|
Wrestlepig posted:the westerners say Zzabur cast a really kickass spell They do, yes.
|
#
?
Jan 6, 2020 16:17
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 3, 2024 07:20 |
|
|
Wrestlepig posted:A lot of places have their own equivalent to it or big thing that happened and ended the darkness. Praxians care more about storm bull killing the devil and Waha creating a new way of life, the East Isles have myths about a great mystic proving that the devil was an illusion, Pamalt defeating the worm that walks, Shargash killing everything, Gargandoros ordering Varama to descend into the underworld to be the new inslaved sun in Fonrit. A few other cultures have a different take on the quest where Yelm proved his death was unjustified and had his unruly nephew apologise, and the westerners say Zzabur cast a really kickass spell that made the gods fix their mess. All of them are as true as each other.
|
|
#
?
Jan 6, 2020 17:27
|
|
|
As far as the trolls are concerned, the uz bore the brunt of the war against Chaos, and sacrificed the most by submitting to the night-day cycle in the Compromise when they were poised to rule the surface unchallenged in darkness. And of course they vanquished the worst of the Chaos hordes in the long sieges of their Castles of Lead. I played a session of Runequest as a dark troll Argan Argar warrior yesterday, and it was honestly great. dark gods rule, sky gods drool 1994 Toyota Celica fucked around with this message at 14:14 on Jan 7, 2020 |
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2020 02:53
|
|
|
The Uz are such a great drat group, one of the most fully realized foreign cultures I've ever seen in a game. Argan Argar is one of the best examples of how great they are, enemy of sun and sky as well as kind husband to the earth and father of the longtime preserver and great king of the holy land.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2020 09:10
|
|
|
I do respect Humakt for being a stubborn shithead who wanders around going "NO THAT'S THE WRONG KIND OF DEATH" at everyone he sees and is also probably Illuminated since he met Rashoran and learned something from them.
|
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2020 10:19
|
|
|
The Storm Tribe are the most protagonistic but the Dark Tribe are the most heroic.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2020 14:00
|
|
|
I keep finding that a wandering uz warrior following the principles and example of Argan Argar tends to work out to a tolerant, compassionate paladin type, even while fully acting under the influence of a 90% Darkness Rune it's cool e: rolling "sacked the City of Wonders with Harrek the Berserk" during the history portion of character creation was a treat. Vengeance for Ezkankekko! 1994 Toyota Celica fucked around with this message at 14:07 on Jan 7, 2020 |
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2020 14:03
|
|
|
Normally I like when new Glorantha art comes out but the illustrations for gods in the new board game expansion is really not doing it for me.
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2020 18:00
|
|
|
Nanomashoes posted:Normally I like when new Glorantha art comes out but the illustrations for gods in the new board game expansion is really not doing it for me. I like lhankor and the storm bull but they could definitely go further with babeester or chalana
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2020 01:44
|
|
|
Dalith is pretty good, Maran I can sort of get behind, a few others are decent, and the rest are boooring.
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2020 03:36
|
|
|
Haystack posted:Dalith is pretty good, Maran I can sort of get behind, a few others are decent, and the rest are boooring. Pretty much my thoughts.
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2020 03:57
|
|
|
I would like to see the family history table stuff for people born in areas outside of Dragon Pass and its immediate neighbors, some day. I want to know exactly what my dickhead Zzaburi was doing in 1623! Also in general I feel like the rune spells could use a bit of expansion. Poor Humakt only has the one spell for dealing with undead and it's the humble Turn Undead, Yelmalio has not much useful for combat, and so on.
|
|
|
#
?
Jan 13, 2020 23:33
|
|
|
Since there's not that many detailed uz myths i've taken it upon myself to write some for Argan Argar. here is the story the trolls of the Shadow Plateau tell of how Argan Argar was born
|
|
#
?
Jan 14, 2020 05:06
|
|
|
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2020 21:12
|
|
|
... God dammit.
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2020 23:30
|
|
|
I have been planning a 13th Age Glorantha campaign set in Pavis, with a sort of "I fought we won" mixed crew of various worshippers teaming together to fight the Lunars and I really like some of the classes from other supplements. The Abomination from Dark Pacts and Ancient Secrets is a good fit for a Telmori/Alkothi "the more I get hit the angrier I get" type character, the Savage from the same supplement for a Troll non-berzerker and the Swordmage from it for a Western Wizard-Knight. Also the Commander from 13 True Ways for a Yelmalio Templar, as it's based around giving others commands (actions in the combat system). I was planning a longer plot where the characters eventually disturb the prison of Sheng Seleris in a heroquest and cause events that lead to ousting of the Red Emperor from the Dara Happan throne. If he gets killed by Sheng, even if he re-incarnates, the throne is left vacant and some other hero could have a shot a proving themselves the Emperor of Dara Happa before the Lunars can. In my view of this the one who completes the trials is the Emperor, no matter who they were before.
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2020 14:48
|
|
|
What's a good 13th age class to represent a white moon heretic?
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2020 20:01
|
|
|
wiegieman posted:What's a good 13th age class to represent a white moon heretic? Pretty much any of them, it’s a diverse movement, but sorcerer seems good.
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2020 02:47
|
|
|
Is The Rough Guide to Glamour any good?
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2020 22:10
|
|
|
I haven't had a chance to read it yet, so also wondering.
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2020 09:11
|
|
|
Even knowing its origins -- as a document to support a tongue-in-cheek LARP written decades ago -- it was sillier than I expected it to be. It has a weird vibe; it's partially information that would actually be useful for a campaign in Glamour (city map, some useful descriptions of places, Red Emperor and Glamour city cult write-ups), but every other paragraph is some goofy pop culture references or communist dictatorship parody. It leans heavily on an evil Empire disguised (barely) with illusions of beauty, and there's very few sections that don't resort to jokes. There's the Moon Rock Cafe, where Beat-Pot Aelwrin serves up walktapus pie; the Red Tapeworm deployed by the bureaucratic temple of Intriplicatos; a Newspeak/New Pelorian joke pamphlet; the lyrics for a "Pelorian Rhapsody" parody; the sketch of a scenario about a rogue icebreaker ship called The Hunt for Red Storm Season, complete with pseudo-Russian backwards-R font; the Emperor's seven consorts being nicknamed Baby, Sporty, Scary, Posh, Ginger, Bashful, and Doc; and so on. The rumor lists talk about (all true) the "just say no" campaign of Great Sister, the banned book The Seleric Verses, the wealthy senator who dresses up as the Bat Man, the Jakaleel asylum for the insane called Arkat Asylum, etc. There are also several pieces of short fiction that I find particularly bad. The Red Emperor is portrayed as an absent-minded, obese Elvis. The dialogue is very modern and British ("sod this" and "right mithering eejet"). The narrator of one story calls Great Sister a "cranky old bitch." And the whole book ends with a story about the Emperor's constipation. All that kind of stuff totally overshadows any otherwise useful descriptions of the city. I haven't counted pages out or anything, but *maybe* half the book would be usable in any kind of serious campaign.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2020 01:17
|
|
|
So, not the interesting and nuanced take on the Lunar Empire I've been wanting for some time. Although, the Elvis thing might even work. I will never forget reading about Moonson in the Guide to Glorantha as someone who 'makes the happiness of his people his top priority' and thinking that was a weird thing to say unironically about the head of a conquering empire, and then later reading an older book that said exactly the same thing but used a phrasing that made it clear that what it actually meant was "Moonson is tripping balls at 100% of all times," which the Guide evidentally copied without understanding.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2020 01:53
|
|
|
Moonson is tripping balls because A) the parties are so great that people get Illuminated at them and B) somebody has to keep all those Illuminates occupied or they'll start doing things and that's bad when Illuminates are involved.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2020 03:55
|
|
|
wiegieman posted:Moonson is tripping balls because A) the parties are so great that people get Illuminated at them and B) somebody has to keep all those Illuminates occupied or they'll start doing things and that's bad when Illuminates are involved. That would definitely be a much more interesting take on him, yeah. "We're so good at helping people achieve mystical enlightenment and power that we had to start a sybaritic cult just to keep all these demigods busy" is certainly a thing.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2020 04:09
|
|
|
Rand Brittain posted:That would definitely be a much more interesting take on him, yeah. As I remember (and it's been a while) pretty much everyone important in the Lunar Empire is some flavor of Illuminate. Their government officials are literally demigods of government. These are not stable people. Of course, once things start going south Great Sister offs him and gets their asses in gear.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2020 04:16
|
|
|
The red emperor once had a baccanal so wild the survivors were illuminated by doing reverse austerity
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2020 09:34
|
|
|
Oh poo poo the rough guide to glamour is the one with batman? I read that years ago! Also I always saw the Lunars as Romans from the collapse of the Republic through to the crisis of the 3rd century. In that everything is set up so that it doesn't actually matter who the red emperor is, so long as there is an emperor.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2020 09:55
|
|
|
Blind Azathoth posted:Even knowing its origins -- as a document to support a tongue-in-cheek LARP written decades ago -- it was sillier than I expected it to be. It has a weird vibe; it's partially information that would actually be useful for a campaign in Glamour (city map, some useful descriptions of places, Red Emperor and Glamour city cult write-ups), but every other paragraph is some goofy pop culture references or communist dictatorship parody. It leans heavily on an evil Empire disguised (barely) with illusions of beauty, and there's very few sections that don't resort to jokes. Lol. Sometimes glorantha smells a bit like mothballs, much as i love it.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2020 19:15
|
|
|
Fuligin posted:Lol. Sometimes glorantha smells a bit like mothballs, much as i love it. such as the racist depiction of china as being inspired by racist poems that made fun of Chinese language and the fact it's creator thought that women were inherently on a cosmic level, housewives (despite the presence of warrior women who chop rapists into pieces in setting). for what it's worth...the guide to glamour isn't canon, despite one of glorantha's top fanboys being a writer on it, I feel if it was, it would've probably had more fanfare to it than a minor release on their books made by fans programs. I think this is a good thing, actually, because it shows that they are fine with people using that program to publish really out there stuff, like Fantasy Elvis. Maybe people will write glorantha material that doesn't only focus on the Orlanthi or depict the only culture that actually respects women as The Main Bad Guys. And, Hopefully, this will lead to a fan-written and fan-published version of Kralorela that ISN'T racist bullshit. JanPospisil and Bendigeidfran need to be involved if possible.
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2020 06:55
|
|
|
There was a Kralorela book in progress, that some unspecified people might've flipped through a draft of. That was a few years ago though, and I've not heard it mentioned since. (though I am in no way tight with Chaosium, and have not been for years now.) If there was a fan driven project, I'd be happy to participate.
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2020 16:04
|
|
|
Supposedly, there is going to be a Kralorela book, but I wouldn't want Chaosium anywhere around it considering they seem interested in keeping the racist bullshit intact, but Chaosium owns the license and are biblical literalists when it comes to the original word of Greg, and with the fact that republicans are doubling down on their hatred of Chinese people, it's probably going to suck a lot.
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2020 04:57
|
|
|
Hi all! Quick question/advice/brainstorming, please ... So, my group is working its way through the Colymar Campaign, and my awkward Redaldan Elmali exorcist-thane had found herself in a bit of a predicament. She's interacted with a few Lunar philosophers, sorcerers, and teachers, and ... well ... she's gotta concede that they have a point. Sedenya-as-balancer, and protector from the rash and unkind violences of the world, and the ability to hold conflicting forces at balance appeals to her spiritually and in her role among the hero PCs. Lunar Hell is bad and all - Hofstaring is imprisoned there, but so is Sheng Seleris and everything she's heard about him sounds awful. But at the same time, the Lunars themselves are unbelievably awful, and she's been sick to her stomach seeing how they behave in Boldhome (got into a minor scuffle with Fazzur Widereed, barely escaped with her life, at the cost of many, many heropoints) - she's increasingly convinced that they are Red-Goddess-ing wrong, and wants to stake out the extremely naive and dangerous ideological contention that 'I Fought We Won' and 'We Are All Us' are compatible ideas. It may be an extremely bad idea - avowing to herself (her clan's Eurmali, another PC, also knows) that she is the Only One Who Really Gets What The Moon Rune Is About is unwise, and the fraternising with Chaos is also obviously dodgy, but it's true to the character. I'm going to have a chat with my GM about how to explore this in her arc - obviously Your Glorantha May Vary, and all - but if anyone has any recommendations about things/articles/sourcebooks to read or look at for inspiration? A lot of Gloranthan writing is very much from the Orlanthi perspective which portrays them all as sinister decadent predators who worship the devil - which may be true to some degree, but I'm interested in anything that talks about internal philosophical tensions in that, and Lunar departures from Moon philosophy.
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2020 09:33
|
|
|
Ooof. That is a tough one. Personally I would suggest looking into the idea of the White Moon. There isn't much on that, but it could well serve as a decent guide at the beginning.
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2020 13:53
|
|
|
Speaking of Kralorela: https://twitter.com/xujnx/status/1259364698056724481
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2020 12:45
|
|
|
JanPospisil posted:Speaking of Kralorela: https://twitter.com/xujnx/status/1259364698056724481 Should've replied to this earlier but that's friggin cool! Although it honestly exposes a problem with Kralorela in that it seems to cling to this idea that China has never changed any of its traditions in its hundreds to thousands of years of existence. I don't pretend to have a great understanding of Chinese history but everything I do know I get the feeling that it actually HAS changed a lot, despite claiming otherwise. Like Confucianism was far more religious before the rise of Neo-Confucianism toned down those aspects to focus more on the governmental aspects IIRC. Plus wasn't the entire idea of the Mandate of Heaven invented because one group of guys wanted to justify their claim to the throne? Didn't they create an entire false dynasty to justify it? That's REALLY different from the "unchanging traditions" part of Glorantha. Also, wouldn't the fact that they apparently have records from as far back as the God War create a lot of questions about the mythology of Glorantha? Like if there are actually records of the time period that's facts entirely rely on the people who worship it, doesn't that end up meaning that a lot of it really is straight up poo poo people made up to justify whatever? Or those records are written in the style of Choose-Your-Own-Adventure-Books.
|
|
#
?
Jun 3, 2020 01:15
|
|
|
The actual records isn't that much of a problem: the Dara Happa also have records back before the dawn, just not great ones.
|
|
#
?
Jun 3, 2020 01:46
|
|
|
If you really wanna get hosed with on Chinese cultural changes, China was a millet culture waaaaay before it was a rice culture.reignonyourparade posted:The actual records isn't that much of a problem: the Dara Happa also have records back before the dawn, just not great ones. Yeah it's a fun little thing that crops up a lot - the Dara Happans add like 100,000 years to how long the world has existed and huge numbers of people are just like "shut da gently caress up fire nerds"
|
|
#
?
Jun 3, 2020 01:57
|
|
|
TheNamedSavior posted:Also, wouldn't the fact that they apparently have records from as far back as the God War create a lot of questions about the mythology of Glorantha? Like if there are actually records of the time period that's facts entirely rely on the people who worship it, doesn't that end up meaning that a lot of it really is straight up poo poo people made up to justify whatever? Or those records are written in the style of Choose-Your-Own-Adventure-Books.  It's combinational. Sure you can probably have something a little different from last years records, and that might be different from the years before etc. But you've got to remember that when you can connect directly with the gods/ runes it's a lot harder to just "make poo poo up" about them. It's all interpretative. Though personally, yeah I would change the ever loving hell out of Kralorela. For starters just make it so that Godyuna is a dragon, but it hasn't always been "draconic" run. This is a more recent development as a reaction against the God learner invaders, who saw a lot of the dragon motifs and then used in the pre invasion empire and justified themselves based on descent from them. Josef bugman fucked around with this message at 09:04 on Jun 3, 2020 |
|
#
?
Jun 3, 2020 09:01
|
|
|
Josef bugman posted:Also I always saw the Lunars as Romans from the collapse of the Republic through to the crisis of the 3rd century. In that everything is set up so that it doesn't actually matter who the red emperor is, so long as there is an emperor. I see a lot of Late Antique Eastern Rome in them myself. The Lunars are an awkward successor state to a handful of previous states and empires (granted you can argue they're The Entire Concept Of Empire), which they have to simultaneously embrace the legacy of and assert their own superiority over through the framework of mystical religion. Their position is perpetually precarious despite a leg-up on centralization over everyone else nearby, and even then they're much more of a diverse fabric of subject and allied peoples than anything governed from a secure core. And the tax demons? Not out of place in either situation. Incidentally, I've been reading the Alexiad again lately and found it very funny that Anna Komnene still referred to their "phalanxes" in the 12th century AD. I always found the presence of the phalanx to be a bit pedestrian and on-the-nose for a civilization as strange as the Red Moon Empire, so the idea that it's just a name they've conserved for classical reference clout amuses me. Tulip posted:If you really wanna get hosed with on Chinese cultural changes, China was a millet culture waaaaay before it was a rice culture. Yep, as far back as 3000 BC you're finding millet growth and pig husbandry. Then sheep, cattle, horses, wheat, and barley were introduced at large scale to what's now northern China around the time the Shimao site JanPospisil mentioned was constructed (roughly 2000 BC), by nomadic pastoralists who ferried them from Southwest Asia. Coincides with the earliest development of bronze metallurgy in the area, in fact. So far as rice vs. millet goes, to this day climate means that rice is intensively cultivated in the wetter south, while the drier north practices more of a combination of animal husbandry and wheat/buckwheat/millet/barley/etc. cultivation. Now as a brief tangent, I'd argue that much of southern China was and remains a syncretic culture between the many indigenous Baiyue peoples and those Chinese who migrated or fled conflict to the south at many intervals in history, to the point that specific "Yue Chinese" dialects like the Cantonese my father speaks are completely unintelligible to people from even neighboring provinces. The same argument can also apply to influence from various Turko-Mongol peoples, the Jurchens, etc. in terms of lifestyles in northern China, particularly in periods like the Tang, Yuan, and Qing dynasty. In my opinion that influence has been less lasting than what's seen in the south, but like all things it's an open question. Anyways, around or after the Han Dynasty it became clear that the south was overall much more agriculturally productive than the north; it was even commonly mentioned in surviving literature that food grew more plentifully and life was easier in those regions. Works like the Grand Canal capitalized on this to ferry grain from southern farms to feed military garrisons in the north. Despite this specific form of mass rice transfer however, cuisine in Northern China is still characterized by local produce and non-rice based foodstuff like noodles, hotpot, steamed buns, and jiaozi. Bendigeidfran fucked around with this message at 20:07 on Jun 3, 2020 |
|
#
?
Jun 3, 2020 20:01
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 3, 2024 07:20 |
|
|
Bendigeidfran posted:I see a lot of Late Antique Eastern Rome in them myself. The Lunars are an awkward successor state to a handful of previous states and empires (granted you can argue they're The Entire Concept Of Empire), which they have to simultaneously embrace the legacy of and assert their own superiority over through the framework of mystical religion. Their position is perpetually precarious despite a leg-up on centralization over everyone else nearby, and even then they're much more of a diverse fabric of subject and allied peoples than anything governed from a secure core. And the tax demons? Not out of place in either situation. IMHO Argrath's "Sartar Magical Union" was a direct attempt to replicate and counter this aspect of Lunar military and magical strength.
|
|
#
?
Jun 3, 2020 20:19
|
|
