Effect of runes to personality and emulating one's god

[hkokko]

Many of the runes affect (or should affect if character emulates their god) the rune holder's personality in a way that is described in the HQG. Not all the rules need the description or guidance but there are some runes that do not have a description and I thought that it would be interesting to have it. I like Harald's response below and have adapted it to my campaign. 

I added also one for Unlife rune

"soulless, fiendish, relentless, cold"

Moon and Light rune would perhaps benefit of personality traits. What have ascribed to them if you have done so... 

----

Harald Smith responded like this in the Glorantha forum for Law and Spirit: 

While there isn’t a formal ‘personality’ for Spirit and Law, those tend to lead the character towards certain magical outlooks that could easily be described as part of their personality.
Law logical, rigorous, materialistic (as in desiring to use/manipulate the runes/magic to their own ends), judging (or judgmental)
Spirit ecstatic, spiritual, connected (with the spirit world), aware
And your players can probably riff on those thoughts to align with their characters.
As for Communication and Illusion together – sounds like someone who might be smooth-tongued, lying, etc.

[Richard S.]

Light is simply a subrune of Sky/Fire, and so shares most of the same personality traits. Perhaps light is a bit more focused on purity, truth, and holiness.

Moon has been described as being associated with balance, tolerance, and mystical awareness, albeit that is in its pure and undiluted form. The personalities of different phases are dictated by the runes which they represent and the strictures of their associated immortals.

Other runes which I feel need personality are Man, Magic, and Plant. As Magic represents the connection between the middle world and the otherworld, characters with it would probably display a heightened awareness of magic and mystical phenomena. Man and Plant could mean that the character has an innate connection and/or are adept at dealing with creatures of the aforementioned runes.

[hkokko]

Horoscope Personality Traits for Gloranthan Cults

Runequest and Glorantha recommend the character to act like one's god. Cults and gods are associated with runes and many of the runes are associated with personality traits.  If character does not act like the runes one's god represents she is not likely to succeed in Glorantha nor in the cult - in fact she might suffer the displeasure of the cult or one's god.

Personality traits are from Heroquest Glorantha. I felt that there are some runes that should have personality trait information that do not officially have it and added those to Moon, Law and Spirit as per discussions on the Glorantha.com forums and Basicroleplaying Glorantha forums.

 

Orlanthi character has the runes Movement, Air and Mastery. Those will bring the personality traits:

Mastery: Proud, Just, Authorative
Movement: Adventurous, Dynamic, Impulsive, Reckless,
Air: Passionate, Proud, Unpredictable and Violent.
If one acts against those  that might cause divine unpleasure and society's unapproval for not emulating one's cult / god and vice versa. Depending on game system this can be handled many ways.

This brings expectations that player characters might also have about the cult members in Glorantha.

Decided to create a document providing a single page view what each cult's runes would expect from cult initiate or rune lord

 

The list contains all the cults that have Glorantha Cult One Pagers which means all the ones that have cult information in various Runequest editions (Cults Compendium, Cults of Terror, Cults of Prax etc). The runes have been updated based on the research done in this document so should be up to date with the latest information. Changed Ompalam's rune to be Law instead of Harmony. Gloranthan Cult One pagers will be updated shortly with this information.

https://notesfrompavis.wordpress.com/2017/05/01/horoscope-personality-traits-for-gloranthan-cults/

[Byll]

So how does the Orlanthi up hold his 'Just' Trait when he is being 'Reckless' and 'Violent' ? I know there is an inherent tension in Orlanthi kingship acknowledging earlier imprudent action and trying to correct it, but there must be cases where you only have to epitomise a part of a god's characteristics.

[hkokko]

49 minutes ago, Byll said:

So how does the Orlanthi up hold his 'Just' Trait when he is being 'Reckless' and 'Violent' ? I know there is an inherent tension in Orlanthi kingship acknowledging earlier imprudent action and trying to correct it, but there must be cases where you only have to epitomise a part of a god's characteristics.

One could consider that to be the differentiator between the Recklessness of Orlanth and Zorak Zoran or Yinkin. As a GM I might throw in situations where the Orlanthi needs to consider his recklessness and violence in the context of being just - in the context of Orlanthi culture - just. The Orlanthi would not always be just but that would always risk the displeasure of the god/cult and society He would be on the slippery slope of not being worthy Orlanti and that has consequences...

Edited May 1, 2017 by hkokko

[jajagappa]

7 hours ago, Byll said:

So how does the Orlanthi up hold his 'Just' Trait when he is being 'Reckless' and 'Violent' ?

This may fall within the Mastery rune, which after all reflects Sovereignty (rulership) as well as personal mastery.

12 hours ago, hkokko said:

Mastery: Proud, Just, Authorative

You might also consider some of the original comments in RQ2, e.g. "it may also signify the independence of a Hero or magician from cult ties" or "As master of men, it describes a Hero."  So you could end up with Mastery: Heroic, Independent, Authoritative, Just.

[hkokko]

4 hours ago, jajagappa said:

This may fall within the Mastery rune, which after all reflects Sovereignty (rulership) as well as personal mastery.

You might also consider some of the original comments in RQ2, e.g. "it may also signify the independence of a Hero or magician from cult ties" or "As master of men, it describes a Hero."  So you could end up with Mastery: Heroic, Independent, Authoritative, Just.

Could be, this is also a little bit Pandora's box of what to add and what to drop, how many, what kind of adjectives...

Looking at who else has Mastery: Ompalam, She Who Waits, Danfive Xaron, Xentha, Basmol, Vinga, Waha, Pamalt and Argan Argar.... 

[Roko Joko]

On 5/1/2017 at 11:31 AM, Byll said:

So how does the Orlanthi up hold his 'Just' Trait when he is being 'Reckless' and 'Violent' ?

I'm not sure what " 'Just' Trait " you're referring to*, but weregild is pretty brutal.  They have their own idea of what justice means.

* Edit: I see, you must have been referring to "Mastery: Proud, Just, Authorative".  ...One thing that comes to mind is from Making of the Storm Tribe myth in King of Dragon Pass where Orlanth makes conflicting promises to get different clans to join up and then when they all get together and complain about it, he "offers to fight each and every one of them".  Ernalda gets him off the hook from that one.

Edited May 2, 2017 by Roko Joko

[Roko Joko]

The 13th Age book preview has sections that discuss what runes mean for PCs thematically and sometimes in terms of personality.  It looks like the same rune list as in HQG, but there's more and different text per rune.

For Light I think there's plenty of personality stuff in the Yelmalio cult and mythology.  (And I guess Elmal is also Light?)  If you want to do Light-but-not-Yelmalio I don't know.  The heat and light parts of the Fire rune don't seem to have an obvious distinction psychically.  Maybe Light is the Truth part of Fire and Heat is everything else.

One bit about Moon I liked was Thomas Iverson's first comment here: https://plus.google.com/+Iskallor/posts/FBiBN148qfH

[hkokko]

2 hours ago, Roko Joko said:

The 13th Age book preview has sections that discuss what runes mean for PCs thematically and sometimes in terms of personality.  It looks like the same rune list as in HQG, but there's more and different text per rune.

For Light I think there's plenty of personality stuff in the Yelmalio cult and mythology.  (And I guess Elmal is also Light?)  If you want to do Light-but-not-Yelmalio I don't know.  The heat and light parts of the Fire rune don't seem to have an obvious distinction psychically.  Maybe Light is the Truth part of Fire and Heat is everything else.

One bit about Moon I liked was Thomas Iverson's first comment here: https://plus.google.com/+Iskallor/posts/FBiBN148qfH

Wonderful - thanks. How would you describe as single word adjective(s) the attributes that 13th Age book places on Man rune. At this late hour I do not find the right words....

 

[Ian Cooper]

On 01/05/2017 at 4:31 PM, Byll said:

So how does the Orlanthi up hold his 'Just' Trait when he is being 'Reckless' and 'Violent' ? I know there is an inherent tension in Orlanthi kingship acknowledging earlier imprudent action and trying to correct it, but there must be cases where you only have to epitomise a part of a god's characteristics.

Lots of ideologies hold contradictory behaviours to be true.

Sometimes the religion gives easy guidance on this. For example Orlanth takes responsibility for his actions, with the ultimate example being the Lightbringer's Quest. So if I kill Hahlgrim ina  drunken brawl because he insults my prowess (reckless and violent), then I should notify a local juror of the crime (Just) so that his kin can claim compensation from me.

At other times the guidance may be less clear, and there are no good choices, all result in the god's displeasure.

But the important thing to understand is that from such conflicts stem great stories.

 

 

[Joerg]

Would it be just to enter the hall with a bag of silver worth someone's weregeld, then kill that person and toss the man-price next to the corpse?

[soltakss]

On 5/1/2017 at 4:31 PM, Byll said:

So how does the Orlanthi up hold his 'Just' Trait when he is being 'Reckless' and 'Violent' ? I know there is an inherent tension in Orlanthi kingship acknowledging earlier imprudent action and trying to correct it, but there must be cases where you only have to epitomise a part of a god's characteristics.

You claim that you are Orlanth Adventurous, or Orlanth the Thief, not Orlanth Rex.

Orlanth is a many-faceted god, loving husband, abductor of women, thief, murderer, killer of chaos, king, adventurer, farmer and saviour of the world.

[soltakss]

35 minutes ago, Joerg said:

Would it be just to enter the hall with a bag of silver worth someone's weregeld, then kill that person and toss the man-price next to the corpse?

That's my kind of thing!

[Jon Hunter]

A few thoughts on the OP

• The same Runes will manifest differently in different people
• It is often tied to the nature of there God
• A rune is an effect on a person that often struggles and contradicts with those of human nature, culture, goods sense, law and experience
• Then gretater the affinity with the run the greater the affect on the perosnality
• If you want a tragic/personal horror angle on glorantha it is how hero's humanity is destroyed magical power 

[Ali the Helering]

18 hours ago, Joerg said:

Would it be just to enter the hall with a bag of silver worth someone's weregeld, then kill that person and toss the man-price next to the corpse?

Within RW societies that utilised weregeld it wasn't up to the killer or maimer to assess the compensation due.  Now, if the bag had a mailing address attached so that you could be followed up for an excess.....

[Joerg]

1 hour ago, Ali the Helering said:

Within RW societies that utilised weregeld it wasn't up to the killer or maimer to assess the compensation due.  Now, if the bag had a mailing address attached so that you could be followed up for an excess.....

There is this delightful passage in Njal's saga, though, where the friends Njal and Gunnar don't even empty the bag of silver when exchanging the weregeld in the conflict sponsored by their wives.

[Ali the Helering]

17 hours ago, Joerg said:

There is this delightful passage in Njal's saga, though, where the friends Njal and Gunnar don't even empty the bag of silver when exchanging the weregeld in the conflict sponsored by their wives.

Absolutely.  The Mutually Assured Destruction of the two steadings that blossoms to consume the world as Kari hunts down the Burners is probably my favourite piece of historical romance.  The trust between Njal and Gunnar that transcends such simple matters as tit-for-tat 'drive-by' axings and spearings is a joy, and would actually make for a glorious darkly comic tv mini-series.  I think Neil Gaiman could script it nicely....

[JonL]

On 5/6/2017 at 10:27 AM, Joerg said:

Would it be just to enter the hall with a bag of silver worth someone's weregeld, then kill that person and toss the man-price next to the corpse?

It would be legal. It would only be just is he deserved it.

[Patrick]

On 06/05/2017 at 5:27 PM, Joerg said:

Would it be just to enter the hall with a bag of silver worth someone's weregeld, then kill that person and toss the man-price next to the corpse?

Well, up to the circumstances and GM's taste.

A few additional things come into play here, eg:

- breach of hospitality: yes, that's against THAT law, too. The character may be admired for his recklessness by some, yet despised for desecrating a basic principle...

- offended clan's reaction: doing so is pretty much a slap in the face of all the clan, including a challenge to its duty of "Protection". So the killer may not be treated "simply" as a killer, but also a threat to the Ancestors' goodwill

- "no one can make you do anything", applies to weregild acceptance too: so the victim's clan may always prefer to send the money back and start a feud. Or even keep the silver, "taken from the enemy while he was fleeing the scene" ;-)

 

Options, out of endless possibilities...

[Joerg]

26 minutes ago, Patrick said:

Well, up to the circumstances and GM's taste.

A few additional things come into play here, eg:

- breach of hospitality: yes, that's against THAT law, too. The character may be admired for his recklessness by some, yet despised for desecrating a basic principle...

Unless you accept the greeting, you are not subject to the laws of hospitality - otherwise all it would take to stop a band of Orlanthi raiders would be to offer them hospitality.

26 minutes ago, Patrick said:

- offended clan's reaction: doing so is pretty much a slap in the face of all the clan, including a challenge to its duty of "Protection". So the killer may not be treated "simply" as a killer, but also a threat to the Ancestors' goodwill

Sure. To proceed in this way, there has to be a bitter feud, at least on a personal level.

26 minutes ago, Patrick said:

- "no one can make you do anything", applies to weregild acceptance too: so the victim's clan may always prefer to send the money back and start a feud. Or even keep the silver, "taken from the enemy while he was fleeing the scene" ;-)

True. This single killing probably is but a small part of the feud, and the character in question might have taken voluntary exile before performing this slight.

 

This is a protest against one's own clan taking wergeld for the murder of someone important to the person performing this deed. Dropping the wergeld along with the perpretator of the previous killing is a demonstration against the slayer's own clan as well.

The slayer had better an offer to join some powerful person's retinue, since his own clan will most likely decide to distance themselves.

[M Helsdon]

I suspect that a person isn't just affected by their Runes, but by their mixture of Runes, some modifying the manifestation of others. This leads to a very wide variance in behaviors.

[Brian McReynolds]

8 hours ago, Joerg said:

Unless you accept the greeting, you are not subject to the laws of hospitality

If you haven't accepted Hospitality, you're unlikely to be invited into that clan's hall, unless you've somehow managed to sneak across their lands and through the settlement which it lies within. If you've managed all that, you may very well be the kind of Hero that people don't mess with. :-)

[davecake]

Even if you have thrown the bag of silver at them, they are not obliged to accept it as weregeld. I think if you straight up walked in an killed someone and threw a bag of money on the ground next to the corpse, they would be within their rights to reject it as weregeld - and then declare that as it was left in their hall, they were taking it anyway, and anyone who wanted it was welcome to visit them in their half and ask for it back. 

[davecake]

Mastery is usually some form of power of others, and so manifests as being controlling or charismatic. Sometimes Mastery is self discipline, and so manifests as self control and confidence. 
Spirit manifests in ways that in our world would get you diagnosed with Schizotypal oersonality disorder. Its just that in Glorantha they are functional, and so  not a disorder. The voices are real and your magical thinking perfectly valid. 

Similarly, I think the Disorder rune and Illusion Runes manifests in the personality traits that if they are strong would be 'cluster B' perspnality disorders such as sociopathy, narcissism and histrionic personality disorder. That is a who a Trickster is, a bad person who can't stop lying and stealing because it is intrinsic to their nature.