Skip to content
The Well of Daliath
Menu
Menu

The Man Rune

Posted on December 3, 2022

The Man Rune is the Form of all mortal sentient beings. The races of the Man Rune include trolls, elves, runners, dwarves, ducks, beastfolk, and triolini, as well as humans. It does not include dragonewts, who enjoy an innate immortality. Nor does it include animals (even if they are capable of sentient thought).

Most stories agree that the world was largely made before mortals ever entered the scene. The gods needed a servant who could communicate with every deity and spirit. Every deity and spirit participated in conjunction to create the Man Rune, called Grandfather Mortal.

Once the Man Rune was created, it too was passed around the Celestial Court. The earliest people were made from mud, they say, or dirt and stone. In those days, people and beasts were not yet differentiated from each other, and thus the Hsunchen, or Beast People, were both people and beasts. As had happened before, the Elemental deities soon experimented with their own people of Darkness, Water, and so forth. Many of the children of these Elemental pairings were shaped by the Man form and were the founders of the many tribes of humankind.

Grandfather Mortal is the exemplary model of behavior and decision making for all mortals. He (or often she) was the first entity to experience Death, when Humakt was testing the New Power during a critical turning point in the Gods War.

Do Elves have the Man Rune rather than the Plant Rune? Elves are Man and Plant, all Aldryami have the Plant Rune. Not all have the Man Rune.

What would an elf with a high Man Rune affinity be like? More human looking and behaving.

The essential Mortal-ness of all those who share the Man Rune is what unites humans, elves, trolls, dwarves, triolini, etc. Sure the trolls are Dark People and the elves are Plant People, the triolini are Water People and the humans are Everything People, but they are all People.

The dragonewts are something else though. They are not mortal – they die and are reborn with their memories and consciousness intact. They see Death as a mirage, a mere transitory change, and even embrace it to transform themselves.

Jeff Richard

Next
Previous
Aldryami, Grandfather Mortal, Man Rune, Plant Rune

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

  • Solars, Orlanthi, and the Monomyth

    So if we think about the transmission of Solar myths …
  • Orlanth Rex is the God of Tribes

    Are all tribal queens and chiefs part of the Orlanth …
  • Tribe and Clan Structure

    I think there is a tendency to take how “fixed” …
  • Some Notes on The Dragon Religion

    The Dragon Religion holds that the Elements were formed out …
  • Some Thoughts On Dragons And Jung

    I’ve been increasingly thinking that True Dragons embody the Jungian …
  • Adventurers in the Hero Wars

    Now the big Hero Wars stuff operates at an orthogonal …
  • The Apotheosis of Mortals

    We moderns have inherited monotheism’s assumption that apotheosis of mortals …
  • Your Sartarite Adventurer and the Hero Wars

    From the Sartarite perspective, the Hero Wars last some 30 …
  • Argrath and The Sartarite Elite

    In 1627-1628, Argrath relied strongly on the Sartarite Orlanth Adventurous, …

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

  • The Shimmering Lake - Jonstown Compendium
  • Help dealing with a LM Sorcerer and an Ernaldan Shaman in 6SiS
  • Question about cult Initiation for characters in the Six Seasons in Sartar Campaign
  • RQG corebook reprints?
  • Dragon pass and Cults of Light and Fire........UK restock dates ?
  • Making New City Gods
  • The Tide and the Serpent (triolini and other wet talk)
  • Caladraland Sources?
  • Rhigos - A Jonstown Compendium Project
  • Lost peoples beyond the monomyth

Popular Tags

Boldhome (large city) Chaosium Colymar (Sartar tribe) Contents Cult demographics Cults of Runequest (preview) Ernalda Esrolia (homeland) FRA Furthest (large city) G+ post Genealogies 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

  • Masks of the Red Emperor

  • Lesilla

  • Naveria

  • God Learner Divine Genealogies I

  • Dendara

  • God Learners

  • Ikadz

  • Zorak Zoran

  • Foundation for the Monomyth

  • The Monomyth I

  • The Monomyth II

  • Solars, Orlanthi, and the Monomyth

  • Northern Sartar & Tarsh Map preview

  • Tarsh map WiP preview

  • Tarsh (1625-1628)

  • The Population of Lunar Tarsh

  • Dundealos and Pol-Joni

  • Tribes & Clans

  • Eiritha

  • CHA4045 The Lunar Way – Q&A

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