Every year, in the final weeks of Storm Season, the tension grows. The violence of the weather intensifies. Days range from sudden thunderstorms and gales to fist-sized hail stones, flash floods, and the occasional cyclone. Even earthquakes are more frequent. Then, as Sacred Time dawns, a stillness falls over it all. A silence. And in that silence, there is an intensity. Every adult Sartarite knows the danger. They know the sudden stillness does not mean peace or salvation from the violent weather, but rather the triumph of entropy. The silence that comes at Sacred Time is the silence of the Void, the silence of Death. At the end of the year the cosmos itself ends, and it is up to the gods to make it anew.
Mortals must help them. The two weeks of Sacred Time bear the names Luck and Fate, because it will take both for the new year to dawn.
The Seven Tailed Wolf, p. 18
In anthropology, liminality (from the Latin for "threshold") denotes the middle stage of a rite of passage. In a liminal stage, you are no longer what you were, but not yet what you will become. This lack of definition is ritually disorienting and dangerous. Order has been suspended and you are in a chaotic state. In coming of age and initiation ceremonies, this is where the candidates face trials and ordeals, often with a serious chance of harm or failure. In folklore this is when the infant--born but not yet baptized--is at the greatest danger of being snatched by fairies, and it is at liminal times (midnight) and places (at the crossroads) that the Devil appears.
Liminality manifests in Glorantha in all sorts of ways. Cults have their initiation rites, shamans confront the Bad Man, the Orlanthi perform the Summons of Evil in their worship rites. They, like us, have their rites of passage: birth, adolescence, marriage, death. Yet these experiences are personal or local rather than collective and universal. The single greatest example of liminality in Glorantha, when the entire cosmos enters the liminal state, is the Sacred Time.
Sacred Time is a two-week period when normal activity halts, and the world ritually and really re-enacts the death and rebirth of the cosmos to replenish the world, for incorporating the entropy of Chaos into the world is part of the Great Compromise. To live, one must descend into death and be reborn. The participation of all beings in these annual ceremonies and their commitment to them integrates the participants with unconscious understanding of the cosmic balance—a major factor in the high level of magic generation and use in Glorantha.
RuneQuest Roleplaying in Glorantha, p. 420
Time and Sacred Time
One of my favorite things about Glorantha is the calendar.
There are several out there--the Brithini, Lunars, Dara Happans, Kralorelans, and Pamaltelans all have theirs--but I refer specifically to the Theyalan calendar spread by the Lightbringers with the Dawn.
While many players and GMs don't give it much thought, it is very clear that Greg Stafford did. It is, first and foremost, a timekeeping device, and I invite you to think about that word a little differently. We use it to mean something that lets us know what time it is. But in Glorantha, the only thing holding the world together, the only thing keeping the Devil out, is Time. Keeping Time takes on a whole new meaning. The world had died. Chaos had conquered it. But the Great Compromise bound the cosmos and themselves in the Web of Time. The calendar tells you that story.
The week. Look closely at any given week.
What you see here is a microcosm of the Gods Age. Darkness emerges from Chaos (Freezeday), then come the Waters. Gata the Primal Earth emerges from these. Waterday and Clayday. Now as we know, Fire/Sky came next, but when Umath was born the Primal Air ripped Earth and Sky apart to make a place for himself, thus the week has Windsday between Clayday and Fireday. But look what happens next...
Wildday is marked by the Luck Rune. No right-thinking Orlanthi is going to mark something with the Chaos Rune. But this is the day of the full moon in Dragon Pass, and the day when the powers of Chaos are strongest, and it falls after Fireday. Luck, like Chaos, suggests randomness. It falls here because Chaos entered the world after Orlanth slew the Sun.
The final day, Godsday, embodies the Great Compromise that held Chaos at bay. It is marked by the Fate Rune, largely thought to be the Web of Arachne Solara, the Web of Time.
Each week then is a talisman, a ritual ordering of Time that repeats the story of the Gods Age and the salvation from Chaos.
The year. The five seasons of the Glorantha year tell the exact same story, just a tad differently because it focus on the Ages of the God Time rather than the emergence of the Runes. Sea Season is the Green Age, the birth and youth of the world. Fire Season and Earth Season are the Golden Age, their reign of the Solar Emperor. But his murder brings the Lesser and Greater Darknesses, Dark Season and Storm Season respectively. The destruction of the world.
We are being told a story here. The same story. The only story that matters.
Sacred Time. The five seasons each have eight weeks marked by members of the Celestial Court. This gives the Gloranthan Year 280 days.
I do not think that is a mistake. 280 days is the average gestation of a human being, and at the end of the Gloranthan year we witness a birth, or rebirth. The birth of Time. This occurs--hopefully--during the two-week period known as Sacred Time.
Sacred Time does not belong to one year or the next. It is outside of them, outside of Time, a cosmic and universal liminality. The previous year has died, and the world with it. The next year is not coming...it needs to be brought. Shoulder to shoulder you stand with the gods performing the rites that will ensnare Chaos and lead the world back to the light.
The two weeks of Sacred Time are unique. While all seasons have weeks marked by the same Runes, only Sacred Time has Luck Week and Fate Week. Thus the end of a year and the beginning of the next is marked by the same Runes that mark the end of the week and the start of the next. Again. We are being told a story. Luck and Fate. In Sacred Time, the Devil must be bound.
Just a quick word on "Sacred Time"
In our world, the term "Sacred Time" was coined by Romanian philosopher and historian Mircea Eliade. Building on the work of French sociologist Emile Durkheim, Eliade proposed that "traditional man" (i.e. humanity prior to the Enlightenment period and industrialization) recognized two levels of existence...the Sacred and the Profane. The Sacred was the realm of gods, myths, and heroes. It existed outside of time and was eternal. Sacred Time was the essential, the hub around which the cosmos turned. The Profane was the mundane, everyday world, the world of history and time. Through rites and rituals, through hearing myths, traditional man could "return" to the Sacred Time, and experience timeless, universal truths first hand. In other words, in Glorantha Eliade's "Sacred Time" is in fact the "Gods Age."
It is probably not coincidence or error that Greg Stafford borrowed the term to apply to the two weeks between Gloranthan years, however. Gloranthan Sacred Time exists, just like the God's Age, outside of time. Here the Web of Time unravels, here the veil between worlds is thin. This is why so many heroquests are performed in this two-week period...it is easier to reach the Other Side. The gods and their world are closer to Mundane Glorantha in this period, standing together with mortal beings to save the world from Chaos once more.
Playing Through Sacred Time
The core RuneQuest rules abstract Sacred Time in the "Between Adventures" chapter, pp. 420-427. But there is no reason, given their prominence in the life of the adventurers, not to play through the rites and rituals of Sacred Time. This is probably more true if the adventurers are community leaders, and would take a more active role in leading this ceremonies.
The rituals of Sacred Time are all heroquests. Broadly speaking participation in them can be divided into two roles: the heroquesters, who take on the roles of gods and heroes, and the worshippers who provide magical support. As a frame of reference, I will be using the heroquest rules from The Company of the Dragon (pp 164-170) but those in Six Seasons in Sartar can be used as well.
Communities spend the entire year preparing for these rites, setting aside offerings and sacrifices, building up magical resources, making costumes and props, practicing the dances, the piping, the drumming, etc.
In the week leading up to Sacred Time, people engage in ritual purification, abstaining from sexual congress, the use of intoxicants, etc. This varies from culture to culture and cult to cult, however. I like to imagine the worshippers of the Storm Bull having a Mardi Gras like orgy of sex and intoxication before the final battle with Chaos comes.
The entire adult community takes part in the rituals, unless they are too infirm or injured. Children are excluded. They witness the rites, but do not magically contribute to them. The solemnity of these rituals are impressed upon them, however, and they watch wide-eyed and in wonder as they are performed.
For the entire two weeks the myth of "how the world was saved" is re-enacted. Among the Orlanthi this is the Lightbringers' Quest. Yet among the Dara Happans and Pelorians we might imagine the murder of Murharzarm, Yelm's descent into Hell, the Rebel Gods coming and begging at his feet, the trials and tests he set for them, and his glorious re-ascent replacing the Lightbringers' tale. In the Lunar Empire, local myths are likely observed, but in the most Lunarized and urban eras the quest of the Red Goddess might be re-enacted (she saved the world by "reinventing" Time). Yet universally what is being re-enacted is the saving of the world. For simplicity, we will focus on the Lightbringers here.
The Orlanthi day begins at sunset, not midnight, so the Sacred Time rituals are performed then. In Disorder Week they are conducted each night from sunset to past midnight, symbolizing the descent of the Lightbringers into the Underworld. In Fate Week, they are conducted from before dawn to late morning, symbolizing the return. A number of cults have their holy days here, and these usually happen from midday into the afternoon. Adventurers who participate in both Sacred Time rites and worship rites probably end the day exhausted!
Mechanics & Procedures
Sacred Time rituals are "community" level heroquests, designed to bring a boon to the community. The success of each individual community contributes cumulatively to saving the world, but for the sake of your gaming table, focus on your clan, neighborhood, or community.
The Boon: the Boon being sought during Sacred Time is continued existence. Time has died and you are rebirthing it. Succeed and the world is reborn. Fail, and entropy reigns.
To model this, replace the "Omens" table on p. 421 with the following. The community will perform a heroquest. Successfully passing each stage results in a cumulative +5% bonus. Failing a stage results is a cumulative -5% penalty. These cancel each other out, so if you pass four stages and fail two, you end up with a +10%.
This number replaces the Harvest modifier on the Omens table. If you are using the Community Characteristics rules from The Company of the Dragon, this modifier is additionally applied to all Community Characteristic rolls made the next year. For example, a clan with a Community CHA of 12 is negotiating with a neighboring clan. Unfortunately, they have a -15% penalty from Sacred Time. Instead of rolling against 60% (12 x 5) they now role against 45%.
If none of the stages are passed, disaster befalls the community. For example, the harvest is threatened by grain blight. Heavy rains cause flooding and landslides. Lack of rain threatens famine and drought. The cattle are plagued by particularly powerful disease spirits. The community wyter falls silent and cannot be contacted. No children are conceived that entire year, etc, etc. This is in addition to the penalty mentioned above.
If all stages are passed, the community is blessed. Add 1D3+1 to three Community Characteristics. Add the bonus to all "Childbirth" and "Child Survival" rolls for community members that year. The GM may add any other blessings they desire.
The Myth: for simplicity's sake we will assume our community is an Orlanthi clan and the Myth being enacted is the Lightbringers' Quest.
There are several versions of this now available in print. For example, pages 12 and 13 of The Lightbringers or pages 45-47 of Mythology. It is critical to understand, however, that different tribes, different clans, different cities, will all have slightly different versions, and the episodes of the myth they re-enact will differ. Feel free to embellish, modify, and alter to create a version unique to your community.
The Hero's Journey: as described on page 169 of The Company of the Dragon, your heroquest will begin with "The Call to Adventure," a series of trials and tests, a "Supreme Ordeal," and "The Return."
On pages 19 to 25 of The Seven Tailed Wolf I present a version of this, portraying Kallyr's disastrous attempt at a nationwide Lightbringers' quest. On Freezeday of Luck Week, the "Call to Adventure" begins with Orlanth recognizing the danger the world is in and vowing to set it right. On each subsequent day I stage a different episode drawn from the myth.
For your Sacred Time re-enactments, I recommend starting the same. "The Call to Adventure" can simply be Orlanth vowing to set things right. After, you will want about 4 scenes or episodes from the Lightbringers' Quest to provide the trials and tests, each performed on subsequent days. Then comes the Supreme Ordeal, the gods confronting the Devil in the Underworld, the forging of the Great Compromise, and the birth of Time. The Return is the final day, with the Lightbringers returning through the gates of Dawn.
This totals 7 scenes. Obviously Sacred Time is 14 days in length, but unless you are feeling really ambitious or really masochistic, I don't suggest 14 full scenes. Assume that other re-enactments are going on the other 7 days, but don't weigh yourself down (particularly at first). Note also that in Mythology, in the description "What Happens in Sacred Time?" (pp. 51-52), the Lightbringers' Quest lasts only 7 days. The other days are given to other gods. If you wish to conform to that outline, you can still use all of the following to portray the Lightbringers' Quest.
Also, focus on the player characters. If you have an Orlanthi, a Lhankor Mhy, and an Issaries in the group, make sure to pick episodes from the Lightbringers' Quest that showcase these deities.
Following the Lightbringers' Quest as presented in Mythology, your re-enactments might look something like this:
Day 1: The Call to Adventure. Orlanth looks upon his blasted and empty hall and vows to set the world to rights.
Day 2. Orlanth heads west and gathers the Lightbringers. They cross the sea on the back of the Turtle God and confront the purple-skinned Luathelans and the bloody goddess of Dusk, finally finding the entrance to the Underworld.
Day 3. They descend into the Underworld, facing terrible trials and ordeals.
Day 4. The Lightbringers seek the Halls of the Dead, confronting wraiths and shades, darkness spirits, and finally King Griffin, who they must challenge to enter.
Day 5. Orlanth confronts Yelm at last. The Lightbringers endure the requirement of Proof, and Trial by Combat.
Day 6. The gods swear the Great Compromise and perform the Ritual of the Net. The Devil is faced, defeated, and devoured by Arachne Solara.
Day 7. The gods make the dangerous return journey, this time with Yelm and other dead gods. They endure further tests and challenges before returning victorious through the Gates of Dawn.
This is the structure. Now let's focus on the performance.
Performance: at sunset on Freezeday, Luck Week, the entire clan gathers. Community leaders and important members have been selected to portray the roles of the Lightbringers, Yelm, and other important characters. They will be costumed, painted, and dressed as these gods. For the next two weeks they will not be referred to by their names. Instead they will be called by the name of the god they embody.
The rest of the community will lend magical support, watching the re-enactment of the quest, singing along with the verses of the story, performing ritual gestures at critical moments, and the like.
On that first sunset sacrifices are offered. A prized bull. Jewelry. Beloved possessions. Locks of hair. If the last year was particularly bad omened, they might even sacrifice a horse.
Following the sacrifice, prayers are offered to the gods. Player characters must make Worship rolls. If you are using the Community Characteristic system, Community POW and CON are rolled to represent the magical and material sacrifices being made. The entire community sings and dances. If the player characters are supporting the rites, and not playing the roles of gods, they must all make Dance and Sing rolls, and sacrifice at least 2 magic points.
Start keeping track of who succeeds and who fails. Those who succeed most of their rolls should be awarded a blessing at the end of the day. Those who fail most of their rolls gain a bane. See the boxed text on page 171 of The Company of the Dragon for details. Keep track of the total number of rolls as well...do most pass or fail? This is important to test and see if the community passes the stage.
If player characters are portraying the gods, they must come out, costumed, and deliver their lines. Have them make Act, Sing, or Orate rolls (the myths are ritually chanted along with drumming and piping). They cross over to the Other Side and now speak and think as the god they portray.
As a very general rule, I have the group face 2 or 3 tests each stage (day) of the quest, 1 or 2 if there is a combat. This is because I run following the "1 Season 1 Adventure" rule and am counting all of Sacred Time as a single adventure. Further, I like to play one adventure per game session, so I try to keep things moving. There is no reason why you cannot increase the number of challenges faced each day, however. Also, I try to think of broad tests that everyone can face, but also ones that spotlight specific cults and characters. Give Chalana Arroy, Issaries, Lhankor Mhy, Eurmal, and the others a chance to shine.
Looking back at our myth what is being re-enacted here is "Orlanth Vowing to set the World to Rights." I presented a version of it in The Seven Tailed Wolf page 19, drawn from Stafford's Book of Heortling Mythology with my own elaborations. Present it however you like, but this opening session should be briefer and less challenging than the trials ahead. You are merely setting the stage, and a number of rolls have already been made, enough to calculate the results of the day.
If the majority of rolls pass, the community gains +5% that day. If not, -5%.
The second day (assume Clayday, Luck week, skipping every other day) we have "The Westfaring," Orlanth heading west and gathering the Lightbringers as outlined in the myth above. The community gathers at sunset, and after songs and prayers are offered, the quest resumes.
This is the first of the trials and testing stages of the heroquest. In Company of the Dragon I broke these down into three: facing a foe, making an ally, and beating a challenge. There are plenty of opportunities to make allies as Orlanth encounters and recruits each of the Lightbringers. They then must convince the Turtle God to carry them across the sea. This is probably beating a challenge. They confront the Luathelans, leading to either facing a foe or beating a challenge, and then the bloody goddess of the Dusk, whom they must convince to let them into the underworld. This is probably beating a challenge.
At this point, however, it might be best if we digress for a second. Consider the following a "sidebar."
What is actually happening here?
Always keep in mind that this is a re-enactment, a performance. The performers have one foot in this world and one in the Other Side, so they actually see and experience the myth as if it were real. For example, in confronting the Luathelans above, the questers see towering, purple-skinned demigods looming over them on the God Plane. When they fight, Orlanth hurls his Lightning Spear at one with a terrible flash of light and crash of thunder...
...but at the same time, those "Luathelans" are fellow clansmen painted purple, and the Lightning Spear Orlanth carries is a prop. The entire clan is looking on, chanting, cheering, lending magical support to the gods.
You are not, then, actually testing the character's Javelin or Spear skill. They are not attempting to wound or kill their clansmen! So what are we testing then?
As a general rule, you primarily want to test Rune affinities, performance skills like Act, Dance, Orate, and Sing, and knowledge skills like Cult Lore. Passions come into play when appropriate (Devotion to the god you are personifying, Hate of an enemy you are facing). Magical skills like Worship and Spirit Combat are also common. Most other skills are irrelevant. This is a magical and religious ceremony, not a physical adventure.
Continuing our example, then, when Orlanth throws the Lighting Spear at the Luathelan, the character might...
...test Orate, as they declare "And lo He Who Wields the Thunderbolt did unleash his Spear of Lightning, and smote his enemy in wrath."
...test Dance as in the performance they dash gracefully around the Luathelan in circles, tapping them with the Lightning Spear prop.
...test Act as the performer bellow and roars so convincingly that the audience sees Orlanth before them.
...test the Air Rune affinity or Devotion Orlanth, as the performing calls upon their god's magic to smite the enemy on the God Plane.
There are exceptions to this. In The Seven Tailed Wolf to simulate the Turtle God bearing the Lightbringers over the sea, clansmen portrayed the Turtle by carrying the Lightbringers on shields raised over their heads, while other clansmen played the roll of the sea (!!!) throwing buckets of water at them trying to make them drop the Lightbringers. Meanwhile the Lightbringers had to stand on the shields and try not to fall. These were tests of STR, CON, and DEX, with a few other physical skills as well. But the primary thing is that it was a ritualized game, not an actual fight.
Also, there may be times (as we will see when we reach "The Supreme Ordeal" stage below) that actual fighting may occur. In The Company of the Dragon I talked about a Storm Bull initiation ritual in which the initiate had to act out Storm Bull's destruction of the Devil. This was done by placing the initiate into a ring with a captured Chaos creature (typically a Broo) and having them fight. There are similar episodes in The Seven Tailed Wolf. Further, the Orlanth use of "Summons of Evil" also brings real danger to the test.
To sum up, 90% of the time you want to test magical and performance skills. There will be times, especially in those who focus all of their attention on their character's weapon skills, when players complain about this. I like to remind them characters in RuneQuest are not only fighters, they are also magic-users, and that even the deadliest samurai practiced poetry, noh, and flower-arranging!
Now back to our quest...
Day three falls on Fireday, Luck Week. Again, at sunset, the clan gathers at the ritual space around the performers. Prayers are sung, and the drumming and piping begins.
In this stage, the Lightbringers descend into the Underworld, facing trials and tests as they go. There are any number of options here. The safe path must be found (Issaries or Eurmal might test Devotion to their god, Issaries as the Pathfinder and Eurmal as the one who knows the way into Hell). The Lightbringers might be attacked by Underworld demons or the Dead. The performers may have to test their Darkness Rune affinities to not get lost in the blackness, or their Water Rune affinities to cross the Styx. They might meet Darkness spirits they might ally as a guide (Orate, Act, etc).
Day four falls on Godday, Luck Week. As usual, the clan gathers at sunset, prayers are offered, the music begins. On this day the Lightbringers cross the Underworld, seeking the Halls of Yelm, and must pass King Griffin to enter. Perhaps Chalana Arroy must heal the blind and hungry dead so that the Lightbringers may pass (Devotion or Worship Chalana Arroy, or test the Harmony or Fertility Rune). Maybe Eurmal must trick the way past them. Maybe Flesh Man finds his father amongst them and must convince his father to aid them (test the Man Rune affinity). Whatever the case, the journey ends with King Griffin. They must persuade him to let them pass (Orate, Act, Sing) or answer his riddles (Cult Lore).
Day five falls on Waterday, Fate Week. This time the clan assembles at dawn, and will for the rest of the days. After the usual opening, the re-enactment begins. At this stage they must face Yelm in his Halls.
Mythology is pretty specific here (p. 47) in what they face, and it is mostly Orlanth centered. It beings with a tense series of negotiations with Yelm, and these could be re-enacted by having the Orlanth performer and a fellow clansmen skilled in oratory "orate" against one another (a rap battle!). Or a clansmen with a high Fire/Sky Rune and the Orlanth performer might have a Rune Affinity contest.
After this Orlanth endures the "acidic hatred" of his assembled enemies. Perhaps the Orlanth performer is splashed with a bucket of lye water (yes, we know it is a base and not an acid, but I doubt the Orlanthi make such a distinction) and must dodge it (a time the actual Dodge skill is used) or suffer a certain amount of actual damage (a low amount, say 1D3...the performer has failed the test which was the point, not blinding or burning them). Alternatively it could be handled the usual ways (contests of skills such as Orate, Sing, or Act against one another).
Then comes trial by combat. Again this could be pure performance (a Dance contest), or non-lethal fighting to first blood using Fist or Grapple). If Orlanth is wounded, give Chalana Arroy the chance to heal him (another test).
Day six comes Windsday, Fate Week. This is the Supreme Ordeal, the confrontation with the Devil in Hell, his devouring and binding, and the swearing of the Great Compromise. The clan gathers at dawn and after the usual rites the tests begin.
This is a perfect example of when actual combat might occur. "Summons of Evil" might be used, or a captured Chaotic foe might have to be fought and defeated to re-enact the defeat of the Devil. Once defeated, the ritual of the Net might be performed, with each performer holding threads, weaving in and out of one another to form an elaborate web (all must pass Dance tests).
The seventh and final day falls on Wildday, Fate Week. It begins again at dawn. After the opening rites and rituals the performers re-enact the return of the Lightbringers, with Yelm, to the world.
The final day of Sacred Time, Godday, Fate Week, is a time for celebration, feasting, and rejoicing (tempered by how well the rites were performed!).
Final Notes
None of this, of course, is a full scenario, just an outline to give individual GMs ideas. As mentioned, I give full scenario examples in The Seven Tailed Wolf (though these are Kallyr's larger pilgrimage version of the rites) for further ideas.
Also this post focuses solely on the Lightbringers' Quest, and if your group is made up mainly of members of other cults, take a look at Mythology, "What Happens in Sacred Time?" (pp. 51-52) for ideas on things they might be doing.
