> Anybody aware of published material on how the Red Moon surface is
> like? Any idea on what is to be found there? Ever thought of how
> Glorantha is like when seen from the Moon?
The surface of the Red Moon is truly heavenly. Its landscape is a paradise of trees and flowers, rivers and seas, silvery roads and shining cities. It is a place for HeroQuests: treat it as you would Yelm's Heaven, Subere's Underworld, or Magasta's Depths.
Its inhabitants are the Gods, Demigods and Heroes of the Lunar Pantheon: the Red Goddess, the Seven Mothers, the Immortal Full Moon Corps, and other worthy Lunar dead. The Red Emperor has at least one Palace on the Red Moon, and the greatest, noblest and most pious leaders of the Empire can be found here.
That's the Bright Side, at any rate. The Dark Side of the Red Moon is another kettle of fish altogether: nobody knows what insane, chaotic monstrosities might lurk there! (Moonson's rumoured second Moon Palace is on the Dark Side of the Moon: shades of Tiberius at Capri).
You can certainly see Glorantha from the Red Moon: we know that the Red Goddess watches over her Empire. As Glorantha is flat (well, a "slightly bulging, squarish lozenge", to be exact), the question of just what the surface would look like to a hypothetical 'normal' observer situated upon the Red Moon is rather moot: similar to the way it would look from the Pole Star, only closer to the viewer, I suppose.
> The BAN, which was caused by King Snodal, was only very VERY recently
> lifted. As in, like eight years ago in Jonatela. Wow, I didn't
> realize that.
It caused us all kinds of headaches writing Fronelan local history for the characters in "How the West was One", I can tell you. A lot of our material on this went to the Net less than a year ago, including pieces from Jonatela, Arrolia and Timms (as I recall). You might want to browse for them.
> A lot of stuff in Glorantha seems, I don't know, recent. I wanted to
> make a 200 year old castle in Loskalm that the PC's could find... but
> was realizing that modern Malkionism wasn't really that old!
Hang on: there were plenty of castles in the Bad Old Days of Loskalm (signs of horrible oppression, remember!). Many of them were converted to libraries and palaces and the like during King Siglat's Peace, but some might be untouched. There are certainly a fair number of ancient buildings in the Kingdom of Loskalm: the God Learners of the Second Age built to last!
> Can someone provide me with a capsule discussion of the various
> Gloranthan moons? How many, the general nature of each, where
> they are visible, and where I might find more in depth information
> (if any of it's still in print)?
A Convert! A Convert! (Scenes of jubilation at the Seven Mothers temple)
There are currently two Gloranthan Moons; there used to be a third (and pieces of it may be lying around), and there may eventually be a fourth.
THE RED MOON hangs in the sky above the central Heartlands of the Lunar Empire. It appears as a beautiful crimson orb, half black and half red, rotating through a weekly cycle. The Red Moon can be seen from almost anywhere in Glorantha (unless a mountain, cloud, tree, roof, etc. gets in the way). The Lunar Empire is limned by a magical boundary called the Glowline: within this the Red Moon is visible even in its Dark phases, as it appears surrounded by a corona-like effect. See above for a brief description of her surface features.
The Red Moon is associated with peace, prosperity, justice, fair rates of taxation, sanitation, housing, public order, hygiene, generosity, good taste, beauty, charm, wit, education, wisdom, love and harmony, by those who know her blessings. Everyone else associates her with Balance, Cycles, Time, Illusions and Insanity, and (some allege) Chaos as well.
The Red Goddess, who created or became the Red Moon, and who still dwells upon it, is patron deity of the Lunar Empire, the most civilised and reasonable nation of Glorantha. She heads a pantheon of enlightened and wonderful gods and goddesses. My assistants at the Temple of the Reaching Moon will be delighted to provide you with more information on how best to worship them.
THE BLUE MOON is almost never visible. It appears to be an irregular fragment which rolls up the outside of the Sky Dome (and hence cannot be seen), pulling the waters of the world up as it rises. When it reaches the Zenith, it falls through and plunges down Magasta's Whirlpool into the Underworld, as the tides turn. People who know when and where to look might see a blue streak at this moment.
The Blue Moon is associated with Tides, Invisibility, Hidden Forces, and Assassins. She is said to lack any intellect. Her worship is found (or rather concealed!) among the mutant trolls (and other beings) of the Blue Moon Plateau in north-eastern Peloria, allies of the Lunar Empire; and also among the Artmali blueskins of Zamokil, in the far-distant south of Pamaltela. Sailors know of her ways, as much as anyone does. Some folk call the Blue Moon Goddess 'Annilla', but I don't think many Gloranthans know this name.
THE MOON OF GODTIME is very mysterious, and a lot of work is being done at present to divine its nature. Some people say the Red and Blue Moons are sundered halves of this ancient goddess, but the mythical truths have been confused by subsequent reinvention of the past (and by the fact the God Learners seem not to have understood any of the Moons).
This 'original' Moon is associated with Unprovable Theorising, Wild Speculations, and Distortion of Evidence, and probably with Cycles of Fertility and the like as well. She may have been a Solar Heresy; on the other hand, Patriarchal Yelmic Sun-Worship may have been a heretical revolt against a primordial Lunar Matriarchy. The Blue Moon Plateau in Peloria might be a chunk of this Moon, or of the Blue Moon, or the two may once have been the same, or she may have been a quasi-Solar goddess called Sedenya... and so it goes. Anyway, your guess is as good as any Gloranthan's: nobody knows what the truth really is/was, nowadays.
THE WHITE MOON is just a heretical rumour, and I'm not going to talk about it. Oh, alright then: some religious nuts in the Lunar Empire think the Red Moon will be replaced by a White Moon which will be even better (as if!). They think there's something wrong with the perfectly adequate Moon we have at present, and are trying some imbecile notions (like pacifism, celibacy, vegetarianism -- you name it!) to see if this will make any difference to her colour. Luckily, the Lunar Empire is a tolerant and all-embracing place, and we haven't *yet* decided to crack down on them.
The White Moon is associated with Heresy, Blasphemy, General Silliness, and Sandal-Wearing, Drug-Taking Dropouts.
OTHER MOONS: There is NO reputable evidence for either a Yellow or a Green Moon, despite occasional time-wasting discussions by 'scientific' types on the Digest. The "Black Moon" is the name of the second dark phase of the Red Moon.
LUNAR SOURCES: The full Seven Mothers cult write-up was in the old RQ2 supplement "Cults of Prax", long out of print. A more recent Avalon Hill boxed set, "Gods of Glorantha", included short-form writeups of Etyries, the Red Goddess, and the Seven Mothers, together with an excellent account of Lunar beliefs, "Talking to Moon Woman".
The AH "Troll Gods" box included the cult of Annilla along with several fascinating myth-fragments about the Blue Moon. Some material on Zamokil was in issue #11 of "Tales of the Reaching Moon" magazine.
Loren Miller's role-playing games page now includes the Reaching Moon Megacorp's player-friendly writeups of the Arrolian Lunar Church and the Imperial Lunar Way, among other stuff from "How the West was One".
A series of articles on the "History of the Lunar Empire" was printed many years ago in "Wyrms Footprints" magazine, reprinted slightly fewer years ago in "Heroes" magazine (AH house rag).
Observational-cum-astronomical information on the Red and Blue Moons is in "Elder Secrets" (an AH box), and the few 'facts' published about the White Moon are in "World of Glorantha" (AH box).
There's Lunar-related material all the way through the most recent Gloranthan publications (Avalon Hill books, Reaching Moon publications, Codex, and the like), so I won't single out any specific examples.
If there's anything else you'd like to know, please ask.
End of Glorantha Digest V2 #288
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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