Skip to content
The Well of Daliath
Menu
Menu

A few notes on terms

Posted on October 11, 2022

In the late 1980s and 1990s, using a hodgepodge of Old English and Icelandic terms for various Orlanthi words was all the rage. Greg was deep in Pendragon, and many such terms came pretty naturally. I don’t know if anyone has ever served as the creative lead on two very different settings simultaneously, but some bleed-through is inevitable. And so we had terms like fyrd, moot, godi, carl, cottar, etc. Such terms co-existed with Latinisms such as “Rex” and later with purely fictional words as “Dar” or “Alakoringite”.

With the revival of RQ, pretty much all of that has been swept away. About the only one we’ve kept is “thane” – which literally just means “retainer, attendant, companion,” which we could also transliterate as “Lord” or “Sir,” if we felt so inclined.

We also kept “Rex” because “Orlanth Rex” is deeply ingrained in the setting and the texts. Also thanks to the dinosaur, “Rex” is pretty easily understood even in North America (and is easily translated in other languages).

“Acolyte” or “godi” became “God-talker” in part because the actual role of acolytes are played by initiates. And “godi” was both “priest” and “chieftain” (and more used for chieftain than priest in the Icelandic sagas) in God-talker is a part-time priest, found mainly in rural communities where the resources might not exist to support a full time priest.

Our mental visualization of Glorantha is shaped by the words we use to describe it. A big reason to get rid of those terms is to break the assumption that the Orlanthi are Germanic Northern Europeans. They aren’t. Those cultural elements they share with the ancient Germanics they share with plenty of other cultures – Thracians, Mycenaeans, Hallstatt Celts, Macedonians, Gandharans, Pashtuns, Mesoamericans, early Indo-Europeans, etc. “Militia” works just as well as “fyrd” and lacks the other connotations of the latter. It is also a lot easier to translate into other languages!

Now you are welcome to populate your Glorantha with fyrds, cottars, etc. I’m not going to send out out the RQ Language Police to stop you! But you are unlikely to see such terminology in Chaosium publications, and I’m less likely to want to run with a submission filled with such terms (as it requires more editorial work replacing those terms).

Please note that militia is widely used in the US beyond just 2nd amendment context. It is well established as non-professional volunteers. Hence the reason we refer to the colonial militias in the US War of Independence. Or that we refer to the tribal and city militia in WBRM.

Jeff Richard

Next
Previous

Sections

  • Search Tips
  • Current RuneQuest Glorantha Publications
  • RuneQuest Glorantha Corrections and Q&A
  • Catalogue
  • References for Glorantha
    • Gloranthan Canon
  • Gloranthan Documents
  • RPG Systems & Versions
  • Gallery
  • About This Site
  • Get involved!

Latest Posts

  • Solars, Orlanthi, and the Monomyth

    So if we think about the transmission of Solar myths …
  • Orlanth Rex is the God of Tribes

    Are all tribal queens and chiefs part of the Orlanth …
  • Tribe and Clan Structure

    I think there is a tendency to take how “fixed” …
  • Some Notes on The Dragon Religion

    The Dragon Religion holds that the Elements were formed out …
  • Some Thoughts On Dragons And Jung

    I’ve been increasingly thinking that True Dragons embody the Jungian …
  • Adventurers in the Hero Wars

    Now the big Hero Wars stuff operates at an orthogonal …
  • The Apotheosis of Mortals

    We moderns have inherited monotheism’s assumption that apotheosis of mortals …
  • Your Sartarite Adventurer and the Hero Wars

    From the Sartarite perspective, the Hero Wars last some 30 …
  • Argrath and The Sartarite Elite

    In 1627-1628, Argrath relied strongly on the Sartarite Orlanth Adventurous, …

Links

  • Chaosium
  • Chaosium’s RuneQuest RPG Wiki
  • Glorantha on BRP Central
  • RuneQuest on BRP Central
  • RuneQuest on Discord
  • Prince of Sartar Webcomic
  • Glorantha G+ Archives on Tapatalk
  • Search mailing list archive

Latest from BRP Central

  • The Shimmering Lake - Jonstown Compendium
  • Help dealing with a LM Sorcerer and an Ernaldan Shaman in 6SiS
  • Question about cult Initiation for characters in the Six Seasons in Sartar Campaign
  • RQG corebook reprints?
  • Dragon pass and Cults of Light and Fire........UK restock dates ?
  • Making New City Gods
  • The Tide and the Serpent (triolini and other wet talk)
  • Caladraland Sources?
  • Rhigos - A Jonstown Compendium Project
  • Lost peoples beyond the monomyth

Popular Tags

Boldhome (large city) Chaosium Colymar (Sartar tribe) Contents Cult demographics Cults of Runequest (preview) Ernalda Esrolia (homeland) FRA Furthest (large city) G+ post Genealogies Gods Wall Greg Stafford Guide to Glorantha (preview) Humakt Jar-eel Lunar Empire Lunar Pantheon Magazine Malkioni pantheon Map Michael O’Brien Mongoose MRQ1 New Pavis (small city) Old Glorantha Q&A Orlanth Orlanthi pantheon Photo reference Population demographics Prax (homeland) RQ3 RQG Sandy Petersen Sartar (homeland) Spirit Cult Star Subcult Tarsh (homeland & Lunar province) Troll Pantheon Yelm Yelmalio Yelm Pantheon Youtube

Recently added or updated

  • Masks of the Red Emperor

  • Lesilla

  • Naveria

  • God Learner Divine Genealogies I

  • Dendara

  • God Learners

  • Ikadz

  • Zorak Zoran

  • Foundation for the Monomyth

  • The Monomyth I

  • The Monomyth II

  • Solars, Orlanthi, and the Monomyth

  • Northern Sartar & Tarsh Map preview

  • Tarsh map WiP preview

  • Tarsh (1625-1628)

  • The Population of Lunar Tarsh

  • Dundealos and Pol-Joni

  • Tribes & Clans

  • Eiritha

  • CHA4045 The Lunar Way – Q&A

©2025 The Well of Daliath | Design: Newspaperly WordPress Theme