From: Nick Brooke (100270.337@compuserve.com)
Date: Thu 10 Nov 1994 - 22:51:51 EET
> Who is Urox?
Urox appears to be an Orlanthi name of the god known as "Storm Bull" in previous RuneQuest products. In the real world, Greg invented "Urox" for his book "King of Sartar", published in winter 92/3: no previous product therefore knew that the name existed. Given that, I'd have no problem if barbarian characters still referred to their god as "the Storm Bull", as all our Gloranthan experience shows that they do so. (It *would* cause a problem, for the converse reason, if people tried to abolish the name of "Storm Bull" by replacing it with "Urox" at every turn. Bad Alex.)
> How is Urox's myth history different than Storm Bull?
Speculations here have said he *probably* doesn't emphasise the Block so much in his mythology, as that part of the story is irrelevant if you're non-literate and nowhere near Prax. Apart from that, like *every* *other* *cult*, the mythology, history and structure of Uroxi beliefs can vary as much as necessary to suit the needs of your campaign. So if it helps your game to credit Urox with Arkat's destruction of Dorastor, do it!
> What's the story on Gagarth, the Wild Hunter? How does he fit into the
> Praxian pantheon?
Gagarth is the outlaw of the gods, who scours the Plaines of Prax chasing the lost souls who he drives before him in the Whirlvish dust-devils. The 'official' Chaosium cult description was printed in Tales of the Reaching Moon issue #4, and was posted in full to the RQ Daily some time last year (someone with better archives than me may be able to quote you an issue, or forward the text). He's a scary god only worshipped by Praxian bandits thrown out of the Way of Waha. (The Orlanthi would almost certainly view him differently, not living in a desert: you could borrow imagery from the Wild Hunt of our world, red-eared white hounds and the like).
> Why isn't he mentioned that much?
Because he's a Bad God, and you shouldn't be copying him. Social deities are more interesting and useful to mythologise about, as they tell us how we ought to behave. Gagarth is an antisocial deity.
> What is the darkened square rune for Babeester Gor shown in GoG?
"Malign Earth", sometimes called "Dust". It means she's not nice.
> I get the feeling that there's more runes than are shown in the Deluxe
> rules, am I correct? Where can I get a more complete list?
There are a vast number of Runes, and we don't know about most of them. At Convulsion this summer Greg confirmed that the ones we know about are only the most common forms of the most common Runes: the tip of the ice- berg. The extra ones in GoG are (briefly):
Communication (Argan Argar, Etyries, Issaries) Luck (Asrelia) Malign Earth (Babeester Gor, Gorgorma, Maran Gor, TKT) Light (Dendara, Lokarnos, Yelmalio) 'Dragon' (Godunya, Immanent Mastery) Shadow (Gorgorma) 'Hunger' (Krarsht) Heat (Lodril) 'Pamalt' (Pamalt) Fate (Ty Kora Tek) Cold (Valind)
The 'Dragon' Rune may be a peculiarly Kralori form or expression.
The 'Hunger' Rune is also known as 'Undead' -- on first appearance it was defined as this, before the generic concept was found more useful.
The 'Pamalt' Rune has been called 'Power', but this is so vague as to be almost meaningless. It really means, "We God Learners don't know what it is, but there's something different about the way magic works down South, and it's probably something to do with the boss god."
Generally, 'Luck' is seen as a good thing (windfalls of prosperity) and 'Fate' as bad (inevitable or undeserved problems cum limitations), though there is nothing inherent in Glorantha to make this so.
But the Runes (as drawn in the rules) are only abstractions of the most common symbols associated with powers and/or forces. You can draw an Eye Rune, or a Wheel Rune, and a God Learner would say, "Aha! A variant form of the Sun Rune". But who can say who is right? In our game, the Yanafali Death Rune is curved... So while you already knew all the most important Runes, and you now know some more, less important Runes, you'll never get a *complete* complete list.
> Why are some of the runes shown twice in the GoG cult descriptions?
Where a Rune is shown twice, it means that that god is the "owner" of the Rune. This is a God Learnerish classification, meaning that the deity is so widely associated with the Rune that anyone thinking of a Death god would rank it against Humakt for deadliness; a Storm god against Orlanth for tempestuousness; etc. The god exemplifies the current 'image' and/or manifestation of the Rune in Glorantha. Check out RQ Deluxe's listing of Rune owners against the GoG duplications. An Infinity Rune plus a single other means the god is and always was the "owner". Glitches in the system show you shouldn't trust God Learners. Rune owners have been called the Greater Gods, but this too is an invalid, cross-cultural comparison that doesn't matter to anyone living in Glorantha. (It used to matter to the God Learners, and some of their theories and classifications still float around out there: but it's no part of proper religion or belief).
> Do Ernalda initiates stick with the Grain Goddess they originally
> worshipped? Or, do they change grain goddesses when they move to a
> new region?
The Earth goddesses are famously flexible and transposable, though nobody will thank me for posting the Short Discourse to this list again. They defy the God Learner classifications; a single goddess can become Land Queen, Grain Goddess and/or Earth Mother; Maiden, Mother and/or Crone; Benign and/or Malign; depending on where you meet "her".
I think she would be puzzled if you tried to sacrifice another point of POW to her just because you were living on a different part of her body and raising her in a different form. Mind you, she wouldn't refuse it!
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