Re: Orlanthi Initiation

From: Johan Lundstrom <jolun_at_...>
Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2000 18:41:40 +0100


Hi, everyone. This is my first post to this forum. I'm currently GM'ing (alright, Narrating) a HW campaign in Sartar and playing in an RQ campaign in Prax.

>Mike Gibb wrote:
> > Im just about to take my players through an initiation ceremony and
> > it has got me thinking about the ceremony itself
> <snip>
> >which aspect(s) of Orlanth is/are likely to be seen in the ceremony/
> >myth?

"The Initiation of Orlanth" from KoS should work out fine (at least for Orlanth Adventurous initiations). Jane Williams has a good writeup for this, as well as the "Path of Heort" for clan initiation.

I suppose the Lawstaff Quest or Orlanth's arbitration between the Vingkotlings and that other tribe (both from KoS) could work for Orlanth Lawspeaker or Rex.

> > Prior write-ups of Orlanthi initiation (eg Apple Lane) have tended
> >to concentrate on the mundane aspects (ie weapon skill) and I want
> >to bring as much of the mythic aspect to bear as soon as poss to
> >bring the players into the world of Glorantha (and all that entails).
> >
> I'd recommend taking a look at "Growing Pains" in Tradetalk 4(?) -
> It's a tribal rather than cult initiation, but is definitely mythic.

It's available online, from Jonas Schiött's homepage (I don't have the URL, but it's available on the link collection on http://www.glorantha.com.

In my campaign, I had my players start as non-inititiated Heortlings at age 15. I then ran them through Jane's two initiation scenarios (blatant railroading, unfortunately, but it's quick), and followed up wwith Growing Pains (being a Swede, I know one the writers (Dag). We play World in Flames together).

Quick aside, does anyone have a good idea of how to avoid turning Heroquests and initiations into railroads?

Growing Pains is originally set in Ralios, but is easy to transfer to Sartar. IMC, the PC's went to Jonstown instead of the original Istakax (I added some recalcitrant Lunar guards)...

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In Growing Pains, the PC's have their initiation more or less hijacked by the ghost of an illuminated agricultural researcher from the Bright Empire. It's a ploy to get them to some find experimental, alchemically 'improved' grain that's hidden inside a reasonably well-preserved temple to Ostentalka (a.k.a Nysalor) that's buried in a hill on the PC's clan territory.

Anyway, the PC's managed to find the grain without getting themselves killed by Sever Spirits or undead trolls left as guardians after Arkat's troops didn't have time to wreck the temple properly.

The grain grows _extremely_ well. The slight complication is that our obsessed agricultural researcher used chaotic 'improvements' to the grain (related to Pocharngo possibly, like the grain in Dorastor), and after three years, the grain becomes very bad for you. Of course, by this the PC's clan has planted the new grain all over the place, and has to burn it all down. On top of that, Esrola withdraws her hand from the clan, making it impossible to grow even normal grain. Guess who gets the blame?

IMC, the PC's travelled to Jonstown (through the cold, rain and mud of early Dark Season. Fun.) The most hilarious moment so far happened when they were trying to get information from the Lhankor Mhy temple, but the scholars were a lot more interested in getting information about the Ostentalka temple and talking over the PC's heads than actually helping out.

A nice bit about this campaign is that there are four possible hero-quests to solve the situation at home (Orlanthi, Ernaldan, Trader and Trickster). Last week, my players (two Orlanthi and a Vingan) surprised me by _not_ going for the Orlanthi one, preferring the possibly safer Ernaldan path. We'll have to see how it works out.

Anyway, the idea of all the quests is to return with new grain from Esrola to the clan. In the process, the characters become clan heroes at their tender age (around 18 at the end of the campaign).

And by the way, can anyone tell me where I can get hold Heroes of Wisdom? I had to improvise wildly.


Johan Lundstrom                                       <jolun_at_...>
"Nothing succeeds like excess"

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