> Reading the list of runes and owner, it appears that most of them are
> owned by Orlanthi deities. Am I the only one to find this unbalanced?
The concept of "rune owners" is very God Learnerish; I'd suggest this tells us more about the God Learners' preferred deities than about the fundamental nature of Glorantha.
After all: even if we accept the idea of "rune owners", who would someone living on the northern continent think "owned" the Disorder rune? Where I come from, nobody's ever *heard* of Bolongo...
Some years ago, Stephen Martin did some good work hashing out "pantheons" of different Rune owners: so that the Dara Happans, Trolls, Orlanthi etc. could all be seen to have internally-consistent sets of deities corresponding to the different Power Runes. I'm not sure if he still stands by this rather God-Learnerish early work, but anyone who likes the concept should ask him for more information.
> I am interested in collecting original runes. If you have created
> original runes, or know of someone who has, send me a description.
You need to get in touch with Jean-Paul Lhullier, of "La Toile d'Arachne Solara" (the French RQ-zine). His pioneering work on variant runes has been seen at several Convulsions, and Greg and Sandy agreed at Convulsion 3D that he has almost certainly discovered the long-lost runic classification system used by the God Learners: Jean-Paul's system is far more comprehensive than any previous attempts, attractively organised, and *beautifully* drawn (in the original-and-best crinkle-cut style).
> How is a associated cult represented in the temple of the major cult?
> Is there a small room with a small statue in it? Are there small
> pictures of the god?
Why so "small"? And why a separate room? *Any* associate cult could have a side-chapel or wing of the temple to itself, if it was thought important enough by local worshippers. It could even have a statue up alongside the main deity ("This is the temple of Orlanth Greeting Issaries"; "This is the temple of Orlanth Wielding the Lightning Spear"). The same would apply to sub-cult shrines, wherever they are found. The other gods (associates, sub-cults & others) found at large enough temples needn't be included as minor afterthoughts: they could have dedicated Acolytes (and perhaps even initiates?) serving at their shrines.
Think of a Seven Mothers' Temple, or a Lightbringers' Hall, or a shrine to Orlanth's Lightning Spear, perhaps. (Or a Saint's Chapel or reliquary in a cathedral to the Invisible God?). The exact form of the representation will depend on all kinds of local factors: how large and rich the Temple is, what form worship normally takes, what unique local features are present, how important and wealthy the local following of a sub-cult might be. There is no single, simple answer. Whether the cult of the associate deity is combined or consciously separated from the "main cult" of the temple depends entirely on that temple, its builders, priests and worshippers. The needs of your campaign are paramount: there ain't no "standard temple floorplan" (or similar). But I'd recommend diversity and variation, whatever you go for.
Christoph also says:
> Of course it is no problem to write scenarios, but is is a different
> thing to write supplements.
Please submit your scenarios to Tales: most people have real difficulty writing them, and we need all the good scenarios we can get!
> What's the Dara Happan answer to William of Occam?
A minor variant on the Bellman's Law:
"What the Emperor tells you ONCE is True."
Cf. The Hunting of the Snark for more details.
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