From: RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RQ Digest Maintainer) To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (Daily automated RQ-Digest) Reply-To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RuneQuest Daily) Subject: RuneQuest Daily, Wed, 09 Feb 1994, part 1 Content-Return: Prohibited Precedence: junk X-RQ-ID: Intro This is the RuneQuest Daily Bulletin, a mailing list on the subjects of Avalon Hill's RPG and Greg Stafford's world of Glorantha. It is sent out once per day in digest format. More details on the RuneQuest Daily and Digest can be found after the last message in this digest. --------------------- From: sandyp@idcube.idsoftware.com (Sandy Petersen) Subject: re: RQ Daily Message-ID: <9402081730.AA01988@idcube.idsoftware.com> Date: 8 Feb 94 05:30:45 GMT X-RQ-ID: 3059 I am asked: >The Glowline is not the limit of visibility of the Red Moon, which >can be seen across most of Glorantha. Sandy, is she visible from the >Pamaltelan plains? Yes. For one thing, there's a couple of big gaps in the mountains, especially between the Tarmo & Mari, which is right where the most populous part of Jolar exists. I'm sure that people living too near the mountains can't see the moon, but I would guess that those over 100 or so miles south of the mountains (at which point the mountains sink into obscurity) can easily see the moon. I feel that it is important cosmically that the Red Moon be visible everywhere on the Gloranthan surface, unless some physical obstacle actually happens to locally block it (like a nearby mountain, etc.). Hence, I think it can be seen in Slon, Luathela, East Isles, Nargan Desert, etc. I think that the moon's "height" is magic, much like Wintertop's, and that the only place in Glorantha that the phases are muddled (because you can see the moon's bottom) is the Silver Shadow sultanate. >I believe Sandy had some rules on trait rolls or changes for >Dragonewts employing Dragon magic at one point, but cannot remember >the gist of them. Here are my dragon magic rules, at one time semi-official Chaosium standard, but who knows what has happened since. In any case, I still use these rules. In modified form, they also work for the human dragon-worshipers of Kralorela. PERSONALITY TRAITS: I have my own list of RQ personality traits, probably everyone does. The exact traits don't really matter much, so long as they're organized into 6-7 pairs. For example: honest/dishonest; lustful/chaste; indulgent/abstemious; lazy/energetic; honorable/dishonorable; brave/cowardly, vengeful/forgiving (this is not a complete list). A human might start with, say, an Indulgent of 30, giving him an Abstemious of 70. The two scores always add up to 100. Dragonewts, on the other hand, start with 01 in every score. Like humans, they cannot advance beyond a total of 100, but they start out without personalities, and are trying to develop same. As a dragonewt exercises his personality, he receives "experience" increases, and thus a Dragonewt can gradually get his Indulgent and Abstemious up from 01 to 50. A Scout is trying to develop certain personality traits in order to qualify for Warrior level (for instance, Brave/Cowardly & Indulgent/Abstemious are Warrior traits). If the Scout instead spends his time working on Noble's traits (such as Honest/Dishonest or Vengeful/Forgiving) and masters them before the Warrior traits, he might become a mutant. Dragon magic is gained by a dragonewt at Warrior level for all those personality traits that the creature has mastered. For instance, the Prehealing magic (see Elder Secrets, secrets book) is tied to the Abstemious trait, which every Warrior has already conquered. Using a dragon magic DECREASES its personality trait by 1d6, without raising the opposite trait. Thus, if a Warrior dragonewt has a Indulgent 45/Abstemious 55, and uses Prehealing, rolling a 4, his traits become Indulgent 45/Abstemious 51, leaving a "gap". Hence, dragonewts often dislike using dragon magic. If their embryonic personalities degenerate too much, and they are killed, they may rehatch as a lower order of being. On the other hand, a dragonewt who has already degenerated past hope of proper rebirth might use tons of dragon magic to keep himself alive, planning (after the fight) to spend several years working his traits back up, without having to die and be reborn as an inferior order of being. On the other hand, I play that once a dragonewt's paired traits add up to 100, he cannot increase or alter them any more, so sometimes dragonewts have to use dragon magic to lower one of their scores, so the opposed score can increase itself. Humans that use dragon magic start out with full colorful human personalities, and gradually degenerate by use of dragon magic, ultimately lessening their humanity. On the other hand, because they start out with such high traits, they can use lots of good magic right away. This is no doubt what attracted the False Dragon Ring to Kralorela, and could be a major contributor to their destruction -- the native Kralori are well aware of the two-edged nature of dragon magic, and know that it must be used with respect and caution, not exploited as a power source (unlike their treatment of sorcery, which they exploit up the wazoo). Anyway, that's how I do dragon magic. It has the advantage that the dragonewts still act weird to the players, and yet I have reasons why a dragonewt might use one magic and not another. It also helps me know why a dragonewt may act really aggressively at one time, and not at another. Of course, there's much much more to the dragonewt persona than personality trait development. re: The Darkness Sun I'd forgotten about the ol' Darkness Sun. I submit that the existence of the Darkness Sun (which evidently rose with the Moon) helps explain the mysterious ambivalence of the trolls towards the Lunars. Given that trolls hate chaos and hate humans, you'd think they'd be rabidly anti-Lunar, yet it's clear that they're not from numerous sources. The Darkness Sun (= the Black Sun?) may be a shared secret of the Lunars and Trolls. Perhaps the Trolls have big plans for the Darkness Sun. I think it is possible that Greg (unconsciously?) named Dara Happa partly after Harappa. However, I wouldn't read too much into the "similarities" between Harappa and Dara Happa. >Both ... are situated along the most important river of the region. Ditto for most major cities. >Both have strong urban centres from which the surrounding (inferior, >from their viewpoint) populace is governed. Ditto for most early nations arising from city-states, as opposed to those arising from tribalist origins. >Both have problems with invading rider cultures who in the end >conquer them. Ditto for every nation adjacent to the steppes and its horsemen. Peking has all three similarities with Dara Happa, as do the major Mesopotamian cities. And Egyptian, too, to some extent, though they were not so much conquered by invading horsemen as they adopted the practice (q.v. the Mamelukes). Bryan Maloney suggested a fine "kill-the-bat" procedure: >1: Revive Genert. >2: [use the plenty] to increase the ... [Wastes] population. >3: Summon the great Ancestral spirits and juice them up with all > the MP and extra POW of the burgeoning populace. >4: Use this power to summon the Storm Bull. >5: Sacrifice half the population ... to the Storm > Bull. >6: Storm Bull then kills the bat. I like this, but feel the last, and most obvious step is: 7: The Gods War returns and everyone dies. A consummation heartily to be hoped for. For some time, various people have bugged me (oft in personal mail) to list all the Runes, and their owners. So here is a Rune essay. GENERAL RULE: Most Runes have a particular god who is the Source or Origin. Sub-runes probably have the origin god as their Source. Minor Runes may not have Sources, because if they were destroyed, the universe would not be destroyed along with it (unlike the Major Runes). If a deity has the infinity Rune, it means that it is the original source of the other cult Rune from the Godtime, and always has been (example, Flamal & the Plant Rune). If a cult simply has one Rune twice (like Humakt & the Death Rune), then it means that that deity is now the Source, but was not during the Godtime. For Runes & sub-Runes which aren't named in the general RQ Rules, example gods from GoG who possess it are listed, so you can look up the Runes and see what they look like. ELEMENTAL RUNES: it is rare for a cult to have two elemental Runes (can't think of one, off-hand, besides Wachaza), though it is not too uncommon to have one major elemental rune, and then a sub-rune on the side (like Dendara). 0 DARKNESS: origin = Subere (in Godtime, 'twas Dame Darkness). Has the two sub-runes of Shadow and Cold. Gorgorma shows Shadow. Valind shows Cold. WATER: origin = Magasta (in Godtime, 'twas Sir Sea). Might possibly have sub-runes like the other elementals, but if so it didn't lose them during the Gods War. EARTH: origin = Ernalda (in Godtime, twas Empress Earth). Doesn't exactly have sub-runes, but is subdivided into Malign Earth and Benign Earth forms, and no cult yet described has both forms. Asrelia shows Benign. Ty Kora Tek shows Malign. STORM: origin = Orlanth (in Godtime, twas Umath = King Storm, who still exists, but has passed control to his son.) It's been argued that the Storm Rune can be subdivided into Air and Wind, but since only a very few cults would use the sub-Runes (like Molanni), 'tain't worth doing. SKY: origin = Yelm (in Godtime 'twas Lord Light). Has the sub-runes of Light and Heat. Yelmalio shows Light, Lodril shows Heat. MOON: origin = Red Goddess. It is unknown who the Godtime source was, if there was one. Note that the Blue Moon cult was assigned a Shadow elemental Rune by the God Learners, and the Selenes were considered a peculiar spirit, not an elemental. The Moon Rune only became used for the Annilla cult after the moon's ascent. Sometimes the Lunars use seven different "Runes" for the moon, showing all the phases. But these aren't really sub-Runes. CONDITION RUNES: many of these Runes don't seem to have a Source, unless Arachne Solara is it. INFINITY: only the cults that are the original wielders of a Rune possess this. Presumably Arachne Solara, if she has Runes, would boast two Infinity Runes, leading to the question of whether (A) this represents a paired Infinity Rune, indicating that she was not the original Source of Infinity, but has now taken over or whether (B) this indicates an Infinity Rune next to another Infinity Rune, indicating that she is the one and only original Infinity Rune Source. Ah well. LAW: origin = Invisible God. Many Theyalans do not recognize the Law Rune, substituting Stasis in its place. Lhankor Mhy shows Law (though in Dragon Pass and other places Stasis is oft-used instead). MASTERY MAGIC PAMALT: this Rune was invented during the Six-Legged Empire, who wanted a Rune to symbolize the power that Pamalt demonstrated which did not easily fit into any other Runes. It symbolizes a complex concept that would take too long for me to cover here. Note that before the God Learners actually contacted Pamalt and found out what he was really like, he was assigned the Earth Rune. Despite this, most philosophers agree that Genert must've actually had the Earth Rune. "Pamalt" is based on a native Doraddi Rune. Although it is called "Pamalt", other deities possess it too, and Pamalt does not seem be the Source (if there is one). Despite this last fact, the Six Legged Empire considered a Major Rune. HUNGER: origin = Vivamort. This may actually be a Form Rune. It is often called the "Undead" Rune, since undead gods generally have it in a big way. But its possession by non-undead cults such as Krarsht demonstrate its wider utility. So far as I know, all the cults that possess the Hunger Rune are chaotic, and I don't think this is an artifact of the Gods Wars. Since deities as ravenous as Zorak Zoran don't have this Rune, it would appear to not be true physical hunger, but something else which perhaps can't be understood by non-chaos entities. If it is true that there are six forms of Chaos, perhaps this is one of the "original" chaos Runes, Chaos being another, and we have four other Runes lurking out there somewhere. FORM RUNES CHAOS: some say that this is not a Form Rune, but a Condition, or even an Element (or a Power). If the Chaos Rune had a Source, it is unknown. Even Primal Chaos isn't given two Chaos Runes. My own theory is that the several forms of Chaos each have their own Source. Maybe if Wakboth gets freed, we'll find out. PLANT: origin = Flamal DRAGONEWT: origin = Cosmic Dragon DRAGON: origin = Cosmic Dragon. Godunya & Path of Immanent Mastery show this Rune. BEAST: origin = Hykim & Mikyh MAN: origin = Daka Fal. Obviously the religion is called Ancestor Worship, but everyone who worships it has a belief in some first man, be he Grandfather Mortal, Wild Man, Old Man, or Daka Fal. And he's the Source of the Rune. It may seem strange that he's not the "original" source of the Rune, with an Infinity Rune to go alongside, but this may be because the various candidates for "first man" are in fact not the same guy, and all share sourcehood. SPIRIT: origin = Horned Man. I personally believe that the Bad Man also has two Spirit Runes. POWER RUNES: paired Runes. Cults possessing two opposite powers are generally chaotic or otherwise weird. (Or powerful, like Yelm.) In light of this, it is important to note that the Seven Mothers Runes are Life, Moon, Death. Note that this is a toned-down version of the Red Goddess herself, who has Life, Moon(s), and Chaos -- the theory here is that Chaos is simply Death for the Gods. LIFE: origin = Uleria. DEATH: origin = Humakt. (In Godtime 'twas Kargan Tor) HARMONY: origin = Chalana Arroy (In Godtime 'twas Harana Ilor) DISORDER: origin = Eurmal (general agreement here). In Godtime, 'twas Ratslaff. TRUTH: origin = Dayzatar (in Godtime, 'twas Orenoar, who bequeathed it to Dayzatar, though she still lives). ILLUSION: origin = Bolongo (who some treat as another version of Eurmal). In Godtime, 'twas Tylenea. STASIS: origin = Mostal. (In Godtime, 'twas Acos.) Some philosophers object to Mostal as the origin, seeing as how he's dead, and all. They suggest that a live god would make a much better Source for a Rune, but Mostal continues as it. CHANGE: origin = Mastakos. (in Godtime 'twas the Soul Arranger). LUCK: considered a secondary Rune. Asrelia has it, for one. FATE: also a secondary Rune. Ty Kora Tek has it. COMMUNICATION: also called the "Issaries" Rune. Does not seem to have an "opposite". Or maybe it's just that no one can learn about the opposite! Argan Argan has this Rune. Pearse, W. R. asks re: Tekumel: >Sandy, Can I really stick my neck out, and enquire if you did any >conversions for 'Eyes', and other magical items? I used magic items in my campaign, but I did no wholesale conversion. In general, the Eyes and other items are easy to convert. My players had a couple of Eyes and for a while had the Mallet of Inimitable Fealty (but they were just transporting it to somewhere else, though they did use it once). I also gave them the magic Sphere of Obscene Agitation which I just made up, which was a glass ball containing a couch and two small dolls. When you shook up the ball, the dolls engaged in various carnal acts. The "Sphere" was actually sort of a holdover from my style of RQ gaming rewards, in which I tend to give the players a good number of "useless" items -- magic junk, as it were. Yet these items often become highly prized by the players, which I guess is a sign of good roleplaying instead of minimaxing. >How did you get in contact with MAR Barker, and get his OK? Just >curious. I never did get personally in touch with him, but intermediates told me there'd be no problem whatsoever, plus I saw that other guys had done the exact same thing without (apparently) getting permission so I went ahead and downloaded the stuff. Kuri (from Japan) asks: >_God of Glorantha_ says Kraroli magicians use _Godunia Magic_. But, >_Godunia Magic_ is a Sorcery variant. Are Drgon Magics Sorcery? >I don't think so. There must be another magic system that rules >Dragon Magics. Godunya's magic is not the only dragon-like magic used in Kralorela. See my essay earlier in this issue for some info on Dragon Magic. Godunya's magic is in fact not all that useful to most initiates, who also worship the Rice Mother, Mikaday, or other dragon gods. Godunya worship is a civic duty, keeping the Empire strong. >BTW, Which is the Rune of Dragon? The square with X (first Rune of >Godunia) ? Yes. Boris asks: > Do you suppose Glorantha has skunk hsunchen? Where do you think >they would live? Wow! What an idea. I'm adding them to my campaign right NOW. > How about porcupine hsunchen? Or hedgehogs? Or pangolins? They're not innately any stupider than the turtle-folk. I like the idea of Sloth hsunchen, who never get anything done on time. (Rune Spell: Slow Metabolism, so you don't have to crap until the next rainfall.) > Are there any known bird hsunchen? Would penguin hsunchen live on > Valind's glacier? THere are known bird Hsunchen. Eagle Hsunchen exist atop the Kralori mountains (unless these are misnamed Wind Children), and in the old days there were chicken Hsunchen in Kralorela, now fortunately extinct. Penguin Hsunchen? They couldn't live all along Valind's glacier, just the edge abutting on the sea. Maybe that itty bitty island way north beyond Ygg's Isles is the place? Though I'd kind of reserved it for the fabled Great Auk Folk. ;) --------------------- From: henkl@yelm (Henk Langeveld - Sun Nederland) Subject: Re: RuneQuest Daily, Fri, 04 Feb 1994, part 1 Message-ID: <9402080829.AA19003@yelm.Holland.Sun.COM> Date: 8 Feb 94 10:29:12 GMT X-RQ-ID: 3056 Rob Prior: >I want only the Digest, not the Daily (can't afford all the network traffoc >the daily brings in). >I was getting only the Digest when the Daily suddenly appeared. Has the >server gone back to an old subscriber liist? No, I just sent on a sample of what the daily looks like currently... -- Henk | Henk.Langeveld@Sun.COM - Disclaimer: I don't speak for Sun. oK[] | My first law of computing: "NEVER make assumptions" --------------------- From: MOBTOTRM@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au Subject: YELM - 40 miles - Restrooms, Food, Heavenly Mansion... Message-ID: <01H8NT9ACJUQ8WWKH6@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au> Date: 9 Feb 94 10:49:24 GMT X-RQ-ID: 3057 David Dunham writes, regarding Gloranthan nomenclature: >BTW, here in Washington state is the town of Yelm... On my recent US sojourn I spent a fortnight in Washington state and got surprised by a freeway road sign saying YELM, with an arrow pointing up. I asked Greg about this at RQ Con, but he said he'd never heard of the town. Where did the name "Yelm" come from? I take great personal satisfaction in my only contribution to serious Gloranthan scholarship: noting the uncanny parallels between the Cult of the Black Sun and the slash 'n gore films of Herschell "Blood Feast/Wizards of Gore/Two Thousand Maniacs" Gordon Lewis. I wonder if anyone else out there can figure out other weird sources of Gloranthan nomenclature....