Official Answers from Chaosium
- RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha Quickstart – Q&A
- RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha – Q&A by Chapter
- RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack – Q&A
- RuneQuest Glorantha Bestiary – Q&A
- The Red Book of Magic – Q&A
- The Smoking Ruin & Other Stories – Q&A
- Pegasus Plateau & Other Stories – Q&A
- RuneQuest Starter Set – Q&A by Book
- Weapons & Equipment – Q&A
- The Prosopaedia – Q&A
- The Lightbringers – Q&A
- Earth Goddesses – Q&A
- Mythology – Q&A
- The Lunar Way – Q&A
- The Glorantha Sourcebook – Q&A
- Dragon Pass – Q&A
- The Gods of Fire and Sky – Q&A
Chalana Arroy
Healer, Requirements to Belong
The first sentence appears to mean that for an Initiate the oath is less restrictive in terms of never to harm an intelligent creature” than for a Lay Member at the top of the same page (“never to harm a living creature”). Is this intentional?
Becoming an initiate doesn’t remove any of the obligations of being a lay member, unless specifically noted.
Daka Fal
Sample Ancestor Cults
Rune Spells
Do the example ancestor cults give access to all of Daka Fal’s rune spells?
Yes, they are Daka Fal with the name changed, and additional background and associations.
or do they only provide the one special spell in their description?
No.
Foundchild
Rune Magic – Beastmaster and Draw Beast
Two of Foundchild’s special rune spells, Beastmaster and Draw Beast, do not share a rune affinity with him – his runes are Death and Harmony, while both of them are Beast only. Is this intentional?
Yes. This reflects that the hunter in order to understand their prey more needs to become the hunted (like the unfortunate Actaeon). Foundchild hunters need to increase their beast over man (unlike Yinkin & Odayla hunters who’s gods are beasts). However it’s not really an issue as Man/Beast starts at 50/50.
Lanbril
Requirements to Belong
Correction
Full Priests receive the usual allied spirit, carried as per Master Thieves.
They are not limited to DEX×5 limit in Manipulation skills but may increase as high as they wish. Also, they do receive an increased POW gain roll.
Note the last sentence is redundant as all priests receive an increased POW gain roll.
Master Thief (Rune Lord)
Clarification of requirements:
A potential Master Thief must be an initiate and be a master (90%) of five skills taught by the cult:
Per Lay member skills, page 113:
- Act, Climb, Conceal, Devise, Evaluate, Fast Talk, Hide, Jump, Listen, Move Quietly, Sleight, Scan, and Search.
- Dagger, Shortsword
- Feign Death, Foil Restraints, Shadowing, Streetwise, Voice Mimicry, and the cult language of Thieves’ Argot.
Magic Chirper and Farsee
This says that Farsee is often cast on the box, yet the RBM description for Farsee only mentions the caster being affected by the spell, and it is tagged as a Ranged spell.
The range of a spirit magic spell is given in the spell description. It defines the maximum distance from the caster at which the spell’s effects can occur.
RBM, Range, page 108
So in the case of a Magic Chirper, the spell’s effects occur on the chirper.
Humakt
Initiates and Bladesharp 4
Can Humakt initiates begin (or can begin) the game with Bladesharp-4?
Yes if they use 4 of their 5 slots of Spirit Magic.
Note that free of cost doesn’t mean it’s in addition to the five points of starting spirit magic. It will take up four of the five points of starting spirit magic (as will fireblade). Note that in the Initiates of Humakt box in Lightbringers, page 109, it is listed as Bladesharp (var.) not Bladesharp 4.
However, it would stand to reason that a standard, 21-year-old, starting character, would have been initiated more than one year prior to entering play. Are we meant to understand that the character does not begin with Bladesharp-4 but can acquire it at any time, or they can acquire it after one year of game time, or they can begin play with it if they were initiated more than one year prior (which seems almost surely to have been the case), or something else
Note that my players quickly realised that Bladesharp 4 costs 500L to buy in game, so getting any of the other 50L/point variable spells at 4 would save them 500L by getting Bladesharp 4 for free later.
Beginning with Bladesharp-4 in addition to other spirit magic means Humakti will begin with almost as much spirit magic as a shaman’s apprentice, which doesn’t seem right.
see above.
However, the rules as written don’t make the situation explicit (unlike, for example, the fact that Ernalda initiates get Ignite for free in addition to other spirit magic.) Ruling that a Humakti doesn’t begin with 5 points of other cult spirit magic plus 4 points of Bladesharp is likely to cause bad feelings in my game, so I would like to have firm backing from the rules corrections if I make that decision
Note that with Ignite, in the Initiates of Ernalda box, in Earth Goddesses, page 26, it specifically states that it doesn’t count against their 5 points of starting cult spirit magic, and that this equivalent text is not in the Initiates of Humakt box.
Mastakos
Mastakos Holy Days
On page 120. it says Mastakos holy days correspond to the holy days of the dominant cult. I take it that where the shrine is in an Orlanth temple,
Shrines are found in great temples of Orlanth and Magasta.
Orlanth is dominant and where in a Magasta temple, Magasta is dominant.
If there is a great temple yes. It’s possible that there are great temples to both in a region and that they both have a Mastakos shrine. There will likely be some kind of cultural divide as to which temple a Mastakos worshipper attends.
Does this mean that in Orlanth areas, Mastakos gets a minor holy day every Windsday?
No, in these great temples, associate cults can’t receive any Rune points on minor holy days (per RQG 315).
What about a transition to an area in which neither Orlanth nor Magasta is a dominant cult, like Caladraland?
Caladraland has no major Magasta worship see Mythology 152.
Does Mastakos take the holy days of Caladra & Orelion or Lodril instead?
No in this case it would be Orlanth.
The only area with any crossover would be the humans in the Right Arm Islands where Magasta has 2% of worshippers and Orlanth 10%. IIRC Magasta only has minor temples here, so again Mastakos would be worshiped in an Orlanth great temple.
An underwater offshore Merfolk great temple to Magasta would have a Mastakos shrine in it. It’s worth noting that Magasta is too terrible to be worshiped by many land-dwellers, although a few sea-going peoples maintain minor temples to him.
Odayla
What are the Bearwalker (Rune Lord) Benefits?
Always use the Rune Lords section (RQG 278 or Mythology 146) unless contradicted or changed by the cult write up. The same applies for other cult ranks.
Orlanth
Orlanth Dual Initiation with Eurmal
Can an adventurer be an Orlanth runelord and a Eurmal initiate at the same time? Is that something totally possible lore-wise and cult-wise or an aberration?
Yes it’s not forbidden in the rules. But note:
- the adventurer must have one of Orlanth’s runes at 90% and one of Eurmal’s at 50%.
- the adventurer effectively has no spare time – 90% is devoted as a Rune lord and 10% as an initiate
- the adventurer effectively has no income – 90% is devoted as a Rune lord and 10% as an initiate (but is supported as a Rune lord)
- The adventurer will be limited to the local subcults of Eurmal. For example in Sartar to Dismembered, Frightener, Fool, Lightbringer, Thief, or Shapechanger (see Eurmal Temple and Shrines), and shrines give the all of the subcults Rune spells not just the usual one. Some of the subcults may be at odds with honourable behaviour of a Wind Lord.
The role-playing hooks are endless. The adventurer is clearly under the orders of the local Clown priest too…
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Page Last updated: 2025-07-08 14:14:18