Here’s an interview James Coquillat had with me about the importance of TTRPGs as an independent art medium, rather than one that is defined by its relationship to books..
So from time to time, people ask me – when is the Cults of Glorantha going to be published?The manuscript is done and edited, the art is done. There’s a few charts and other minor elements that are still getting done, but that is more to make sure it works with the layout template. The ..
Gobekli Tepe is making the rounds again and I thought this is a good opportunity to talk about Glorantha’s equivalent – Hrelar Amali, the “First Temple” of Glorantha. Hrelar Amali was built in the God Time by the Enerali People to mark the place where Flamal the Vegetation King was murdered. Here’s the entry in ..
One thing we likely do not play around with enough is the iconography of Argrath’s adventures from 1621-1624. In Teshnos, he defeated elephants by cutting off their noses. He took the Emerald Frog from Teleos, and gained the friendship of the Purple People. In Flanch he was betrayed and trapped by the “eating trees” but ..
Is there something special about the Broadview Inn? Broadview Inn This stone building is high up on Ternveka Mountain at 2,100 meters elevation. It serves as a shelter and “inn” for Orlanthi pilgrims traveling to the shrine on Quivin Mountain, and was built and maintained by the princes of Sartar. It has a small shrine ..
What took place in Dragon Pass between those years was a revolution as great as any in Gloranthan history. At the start, the Principality of Sartar had nearly collapsed and was poised to tear itself apart in tribal strife. By the end of 1629, it had established itself as the dominant power in Dragon Pass ..
Belintar was a sacred figure, not a political or administrative figure. That’s really really hard for us moderns to wrap our head around, but Belintar’s main function was to be a conduit between the Mundane World and the Gods Realm. He’s a Living God, acknowledged by everyone in the Holy County. His palace was in ..
I ran a four hour one-shot session of RuneQuest yesterday for some very wonderful players. Our intrepid group of Praxians – a pair of twins from the Sable Tribe, a young Bison warrior, a High Llama apprentice shaman, and a Pol-Joni mercenary were participating in a religious quest to find a rare and magical lily ..
Early Malkionism is thought to have been composed of sacrificial rituals, sorceries techniques and spells, legal proscriptions and philosophical speculations. Later Hrestolism preserved the rationalism and philosophical elements of early Malkionism and developed new philosophical schools, the most text being Rokarism and New Hrestolism. But parallel to this exist uncomfortably Arkatism. With its emphasis on ..
Here’s another fascinating set of tattoos – the marks of Joh Mith, Goldentongue Priest and member of the Jonstown CIty Council. What I love about it is you can see some of the strange pacts he’s had to make in order to travel between Sartar and Balazar. The reference to Nida is a misprint (and ..
To the west of Esrolia are four Orlanthi tribal confederations. The first – Longsi Land has long been under the suzerainty of the Esrolian Queens. In older texts this was called Haradlaro or the Harandings. Some scholars speculate that this was the homeland of the great Orlanthi hero Aram ya-Udram. It is now a semi-autonomous ..
One of the things that Jaye Kovach and I have enjoyed making with Anna Orlova have been the tattoo guides for various Sartarites. The idea here is to create a set of references for future art, but also to let people know what the various tattoos mean, and to let those tattoos be a guide ..
Here’s a nice illustration of the throne room of Nochet. Now obviously this is an adaptation of the Gloranthan original to look more Minoan but the base elements are there. We have the Queen with a child, one of her husband-lovers, a sister-priestess, and another priestess. A young handsome warrior is lower on the steps, ..
So as we have noticed, the RuneQuest cults are deliberately not balanced. Some cults have way more magic – and effective magic – than others. Now that was part of Greg’s vision – but why?One way of answering that is to look at the history of Time. At the Dawn, most people worshiped what we ..
The dance of the main characters of the Hero Wars – Argrath, Harrek, Feathered Horse, Jar-eel, and the Red Emperor – is the engine that drives the setting during this period. Your characters can participate in this dance, that’s one of the big advantages of setting the game in 1625. It is entirely possible that ..
The son of Orlanth and the horse goddess, this demigod ruler of the Beast Men has reincarnated several times throughout – and even before – history, most recently in 1615. He adopted the Grazeland Pony Breeders and was the first sacred King of Dragon Pass. Ironhoof is a centaur and lord of all horses. Ironhoof ..
The Fourth Inspiration of Moonson, Incarnation of the Red Goddess in Time, daughter/lover/mother of the Red Emperor, poetess and musician, defeater of barbarians, etc. Jar-eel is the great-granddaughter of the demigoddess Hon-eel the Artess and the defender of Lunar civilization and enlightenment.Blessed with grace, intelligence, and beauty, she has already become an immortal. She is ..
At a very fundamental level, Greg’s Argrath IS Arkat and fully experiences and participates Orlanth myths as a mortal. Now that doesn’t mean that he is trying to repeat the deeds of Arkat or Orlanth – in fact, very much not trying to repeat their deeds. Rather he is confronting new situations as if he ..
Aelwrin was born in 1592 amongst the Pentan nomads in the Redlands, and enslaved as a child when his tribe revolted against the Lunar Empire. He was made a kitchen slave, showing little talent for anything else. In 7/42 (1613), Beat-Pot organized and led a successful slave revolt, earning his name by using only the ..
As of 1625, New Pavis has a permanent population of about 5150 people, making it the second largest Sartarite city after Boldhome. Another 1500 people live inside the Big Rubble. All of Pavis County collectively has some 25,500 permanent inhabitants, making it more than twice the population of the largest Sartarite tribe.At any given time, ..
As we all know, in 1610 New Pavis resisted the Lunar Army for a single day, then opened its gates to the besiegers. There was mutiny, but the ringleaders were caught and slain. Those who would resist were butchered systematically, or killed impromptu, depending upon your point of view. The conflict with the Yelmalio ruling ..
One thing about RuneQuest and Glorantha that some find it difficult at first is that the cults and occupations are deliberately not balanced. Orlanth has more and better magic than Waha. Or Storm Bull for that matter. Yelm has far more and better magic than Yelmalio or Polaris. Ernalda or Dendara are vastly more powerful ..
The Morokanth are nonhumans, and they outrage the other people of the Plains by herding human-descended Herd Men, who are, in fact, herbivorous and unintelligent. Man being a social animal by instinct, the Herd Men cluster in large herds, and Morokanth clans tend to be large in consequence. They are far more gregarious than the ..
Native farmers are indigenous to this land and have descended from survivors from before the Darkness. These folk have survived bad conditions for centuries. Whenever a conqueror makes peace for a while, they crawl from hidden lairs and farm. When the conqueror fails, they fade again into the earth. They speak their own language, but ..
In Dragon Pass, the great and wise King Sartar started a splendid dynasty renowned for wisdom and generosity.A son of King Sartar, Eonistaran the Sage lived in Jonstown. His two sons were raised with their cousins, the princes of Sartar. Dorasar was the younger of Eonistaran’s sons, and he was close to Prince Sarotar, the ..
