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…
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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…
Notes on the Grazelands II
The dominant cult in the Grazelands is Ernalda, with some 9250 initiates out of a total adult population of around 26,000. The Ernalda cult dominates the Grazelands like no place outside of…
The Mountain Wind
Orlanth is sometimes called the Mountain Wind, and I can assure you that when you are in the high mountains with the wind blowing, you can sense the divine. People often focus…
Notes on Holay
Directly north of Tarsh is Holay, which includes Mirin’s Cross, the great Daughter’s Road from Jillaro to Filichet, and several Sun Dome Temples. Holay is the most populous of the Lunar Provinces,…
Tarsh (1625-1628)
Hero Wars era Tarsh (post-Dragonrise, pre-Battle of Heroes) has a population of about 360k people. The core of Tarsh is a Lunar Heartlands colony centered on Furthest. There is a smaller satellite…
15 Sun Dome Temples again
There are 15 autonomous Sun Dome Temples of the Yelmalio cult. The temples are uniformly shaped, although many vary somewhat in surprise. The most important Sun Dome Temples are generally considered to…
Initiates and their experiences
A few examples of how cults are spread across space and how that is experienced by members of the cult. 1. ORLANTH. Vasana was initiated into the cult of Orlanth Adventurous (Vinga)…
Cults & Culture
In Glorantha, we can say that cult is the source of culture. When more than two-thirds of the adult population are initiated into the Orlanth and Ernalda cults as in Sartar, that…
Chaos deities in Genertela
When we think about the Chaos deities in Genertela, we have a few heavy hitters we all know: Primal Chaos, Bagog, Cacodemon, Krjalk, Krarsht, Mallia, Pocharngo, Thanatar, Thed, Vivamort, etc. We also…
Most Waha-centric Praxian Tribe
The most Waha-centric Praxian Tribe are High Llama tribe, the least (at least of the Major Tribes) are the Impala. Among the Bison Tribe, Humakt has a cult as big as Storm…
So who are the Thunder Brothers
So who are the Thunder Brothers, if we ask the Orlanthi? They are the Airy offspring and brethren of Orlanth, who can split the clouds so that rain can fall, shake mountains…
Publishing schedule
So as you all know there are a bunch of books now scheduled for release. Now I think they are amazing for all sorts of reasons – they broaden play, given you…
The Prosopaedia
OK, so people are now digesting the Cults books, the scale of the launch, and just how beautiful these books are going to be. One of my goals on these is that…
The Earth Goddesses
16 playable cults
The Lightbringers
19 playable cults Note that terms like Storm Tribe aren’t used. This book includes the gods of the Lightbringers pantheon plus many of their friends and family. But Ernalda is the head of…