What is Yelmalio? (2013)

Submitted by Grey Mallard on Fri, 08/03/2013 – 03:16

I read in Sartar KoH (p. 113) that Yelmalio is a Spirit cult, but in Pavis: Gateway to Adventure Yelmalio is said to be a Deity (p. 174). He also has a Fire rune in KoH but a Light rune in Pavis. Is the Sartar material in error? Certainly, it disagrees with everything I’ve read about Yelmalio for the last thirty years!

I think they are both correct

Submitted by Dan on Fri, 08/03/2013 – 12:58.

Possibly they are just trying to be clever. If you read both, you see that they are very different cults.

KoH shows how Yelmalio is worshipped predominantly in the Northern Sartarite tribes. He is an Enemy/Foreign cult, due to the dealings they had with the lowland Solar culture of Saird. This isn’t the cult of the SunDome temple, it is the cult of New Elmal, and therefore likely a hybrid cult that doesn’t quite fit the standard model. It is a new cult and hasn’t stabilised. I’m sure there is must be a conspiracy theory about how this cult is a result of destabilisation efforts by the Lunars, but who knows?

The Pavis writeup depicts the true Yelmalio cult as we knew it from old. RQ traditionally centered it’s material on Prax and Pavis, which is why we know Yelmalio as the cult of the SunDome Temple. It has been in Prax for nearly a thousand years, but it can trace it’s origins back much further. It has no ties with Orlanthi life of Sartar, and is also one of the Husband-Protector cults of Ernalda.

Submitted by Jeff on Fri, 08/03/2013 – 13:05.

Dan is correct, with one caveat. Yelmalio is not a spirit, and even the Sartarites don’t consider him so. The categorization of Yelmalio as spirit is a typo – unnoticed by anyone until now and one of the few worth being pointed out on an errata page.

The rest is correct. The Light Rune is not introduced as a sub-rune of Fire until Pavis.

Editor-in-Chief, Moon Design Publications

Old Glorantha Q&A

Page Last updated: 2024-03-23 11:57:30

I think they are both correct

Related Pages