Skip to content
The Well of Daliath
Menu
Menu

Cross-Cultural Awareness

Posted on October 24, 2023

There are more than 22 million sentients between the Shan Shan mountains and a line formed roughly by Winterwood, the Nidan Mountains and Lake Felster. These are the heirs of those briefly united by the High Council of the Lands of Genertela (and more or less by its successor the Third Council). That’s the system of theism presented in the Cults books – polytheistic, with initiation to a single deity’s secrets being the foundation for spiritual insight. At this level, Lightbringer, Earth, Lunar, Solar, Darkness, etc., are all pretty comparable.

These cults are aware of each other to a greater or lesser degree. They might have public and private names for each other, but most of the cults presented in the cults books are aware of each others existence. If you read the mythos and history of each, you find that they overlap and collectively form a pattern.

These peoples are mostly human, but almost a fifth are not. Aldryami, mostali, trolls, and others cooperated with the Theyalan and later councils and shared many of their stories. Aldrya, Kyger Litor, Mostal, and Zorak Zoran are all known and other cults have both human and nonhuman members.

There are other spiritual approaches however. Along the western coast of Genertela there are somewhere around 7 million peoples who have a decidedly materialist and rationalist approach to spiritual understanding. They reject that devotion to a “lesser” deity should be the foundation of spiritual insight; instead their great prophet Malkion revealed that the cosmos can be rationally understood and tasked magical specialists with that responsibility. An abstract and distant Invisible God created and unifies the cosmos – this is the One above all the lesser deities.

Now the Malkioni are perfectly aware of many of the cults of central Genertela – particularly the Lightbringers, Earth, etc. However, they rely upon their magical specialists to handle the more powerful (and spiritual dangerous) magic, and call upon spirits, heroes, and petty deities to aid them in daily life.

East of the Shan Shan is another 16.6 million sentients. They are quite similar to the central Genertelans, with many of the same cults (particularly among Earth and Solar). However, like the Westerners they have their own magical specialists but these deal with magic taught to them by the dragons – or even are True Dragons. This gives many of them a radically different outlook from the rest of Genertela – although most people are initiated into the secrets of their cult, true spiritual insight comes from those who can harness the powers of the cosmic dragons.

There’s a lot in there to unpack, but hopefully this complements the Mythology book nicely.

What I encourage folk to do is not to think of the various religions in Glorantha as being hermetically sealed, but instead in constant communication with each other.

We can think of different human cultures being d made out of cult-monads, which are universally acknowledged throughout the setting even if many are worshipped only in localities. The cluster of cults in a greater community form the culture and even the languages used. But we can travel from Felster Lake to the plains of Pent and find overlapping symbols and iconography.

That last paragraph is a guide to understanding Kralorela and Ignorance (Teshnos as well – although it has little to no Dragon influence):

East of the Shan Shan is another 16.6 million sentients. They are quite similar to the central Genertelans, with many of the same cults (particularly among Earth and Solar). However, like the Westerners they have their own magical specialists but these deal with magic taught to them by the dragons – or even are True Dragons. This gives many of them a radically different outlook from the rest of Genertela – although most people are initiated into the secrets of their cult, true spiritual insight comes from those who can harness the powers of the cosmic dragons.

Jeff Richard

Next
Previous
Genertela, Population demographics

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

  • Thog the Giant

    In 870, Thog the giant appeared with an army of …
  • 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 …

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

  • Babeester Gor Initiation Heroquest
  • Request of information: spying from above
  • Now on sale in Jonstown Compendium: Dine 'n Dash in Dragon Pass
  • RuneQuest Warlords. A Youtube Test
  • Whatever happened to William Church ?
  • Slonta is not in the Prosopaedia?
  • MORE RHINOS! [Come on, you love this stuff too...]
  • More Heroforge
  • Copy of the Guide to Glorantha for sale on eBay
  • Gender in Glorantha

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

  • Bagog

  • Gbaji

  • Vivamort

  • Mallia

  • Wakboth the Devil

  • Kalikos Icebreaker

  • Primal Chaos

  • ISS1102 Glorantha: Introduction to the Hero Wars (2000)

  • Hero Wars: Beyond Humanity (2000)

  • Ropecon 2011 Heroes And More

  • Yanioth Work in Progress

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

  • CHA4037 Dragon Pass – Q&A

  • Erenava Chan

  • Vasana & Yanioth’s Apprenticeship

  • Reconstructing Slontos – 2nd Age

  • The Discovery of Glorantha

  • The Lunar Satrapy of Sylila

  • Ygg

  • Yinkin

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