#humakt

[silver-leaf-girl]

A commission I did for a Glorantha book, part of the Jonstown Compendium of fan work.

For those not familiar with Glorantha (you might know it as the setting for King of Dragon Pass), it's a bronze-age fantasy setting written by Greg Stafford, an anthropologist. There's some bits that are a bit 'hmmm', but overall - it's a fresh and enthralling take on the fantasy genre, driven by a genuine interest in how ritual works in Bronze Age societies (I've heard it described as 'as Tolkien was to linguistics, Stafford was to mythology).

The paintings here intend to showcase one of the rituals in question, with a hero being anointed and girded to assume a mythic role (specifically Humakt, deity of swords and truth and death!)- around her, her masked clan-members prepare her for her transit into the mythic realm, while above her, Humakt himself wields/blesses the blade that she takes up. The second painting was for the back cover - it shows a devotee of Eurmal, trickster and storyteller, entertaining a couple of children and inducting them into the clan's mythic cycle, while their hunting cat (an alynx - Gloranthan cultures tend to favour cats where Earth ones would dogs) looks on.

Both paintings were done in gouache, early in the pandemic. I wanted to capture a sense of genuine mystery and weird spiritual power, and also to present a female Humakti in a role that many character artists have usually shown a traditional male warriors. It's also one of my (too rare! I should get back to this!) experiments with light and darkness in a painting.

#glorantha #runequest #humakt #heroquesting #eurmal #gouache #fantasy art

[lyreofsheliak]

King of Dragon Pass heroquests: Chalana Arroy Heals the Scars.

#chalana arroy #glorantha #orlanthi #kodp #king of dragon pass #heroquesting #humakt #urox #ragnaglar #malia #mallia #elmal #fantasy art #video game art

[old-aspiring-awesomeness]

Hiya there, I moved to aspiring-awesomeness (https://aspiring-awesomeness.tumblr.com/) :D

———

The internet says it’s national singles day, so I present to you - two tsundere lesbians!

One is religiously celibate and the other is religiously not allowed to form attachments. It’s great.

#one of the big tragedies of the game ending is that none of my ships will become a thing #a fuckin tragedy #runequest #glorantha #heroquest #humakt #humakti #babeester gor #axe sister #lesbians #tsundere #procreate #procreate art #art #digital art #artists on tumblr #artists on the spectrum #red hair #ttrpg art #ttrpg characters

[kleioscanvas]

The Ram and Warrior faces Death

The Red Goddess guides her general Yanafal Tarnils to defeat Humakt, God of War and Death, and become the new Lunar War God.

#artists on tumblr #illustration #fantasy art #runequest #glorantha #mythologyart #myth #ttrpg

[leeoconnor]

This is Red-Quill, former swamp bandit turned freedom fighter against the nefarious Lunar Empire, who is aided by his devotion to the god of thunder!

So I got to draw some duck-men. It was hilarious. It was a blast. They're from the fantasy world of Glorantha and you can play as them (or alongside them) in the RuneQuest TT RPG.

Here, a duck shaman is sending out her spirit to go and met her mentors’ spirits in the spirit world. Shaman business. Her look is actually based on a real duck breed. (I was thrilled endlessly that all of these fantasy ducks are based on real-world duck breeds.) The big one with the snout is a troll shaman. Also pictured: her pet bullfrog and the sculptures of it that she’s made, because she loves it so much.

So these aren’t furries or anything, they’re more realistic versions of whimsical, hissing cartoon ducks like Marvel’s Howard the Duck or Disney’s Donald Duck. They’re sword and sorcery duck people! More precisely, they’re part of the accepted and generally very well-loved fantasy setting called Glorantha. You will know about Glorantha in a roundabout way I suspect… The Elder Scrolls game Morrowind lovingly ripped off a bunch of it and it was the setting for the indie game legend King of Dragon Pass and its successors. The most popular way for people to experience Glorantha over the years though has probably been the table-top role-playing game RuneQuest.

Here, a healer initiate of the goddess of mercy Chalana Arroy, tending to some fellow ducks. (The seated guy in the middle with the shoulder bandage is supposed to look like a mandarin duck, I had to tone him down though, otherwise his bright colours would have stolen the show.) 

So Runequest has a very lovely new edition that came out a while ago. It has a unique appeal in that it’s an RPG that lets you play out mythology. Well, kinda. Being a mythology nerd (I have an in-progress Fionn Mac Cumhaill graphic novel as proof) I was powerless to resist. RuneQuest’s storied publisher Chaosium (they of the Call of Cthulhu RPG) run a community content programme for RuneQuest called the Jonstown Compendium (named after a big library in the setting of Glorantha) where people can publish their own adventures and sourcebooks as PDFs via DriveThruRPG and popular titles then become Print-on-Demand books.

A put-upon member of duck nobility here, she’s a big deal for the duck people, but sadly the humans nearby don’t take her seriously.  The crosses aren’t crucifixes, they’re the rune of death, which is supposed to look like a simplified sword. The runes that look like Ys are the truth rune. These are the runes of her god, Humakt, GOD OF DEATH. And sword fights. The duck people love the god of death. *Falls off chair*

You can buy the book with these guys in as either a PDF or a hardcopy, it’s called ‘Duckpac’ and is from Drew Baker, Neil Gibson and friends at Legion Games. (The title of the book is a bit of a pun on an old RuneQuest book about trolls, which was called ‘Trollpak‘.) This book is for you if you want to play as a fully-realised duck person, with duck-person things to think about, based on a history, genealogy and mythology of duck-people. Yes, really! It’s pretty incredible.

Runequest has a reputation online for being ‘the game with silly duck people in’, which is entirely justified, they’re like the cute mascots of the whole deal. The story goes that back in the late seventies, one of the gang of friends who help make the game world was a Carl Barks Donald Duck comic strip fan, resulting in a town called Duck Point existing on the map. There’s another story that someone involved was making lead miniatures of Carl Barks style Conan the Barbian gag ducks and he needed a game to attach them to so it didn’t look like a straight Disney rip-off. Stories real and apocryphal abound. There’s never been an official book about ducks (or the ‘durulz’ as they call themselves) for the RuneQuest game so this one’s here for you and has background, characters, locations, adventures and more.

A scarred duck boatman (boatduck?) and diver, initiate of a river god, on his barge, wondering what the heck you’re doing paddling about in his river.

The bit of decorated driftwood in the background above is his effigy of his god. I made him look like a Bronze Age version of a swimming athlete, like Duncan Goodhew with rustic trunks and a swimming hat. I was passed a reference photo of an upright duck (who looked amazing), so this was an upright composition, in a tall portrait frame.

Here’s a little vid of me flipping through the lovely hardback print version of the book. This is the first print volume and then there’ll be another volume of solo and group adventures.

That old love of the UK comics scene Mr. John Freeman even saw this madness and featured it on his Down The Tubes site here, Which Was Nice.

Oh and as if you above verbiage wasn’t enough proof, you can check my RuneQuest nerd chops by looking at my very own RuneQuest campaign log page and wiki here, if you fancy. It’s got more drawings on there!

#ducks #durulz #runequest #glorantha #jonstown compendium #drivethrurpg #chaosium #legion games #games #gaming #pod #rpg #ttrpg #brp #art #illustration #artwork #duck people #rpg book #anthromorphic art #fantasy #bronze age #Instagram

[downwithpeople]

i'm sure it's a very different story in play but when i was at the height of my glorantha obsession i could have thought about humakt for a whole calendar day and it's a little disappointing that being a humakti in runequest means you can cast bladesharp, which adds +5% to hit and +1 damage to your sword.

[petrifact]

Write Your First Adventure Lesson 3: The Call to Adventure

This lesson was all about expanding on the initial idea, and the associated activity was to describe (in as much or as little detail as you wanted) at least one person suggested by the idea (and who might be a character in the adventure), and at least one place suggested by the idea. Optionally, participants could also write down other elements that might be suggested by the idea, like monsters & elder races, temples & cults, etc. So here's what I wrote:

People suggested by the idea:

Well, there's the cult leader, of course, and the magician who provides the spirit. (Also the spirit itself, if that counts as a character. Ooh, maybe it's a spirit of a now-extinct type of Beast Person…) But let's see what other wild card characters there could be. Like, for instance…

A Trickster, a cultist of Eurmal. He's going along with the cult for sheer mischief factor, and could be another thorn in the PCs' sides… but if the PCs can convince him that the cult is truly harmful, they might actually be able to make him into a useful ally.

Oh, hey, also if the spirit is the ghost of an ancient Beast Person perhaps other Beast People have been attracted to the cult… that could be interesting…

Also, perhaps one of the cult members has become a zealot who, without the sanction of the cult leader, has taken his or her own initiative to murder those who seem to be enemies of the cult… hmm… (I had been thinking about the cult leader ordering murders of those who try to leave the cult, but it actually may be more interesting if they're being committed without the cult leader's blessing…)

A Place:

The cult temple, of course. But where is it located? Hm… I'll take a look at a map of Sartar and see if there are any communities that look potentially interesting but haven't been developed much.

Hm… the maps in the Starter Set show a town called Ten Spear conveniently far from any major roads but close to the Colymar tribal lands. (Technically it looks like it's in Lismelder territory, but eh, there can be reasons for PCs to go there.) Plus it's near the Upland Marsh, which gives an opportunity for a chaos attack event to spice things up (and give a chance for the PCs to fight some zombies or other undead, since otherwise this adventure is looking like it's going to be very heavy on the social end and light on combat). So okay. The cult temple is in Ten Spears.

For another location, maaaaaybe in the climax of the adventure the PCs actually venture into the Spirit World? Or maybe not; that might be a bit hard to pull off.

Other:

So naturally some of the local cults may not be happy about this new upstart cult in town, and may give aid to the PCs investigating it. This being in Colymar territory, there's bound to be at least a minor temple of Orlanth in Ten Spears, and maybe one to Ernalda as well (though that's likely folded into the Orlanthi temple). Also maybe a shrine to Storm Bull and/or Humakt could make sense.

#RPGs #RPG #ttrpg #Glorantha #Chaosium #RuneQuest #tabletop rpgs #Write Your First Adventure #The Cult of the Shard

[gefdreamsofthesea]

Me, reading Gloranthan myths: So Humakt severed his ties with his kin so that means he lives outside the Storm Tribe's tula?

Myth: Yes but he also cut out his navel.

Me: wait what

[commander-ledi]

our team was invited by orlanth to some feast, and like my character was quiet for a bit, and then he just blurted out "hey orlanth. i have seen your dick." everyone knew exactly what he was talking about. orlanth was little embarrassed and stammered something about being young and stupid back then, and everyone else laughed. ernalda laughed so hard that she was probably struggling at staying in her chair.

basically as part of some hero quest our team ran into completely naked orlanth swinging humakt's sword around

#runequest #my character is usually the one with best filter between his brain and mouth of all of our team #im glad that everyone found it more funny that offensive #cuz we have pissed off gods before and its not fun

[republictrooper]

Got into King of Dragon’s Pass cuz of some twitter buzz that’s been going around, and I like it. Figuring out who to put on my ring has been hard, but in an almost hilarious way? To the point it’s almost my favorite part of the game.

Like, trying to balance it out on who has skills at first seemed ok, but I would constantly get people saying like, hey, we need more varied worshippers of Gods on the team. Even if all my people were knowledgeable, I couldn’t use my magic well or get varied outlooks on events and stuff. 

So I started trying to switch more people in based less on skills and more on what gods I needed to fill out the ring.

So after my one Uralda worshipper died doing the Uralda Heroquest (I should have known she was getting too old, but my cows were hurting dangit), my only other Uralda worshipper was a young early-20s lady. I put her on the clan ring, but despite having excellent Animals and decent leadership she was a complete dud. She only gave general random jrpg town npc “People die if they are killed” type information, and when dragonnewts showed up on our land, she actively BEGGED to be taken off the ring because she didn’t want to deal with that. So I figured I’d be nice and do it, but she’s literally my ONLY Uralda worshipper. So I take her off and replace her with an Ernalda worshipper with decent animal skills as a hopefully adequate replacement. BUT I start seeing the downsides immediately. To start, I cant put as much magic into keeping my eternally on the brink of failing cattle herds alive. I can kind of keep them off the brink by trading with other tribes or asking for favors of cattle, but I generally seem to lose cattle every sacred time for a couple years. Then, I have some group of priestesses of Uralda come to my tribe and tell me I’m failing to respect her properly and my cattle will suffer if I do. So I end up spending tons of Goods to sacrifice to her AND putting my Uralda lady back on the tribe. 

So, Poor Uralda continues to not only give very basic info, but pretty much blames herself for everything that goes bad for the tribe because she thinks she gave bad info, and asks to be taken off the ring once again for a few things. I feel bad for her, but Uralda REALLY wants her on that ring, and I’ve already lost the game due to losing all my cattle once, so I’m not taking the risk again. She seems to finally be growing into the role a bit more since then, so I’m hopeful either she’ll blossom in her 30s, or I’ll get another Uralda worshipper so I can rotate the poor dear out and let her be a nice standard carl again.

Eurmal was the other one, if only because my trickster kept actually doing trickster stuff to other tribes and they kept demanding repayment, so I’d repay and take my trickster off the ring as punishment, only to have the other ring members talk about how much the ring could use a trickster, either for scapegoating or more Heroquest power. Finally that trickster died and I was without a trickster period for a few years, until a 20 year old lady worshipping Eurmal appeared in my list of ring members. I’ve put her on the ring because it could use more ladies and it’ll get the others to pipe down about needing a trickster, but she’s still way too young to give decent advice. Then again, I found the tricksters rarely did to begin with, so there’s that. And she hasn’t done anything as flagrantly horrible as the last trickster - yet. And regardless, my ring keeps telling me I NEED to do hero quests, so I need her for the extra point of magic in questing, if nothing else.

But the warriors, the Humakt fighters, those dudes have been really amazing. 

First of all, they’re pretty much always fixated on war. Singlemindedly so. They always want you to max out war points and keep reserve magic to use while raiding. If you’re hanging on your main clan page, they want to raid. If you want to send out diplomats or traders, they say you’d get more loot from raiding. 9 time out of 10 if there’s a war-related problem, they want to send warriors or start a duel (On the other hand, if they say it's not a good idea to fight, it's at least a good sign you’ll lose).

And I definitely tend to go through my Humakt fighters the quickest. My first one inexplicably went berserk while defending the tribe from some Horse Nomads and got killed. My 2nd decided we were getting too soft, and murdered a bunch of nobles from a neighboring tribe to try to start a war, so I had to Outlaw her to appease them. The 3rd died in a duel to a duck (which he demanded I let him do). I HAD told them first blood only, in my defense, but the duck just killed him outright. The 4th finally seems like he might die or old age, but only because I did a lot of work to keep him safe and sated, including wounding a couple of my healer ring members keeping him safe when he got reckless in battle. Hopefully he doesn’t feel too bitter about dying in bed.

On the plus side, my main Ernalda lady has been absolutely amazing. She’s let me know exactly how many hunters to keep around, can usually tell if Bandits will be a problem on the roads for trading and diplomacy, can sniff out decent deals on cattle, almost always give the best advice on quests (Except that one time she wanted to parlay with a spirit and it turned out to be an evil spirit that sapped her strength), and eventually became my queen. Now if she could stay alive for 10 years and/or until I finally get a person who can defeat the Orlanth and Aroka heroquest, I’ll be in great shape. She did almost die once after being cursed by a dress that may have been sent by a rival tribe, but she survived it after I sacrificed to the healer goddess, and now she’s in her early 40s and pretty healthy, so I’m pretty confident I can win the short game with her.

Anyway, if you haven’t played it already, King of Dragon Pass is pretty alright, overall.

#King of Dragon Pass #King of Dragon Pass Spoilers

[vintagerpg]

Cults of Prax, by Steve Perrin and Greg Stafford, is a book of deities and, since the RuneQuest system and the world of Glorantha are both intimately connected to the many religions contained within, it is one of the game’s most important books. Prax is both a melting pot and the site of a clash of cultures on an epic scale, so the gods detailed in the book are a cross-section of deities found throughout Glorantha. Several pantheons – those of the native nomad tribes, the invading Lunar Empire, the neighboring Kingdom of Sartar, the city of Pavis and more – all compete for influence in the region. If you play RuneQuest, you will know the names of gods like Orlanth, Humakt, Storm Bull, the Seven Mothers, Lhankor Mhy and Yelmalio very, very well.

Unlike D&D, which features endless deities but few doctrines that matter in terms of the game’s mechanics, the cults are RuneQuest’s foundation. Membership in one of more cults determines not just a character’s culture and beliefs, but many also function as a more organic sort of character class.

In D&D, a book like this would only be of use to Clerics and Paladins, and probably only in expanding the available spells. In RuneQuest, religion IS roleplaying – Cults of Prax is a handbook for how all characters (player and non-player) act, both with members of their own cults and outsiders. Learning these customs and how to navigate them is the soul of the game.

I suspect the centering of the interaction of beliefs on the level of social groups in RuneQuest is a clear antecedent of Planescape and its factions. It is testament to the monumental nature of the book that, even though it was originally released in 1979, it has yet to meet its match in depth and clarity. It is a foundational RPG text (and not just because it might be the first splatbook – correct me if I am wrong in the comments).

#D&D #AD&D #advanced dungeons & dragons #dungeons & dragons #RPG #Tabletop RPG #roleplaying game #roleplaying games #Chaosium #Glorantha #Cults of Prax #Prax #Sartar #RuneQuest #Pavis #Lunar Empire #Orlanth #1979 #Splatbook

[221brownstone]

Elementary Live Tweet: 5x14 Rekt in Real Life "Tonight's #Elementary is about #ESports... and other things. Spoiler: There will be pwnage."

Brownstone business

Previously on... remember Shinwell and his daughter?

I love the intensity @OfficialNelsan brings to Shinwell.

And his scenes with @LucyLiu are always so great.

Joan's tie game is fierce.

Yes, we really did shave @jonnyjlm's head. Yes, it's staying short for a while.

Welcome back, @GoatwhoreNOLA! We missed you.

I stumbled on a story of a gangmember stalking a girl like this in the news. It's not uncommon, sadly.

If I were Shinwell, I'd be tempted the same way he is.

When Hard G's have a cat, they name it Ghostface.

Much praise to @jonnyjlm for nailing " huitlacoche".  Mmm, corn fungus.

Our Sherlock isn't the sort to use a gun, but he is the sort to bluff that he has one.

Personally I wanted Shinwell to run Lucien over with a car, but Rob D. came up with this much more subtle (and better) ending.

You try saying "stenosing tenosynovitis" on cue. @LucyLiu is the best.

This Sherlock speech about POV is direct from canon.

Okay, Shinwell, I get it. Peaceable life.

We don't get to show off Joan's Mandarin very often, but always nice when we have a chance.

Case of the week

Tonight's #Elementary is about #ESports... and other things. Spoiler: There will be pwnage.

O.G. Pwnzr is a bit old school, so he uses Pwnzer, which is super-dated.

I feel like IRL, if someone were murdered on a livestream, people would totally make a GIF out of it. People suck.

Most real streamers use pseudonyms and protect their privacy to varying degrees.

"Who brings a gun and a garden tool to commit a murder?" Good question Bell!

Retinal scanners really do still work once you're dead. Just FYI.

Fingerprints require an electrical signal, usually the body's charge, so you'd have to wire up the dead finger.

The More You Know

Hello Ando! @JamesKyson is so great. Love that we got him for Ng.

Some people call Trade Show Models "Booth Babes". They're the subject of some controversy in the gaming circuit.

A hakapik. Look it up. You do not want to get hit with a hakapik.

All this stuff about how you use a hakapik is real. Trivia: Hakapiks were invented in Norway.@NEofMN

#ESport tournies are bringing in increasingly large prize pools and get huge audiences online and in person.

What are you eating, Tendu?

The entire #Sealfie movement is a real thing.

I looked at a ton of #Sealfie's for this episode. Mostly young people from Nunavut defending their traditions.

You tell him, Anezka!

You know the old saying: One Czech is coincidence... Two Czechs are a conspiracy!  (I made that up)

I really like this Tendu kid. He's got a good heart. I hope nothing bad happens to him.

Carla knows that in real life, there's usually no Richard Gere.

If you see an athlete wearing branded gear, they're probably getting paid.

The Reverse Butterfly Effect is, um, a thing I made up.

I'm kind of proud of that speech.

Yep, Tendu is an awesome dude. Hurray Tendu!

We're blessed with great guest actors on #Elementary. Christine Taylor and @kathynajimy in the same scene? Lucky us!

For those keeping score, we've covered livestreaming, #eSports, hakapiks, #Sealfie, human trafficking. Still 30 minutes to go!

Oh, and stalking and arson.

This is our version of a car chase.

Tendu and Libena make a cute couple.

Behind the scenes

Just a reminder that @FCBayern beat @Arsenal 5-1. And that @writergeekrhw is now in control of this account. Suck it, @JeffreyPaulKing!

I originally titled it "Rekt IRL" but Rob D was worried folks wouldn't get it. So we spelled it out.

I'll be using a DVD & a time sheet, but hopefully I can synch up well. Better than when we have football delays anyway.

Here's the timing sheet for tonight's #Elementary in case anyone's wondering.

Vadrus Typhon is one of my Runequest characters, for those of you keeping score. A Sword of Humakt. @Chaosium_Inc

I've been wanting to do this specific murder for over a year. Finally found a story where it fit.

We originally tried to get a real life streamer to play O.G., but he has over a page of dialogue, so we needed an actor.

I've never been to the Javits Center, but I won a Javits Fellowship for grad school. Thanks Senator Javits!

Team Profine are all real pro gamers, including @nycfurby @DJNintendo17 Great guys!

@JKap415 was in the group scene too. Sadly, it all went by very fast. #TeamProfine

Wish we'd had more screen time for them. They did great, improiseved a bunch of gaming dialogue. But we ran out of time.

"Tendu" is named after my buddies @OKBJGM & @JoseMolinaTV's #TVWriting podcast: @ChildrenofTendu

"Tuchman" is a shout out to fellow #Alphas writer @EricTuchman

My dad once owned a 65 Mustang. He was a cool dude.

Those three-bladed hubcaps were supercool... except when I ran into one when I was 6.

The RCMP officer is named Montcalm. After my family's ancestral enemy.

For you Canadians keeping score, General James Wolfe is my distant uncle.

Read all about it here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Plains_of_Abraham

I've spent a lot of time in Canada, but never gotten to Nunuvut. Would love to some day. Closest I've gotten is Churchill.

How great are these real NYC locations. They add so much to the show.

Arsenal sucks! Go @FCBayern!

Okay, now I'm done.

I now return control of this feed to @JeffreyPaulKing and @kwwheeler

Dear Inuit, I apologize for screwing up Inuk/Inuit and using Inuit(s) in tonight's #Elementary. I hope you still enjoy the episode.

Also messed up actor names in my live tweet. Sorry Kathy Najimy & Christine Taylor. You were both amazing! So blessed to have your talents

This episode was inspired by my love of online gaming, among other things. I played UO, DAoC, WOW, Hearthstone among others.

I watch a lot of Twitch and YouTube tutorials for the games I play. Which is part of what inspired this.

If you played WoW and ever got rekt by a Shadow Priest named Coldcomfort, that was me. You're welcome.

If you played DAoC on Lancelot server, I was the Hib Champion named Caradoc who kept snaring you and backstabbing you.

Another great directing job from @john_polson

#elementarystaff #jonny lee miller #sherlock holmes #elementary #elementasquee #shinwell johnson #chivonne #goatwhore #behind the scenes #5x14 #live tweet #why don't i shave my head and show up bald

[lyreofsheliak]

King of Dragon Pass heroquests: Humakt the Champion.

#king of dragon pass #kodp #humakt #orlanthi #glorantha #orlanth #eurmal #grandfather mortal #heroquesting #fantasy art #video game art #humakt the champion

[kayawagner]

Cults of Prax

Publisher: Chaosium

In the fantasy role-playing game RuneQuest, magic works because relations between the spiritual and physical plane are immediate and concrete. Maintaining good relations with your chosen god allows you to learn special magic, provides you with trusty companions in a cut-throat world, and you may even roll for Divine Intervention to escape a tight place. RuneQuest and its universe link with a depth and consistency unparalleled in gaming.

RuneQuest’s major supplement Cults of Prax, explores religions useful in and designed for fantasy settings. Starting with the most primitive ancestor worship, passing through the tribal deities of the simple nomad barbarians, and exploring the intricacies of the more civilized Lightbringer cults with trader deities and a god of knowledge. Though all cults receive a broad range of capabilities  from their divine relationships, there are some deities specializing in certain activities or areas, such as a war god, a city god, and the mysterious Lunar cult. Non-human religions include an elf cult and two troll cults.

The book offers over 100 new Rune and battle magic spells, and skills not in RuneQuest. The wealth of new material can be applied to any role-playing game or campaign, and referees will enjoy the many new lines of thought and the dozens of examples of tribal behavior which can corroborate any campaign. The excerpts from The Travels of Biturian Varosh can springboard more than a dozen situations or scenarios. 

Fifteen religions are detailed:

Aldrya (elf-goddess)

Chalana Arroy (healer)

Daka Fal (ancestor worship)

Eiritha (herd mother)

Humakt (war god)

Issaries (trader god)

Kyger Litor (troll ancestress)

Lhankor Mhy (knowledge god)

Orlanth (god of adventurers)

Pavis (city god)

Seven Mothers (the Lunar cult)

Storm Bull (berserker god)

Waha (nomad chieftain deity)

Yelmalio (mercenary god of light)

Zorak Zoran (troll wargod)

A guideline chapter shows how to design new cults. There are many appendices including a daily sun-time calendar. Descriptions combine fact, fiction, legend, and magic to add flavor so useful in campaign play. If they wish, characters can advance without bloodshed or fighting. Only the ‘cults’ series provides so much imaginative scope and so much every-day detail. 

Cults of Prax is a companion to Cults of Terror.

Each Cult Description includes:

Mythos and History — the acts of the gods before time began, the behavior of the cult since time began, life after death promised to cult members, Runic associations.

Nature of the Cult — why the religion continues to exist, what its socio-political position and power has been, some of its major likes and dislikes.

Cult Organization — both inter-cult and intra-temple structures are examined, and centers of power, holy places, holy days.

Cult Membership — here are the requirements to join the cult (species, birth, ability, money, offerings, etc.), the requirements to remain in the cult (sacrifices, hates, geases and gifts from the gods, codes of conduct), the benefits received from the cult (food, shelter, training, healing), the skills taught or restricted, available battle magic, skills and spells peculiar to the cult, Rune magic availability by membership level, cult duties by membership level, and so on. Such aspects are examined separately for lay, initiate, and Rune lord and priest membership.

Subservient Cults — includes spirits of reprisal (they keep. your characters on the straight-and-narrow in such a world) and various hero cults, any of which may offer added Rune spells.

Associated Cults — from actions during Godtime or after, certain cults are more friendly to one another and will loan certain Rune spells or skills.

Miscellaneous Notes — among the most interesting sections, giving information on diet, behavior, dress, conceptions of the universe, ethics, ostentatious display, behavior toward other cults, more.

Note: This is a fully-remastered PDF true to the original printing.

Price: $12.95 Cults of Prax published first on https://supergalaxyrom.tumblr.com

[unseenphil]

So I wanted to talk about Ducks in Glorantha a little. I have a dumb soft spot for them because a: They make people -almost- as angry as that one paragraph about dudes riding side saddle in Reign.  (Often because they think duck-people don't fit into a serious mythic setting like Glorantha.) And B: Just look at them! They are a grim warrior race that looks like that.  And that is fantastic.

See, Ducks got started in Glorantha because the creator  or possibly someone else in his circle of friends, loved  Carl Barks and Don Rosa's Disney comics. (Which mostly proves that whoever it was had excellent goddamn taste). So the tale was spun that Ducks (Or Durulz as they're called these days) were originally flying birds, servants of the lords of the sky, but turned their back on the sky/solar divinities to serve the lords of the air and storm and got cursed to walk and talk like men and be unable to fly. (A side effect of the curse was that they now live as long as men do, which was not actually intended. )

As a knockon effect of this ancient curse, Ducks are possibly the most shit on race of sapient beings in the setting. Terrible things happen to them all the time,  everyone treats them like a bad joke, and they bear up under it with stoicism or, sometimes, berserk fury. Which is why so many of the Ducks are followers of the gods of death and war.

For example, in the current Hero Wars time frame, Ducks were basically made into the scapegoats of a failed rebellion against the Lunar Empire- despite none of the leadership of that rebellion being ducks- the empire has outlawed their race and they've fled to safety in places like the upland Marsh...which as it turns out is home to an ancient necromancer from the previous age.

Ducks worship the gods of death and war- in particular, Humakt, enemy of all undead. So once they ran into the forces of the Necromancer (Whose name is Delecti, by the way: People who hate the ducks because they are not serious enough usually don't say anything about the evil swamp wizard whose name is literally just a terrible legal term pun) the ducks realized they were the ones best fit to fight undead armies in a swamp, and became self-appointed guardians of the area. The first line of defense.

And the humans in the area -still- make fun of them.

In short, Ducks are awesome, and I am glad the stretch goal to add them in the 13th Age in Glorantha kickstarter made it.

#Ducks #Durulz #Humakt

[lyreofsheliak]

Death in Three Aspects

Fandom: Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind

Summary: Death has many faces.  

Notes: The god of death, as seen by Riders, Wheels, and Rams. Triple drabble. 

Here.

#six ages #ride like the wind #samnali #orlanthi #hyalorings #glorantha #fanfic #erissa #humakt #erildar #sheliak writes/ #ao3 linkage/