Glorantha

Needs more images and probably some more humor, though please don't overdo it

Map

Glorantha is the setting for the Runequest TTRPG. It began in 1966 when Greg Stafford was trying to pull some wiccan chicks into his wargaming group. It is based off of themes found in bronze age myths, rather than from Tolkien's works. And given the fact that Greg was a practicing shaman with a degree in Comparative Religion... Well, it's completely batshit. Younger gamers may recognize its influence on franchises such as Elder Scrolls (e.g, the bullshit insane lore) whose lead writers and designers were huge fans and even co-workers of Greg.

Recently a new, gigantic, lore book titled Guide to Glorantha was released —packing 12 ducking pounds of lore— and covers (practically) everything. Sadly, it's only available now as a PDF file, and unlikely to be reprinted. It did make enough money to keep the setting going with new lore, however. So support Greg's retirement fund... the company he left behind, as Greg passed in 2018 (Rest in Peace you glorious crazy man). Chaosium is now publishing a set of books covering Gloranthan religion with a page count (and cost) set to rival the guide over 10 volumes. As it's made post-Greg it may not be everyone's cup of tea, but so far everything seems to be based on the stuff he left behind with only minor tweaks at most.

Premise

To the north is the continent of Genertela, the usual setting for RuneQuest. Farther north of that is a huge fuckoff glacier and home to ice trolls, ice spirits, and the occasional sea raider. The maelstrom in the middle is a gaping hole to the Universe and is being plugged by shit tons of water. South is the Not-Africa continent, Pamaltela, with its entire south blazing in lakes of fire. Under the map is the Underworld and over the map is the Sun, Orlanth's sky and stars, and the Red Moon. Slightly east are the Not-Japan and Not-Southeast asians of Glorantha. The towers at the utmost east and west are gates to the Underworld, populated by powerful alien races, and from which Yelm enters and leaves to light up the Underground and Aboveground skies in rotation.

While published Glorantha does have a single canon (albeit one that's seen more than a few discoveries over the years), Chaosium's adage of "Your Glorantha will Vary" (YGWV) is an explicit blessing for fans to ignore that and do whatever they please with the setting, whether in their own games or in fan-published materials. Not everything might be true in "official" Glorantha (though a lot of seemingly contradictory things are), but there's probably a Glorantha out there where it is.

The "world" is a cube floating in an endless sea capsuled in a lozenge of sky and stars, that is really the underside of a land of gods and myths. As for the other planets, there are the various moons which seem to do little more than fuck everything up. Fortunately, that doesn't happen often (unless other civilizations or cults get in the way).

Everything that occurs in Glorantha generally has some sentient being or magical force responsible for it. For example, all rivers flow in any particular direction because a god had decided, been forced, or been bribed to be there (as the god and the river are one in the same). The people/elements/plants/ducks/lizardmen that inhabit Glorantha are generally religious zealots or ingrates that are more than willing to be extorted by any local gods that they have the poor fortune to witness. Aside from these Neanderthals there are a number of civilizations that seem to get by okay when they pool their efforts and trade off with the stronger gods.
That is, except for the Lunar Empire, which seems to fuck everyone's shit up by using a mysterious magic known as logical reasoning. Aside from the Lunars, there is also the Orlanthi who follow Orlanth (very original guys) and fought the Lunar Empire in order to get their own videogame and spotlight status. Besides these major players, Glorantha contains more individual peoples and places than can be covered in a single paragraph.

Creation Myth

In simplest terms and in an attempt to reconcile the potentially hundreds of creation myths in the setting (all of which are true), it was said that Glorantha was created when an ouroboric dragon/a pantheistic being/Glorantha herself/a primordial pantheon/the creation rune/the world machine came out of the ether and spat out/shat out/snorted out/breathed out/puked out/willed into being/built everything else. For a while Elves were ascendant because everything was just algae, forests, and prokaryotes, then Yelm the Sun came out and gave Elves flowers; now he rules because they loved flowers so much.

Yelm, the sun, was set up to rule a golden age of peace, prosperity, and stasis. A few years/few millennia/few million years/few days later, a god named Umath chafed at the stagnancy and made war with Yelm and got badly beaten. Umath's mangling was so bad that he straight up blew up and turned into mana. Parts of Umath managed to fuck a mountain and who knows what else, that he begets the Storm Tribe and Orlanth. Someone discovered what Death is and some trickster then tested it on this universe's Adam and/or Eve, turning all their descendants mortal. Orlanth, replacing his dad as king of the Storm Tribe, stole/borrowed/forcefully acquired death then used it on Yelm, killing him and starting the descent of the world into the Great Darkness.

Orlanth, now technically ruler of the world in this new Storm Age, still has to fight threats to his domain in the so-called Godswar. These threats range anywhere between "I think I can manage" (e.g, Yelm's heirs and tribe, rival gods, and foreign ideologies) to "OH FUCK" such as Chaos and trolls. Chaos is all the uncreated stuff left out in the void that seeps in through gaps in the world, especially those large festering ones left by Orlanth's murder of Yelm. Meanwhile, trolls are refugees from the Underworld now unbearably hot and bright from playing host to Yelm's eternal fire of a corpse. This all comes to a head when Orlanth's brother Ragnaglar dramatically expanded Chaos' portfolio by inventing the concept of rape on his wife Thed and his mistress Malia to create the literal Devil who darkened the world, tore out a Mt. Olympus-sized hole into the Warp, sent millions into extinction, and killed a fuckton of gods.

During this Darkness Age, darkness, cold, and chaos were rampant (but they fight and hate each other), and only ended when Orlanth decided to man up and finally accept some responsibility. He and his retinue, Issaries, Lhankor Mhy, Chalana Arroy, Eurmal the Trickster, Flesh Man, and Ginna Jar went through a highly difficult and convoluted quest to the underworld to resurrect Yelm and have him re-light the world. While Orlanth was in the process of making peace with the newly crowned Underworld Emperor Yelm, the Devil attempted to waylay the Quest by the direct route of getting looney toons-style smashed in the face with a Washington Memorial-sized fucking rock all the way down to the Underworld. An all-out raid boss encounter ensues featuring every single god and mortal in Glorantha until Glorantha herself/Ginna Jar/the Universe Itself decided they've had enough and caught the Devil in a web, using him as paper for the legally-binding document called Time.

Yelm was returned to light the world in a day/night-overworld/underworld cycle, and every god of every culture was made to sign the Great Compromise of Time so they can live eternally in a separate, ever-repeating, but constricting Godsplane whilst their mortal constituents live in a free middle plane (ideally) protected from the clutches of Chaos by the fabric of time/an actual dating system and so, history starts from here.

Places (WIP Section)

Genertela, the weirdest north-america sized landmass this side of Talislanta.

Genertela

The most developed of the two continents, both in and out of universe. Genert, the ruling earth deity, was killed by the Devil, leaving a massive scar of a desert and allegedly making unity between the peoples of the continent more difficult.

Fronela

A cold area only just recently recovering from a magical catastrophe called the Syndics Ban, which split the land into little pockets seperated by impassable fog for 40 years. There's no single dominant state, but the most important one is probably the kingdom of Loskalm, a Malkioni colony who used the Syndics Ban and corresponding lack of outside interference to reshape their society into a platonic republic and reasonably nice place to live. Of course it might have been helped by their wizards shunting all the negative emotions off into the horizon, but surely nothing bad could come of it?

Then the walls came down and they found that everything they'd removed from their society had decided to make their own, with blackjack and hookers and oh my god that's Death on a horse. The Kingdom of War is not just a new nation but an entirely new piece of land, filled with marauders and pirates and every single god of war you can think of, and Loskalm is scrambling to rebuild their military to meet the new threat and realizing that their perfect society can't really survive in the real world.

The rest of Fronela is a patchwork of Orlanthi and Hsunchen tribes still trying to rebuild their connections after the Ban. There's still one piece left under the ban that's got everyone worried, since it was the home of a bunch of Storm Bull cultists, and nobody wants to know what 40 years of isolation might have done to their mental state.

Fun fact: Fronela and especially Loskalm were the first place Greg wrote about, and originally were based on the Bay Area, though that's not so apparent now.

Kralorela

Often mocked as just another fantasy china, something the developers unfortunately haven't made any attempt to dispel, Kralorela is another Yelm-worshiping country like Dara Happa, but ruled by the seemingly immortal Dragon Emperors instead of a solar one. The land is basically a subtropical stretch of hills and river valleys, with lots of bamboo forests and rice fields, and almost completely cut off from the rest of Genertela by the Shan Shan Mountains on its west. The nation is incredibly isolationist, only letting foreigners in at two specially designated cities (one for land trade, one for sea trade) following the disaster of the second age when the God Learners basically set up their own east india company here, deposed the emperor, and set up a bunch of fake dragon cultists in his place. Currently it's back under the rule of the emperor Godunya, who was responsible for driving the "new dragon ring" out by creating his own draconic apocalypse, and save for a small incident where Sheng Seleris conquered everything Godunya has been pretty strict about the no foreigners thing. The rest of the government, being fantasy china, is a massive bureaucracy run by the demigod Exarchs and mortal Mandarins, though it also serves as a state cult to funnel magic power up to the exarchs and emperor.

Other interesting groups include the local dragonewt colony which survived the Great Darkness "in strength" by actually doing shit and temporarily taking charge of the east (as opposed to the Dragon Pass colony which "in weakness" decided to ally with the other races), several groups of Hsunchen, largely of the eagle variety, and Chern Durel the Kingdom of Ignorance. Ignorance sits directly above Kralorela and, despite technically being a client state of them, spits in the face of things like enlightenment and light and order, being a nation of troll-ruled human-sacrificing hillbilly Aztecs.

Maniria

The southern coastlands of Genertela, stretching from Seshnela to Prax. After the Closing, it became the most important overland trade route on the continent, and many of the native Orlanthi found themselves under the thumb of Malkioni "Trader Princes". When the seas re-opened its importance has fell off, and the princes are struggling to recover their suddenly vanished fortunes. The easternmost part of Maniria is called Kethaela, the famous Holy Country.

Kethaela

The lands around the Mirrorsea Bay have always had an important place in history, first being ruled by the darkness demigod Only Old One, then by his usurper the living god Belintar. The bay can be divided up into roughly six distinct regions: the Rightarm Islands, an alliance of island dwellers and merfolk; Caladraland, home to a chain of volcanoes, including the massive Vent; Esrolia, ancient home of the Earth Goddesses and seat of earth religion; the Shadow Plateau, one of the most important Troll strongholds on the surface; Heortland, an old Orlanthi stronghold; and God Forgot, home to a people who refuse to worship any god after theirs died in the Gods War.

Dragon Pass

North of Kethaela, where the Rockwood mountains meet in the center of the continent, is Dragon Pass, the only place where you can enter Peloria, Kethaela, or Ralios all from the same place. Besides the obvious value for travel and trade, it's also got some incredibly potent mythic significance, being the nest where the first True Dragons laid their eggs, the seat of Kero Fin the impossibly tall mountain where Orlanth was born, and a central region in many empires and battles. Currently it's split between the kingdoms of Sartar and Tarsh, the former being a wealthy Orlanthi confederation and the latter being a Lunar client state. Other groups include human ducks, beastmen of every variety, native american cowboys, and former Tarshites who decided dinosaurs and human sacrifice were cooler than being ruled by moonies.

Peloria

The continental breadbasket, Peloria is a dry, cool grassland cut through by the massive Oslir River that flows from the Dragonspine ridge to the south to the White Sea in the north. Culturally, northern Peloria is dominated by the Dara Happans and their Solar religion, while the southern highlands are full of Lightbringer-worshiping Orlanthi tribes. For the last few centuries both of these groups, along with the Malkioni-offshoot Carmanians, the primitive heron-worshipers of the Oslir's many marshes, and various bits of Dragon Pass and Pent, have been dominated by the Lunar Empire.

Pent

More or less the Eurasian steppe, it's a large, cool grassland similar to neighboring Peloria, but is less fertile as it lacks a personal grain goddess. A bunch of horse nomads roam here, and occasionally form vast tribal confederations to go beat the shit out of the Pelorians or Kralorelans. There's also a giant hole leading straight to hell and a city full of demons and undead in the far north.

Ralios

One of the largest regions and also the most protected, Ralios is surrounded by impassable mountains on three sides. Nearly every Elder Race has members living here, and the land goddess is respected for sheltering them during the darkness. The lowlands descend into Lake Felster, which is basically a really tiny Mediterranean surrounded by fiercely independent city states filled with mystery cults and sorcerers and Arkati. The highlands around the mountains are, as in nearly everywhere else, full of Orlanthi tribes, though these ones get in on the weirdness by having the Chariot of Lightning sect, a school of sorcery that claims Orlanth is the supreme being and equivalent to the Malkioni's Invisible God. There's also some dragonewts hanging around who are even more batshit insane due to losing their Inhuman King, meaning they're all mortal and extremely distressed about it.

Seshnela

Mostly a large archipelago, thanks to the god learners angering everyone enough for some demigods to come down and crush it with a literal hammer. The far eastern end that survived is one of the big centers of Malkioni culture. Not quite medieval europe, but still very feudal with dukes and barons lording it over their peasants, and wizards in towers and schools arguing philosophy and being dicks to everyone else for worshiping gods.

The Wastes

Formerly Genert's garden until he got nuked by the Devil, now it's a vast desert that cuts the continent almost in two. Only the Praxian animal nomads know how to survive in it, and few people live here long except for unlucky Issaries priests who are cursed by finding a piece of Genert's skin, requiring them to enter the wastes to try and find the rest of his pieces. The westernmost tip of the wastes is Prax, which is the closest place to being pleasant in the whole expanse, though it's still dry, dusty chaparral most of the year. The Zola Fel river that divides Prax and the Waste is home to several settler towns, most notably Pavis, a second age experimental colony that got destroyed by trolls and Praxians and was only recently resettled, the equivalent of a wild west frontier city.

Pamaltela

Africa

Fonrit

A collection of city-states run by a brutal slavocracy, whose primary god is Ompalam, the chaos god of slavery ("evil centralization" as the God Learners put it), and whose philosophy is that everyone is naturally a slave to the person above them, gods included. In the Godtime this land was the home of the Artmali Empire, but after it was destroyed its blue-skinned people were quickly conquered by their neighbors, and they still make up the majority of the slave population. Currently the land is divided among an array of squabbling city-states who can only sometimes be unified into larger alliances, and are themselves constantly divided among hundreds of temples, guilds, merchants, and other groups who constantly fight among themselves. To the south are many tribes of Hsunchen, including tigers, crocodiles, hippos, and bats. The last of these are by far the most numerous and advanced and have managed to forge an empire ruled by the vampire bat clan, even controlling several cities of non-hsunchen.

Umathela

The Orlanthi region of Pamaltela, because even in not!Africa you cannot escape from Orlanth's horde of simps. Umathela is dominated by the elves of Enkloso and Vralos who rule over the humans in a fairly hands-off manner after they killed a lot of Fonritans in the Season Wars, though they do still limit how many trees can be cut down and if agriculture can be practiced. Coasts are dominated by Malkioni following the pacifistic Sedalpist School, who also pay tribute to the local merfolk so they don't sink their ships, whilst the aformentioned Orlanthi live more inland along the rivers.

The Islands

Aside from the continents, other smaller landmasses and archipelagos make up the rest of Glorantha.

Jrusteli Isles

Homeland of the God Learners. Used to be a small continent but much of it sunk to the bottom of the ocean after The Closing. Now largely inhabited by the elder races.

Loral Island

Once home to the Queendom of Loral, at some point between the Closing and the Opening the kingdom fell to ruins and its people disappeared. It is now kaiju central, as giant monsters ranging from just giant animals and insects to a 72-headed, firebreathing hydra dominate the island and ruthlessly crush anyone stupid or unlucky enough to end up here.

Teleos

Island of animistic, technicolor racists. Okay so, the natives of Teleos are separated into six racially-segregated tribes that all loathe each other, and have negative stereotypes about each other obviously. Every sea season the tribes meet at the Child Trade Meeting Ground, as they exchange children of other colors for children of their own color under the supervision of the Dragonewts, because the childs skin color is completely random at birth. If the child happens have the same skin color as both parents, then all those aforementioned stereotypes are true about them, and only them.

Races & Cultures

Human Cultures

Orlanthi: Shows up throughout history as the Vingkotlings, Theyalans, and Heortlings. Can be best described in real-world terms as "greek-celtic-thracians", basically the pre-roman Hispanians, for their olive skin, tattoos, and widely ranging hair and eye colors. You get to play them, erroneously portrayed with northern european features, as the Heortlings in King of Dragon Pass and against them, now faithfully portrayed, as Vingkotling "rams" in Six Ages. The undisputed posterboy culture of the franchise as they're the centerpiece of the most and even the first fluff and that their gods and heroes have had the most effect on Gloranthan history, for better or worse. Is currently, HeroWars era, at a state of war and/or rebellion against the moon. and spiritually led in this endeavor by Argrath who may be one or many. Notable Orlanthi nations are the earthquake-or-moon worshiping Tarshites, your dudes the Sartarites, and the citizens of the Holy Country. Orlanthi men are expected to be fiery, violent, and emotional (manly tears galore) whilst Orlanthi women are expected to be cold, calculating, and stoic. Don't let the friendly viking act get to you as you'll soon find out that the Orlanthi are the most zealous in Glorantha and have brought down entire empires (including both an international accord and their own draconic empire) from the sheer power of religious indignation.

A Dara Happan.

Dara Happans: Sun (Yelm) worshipping, slavekeeping, patriarchal, egyptian-babylonian fusion. They idealize the city life and the idea of the emperor, regardless of his form or claims to power, which makes them the Gloranthan equivalent of the modern-day subordinate urbanite. They look down upon everyone else, which unfortunately includes their rural denizens called the Lodrilli with no regard to the fact that it is thanks to fertility of their region Peloria that they can maintain their sprawling megapyramid cities. It is unclear if Greg meant this as a nuanced jab at contemporary American politics... but then again he probably thought of it while dancing around a bonfire.

Currently ruled as the Lunar Empire by the Red Emperor, demigod son of the Red Goddess (aka the moon), and thus they have subsumed Yelm into a subordinate position.

Hsunchen: Just your run-of-the-mill spiritual animists who, interestingly enough, despite being of widely varying races and geographical distribution possess mutually intelligible if not identical languages. Hsunchen are divided into tribes based around their totem animal. Shamans of some of the tribes return from their heroquests as the opposite sex or permanently afflicted with qualities of their spirit animals while some tribes, such as the wolven Telmori, are literally just were-versions of their totem.

Agimori: Living on the southern continent and widely varied. AKA the black people of glorantha. Draws inspiration from real-life Africa with a diverse and imaginative range of cultures. Between the slavetrading, wealthy Fonritians, to the matriarchal Kresh who roam around the plains on massive arena-sized wagons kept constantly mobile by literal armies of porter slaves, to the Doraddi who are just the stereotypical bush hunter type, but they are TOTALLY COMPLEX, NUANCED, AND NOT ABSOLUTELY RACIST I SWEAR.

Kralorelans: Chinese. Just. Chinese. Led by human emperors who are True Dragons in human bodies and are also the Inhuman King for the local Dragonewts.

Vormain: Japanese. Just. Japanese. But their economy flourishes and depends mostly on piracy. Think Somalian-Wako Pirates.

Malkioni: Fedora-tipping wizards of Glorantha. Are characterized by varying pantheistic/atheistic magocratic caste systems wherein they believe that gods are either mortals who "Tapped" very strongly into the runes and orders that make up the world in search of power (becoming stagnant, impotent, and greedy bastards in the process) or inanimate forces given personalities by their worshipers. Located mostly in the westerly parts of continents. Currently divided into many philosophies and equivalent kingdoms of varying cosmoplitanism and emancipation. Named after Malkion, who can be described as Glorantha's equivalent to a Buddha-Christopher Hitchens lovechild.

Just a good old classic Praxian and his loyal animal companion.

Praxians: Horse-nomads but not really. Instead they are a collection of tribes of the various human races that survived the desertification of Prax, assigned by draw-lot to their own respective warbeast mounts. There are the massive dark-haired and bearded Bison Tribe, the pygmies of the Impala Tribe, the swarthy tibeto-burmese lookin High Llama Tribe, among others, and even the Morokanth tribe wherein the humans lost the draw to the animals and are then farmed as food and companions by giant aardvark "Morokanths" who don't even have opposable thumbs. The Praxian tribes hate Chaos with a passion, as one of their main gods is Storm Bull the Devil-Slayer, known to the Orlanthi as Urox. Married to Storm Bull is the Earth Goddess Eiritha, analogous to the respective cattle goddess of most cultures, and is said to have singlehandedly repopulated Prax by periodically birthing the warbeasts in a cave. Her son Waha the Butcher is the head of the Praxian gods and taught the people how to survive in the wastes, and is also the reason why their culture has remained almost unchanged since the Dawn.

Pentans: Sexual egalitarian dara happan offshoots on horses. Probably descended from the horse riders you play in Six Ages and/or charioteers you play against. They worship Yu-Kargzant (a more horsey version of Yelm) and really don't get along with their Dara Happan neighbors because of it, though recently a lot of them have started worshiping Orlanth (West King Wind) and other non-solar gods to give them an edge against the Lunar Empire. Immensely successful and Gloranthan history is fraught with examples of them curbstomping everyone in a long list of short-lived khaganates. There is even a period in recent history wherein a warlord called Sheng Seleris ravaged Kralorela, conquered the Lunar Empire, at the zenith of its power, and ruled over both in a continent-spanning empire for A CENTURY before being sent to the Underworld by the moon herself. One possible future has them be ruled again by Sheng Seleris after Argrath did a Lightbringer's Quest to resurrect him. Sheng Seleris is so feared that not only did the moon birth a goddess specifically for the purpose of putting him back and keeping him in the underworld, but he also ended up taking over from the moon as the BBEG by subsuming the entire Lunar Empire (emperor, prison goddess, and chaos included)

A Pentan/Grazer

Glorantha is riddled with many other relevant minor cultures such as

Grazers: Exclave of Pentans in Dragon Pass. Were practically the reason why the horse is anathema to Prax during their violent passage through the region. Now mainly concerned with keeping Dragon Pass healthy with rulers of Sartar and Tarsh having to win their incumbent queen's hand to be declared King of Dragon Pass.

Votanki/Balazarings: Dog lovers. Just. Dog lovers. They have mastered dog lore to the point that they can even breed and foster absolutely massive dogs (think Clifford the Big Red Dog) on the regular. Worships Votank and of course, you've guessed it, his companion Brother Dog. Besides their tribal hearths, the region is dotted with three citadels dedicated to Yelmalio, Yelm's son, and are ruled by Balazaring kings basically representing what little civilization there is in the infertile shithole that is Votankiland. Named after Balazar, a Pentan adventurer who tried using the primitive Votanki in an attempt to form his very own kingdom. This dream however is set back by mainly three facts: 1.) The fact that the land is, as aforementioned, an infertile shithole, 2.) The fact that the Votanki are half-brained dog men who can barely register that they are called "Balazarings" now, and 3.) The fact that Balazar got barbecued by dragons along with the rest of the True Golden Horde.

Jrusteli: mainly known as the origin of the God Learner philosophy. God Learners were the munchkins of Glorantha who were cynically collating the world into useful data and minmaxing. They became so good at Powergaming that they've managed to do some funny things such as but not limited to predicting future events such as the HeroWars, building yet ANOTHER artificial god, swapping the earth goddesses of the Orlanthi and the Dara Happans for a while, and making the world rage so hard that it perceptibly moaned and groaned and shook to destroy their thalassocratic empire, their home continent, ocean travel in general, and all trade and communications in the westerly parts of the main continent. Imagine the Atlanteans as an entire society of grasping nerds and you get the God Learners.

Artmali: Blue-skinned people that came to Pamaltela from the Blue Moon. Had a big empire in there during the Storm Age that prospered due to their ability to manipulate tides, before being corrupted by chaos. Pamalt burned it down along with the many chaos creatures and gods. What remains of them are the tribal Veldang who worship their crippled gods and nature spirits, and the Blueskin slaves of Fonrit. Another group called the Zaranistangi went and ruled the lands of Teshnos for a time before getting curbstomped out of existence by the God Learners.

Elder Races

Aldryami: These elves, as opposed to Tolkien's elves, are literal walking talking trees. Created by their goddess Aldrya to assist in her quest to preserve and propagate plant life, these elves are divided into many subtypes depending on their pet tree types. Elves who take care of oaks are the Brown Elves who are typically large and very ent-like. Elves who take care of tropical trees are the small Yellow Elves who inhabit the Vietnam(s) of Glorantha. Elves who take care of pines and evergreens are the Green Elves who Aldrya deliberately made to look like very attractive humans for very worthy reasons. DO NOT attempt to sleep with a Green Elf. Symptoms of elf-borne STD include but are not limited to: skin discoloration, itchiness, halitosis, death, rashes, miscegenation, de-pigmentation, allergies, and (in rare cases) apotheosis.

Mostali: Dwarves but not exactly. Made as servitors and maintainers of Mostal, the world-machine, and are divided into many subtypes based on what kind of kiln they were forged in and what they're supposed to do. Rock dwarves are stonemasons, gold dwarves run logistics, and so on. Mind you, actual non-fleshy dwarves are severely endangered and are now limited to about a couple of dozen individuals who have been mostly elevated to the ruling class. To save their race during the Darkness, most dwarves are now formed of the relatively more malleable and widely available material called Clay (aka flesh) and thus have to commit the business presumably right in the very kilns used to smith their predecessors (imagine the smelle). Currently engaged in "maintaining" and repairing Mostal to the point of thinking that everything that has happened was directly the result because of their or someone else's upkeep or breaking of the world-machine. They believe the world would return to glorious stasis, with Mostali ascendant over the rogue gods and lesser races, once they finish repairing Mostal.

Uz: The Trolls. Grey ungulate-looking motherfuckers ranging from 7 to 10 ft permanently exiled from their beautiful Underworld paradise by the brightness of Yelm into the Middleworld proper that they call the "Hurtplace". Can eat absolutely anything with preference for elves, as they're a delicacy, ducks, as they taste the best, and dwarves, as they are hallucinogenic, putting them at odds with all three of these races. For a variety of reasons, despises Chaos. Trolls are often seen joining coalitions, including those with the aforementioned races, in wars against Chaos or those that carry a tinge of it. One of these coalitions is the now defunct World Council of Friends which was composed of nations who survived the Darkness. In a characteristic manner, Trollkind left the council in protest when it decided to build an artificial god, Nysalor/Gbaji, who subsequently cursed their race and goddess to have 50% chance to birth litters of Trollkin, instead of a full troll. Trollkin are short, stupid, and stunted trolls that they just use as food, slaves, and cannon fodder, thereby weakening the once mighty race. Is a matriarchal society and a matriarch's rank based on the number of non-trollkin births. Worship mainly Kyger Litor the matriarchal goddess of Darkness, Zorak Zoran the male troll god of violence, and even the troll trader god Argan Argar. Yes, even the all-devouring monster race participates in Glorantha's market... but usually to buy cows.

Trolls are also noted to be extremely adaptive, as reflected in their mythical adaptation to the Aboveworld. There are the Ice Trolls of the Glacier and the gilled Sea Trolls of the oceans who are currently working in conjunction to break off a part of the Glacier to flood the rest of the world for some mysterious reason. How are they doing this? By slowly eating through the ice on both the top and bottom ends. Yeah....

Tusk Riders: The Orcs of Glorantha. The Tusk Riders are a race of boar-riding Half-Human, Half-Trolls, who go around raiding everyone they come across and hire themselves out as mercenaries. Fun fact, the Citadel Red Goblins models were originally used for Tusk Riders.

Yes, those are wasp nests.

Dragonewts: Absolute weirdos who just do what they want. They are the larval forms of true dragons who for some reason take way too long to metamorphose. They ascertain that every action they commit contributes toward the long path of True Dragonhood, not simply for themselves but for the world as a whole, around which they form an entire ethos. Though this is mostly used to justify their absolute batshit actions. Balance a pine cone on your head? True Dragonhood. Cull the entire human portion of your empire? True Dragonhood.

Each nest is ruled by an Inhuman King, a True Dragon in dragonewt form ostensibly to shepherd the lagging dragonnewts to True Dragonhood like his own. Under the Inhuman King's presence, a dragonnewt can be reborn in their original eggs when killed, rendering them effectively immortal. Just like the Dragonnewts themselves, their interactions with the world at large tend to end at weal or woe. Primary among these is when they introduced dragonlore to the humans of Dragon Pass and helped formed an advanced civilization called the Empire of Wyrms Friends (EWF). However, their human partners let the power and paranoia get to their heads which steered the EWF off the path of True Dragonhood. This culminated in the Dragonkill wherein a fuckton of dragons came out of nowhere and ate every human in Dragon Pass, including the unfortunate army of would-be-heroes who came to destroy the corrupt EWF. In the current age, Dragonnewts are mostly just there for heroes to prove themselves to. The King of Dragon Pass is traditionally crowned by the local nest's Inhuman King, and Argrath had to bullshit them to conduct yet another, but more controlled, Dragonkill.

Also, Dragonnewts who fail to take control of their desires and emotions devolve into and are the ancestors of the dinosaurs of Glorantha. Yes. Glorantha features dinosaurs.

Even the characters are starting to think that walking, talking, fucking ducks are simply too ridiculous for a fantasy setting.

Durulz and the Beast Men: Includes minotaurs, centaurs, satyrs, and the famous talking walking ducks with arms. Whilst the disney knockoff Durulz are, amazingly, an actual natural species in Glorantha; the other Beast Men are the results of late-stage EWF experimentation to recreate long-extinct godtime races. Mostly located in the Beast Valley in Dragon Pass and are typically Orlanthi, mainly of the hardcore undead-hating Humakti variant due to their proximity to a marsh of undead, in culture and religion. Lead by the centaur demigod Ironhoof and swears fealty to the King of Dragon Pass whenever there is one.

Chaos: They are composed of beings ranging from broos, who can impregnate inanimate objects, to Ogres, a race of shapeshifting Chaos-tainted humans who look normal until they open their mouths to reveal rows of jagged teeth to devour humans in cannibalistic murders, to Walktapus which are big naked humans with an octopus for a head, to vampires and undead, to simple amorphous giant blobs of chaos. Hated by almost everyone except the Red Goddess and her Lunar Empire, whose philosophy of Illumination argues that they are an essential part of the world. They exist on the rightful basis of kill-on-sight. Chaos as a state thrives on and is spawned by acts committed against the natural order. Notable examples of chaos-creating activities are kinslaying, failing HeroQuests with traditional chaotic villains, and rebelling against a rightful emperor.

Triolini: Bikini Bottom in Glorantha. Composed of warring subtypes such as the Ludoch, who are dolphin-folk, and Ysabbau, who are Gloranthan deep ones, among others. The Triolini subtypes are grouped into two main groups based on respective ancestral nymphs who got coupled to their ancestral storm gods. Triolini descending from nymphs who were taken consensually are grouped into the Cetoi who are friendly to men, while the Triolini descending from nymphs who were raped are the Piscoi who would drag you screaming down a trench. Due to their mixed heritage, most of the Triolini have to surface to breathe with the sole exception of the Gnydron. The Gnydron are the rare and kaiju-sized Triolini, descended from a nymph who not only fought off her storm god but turned the situation around and impregnated him herself with her own hermaphroditic mating organs.

Wind Children: Winged humans descending from sylphs and humans that lived during the Godtime. Largely just hang in their mountain top and cliff face aeries, flying their days away hunting and contemplating. Dislike elves because their trees used to take away their open spaces in Godtime, and griffins because they compete for the same enviromental spaces. Also complete wusses when it comes to alcohol, getting drunk from just a couple drops.

Digestible History

In the Dawn Age, after the sun came back to the sky, the races of the world formed a United Nations of sorts based on their shared experience surviving Chaos. As expected, this council ends up failing when they decided to build a blasphemous artificial god to signify their newfound mastery of the world. Trolls (because the new god smells of Chaos), most Orlanthi (because of course they're iconoclastic zealots), and the Dragonnewts (just because) politely disagreed with this course of action and started a revolt against the global government in a plot straight out of a schizophrenic rage comic.

This god was called Nysalor, later called Gbaji, who defeated Kyger Litor and cursed her children. Gbaji first met serious opposition in the heroquester Arkat, of the foreign and anti-theistic Malkioni subsect of Brithini, in the so-called Gbaji Wars. Unfortunately Arkat got killed but was resurrected through Lightbringers Quest by Harmast Barefoot, who is a descendant of your Riders in Six Ages. Arkat was then reborn as a transracial Orlanthi initiate into the cult of Humakt, the storm god of Death.

In consolidating powers against Gbaji, Arkat made a shitton of successful forays into Heroquesting that he's managed to map the Godsplane comprehensively and has brought back an impressive amount of allies and treasures to bring to bear. Arkat also learned that Heroquests of all kinds are all true and can exist in mutualism, causing him to join the trolls to not only attempt but also fabulously succeed in their own Heroquests. Arkat became the first and only male and human to be recognized as the leader of global trollkind, pissing off Harmast and the pharisees of the Orlanthi who then disavowed him for being a trollboo. The final battle between Gbaji and Arkat ended with Gbaji's permadeath and the cursing of his homebase, Dorastor, into a land of rampant Chaos and broos with enclaves of stubborn Orlanthi and Telmori.

After Arkat died, people from Jrusteli landed on Malkioni shores with the God Learner philosophy that they then used to great effect, ruling West Genertela and every coastline in the world in an Empire of Land and Sea. At the same time, people from Dragon Pass decided that dragons are cool and formed the "EWF", genuinely a word in draconic language that everyone just decided to turn into acronym for Ëmpire of Wyrm Friends so it sounds less stupid (it did not work). This period that followed the Dawn Age was henceforth known as the Imperial Age, with Glorantha now home to superpower nations.

The God Learners added to their own knowledge by conquering Arkat's Autarchy and stealing his discoveries. The unstoppable force however met its match in the immovable object when the God Learners encountered the EWF, with neither being able to gain the advantage over the other which left them stuck in a state of cold war to protect and steal secrets even up until their own demises.

Both empires did however share a mutual burden of being overlords to their respective populations of, as ever, midwit fanatical Orlanthi. The Orlanthi violently opposed both the blasphemy of the God Learners and the alien dragon-worship of EWF. In the side of the EWF, their rulers got so so desperate to quash the Orlanthi rebellions, led by the aptly named Alakoring Dragonbreaker, that they have fallen off the path of True Dragonhood in the process, causing the dragonewts to abandon the EWF. The EWF, along with the hapless True Golden Horde of various kingdoms sent to vanquish it, was then crushed and digested by an inexplicable swarm of dragons, with the smallest being the size of an arena, suddenly appearing out of nowhere in a sacrifice-buffet massacre called the Dragonkill.

Meanwhile, the God Learners continued to violate the natural order, even creating yet another artificial god that Orlanth himself and the rest of the world banded together to turn into scrapmetal. This all ends with Glorantha, moving to expel the God Learners with an event called the Closing. The Closing was an invisible force that causes shipwrecks, thereby preventing sea-travel of any kind. The Closing also came with a bonus of an initial wave of massive tsunamis and storms that turned West Genertela, the Malkionist homelands, into a collection of large archipelagos. Simultaneously, certain portions of the west were blocked off from the rest of the world by walls of impassable mist called the Syndics Ban.

Now in the Third Age. with the God Learners destroyed, sea-travel impossible, the EWF consumed, and Dragon Pass blocked off with a cautionary warding spell, a man named Belintar somehow amazingly managed to emerge from who-knows-where swimming towards the shores of Kethaela, the Orlanthi heartland of the continent's south. Belintar then conquered Kethaela and formed the Holy Country with himself dubbed as Pharaoh and as a God-King figure syncretized into all the religions within his domain, forcing the most uncompromisingly orthodox of Orlanthi to cross the northern threshold to Dragon Pass which by then had been blocked off to humans for centuries.

At the same time, a woman in Dara Happa apotheosized as the Red Goddess, became the moon, took up space and squatted in Orlanth's plane in the sky, and the Lunar Empire was born. A few decades later, a Pentan warlord called Sheng Seleris conquered both the Lunar Empire and the not-China, Kralorela, into what could possibly be the largest contiguous land-based empire in Gloranthan history. This lasted about a century until Sheng got slain by a Pentan-hating goddess, birthed specifically to keep him dead, with the aid of not-china magic.

With the opening of Dragon Pass, the people of the continent were no longer isolated from each other. Sartar conquered Dragon Pass and married the Grazer Feathered Horse Queen to become its king, building a powerful Orlanthi nation in control of the central trade node and holy site of the continent. Whilst the Prince of Sartar is typically the King of Dragon Pass, the ruler of Tarsh may sometimes prove a great contender.

A new period was started when the Pharaoh successfully bypassed the Closing with his son Dormal, who invented the method for doing so, such that Dormal apotheosized as the patron god of sea trade and general bypassing of bullshit magical barriers. Eventually, the Closing was rendered null and the Syndics Ban was are being slowly overturned with one lost region rejoining the world every few decades, centuries, or so.

Some time later Tarsh was annexed by the Lunar Empire and Sartar was conquered using treachery. The Pharaoh was then assassinated by the Lunars and magically prevented from his routine reincarnation. Surprisingly, all the par-on-course Orlanthi revolts were successfully put down, including one led by the accomplished Sartar-descended warrior-queen and heroquester Kallyr Starbrow.

With Tarsh as a client to the Lunars, Sartar ruled by a lunar puppet, the Pharaoh missing and his Holy Country besieged, the major Orlanthi nations were left weak, leaderless, subjugated, and Orlanth effectively dead. The Lunars were on the brink of victory, having captured the last Orlanthi holdout of Whitewall in Kethaela, and were getting set to magically subjugate Sartar with the construction of a Reaching Moon Temple, until Kallyr suddenly appeared again and summoned a motherfucking true dragon underneath the foundations that ate almost all the lunar priests and their army. As of 1625, the starting campaign year of Runequest, Kallyr has been named Prince but is struggling to enforce her rule, while a suspiciously plot armored warlord named Argrath Dragontooth has begun stirring things up in Pavis after kicking all their Lunars out. Thus, the Hero Age begins.

Elsewhere, the last nations who have formed their own microcosms during the centuries of the Ban are stepping out into the world. A historically peaceful nation emerges from the mists as the Kingdom of War, ruled by the demigod Lord-Death-on-a-Horse, and is set to conquer the west as a sign of their worship to all (and I mean ALL) the war gods of Glorantha. Only neighboring Loskalm stands a chance, now weak from centuries behind the Ban in peace as a platonic republic.

Bad news for the chaos-tolerating Lunars, the last land still behind the Ban and closest to them is populated by a nation of insane chaos-hating Uroxi berserkers just waiting to be unleashed into their vulnerable backside. The Hero Wars culminate in the Red Moon crashing to the face of Glorantha to vague and dubious results.

The history of the Hero Wars is actually documented in-universe in the future Harshax age by none other but a guy with a canonically friendly name of Greg Stafford. This history is also described multiple times in-universe to be unreliable and has set the precedent for the setting and those that draw inspiration from it to be the most obtuse and opaque in all of fiction, causing frustration for players, theorycrafters, and wiki editors alike. Later books like the Guide and Prosopaedia are written from an omniscient author's perspective, but as those don't cover anything after 1625 the unreliable narrator is still going strong into the canonical Hero Wars (or until we get the Great Argrath Campaign). Believe it or not, this article was actually written as a badly needed quick rundown.

Important Deities

I've divided the gods here roughly by pantheon, most of which are named for the dominant element though not all gods in the pantheon may have it. Realistically there's a lot of overlap between them, and mortals will usually worship gods from several pantheons, but it's a decent grouping of who's related to/closely allied to who. To shortly explain them:

• The Lightbringers are the seven gods who went on the Lightbringers Quest to restore order to the world during the Great Darkness, culminating in the birth of time and resurrection of Yelm. They're the most widespread group of gods thanks to their worshipers immediately after the dawn going out and converting a whole bunch of people to their cults, something that only the Red Goddess really tries to do anymore.
• The Solar Pantheon is Yelm's family and a immediate servants.
• The Air Pantheon is Orlanth's family and allies, minus Ernalda's family and the other Lightbringers, though they're often all combined.
• The Earth Pantheon is Ernalda's family.
• The Sea Pantheon is the gods of water and the sea, who are mostly inscrutable to humans.
• The Darkness Pantheon is the primordial gods of Darkness and the Trolls.
• The Lunar Pantheon is all the new gods who've ascended within time thanks to the Red Goddess.
• The Chaos Pantheon is all the gods of Chaos who invaded the world during the Gods War.
• The Independent Deities are those gods that don't really fit in any of the other categories, whether by choice or by nature.

The Lightbringers

• Orlanth, the Storm King: Appellations include "Lightbringer", "Lawbringer", "Victorious", and "Ramping, Stamping, Petulant Troglodyte". A real irresponsible fellow who killed the sun, thus creating an entire epoch lighted purely by his sparkly thunderous ego called the Storm Age. He does get his shit together though, and eventually selflessly restores the world. His myths are constantly portrayed as most credible as attributed to his power, the fanaticism and global spread of his smoothbrained namesake worshipers, and by the fact that he's the franchise's golden boy. Air, Movement, Mastery.
• Chalana Arroy the Healer: THE healer goddess and one of the Seven Lightbringers. Her initiates swear oaths of nonviolence and in return are safe from nearly anyone except Trolls and Chaos. Harmony, Fertility.
• Eurmal, the Trickster: A massive dickwad who indirectly started and actively encouraged the gods war, though he ended up becoming one of the Seven Lightbringers. Every single trickster myth from our own world might be attributed to him as well. His followers are almost universally reviled but are used for certain "sacred clown" roles and as scapegoats whenever anything goes wrong. Illusion, Disorder.
• Issaries, the Speaking God: Mr. Moneybags, diplomat and trader extraordinaire, and one of the Seven Lightbringers. You can't spit in a marketplace without hitting one of his statues, and several noble Malkioni claim descent from him so they can worship him in a humanist-approved fashion and get in on the game. Movement, Harmony.
• Lhankor Mhy, the Knowing God: Our spiritual liege. On an eternal quest for knowledge, which he jealously guards, and keeper of the cosmic laws. His worshipers are required by cult law to look and act as much like neckbeards as possible. Truth, Stasis.
• Flesh Man, the Mortal Man: An unlucky bastard who was driven mad by Death, after seeing the deaths of Grandfather Mortal and Yelm, and visions of the whole world dying. Guided the other Lightbringers into the Underworld and helped make the Great Compromise. Man.
• Ginna Jar: The only member of the Lightbringers that isn't openly worshipped. Generally agreed to be the ghost of Glorantha, the Great Goddess of the Cosmos, who eventually became Arachne Solara.

Solar Pantheon

• Yelm, the Imperial Sun: Is the literal sun and the inventor of either enlightened absolute monarchy or tyranny. Depends really on whether or not you're an Orlanthi. Portfolio is expectedly fire, light, imperialism, and photosynthesis. Life flows from this guy so do NOT kill him. As the setting is big on aspects, avatars, body doubles, and general stand-ins; there are a lot of other gods that have been associated with the sun, though by the third age centuries of syncretism have merged most of them into Yelm. Those that haven't been have been relegated to other celestial bodies and passed off as his sons. Fire, Fertility, Death.
• Dayzatar, Sky God: Yelm's lazy older brother who claims he's to busy to do anything and besides it wouldn't be proper for him to do so anyways. His monks are a bunch of old dudes who spend their days staring at the sky until they go blind. Light, Truth.
• Dendara: Definitely not just Ernalda again, we swear. Even the God Learners couldn't make them admit it. After Ernalda ran off with Orlanth, Dendara became Yelm's loyal wife and the model for proper Dara Happan women. Earth, Fertility, Harmony, Light.
• Gorgoma, Keeper of Secrets: Dendara's sister, the "goddess of two mouths". Nobody in the celestial palace likes her because of her incredible ugliness, but Dendara lets her in to play chess every evening, and Gorgoma defends her sister whenever she's threatened. Earth, Death, Moon.
• Lodril, the Volcano God: Yelm's relaxed younger brother who decided sky life was too dull and plunged deep into the earth, filling it with fire. He's the idealized peasant, a hardworking family man and lover of food, drink, and good times. He also has the power to create new volcanoes and stir up entire nations in rebellion, which is a great encouragement to deal with the peasants fairly. Fire, Fertility, Disorder.
• Lokarnos, the Wagon God: A faithful courier of goods and coins, not a merchant but a trader and distributor. His cult is also usually in charge of minting coins, so they have a lot of economic power despite their specialized nature. Light, Movement.
• The Lowfires: Typically the trio of Oakfed the Wildfire/Campfire, Gustbran the Blacksmith, and Mahome the Hearth; Lodril's three most popular kids. Fire, Man.
• Ourania, Mistress of Heaven: Presumably does Dayzatar's laundry and other sorts of heavenly chores, but besides that little is known. Light, Harmony.
• Polaris, the Pole Star: God of war, dance, and generalship, he knows how to fight a war in style. May not have invented the Phalanx like Yelmalio, but he mastered it, and armies under the command of Polaris priests are some of the finest on Glorantha. Light, Harmony, Stasis.
• Shargash, the Destroyer: The Ares to Polestar's Athena. Either an underworld demon or a rogue planet who lives in a city that's literally hell on earth. Although he is a son of Yelm, everyone is afraid of him for very good reasons. Achievments include being the guy who turned Umath into ether and being surprisingly popular with goddesses. Myths of Shargash mainly end with him either being henpecked by a goddess or adding a new romantic conquest. Has a longstanding feud with Oslira and a local heron goddess after he cheated on them (and others), and by feud we mean "constant state of coldwar that occasionally goes very, very hot". Fire, Disorder, Death.
• Yelmalio, the Bright God: Is the son/immortal portion/light of Yelm, who's arguably more worshiped than his father despite his lack of power because he spent the gods war being an Adventurer and helping people fight the forces of Darkness under various names like Antirius (emperor of Dara Happa after Yelm), Elmal (enemy-turned-ally of Orlanth), and Kargzant (horse-rider and archer extraordinaire). His worship is spread throughout the world not in the manner of sprawling empires but in the form of fortified mosques "Sun Dome Temples". Around these temples, communities form and armies of mercenary Phalanxes are trained. Despite being rather lacking in magical power, a result of Zorak Zoran robbing him of his fire at the Hill of Gold, his cult is surprisingly resilient due to the fact that it's a way to worship the sun without tying yourself to Yelm or getting on Orlanth's bad side. Light, Truth.
  • Is the subject of a lot of skub as Greg eventually invented an Orlanthi sun god named Elmal to explain how they did sun worship before meeting the Dara Happans, and described how his cult eventually was usurped by the more powerful Yelm cult. The Elmal cult was then recreated by the Orlanthi south of post-dragonkill Dragon Pass, and this caused a lot more problems when they went north and again encountered Yelm worship, culminating in Elmali-turned-Yelmites murdering the prince of Sartar. A bloke named Monrogh decided to try and fix the problem and with a lot of heroquesting revealed that Elmal was another name for Yelmalio, a god independent of both Yelm and Orlanth who wouldn't cause strife with either cult. He then got permission from the new prince to lead his new Yelmalians to drive out a troll infestation around an abandoned sun dome temple, which they then claimed as an independent state from Sartar. Elmal was added as a playable cult in the Hero Wars RPG, despite having been Yelmalio-ized by then in the timeline, and continued as a rival to Yelmalio (even getting fire magic back because people couldn't bear the thought of the Orlanthi not having something special) until the new edition of Runequest came out, where Greg re-merged him into Yelmalio. Greg died shortly afterwards, so now it's often debated if he really wanted it that way, or if it was even a good idea.
  • Also as a note, Yelmalio is probably the most diverse god in the standard Dragon Pass area in the setting when it comes to cults. See, he’s not just Elmal, he’s also the main god of the Pentan horse nomads (Kargzant), the little sun in the night sky that follows Yelm’s path (Lightfore), the sworn protector of the Emperor of Dara Happa (Antirius), and a cultural hero (Khelmal). This is a very diverse set of cults, several of which don’t think the other is even worshiping the same god. They might share some core rune magic, but otherwise they’re very different in the skills they focus on and spins on their mythology. He’s a very complex figure that has a habit of his cults surviving despite all the odds again and again, fitting to his myth of being the last light in the darkness across all these cults.

A reasonable message from the elmali side of the debate.

• Yelnora, the Starbringer: Yelmalio's sister who also went on adventures during the Gods War but didn't end up becoming as popular. A goddess of unicorns and women warriors, her most famous worshipers are the "unicorn tribe" of Prax. Fire, Death.

Air Pantheon

• Barntar, the Plow God: Orlanth and Ernalda's son, who gave the Orlanthi plows that worked better than just sticks and then lashed Storm Bull to it for a laugh. His cult is usually integrated into his father's, but when the Lunars suppressed Orlanth his son became a refuge for many Orlanthi. Air, Earth, Movement.
• Gagarth, the Wild Hunter: A bandit, thief, murderer, and general not-nice fellow, he's what Dara Happans think Orlanth is (and they're right). Leads Glorantha's version of the wild hunt along with his pack of hellhounds. Air, Disorder, Death.
• Heler, the Rain God: Invaded the sky with the other sea gods but later descended to earth and made friends with Orlanth, becoming his loyal shield thane and friend (and occasional lover). Changes sex often, even compared to other water gods, and his worshipers often do too. Air, Water, Movement.
• Kolat, Father of Winds: Father of air elementals and Orlanth's brother who got shattered by his enemies, so Orlanth put a piece of him in every living being, becoming their breath and breathing. Air, Spirit.
• Mastakos, the God of Movement: Orlanth's charioteer, who he won from Magasta in a quest for knowledge. Very rarely worshiped on his own. Movement
• Odayla, the Sky Bear: Another son of Orlanth. Originally a god of hunters, he chased a single bear for the entire Gods War until realizing that no, he was bears, and became a bear god as well. In some less developed Orlanthi areas he becomes the primary cultural god. Air, Beast.
• Storm Bull, the Chaos Killer: Orlanth's brother. Singlehandedly stopped the Devil in Prax until a chunk of the Spike landed on the bastard's head and sent him to the underworld to become spider food. As Eiritha's husband he fathered many of the Praxian tribes and a few other groups that would go on to beat the shit out of the Dara Happans and become the Bull Shahs of Carmania. Air, Death, Beast.
• Valind, the God of Winter: Orlanth's nephew. Values strength over anything else and espouses a survival of the fittest attitude. His dad, Vadrus, was the original god of winter, but he got eaten by the Devil so now it's hard to remember much more than his name. Lives on a massive glacier in the northwest and is also worshiped by trolls adapted for arctic life. Air, Darkness.
• Vinga, the Warrior Goddess: Orlanth with boobs. Is either his daughter or his female incarnation. Air, Movement, Mastery.
• Waha, the Butcher: Storm Bull's son and the de facto male god for the Praxians, he taught them how to survive in the wastes by using all of their resources and established the survival covenant between man and beasts, where the beasts would live off the land and the men would live off the beasts. Outside of Prax people don't care about him except as a patron of butchery. Man, Death.
• Ygg, the Roaring God: Basically the god of vikings, he's the god of winter storms and raiding. His only worshipers nowadays are the wolf pirates, but they alone give him a place on this list. Air, Movement, Death.
• Yinkin, the Cat God: Orlanth's half-brother. The god of cats, specifically Alynxes, which are massive dog-sized wildcats often used in lieu of dogs by the Orlanthi. Was reportedly a great charmer, so many dynasties trace their line back to him. Air, Beast, Shadow.

Earth Pantheon

• Ernalda, the Earth Mother: Orlanth's wife and following the aforementioned multiple aspects thing, is practically everyone's. May or may not be the many other earth goddesses, who are mostly her own mothers, sisters, and daughters. Every earth priestess of every culture will agree that their version of Ernalda has many husbands, but will claim that their culture's primary god is her favorite. It is actually only generally accepted that Orlanth is her greatest husbando-protector because the greatest earth-worshipping nation is located in Orlanthi homelands. Earth, Fertility, Harmony.
• Aldrya, Goddess of the Woods: Ernalda's daughter and the goddess of forests and most things greenery that aren't grains. The elves are her children and are named after her as the Aldryami. Mortals who get to bone her straight up descend into godhood as it's just that good. Earth, Plant, Fertility.
• Asrelia, Goddess of Wealth: Ernalda's rich, doting mother (or just an aged Ernalda), the kind of grandmother that makes you gain ten pounds whenever you go to visit. While her cult isn't large, it wields inordinate power as they're the ones who manage the funds of most major earth temples, and are in charge of mines (as Asrelia owns all the riches beneath the earth). Earth, Fertility, Luck.
• Babeester Gor, the Avenging Daughter: Tore her way out of her mother Ernalda's corpse to get back at her killers. Her priests serve as guards for most major earth temples and are experts at tracking and butchering oathbreakers. Earth, Death.
• Caladra and Aurelion, the Volcano Twins: Though their modern cult is a God Learner invention, Caladra and Aurelion were brother and sister gods who became separated in the Gods War. Rejoined, they serve as a less destructive alternative to Lodril for people living near volcanoes. Oddly for Glorantha, Caladra, the sister, is a martial fire god while Aurelion, the brother, is an agricultural earth god, switching the normal gender roles. Fire, Earth, Fertility, Harmony.
• Eiritha, the Herd Mother: The mother of everything with hooves except for horses (long story), Eiritha is most important in Prax as they rely on animals more than the earth for sustenance. Also her body is literally just lying there, and depending on how you look at it can resemble at least three difference innuendoes. Earth, Fertility, Beast.
• Flamal, the Father of Seeds: A massive tree that went on to create every other type of flora with the help of Aldrya and Yelm. Some early versions of what would become the Lightbringers Quest myth had him be the main goal instead of Yelm or Ernalda. Plant, Fertility.
• Genert: An earth god and the namesake of the setting's most documented (aka has the most Orlanthi) continent, Genertela. Once bossed over his landmass from his garden until the Devil straight up turned him into sludge and made his garden into the semi-arid veldt called Prax, home of the Praxian beastlords. Earth, Mastery.
• The Grain Goddesses: Ernalda's daughters/sisters/other names, each grain goddess is responsible not only for a particular grain but also for managing her own portion of the earth. Some of them are complete pushovers like Pelora and Esrola, while others like Seshna Likita go on to found dynasties and devour evil kings. Earth, Fertility, Plant.
  • Frona: Goddess of Fronela and source of rye.
  • Kralora: Also called Miyo, the goddess of Kralorela and source of white, brown, and blue rice.
  • Esrola: Goddess of Maniria and source of einkorn wheat. The closest to Ernalda since the heart of Earth power is in Esrolia.
  • Pelora: Goddess of Peloria and source of barley. Sometimes split into Pela, goddess of barley, and Oria, goddess of the land.
  • Everina: Not the goddess of but lives in Peloria, source of red rice.
  • Hon-Eel: Another Pelorian, and technically a Lunar new goddess, who brought maize to the empire. Maize can only be grown with human sacrifice.
  • Ralia: Goddess of Ralios and source of spelt wheat.
  • Seshna: Seshna Likita, goddess of Seshnela and source of oat. Married an early Malkioni King after his son murdered her daughter and created the short-lived but powerful line of Serpent Kings. Most of her land was destroyed at the end of the second age.
  • Slonta: Goddess of Slontos and source of millet. Sacrificed most of her land to as revenge on the God Learners for the Goddess Switch.
  • Teshna: Goddess of Teshnos and source of black rice.
  • Ernamola: Goddess of Fonrit and source of sorghum.
  • Nomiama: Goddess of Jolar and source of bloodbean.
  • Sedaia: Goddess of Kothar and source of langiappe.
  • Curu: Goddess of Tarien and source of squash.
  • Vrala: Goddess of Vralos and source of peas.
  • Mwara: Goddess of Zamokil and source of sweetgrass.
• Kero Fin, the Mountain Mother: Goddess of Kerofinela, better known as Dragon Pass, source of emmer, and mother of Orlanth. Lives in Kero Fin, the tallest mountain in the world, that stretches 12 kilometers high and looks like a giant needle. She, and by extension her high priestess the Feathered Horse Queen, gets to decide who has the right to rule Dragon Pass. Earth, Fertility.
• Maran Gor, the Earthshaker: Ernalda's sister and the mother of dinosaurs. Traded her fertility powers for strength during the gods war, becoming a goddess of dancing and earthquakes. Earth, Disorder.
• Pamalt, Earth-King of Pamaltela: An earth god and the namesake of the setting's not-africa, Pamaltela. Is uniquely not only a male earth god, but also head of the pantheon worshipped by the not-africans of Glorantha with his power levels reflecting this status. Unlike his brother Genert, has managed to defend himself from chaos by doing literal scorched earth tactics of him turning the entire southernmost latitude of his continent into lakes of fire. Earth, Man, Power.
• Ty Kora Tek, Goddess of the Dead: Asrelia's sister, she's the grandmother you don't like to visit who always nags you about how you should be better and how you're going to die alone and so on. She's in charge of the caverns of the dead where earth worshipers go to wait in total silence until they get reborn, and her worshipers provide funerary services, including operating a massive necropolis in Esrolia. Earth, Death, Fate.
• Voria, the Spring Virgin: Ernalda's daughter born just after the Dawn, untouched by the Gods War. She represents purity and innocence, and her only worshipers are sacred young girls who spend their lives in idyllic seclusion until coming of age. Earth, Fertility.

Sea Pantheon

• Magasta, the Lord of Waters: Poseidon. Though more accurately Oceanus who was the progenitor of all gods of bodies of water and if he took a more active role. Represents the very essence of Water itself as the free-flowing, raging, element that brings death by drowning. The massive maelstrom in the middle of Glorantha is his idea and is named after him as Magasta's Pool. The logic of it is to prevent whatever horrors are waiting in the hole left by the explosion of the Gloranthan equivalent of Mt. Olympus. Similar to trying to flush down a massive deuce down the toilet really. Water, Movement, Death.
• Choralinthor, God of the Mirrorsea Bay: God of the conveniently massive fjord coast of the Holy Country and dad of the ancestress nymph of the resident cetoi Ludoch. It is from his waters that Dormal first launched his efforts to break the Closing. Water, Fertility, Harmony.
• Daliath, Keeper of Wisdom: Keeper of the Well of Wisdom that everyone wants to take a sip from, and the only one allowed to drink from it regularily. Busy creating obstacles for those wanting to drink from his well and giving sips of it to those who manage to get past the obstacles. Water, Fate.
• Diros, the Boat God: Friend of the many sea and river gods who taught land-dwellers how to build ships. His cult was widespread until the Closing killed his following in coastal regions. Only really worshipped by those who sail the lakes, rivers, and inland seas, where the Closing didn't reach. Water, Movement, Man.
• Dormal, God of Sailors: Kinda a weird Magellan. Invented the necessary song-and-dance to bypass the Closing and single-handedly restarted naval trade and international relations. His arrival in Loskalm also heralded the gradual ending of the Syndics Ban. Now that the Closing is overturned, has basically been relegated into the god of sailing as substitute to the missing Boat Planet. Water, Movement.
• Lorion, the Sky River Titan: Invaded the sky after the other water gods invaded the earth. Created the Celestial River from which all rain falls down to earth and is the reason the sky is blue. Water, Movement, Light.
• Oslira, Goddess of the Oslir River: Similar to the river Nile, is one of the main reasons why Peloria is one of if not the most fertile region in Genertela thanks to agreements made with various gods. Oslira is Yelm's favorite side hoe, is the Rice Goddess' father with Pelora, and is frequently brought to henpeck Shargash whenever he gets into a rage (being the only one of his many spurned lovers who could pose a danger to him). Water, Movement, Fertility.
• Triolina, Mother of Life: Water represented as the lifegiver, the world's primordial soup, and spawn site of whatever can be conjured from a thalassophobic nightmare. Water, Fertility.
• Wachaza, War God: Got sucked into a rip tide? That's Wachaza. Also warleader of Lorion's attempted Water invasion against Orlanth that caused the Gloranthan skies to take on a perpetual shade of blue. Is also why he is represented by water spouts. Currently being shunned due to him being such a dick to everyone and also being the dumbass who volunteered to be the God Learners' patron god of war. Water, Darkness, Death.

Darkness Pantheon

• Kyger Litor, the Mother of Trolls: Is the big, bad, goddess of Darkness and the Trolls. Said to reside in the many palaces of obsidian she sprouted all over Glorantha as safe haven for her trolls from the burning glow of Yelm. As Darkness is now banished half of the time in both the Hurtplace and the Underworld, her power is mostly confined in the relatively small sliver of crust and bedrock between these places. Darkness, Man.
• Annilla, the Blue Moon: One of the moons of the God Time, whose corpse's movement is responsible for the tide. The blue moon plateau in Peloria is also a chunk of her body and hosts a large troll community, including the Blue Moon Assassins. Has her own Lunar elementals separate from the Red Goddess's that suck people's souls away. Darkness, Moon, Water.
• Aranea, Spider Goddess: The mother of all spiders and predator of the weak. She might have had a run in with Arachne Solara at some point, who is also depicted as a spider, which gave her the rune of Fate. Her most famous Hero is Cragspider the Firewitch, a spider-legged Mistress Race Troll demigod. Darkness, Beast, Fate.
• Argan Argar, God of Surface Darkness: The patron of Troll merchants and diplomats. Beat up Lodril and forced him to build an obsidian palace where he could hang out with his wife Esrola, then left it to his son the Only Old One who went on to rule Kethaela. Darkness, Harmony.
• Gorakiki, Mother of Insects: Has many different bodies to represent the many different kinds of six-legged creatures she spawned. The trolls who worship her are almost scientific in their worship, devoting their lives to the study and cultivation of a single insect species, and their results are used as mounts, beasts of burden, and companions by the rest of Trolldom. Darkness, Beast.
• Himile, God of Cold: Cold.
• Inora, the White Princess: Goddess of mountain snows and winters, and half-sister of Orlanth and Yinkin. Pretty much a femme fatale, just ask Elmal. Looks pretty but will most likely kill you through hypothermia. Does occasionally bring water to the more arid regions of Prax though. Cold, Fertility, Stasis.
• Subere, Goddess of Inner Dark: The mother of Death, either literally or metaphorically. Her name is just Erebus spelled backwards. Darkness, Magic.
• Xentha, Goddess of Night: Lead the gods of Darkness to the surface world and took control of the surface and the skies above. Now shares the skies with Yelm. Darkness, Mastery.
• Xiola Umbar, Goddess of Solace: The nicest of the troll gods, who fixed whatever her brother, Zorak Zoran, broke, and comforted Yelm when he descended to the Underworld. Her cult is the one place where trollkin aren't treated like scum and are actually cared for. Darkness, Fertility, Harmony.
• Zorak Zoran, God of Hate: The troll war god and Kyger Litor's attack dog, reflecting the gender roles of matriarchal troll society. Second to Storm Bull in Chaos God killcount and is of the "violent warrior" cliché. However, he has this remarkable tendency to appropriate the tools of rival gods, such as a piece of Humakt's Death sword and Yelmalio's very own fire. Darkness, Disorder, Death.

Lunar Pantheon

• The Seven Mothers: Collective cult of Danfive Xaron, Deezola, Irrippi Ontor, Jakaleel the Witch, She Who Waits, Teelo Norri, and Yanafal Tarnils. Collected the parts of the Red Goddess and recreated her in Time. Initiates to the Lunar Way start as members of the Seven Mothers cult before moving on to other cults. Moon, Fertility, Death.
• The Crimson Bat, Steed of the Red Goddess: Literally a giant fucking bat demon that the Lunars use as transport and war machine. Takes an ENTIRE regiment of magicians to safely control (or propitiate more like) and daily requires a meal of about a couple dozen of people. Used to roam the world until the First Age, when Arkat banished it to the Underworld. The Red Goddess then bound it to her service and rode it during her return. When this absolute monster shows up in your battlefield, you know the Lunars are committed. Chaos, Death, Moon
• Danfive Xaron, Bridge for the Seeker: Moon, Harmony, Death.
• Deezola, Binder Within: Moon, Earth, Fertility.
• Etyries, Messenger of the Goddess: A merchants disgruntled daughter who listened to the teachings of the Red Goddess, ascended to become the lunar trade goddess, and used her new position to steal spells and skills from other gods. Moon, Harmony, Movement.
• Hon-Eel the Artess, the Dancer: The goddess that symbolizes Lunar liberation from Sheng Seleris. Has also stolen a page from the Grain Goddess Playbook, to the chagrin of Pelora, by inventing and popularizing maize. There's a hitch however as corn requires human sacrifice to grow. Moon, Earth, Fertility.
• Hwarin Dalthippa, the Conquering Daughter: Founder of the city of Jillaro, who went on to conquer lands south of the Lunar Empire and integrated them into it, and built the magical roads of the Lunar Provinces. Moon, Light, Movement.
• Irrippi Ontor, the Brown Man: Yuthuppan sage who got himself somehow outlawed by the cults of Buserian and Lhankor Mhy. Ascended then to become the Lunar god of wisdom and learning, and invented the Lunar calendar. Moon, Truth, Light.
• Jakaleel the Witch, Spindle Hag: Moon, Death, Darkness.
• Nysalor/Gbaji: An artificial god created by the late-stage World Council of Friends (the original Council minus the Orlanthi and trolls, and then led by the recently inducted Dara Happan Empire and "orlanthi" who were actually just leeching at Orlanth's blessings) as a symbol of hope. Was already preaching divine diatribes the moment he left whatever womb he came from. Was the inventor of the modern art of Illumination, a long-winded process towards the conclusion that boils down to basically recognizing that everything, especially Chaos, is part of the natural order. Being "Illuminated" to this conclusion usually leads to one graduating from "Hostile" to "Neutral" reputation for the Chaos faction. Of course, this offended the sensibilities of chaos-hating races such as Orlanthi, Praxians, and Trolls to the point of rebellion whilst also alienating the elves, mostali, and dragonkin. This forced Nysalor to take the military option and imperialize which then led to conflict to the Malkioni nations of the west and Nysalor's proceeding downfall and demonization as Gbaji. Chaos, Mastery, Light.
• The Red Goddess: Also known as "Sedenya", is the literal moon. Taking over from the now-dead Blue Moon, especially in the aspect of wrangling the ever rambunctious water gods into following a predictable cycle of tides (a responsibility previously held by the Blue Moon's rotting corpse). Is really putting a spanner into Orlanth's works not just because she took up space in his sky, but has also taken over Yelm's empire and popularizing the acceptance of Chaos in the process. Understandably sees Orlanth as a cantankerous fundamentalist for demonizing her idol Nysalor and his art of Illumination, but overlooks the fact that Chaos once killed 98% of the world and that the art of Illumination, described mostly as achieving CHIM in order not to not get sodomized by Chaos, takes a long-ass time to master. Moon, Fertility, Chaos.
• Teelo Nori, Young Life: Lunar goddess of youth. Was literally a random girl taken from the streets, since the ritual to return the Red Goddess needed a person who had no knowledge of the ritual's intent. Her cult is very small, and concerns itself mainly with protection and innocence. Moon, Fertility, Movement.
• Yanafal Tarnils, Ram and Warrior: An exiled Yuthuppan nobleman and follower of Humakt. Defeated his god in battle and ascended to become the Lunar god of war, with his cult being very similiar to that of Humakt, except less narrow-minded. Moon, Death, Truth.
• Yara Aranis, Goddess of the Reaching Moon: A daughter of the Red Emperor that Sedenya elevated to godhood for one purpose and one purpose only. To combat Pentans and to directly guard Sheng Seleris in the underworld. Knowing how the HeroWars might turn out, she does not succeed. Even ends up allying with Argrath to bring down a resurrected and ascendant Sheng Seleris and dying in the process. Moon, Death, Earth.

Chaos Pantheon

• The Devil and the Unholy Trio: The Unholy Trio is composed of Orlanth's brother Ragnaglar, Ragnaglar's wife Thed, and Ragnaglar's mistress Malia. Ragnaglar is the only one of Umath's sons to fail his coming-of-age ceremony simply because he got the absolute worst one: the Sex Pit. What happened in the Sex Pit can be left up to imagination but whatever it may be, this caused him to go and be known as the God of Madness to this day. During his crazed spree, he commits the first ever rape on his wife Thed who then decided that she must be the goddess of Rape so that the rest of the world would experience her pain. The rape led to child delivered by the former healing goddess, now Goddess of Disease, Malia serving as midwife. Chaos
  • Whilst, the Unholy Trio (or at least Ragnaglar) may be a purely Orlanthi aspect of the story of the darkening of the world, their baby the Devil is generally agreed upon by everyone as unfortunately real. The Devil was a bad motherfucker who have managed to scour the world of most gods and mortals, having taking the world's worth of a Lightbringer's Quest to kill him. Both he and his dad Ragnaglar are very much dead, with the former's corpse used as nutrition and/or sperm donor to give birth to actual Time.
• Primal Chaos, the Chaos Ooze: Chaos as a primal force and the form in which it first appeared in Glorantha. Usually represented by a lump of swamp ooze. Manifests often as another god in another epithet, Pocharngo. Chaos.
• Bagog, Scorpion Queen: Goddess of Ravenous Fecundity. Described as an idiot prodigal daughter of Darkness. She takes her mother's appetite for everything and shits them out as her agents, the Scorpion-men. Being captured by Scorpion-men and eaten by Bagog is among the many choice worse-than-death fates in Glorantha as you stay sentient but driven by instinct and Bagog's will, forgetting what or who you were in the process. Chaos, Beast, Darkness, Man.
• Cacodemon, Remnant of the Devil: Literal remnants of Wakboth, created from what was left of his body after the Block fell on him. Usually appear as three meter tall, thorny-skinned, winged demons with a stench of sulfur and carrion. Chaos, Disorder, Death.
• Gark the Calm, God of Eternal Peace: Gark's priests and cultists wonder the world, preaching to the downtrodden and telling how their god will grant them solace from the world at large. All they have to do is just go to that foreboding ruin and peace will be granted to them... and result in them becoming zombies under the control of the priesthood. Chaos, Undeath, Stasis.
• Krarsht, God of Hunger: Goddess of Hunger. Described as a giant worm munching her way through the earth. Is also the Goddess of Intrigue due to breakup of communities via "internal hunger" and it is arguably in this aspect that she receives the most worshippers, being patron to traitors, spies, assassins, and ambitious politicians. Hunger as interpreted as Famines and Starvation are ironically more within the portfolio of some non-chaotic Solar and Earth Gods. Chaos, Movement, Stasis.
• Krjalk, Lord of Monsters: Is arguably where Geedubs got the very idea. During the Great Darkness, simply thinking of his name will turn you into one of his children. Luckily for the current Glorantha, Zorak Zoran found him and made him into a two-course goulash meal. Unfortunately, Zorak did not clean his plate and his influence can still be felt from crumbs left behind. Chaos, Movement, Harmony.
• Malia, Mother of Disease: The Midwife of the Devil and the Goddess of Suffering, titles which she deserve for being ironically responsible for the highest killcount in the entire Chaotic pantheon via use of pathogens. Turns out, although admittedly nowhere near as bad IRL, dying shitting sideways in bed is the most common cause for death in societies before Germ Theory. Way above the oft maligned fates of "getting skewered" or "getting eaten by a giant monster." Darkness, Death, Chaos.
• Ompalam, God of Coercion and Slavery: Take everything the Orlanthi say about Yelm being a tyrant and you have Ompalam. Tells that slavery is the natural way of creation, all are slaves and owe their freedom to the one above them, with him at the top obviously. Chief god of the Fonritans. Chaos, Man, Stasis.
• Pocharngo, the Cosmic Cancer: A chaos god who mutates what was good into cancerous tumors of evil. Was killed by Zorak Zoran after he turned Pocharngos power on him, changing his evil into impotency. Chaos, Movement.
• Seseine, Goddess of Temptation: Queen of the succubi and incubi. Stokes the flames of desire in people so that they will use evil and corrupt means to obtain whatever they want. Chaos, Disorder, Fertility.
• Thanatar, the Severed God: Guy who improves organizational knowledge bases via the act of literal headhunting. Previously independent cults of Tien and Atyar now united in their worship of obtaining knowledge via capturing brainpower (head included). Darkness, Chaos, Death, Truth.
• Thed, Mother of Broos: Plenty of accounts describe her as Goddess of Rape to define the act as an offense, as Orlanth the Lawgiver has never encountered it before it was done to her by her husband Ragnaglar. It is thus up to interpretation if her rapist progeny race predated the Devil or if it was the other way around. Either way, it is widely accepted that she birthed the Devil and it is for this reason that she was skinned alive by Kyger Litor and left as the espirit-de-corps of Rape of the Broos. Chaos, Spirit.
• Vivamort, the Vampire God: Was originally an underworld god charged with guarding Death. Unfortunately nobody thought it was important to tell him what he was guarding, and so he let Eurmal steal it just to see what it could do. Eventually tried to fight the Devil, got his ass handed, and gave his soul to him in exchange for being allowed to live, which corrupted his original Death rune into the Unlife rune and forced him and his followers to consume the blood and souls of mortals to fuel their existence, which lead to him and his followers to also being cursed by all the other gods. Chaos, Darkness, Undeath.

Independent Deities

• Arachne Solara: A mysterious spider woman who showed up at the end of the Lightbringers Quest after Yelm and Orlanth made up. She convinced the gods to sign the Cosmic Compromise, then devoured the Devil after he descended to the Underworld and used his essence to give birth to Time, her web. Might be a reincarnation of Glorantha herself, the original goddess of the world. Infinity, Fate, Magic, Mastery.
• Brother Dog, God of Dogs: Companion of Foundchild, who thought that living alongside him in harmony would be better than becoming his next meal. Beast
• Daka Fal, Judge of the Dead: Commonly held to be the post-mortem Grandfather Mortal, he presides over the court of the dead and makes sure the spirit and mortal worlds stay seperated. His cult is the basis for all forms of ancestor worship. Man, Spirit.
• Donadar, God of Music: Patron of dance, song, music, circuses, and all forms of entertainment. His most famous worshipers, the puppeteer troupe, have the ability to summon massive illusionary armies and wreck havoc on their enemy's senses in the board game. Harmony, Illusion.
• Foundchild, the Hunter: An orphan who found out that dead animals tasted yummy, then figured out how to make them dead more easily. Death, Harmony.
• Horned Man, the Great Shaman: God or representation of the practice of Spirit Magic. Should a shaman bother dabbling in Rune Magic, they may tap him for a death wind power that can murder entire armies. Spirit, Magic.
• Humakt, the God of Death: Slew Grandfather Mortal and then spent the rest of the gods war trying to atone for his actions. Used to be a storm god, but severed his family ties after Orlanth used Death to kill Yelm and so he could act impartially. Really big on the idea of honor. Death, Truth.
• Hykim & Mikyh, Beast Parents: Depending on who you ask, are a couple of hermaphroditic dragons who are the progenitors of any god/spirit/thing/rune that isn't bipedal and probably everything else. Of particular veneration by the Hsunchen, secondary to their own totem animal. Beast.
• Invisible God, the Creator: God of the pantheistic portion of the Malkioni. Said to have set up the laws of creation and stood back to watch what happens. Generally agreed to reside outside Glorantha and be hard to reach, causing many, many schisms to form among the Malkioni and accusations of heresy be thrown throughout the ages. Infinity, Law, Magic.
• Lanbril, the God of Thieves: A minor son of Grandfather Mortal who was bullied for being the short kid in class, so decided he'd just steal his bullies' lunch money, magic, height, strength, and faces. Most people don't even know he or his cult exist, and the devotees of the Faceless God prefer it that way. Illusion, Disorder, Mastery.
• Mostal, the Maker: The world machine. Is the, if it can be called it that, god of dwarves. Is typically represented as the world as a a cubic machine and how dwarves actually maintain and repair it is described extremely vaguely. Other cultures tend to represent Mostal as a dwarfking as they can barely wrap their heads around the idea of Mostal. This is how dismal the average IQ could get in Glorantha. Earth, Stasis
• Uleria, Goddess of Love: The only member of the Cosmic Court to survive the Gods War, and thus the ultimate source of all Fertility powers. Her temples are very explicitly brothels, but they also provide community services like pregnancy or fertility blessings, social gathering spaces, and even counseling. Fertility, Infinity.

Important People

Argrath: The one or many heroes who created a notoriously Lunar-resistant community in the thrice-ruined city of Pavis, who rescued the most recent giant baby along with a literal giant cradle filled with loot and magical treasure, sailed with and fought with/alongside the most powerful warriors of the era, In the Hero Wars, after becoming King of Dragon Pass, he will resurrect Sheng Seleris, summon a miniature Dragonkill, and go on a mostly successful march of liberation towards the very center of the Lunar Empire before having dragons tear down the moon. Note the similarity of his name to that of the man-hero of the last era, Arkat. Greg was really laying it on thick.

Arkat: Born a slaving Brithini anti-theist who led the most serious resistance effort against Nysalor's empire at the time, as the Brithini are practically a bunch of dusty, old, egocentric wizards who would not brook "gods" to tell em what to do. Was resurrected by Harmast Barefoot in what is probably the first ever mortal Heroquest attempt to replicate the Lightbringer's Quest. Arkat is the greatest ever Heroquester since then with a 100% success rate in ever more complex and frequent Heroquests save the very one which was used to bring him back to life. Arkat is basically your heroes when you savescum in King of Dragon Pass. Using the resultant encyclopedic knowledge of godlore, an arsenal of divine-tier treasures and weapons, and an openness to learning from every source he could, he ROFLstomped Nysalor and an entire region into the void. Ironically died at a ripe old age.

Belintar: Imagine, if you will, being an average orlanthi stickpicker living in what used to be a great international harbor, now in disrepair after centuries of no sea travel. The only traveler on the sea that you've ever seen is the occasional pile of garbage or divers bringing back what they could from the most adjacent coral reef. In the distance, within the limits of the magic of the Closing, you spot a man butterfly stroking towards the coast at 40 miles/hour. This is how Belintar came to Genertela. This man was so powerful that he conquered Kethaela on his own and personally slew the previous boss of Kethaela, the thousands-year old demigod troll Ezkanekko. Now dubbed Pharaoh, he is the ruler of a golden age of Kethaela as a god-king portrayed to be the delegate of every single god of any race in the then renamed Holy Country. Belintar is actually a divine oversoul that is mantled by the next one as a prize in a Tournament of Life and Death when the last vessel reaches the end of their natural life. The Lunars somehow managed to block this at the last Tournament and dismembered him so he can't come back, though it is implied that a portion is now inhabiting Argrath and the other personages in the HeroWars.

Ethilrist: Leader of the Black Horse Troop who bypassed the Syndics Ban via detour through Hell. Brought his men through Hell via some murder, betrayal, and sacrifice resulting in an escape to the other side in Peloria as a demigod (seem familiar?) and that his formerly white horses emerging as unkillable man-eating black horses. The Black Horse Troop, formerly the White Horse Troop, is a bonafide cavalry mercenary company led by a cold man who is as much of a powergamer as his ancestor Arkat. With about the same amount of nasty stuff in his arsenal as his ancestor did, everyone tries to give Ethilrist a wide berth. Luckily he has retired from being a sword-for-hire to the Lunars and is now focused on creating his own village in some backwater.

Broyan of Whitewall: King of the Volsaxi, a sub-kingdom within the Holy Country composed of most of the storm-oriented Orlanthi that decided to tenuously stay under the Pharaoh's rule rather than join their buttmad dogmatic kin who left for Dragon Pass. If you like characters who survive a suspiciously frequent series of bad luck, Broyan is for you. Leading the last Orlanthi holdout in Kethaela, and having been proven to be directly descended from Vingkot, son of Orlanth and namesake of the proto-orlanthi Vingkotlings, Broyan now serves as the spiritual leader of the hard Orlanthi struggle against the Red Moon... which he loses. Apparently fel sorcery and a giant fucking bat can melt white walls. He survives though only to wake up to the sight of the Wolf Pirates mercilessly routing the Lunars from the region. As he was the highest ranking Kethaelan around, he had the unfortunate honor of signing off letting Belintar's capital to be ransacked in gratitude. Despite everything, he and Kethaela are still loyal to the memory of the missing Pharaoh.

Things however start looking up for Broyan with Kethaela liberated. Using his experience, he achieves the diplomatic miracle of reuniting the "vingkotlings" and the Esrolians via his marriage to their top priestess. To put it into context, the Ernalda-worshipping Esrolians are descended from the wives left behind by the Vingkotlings when they went into a horrible civil war that destroyed the very ethnic identity of a vingkotling in the process. As a result, Esrolians since then preach that the Vingkotling, especially a direct descendant of their kings, is the genuine Antichrist. Broyan snagged the exact baddie who yells he's the devil as a matter of dogma. What a lad.

Despite this recent spat of good luck and having united the Orlanthi, not just spiritually but also politically and mythologically, against the Lunars; Broyan gets killed sometime in the HeroWars via mauling-by-werewolf.

Harrek the Berserk: Originally a Hsunchen tribesman of the Rathori who venerate the white bear, Rathor. Being one weird customer, either butchered or entered an accord with the god to empower himself right in time for the freeing of the Rathori forests from the Syndics Ban. Wearing Rathor's own pelt, Harrek the Berserk is among, if not the foremost of, the greatest fighters of the HeroWars era. Known primarily as Argrath's boss, partner-in-crime, and rival. Harrek first met the hero upon the treasure-laden Giant Cradle and subsequently pressganging the poor bloke into the fearsome Wolf Pirates (It is unclear regarding what happened to the Giant Baby). Harrek and gang went on with their usual hijinks of raiding, looting, and exploring the world. No ship or coastal town was safe during his and Argrath's reign of terror on the seas. He was eventually convinced by Argrath into providing the impetus for his coast-to-coast northward rampage against the Lunars and liberating Kethaela in the process. In exchange, he demanded from the Kethaelans the exclusive right to brutally loot Belintar's magic capital to Broyan's chagrin. Currently split off from Argrath to found his own domain, occassionally fighting with or against the hapless liberator in a harebrained macho contest on who gets to be the most historic. He is the "White Bear" fighting against JarEel in the oft-referenced art of White Bear and Moon. He canonically wins the fight by cleaving off a quarter of the woman's cranium, though she gets better and retires with a husband to a farm to live a domestic lifestyle (seriously.)

TakenEgi: Moonson. The Red Emperor of the Lunar Empire, ruling over the Dara Happans and whatever else can be found in Peloria as his mom's earthly representative. He is his mom's High Priest and, in his station as emperor of Dara Happa, of Yelm's as well. Unlike Belintar's divine soul which is passed on from one host to the next, Egis go into a wild chase to catch parts of TakenEgi's (literally "leader of the Egi") mortal soul in a scramble to reincarnate him every cycle. All Red Emperors wear a distinctive mask, and TakenEgi the Mask has been worn for about a century. This is all well and good until Sheng Seleris came by and killed him and a fair number of Egis about at least a couple of times. Since then, the succeeding Red Emperors have been less powerful and are arguably not even TakenEgi.

Runes

One of Glorantha's most obvious features if you looks at any of its art is its heavy use of Runes. Despite the name they aren't anyhting like the classic norse runes and don't even form an alphabet; they're basically just pictograms for all the stuff that makes up Glorantha. There's technically Runes for everything, but most of them are just combinations of the big 20 listed below. Whether the gods created the runes or were created from them is a subject of much scholarly discussion, but every god is usually connected with around 1-3 runes from which they draw their power; most mortals are too, and usually worship gods in line with their own personal runes.

Elements

• Darkness - the first element, associated mostly with the underworld and trolls. Gloranthan darkness is an actual force instead of just an absense of light, and would very much like to devour everything and return to the cold, peaceful beginning. Some other associated traits are coldness, hunger, and being big.

• Water - the second element, associated with merfolk and the sea (wow). Arguably more hungry than darkness, a lot of the water mythology we know involves it treating the other elements like an all-you-can-eat buffet, which is why rivers invaded the land and sky. Associated traits are capriciousness, agility, and being non-binary.

• Earth - the third element, being the massive D6 that Glorantha sits on. Usually said to be a feminine element, with nearly all its important deities being goddesses, and thanks to the other elements mostly being sausage fests they wield a lot of power through the art of political marriages. Associated with practicality, stability, and stamina.

• Fire/sky - the fourth element cronologically, arising after the earth. The mighty sun, as well as anything else in the sky like planets and stars, and a lot of stuff below it like fire and magma. For a long time fire was the top dog in the world, and has beef with pretty much every other element because of it. Associated with purity, idealism, and intelligence.

• Air - the fifth element, though it stole Fire's spot as the fourth cosmologically. Spawned when the sky dome decided to bang the entire earth, then completely ruined the mood by shoving himself inbetween his parents and forcing them apart because there wasn't room in the universe for him. Even more antagonistic than Fire, and especially with Fire. Associated with pride, passion, and strength.

• Moon - the sixth element, though some people disagree, it disappeared in the gods war after the blue moon got herself killed, but was resurrected in the third age with the creation of the Red Goddess. It and Air don't get along at all because they're both competing for the same living space between Earth and Sky. Associated with mysticism, "spiritual liberation", and magic.

Powers

Unique among the runes in coming in distinct pairs that are very difficult to make work together.

• Harmony - Opposite of Disorder. Alliances, healing, and community. Not all nice though, some war gods use it for discipline and order in battle.

• Disorder - Opposite of Harmony. The rune of tricksters and destroyers. The difference between it and Chaos is sometimes thin.

• Fertility - Opposite of Death. The rune of life, love, and connection. Invoked equally by mothers, healers, and prostitutes.

• Death - Opposite of Fertility. Not just death in the literal sense, but any form of seperation.

• Stasis - Opposite of Movement. Order, stability, and oddly stone. Can represent ordered cycles as well as complete stillness.

• Movement - Opposite of Stasis. Change and travel. Sometimes seems very close to the effects of Chaos, like Disorder.

• Truth - Opposite of Illusion. Almost entirely about knowledge and honesty, but a few martial gods use it as to represent honor.

• Illusion - Opposite of Truth. "Without it, there would be none of us to ever think we were". Can represent art and material wealth as well.

Forms

• Man - Most bipedal things are descended from this rune. The man rune was made by all the gods working together to create Grandfather Mortal, who then worked with them to make Elves, Trolls, and humans. One of the reasons mortals and especially humans are so special is because they still have pieces of all the other gods inside of them, so they're inherently more flexible in what they can do. Typically associated with "civilization" and rationality.

• Beast - Animals were created by the dragon/dragons Hykim and Mikyh, who are responsible at least for everything with four or more legs. The Hsunchen humans have a very strong connection to this as they include totem animals as full members of their tribes. Associated with wilderness and instinct.

• Spirit - Represents anything without a physical body. The spirit world exists parallel to the physical world and is full of both disembodied spirits and reflections of embodied ones (like people).

• Plant - Plants. Surprisingly not many agricultural gods use this one, favoring general fertility. The elves, being part plant, are as connected to it as they are the man rune.

• Dragonewt - The weirdest of the bunch, it's unclear whether it represents Dragonewts alone or all draconic beings, it's gone both ways both in and out of universe. Regardless, it's one of the reasons why mortals, who have almost no connection to it, find Dragonewts so hard to fathom.

• Chaos - When the primal void beyond Glorantha leaks in, it becomes Chaos. Can cause anything from spontaneous creation to utter obliteration, and is responsible for the concept of entropy. The cosmic compromise that created time only worked because everyone agreed to eternally fight Chaos, but that also gave it a permanent foothold in the world. Whether it's naturally evil, a force that can be controlled, or a desirable part of the cosmos is not something we'll get into here.

Conditions

"There are five widely acknowledged Condition Runes. They indicate which aspect of an Element, Form, or Power is favored by a cult. Some cults believe that other Conditions exist, but they have not been as universally accepted." Nobody, mayhaps not even Greg himself, knows what that statement's supposed to mean, but it's been in every book since RQ2 so here it is again. Realistically, condition is just the miscellaneous category.

• Mastery - Refers to capital-H Heroes, which basically means any old bloke with the balls to do their own thing instead of following tradition.
• Magic - The Other Side, or the connection between it and the mortal world. Essentially the metamagic rune.
• Infinity - Superheroes, gods, and true dragons. Usually means that someone's serious cosmic shit.
• Luck - Fate.
• Fate - Luck.

Minor Runes

There's a whole host of runes that are either composites or parts of the ones listed above. Most of them are personal symbols for a single god or group of gods, but a few are fairly common for a variety of reasons.

• Light is Fire without Heat. The most famous example is Yelmalio, whose fire powers were stolen by Zorak Zoran after Orlanth disarmed him. Many gods of the sky above the dome also lack powers of heat.
• Heat is Fire without Light, or sometimes Magma. Lodril and the Lowfires are sometimes given this in lieu of Fire, because Dara Happans are sticklers for who counts as true sky gods.
• Cold is Darkness without Shadow.
• Shadow is Darkness without Cold. Probably the rarest subrune.
• Communication, sometimes called Trade, or Issaries after its creator, is a composite of certain parts of Movement and Harmony.
• Dragon is self-explanatory.
• Eternal Battle is Storm Bull's personal rune, composed of Air and Beast. It contains his special anti-chaos powers.
• Law is the rune of sorcery and logic.
• Moon Phases are sevenfold: Dying, Black, Crescent-Come, Empty Half, Full, Full Half, and Crescent Go. Each represents one stage of the Red Moon's rotation, and contain specific powers out of the many that were put into making the moon.
• Power is Pamalt's personal rune, signifying him as the ruler of the southern continent.
• Unlife, sometimes called Hunger or Undeath, is a combination of Life and Death. Represents disconnection from Glorantha and a hollow life kept going by taking the lives of others. Some say it's a form rune others that it's a condition rune, but that's up for debate.

Magic

While it has the largest impact in the various roleplaying games, the seperation between magic systems does play a major part in Gloranthan lore so I'll give a quick rundown of each of them here. Also a description of heroquesting because fuck you this is weird lore time.

• Spirit Magic: Glorantha is divided into the Mortal World and the Other Side, and the closest part of the Other Side is the Spirit World. Spirit magic is using the Spirit World to do magic (duh). Most people do this through rote spells similar to hedge magic, usually costing a little bit of temporary power that'll recharge in a few hours and performing a very small effect, like closing a small wound or lighting a torch. Nearly everyone knows this stuff regardless of where they come from. The second level of spirit magic is Shamans, crack-brained fellows who learn how to talk with spirits and physically travel through the spirit plane, culminating in a dream quest where they awaken their Fetch and throw down with a shamanic reflection of the Devil. Arguably the most versatile motherfuckers out there, they can cut deals for new powers with a huge variety of spirits giving the most experienced ones near Batman level of preparedness and a shit ton of magic points to throw around.
• Rune Magic: The second most common type of magic. Sometimes called divine magic, it's a mix between mantling and clerical praying, invoking the Rune affinities you share with your favored god to cast spells. What spells you can cast depends on what the god did before time - Orlanthi can throw lightning and fly, but they can't see in the dark or read someone's mind because Orlanth somehow never got around to doing that. Rune magic is also much more limited, as you have to sacrifice permanent bits of your soul to build a strong connection to your god. Rune Priests and Rune Lords specialize in this magic, serving as mortal agents for their god's will in exchange for greater power. Really dedicated rune magicians sometimes become indistinguishable from their god.
• Sorcery: Wizards. Almost exclusively practiced by a select caste of the Malkioni, and in a limited form by some scholarly gods, sorcery is basically imposing your will on reality through math without needing gods or spirits to help you (except as fuel cells). In some ways it's similar to Ars Magica, with spells being built from combinations of runes, but without as much on-demand flexibility besides using its built-in metamagic to change the strength, range, and duration. High level sorcerers have been responsible for some of the most incredible magic in history, such as the God Learners summoning Tanian, the god of Burning Water, or Zzabur casting the Closing spell that stopped all sea travel for generations. The price is high though, both in time and personal power, so sorcerers usually spend long times preparing and gathering resources to make sure they get their spells right, and the Malkioni caste system is specifically built to facilitate this.
• Mysticism: The magic practiced by Dragonewts and Kralorelans, leading to it being also called draconic magic. All about going beyond logic and empiricism to reach the Unknowable by the way of asceticism. Is also linked to Illumination.

Sanest Orlanthi heroquester

• Heroquesting: When the Cosmic Compromise created Time, it locked the gods and their experiences into an unchanging cycle called the God Time, where the myths of creation are endlessly replayed and define why things are the way they are in the mortal world. Essentially, the God Time is Glorantha's code base. HeroQuesting is when mortals enter the code base, either partially through what is essentially LARPing or fully through a portal or some such, in order to change reality in some way. This can be by discovering how different myths interact, bringing a treasure or power back from the God Time, or even changing how a myth played out and its results in reality (this last case though is extremely limited in who it affects and often quickly fixes itself). Given that the God Time is written in non-linear metaphorical gobbledygook with about five layers of paradox, this is not easy. For this reason, most myths function as "maps" of the God Time, telling HeroQuesters when and where events happened, how they were dealt with, and where things went from there. Most people just stick to a single myth and play it out to the end for a predictable result, such as the yearly reenactments of important world-saving myths during Sacred Time that help reinforce reality. Proper Heroes know that if you want the really good stuff, though, you need to brave the wilderness a little, and so-called experimental HeroQuesting - ranging from merely hopping between myths at stations where they intersect to straight up striking off into the primordial creation soup - is both incredibly dangerous and incredibly rewarding. Arkat's treasures and knowledge, the power wielded by the God Learners, and the creation of the Lunar pantheon are all results of experimental HeroQuesting.

See Also

• Glorantha on Wikipedia
• King of Dragon Pass
• RuneQuest
• Glorantha Wikia - most pages are formatted like bullet points in a slideshow presentation thanks to the co-existence of both great wealth of information and general murkiness in the setting.
• Runequest Wiki - has a decent bit of setting material alongside the game stuff, though it's very heavily Dragon Pass focused.
• Well of Daliath - almost anything written about Glorantha outside an official book can be found in here if you want to put the time into looking, along with a bunch of notes from the current developer.