Cults

From: Nick Brooke <100270.337_at_compuserve.com>
Date: 29 Aug 95 03:40:48 EDT



Tim Torres asks:

> Wanted: Cacodemon, Lanbril, Mostal

> Does anyone know how I could get hold of information on these cults (or
> any other cults not in the original RQ2 red book/Cults of Prax/Cults of
> Terror/Trollpak). Is there material from Avalon Hill on these cults, or
> do I need to find older Chaosium material?

Full writeups for the cult of Cacodemon and for Mostali sorcery/society are in the Avalon Hill RQ3 boxed set "Elder Secrets", which should still be around. If you wanted to go digging, you could find the Cacodemon Cult in RQ2's "Griffin Mountain" (along with Foundchild the Hunter, equivalent to Trollpak's "Hunter"), and Mostal in an early issue of "White Wolf" magazine (numbered somewhere around the teens), but there's no need to go to all the trouble. There's an old Different Worlds mag (in the twenties) which includes a lot of good material on Mostali: not a formal cult writeup, but arguably this stuff would be more useful in playing and running dwarfs (a lot of it made it through to the ES Elder Races Book). You may have trouble converting the RQ3 sorcery-based Mostali rules in ES for RQ2 gaming: if so, just remember that experienced Mostali on their own turf can (literally) hammer the opposition, who won't know what's hit them. The dwarfs don't play by other people's rules...

The thieves' cult of Lanbril was in the original RQ2 "Pavis" boxed set, and has not been reprinted since. This was written up as a kitchen-sink uber-cult (as were so many RQ2 minor-league religions), subsequently trimmed of most of its rune magics and all of its special skills and alchemical devices for its short-form appearance in the RQ3/AH "Gods of Glorantha" boxed set (as one of the "Thief Gods"; "short-form" means you get the RQ rules and not much else). I doubt the original cult will ever be reprinted, for aesthetic reasons. You might be able to pick up the Pavis box at an auction, but it would cost you many, many hands of dollars (Tradetalk). Unless the auction were held secretly at midnight in the disused back room of an unlit Turkish Bath, which on RQCon2's form is entirely possible...

The RQ3/AH "Troll Gods" boxed set includes full cult writeups for a bunch of Troll and Darkness gods not included in RQ2's edition of Trollpak (the Black Sun, the Blue Moon, Arkat, Himile, Mee Vorala, Moorgarki, Subere, Xentha), as well as several interesting Darkness Spirit Cults and a bunch of eyewitness accounts of troll religious practices. (One might add that the art in this book looks far better with Darksense).

"Gods of Glorantha" has no long cult writeups, but dozens of short ones, and is essential for an overview and understanding of Gloranthan religion. It also includes the *excellent* "What The Priest Says" sections.

The "Dorastor: Land of Doom" box has a better writeup of Illumination than CoT's, plus the longform cults of Telmor and Dorasta.

"Lords of Terror" has a whole bunch of stuff not in the original "Cults of Terror", including a cult writeup for Krjalk and a bunch of Chaotic Spirit Cults. (OK, so it doesn't have Vivamort and Thanatar, but the new stuff more than makes up for that. And you've got those already, right?)

There were other "official Chaosium" cult writeups in early White Wolf mags (before they got teen angst and committed suicide): Yelm, Lodril and Bagog. You should sell your auntie to get hold of the Lodril writeup, but it was printed a long time ago.

Next, the plugs:

There have been a host of cults in "Tales of the Reaching Moon" magazine: full Chaosium writeups of Gagarth, Humakt, Maran Gor, the Crimson Bat, the Cannibal Cult, Dormal, Magasta, Pamalt; also Geo (Sartarite pub life), Caladra & Aurelion (a heroquesters' kitchen sink), the Granite Phalanx (a Lunar Army regiment), the Hrestoli and Rokari Churches (two Western Malkioni sects), and some other small fry. If you've not yet seen "Tales," send me an email message saying which country you live in and I can forward subscription details to you. Tales #14 should have the Spirit Cults of Prax (*ALL* of them, not just Frog Woman and River Horse) and several other goodies.

The Reaching Moon Megacorp produced a small red book called the "New Stafford Companion," which included a list of sources for RuneQuest cult writeups. It's a couple of years out of date by now, but might still be worth a look if you're a fanatical completist. (Mind you, a fanatical cult-head would presumably have bought "Troll Gods" and "Gods of Glorantha" by now, so I doubt you'll take me up on this).

If you like Gloranthan religion, I think you'll enjoy our recent book, "Wyrms Footprints," which reprints all of the "Gods and Goddesses of Glorantha" articles from the Chaosium's Wyrms Footnotes magazine. These were the primary source for GoG's "Prosopaedia" book and for a whole bunch of more civilised cults.

Some excellent cults have also been posted to this list in years gone by. If you have a WWW browser, poke around on the sites indexed at Loren Miller's homepage for Grazers galore (D. Dunham, prop.) and a variety of other good stuff (B.Maloney, prob.). There's plenty of quality material out there if you know where to look: I hope this letter helps you find it. If there's anything else specific you're interested in, ask again and I'll see what I can think of.



Nick

Powered by hypermail