Teshnos

[Ufnal]

Hi, I came to those forums to try and find out where I can read more about Teshnos (beside the obvious place, that is Guide to Glorantha). The old "Glorantha. Introduction to the Hero Wars" has very little information, besides the thing that caught my attention the most - that before Sheng Seleris, there were multiple schools of Mysticism in Teshnos, but all other than Chal's way got destroyed in Sheng's invasion. Is there any publication where such things are elaborated upon?

[Lord High Munchkin]

The sad fact is that anything outside Central Genertela is very poorly covered (if at all).

 

There isn’t even very much on Teshnos in ‘Revealed Mythologies’.

[metcalph]

The multiple schools being destroyed by Sheng was just something that I made up.  There's no canonical list of Teshnan mystical schools as far as I know (and the one in Glorantha: the Second Age is rather too cheesy for my liking).

On the subject of Teshnos, the sources are the Guide to Glorantha and Revealed Mythologies.  Teshnos' Gods are a variation of the High Gods of Vithela (who are themselves analogous to the Celestial Court).  There are nine deities of which five are openly worshipped (Guide p428) - the other four are celestial handmaidens and how they are worshipped is a mystery.  Tolat would make up the Tenth Deity, a disruptive force but one integral to the Cosmos.

 

[Joerg]

Outside of the Guide, Revealed Mythology, and the two antecessors of the Guide (G:IttHW and Genertela: Crucible of the Hero Wars) Teshnos sees few mentions. Argrath accompanying Harrek visited, so we find a one line mention in King of Sartar. Tarkalor and Monrog(h?) visited in Tarkalor's youth, which influenced the Sartarite and Praxian Sun Dome templars, according to the Baltimore RQ con booklet - little info on the place. The info on the Opening of the Seas by Kethaelans in the region is more or less repeated in the Guide, but can also be found in the RuneQuest Companion which is part of the RQ2 reprint Kickstarter. That same book has a few Jonstown library snippets mentioning Teshnos. Elder Secrets mentions the lack of communication between the Diamond Mountain octamonist dwarves and the humans of the region, and the resident yellow and brown elves (also taken over by the Guide). Men of the Seas has a summary of Teshnos as it presents itself to sailors. Heroquest Voices has a Teshnan section, compatible with Heroquest first edition, which had a few keywords for the homeland - no idea how much of that still is useful. Anaxial's Roster has a few local beasties that may be useful with the attached myths.

The city map of Nochet on glorantha.com has Teshnan inhabitants in Nochet, and the region may have come up in a few Q&As on that site.

Then there are the digest archives with unofficial ideas about Teshnos. Some of those may have found their way into the Guide, too.

 

[Ufnal]

15 hours ago, metcalph said:

The multiple schools being destroyed by Sheng was just something that I made up.

Then you are quite good at making things up, as this one tidbit got me hooked on Teshnos ever since.

 

Somehow I didn't catch that Revealed Mythologies had stuff on Teshnos, thank you for pointing that out! I have read HQ Voices but managed to forget about the Homeland part. Still, it seems that there's not that much to find.

 

Were there any fan publications/writeups/blog posts about Teshnos that are worth reading, or should I go and search through the digest/make stuff up for myself?

 

[jajagappa]

On 2/2/2016 at 5:50 AM, Joerg said:

The city map of Nochet on glorantha.com has Teshnan inhabitants in Nochet, and the region may have come up in a few Q&As on that site.

Aside from noting the Shrine of Calyz, fire of men, and the Shrine of the Many (i.e. a common shrine for the Teshnans), I have merely noted that "Harkelemos the Seeker, a Goldentongue voyager helped bring Calyz to Nochet."  So, no, you won't find anything else at this point in Nochet re: Teshnans. 

There is also a Homeland writeup in the HQ1 book.

Overall, I'd say work through the Guide and create!

[aumshantih]

Namaste:

My last campaign was set in Teshnos during the Hero Wars period (1624 ST - 1630ish).    I used HQ1, which had the basics of a Homeland and there was a pretty evocative write-up in HeroQuest Voices that I quite liked.   I had access to Revealed Mythologies, which, as others have said, don't have a ton of stuff about Teshnos explicitly.  However, the insights into the Vithelan Myth Cycle were really important to my understanding of Eastern Glorantha.

If you wish to venture into the wild "no longer canonical" lands, there were some bits that Mongoose published under their Second Age line.   I found it interesting, if not super compelling.   If you wish to look anywhere, Robin D. Law's "Glorantha, the Second Age", is probably the only thing I'd recommend.

There is a tiny bit in a Finnish fanzine called "The Zin Letters" - but nothing that really stuck with me.

I was pretty active on the lists at the time, and inspired a lot by the things written there.   I've got some of my campaign notes kicking around, if you want to take a look at them.