Tonguez
A suffusion of yellow
Steverooo said:Glorantha is a highly magical world, centered (more or less) on the Dragon Pass area. It is lousy with godlets and demonlings, and every orphan child is a member of some cult or another, and knows several "battlemagic" spells. Each spell temporarily reduces your POW (Will Power), and since a Human will have 18 points, maximum, to start... Magic is both more common, and less powerful, and you will quickly run out of POW (which, incidentally, is what you use to resist magic, as well).
Glorantha is a Bronze-Age world, although "Bronze" isn't really bronze, "Iron" isn't really iron, "Aluminum" isn't really... etc. "Bronze" is mined directly from the bones of dead godlets, as "power crystals" are their blood. Various metals have certain cult allegiances, and can be used by Priests and "Rune Lords" of associated cults, enchanted with certain powers.
"Iron", for instance, is tougher, and suppresses magic ability, except in Priests/Lords of certain cults who have permanently sacrificed POW to be bonded to their gear...
RuneQuest revolves around gaining the prerequisites to join some deity or another's cult, and gain access to their "runes". Becoming a Lay Member is generally pretty easy. Then you can receive training in certain skills, weapons, learn some battlemagic, etc. As you advance, you can gain skills and become a Rune Lord (when you have POW 15+ and five or more skills from the cult list at 90%+), or you can increase your POW to 18+ and become a Rune Priest, and begin permanently sacrificing points of POW for reusable "Rune Magic", which is stronger than battlemagic.
There are many different cults, basically one for EVERYTHING! Sailor-godlets, cults of terror, cults for nomadic wanderers, cults for bards, etc. By becoming a Rune Lord or Priest, you gain a rune, and have basically finished the "quest" for the "rune". Of course, each cult also has "spirits of retribution" to harass those who leave the cult...
Glorantha, being a magical world, has many different forms of magic. Pretty much all cults have access to battlemagic and Rune Magic. There is also sorcery, which works differently, and has its own rules. The wizards from the isle of Brithini use this.
Most "gods" have likes and dislikes. Chalanna Arroy, for instance, is the goddess of healing. Lay membership gives you the ability to get free food and a place to sleep, whenever you need it, but not a lot else. Her temples will teach you skills like first aid at half price, unusual stuff like find healing plants, and generally won't do weapons training. They would teach you non-lethal spells like Befuddle or Sleep, but not ones like Sharpen (a weapon-enhancer), and even if you knew it, you'd forget it, after joining the cult!
Orlanth, the storm god, has his cult divided up into three parts, even! Orlanth Rex is the godling of Kings, Orlanth Adventurous the one favored by adventurers, and... (I forget the third... Thunderous?) is the storm aspect. Rune Magics relate to each branch.
While some Rune Magics are available to all, each cult has its own special versions. Only Chalanna Arroy's cultists can use the healing Rune Magics, and only Orlanth Thunderous' Rune Priests can use his storm Rune Magics. Some even have their own battlemagics, such as Chalanna Arroy's Sleep.
Every cult has its myths. Chalanna Arroy, for instance, invented the Befuddle spell (similar to confusion) in order to end combats without anyone getting hurt. She taught it to others, who then used it to "soften up" the enemy before entering into combat! Because of that, the Sleep battlemagic isn't taught to anyone but cult members!
Each cult restricts some skills, etc. (You can learn them, but at twice the price), teaches ones associated with their godling at half cost, and might even ban others. Joining a cult will pretty much decide what you become.
Glorantha is not your standard fantasy world. This world was created by its gods, and they more directly affect it than a typical D&D world. Also, the dragons and their kin (the dragon newts) have played a major hand in history, such as the "Dragonkill War").
One of the strongest races on Glorantha are the "men of darkness", AKA Trolls. They have better stats than Humans. They would rule the world, if not for Nysallor/Gbaji having cursed their race for failing to aid him in an ancient battle. "The Trollkin Curse" makes most trolls born today be small, stunted, and weak.
Another ancient race is the Dwarves, men of the stone. There are also the elven races, men of the plants. They, dryads, pixies, etc., are vegetables, in this world.
There are also the ducks... While pixies were invented by the godling of Elves, in order to make his Lady smile, the origin of Ducks has never been explained, so far as I know... (I think it was stolen from a certaincomic book, myself!)
There are also certain chaos monsters, such as Jack'o'bears (look like bears with the heads of Jack'o'lanterns), Walktapi (looks like a man with an octopus in place of his head, and regenerates worse than a troll!)
All of these races are woven together into stories of the "Godtime", where ancient fueds were started, and still held against each other by worshippers of the various godlings to the present day...
Orlanth and the Sun god (whose name I forget) started a fued when they were born. Eventually, Orlanth invented the "New Power"; death, and used it on the sun god... So the sun god died, and went to the underworld, leaving the world in darkness...
Now the underworld was where the Trolls (Men of Darkness) lived, and the sun coming there was MOST unwelcome. So they left, travelling to Glorantha, which was experiencing The Great Darkness... Meanwhile, a group of Humans known as the "Lightbringers" were on a quest to rescue the dead sun god from the underworld. After too many trials to write about, they convinced all the godlings to join in "The Great Compromise", and hence the world where the sun is in the sky half the day, and in the underworld all night...
Lots of stuff like that, in Glorantha. Mythology IS History, and grudges are held to the current day. Much of the trouble between Elves and Dwarves, for instance, was really caused by Varanarra the Hurler (a Troll). The three races always seem at war with one another.
Genertela is the continent upon which sits Dragon Pass. The Pass is one of a very few ways to get through the Rockwood or Rockwall mountains (Joe Myth, the famous Trader, knows another!) To the north are the lands of the stoneage Balazarings, and to the south the Plains of Prax, where nomads live and the great cities of Pavis (and the "Big Rubble" of an older version) sit. South of that, the River of Cradles (named for the Giants' cradles that sometimes appeared there) flows into the sea (past another great city, whose name I forget).
South of Dragon Pass, but west of Prax is Sartar, which has been invaded by the Lunar (think Roman) Empire. One of the heroes of the Hero Wars is the prince of Sartar, leading the revolt. Another is Cragspider, a witch who worships the spider godling.
Far to the east of Prax is the great desert, where the bones of the godling Genertela (for which the continent is named) lie. The great "Desert Trackers" of Issaries try to recover every scrap of skin, bringing them back here, in the hopes of reviving him... assuming they can survive the storms of copper dust, the desert, and whatever lives there...
Even further to the east, beyond the desert, are the mysterious eastern (oriental) lands. They have their own beliefs, and legends. "Dragon Magic" is very popular, there.
Glorantha is shaped a bit like a lozenge, and the farther north and south you go, the closer you come to an elemental "pole". Goin north through Balazar, the Elder Wilds, and the lands of the Horse Barbarians, you eventually come to a world of snow and ice, where ice demons roam the land. Going further north increases the cold.
Northwest of Dragon Pass is the Lunar Empire. It has many different parts, some of which are heavily choked by chaos. Since the Red Goddess of the Lunar Empire embraces chaos, things like the Crimson Bat are allowed here. This sets Sartar (and most of the rest of Genertela) on end, as they hate all aspects of chaos.
Far to the west of there, off the shores of the continent, lie the lands of Brithinni, where gods hold no sway. Their Magocracy drains the POW of the peasants to feed the sorcery of the rulers.
The oceans of Glorantha were closed for a very long time. Some godling learned a spell of opening, and swam to Genertela, where he taught it to the god of sailors. It is now a guarded secret of their cult, and no one can pass the seas without making use of it.
Across the seas, to the south, lies the continent of Kralorela (if I spelted it right), which is a jungle continent. As one goes further south, ones reaches the burning desert, which would eventually lead to the Burning Pole (if you could survive to get there). This is the antipodes to the "Cold Pole" of Genertela's far north.
There are many other tales, cults, places of interest, saga, and tales in the making. I have never seen the HeroQuest game, but I have seen ads for it since the 1980s... Supposedly, it is supposed to allow "Rune Level" characters to enter "The Godtime" and participate in the various myhtic stories of the god they worship.
Perhaps someone who has seen the game can pick it up, from there...
Wow thanks for the overview Steveroo - the setting sounds wonderful! (even if the names are a bit dorky!)
