What are the runes for Ygg

[FaFaFa]

Hello,

I need to know what are the runes for Ygg, one of my pc wants to create an Yggite character. Is the cult description in HQ1 still valid?

And does anyone know what other cults can be found on the Ygg Islands?

[metcalph]

Ygg is described in the Guide as the God of the Winter Wind (Guide p232).  Although he's described by the Orlanthi as being a son of Valind, I think it more likely that he's the native face of Valind among the Yggites (parallel examples being Veskarthen and Caladra).  As such, his runes would be storm and stasis (representing icy cold air).  

Other deities worshipped by the Yggites would be Nelarrina, a goddess of the Neliomi Sea (Guide p232) and other Vadrudi (Iphara, Gagarth, Molanni etc)

 

[Joerg]

HeroQuest 1 offers a strange square rune as personal rune for Ygg which doesn't look like much. His affinity runes are Storm and Sea, the elements of his male and female ancestors.

In HeroQuest Glorantha the combination of just two elemental runes might be a bit problematic. The cult magics outlined in HQ1 still ought to apply, though.

(At least sea deities are the most likely source for Vadrudi wives.) Ygg's correct genealogy is mentioned as crucial in the Argrath Saga on the Westfaring, but given the time Argrath spent in Wolf Pirate company on the circumnavigation, that knowledge isn't surprising. I wonder though whether it included the mothers of Valind and Ygg.

The Vadrudi (deities, most of them descendants of Vadrus, but fairly inclusive to cousins meeting their standards of violence) as a rule don't marry, and they take a failure to escape as consent. Think of Orlanth (who flew with the Vadrudi when he was young) as a Vadrudi with a very sheltered and loving upbringing. The male offspring of Vadrudi matings tends to leave their maternal homes as soon as possible and join a (or the) band of storm raiders.

I guess admitting this will pain most Orlanthi, but for a significant portion of the Storm Age Vadrus was the leader of the Storm Tribe - the raid leader with his host of unruly wild hunters. Glorantha is littered with former followers of Vadrus seduced to civilization of one sort or another - Orlanth as the most powerful thanks to being chosen by the most powerful wife, but also Aerlit as ancestor of the Malkioni, Kahar in the Gloranthan East, the storm ancestor of the Triolini in the oceans, and the sons of Storm Bull in Genert's lands.

It seems that few of the Vadrudi can name their fathers, although there are a number of acknowledged children of Vadrus (Valind, Gagarth, Molanni) and Valind (Thryk, Ygg). We don't have any such information on Aerlit, the Triolini storm fathers, Kahar, Desero and Baraku (the failed storm invaders of Pamaltela). If you look closely at the Thunder Brothers, Orlanth's paternity for them cannot be proven in many cases. We have sort of proof for Barntar. There is counter-proof for Odayla. A lot of the subcultitis faces of the Thunder Brothers in Thunder Rebels/Heortling Mythology assume Orlanth as father even when the myths are about Orlanth taking on a name (Niskis, Desemborth), although there are exceptions like Orstan. Durev is a can of worms.

For a storm god, Ygg's ancestry is quite well documented. For a descendant of Vadrus, it is flawless.

I would mitigate Peter @metcalph's statement that Ygg is a face of Valind a bit. Ygg's epithet Seastorm really says it all, and his worship seems to thrive in Gothalos, Ginorth and on the Threestep Isles. The problems of Thunder Brother identities apply to Ygg in his relation to Vadrus and Valind, too.

Ygg's winds are chill storms along the western coast of Genertela (Guide p.665), bringing in cold and occasional ice bergs from the sea adjacent to the glacier. Some of this chill (though hardly any of the ice bergs) may still be felt in northern Jrustela, and will feature regularly in dark and storm season on Gothalos in the Pasos Isles.

This list shows that there are four potential homelands for Yggite characters (though there will be few adult Yggites born on the Threestep Isles, yet.) All of them have grandfathers and great-grandfathers who were held captive by the Syndics' Ban on their rocky islands (and presumably peninsulas) off the Winterwood coast.

I am not sure about worship of Ygg's paternal kin among the Yggites. Valind yes. Gagarth or Molanni? Not quite. Brastalos might figure.

Ancestor worship probably takes up a lot of prominence in roles dedicated to lesser gods among the Heortlings.

Nelarinna and their Niiadic kin do receive worship among the Yggites, as nourishers from the Yggite activities of fishing, whaling and seal-hunting. They will probably worship a beast mother for their woolly goats, too. And at least the "stay-at-home" Yggites on Ygg's Islands can worship Frona for her aid in growing grain (rather than let it spoil or eaten by vermin in their stabburs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%B3rreo#H.C3.B3rreo-like_granaries_in_Europe is what English language Wikipedia makes out of the search term stabbur, to see what I mean check the pictures in the Norwegian version of the article: https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stabbur).

Aldrya as provider of lumber receives some worship and tribute. Yggite lumber-cutting in the coastal forests is tolerated by the green elves of Winterwood, in exchange for an unspecified tribute. The Loskalmi have no such arrangement, which explains their role as suppressors in the islands to make the Yggites provide them with that lumber from Winterwood. With the Thawing along the Janube, the forests of Rathorela offered an alternative for a while, but since the expansion of the Kingdom of War reached Perfe and control of the Janube, the aldryami forests bracketing Loskalm in the north and the south have returned to their role as main lumber reserve for the kingdom that depleted its own forests during the Ban and which carefully avoids reforestation of its depleted forests fearing (justifiedly) that that could invite hostile aldryami presence.

Yggites are master wood workers and ship builders. They ought to have a deity for that, possibly a face of Ygg, or alternatively a school of sorcery providing that magic.

Yes, you read correctly. The chances are high that the Yggites have a native tradition of sorcery for ship-building. The creation of the wolf pirate ships involves sorcery, and while the Yggites were duped into calling the Vadeli allies, I doubt that they had Vadeli present when building the fleet. There is a high likelihood that the Vadeli made them a gift of sorceries stolen from the Waertagi as a corrupting gift. If so, the rough and disorderly Yggite ways proved to be a good security buffer against any such corruption. Sort of. Floki from the TV series Vikings probably fits in right there in the Yggite shipwright industry.

 

[FaFaFa]

Thanks for the replies

[Jeff]

Authoritatively, his runes are Air, Death, and Movement.

[Gallowglass]

I don’t remember Ygg being included in the list for Gods of Glorantha. Is he now being included, or will a cult write up possibly appear somewhere else?

[Brootse]

8 minutes ago, Gallowglass said:

I don’t remember Ygg being included in the list for Gods of Glorantha. Is he now being included, or will a cult write up possibly appear somewhere else?

I'd also really like to see one.

[Egg-Magnus]

Ibid.

Interesting collection of runes, thank you! The absence of sea rune makes sense. Ygg still being a storm tribe, not one of the sea people.