The Geos Rune (2012)

Submitted by cj.23 on Mon, 16/04/2012 – 12:54

In older supplements Geo’s cult branded members on the thumb with a small rune, specific to the Sanchali Tribe. I found this in the cult write up in Moon Designs Cults Compendium. Assuming it is still canon, one assumes this very minor rune can still be used in someway, to augment or at 1W even to produce some small active magical effects. So what are the mythic associations of the rune? I don’t know a great deal about the biography of Geo beyond he was a companion of Sartar.

I thought it might be appropriate to Hospitality, Repel Lunars, Aid Royal House of Sartar, Avert Violence and similar effects, but while two of my player characters have now joined the cult, I’m just working from story instinct. Any advice on this?

cj x

Submitted by blerg2 on Sun, 22/04/2012 – 03:06.

As to Geo’s history, he was Food Man on Sartar’s Ring during the Founding.

As to the meaning of his rune, your set seems reasonable except that having four different mythic associations for one minor rune seems overloaded.  I think that the entirety could well be subsumed under Hospitality (Sartar Style).  Avert Violence obviously can be subsumed under Hospitality, of course, since the violence is only averted within the Inn (aka, temple to Geo), not outside it.  Since the Hospitality would be the Orlanthi view, rather than the Lunar or even the Dara Happan view, that would tend to repel the Lunars, even the Lunarized Tarshites (Orlanthi without Orlanth) that make up the majority of the “military assistance command” / occupation troops.  Also, the first Geo’s Inns were started before the Lunar/Tarshite occupation, so there would be no reason, other than general Heortling hostility towards DH and its ilk, for the cult to already want to repel Lunars, as opposed to any invaders.  Also, the Lunars never banned or closed the Inns as actual enemies against the Empire, implying that the Repel Lunars and Aid Sartar Royal House were *not* a major focus of the cult.

Submitted by Daniel Adamov on Sun, 29/04/2012 – 03:36.

…Food Man? Rather than Flesh Man?

I wonder if keeping Lunars away isn’t also a consequence of the sanctity of the inn. It would be harder to keep some Heortlings from wanting to attack Lunars – or Lunar sympathisers – there. Safer to just not let any of them in.

Submitted by blerg2 on Tue, 01/05/2012 – 23:25.

Food Man was (IIRC, not having my KoS in front of me) a member of the Umath style ring, rather than the Lightbringer’s Ring.  Unless one is doing a LBQ, which Ring style a chieftain uses is pretty much a matter of his discretion (assuming that he can get through the politics).  Sartar would have been more likely than most to use a non-Orlanth ring style as he was an Issaries type of leader (frex, violence was never an option, with him).

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