So we know that the God Learners assembled the monomyth – that is the cohesive framework for understanding the events of the God Time. Furthermore they created several maps of the God…
Tag: Arkat
So what do your adventurers know about Illumination?
So what do your adventurers know about Illumination (as opposed to players)? If you notice Illumination is pretty much unmentioned in the core rules, Lightbringers, and Earth Goddess books. There is a…
Hard-Wired Gloranthan Conflicts
There are some big conflicts hard-wired into the Glorantha setting, including (but not limited to): These conflicts are macro and microcosmic. Political conflict often echo these cosmic conflicts – for example, Sartar…
Otherworld Home
So in every cult description, there’s an entry called Otherworld Home. That is where the cult members experience the god during holy day ceremonies and other important rituals. From there, there may…
The Third Age Arkat Romance
Arkat was the single most important historical hero in Glorantha. 1200 years later, he’s still the subject of legends, romances, stories. If we think of him as a military figure, he’s beyond…
Inspiration for Arkat
One of the more curious representations of Alexander the Great is this medieval illustration that has him with boar tusks. Apparently, the source for this strange feature may ultimately lie in the…
Before and after the Dark Empire
After the defeat of Gbaji in 450, Arkat place Dragon Pass under the rule of his troll friends and then returned to the West. He then settled in Fornoar, at the time…
Stygianism
Extinct First Age Sect Write up Page Year Runes Personal Glyph Notes Common and uncommon runes 2004 Glyph only Glorantha:Introduction to the Hero Wars 52, 55 2000
A Short History of Arkat
By all accounts Arkat was born on the isle of Brithos in 375 ST. In 400 he accompanied a Brithini expedition to Arolanit attempting to liberate that land from Gbaji. In 410…
Thoughts on The Lightbringers Quest
The Lightbringers Quest can be thought of as the monomyth of heroquests. It contains within it many quests – the Westfaring, the Descent into the Underworld, the Tests of Proof, etc. In…
Harmast’s “Lightbringers’ Quest”
I personally think it a little ironic that we still refer to Harmast’s “Lightbringers’ Quest” when after all it turned out to be a “Darknessbringer’s Quest”. Those Lightbringers were pretty shocked when…
Broken Empires, Gods, and Ideas
Arkat was the most terrifying mortal to walk the world. He built no new empires, ruled nothing but his companions, and built little. Instead, Arkat broke empires, gods, and even ideas. Think…
The Stygian Heresy II
So what do all of these Arkat sects – what we broadly call the Stygian Heresy – have in common? First and foremost they all claim to be the inheritors of esoteric…
The Stygian Heresy I
A key to why the Stygian Heresy is so threatening to mainstream Malkioni can be found in Arkat’s apocryphal retort to the missive of King Nralar demanding that the Hero end sacrifice…
Arkat’s heirs
Many Second Age texts hold that both Gerlant Flamesword and Talor the Laughing Warrior were sons of Arkat and Seleria of Brithos. This is held as deeply heretical, even blasphemous, by both…
End of Ages
Without getting into the nature of Glorantha after the Hero Wars, it is worth remembering that twice before there have been widespread catastophes that are generally considered to have ended the Age….
Arkatism
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…
Harmast’s Heroquests
This excerpt is from Greg Stafford’s unpublished Harmast Saga (1991) Here are the times that Harmast went to the Hero Plane before he returned with Arkat. First, for a glimpse, at his…
Arkat as Colonel Kurtz
If I sometimes imagine Argrath as a Bowie-like chameleon, I often imagine Arkat as a Colonel Kurtz figure, particularly in the last stages of the Gbaji Wars. I could imagine him giving…
A few more Arkat Cult notes
As said many times before – After the long war Arkat retired with his closest confederates to Arkhome, which became the capitol of Arkat’s Autarchy. Arkat instituted formal cult procedures, created a…
A few notes on Arkat
Perhaps all of these parts are familiar to all of you, but understanding Arkat is a key to understanding the Third Age: Arkat was a man of reason who ventured into the…
A History Of Heroquesting
There’s a lot here to unpack. Worth a very careful read! Heroquesting begins with Time, and the division of the Mundane World from the Gods World. In the God Time, there was…
Nysalor / Gbaji
The Bright One / The Deceiver Write up Page Year Runes Notes Lunar Way 9112 pages 2024 Associate cults: none Cults of Glorantha Preview 404 2019 Associate cults: none Cult Compendium 319Five…
History Of Kethaela – The First Age
Kethaela is an ancient name for the region now called the Holy Country. The land was named for the goddess Ketha, the wife of Entru and mother of Entruli, who came from…
Heroquesting 101
Heroquesting is a powerful and rare Gloranthan activity in which the participants leave the material world and enter the realm of legend and myth to interact with heroes and gods, gambling precious…