And then comes a long period of war that culminates in the Dragonkill War. Which divides the world into Kethaela and Peloria.Kethaela starts with that late Second Age Esrolian style. Sensuous and…
Author: Jeff Richard
Creative Director
A History of Gloranthan Art, Part II – Second Age
This unified culture collapses in the Gbaji Wars at the end of the First Age. War and poverty. A collapse, which in turn leads to reduction in complexity in artwork. A Dark…
History of Gloranthan Art, Part I – Dawn Age
At the Dawn, there were basically two cultural centers – Dragon Pass (also known as the Theyalans or the Unity Council) and the Peloria lowlands ruled by the Horse Lords.The Theyalans had…
Windstop
During the Windstop, initiates of Orlanth and Ernalda within the affected area could not use their Rune Point pools to those gods and subcults of those gods. That includes Orlanth Adventurous, Rex,…
The Grazelanders
So when thinking about the Grazelanders, it is perhaps best to think of them as a duopoly headed by the Feathered Horse Queen. That means two groups: Semi-nomadic horse herders. These folk call…
Understanding Mythology
Here’s a snippet from what I consider to be one of the most important essays in the Cults Book. Readers will see that many of these stories in these volumes seem to…
Heroquesting and the Hero Wars
Here’s a snippet from a discussion I am having elsewhere that I think is of broad general interest: I think for almost everyone heroquesting falls into one of two categories: 1. We do…
Cities
Glorantha has many famed cities that predate the Dawn – Alkoth, Raibanth, Yuthuppa, Nochet, etc. But founding your own city is also a path to godhood as shown by such demigods as…
The Resettlement of Dragon Pass from 1250-1490
Humans returned to Dragon Pass around 1250 ST. These were the remnants of the Pure Horse People of Prax. Bands of Pure Horse People and their horses wandered about Dragon Pass, although…
Yanioth Work in Progress
Some first glimpses of the character turn for Yanioth.
Kallyr’s Short Lightbringers Quest 1625 – III
From the Glorantha Sourcebook: In Sacred Time, Kallyr Starbrow rallied her kingdom behind her to perform the Lightbringers’ Quest, a complicated heroquest that usually provided new life and health to everyone participating….
The Lunar Religion and Chaos
One of the clear distinctions made in the Compromise is that Chaos is not of this world. The deities and powers of the world had touched it, and were still afraid of…
Theyalan Terms for Rulers
I recently reposted the Pelorian terms for rulers, and realized it might be useful to repost the Theyalan terms. So here it is again! Chief Theyalan. Literally means “Great One; Most Important;…
Pelorian Terms for Rulers
I’ve posted this before, but find it useful to repeat: Remember all these Gloranthan titles are transliterated into English from their original Gloranthan! We call the Pelorian “Universal Ruler” by the English…
The Lunar Heartlands
The Lunar Heartlands are about 10 times the area of Sartar, with 25 times as many people. To the south of the Lunar Heartlands are the Lunar Provinces, a series of client…
Heroquesting sheet sketch
Here’s another sneak peak of what I have been playing around with. I’m not going to explain it or answer questions about how it works – just showing it off because it…
Allocating Your Unconscious Life II
Yesterday I posted some thoughts on thinking about the unconscious existence of characters. Now it is important to note that this is not something that underpins any game mechanics at this point….
Allocating Your Unconscious Life I
Runequest distinguishes three basic levels of spiritual participation in a cult – lay member (casual), initiate (dedicated), Rune Master (professional). Another way of thinking about it is how much of our Unconscious…
Mead
Mead is well-known to the Orlanthi and it is a ritually important drink. The Orlanthi make mead mixed with various plants and fungi to produce a drink called “Crazy Black Widebrew”. This…
Lunar Alcohol
For most Pelorians, the drinks of choice are:Corn beer. Like chicha, this is made in huge earthenware vats and because of its low alcohol content (1-3%) is consumed in vast quantities. Corn beer…
Dragon Pass Alcohol
The most common alcoholic drinks in Dragon Pass are: Beer. Made from emmer wheat, einkorn, or barley, beer (I am using the term broadly) is the most common drink. Brewing is often associated…
Holy Country Alcohol
The connoisseur knows that the best alcoholic drinks are associated with the Holy Country. The most popular are: Beer. Made from einkorn, emmer, or barley, beer is made in vast quantities by the…
Heroquesting game mechanics for RuneQuest
Had a fantastic time playtesting the near-final heroquesting game mechanics for RuneQuest with Neil Robinson, Claudia Loroff, David Larkins, and Matt Ryan. Andrew Logan Montgomery has really done a fantastic job putting…
RuneQuest and Glorantha source references
From time to time I get asked what are the most important source references for me when I am writing RuneQuest and Glorantha materials. As I am waiting on hold for a…
Sorcery Plans
I have lots of plans with sorcery. But I see no point in releasing a whole series of “generic” sorcery spells until we really have a vehicle where sorcery is more than…