From: Paul Reilly (paul@venus.phyast.pitt.edu)
Date: Tue 01 Jan 1991 - 09:56:33 EET
>1) Can anyone give me synopsis of the Lightbringers quest? I
Everyone I know wonders about this. I don't think that anyone except
_possibly_ Greg Stafford can give a reasonably complete synopsis, but I
will list what I can off the top of my head. Hopefully other people will
come up with some incidents from obscure sources...
Back in Godtime, someone (Humakt?) went to visit the caverns of
dread Subere, at the core of the world inside or beneath the Spike. This
person brought back a Gift from the dark goddess, and did not know its powers.
He went to the being known as Grandfather Mortal {*note that according to the
Glorantha Book in "Genertela, Crucible of the Hero Wars" Grandfather Mortal
is a God Learner pastiche of various ancestral beings*} and tested the Gift,
which turned out to be the pwoer we now know as Death.
Grandfather Mortal's spirit was separated from his body by Death, and his
spirit sunk down into the caverns of Hell. He was joined by others before
long. Eurmal the Trickster stole Death from Humakt and gave it to Orlanth,
who used it against Yelm the Emperor. Yelm's spirit entered into the
lightless halls of Hell and many darkness beings were burnt to destruction;
others managed to flee into Deep Hell or the Upper World, now dark. These
latter beings included many trolls (millions, according to some) who marched
for generations to reach the Surface World.
The Surface World was plunged into darkness. The coming of the Trolls and
other Hell creatures only aggravated the fighting that was going on. The
violent storm gods fought amongst themselves and with other gods now that the
Emperor no longer kept order. Orlanth claimed the kingship of the gods, but
few had true respect for the murderer who had brought on the Darkness.
Finally chaos began to seep into the cracks in the fabric of the Universe
caused by the Gods' War, and the Spike exploded.
The tales of woe of the Greater Darkness are well known. (If they're not,
I'll write something up). Finally Orlanth decided to attempt to revive Yelm
and restore order to the Universe. He selcted or found six companions to
aid him in this mission: Chalana Arroy, Issaries, Lhankor Mhy, Eurmal, Flesh
Man, and the mysterious Ginna Jar. After many trials which never seem to
get detailed, they succeeded in invading Hell and resurrecting Yelm. This
was the Lightbringer's Quest.
I will try to find some references to incidents along the way of the
Quest; if other people do so also maybe we can piece together a narrative.
Or someone could write to Greg Stafford and ask...
> 2) This Syndics Ban thing. Why did that group of individuals
kill the God of Communication? What did they hope to gain?
And if the Ban was the intended result, why?
Prince Snodal journeyed to the far lands of the Altinae, a race of demigods
who live in the North beyond Valind's Glacier. There he was shown portions
of an atlas of the future supposedly drawn by Zzabur (Glorantha's First
Wizard, the chief wizard of the Brithini, older and more powerful than most
gods) himself. What he saw disturbed him so much that when he returned he
organized the conspiracy which killed the God of the Silver Feet and brought
on the Syndic's Ban. Presumably the Prince saw in the Atlas of the Future
some dire prediction or plan which would bring disaster upon his land of
Loskalm or even the whole of Fronela, and he hoped to forestall this
eventuality by cutting off communication either within Fronela or to the
outside world. We don't know what the disaster is or will be, and we don't
know if the Prince included the breaking of the Ban by Dormal's visitation
in 1582 in his calculations; it is possible that the disaster is still
scheduled to happen anyway.
All the material available on Snodal indicates that he was a person of good
character who would have only brought about the suffering and poverty imposed
by the Ban in order to protect people from something even worse.
> 3) What can anyone out there tell me about the Pharoh or the
City of Wonders?
In one of the old magazines, maybe Different Worlds or Wyrm's
Footnotes, there is a long article about the Pharoah and the Holy Country.
Some material is in the Genertela Box, which you should pick up if possible.
Kethaela used to be ruled by the Only Old One, an immortal troll sired by
Argan Argar (the troll trade deity). He ruled for centuries or more from
the Shadow Plateau, maybe from a place called The Palace of Black Glass. In
any case, he had great magical powers including the ability to command the
land itself while in Kethaela.
A few centuries ago, maybe in 1318 ST, Belintar the Stranger swam ashore.
(Note that this was while the Seas were Closed). In a five-year period he
contested with the Only Old One in a series of seemingly one-sided battles,
e.g., the Only Old One would drop a mountain on Belintar and go home;
eventually Belintar crawled out unharmed. Finally the troll demigod was
exhausted and defeated in a titanic final battle that shattered much of the
Shadow Plateau, creating the ubiquitous and annoying obsidian dust that
still blows off occasionally. Belintar assumed the title of Pharoah and the
rule of Kethaela, now renamed "the Holy Country".
After a time Belintar's body was "used up" and the first Tournament of the
Masters of Luck and Death was held. The winner's soul went on to spriritual
immortality and his body was inhabited by the Pharoah. Periodically the
Pharoah required a new body, and the Masters of Luck and Death would hold
another tournament.
The Pharoah disappeared in 1616, probably due to a subtle attack by Jar-Eel
the Razoress.
The Pharoah could extend a magic bridge from the City of Wonders to any of
the Six Lands of the Holy Country.
> 4) Is the AH Snakepipe Hollow anything like the old version?
I haven't really looked at the new one.
> 5) Are the RQ3 Sorcery rules completely AH or are these the
I don't know; I'm told that these rules originated within Chaosium.
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