So the question is: what part of Glorantha excites you most, and why? Remind me of the magic. I'll chose a winner on Tuesday, and I'll try and make the prize fit your answer, if possible.
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At the moment it's Esrolia and Nochet in particular. Out of all the Stafford Library books, it's Esrolia, Land of 10k Goddesses that I found most fascinating.
After that, Fonrit, just so weird.
Yeah, Esrolia is lovely at this time of year, and a lot of those 10k Goddesses _aren't_ aspects of Ernalda (I'm looking at you Jeff "everything is Ernalda or Orlanth if you squint at it" Richard 😉)
If I have to pick one... the Lunar paperwork in the Big Rubble boxset. Or, rather, the things it implies and the things that flow out of it. Similar things can be seen with Bob's Bison Burgers, or Thunderbreath Gobbleguts, but for me, the adventurer looting declaration form has more.
It's, as my wife put it, "Illuminated stupid". On the one hand, it's a beautiful joke about applying bureaucracy to the act of looting ruined cities, but on the other hand, it's fruitful for play- do you fudge, do you stay scrupulous? If you get hassled at the checkpoint, what do you do?
And on the third hand, third eye open and glowing, there's an apparatus that made this. That put together this form and issues it and produces it and files it and has to pass audits and inspections. Beneath the joke, something deadly serious, but offering to play.
Yeah, someone is scrutinising everything that comes out, and either confiscating it or sending back reams of paper work on what has been found. I really liked those forms, so I may have gone over board last year, and did all our forms in that manner for Home of the Bold.
Well, they supposedly see time in reverse. So we think they slowly go from Scout to Dragonet, but they see the reverse. You think they want revenge for stealing their skin? In reality they are giving you it, so that you can reskin them later in their journey.
Probably the Big Rubble. The ultimate outdoors dungeon, more terrifying a place to be stuck than any mystic forest. Danger everywhere, all the wildlife wants you dead, never felt remotely safe going in even as RuneLords. Like a forced reset to starting abilities every time you entered.
For a specific spot I’d say I have the centre of the wastes. Pre-dawn giant civilisation destroyed by chaos in the gods war. Giant ruins, tunnelled hills, chaos temples, boggles, reassemble a god, etc. Ultimate challenge, will be running a scenario in it this year I think.
For me it's not a place or thing that I love so much as a concept: Glorantha's collision of the mythic and the everyday. So Trouble can follow after a naiad had a bad break-up with a mortal whose mother responded badly and made the situation worse.
And it seems like a thing that could just happen.
And that I can get a fun scenario out of what results from this.
And somehow this can all end up being useful later in persuading people to help restablish an old temple to a half-forgotten goddess.
And that the PCs can talk to somebody who actually met that goddess in person when she was young.
And it all makes sense and makes the mythic element of the world feel united with the everyday. It brings the myths and the magical part of the world into the PCs' lives and makes it feel like part of the whole rather than something that is tacked on to justify getting magic spells.
And the mythic frameworks means that even things that seem silly can be made to feel like they carry mythic or runic significance.
Like breaking off in a frame of snooker is symbolic of Umath breaking free of the Stasis of the old order. Why else did you think they place the white ball in a "D"?
Of course snooker is an Orlanthi game. That's why you have famous players like the Whirlwind and the Hurricane.
The whole thing symbolises the Lightbringer's Quest. Trust me.
Place: Safelster. Squabbling city-states, decadent nobles, syncretic religion, elk riders, unique cults, competing sects of Arkati, secret societies. One city's got a teenage queen who can turn into a horse. Her husband wears full iron armor and a grinning helmet faceplate with spectacles welded on.
Person: Kallyr Starbrow. One of the most shit-upon characters in all of Glorantha, including by fans and writers. In universe, she gets blamed for the 1613 rebellion failing, mostly by tribes who didn't bother to show up, even though she didn't even start it IIRC. "King of Sartar" suggests her
successes all get attributed to Argrath eventually. Out of universe, Jeff oft posts about how interesting / enigmatic / dynamic Argrath is, and about how Kallyr was a stubborn fuckup, angry and parochial and conservative (despite her fusion of sky and air worship). I've seen so many people, even
long-time or notable fans, calling her a "bitch," joking about how the only good thing about her was "she looked good on the pyre," or other weird misogyny directed at a fictional woman.
I love Glorantha, but I've got problems with how it and its fans treat women, including Kallyr. But I like her.
Kallyr's personality was defined in the Sartar High Council game that Greg ran, and which is written up in Wyrms Footnotes. If I recall correctly, she was defined as being against any rebellion. But the player in that game ended up doing the opposite.
Assuming I've remembered this right, what is now the canon history in the game resulted from a player specifically ignoring what Greg had written. A pretty solid reminder of the agency we have to do our own thing with Glorantha: Our Gloranthas Must Vary.
What I loved, early on, was all the cool female characters portrayed in Glorantha: Londra of Londros, Beti Ballista & Kallyr. I was pleased that I got to draw them for Footprints. I felt she was a tragic hero, and i carried on feeling that after King of Sartar.
I think Greg meant well. I think he was trying to make a comment about (Mediterranean) Bronze Age societies, and their habit of becoming boys clubs. Unfortunately a lot of the fanbase took it as an excuse for misogyny. And one fan in particular.
Yeah, one of the most depressing things about Gloranthan is how pretty much every matriarchy gets it in the neck. But that's only if you tread the intended path. Fuck that!
I'll return to your point on Kallyr later.
For me it is the concept of heroquesting, a way for players and characters to interact with mythology is so unique. Even if only for the beautiful myths that have been created for games.
Yes, I love that the malleability of myth is baked into the world. As the world changes,, you need to make mythology fit the new paradigm or you will find your people failing to make their way in the world. We must embrace change
I always think fondly of the Upland Marsh as like Slough on a Tuesday night, but without the stench and the soulless walking dead. It also reminds me of the sounds of the Chalvey chavs groaning & moaning as they dance hypnotically to the latest beats in the high street. Or maybe that’s Basildon?
The idea that although you've got many generalities in a culture, the enticing idea that if you cross a hill or river, you'll encounter people with different stories, different memories of the gods and ways of doing things.
And they're just as valid, just as powerful.
It's enchanting.
yeah, they might be over that hill, and worship the same gods, but they have different myths about them and different was of seeing them.
This how I think they see Yinkin, brother of Orlanth, in Ralios.
I love how Mythology for Glorantha is full of contradictions and variations depending on who is telling the story. For example; there are about four different retellings of how Orlanth courted Ernalda. Stuff like this makes the mythology feel more real than what you commonly get in fantasy games.
Glorantha is one of the very few Fantasy RPGs where magic feels common place, where the common person lives in and breathes in a world full of magic. Adding verisimilitude to the setting in the simplest ways.
In most other games/settings, magic in the setting often feels tacked on.
Orathron in northern Pent. Immortal sorcerers ruling a town of undead servants. They possess powers to open flaming portals in the sky that rains mind-shattering monsters. How much more metal can it get?
There’s less than half a page written about them so you can really go to town with it. When I told my player group about the place, they wanted to visit. They will definitely come to regret that decision
I think for me it's trolls in general. Their tragic myth (driven out of Hell) and history (the trollkin curse). Their love of bugs and fungi. How they are both inhuman and still human-like. But mostly, it's this place, the thought that a goddess still lives inside it, and who knows what else.
I'm still lost in the East Isles, making up strange islands and wondrous people. Recent discoveries inlude the Kapivi Capybara Hsunchen, whose island god is so strongly tied to the Harmony rune that they are friends with everybody who goes there (except Pelican Keets).
For me it was the singing Uz of Dagori Inkarth. I always imagined a young male troll, with a nice turn of leg, serenading his lady love with a song... and possible a snack, so she didn't get ideas from Gorakiki Mantis.
For me its the mythology of Arkat. Particularly Arkat Vs Nysalor. In the city of miracles atop the tower of dreams they faced each other and one walked away victorious. But which one? Does it matter?
Arkat! In the RW we have conflicting/inconsistent religious interpretations b/c, well, nobody has ever demonstrated god(s) existence. That Arkat has spawned so many contradictory cults even though religion is real in Glorantha is what fascinates me.
The, now non canon, idea that Peloria has a completely different mytho-magical system from the God Learner system in Maniria, but they both work and both are true.
Maybe a little obvious, but I'm obsessed with the Red Goddess, specifically her time leading up to her apotheosis. Her life as someone between mortal and goddess who should technically not exist at all is super interesting to me, as well as her relationships with her companions and the Seven Mothers
In fairness there is a lot going on with both Yelmalio & Orlanth, than is obvious from the surface. Orlanth has become so homogenised, both in and out of world, that he seems a tad meh! but we know he is amongst the most fucked with cults around.
Like most of my recent stuff, it's just things that occurred to me to draw. We used it for a few RuneMaster tee-shirts. Because i'm a tease, we only made them for people who wanted a RM shirt at the time. And I've had no requests for them since 😂
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After that, Fonrit, just so weird.
That's Glorantha for me.
And it seems like a thing that could just happen.
And somehow this can all end up being useful later in persuading people to help restablish an old temple to a half-forgotten goddess.
And that the PCs can talk to somebody who actually met that goddess in person when she was young.
Like breaking off in a frame of snooker is symbolic of Umath breaking free of the Stasis of the old order. Why else did you think they place the white ball in a "D"?
The whole thing symbolises the Lightbringer's Quest. Trust me.
You put Seven balls, then a final ball that's marked with what looks like an Infinity rune?
That sounds like Illumination talk to me!
I love Glorantha, but I've got problems with how it and its fans treat women, including Kallyr. But I like her.
I'll return to your point on Kallyr later.
And they're just as valid, just as powerful.
It's enchanting.
This how I think they see Yinkin, brother of Orlanth, in Ralios.
In most other games/settings, magic in the setting often feels tacked on.
& then the Uz charmed me with honest to goddess family values.
Then Sartar built me roads to heroic resistance fighters.
I suspect it's Uz that keep me there. Both at once the most Familiar & most Foreign of the Elder peoples, Antagonists & Allies.