Re: Introducing Glorantha: Interesting facts/geography/eye candy of the world

From: bryan_thx <bethexton_at_8b8bteEi4uJsqsA7c-SwC5MmuCPAdPKFu8or0bkj0P3Ot9Cz6wBaCfKfm_g7n9aar6>
Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2011 20:35:14 -0000

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> Hi all,
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> I'm about to start a Glorantha in a couple of weeks after having just finished HQII. What got me interested in the setting is the unique differences to more traditional fantasy settings. I really loved reading the Glorantha voices. I like how the minor races are really different and alien.
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> What I know: Dragons are big as mountains; There's a giant dragon skull that you can travel under; dragons dream other dragons that can kill you; There's a hole in the middle of the ocean; An animal herd herds dumb humans; there's a "big spike" on the map(no idea what that is); This Lunar empire(Romans?) empire is visible as a reddish haze.
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> Could you give me some other fascinating aspects of the world to help interest my players?
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The Sartar campaign pack should get you started from square one. Or, alternatively, Blood Over Gold is another campaign setting, written for HQ1 but easily translated to HQ2. The former is the classic Gloranthan setting, amongst the storm barbarians who are spoiling to throw off the yoke of the evil* Lunar Empire. The latter is set in a rough and tumble trading city built in the ruins of a broken and shattered land, where the players work for a `trade prince' who is desperately trying to stave off rivals and local hazards to build a stronger city.
• The storm barbarians know the Lunars are evil, because the lunars think their goddess of the red moon should rule between earth and sky, instead of Orlanth the storm god. That and the lunars are willing to accept anyone, with little regard for ancient/traditional hatreds. Change and openness, how dare they!

To me, part of the key of brining Glorantha alive is to understand that there is no real law of physics, only the law of mythology. Most things will fall out of the air, because part of the earth goddess's magic is to make things heavy, and earth magic usually beats air magic. A smith can work bronze not so much because of his tools and technology (although they help), but because he worships a god who first tamed metal and made it obey him, so the smith can recreate his god's actions and do the same. It is colder when you go high up a mountain because there is a goddess of cold who lives on top of Kero Finn, the tallest mountain, and all mountain tops are in a sense her abode.

On a day to day basis, this amounts to much the same as people on earth lived their lives. It is just that all those `superstitions' have much more reality behind them, and traditions are often important in keeping the world running.

One possibility is to start the characters as youths, just shy of their initiation. They have either no magic (I think that is the official HQ line), or only petty magics (things like "scare ghost" or "run faster than you" or "see through shadows" that fairly limited in scope and help them do normal things). In fact, all they need to start are cultural and profession key words, then they can add other abilities as they go. The first bit of (whatever) adventure is mostly mundane, but then they face someone with more magic—maybe a new initiate from another clan who can blow their arrows off target. Their response will tend to be "I want to do that, how do I get that?" Then you can introduce runes and initiation and you are off to the races.

Have fun!