Skip to content
The Well of Daliath
Menu
Menu

Initiates and their experiences

Posted on March 7, 2023

A few examples of how cults are spread across space and how that is experienced by members of the cult.

1. ORLANTH. Vasana was initiated into the cult of Orlanth Adventurous (Vinga) at the major temple of the Colymar tribe (as is common). As an initiate she offers worship to Orlanth at all sorts of temples and shrines to the god and his aspects throughout Dragon Pass, Pavis, and the Holy Country. Vasana has traveled from Clearwine to Ralios and had no trouble offering sacrifices to Orlanth in the countless temples and shrines to the god along the way. Normally she recognises the regalia, the accoutrements, and the songs in Storm Speech – this stuff has been carried throughout Genertela over the last sixteen centuries.

2. ODAYLA. Nathem was initiated into the Bear God cult in Old Tarsh. There is little more than a few shrines to Odayla there, and Nathem wanders widely offering worship to the Sky Bear wherever he can. He travels to Syllila where there is a large and organised cult with as many people as the entire adult population of the Tarsh Exiles. It is an eye-opener, with new stories, new myths, and more. So Nathem keeps wandering, and eventually makes his way to Fronela. There he encounters the Rathor cult – and Nathem tries worship the Great Brown Bear there. Does he succeed or is that the point where the differences are too great? Dunno, sounds like a fun part of that campaign though!

3. YELMALIO. Berensor was initiated into the Elmal cult at Famegrave, where there was a minor temple. He got caught up in the Elmal cult’s conflict with the Local tribal leaders and the Sartar Dynasty, and was exiled for kinslaughter. He went to the new Sun Dome Temple in the Amber Fields and of course recognized the Elmal stuff other exiles had gathered there – and he offered worship there, and of course it was successful (he regained his Rune Points!). He swore loyalty to the Major Temple to Yelmalio there and was rewarded with a plot of land, a spear and some armor. He fought for the Sun Dome Temple against the trolls of Troll Woods, and eventually became a Light Son.

Berensor died at Grizzly Peak, fighting for King Tarkalor and the Feathered Horse Queen, along with many other Yelmalio cultists. His grandson Varthanic was initiated into the Yelmalio cult at the Sun Dome Temple. He’s traveled to Prax and worshiped Yelmalio at the Sun Dome Temple there, although he found the Sun Dome cultists there to be quite backwards and extremely provincial, although the beer was excellent.

Varthanic later traveled to Mirin’s Cross, and was struck how the Sun Dome Temples maintain their identity despite the Yelm nobles from the Heartlands. The Lunar influence troubled him, and he was surprised at the semantic games the Light Priests used to avoid acknowledging Lunar hegemony. Nonetheless, the Sairdite temples had many new stories and myths. From there Varthanic went on to the Hill of Gold, where he walked those sacred grounds.

Jeff Richard

Next
Previous
Colymar (Sartar tribe), Elmal, Nathem, Odayla, Old Tarsh (homeland), Orlanth Adventurous, Rathor, Vasana, Vinga, Yelmalio

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
  • About This Site
  • Get involved!

Latest Posts

  • The Nine Good Giant Mountains

    The Nine Good Giant Mountains are about 60 km or …
  • Why Most Sartarites Hate the Lunar Empire

    From time to time it is worth reminding people why …
  • Suntown and the Eiskolli

    Suntown has always been in the hands of the Sun …
  • A Few Notes on the Grantlands

    To the south of Sun County are the former Grantlands, …
  • Sartar Cities

    Sartar can be thought of a confederation of small cities …
  • Catalogue of the Gods revisited

    This piece from the Mythology book is among my absolute …
  • Thunderbolts in Art

    One of the things that really got me down the …
  • RuneQuest Art

    So let’s talk RQ art for a moment. For the …
  • Top Five RuneQuest Cults

    So it is absolutely no surprise to me that in …

Links

  • Chaosium
  • Chaosium’s RuneQuest RPG Wiki
  • Glorantha on BRP Central
  • RuneQuest on BRP Central
  • RuneQuest on Discord
  • Prince of Sartar Webcomic
  • Glorantha G+ Archives on Tapatalk
  • Search mailing list archive

Latest from BRP Central

  • Odayla Initiation Heroquest
  • Did anyone get a good look at WB&RM?
  • Clearwine Assembly Hill and Orlanth's High Holy Day
  • Sun County pdf is drivethrurpg’s Deal of the Day for July 1st
  • Permission to use exerpt from map in Starter Set in a Jonstown Compendium release?
  • Summon of Jaldon
  • Jonstown Compendium: Spawn of Molokka - The Cephalopods of Glorantha
  • Runelords and Retirement
  • Hospitality Hearth spirits - what are they ?
  • Clearwine Burned & Argrath's Orphan Childhood

Popular Tags

1625 ST Boldhome (large city) Chaosium Colymar (Sartar tribe) Contents Cult demographics Cults of Runequest (preview) Ernalda Esrolia (homeland) FRA Furthest (large city) G+ post Gods Wall Greg Stafford Guide to Glorantha (preview) Humakt Jar-eel Lunar Empire Lunar Pantheon Magazine Malkioni pantheon Map Michael O’Brien Mongoose MRQ1 New Pavis (small city) Old Glorantha Q&A Orlanth Orlanthi pantheon Photo reference Population demographics Prax (homeland) RQ3 RQG Sandy Petersen Sartar (homeland) Spirit Cult Star Subcult Tarsh (homeland & Lunar province) Troll Pantheon Yelm Yelmalio Yelm Pantheon Youtube

Recently added or updated

  • CHA4037 Dragon Pass – Q&A

  • CHA4043 The Lightbringers – Q&A

  • CHA4029 RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack – Q&A

  • CHA4034 Red Book of Magic – Chapter 02 Rune Magic Spells Q&A (A-M)

  • CHA4036 RuneQuest Weapons and Equipment Q&A

  • The Garden, Big Rubble II

  • The Garden, Big Rubble I

  • Half-folk

  • Orlanth Rex and Sartar’s Lineage

  • The Triceratops Queen

  • 1557-1600 Conflict with the Lunar Empire

  • Why Most Sartarites Hate the Lunar Empire

  • The Nine Good Giant Mountains

  • Trolls of The Big Rubble

  • Dorastor (FRA-1993)

  • AH8592 Dorastor: Land of Doom (1993)

  • Rynglorem

  • Hobimarong

  • Sun County Continued part 1

  • Suntown and the Eiskolli

©2025 The Well of Daliath | Design: Newspaperly WordPress Theme