Skip to content
The Well of Daliath
Menu
Menu

Barbarian “Old Gods”

Posted on October 16, 2020

At the Dawn, the Hykimi Alliance of Fronela and Ralios worshiped a myriad of ancestors, beast spirits, and other spirits, but acknowledge a loose pantheon of Old Gods including: Ehilm the Sun; Gata the Earth Goddess; Humat the Storm God; Lodik the Fire God; Nakala the Darkness Goddess; Sramak the Source of Waters; Tilntae the Goddess of Life; Urtiam the God of Law; and Zrenthus the Sky God.

Minor gods included Eurmal the Clever One, and his son Yomat Friend of Men; Galanin the Sun Horse; Gethor, the God of Death; Flamal, the God of Plants; Hykim, the God of Beasts; Xentha, the Goddess of Night; Vieltor, the Smithing God; and the twins Zolan and Anehilla, who spend half their time in the Sky and the other half in the Underworld. Others worshiped their Beast Ancestors, such as Telmor, Pendal, Basmol, Rathor, and Tawar.

These deities had no broad cults outside of Hrelar Amali; instead they functioned as ancestor cults and only served their kin, and some Hykimi boasted of divine bloodlines that enabled them to call upon these deities.

Spirit cults were more useful, and Hykimi shamans knew of many localized spirits that were children or lesser versions of the gods (called Srvulai by the Malkioni).

The “Old Gods” came under the influence of the Theyalans and the Malkioni, and many of these deities were discovered to have other names and cults. For example, Humat was later incorporated into the Theyalan Orlanth cult or syncretized with Pelorian deities during the Gbaji Wars. The Dark Empire was another period of syncretization, with the ruling Arkati revealing associations based on Arkat’s explorations of the God Plane. This process was greatly accelerated by the God Learners. In the Third Age, the Ralians and central Fronelans worship gods largely recognizable to the Theyalans and Malkioni, but with many spirits and minor gods unique to each locality.

Most of these Old Gods are easily understood as local variants of more widely recognised deities: Ehilm is the Sun Disk, Gata, Umath, Lodril, Xentha, Sramake, Uleria, Mostal, and Aether. Zoran and Anehilla are common identified with Tolat and Annilla, and Gethor with Humakt.

Jeff Richard

Next
Previous
Anehilla, Basmol, Ehilm, Eurmal, Flamal, Fronela, Galanin, Gata, Gethor, Hrelar Amali, Humat, Hykim, Hykimi Alliance, Lodik, Nakala, Pendal, Ralios, Rathor, Sramak, Tawar, Telmor, tilntae, Urtiam, Vieltor, Xentha, Yomat, Zolan, Zrenthus

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

  • The Nine Good Giant Mountains

    The Nine Good Giant Mountains are about 60 km or …
  • Why Most Sartarites Hate the Lunar Empire

    From time to time it is worth reminding people why …
  • Suntown and the Eiskolli

    Suntown has always been in the hands of the Sun …
  • A Few Notes on the Grantlands

    To the south of Sun County are the former Grantlands, …
  • 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 …

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

  • Odayla Initiation Heroquest
  • Did anyone get a good look at WB&RM?
  • Clearwine Assembly Hill and Orlanth's High Holy Day
  • 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?
  • Sun County T-Shirt
  • Summon of Jaldon
  • Jonstown Compendium: Spawn of Molokka - The Cephalopods of Glorantha
  • Runelords and Retirement
  • Hospitality Hearth spirits - what are they ?

Popular Tags

1625 ST 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 Sandy Petersen Sartar (homeland) Spirit Cult Star Subcult Tarsh (homeland & Lunar province) Troll Pantheon Yelm Yelmalio Yelm Pantheon Youtube

Recently added or updated

  • Keraun

  • Pamalt

  • The Tales of the Reaching Moon – Index

  • Best of Tales of the Reaching Moon

  • Tales of The Reaching Moon #03 (GBR 1990)

  • Tales of The Reaching Moon #05 (GBR 1991)

  • Tales of The Reaching Moon #06 (GBR 1991)

  • Tales of The Reaching Moon #07 (GBR 1992)

  • Reaching Moon MegaCorp

  • Griselda Stories by Oliver Dickinson

  • CHA4037 Dragon Pass – Q&A

  • CHA4034 Red Book of Magic – Chapter 02 Rune Magic Spells Q&A (A-M)

  • CHA4043 The Lightbringers – Q&A

  • CHA4029 RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack – Q&A

  • CHA4036 RuneQuest Weapons and Equipment Q&A

  • The Garden, Big Rubble II

  • The Garden, Big Rubble I

  • Half-folk

  • Orlanth Rex and Sartar’s Lineage

  • The Triceratops Queen

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