Peter M. responds
>But then if you run an Orlanthi or Sartarite adventurer, you have a
>problem in that even more influential people don't like you, to
wit: >The Authorities
Come now Peter, you know your reasoning here is specious. Since when has being suppressed by the authorities been a _handicap_ for players? In the first place, the vast majority of all adventurers in all Glorantha (not to mention other games, from D&D to CoC) are at a _minimum_ under suspicion, if not outright hostile, to the forces of Lawn Order. Only in bleeding heart liberal campaigns like Dave Dunham's ;) do the PCs knowingly work on behalf of society's mores.
In every campaign, there are huge numbers of useful members of society who won't deal with you if you're friendly with the authorities. Since PCs are often part of the seamy underbelly of the local culture, it's just as well to have them fit in.
>Although Humakt was a popular cult in RQII, I had heard this was
>largely due to free sword training to initiates which is far more
>useful than Sever Spirit etc. If you take this out, Humakt becomes
>a minor cult of fanatics roughly with the same amount of social
>status as Storm Bull.
Even in RQ II, I never gave my initiates free sword training from the Humakti temples. The local sword was always too busy to train anyone but his favorite brown-nosing initiates and the PCs had to go whistle. Yet Humakt has always been very popular among my players. There has almost _always_ been at least one Humakti among the party members. The only exception I can think of is when they spent several years in the Doraddi savannah, and nobody could bring in a Humakti as a replacement character.
I think Humakti is popular because A) he's obviously a macho tough fighter's god. B) you get cool magic power from the geasa. C) the spells are combat-oriented, and include the kick-ass Sever Spirit. D) If your PC is a fighter-type, you can rise to Sword level reasonably quickly, since practically all the needed skills are directly associated with combat.
The only cult that rivals Humakt for popularity in my experience is that of Orlanthi, which is also reasonably macho, and has somewhat better magic.
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