To me, one of the more interesting celestial phenomena in Glorantha is the relationship between Lightfore and the Sun. Lightfore rises each dusk in the east, and sets each dawn in the…
Month: March 2023
Notes on Calyz, the Fire of Men
Teshnos is about 1800 km away from the Mirrorsea Bay, which takes some 7-10 days of sailing with good weather. The most interesting of the Teshnite gods to me is Calyz, the…
Cults of RuneQuest Contributor Copies
Jason’s copies were delivered!
Hero Wars / Battle of Heroes
We all know that the RQG default setting is the Hero Wars, but it is worth remembering that term is likely anachronistic- I think the first use of the phrase is as…
Battle of Heroes Redux
Here’s an old post of mine that I am linking to because there is a LOT of information in it. Check it out and read it carefully!
Clan Membership
People can become clan members by birth or join a clan by adoption. Clans can be patrilineal, matrilineal, or mixed: The mixed descent system is most common among the Sartarites; however, all…
Notes on Valind in Dragon Pass
Valind does not exactly have much of a cult in Sartar. His shrines (all in great temples to Orlanth) get tended by whatever initiates wander there. Now among the Tarsh Exiles, there…
A Sense of How Long Ago Things Were
From time to time I like to dust off this and post again. Now is one of those times! see: Does this mean that more happens in a shorter time on Glorantha…
Notes on Small Cults
In all of Sartar, about 2500 people are initiates of Daka Fal and worship their ancestors and eschew other cults. That’s about the same size as the Chalana Arroy or Lhankor Mhy…
Notes on Shamans
Shamans are an “elect” found in many Gloranthan religions. They are often outside but adjacent to the cult structure, although some cults do make use of shaman-priests (for example, Aldrya, Daka Fal,…
What Happens When You Die
Your soul separates from your body. The material body returns to its basic components, and for seven days, the soul lingers near the body, drifting farther from it and developing spirit senses….
Prosopaedia Preview
One nice thing about my advance copy of the Prosopaedia is it makes it very easy to look up and cross reference various deities and heroes! And damn it looks beautiful!
Degenerative Actions of Gods
The Malkioni posit the existence of something all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good (or at least all-rational) – the Invisible God. That entity is invisible to us – we can’t go “visit it” or…
Gods are Contradictory Archetypes
After having written some million words covering more than one hundred RQ cults, I can confidently say that I find all of them fascinating in their own way. Each represents an archetype…
The Lunar Empire Spy Agency
The Empire maintains multiple internal security and spy networks, including the Emperor’s Spoken Word, the Imperial Bodyguard, the Blue Moon Assassins, and various ad hoc groups that report directly to the Emperor’s…
Interacting with the Divine
Whenever we interact with the divine – the God Time, the Hero Plane, the Spirit World, whatever – we are changed by that experience. This includes initiation into cult, birth of a…
Culture Precedes Cults
It is fascinating how hard it is for us post-modern Westerners to disentangle themselves from the idea that culture precedes cults, even in a fantasy setting such as Glorantha. To a very…
Anaxos the Horali
When Tarlyra – a Humakt initiate – goes into combat, she wields some of the power of Humakt, standing in for the god in the mundane world. That’s what Rune Magic is,…
One Great Community of Gods
I was recently reading Weavers, Scribes, and Kings by Amanda Podany (she even played in the Bangles!), and was struck by this passage on page 58: “Suppose a priestess had arrived in…
Mutually Hostile Cults
Some people seem to assume that mutually hostile cults simply end up murdering each other if they have an opportunity. That’s not really the case – between hostile cults, relations are strained,…
Human Sacrifice
How much of a thing is human sacrifice in Glorantha? Human sacrifice is pretty rare among the Orlanthi. The tusk riders perform it, which is one of the reasons they are so…
Notes on the Pure Horse People
The Pure Horse People are the most devout Solar nomads and are found in Pent, Erigia, and the Grazelands. Among them, all clan chieftains and many tribespeople are Yelm Initiates. They also…
Cult Demographics of the Lunar Empire
There are about 1.25 million Seven Mothers initiates in Glorantha. There’s probably another 330k Lunar initiates of other cults on top of that. That is one of the most successful new religious…
Dragon Pass Pantheons
Looking at the human population of Dragon Pass as a whole, these are their largest cults: Earth Religion – this is one of the two largest cult groupings in Dragon Pass with about…