Skip to content
The Well of Daliath
Menu
Menu

Disease in Glorantha

Posted on January 6, 2023

Although I don’t make that much use of them in my campaigns, disease spirits are among the biggest dangers in Glorantha. The average disease spirit has a POW of 16-17 and has about a 2/3rds chance of infecting an average person with an acute version of the disease they carry, and better than 1/3rd chance of the serious version.

The disease stays with the victim until the victim recovers, dies, or the spirit is forced out. If the victim dies, sometimes that creates a new disease spirit in addition to the original one. A dozen or so disease spirits released in a village can quickly spread into a pandemic.

Additionally, exposure to “pollution” can result in diseases.

Dealing with disease, and the risk of disease outbreaks, is the primary function of many Chalana Arroy temples. Healers treat the ill, fight disease spirits with their Rune magic, summon healing spirits, and the like. That’s where I suspect most of those Rune points get spent – not on Resurrection or Heal Body, but on Cure All Disease, Summon Healing Spirit, and Restore Health, and is why Healing Trance is more popular than Heal Body. The cult is big enough and numerous enough that diseases can be kept mostly under control, but it still might be the biggest killer in Glorantha (a point of pride to the Death goddess Mallia no doubt).

Now this is bad enough without broo and the Mallia cult, but they actively and intentionally release disease spirits, pollute streams and other sources of water, and so on. Mallia is hated and feared – and feared enough that many are willing to become involuntary members in order to not die. Fighting Mallia is something Orlanth and Yelm are in perfect agreement with!

And thus although death from childbirth and infancy is likely much lower in Gloranthan societies than the ancient world (one more reason people love Ernalda!), disease, war, and famine are much more prevalent than in modern societies. One more reason to fear Mallia (and Humakt and Daga), and one more reason to love Chalana Arroy, Ernalda, and Dendara!

Jeff Richard

Next
Previous
Chalana Arroy, Dendara, disease, Ernalda, Mallia, spirits

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
  • Role-playing in Glorantha
  • About This Site
  • Get involved!

Latest Posts

  • Defunct Sartar Tribes

    The Dundealos tribe was “destroyed” by the Lunar Provincial Government …
  • CHArisma

    CHA is arguably the most important characteristic in the game …
  • Sartarite Names

    Many Sartarite names combine prefixes and suffixes as per below; …
  • Dragon Pass Map Forest Overlay

    Just because I find it interesting, here’s that composite map …
  • Ramalia

    So the last major polity in Maniria is Genertela’s answer …

Links

  • Chaosium
  • Glorantha on BRP Central
  • RuneQuest on BRP Central
  • RuneQuest Glorantha on MeWe
  • Glorantha Wiki on Fandom
  • Prince of Sartar Webcomic
  • Glorantha G+ Archives on Tapatalk
  • Search mailing list archive

Latest from BRP Central

  • Looking for VTT players for Pol Joni campaign
  • Sorcery Runes and Components
  • the length of spirit magic spells ?
  • 5th session in and Vishi was having a bad night.
  • Clarification sought on Jonstown Compendium
  • Daily life expenses in Sartarite cities
  • What Prevents Dead Trolls from Self Resurrecting by Returning Back to the Surface World?
  • Shargash Crown (not Helmet)
  • Orlanthi crafting
  • The Scared Girl

Popular Tags

2007 Avalon Hill Boldhome Chaosium Chaos pantheon Cult demographics Cults of Glorantha (preview) Deprecated cult Doraddi pantheon Ernalda Esrolia (homeland) FR G+ post Greg Stafford Guide to Glorantha Guide to Glorantha (preview) Humakt HW Issaries Jar-eel Lhankor Mhy Lunar Empire Lunar Pantheon Magazine Map Michael O’Brien Mongoose Nomad Gods Oriflam Orlanth Orlanthi pantheon Prax (homeland) RQ2 RQ3 RQG Sandy Petersen Sartar (homeland) Solar pantheon Spirit Cult Subcult Tales of the Reaching Moon Tatou Troll / Uz pantheon Yelm Yelmalio

Recently added or updated

  • CHA4034 Red Book of Magic – Chapter 02 Rune Magic Q&A

  • Defunct Sartar Tribes

  • CHA4029 RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack – Q&A

  • Red Emperor

  • Notes on The Red Emperor

  • Takenegi

  • Thed

  • Daak

  • Dakkalesilla

  • DonKivis the Aesthete

  • Barntar

  • Yelmalio

  • Entekos

  • Runes (2004)

  • Bagog

  • Shargash

  • Entekos in the Lunar Heartlands

  • Buserian

  • Myth of the Month: Clouds (2000)

  • Welcome to the Glorantha Resource Site

©2023 The Well of Daliath | Design: Newspaperly WordPress Theme