Skip to content
The Well of Daliath
Menu
Menu

A Short Summary Of Argrath’s Life To 1627

Posted on February 1, 2022

So the basic story is that Argrath was exiled to Prax as a youth. He was taken as a slave by the Bison Tribe, but while a slave he found/freed the White Bull spirit. The White Bull is a son of Storm Bull/brother of Waha who the Praxians believe will lead them to fight a final battle against Gbaji or Chaos or whatever.

Argrath, as the person in direct contact with the White Bull, becomes the leader of this new magical society, which thanks to the Lunars spreads quickly within all the Praxian tribes.

But meanwhile, Argrath is part of the Sartar Dynasty (from a minor branch, but thanks to the Lunars that’s really all there is) and is an Orlanth Adventurous cultist. He is an experimental heroquester (where do you think he found the White Bull?) and is seeking things in the weird recesses of the Hero Plane – the Drinking Giant’s Cauldron, the Dragonteeth, etc. When a baby giant is born as an unexpected side effect of one of these quests, Argrath protects her on her voyage to the sea. This brings him into contact with Harrek the Berserk.

After a rocky start, Harrek and Argrath become allies and they circumnavigate around the Homeward Ocean, plundering and adventuring, and seeing all sorts of things. Teshnite sun priests, Teleosites, bat-hsunchen in Laskal, Doraddi, Fonritian Ompalam cultists, the ruins of Jrustela, Seshengi sorcerers, and so much more. By the time Argrath gets to the Holy Country, he is one of the most broadly adventured people in Glorantha.

From the Holy Country, Argrath returns to Prax where the White Bull movement has spread during his absence. He gathers members from all the tribes and summons Jaldon Goldentooth so that he can conquer (liberate) New Pavis from the Lunars. After that he quickly unrolls the Lunar garrisons in the River of Cradles.

Shortly after, he gets his first major set-back. Argrath tries to conquer Dragon Pass with his Praxian allies, but is beaten by the Lunar College of Magic at Hender’s Ruins. He returns to New Pavis to recoup, but in the meanwhile the Dragonrise happens and Kallyr Starbrow is acclaimed Prince of Sartar.

That gets us to about the starting date of RQG. Now to me the more interesting story is what comes next. Kallyr’s rule of Sartar is short-lived and Argrath returns to Dragon Pass with an army of Praxians and adventurers. After forcing the Lunars out of Alda-Chur, Argrath marches on Boldhome and is acclaimed Prince of Sartar. He has little direct relationship with the traditional Sartarite leaders – the tribes and the city councils, but he is backed by Orlanth Adventurous, Storm Bull, tricksters, an army of Praxians, plenty of misfits, adventurers, outlaws, hedge priests, shamans, and weirdos – basically everything that Thunder Rebels says isn’t there.

It’s clear that the new Prince with a seasoned army (and plenty of cavalry) plans to strike against the Lunar Empire, but first he needs to get his ducks in a row, so to speak. But the clock is ticking as the Red Emperor and Jar-eel have suppressed the revolt in the Redlands, and are restoring order to the Lunar Provinces.

That’s the scene in 1627 when the ball really starts rolling. At that point we are in the White Bear and Red Moon board game.

Art by the amazing Anna Orlova

So in RQG you are going for a single ‘real’ story rather than the ‘multiple Argraths’ of ‘King of Sartar’? Yes. Greg and I both concluded that the “multiple Argraths” turned out to be a failure and an obstacle for gamesters. And a nightmare if we ever want to do RQ fiction. You’ll see that we abandoned that approach in the Guide to Glorantha, Glorantha Sourcebook, and everything since.

Like any major historical figure, he has many contradictory stories about him. For example, a story might put in him in Nochet at the same time he is supposed to be in Pavis or tomb raiding in Jrustela. That’s totally fine – and the same thing is true of Jar-eel, Harrek, Arkat, etc.

Why would Argrath need any help from adventurers? for the same reason that Arthur did – he’s only in one place at one time. Argrath is courting the Feathered Horse Queen? Well that means he is not available to fight broo, investigate the piece of sky that fell down, stop the Blue Moon assassins, placate Queen Samastina, or distract Harrek the Berserk. Or any of the other countless things going on.

As in Pendragon, I find that having a big NPC hero figure creates more activity for players. Not surprisingly, the same guy who wrote Pendragon wrote the Argrath Campaign.

Jeff Richard

Next
Previous
1627 ST, Alda-Chur (small city), Argrath (White Bull 1616-1627), Drinking Giant’s Cauldron, Harrek, Holy Country

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

  • Sartar Cities

    Sartar can be thought of a confederation of small cities …
  • Catalogue of the Gods revisited

    This piece from the Mythology book is among my absolute …
  • Thunderbolts in Art

    One of the things that really got me down the …
  • RuneQuest Art

    So let’s talk RQ art for a moment. For the …
  • Top Five RuneQuest Cults

    So it is absolutely no surprise to me that in …
  • The Greatest of the Power Rune gods

    So lets think about the greatest of the Power Rune …
  • A Few Notes on the Air Gods

    Any time you look at those big abstract Celestial Court …
  • RuneQuest Campaign Heroquesting

    So while I am on this whole “through a heroquest …
  • How The God Learners Learned About The Gods

    So we know that the God Learners assembled the monomyth …

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

  • Sun County pdf is drivethrurpg’s Deal of the Day for July 1st
  • Permission to use exerpt from map in Starter Set in a Jonstown Compendium release?
  • Speculations on warlock rules in RQG
  • Turning adventures into heroquests
  • Humakti Initiation Heroquest
  • Runelords and Retirement
  • Hospitality Hearth spirits - what are they ?
  • Clearwine Burned & Argrath's Orphan Childhood
  • Arene Thunderqueen
  • Human worshippers of Xiola Umbar and where to find them

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 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 Rune Magic Sandy Petersen Sartar (homeland) Spirit Cult Star Subcult Tarsh (homeland & Lunar province) Troll Pantheon Yelm Yelmalio Yelm Pantheon Youtube

Recently added or updated

  • East Isles Pantheon

  • Gods Wall

  • Himile

  • CHA4013 Griffin Mountain (1981, 2018)

  • Helpwoman

  • Henshie

  • Harana Ilor

  • Hesezjagu

  • Majadan

  • Antigods

  • Hensarava the Golden Archer Prince

  • HeenMaroun

  • Harantara

  • Halisayan

  • Govmeranen

  • Godunya

  • Genderatha

  • Gebkeran

  • Sartar Cities

  • Guide Interview – Greg Stafford (2012)

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