> If [a Dragonewt] is killed, he seeks vengeance.
Probably not: that would be too easy to understand. Dragonewts' progression seems to depend on avoiding entanglements with the world, and I would have thought "seeking vengeance" was plainly one of those. OTOH, your Dragonewts may feel they are "entangled" to the extent that they have been killed by someone, and therefore owe the world a death in return. But is it the killer's? Someone else's? Or do they want to *save* their killer's life to cancel out the entanglement?...
Dragonewts are weird. Keep'em that way!
> Humakt, Issaries and Chalana Arroy are listed as the current owners of the
> Runes of Death, Trade and Harmony. Are the Lunar cults (eg Yanafal Tarnils,
> Etyries, Deezola/Teelo Norri) contesting for control of these runes?
Not violently, if that's what you're asking. The Empire has nothing against the outdated, backwards-looking cults you named: they just aren't as good as their Lunar successors. (Just look at spell use inside the Glowline - the Lunars get 2x as much Rune Magic!). The Glowline is still expanding as the Empire grows, and eventually sensible people will stop worshipping old-fashioned barbarian deities and convert to the more useful, civilised, progressive and welcoming Lunar pantheon. (Just like you don't see many people using stone swords, now that bronze ones are available. Except the Dragonewts, but they're weird).
> Or, in the case of Yanafal Tarnils, is he unable to achieve mastery because
> of his 'perversion' of the true ways of his master?
A rather bigoted way of putting it, Mr. Peacock! Who won that duel, eh? Any God of War worth worshipping is on the side of the Big Battalions, and I think I know who has them at the moment...
> Is the Red Goddess, source of the Moon rune, in addition to trying to wipe
> out Orlanth, also contesting control of the Air Rune with him, thereby
> giving her control should she win?
It's debatable whether the Red Goddess is "trying to wipe out Orlanth" - that would be stilling the Creator's stale and wheezing breath, rather than freshening it up so he can breathe more freely. I think the more likely explanation (to adopt your rather clunky Runic terms) is that the Lunar Element will replace the Element of Air as the thing between Earth and Sky. I don't think the Red Goddess intends to become a deity of Storm, Barbarism, Violence, etc.
Let's put it another way: at the moment in Glorantha there is one major pantheon which is seeking to overturn the Great Compromise and allow the Devil back into the world, and that's the Orlanthi. "Us Sartar boys will take our weapons and try: gonna tear that Red Moon down from the Sky" -- haven't we been here before, with Orlanth vs. Yelm and everything bad that followed from that Godtime murder? Have you forgotten that the Red Goddess is accepted as part of the Compromise? Have you forgotten the oaths that recreated the world, and what will happen when you break them?
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