Skip to content
The Well of Daliath
Menu
Menu

So what are the Thunder Brothers?

Posted on June 18, 2025

Now I rather thought the description in the Lightbringers book is enough, and if you don’t have a copy your should order it right away!

But let’s assume you have that book. What the Thunder Brothers you still want to know?

First, don’t try to be overly precise. The Thunder Brothers are best thought of as a band of storm gods that follow Orlanth around as companions, followers, manifestations, messengers, etc. They are violent and aggressive, armed with lightning and thunder and swords, and shake mountains, split clouds, destroy forests, flood rivers, and the rest.

Ever been in a really wild thunder storm with loads of things going on? Torrential rain, clouds so dark that it looks like night came early, walls of lightning, rolling thunder, and winds that knock over trees and structures (I call that Tuesday afternoon)? Orlanth has brought Thunder Brothers over. Many have well-known names, many have names that are really just titles or descriptions (“loud roarers,” “impetuous ones,” “glory-seeker”, “pounding rain”, and so on). Vinga is said to be their leader, but they are all the “Sons of Orlanth” (even if female), and serve the storm god.


Calling them bullies both understates what happens in a storm and overstates bullies. The best description of the Thunder Brothers I have is they are what shows up when the National Weather Service gives a “severe storm warning” in my part of the country. They are the gods that throw semis off the freeway, tear off roofs, shatter trees, cause flash floods, and start huge fires. Bullies? They are way more dangerous than that. Sure they eventually go away but only because they got called away. Offer them sacrifices and hope they rampage more on the other side of I25!


Jeff Richard

Next
Previous
CoR-LB, Thunder Brothers

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?
  • Do Animal Nomads eat awaken beasts ?
  • Jonstown Compendium: The Sorcerer's Laboratory
  • Unsung Areas of the Big Rubble and Prax?
  • Sun County T-Shirt
  • Summon of Jaldon

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

  • Wyrm’s Footnotes #08 (1980)

  • Manthi

  • Magasta

  • Tales of The Reaching Moon #10 (GBR 1993)

  • Tales of The Reaching Moon #09 (GBR 1993)

  • Tales of The Reaching Moon #08 (GBR 1992)

  • Notes on The Holy Country III

  • Jadarenasa

  • Boldhome Booklet

  • Sea Eagle

  • Loon

  • Otter

  • Turtle

  • The Culbrea Tribe II

  • The Forty-eight Old Ones

  • Father of Independents

  • Vasana’s Tattoos WiP

  • Keraun

  • Pamalt

  • The Tales of the Reaching Moon – Index

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