Tradetalk
Peter Metcalfe and Stephen Martin talk claim that the words for the Sun and Storm are either "Yelm/Orlanth" or the names of the False Gods "Ehilim/Worlath" and so on.
Firstly, I disagree. The idea of a common tongue or Tradetalk is that all cultures should understand it. Therefore using the names of deities would alienate those who worshipped others. Trolls speaking Tradetalk would not want to refer to the Sun as "Yelm", for instance, or rather worhippers of other Sun Gods would prefer to use their own God's name rather than Yelm.
In my opinion, Tradetalk was invented by issaries as a magically-easy to learn language which could be understood by any culture or group. It was spread in the First age by the Issaries Cult as the First Council's influence grew.
Admittedly, the Jrusteli used the cult of Issaries for their own ends and spread the cult and Tradetalk a great deal further than it had been before, but they were merely continuing the process, not inventing it.
The fact that Tradetalk is spoken in many places, even after the God Learner's downfall, speaks volumes - it must have had a stronger root than some people think.
Yes, there are dialects of Tradetalk - people use their own words when necessary, particlularly where Tradetalk does not have the correct word (local flora and fauna, for instance). However, a Tradetalk speaker from Sartar would be able to speak quite happily with a Tradetalk speaker from Pamaltela easier than a Yorkshireman would speak to a Californian. (When I was at University, there were two people, one from Bristol the other from Sheffield who could not understand each other for the first month, both from the same country, both speaking English.)
In any case, we do not have a form of Tradetalk - leave that for Klingon or Tolkein's elven tongues. The importance is that Tradetalk IS, not the grammar or vocabulary - these things are irrelevant.
Yelmalio/Lightfore
Is Yelmalio Lightfore? Is Yellow Red? They are both part of the Visible Spectrum of EM Radiation, so are the same. This seems to be the argument that many poeple take. Both gods are Sun Gods, therefore they are the same.
In Glorantha, there are many Sun Gods (or rather Solar Gods) and they are not all the same. In my opinion, Yelmalio is not Lightfore nor any other Sun God. Mythically they are separate. Culturally they are separate. They are separate. (I am not being dogmatic, merely stating the truth :-))
Watchdog of Corflu
Thomas Doniol-Valcroze asks:
> I don't think I quite understand the Watchdog of Corflu...
> The only thing I could find about it was in RoC, and it was pretty unclear to me.
> Would anyone be nice enough to explain it to me?
The Watchdog of Corflu, as far as I can tell, was originally a Jrusteli Sentinel Statue which guarded Feroda. When that great city was destoyed, the Sentinel was also destoyed, smashed to pieces by the Oceans/Giants or whoever else was engaged in the attack.
When the Lunars started to settle in the Zola fel delta, they poked around the ruins and found various pieces of the Statue. As far as I am aware, they found an arm, a leg and a head. Being meddlers, they wondered what would happen if they put the pieces together and, being about as competent at DIY as I am, decided that the arm, leg and head actually fitted together.
The result is the Watchdog, a misshapen beastie of magical stone. It was reanimated by whatever means were used and guarded the city of Corflu from all-comers. In the Cradle RQ scenario, the Watchdog stood astride the Zola fel and allowed soldiers to run up its arms to attack the Cradle while the Head tried to take huge bites out of the structure. (I like the idea of Lunar troops abseiling down from the Watchdog while the defenders pick them off with bows).
When Corflu was sacked (I think by the Wolf Pirates or Argrath), the watchdog was fred and ran insanely into Prax where it is merely a wandering monster in the best traditions of roleplaying games.
There was a scenario, published in Tales, I think, set on the Oceans. The party landed on an island and met a full Sentinel Statue, part of the same series as the one at Ferods. I cannot remember what happens in the scenario, except that the stats were pretty unbelievable - but who accepts stats in published scenarios anyway?
Hope this helps.
Umath
Alain Saraja asks
> What happened to Umath ?
He blew away. All the members of the Celestial Court (and I count Umath here as an Elemental member) were broken during the Gods War and devolved into their various descendants. Umath is no more, except as the concept of Air/Storm. Where he is worshipped (by mad Kolati) the worshippers tap into the Elemental nature of the god, not the living deity.
Runepower
When I saw the Runepower rules, I discounted them as being far too powerful to be meaningful. Even if you hedge them around with arbitrary restrictions, they are unplayable in my campaign. This is because we like to powergame and anything as wishy-washy would be abused to beyond breaking point. Give me Rune Magic any time - if you want more flexible magic, join other cults or sacrifice for more spells - after all that's what POW gain rolls are for.
David Cheng says that "no right-thinking adventurer ever has the spare POW to sacrifice for Wind Words" - absolute rubbish. The spell only costs 2 POW and has a multitude of uses - eavesdropping on NPC enemies, eavesdropping on NPC rivals, eavesdropping on secret ceremonies, listening to people at Confession (for the Yelmic cults), stitching up fellow PCs, informing PCs of events via a friendly Orlanthi and so on. I would much prefer it to Woad or Bless Thunderstone (which are also worth sacrificing for, by the way).
Cloud Call
You can use the Repair spell to fix your weapons/tools when they break, as well. I'm sorry, but this has to be one of the least unexpected of revelations.
In our campaign, Cloud Call has been used to spoil the weather at a PC's wedding, to spoil the harvest on a PC's farm (with a few Rain spells) and to protect against the sun in a desert. Having said that, we do play that each point increases cloud cover by 1D10 + 1, but allow for greater than 100 Cloud Cover, and have sevral Storm Priests with Cloud Call matrices/artifacts.
Tricksters
In my opinion, elves and trolls have several trickster cults each, (possibly in the form of Spirit Cults as they are both Shamanic cultures) some corresponding to the normal modes, or combinations of modes, others being truly bizarre.
The following ideas are spell-based simply because I do not have the time to make up loads of myths for local Spirit Cults. If I did, I would gladly do so.
Elves could have a Wildweed spell which promotes the spread of weeds very quickly; spells to foster uncontrolled growth - good when cast at a Wood Lord's hair, for instance; Animate Plant, Detach Branch and Detach Vine are also handy spells for elven trickster deities; Blight Plant can be used for an elven Destroyer; Spread Pollen or Sneeze can be used by Tricksters against hay-fever sufferers; Become Bush, Become Tree, Become Grass, Sprout Leaves, Sprout Blossom are all available.
Trolls have a Boo! spell; an "I'm Going to eat You and There's Nothing You Can Do About It" spell which normally results in the caster exploding from Indigestion; insect spells - Insect Swarm, Glow in the Dark, Summon (Insect); Dark Walk; Fear - not as good as Boo! but slightly more powerful; Alter (Drink) can be useful at parties.
I do like the idea of stern troll Matriachs hitting Death Lords in the face with custard pies - a High Priestess of Kyger Litor with a splapstick/practical joke bent is a wonderful idea.
The Aspects which grant these spells can be left up to individual GMs - I do not like the Eurmal/Trickster writeups for RQ as they are too general and bland. Anyone can make up myths about Tricksters - just steal from Folk/Fairy Tales or jokes and you have a great store of information. The more gross/disgusting or even useless the spell, the more amusing the myth can be - I much prefer funny myths which give rise to silly spells for the Tricksters of Glorantha.
Mostali do not have Trickster deities as Mostali do not have Deities. I do not like the idea of the Mostali worshipping the Foreman, Ironman, Quicksilver or any of the other Primal Mostali and I especially do not like the idea of Trickster worship.
However, the Trickster's effects are found in Mostali lands - Gremlins are the prime example but there are others. Gobblers can become unctontrollable and eat their way through Mostali goods as well as those of outsiders, jolanti can become self-willed or at least unpredictable. These are some effects of Trickster spirits which affect the Mostali. However, they are never worshipped and always fought against.
Bargain
This is an Issaries Cult Skill in the same way that Sword Attack is a Humakti Cult Skill, anyone can learn to Bargain, but Issaries will teach it and use it the best. It should be available from Etyries and probably from Argan Argar and Lokarnos, perhaps even from Dormal. By the way, who is the Earth Trader God?
The fact that Bargain is not in the Trader templates just shows how much use the RQ3 character generation rules are.
Heroes Campaign
This sounds good, but the best way to play Heroic Characters/Heroes is not to roll up very powerful Rune Levels and start there. The best way, by far, is to take a series of PCs from lay member/beginning characters, through the whole set of initiate/Rune Level/HeroQuestor/Hero levels. This gives you a full understanding of the character and his/her motivation, sets the stats up as a well-rounded set, gives years of interesting play and does not give you the feeling of being plonked into a world where you do not fit in.
Anyway, the more High Level campaigns around the better - not for me the running around playing farmers and peasants doing nothing - give me heroic sessions with the feeling of actually achieving something any day.
Perhaps you could publish some of the HeroQuests/encounters/ideas for the rest of us to use?
(In any case, killing Harrek is not difficult, getting him to stay dead is the hard bit. Ditto for any Hero/HeroQuestor. The only way to do it is to HeroQuest or to get extremely lucky).
Well, the Gift Seekers have eaten my Web Page and the Outer Atomic Explorers have destroyed the paths to get it back, so I am trying to find another compnay which I can access from Ireland. If there are any Irish gamers out there could they drop me a line to let me know what the situation is for getting on-line in Ireland? As I am going to play in a campaign with Mr Happy at some stage, perhaps they could give me some ideas.
Sorry for rambling on for so long.
Simon
Well, Pegasus Mail certainly gives you a good Subject Field in the mail - how's that for a meaningful Subject Header! (Hope it all fits on).
HeroQuesting for a new Web-Site.
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