The Guide to Glorantha contains copious background information on the most important and widespread Gloranthan cultures. These cultures are arranged by their predominant level of social organization: primitive, nomadic, chiefdom, civilized or elder races.
The eight human cultures are:
- The primitive hunter-gatherers represented by the Hsunchen and the Doraddi cultures;
- The nomadic pastoralists, represented by the Praxian culture;
- The bronze-working tribal chiefdoms, represented by the Orlanthi culture; and
- The urban civilizations, represented by the Pelorian, Fonritan, Western, and Kralorelan cultures.
The elder races of Glorantha are:
- The elves or Aldryami – walking sentient plants that have a superficial resemblance to humans;
- The dwarves or Mostali – immortal crafters that seek to repair the World Machine broken by the Gods War;
- The trolls or Uz – creatures of darkness descended from underworld demons and cursed by the gods of Light;
- The Dragonnewts – the mystic dragon-men who endlessly reincarnate with all their memories from their countless past lives.
We’ve included the original art direction for representatives of each major culture, reference pictures and links, as well as preliminary sketches by Jeff Laubenstein, so that you can have access to the best information we have concerning the look of each Gloranthan culture.


- A Timeline of the History of the Lunar Empire to 1625
- Hsunchen Overview
- Malkioni Q&A (2011)
- Orlanthi Overview
- The Seven Steps of the Red Goddess
Related Pages
- Dragon Pass – A brief outline
- Glorantha Core Rune Font
- Glorantha in a Nutshell
- Glorantha Runes
- History of Dragon Pass in the Second Age
- History of Malkioni Thought – Brithini and First Age
- How Argan Argar Courted Esrola
- Introduction to Gloranthan Mythology and History
- Maps of Glorantha
- Mythical Age Maps
- New Discoveries about Ingolf Dragonfriend
- References for Glorantha (2021)
- Runes
- Some Gods
- The Enerali circa 130 ST
- The Gloranthan Cosmos (2008)
- The Green Land
- The Missionaries
- The Movable Ephemeris and the Gloranthan Sky
- The Origins of Writing
- The Plundering of Aron
- The Seven Lightbringers
- The Silver Age and the Dawn
- The Story of The Summons of Evil (1992, 2015)
- Third Age of Glorantha
- Types of Heroquests (2008)
- What is the Third Age History of the Sun Dome Temple in Sartar (2008)