<< Arbitrarily deciding to give all hsunchen the same runes, or artificialy
fixing it so each one has a unique set just because it looks cool, are IMHO
both equaly undesirable.>>
My point exactly. While I would avoid duplication as much as I could, it's not always going to be possible IMO without stretching the limits of the plausible at some point.
<<How's this for a compromise. The hsunchen cults themselves stay pretty much the same, but if an animal has abvious runic ties beyond the hsunchen norm,>>
IMO, the only 'Hsunchen norm' is the Beast rune. The problem (if it even *is* a problem) arises because there are more Hsunchen cults than there are plausible combinations of runes for them. For instance, the runes of Telmor (Beast, Motion) and Pralor (Beast, Harmony according to my own unofficial write-up) are different, and rightly so because they're pretty different entities. But what about Pralor and Damala or Uncola? These represent pretty similar animals and it would be difficult to come up with unique combinations of runes for them (well, it wouldn't be if they were the only ones, but of course there are many more to take account of).
<< these could be represented by hero cults or subcults specific to that tribe
that give them appropriate magic.>>
I'm not overly convinced of this from a mythical POV - although it makes some sense in terms of rules mechanics. We're trying to represent features that distinguish a particular animal from other species; these are unlikely to have arisen within relatively recent (historical?) time as would be the case with a hero cult. Subcults might work provided you could explain why the animal wasn't this way before whoever the subcult represents comes on the scene.
<<The Bat hsunchen might have a hero cult associated to the Drakness rune that
gives them Darkwalk for example>>
Hsunchen seem to be pretty limited in terms of divine magic - after all, they aren't theists. The only official write-up I'm aware of is Telmor, in Dorastor: Land of Doom, although Basmol gets a (unofficial, I think) write-up in Drastic: Prax. Neither of these cults have magic beyond the hsunchen norm, although this is modified by the specific animal. It is difficult to argue that the special magics associated with that animal (e.g. Transform Head giving you Darksense in the case of bat-hsunchen) could be anything to do with hero cults.
Not that I'm saying that such cults don't make sense - they clearly do, given that hsunchen shamans should be able to contact a range of great spirits with appropriate divine magic in the same way as any other shaman. But they won't be the source of the runic differences in the cult itself. Indeed, even hsunchen cults that do have the same runes would IMO have different versions of Transform <Body Part> because animals vary more than a necessarily limited set of runes do.
<< If they live near troll communities thay may even have links to troll
associate cults.>>
If they did, and were friendly enough, absolutely. So long as their shamans could placate the relevant great spirits/deities. Although, having said that, the bat hsunchen don't seem to live near trolls IMO - although they do live near the elves of Fethlon.
Forward the glorious Red Army!
Trotsky
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