Most adult Gloranthans are an initiate of a cult, and a lay member of one or two others. So in Sartar, a typical woman would be an initiate of Ernalda (worshiping Orlanth…
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City Gods
Cities have a market, a degree of self-governance, and temples to the city’s patron deity and to the city god. They also have temples to other gods of importance to the people,…
Cosmos & Chaos
As I have been exploring and detailing Gloranthan mythology for the last several years, I’ve been struck by how the cults of Chaos represent those evils that are simply contrary to the…
Introducing New Players
A few thoughts in introducing RQ to new players – especially those who are only familiar with D&D. CharactersIf pressed for time or are doing a one-shot, use the pregens. Seriously. Circulate…
Trying to Get your Mind Around Glorantha?
A suggestion in trying to get one’s mind around Gloranthan cults, kingdoms, and empires – loyalty is usually personal and not ideological. I might have a tremendous loyalty to my local leader…
Notes on Spirit Cults
Spirit cults are an easy way to give players access to Rune spells that they cannot normally get from their local cults. For example, if the players (a bunch of Lightbringers cultists)…
Spirit Cults
Shamans are specialists in dealing with spirits and the spirit world. They are awakened to the presence of spirits everywhere. Shamans can also establish spirit cults – the shaman contacts the spirit…
Soap Opera themes
Feuds, royal intrigue, temple politics, angry spirits and the grasping demands of long dead ancestors, RuneQuest is ripe with the elements of soap operas and romances. Spice it up with Elder Races,…
Defunct Sartar Tribes
The Dundealos tribe was “destroyed” by the Lunar Provincial Government in 1619, and their land given to settlers from the Lunar Provinces. These settlers were organized into a new tribe called the…
CHArisma
CHA is arguably the most important characteristic in the game (at least for ambitious characters) but is the easiest stat to improve in the game. For example: Got a cool magical sword?…
Sartarite Names
Many Sartarite names combine prefixes and suffixes as per below; the prefixes and suffixes usually relate to the names of gods or ancestors. Use them to create your name or pick a…
Dragon Pass Map Forest Overlay
Just because I find it interesting, here’s that composite map of Dragon Pass, Kethaela, and NW Prax with a forest overlay, showing you forest cover. The dark green is heavy forest, the…
Ramalia
So the last major polity in Maniria is Genertela’s answer to North Korea – Ramalia. This is a deeply unpleasant land, where a degenerate remnant of the Middle Sea Empire rules over…
Master Map
Something Greg taught me was to regularly overlay maps, so that you could see how things interact with stuff beyond the border of the map. This has a big effect on how…
Dragonewts in Maniria
In Maniria, there is a Dragonewt City in the Ryzel Hills, with its own Inhuman King. Dragonewt parties can be found throughout Maniria; normally they are neutral towards those they encounter, but…
Trader Princes
The Trader Princes developed out of a caravan route between Safelster and Esrolia that was established around 1200 ST. Caravanserai needed to be established and fortified, alliances needed to be made with…
What to buy?
So from time to time I get asked what currently published Gloranthan material do I recommend buying (and what do I not). Here’s my thoughts: Must Buy: RQ Starter Set, RQ Core Rules,…
The Arstola Forest
There are some 230,000 elves in the Arstola, one of the six Great Forests. They are mostly brown elves, with a smattering of green elves in the higher elevations. That’s a LOT…
More Maniria Notes
Most of the human population of Maniria belong to one of four Orlanthi tribal confederations formed along one of the main rivers (Ditali, Solanthi, Nimisotr, and Bastis). For centuries, these confederations were…
Maniria Notes
Maniria is a belt about 160-200km wide between the Mislari Mountains and the Solkathi Sea. It has a humid temperate to subtropical climate. Think Virginia or North Carolina. The Arstola forest hugs…
Men-of-All
So the Men-of-All have a curious place in Hrestolism. They are imagined as the safety valve in society – powerful, skilled warriors (and sometimes mages) who protect the weak, uphold the Invisible…
Who is Ginna Jar?
Ginna Jar is the ghost of something important that has been lost and is gone. The Orlanthi give it a feminine identity, but that may have as much to do with the…
More New Hrestolism Thoughts
New Hrestolism is arguably a more radical religious movement than even the Lunar Way. I don’t mean the “class mobility” features, that’s just a subset of it. With the Ban, the divine…
Four Magic Weapons subcult of Orlanth
This is a subcult often found with Orlanth Adventurous (or Vinga), that worships the Four Magic weapons of Orlanth. Each of these weapons are sometimes worshiped in other cultures as stand-alone gods…
Understanding Malkionism
There are somewhere in the vicinity of 8 million people that follow the teachings of Malkion and derivatives thereof. That’s a lot of people. Malkionism is often hard to get a handle…