to either Lodril or one of his many children... in Peloria. The Heortlings have adopted some of his children, i.e. the Lowfires, but they tend to worship the god himself as a volcano god if they do at all (most don't). He's a foreign god, and most of what he does they've got their own gods for.

Anyway, most crafts have their own cult or subcult somewhere; it's just likely to be pretty obscure to us players because most of our characters aren't carpenters, and even the ones who are probably aren't getting a lot of chances to go in-depth about it during adventures.

For example, older material tells us that the Orlanthi god of woodworking is Orstan the Carpenter, a son of Durev and Orane (who themselves have pretty much entirely been subsumed into Orlanth and Ernalda, and essentially just represent those two in the aspect of the humble-but-prosperous freemen of a clan). Orstan is almost certainly found as a sub-cult of Orlanth, because most minor Orlanthi godlings like him are these days. Other crafts are likely similar, being at most a small subcult of either Orlanth or Ernalda, but more likely just a name associated with them, with a few standout exceptions like redsmiths.

  • Thanks 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Most of the difficulties people are struggling with here are an artifact of presuming that each cult must have one object of worship. But let's say you have subcults, and people can engage with these gods within the structure of the broader Yelmalio or Ernalda or Orlanth cult. This makes it easier to cope with how these blue-collar skills, like carpentry and weaving, can have a continuum between their aspect as everyday tasks and their aspect as specialized trades which require a lot of specialized knowledge. 

Or, alternately, we can say that these are inherently simple tasks anyone can do, and carry no "magic", no secret power associated with being initiated and learned in the secrets of the task. Which I personally think is a bunch of hooey, but you do you, everyone has their own Glorantha and their own understanding of what "magic" means in it. 

  • Like 2
  • Thanks 2

 "And I am pretty tired of all this fuss about rfevealign that many worshippers of a minor goddess might be lesbians." -Greg Stafford, April 11, 2007

"I just read an article in The Economist by a guy who was riding around with the Sartar rebels, I mean Taliban," -Greg Stafford, January 7th, 2010

Eight Arms and the Mask

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Leingod said:

The Heortlings have adopted some of his children, i.e. the Lowfires, but they tend to worship the god himself as a volcano god if they do at all (most don't). He's a foreign god, and most of what he does they've got their own gods for.

Gustbran and Mahome work fine for: redsmithing/pottery (former) and cooking/baking (latter).

2 hours ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

In my Glorantha a weaver (at least in Sartar) is indeed an Ernalda cultist.

Agree. Ernalda provides for many of the domestic crafts.

Waha the Butcher and Eiritha cover: butchery, leatherworking, and related crafts.

I like Barntar for the farming/plowing crafts as well as carpentry and the like.

In Esrolia, there's Vogarth Big-man who undoubtedly helps with the labors of stone and woodwork.  

I use Lokarnos for anything associated with wagons and wheels (driving them, building them, etc.).  Not a huge cult, but it's one option available. 

 

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

We know there are crafts with very specific magical secrets associated with them. Heat Metal is an example, a spirit magic spell that I assume is secret to Gustbran and related cults. Gustbran also provides Furnace Fire, and makes various Enchant (Metal) magics available to Initiates, that are normally only available to Rune levels in other cults.

There are skills which have a clearly stated ritual aspect and may be reserved to particular cults. Peaceful Cut is the one that jumps to mind, it is essentially Craft (Butchery) by another name. Perhaps it involves the expenditure of fractions of magic points to placate the spirit of the butchered animal.

My thought is that many if not all crafts do involve "magic", the knowledge of ritual secrets and the invocation of magical power. They are not inherently simply tasks that anyone can do; but for game purposes the magical knowledge involved is simply subsumed under the skill rating itself. Craft (brewing) is not just "making and flavouring beers", but includes the minor magics involved in that process (invoking the sprit of fermentation, or whatever). Craft (masonry) incorporates sorcerous secrets stolen or learned from the dwarves. These are guild secrets, and perhaps the carpenters guild in Jonstown does invoke Orstan the Carpenter in their rites, freemasonry style.

But that doesn't necessitate a cult of Orstan, let alone a sub-cult of Orlanth the Woodworker.

  • Like 2
  • Helpful 2
  • Thanks 1

--

The Voralans presents Glorantha's magical mushroom humanoids, the black elves. "Absolutely phenomenal" - Austin C. "Seriously weird-ass shit" - John D. "A great piece of work" - Leon K. The Electrum best-selling The Children of Hykim documents Glorantha's shape-changing totemic animal people, the Hsunchen. "Magisterial ... highly recommended" - Nick Brooke. "Lovingly detailed and scholarly, and fun to read" - John H. "Absolutely wonderful!" - Morgan C.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

IMG there are skill secrets and spell secrets. We know they both exist because they inhabit different zones of the character sheet and rely on different progression mechanics.

"Guilds" teach skills without direct interaction with a spirit or a god. In theory, practical experience makes you better and can even unlock technical innovations that you can then choose whether you want to share with others. Under normal circumstances, your expertise remains with you for life. Because technical skills do not have independent existence outside people's heads, they can be lost (and will need to be rediscovered) if not passed on.  "Cults" teach spells that are the property of the tutelary spirit or god. You don't need to practice and you don't need anyone to show you the tricks. All you need is the right relationship with the entity that supports the spell. And finally, casting a craft spell over and over doesn't make you better at the craft. If you leave the cult and lose the spell, the expertise was never yours, so it's gone.

In what we like to consider modern Orlanth society, craft "spells" have atrophied since the dawn into a scattered body of specialized augments that make skill use more efficient in some way: faster, reduced material or labor inputs, fewer fumbles, whatever. What they all have in common is that they're "extra" . . .  procedures that someone stacks on top of a skill in order to get incrementally better results. You spend the same day in the workshop either way. Most of the time you shovel charcoal into a furnace and the metal gets hot or the pots get fired or whatever. The next day, you reload the furnace and do it again. Sometimes you really want it to work so you do a special dance when the stars are right and wear your lucky socks. As long as you keep getting appreciably better results, you keep using the spell alongside your skill.

And as the collective library of technical expertise grows, the spells recede further into the background. Maybe once upon a time spells did most of the work and you were largely a passive observer of what the gods and spirits created for you. Now gods and spirits who are only worshipped to provide craft augments get pushed into the background. They become increasingly obscure. Maybe once upon a time everyone who wanted to weave a basket needed to sacrifice to Baskamenta. Now you just keep the rushes moving day by day and once in a great while you bring in a spell to help make sure a wedding or other ceremonial function gets all the special stuff it needs. The higher your skill and the more advanced your physical plant, the less you need the augments.

Within modern Sartar, the role of the "cult" shifts from facilitating the material basics that sustain human existence to providing answers to bigger questions: who are we, where do we go when we die, how do we perpetuate the work of creation or not. This is where spells that do things we would truly consider supernatural persist . . . the deep secrets of souls and bodies, powers and elements, energy and matter. Miracles.

Once upon a time there was a little goddess of changing diapers and another one who knew about yarn and a third who wove the baskets. Those fragmented situational identities and their specialized techniques converged into a consolidated Ernalda, a way to be a well-rounded adult human who can do a lot of things and can always learn more. Others became a consolidated Orlanth, a different way to live, a different route to consciousness. The process may not be done yet, but for now, these are the two main ways of being human in modern Sartar. You don't need to be a professional fighter to perform the Orlanth mysteries. You can have just about any job. But your soul belongs to a god who supports a catalog of mysteries that go beyond your day-to-day occupation.

Now the skill-driven "guild" system runs up against both sorcery and the western / mostal caste ideology in obvious ways. Maybe that's the future of Gloranthan humanity and maybe it's the past. I like to think unbundling technical knowledge as the secular skills frees up room in the soul for the important business, but that's just me. And of course other cultures are different. In Dara Happa most workers are cut off from the high mysteries (no individual initiation) and their identity revolves around job associations, family, other secular pillars or the Lunar Way. In deep Pamalt country everything might still be handled on transactional animist "spell" terms where we give a spirit of the basket (!) the body today and when we come back the spirit has made us that basket we needed. Who really knows what they have in Kralorela these days.

I do love the notion that coinage is literally the medium for this historical exchange. When production and consumption are both within the home (or slightly larger commune) then these are wyter functions . . . the spirit of the stead is circulating, feeding and being fed in return. Once a pot of spare grain gets alienated from that primal scene, the world changes. "Magic" isn't necessarily diminished, although this is the dangerous moment through which the old gods can be silenced if things go in that direction. Luckily there is a god at the crossroads who can negotiate these situations.

  • Like 6
  • Thanks 1

singer sing me a given

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another way to handle this, might be to say the cults as presented are the " heroic" versions of the cults - the bits of the cults that your derring do types worship when they go out into the world to make their mark, these are the bits that have been recorded , because lets face it grandpa facing down the vampire at the edge of Upland marsh with flaming sword and  steely expression makes a better winter story than grandpa invoking the purity spirits to make his Ale clearer.

So there may well be all sorts of crafting spells associated with existing deities: Gustbran, Issaries, Etyries, Ernalda etc etc it's just that nobody has chronicled them because they're not particularly sexy.....

Edited by Agentorange
  • Thanks 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, scott-martin said:

Within modern Sartar, the role of the "cult" shifts from facilitating the material basics that sustain human existence to providing answers to bigger questions: who are we, where do we go when we die, how do we perpetuate the work of creation or not.

So …

It is a losing — or at least risky — proposition to rely on gods for important stuff like food, baskets, and roofs that don’t leak, so we improved the mundane solutions. So far, so good. But then we pushed the gods off to the whiny fluff area of “who am I and what does it all mean?” — I suspect the demotion narked the always thin-skinned deities somewhat, so they worked on changing the answers into excuses for major bloodshed.

At least, after too much mead and hazia last night, that is what I “explained” to the local cult leaders. When I woke up this morning, I had been dipped in pitch and staked in the middle of this pyre. How about you, what did you do wrong?

(Or after Banks, in a post-scarcity economy — it is all relative — we go to war over ideology. But we don’t have any of that in Glorantha, so all is sweetness and light.)

  • Thanks 1

NOTORIOUS VØID CULTIST

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, mfbrandi said:

(Or after Banks, in a post-scarcity economy — it is all relative — we go to war over ideology. But we don’t have any of that in Glorantha, so all is sweetness and light.)

1542537298_download(2).jpeg.26545ec4595b1ca6203326b613b5deeb.jpeg

7112af8ec0df90e6e2f7003ea1ae20b559b9d16088c04ae99a0035b7426bd734.gif.3b186d6a51494bcc21a1a3943bb65a91.gif

 

This, I declare, is ideology. 

  • Haha 1

 "And I am pretty tired of all this fuss about rfevealign that many worshippers of a minor goddess might be lesbians." -Greg Stafford, April 11, 2007

"I just read an article in The Economist by a guy who was riding around with the Sartar rebels, I mean Taliban," -Greg Stafford, January 7th, 2010

Eight Arms and the Mask

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 hours ago, radmonger said:

But a full-time crafter  has an occupation and associated income. Which means they are not followjng that kind of archetypal Ernaldan gender role. So their deity and cult of choice with be Nanda. This doesn't actually provide them with crafting magic. Glorantha, sans magic, is a bronze age world, not a stone age one. So not all crafters _need_ magic do do their work. Instead, Nanda provides them with the magic they need to follow their occupation within traditional Heortling tribal society.

Nandani follow the Ernaldan role, per the description they are women born in the shape of men, that appears to be broadly the point of Nandan as (sub)cult and a gender. I'd also imagine plenty of Ernaldan women from the "Orlanthi All" work as skilled crafters, especially in cities like Jonstown: the starter set tells us as much.

Ernalda seems to be the patron of many crafts, anything that grows or comes from the earth is something she has input in mythically. Ernalda's close cultic ties with Mahome means that bakers and cooks are also included within the broader Ernaldan complex. Issaries seems to be an important cult for the role of the crafter-proprietor, but outside of an urban environment that probably doesn't have much purchase.

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm in the "all crafts have magic, but not all magic is spells" camp. Ordinary augments, runic or otherwise, can easily carry as much magic as the story calls for without need for MP. The weaver singing to her loom, the smith imbuing his strokes with the heat of his passion, the carpenters dancing a dance of stability into the foundations of a house, it doesn't all need spells. And honestly, I think a lot of "combat" spirit spells have just as much non-combat use too.

As for gods, the current model still has all the old names for HW, but they are mostly either alternate names of or subservient deities to the primary gods. Lodril has his ten sons, which are also him in his aspects as different workers, but except in a few cases (Gustbran) they're worshiped as part of his cult (probably without a distinct subcult even - those are for much more distinct splits like adventurous/thunderous). Barntar is either worshiped alone or as Orlanth, but either of them can probably also serve as the patron for a variety of crafts. I'd argue that Ernalda and Lodril are the two biggest crafter gods out there. Issaries is worshiped where crafts are to be sold, but he doesn't concern himself with the actual making.

  • Like 2
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

35 minutes ago, David Scott said:

Crafting magic is covered pretty much by (making) Masterwork items in W&E, and we've a good list of minor items in Common Enchantments to base new ones on.

Also in W&E

"The RuneQuest Gamemaster Sourcebook contains rules on the creation of further magical items and minor enchantments."

So there seems to be some more refinement when this volume appears.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

In reply to the OP:

I see the Orlanthi, or perhaps more specifically Sartarite, economy as being more of Celtic/Gaulish one, where gift giving fuels the creation and dissemination of high quality /high prestige goods.

A sword taken as booty given to you by the chief or prince is certainly a prize, but a cloak hand made for you by tribal queen at the specific request of the king is something you'd kill to protect! Sure, the sword has a matrix on it and that's nice, but the cloak is a visible symbol of your standing with the rulers of your area. You may not be a thane in royal household, but the King knows you and values your friendship enough to grant you something not only in limited supply [the royal household can produce only so many cloaks a year after all] but with a personal stamp on it.

By this process alone, you could easily have 5 or 8 people employed cleaning, carding, spinning, and weaving the woolen fabric, and that doesn't take into account the dyes and embroidery.

But some materials are expensive to get... even if you have that rarest of rares in your tula, a tin mine, it takes A LOT of manpower to wrest that metal out of the ground. And that's manpower taken away from feeding the clan. Then, of course, you have to smelt the tin to a pure enough alloy to make bronze, which takes MORE people.

What I'm saying here is that gift-giving only goes so far as an economic driver. At some point you have to go to an exchange /cash economy in order to import necessary goods for your clan's craft operations. And the more crafters you have, the greater the need to import materials. After all, a clan would quickly deforest their entire tula if they relied solely on their own resources to supply firewood and charcoal [two VERY different things].

So I do see the need for cults like Gustbran and Issaries in an Orlanthi clan. Third Eye Blue is a secretive sorcery cult and just because Apple Lane had a pair of TEB smiths doesn't mean they're common. Most smiths in Orlanthi society would likely be Gustbrans. Ernalda is a perfectly good cult for men and women handicraft-crafters [potters, weavers, other on-the-steading make-as-needed crafts] but cults that rely on mathematics [masons, for example] are going to go looking for a deity that'll fit their needs. I'd imagine that Flintnail could very well expand out of Pavis after Argrath's victory.

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

One question that occurs to me. Is who did masonry in Sartar in 1620?  Not the royal roads, since we are told Sartar got the dwarfs tp make those.  I am talking about more modest masonry: chimneys in the towns (in the countryside they are rare), stone fortifications, the occasional temple, ovens (which are also rare since we are told Flatbread is typical), and tombs.  Flintnail may expand from Pavis after 1627, but before that?  There have to have been native Sartarite masons.   Not as skilled as the dwarfs or the Flintnail cultists, but still there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

One question that occurs to me. Is who did masonry in Sartar in 1620?

Here’s what Jeff said last summer on the RuneQuest Facebook group.

8625D845-E776-4D5A-BCBE-83D83A02F4AB.jpeg.be5e2f47c116fc40aac48516114a5550.jpeg

  • Like 1
  • Helpful 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/23/2023 at 4:59 PM, Brian Duguid said:

We know there are crafts with very specific magical secrets associated with them. Heat Metal is an example, a spirit magic spell that I assume is secret to Gustbran and related cults. Gustbran also provides Furnace Fire, and makes various Enchant (Metal) magics available to Initiates, that are normally only available to Rune levels in other cults.

There are skills which have a clearly stated ritual aspect and may be reserved to particular cults. Peaceful Cut is the one that jumps to mind, it is essentially Craft (Butchery) by another name. Perhaps it involves the expenditure of fractions of magic points to placate the spirit of the butchered animal.

My thought is that many if not all crafts do involve "magic", the knowledge of ritual secrets and the invocation of magical power. They are not inherently simply tasks that anyone can do; but for game purposes the magical knowledge involved is simply subsumed under the skill rating itself. Craft (brewing) is not just "making and flavouring beers", but includes the minor magics involved in that process (invoking the sprit of fermentation, or whatever). Craft (masonry) incorporates sorcerous secrets stolen or learned from the dwarves. These are guild secrets, and perhaps the carpenters guild in Jonstown does invoke Orstan the Carpenter in their rites, freemasonry style.

But that doesn't necessitate a cult of Orstan, let alone a sub-cult of Orlanth the Woodworker.

It occurred to me that perhaps the crafting magic already exists but that we think of it in a different context. Consider Bladesharp  - that staple of  adventurers. Plus 5% to skill , + 1 to damage. But your carpenter may know Sawsharp + 5 % to craft carpentry, maybe the +1 damage allows the saw to move through the wood a little easier or some such . Just as the adventurer casts bladesharp when he needs it, maybe the carpenter only casts Sawsharp when they need to finesse a difficult piece of work. it is essentially the same spell, but the context is different. Possibly Bludgeon works in the same way  for any job involving hitting things with hammers. heal 1 would be dead handy for those occasions when you ding your thumb with a hammer or get a fish hook stuck in your hand......

 

Edited by Agentorange
  • Like 3
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 minutes ago, Agentorange said:

ust as the adventurer casts bladesharp when he needs it, maybe the carpenter only casts Sawsharp when they need to finesse a difficult piece of work. it is essentially the same spell, but the context is different.

Here's something Greg Stafford wrote, back in 1988, published in a piddly little fanzine that I published:

 

325420675_720174896357767_4759123100656437871_n.jpg

  • Like 2
  • Thanks 1
  • Confused 1

--

The Voralans presents Glorantha's magical mushroom humanoids, the black elves. "Absolutely phenomenal" - Austin C. "Seriously weird-ass shit" - John D. "A great piece of work" - Leon K. The Electrum best-selling The Children of Hykim documents Glorantha's shape-changing totemic animal people, the Hsunchen. "Magisterial ... highly recommended" - Nick Brooke. "Lovingly detailed and scholarly, and fun to read" - John H. "Absolutely wonderful!" - Morgan C.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 minutes ago, Brian Duguid said:

Here's something Greg Stafford wrote, back in 1988, published in a piddly little fanzine that I published:

 

325420675_720174896357767_4759123100656437871_n.jpg

Well, there you go then. I shall wander around feeling smug about my insight for the next 5 minutes or so until I go and cook some sausages for my tea.

mmmm.......Heat Sausages....there's a spell in there somewhere. 😄

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...