REDISCOVERING ERNALDA: AN INTERVIEW WITH CLAUDIA LOROFF

Ernalda. In most RuneQuest and other Gloranthan campaigns she is Queen of the Gods and the supreme deity of the Earth pantheon. Hers is one of the most powerful and widespread cults in the setting. But the Ernalda we see today, in products like the Glorantha Sourcebook and the new RuneQuest Roleplaying In Glorantha game line, is not exactly the same Ernalda we met in products 40 years ago. If you lay the cult of Ernalda description from both 1984’s “Glorantha Book” in RQ3 and the one appearing in the upcoming RQG cults book side-by-side and read them, the difference is striking. Nothing has been retconned, and sometimes the very same sentences are repeated, but you easily see that while the skeleton has remained the same the current Ernalda has been fleshed out in fascinating ways. Important ways. In this piece I would like to dive into those. 

My interest in Ernalda began at university. I had played RuneQuest for about eight years and was finally running my first campaign. More than half of the players in my gaming group were women. At the same time, I was a budding Indologist, and my focus was on the Mahādevī (Sanskrit “great goddess,” cognate with Latin magna dea). Naturally both my players and I were interested in exploring the Gloranthan Great Goddesses and the Divine Feminine in the setting. Unfortunately, this was 1990, and the only real example of this in print was the Red Goddess. We had the cult write-up of Ernalda from RQ3, but the Disneyfied presentation of her there did not at all embody the Great Goddess I knew from mythology. Yes, she was universally loved and worshipped, yes she was the bountiful earth, yes in many lands she was the bride of the ruling local god, but she lacked anything even vaguely resembling agency. This was not a truly mythological Great Goddess. She felt sanitized and whitewashed for a hobby that still catered to a young male demographic for which a true Great Goddess could only be portrayed as the Chaos-loving adversary.

As I introduce my latest group of players to Glorantha, this is no longer true. Like the Red Goddess, Ernalda now feels like a Great Goddess. To find out more about this evolution, I reached out to RQG editor-in-chief Jeff Richard, who in turn pointed me in the direction of Claudia Loroff, who alongside Jeff and Greg Stafford was instrumental in writing the new cult of Ernalda text.

ALM: Claudia, thanks so much for doing this. I thought we might start by having you introduce yourself, and tell us a little about what brought you to Glorantha and fantasy gaming?

CL: I started roleplaying games in the mid-eighties, living in Berlin, Germany where I grew up. My school mates were playing Das Schwarze Auge – at that time the most popular German RPG. Some time after, we went through a period of trying a lot of RPGs. That was when I tried Call of Cthulhu, Traveler, AD&D, Elric! and whatever was on the market. In the early nineties I came into contact with a group playing RQ3 and became involved in the German RQ-scene. Later, in the mid-nineties, I had a strong Call of Cthulhu phase – both games became the games I played most. I also went through a long phase of playing Magic The Gathering and my other big love are board games. I am an “Essen Spiel” regular and attending the fair since 1992 every year. And of course, I read all the relevant books already as a teenager (like Lord of the Rings, Dune, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and so on). I would call it a classic gamer vita except maybe that I always was one of the few women who did that.

Eventually, I met my husband Jeff Richard on a gaming convention at the Rhine River in 2006. He introduced himself as my nemesis. Isn't that romantic? It was actually Greg Stafford--who was there too who got it faster than the two us that we could be a good match. But that is another story.

I got stuck with Glorantha because of the setting AND the people I played it with. Of course, when you are playing it for so long, attending many conventions, you know people from all over the world and it is a setting which connects you with a lot of very interesting people. 

ALM: How would you describe Ernalda? Who is she, what is she and what are her key attributes?

CL: She is the earth mother! She brings life, feeds everybody, keeps the community together. She is powerful. If you treat her badly, you will starve, or nature will threaten you. 

She knows how to keep the soil fertile in the real world but also spiritually with her rituals. Of course, sex and childbirth both play a very important role. Her followers will be the first ones rolling in the fields having sex with lovers to end the winter and give spiritual life to the soil. A priestess of Ernalda would welcome and encourage women who are able to give birth to do the same and to strengthen her magic! And if children result of these kinds of rituals, they are blessed by the goddess! Keep in mind – childbirth is a dangerous thing and bringing a child up and make it survive in a Bronze Age world is a challenge. Pregnant women, babies, and children need every worldly and spiritual support.

Her followers represent the wise woman in a community who knows when the weather changes and the crop must be brought in or when the time of frost is over, and the seeds can be brought into the soil. She knows the yearly rhythm of planting to keep the soil fertile and what can be planted with others to keep plants and creatures healthy.

Her followers are the ones who look after the community – making sure everybody is healthy and fed and play their part to make the community thrive.

 

I always have those ancient voluptuous clay figurines in mind with wide hips, big breasts, narrow waist, fleshy legs, and arms which show abundance and femineity at the same time, mixed with the Minoan pictures of women in dresses showing their bare breasts. 

If treated badly, Ernalda gets her revenge. She can do it herself but of course, she has deities in the earth pantheon who are more on the fighting side, but she makes it also very clear to the male deities that they must fulfill their role not only as a lover but also as a protector or even avenger if necessary.

In a game, an Ernaldan worshipper in the group opens doors, makes easy contacts, and can kick ass in battle if necessary through earth magic. They are fun to play because these characters have the potential to be “three dimensional” – what I mean is that they can be the characters with the social connections but also can kick ass in fights (of course, they must keep an eye on their magic and Rune points but on the other hand – use them – that is what they are for!). And never forget how awesome an Ernaldan dancer or singer can be in augmenting other characters if necessary. Even in real world history, dancing and singing – often supported by mind opening substances – was one way to give courage and support in difficult times or for difficult tasks. This can be directly transferred into roleplaying with augmentation – perfect!

I know that the Ernaldan picture I draw here is a character archetype which is meant for adult players. It stresses a lot – let’s say – difficult or “R-rated” topics, like blood sacrifices of animals, sex in the fields, mind opening substances and glorifying pregnancy (some pregnant women artwork made it into the Gloranthan books – I love it!). But they all fit to mother earth!

ALM: If you look at “The Cult of Ernalda” in 1984’s RQ3, one of the earliest presentations of the cult, you read; “Yelm came and inaugurated the Golden Age. He took Ernalda as queen. Later Orlanth came and vied mightily for her freedom. Finally, Orlanth won Ernalda and slew Yelm.” 

That same section today reads; “The Celestial Court handed rulership of the cosmos over to Yelm, who came and inaugurated the Golden Age. Yelm took Ernalda as his concubine and demanded absolute submission from all. Ernalda sought a champion who could rescue her from this imprisonment. The storm god Orlanth came to court Ernalda and proved he was worthy of her. With her aid, Orlanth vied mightily for her freedom and killed Yelm. Ernalda took Orlanth as her husband and together they ruled the gods.”

It’s the same story, clearly, but in the first version Ernalda has no agency. She is taken as queen and then won. All the action belongs to Yelm and Orlanth. The new version is very different. Why the change, and why did you feel it necessary?

CL: Several years ago, we had a long discussion how to make Ernaldan initiates playable as characters. Why were they not attractive? 

In the first story, Ernalda is a token which can be taken and given to the next. I don’t think it was meant like this but that is how it reads. But stop – you are talking about a kick ass goddess who – within her pantheon, can shake the world and shape it, can breathe life into dirt, can let plants grow and last or wither, can bless pregnancy and childbirth and with all of that controls the life and – as a summary - is the incarnation of love, sex, and rock'n roll! Of course, no god can rule over her. Somebody so powerful does not want to be a concubine – she is the “first mother”, the super woman, the life giver and in the end within her pantheon also the resting place for the dead. She IS the life cycle and Orlanth did well in freeing her from Yelm’s claws. For that, she rewarded him with accepting him as a husband. He showed with his actions that he cared, that he can fight for her and win and these are very important traits for bringing up and supporting future children and the things she loves. 

The question was how to translate this into game play. Of course, an Ernaldan initiate or priestess can fight for herself but why? She has a more important task – let the ones do the fighting who have it as their main focus. Ernalda makes a community thrive. In an adventurer’s party, an Ernaldan initiate or priestess is the one who is always welcomed as a representative of the goddess. She will be asked to bless whatever gives (uncorrupted) life or represents life (crops, animals, women to get pregnant, pregnant women, children). To make a blessing worthwhile, it involves sex, sacrifices, singing and dancing.

By the way, the communities love every Ernaldan sacrifice (goods from the harvest, prepared foods, a nice bull or cow, chicken, a pig, or sheep). Since these are sacrifices to keep the goddess happy, the community will make sure to present high quality goods. An animal slaughtered in a ceremonial way makes it special. Part of the ceremony is not only cutting the throat of that animal but also preparing it into a delightful dish which the community can share in the name of Ernalda. Every sacrifice will be eaten – smaller “day-to-day” sacrifices keep the priestess nourished (or the ones of the community who need help), bigger ones as part of festivities will be shared in the community. In my opinion, thinking about sacrifices this way takes the edge out of them. What does this mean for game play? Of course, an adventuring party has a much better standing entering a village to get them to help if they pay for a nice pig to be sacrificed, hand it over to their Ernaldan priestess (not every village has their own Ernaldan priestess), she throws the big party properly killing the pig, grilling over a fire and presenting it with a lot of dancing and singing to the community for a nice party.

To make a long story short – your Ernaldan in your adventurer’s group is usually the key to get people to trust you and get their support. She can be very convincing, and her parties are legendary. 

At the same time, we had to make sure that she can be a real threat in a battle. An Earth Elemental is not funny and commanding swine can make the life of Tusk Riders very difficult. 

What I always like about playing in Glorantha is the rich setting and that you can do much more than dungeon crawls. Playing out the community part: I talked already a lot about the role and importance of an Ernaldan in communities. Of course, you can go into the Puzzle Canal and fight chaos monsters. But this gets boring. And if you are not a Storm Bull, you like to have a reason why you fight the Chaos monsters. This is when the community part comes into focus. Of course, the GM can let the adventurers enter a village and the villagers run instantly to them to ask for help against the chaos monsters torturing them. On the other side, the GM can play it out, maybe the village is cursed by the gods and the adventurers must find out why. An Ernaldan is good in building up trust and making good sacrifices!

The setting is deadly: You character can die easily. I find this challenging and interesting.

Try to run a farm: The setting gives you enough material to make playing a farmer interesting. We tried to run a farm in Dorastor and failed! It was too dangerous!

The world is Mystical: Glorantha is always described as a rich setting. Why? Because even after playing in it for nearly 30 years I can find new things. You can fight chaos monsters (and likely die – remember – the setting is deadly!). You can help a giant baby on the River of Cradles get to the ocean, you can fight Lunar oppressors, you can be a Wolf Pirate, you can try to find out why the dwarfs work on the world machine, you can ride on zebras, beetles and bisons (and more), you can go on treasure hunts in the Big Rubble, you can play politics in Notchet (see later point), you can discover that Argrath is a Dragon (did I spoil something here?), you can meet the Feathered Horse Queen and become her champion, you can be a crazy Lunar magician, you can try to fight iconic figures like Jar Eel (and lose), and so on. 

Going on a heroquest: I love heroquesting! In a good heroquest, you must be very creative and use what you have at hand. It comes out always differently than as planned and it is about challenges to overcome. A good GM lets you play around with metaphors and metaphorical use of your skills to overcome the challenges. 

Gods are real. I mean it two ways – you can talk to them or interact with them because they are real and they are a bunch of jealous, backstabbing, loving, caring, fighting, killing, and scheming creatures, which give a lot of potential to put it into games!

The setting is four dimensional. You not only have not only a well described setting but a well described setting over time! You have a rich history to play around with. The year and season you play in matters. This gives the world an additional complexity which I call the fourth dimension - time. 

Coming back to Ernalda there is of course Nochet in Esrolia – the place to go for any Ernaldan. City ruled by women – not only in the palace complexes but the whole city by the Grandmothers – with political scheming as much as your heart likes. 

I also like that the picture of other sentient beings like elfs, dwarfs and trolls is very different in Glorantha from classic high fantasy – I find it very refreshing.

ALM: What are some other important additions or changes to the current portrayal of Ernalda do you feel are important?

CL: Ernalda is a powerful goddess, and her worshippers can take over an important role in an adventurer party. They now have useful skills (and yes, in a very mystic culture with a lot of powerful gods and goddesses skills like singing, dancing and worshipping are very useful!) and powerful spells (only want to mention the big huge Earth Elemental again – not only useful in battles!). I also think that stressing the importance of pregnancy and childbirth gives Ernalda a positive and special touch. 

What I am still working on is to change the mental pictures of Ernaldan women. I am very happy that pictures of pregnant women made it into the published books. I would love to see more pictures of “fleshier” Ernaldan priestesses, not only the skinny ballet dancers. They do not to have to be Rubenesque, more like a well-curved belly dancer – and they are getting more and more in this direction. In my eyes, a successful and powerful Ernaldan priestess would look well-nourished and reflect how successful she is and not look like the super models today. And – to be honest – giving childbirth also changes the body of a woman and that is OK!

ALM: Ernalda is first and foremost a mother goddess. Her priestesses must have given birth to at least one healthy child to qualify for the position. As a mother, how (if at all) has motherhood affected the way you approach RPGs and Glorantha? And what are your thoughts on women and gaming, and especially mothers in gaming? Does the hobby do enough to include them?

CL: I would like to separate these questions:

Before being a mother, topics like pregnancy and childbirth were there but in a very theoretical way and made it only rarely into my games. Giving birth to two wonderful children and nearly dying giving birth to my second, my daughter, changed a lot. Taking responsibility for the two changed me even more. You become a member of a “different club”, as a friend once said and that is right. Playing a priestess of a goddess which - as you said yourself - is the mother goddess must be a mother herself to know what it means. As I stressed before, giving birth is wonderful but can also be very dangerous – even nowadays. The wonderful thing in the game is that there is a goddess who can help and who sees this as one of her tasks to help bring new life to the world (human, animal life, plants) and let it thrive and fiercely protects it if necessary. 

Since becoming a mother, my characters became more involved with the topic. Getting strategically married for a year and a day and discussing what happened with children during the time was not a thing we waived away but really discussed it. With my Ernaldan initiate I made sure that one of our other characters played by a friend got pregnant to build a strategical alliance (don't be shocked – it was totally normal in ancient times). Over the course of the campaign that character gave birth and child raising was an important topic. I was the only mother in the group, and I don’t think I would have chosen that path during the game without my own experiences. I think I would not even have thought about it.

About women in gaming – of course, the Ernaldan is a character which should be fun for women to play. I think I will fall into stereotypes saying that women like to play more social characters and men the fighters. Yanioth, initiate of Ernalda from the starter set, is based on one of my characters I play. This character is so often played by men at conventions, and they do a wonderful job!

What I observed is that people new in RPGs (or new in an RPG setting) often tend to choose a character of their own gender and maybe even with ties to their own life. It makes it easier to get into the role and keeps space to concentrate on the new setting and on the rules. Experienced gamers usually do not care – they play what they like or what they always played (I don't understand that part – I love to experience new concepts). To give support for the first group I think it is important to provide them with sufficiently different kinds of possible characters and genders which are fun to play which Glorantha allows. And that is what we tried when tweaking the Ernalda cult – making these characters fun to play! If a woman (or man or nonbinary) wants to play a woman, nearly all cults provide a female aspect and they are fully integrated and have a distinct place in Gloranthan society. In many cases, they are not only a male version made with the changed gender, but they are often represented with their own variation of a cult including their own specialties. And yes, some cults are reserved for certain genders because it makes mythological sense. This makes the setting so attractive for me! I usually prefer to play characters which challenge me to play –I have played straight forward male and female Humakti and my first RQ character was a female Chalana Arroy. I also liked my male Lhankor Mhy initiate, or the female Ty Kora Tek initiate I play in our White Bull Campaign. I wanted to try how to create a playable necromancer in Glorantha and that was how Gina Gravedancer was developed. Maybe I have a soft spot for cults in Glorantha which are rarely played and try them out. 

About mothers in gaming – having children, especially smaller children means that somebody must take care of them. This can make participating in RPGs sometimes difficult if both parents play (especially in our case where my husband needs to play as part of his work, so he goes to conventions and I stay home with the kids or we all go but I am still stuck with the kids. Luckily, they are now at an age where they enjoy board games – my other big hobby). As parents, you have several options: if you are lucky and the gaming group comes to your home, maybe you get to play when the kids are in bed or when they are watching TV, playing computer games or can join (and when they are able to join, they start to play with their own group and are old enough you do not have to observe them anymore). Maybe somebody in your gaming groups has kids the same age, then you can share the duty but there is always the possibility that the kids destroy the house while you are totally entranced in a heroquest….

Next option: only one goes out gaming and the other one stays at home (can be a nice break in childcare but it is sad if you shared the hobby before…). 

Or you play online, checking from time to time if the kids have not destroyed the flat and while the other players get a fresh glass of wine during a break you quickly try to get your kids asleep. In my experience, the game is not the problem, the setting is challenging, and you must find ways to make playing possible. And even during a time where parents share the tasks bringing children up, often certain things are still mommy-duty. Which is totally OK (and yes, I am a fierce believer in gender equality, but it also has its limits – men cannot give birth and they cannot breast feed and there is a special mommy-power especially with smaller children – daddies don't worry – you get your fair share when they get older!). 

ALM: What advice would you give to players who wanted to portray an Ernaldan character?

CL: Good question. The easy answer would be: look at Yanioth in the starter set. The more complicated one is – try to picture the character you want to play. Think yourself into a tough Bronze Age time combined with a lot of powerful magic and scary mythology. Think about this little clay figurines I talked about before and what they mean – femininity, fertility, abundance, and the protection of all three of them. That is what your character needs! Don't be afraid of topics like sex, nudity, or sacrifices (but, of course, respect the feelings of your other players about these topics – use them with care!). Don't make your Ernaldan Character perfect in minimaxing points and skills – give her some edges and make a kick-ass lady which is fun to play! 

ALM: Finally, and just for fun, Ernalda famously has a long line of husband-protectors. Which of them is you favorite and why?  

CL: Orlanth is the best. Why? Because most of the games, one plays an Orlanthi and you find them everywhere as NPCs. It can be very practical in a game to remind them of their husband protector duties. And they have the best runs for proper Ernaldan rituals! 

SIX (MORE) SEASONS IN SARTAR: IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING REDUX

If you haven't played Six Seasons in Sartar, or read the blog, this post will contain spoilers. Be warned.

PROBABLY THE CHAPTER THAT CHANGED THE LEAST between the HeroQuest blog version of Six Seasons in Sartar and the published RuneQuest version was "In Sheep's Clothing." This mystery, in which an encounter with a ghost draws the player characters into a hunt for missing children, is pretty much the same in both versions. What did change is that the published version falls after "The Riddle" and "Rites of Passage," meaning that the player characters are now adults as they investigate the disappearances. In the blog version, "In Sheep's Clothing" fell before their coming of age rites, meaning that the player characters were technically just children themselves.

With a wink and a nod towards "Hansel and Gretel," "In Sheep's Clothing" deals with one of my favorite (and in my opinion most woefully underused) Gloranthan menaces, the ogre. I think I enjoy Glorantha the most when it borders on the fairy tale, and of the six chapters of the campaign this is the one where I indulge that predilection the most. Gloranthan ogres, which look indistinguishable from humans but have a taste for human flesh, are straight out of fairy tales. "Puss in Boots," "Hop-o'-my-Thumb," and even some versions of "Bluebeard" are classic ogre stories. They tap into that deeply rooted taboo of cannibalism, and the modern exemplar of the ogre would have to be Hannibal Lecter. Drugalla Applecheeks, the ogress in this particular fable,  is essential one gingerbread house short of being a full-on fairy story witch. She lures children to their dooms, devours them, and gives sacrifice to Cacodemon, literally a manifestation of the Devil.

The Fairy Tale Ogre

Of course, having played it all once, the revelation that Drugalla is an ogre was about as shocking to my players as watching any given film version of Dracula ("wait...Count Dracula is...a vampire?!?!"). While there are substantial differences between the other Six Seasons in Sartar chapters and the blog versions this group already played, enough to keep them guessing at least, replaying this one was pretty much the equivalent of watching a rerun. But that was fine. This was their first real session of RuneQuest, and so playing through the same story a second time gave them the chance to worry less about unraveling the mystery and more about learning the new system. As mentioned earlier, the fact that in this version their characters were adults (with magic) rather than children (without magic) also made a big difference.

The ogre from Puss in Boots

Which brings us to the climax.

The characters are now all initiates of the Black Stag and have sacrificed for Rune magic. This led to a very innovative and unexpected use of the spell "The Stag's Leap" (SSiS, p. 18). At the climax, entering Drugalla's cavern, they see her across the chamber menacing her captive child. Rather than cross the distance on foot, both Beralor and Kalliva used "The Stag's Leap" to get there instantly, giving Drugalla no time to react. A special success with a sword attack, added to the luck that it was a blow to the head, made short work of our ogress.

The next session will be "The Deer Folk," the chapter in which The Company of the Dragon has its roots. Now that the players have a basic grasp of the system, it will be time to throw a much fuller RuneQuest adventure at them.

   

Sex, Gender, and the Orlanthi: Running "The Riddle" and "Rites of Passage" Again

Sex and Adulthood Rites

THE ORLANTHI HAVE A GRIM MYTH explaining the origin of sex. They speak of the Elder Gods—beings like Maker and Grower—who brought forth new life at whim but without any logic or order to it. The life-giving power was sporadic and chaotic. One of these Elder Gods, the most prolific, was called Great Eater, and “it could do only two things, bear and eat.” It spawned massive amounts of life only to reabsorb them into itself immediately after. In horror of this the gods gathered in a circle and prayed for help to end the madness. The result was a pair of new deities, Uleria and Urtiam.

Uleria and Urtiam showed the young world a New Way. Together they brought forth the children Love and Order. “They taught the gods about sexual intercourse…before this there were no sexes in the world.” The gods embraced the New Way and took up sexes of their own. This way, they were able to bear children that were distinct and different from them. Later, Uleria and Urtiam produced another pair of twins, Darhudan and Darudana. These were the two sides of the Man Rune, the Male and the Female.

In the Orlanthi mind, then, “biological” sex is simply about procreation. Humans and animals are born male and female simply for there to be an orderly continuation of the species. It has nothing to do with gender. In fact sex has little to do with the essential nature or being of a person. The Orlanthi refer to it as “shape.” He is “shaped like a man.” She is “shaped like a woman.” It is not necessarily who the really are. It should also be noted that they observe two more categories, less common perhaps but still valid. There is a sex “shaped like both” and a sex “shaped like neither.”

“Gender” is something deeper. Unlike “shape,” it determines the inner nature of the individual, their role in society, and most importantly which gods they are called to.

In writing the earliest chapters of Six Seasons in Sartar I needed to process all of this and keep it clear in my mind. The campaign starts with a pair of adulthood initiation ceremonies in which the player characters come of age. For boys, this happens when they “come of hair,” and the rites are something they go through with several other boys their age. For girls, immediately after menarche they undergo their womanhood rites alone. Greg Stafford left fairly detailed descriptions of these adulthood rites and I used them as the basis for both “Rites of Passage” and “The Riddle.” What became clear to me working through them was that the adulthood initiations were about sex, not gender. They are based, after all, on when children start displaying adult sexual characteristics, and separate the children based solely on their “shapes.” 

The More Complicated Question of Gender

The two “baseline” genders in the Orlanthi culture are the role embodied by the cult of Orlanth and the role embodied by the cult of Ernalda. Orlanth represents the tripartite roles of farmer, warrior, and leader. His job is to protect and nurture life. Ernalda heals, tends to the family, and possesses the mystery of sex and procreation. Her job to to create life and maintain continuity.

These tend to correspond to the sexes of “male” and “female,” but it is more accurate to call these genders “like Orlanth” and “like Ernalda.” In the adulthood initiation rites, children become “men” and “women,” but it is still an open question which gender they will take. While it is true that most men will become “like Orlanth” and most women “like Ernalda,” this is not definitely the case. In “Rites of Passage,” the character Aventarl Son of Rosonil is an example of a boy who may very likely not become “like Orlanth.” In my latest running of the campaign, in fact, I made it clear that he will become a Nandan (see below). Likewise, in “The Riddle,” the player and GM work together to observe and record the player character’s choices to see whether they will become “like Ernalda” or chose a different path.

Ernalda, in fact, presents us with a very particular problem.

Running the two adulthood rites again for my group I am once more struck how much darker, deeper, and more intense “The Riddle” feels to me. There is an element of danger here very different from that faced by the boys. This is not my doing, but Greg’s. It strikes me that the Orlanthi are curiously blasé about when exactly the boys go through their manhood rites. They are eligible “sometime” after coming of hair, but since the rites are generally held every three years or so for a group of candidates, a boy might sit around waiting years. Girls by sharp contrast must be given to Ernalda immediately after menarche. There is no waiting period. She is separated from those around her and the rites prepared immediately. She will face them alone.

My suspicion here is that it all has to do with the girl awakening into her reproductive powers, a power that belongs to Ernalda and Ernalda alone. Once the girl awakens this power, in a sense Ernalda lays claim to her. From the mythology we know Ernalda is quite stern in this matter.

Vinga and Nandan 

We can see Ernalda’s possessiveness of her reproductive power in the mythology of Vinga. Vinga is either the daughter of Orlanth and Ernalda, Orlanth’s female incarnation, or most likely both. In her myth cycle, Vinga decides to leave the Loom House of her mother to take up arms and fight alongside Orlanth and the Thunder Brothers. In effect she is declaring herself not “like Ernalda” but rather “like Orlanth.”

In The Book of Heortling Mythology, however, when Vinga becomes pregnant sometime after this Ernalda is furious with her, cursing Vinga and refusing to allow her to give birth. There is a real sense of Ernalda saying “that power is mine and you are no longer like me.”

Orlanth, the myth makes clear, is utterly powerless in this matter. (Vinga) went to her father, Great Orlanth, and asked for his help. To her shock, Orlanth told Vinga that he had no power to aid her – such things were solely within the province of Ernalda.

To soothe Ernalda’s rage, balance had to be restored. Vinga had to agree to surrender her daughter to Ernalda at birth. Furthermore, Nandan, a Thunder Brother, volunteered to take Vinga’s place in the Loom House. This sacrifice was acceptable to Ernalda and she relents. 

Now, this exchange created more gender possibilities in Orlanthi society. Most men are “like Orlanth,” and most women “like Ernalda,” but it was now possible for some women to enter the storm cult “like Vinga” and some men to enter the earth cult “like Nandan.” In effect this gave the Orlanthi four genders: men who follow the storm, women who follow the earth, women who follow the storm, and men who follow the earth. Two more logically followed from this. There are those who combine both male and female aspects in them (associated with the fluid deity Heler, the rain that unites both storm and earth) and those who have no gender roles, associated with the Eurmali tricksters.

It should also be noted what with men “like Nandan,” they are effectively part of Ernalda’s cult and through the Rune spell “Pregnancy” can wield their goddess’ greatest gift.

Afterthoughts and Conclusions

In this latest campaign running Six Seasons in Sartar, I decided to separate the male and female characters for their adulthood rites purely according to sex. The boys (David and Keith’s characters, Kalf and Beralor) went through “Rites of Passage” together. The girls (Ira and Vicky, as Kalliva and Leika) I ran individual one-on-one sessions of “The Riddle” for. Zoom made it a lot easier to arrange all of this. Once these rites were completed, the characters were officially considered young adults and full initiates of the Black Stag cult. The boys are lay members of Orlanth, and the girls are lay members of Ernalda, but we left the question of gender an open one until the characters finally commit to a cult.  I tend to think now of  the period between the adulthood rites and being initiated into a cult as analogous to our teenage years here on Earth, where we are trying to “find” ourselves. The characters are adults, sure, but it remains to be seen what sort of adults they will be.

“Cult” I think is the ultimate determinant of gender. Anyone who takes on a warrior role—whether you join Humakt or Yelmalio or Storm Bull—is viewed “like Orlanth” (i.e. legally and socially bearing a “masculine” role irregardless of sex). Anyone who takes on a healing, life-sustaining role is viewed as being “like Ernalda” (though a man would have to be at least a Nandan initiate of Ernalda to gain her life-giving pregnancy powers). In the rarer cases of character who manage both roles they would be seen “like Heler,” and those who follow the Trickster, “like Eurmal.”  

BAD DAY AT DUCK ROCK: A Jonstown Compendium Review

A LOT OF THE PRODUCTS coming out of the Jonstown Compendium have been, shall we say, "experimental." By this I mean products that took RuneQuest in directions different from the ones Chaosium was taking. Right out of the gate Nick Brooke gave us A Rough Guide to Glamour, which while being a terrific overview of the Lunar capital also had its tongue firmly in its cheek, and was peopled by a cast of characters who looked suspiciously familiar. Six Seasons in Sartar soon after introduced ideas like shorthand character statistics and squabbling academics arguing the finer points of an epic poem which never existed. Tales of the Sun County Militia, in both art and attitude, demonstrated a rebel streak. I could go on, but the Jonstown Compendium was clearly a place to put on full display "Gloranthas That Varied."

In Bad Day At Duck Rock author Peter Hart does something very different. He gives us a thoroughly classic adventure...and by that I mean a call back to the earliest days of RuneQuest but this time with far superior art, lay-out, and editing. Reading through it, I was reminded of Apple Lane seasoned with shades of Griffin Mountain. It is an adventure for the latest edition of RuneQuest, of course, and is set in the post-Dragonrise timeline, but in spirit this is a visitation from the Ghost of RuneQuest Past. 

In retrospect, that is experimental, isn't it.

Weighing in at 79 pages, this PDF is lavishly illustrated by Dario Corallo. Because this is an adventure--and a mystery on top of that--there is very little I can say that will not spoil it. In the author's own words;

The adventurers are escorting a merchant, Tiberian Oneprice, through Duck Valley with a shipment of bronze, silver and gold ingots, acquired from Dwarf Mine, their destination being the village of Man Vill in Beast Valley. Tiberian orders the adventurers on to the village of Duck Rock to secure rooms at the inn and trade with the local redsmith. Meanwhile, the merchant heads off to visit a pair of old friends, both sages of Irripi Ontor, at their farm to the north of the village. What could possibly go wrong?

The adventurers will have to navigate through multiple challenges as they meet the villagers of Duck Rock, bandits, chaos, undead and of course, ducks.

With this set up, Hart sets up a race against time filled with all sorts of iconic RuneQuest adversaries, potential adversaries, and allies. This is part of what I mean about it being a "classic" adventure. All the old favorites seem to show up in its pages. The adventure will probably fill several play sessions, but the book is also crammed with ideas and tools you can easily borrow or use to build a foundation on. There are even clever links in it to past publications.

And Great Orlanth does this thing come packed! There are forty pages of statistics in the book's back end, including the introduction of a new monster I am not at all sure I know how the Glorantha Bestiary could have missed. There are real shades of Griffin Mountain in how complete a sandbox Hart has constructed for you to play in here. You might never meet all these characters, but the fact of their existence gives Duck Rock and its environs verisimilitude a lot of modern adventures forego. This is a setting your characters can feel free to wander anywhere in.

It is also an adventure I would heartily recommend to a new GM. Bad Day at Duck Rock is written with terrific clarity and care, with support at every twist and turn to help GMs run it. Nothing here comes off fuzzy or half-baked. I get the definite feeling that in the years this was playtested, Hart took the opportunity to refine, retool, and clarify. It assumes the use of the pre-generated characters from the RuneQuest core rules, but again is filled with examples of how to tweak things if players use characters of their own making.

If you favor the sandbox approach to play, Bad Day in Duck Rock is ideal for you. If you still love your Apple Lane, this is right up your alley. If you are a GM who appreciates support and detail in an adventure, but it. If you are looking for an adventure that will keep you entertained, guessing, and delighted by the large and colorful cast of characters, what are you waiting for? It is a terrific entry to the Jonstown Compendium.      

   

BLACK SPEAR: A REVIEW

WE CANNOT DISCUSS BLACK SPEAR until one thing is made absolutely clear. 

Glorantha was cooked up in the brain of a shaman.

If we strip shamanism of its diverse cultural variations, the shared core is all about ecstatic experience. "Ecstasy" is the critical word there. It comes to English from the Latin and it from the Greek, but in a nutshell it means "to be out of the normal." Ekstasis was used to mean insanity, astonishment, and in the New Testament a trance state...in other words, an altered state of consciousness. Whether it's Tibetan trance oracles, ayahuasca in the Amazon, or peyote among Native Americans (an experience this author highly suggests you try), shamanism is at least in part about leaving the normal behind and entering the psychedelic (which itself comes from two Greek words meaning "make the mind shine"). Greg Stafford was a practicing shaman, and thus it should surprise no one that Glorantha is very psychedelic. Greg understood that roleplaying games are altered states of consciousness, playing them we leave behind the normal world and have a shared hallucination, and just like shamans, those psychedelic experiences challenge us and if we are lucky change us. All RPGs are like that, sure, but in Glorantha it is up front and baked into the setting. I mean, what do you think a "heroquest" is if not a psychedelic roleplay experience?

All this bears mention because Nick Brooke's Black Spear could not possibly exist anywhere BUT Glorantha.

First the basics. Black Spear is a 181-page PDF, available exclusively from the Jonstown Compendium. Written by Brooke and phantasmagorically illustrated by Mike O'Connor, it is in Brooke's own words "(a)n epic saga of the Hero Wars, festooned with heroquests and deep Gloranthan weirdness. Probably the strangest thing I’ve ever written." I am not inclined to disagree with him. If your Glorantha is a deadly serious recreation of life in the Bronze Age, this is probably not the product for you. On the other hand, if your Glorantha is a lozenge under a sky dome peopled with talking baboons and yes, ducks, if your Glorantha embraces the essential surreality and psychedelic facets of the setting, then this is very much the product for you.

As we are talking about a scenario here, there is not all that much I can say without spoiling it. Written in seven acts, most forming a distinct adventure, the player characters are assumed to be Sartarites of the Colymar tribe. Following the death of Prince Kallyr, your tribal queen, Leika, asks you to go to New Pavis to invite its king, Argrath, to come to Sartar and take the throne. To show her seriousness, she entrusts the characters to bear a token to bring to him. Hint, it's titular.

Getting there is half the fun. Doing so might involve the characters seeking modes of magical transportation that hearken back to White Bear and Red Moon and Nomad Gods, being potentially man-handled by baboons, entangled in the rituals of disco newtlings (yes, you read that correctly) and caught up in an epic power struggle in Sun County. Along the way, they are haunted by strange dreams and reality seems to be breaking down the closer they get to Argrath...who here is Kurtz wrapped in his very own Heart of Darkness.

 

Full disclosure; I've been aware of Black Spear for some time now, ever since Nick Brooke and I discovered we were both writing Prax-centered Heart of Darkness tales. But Black Spear is nothing like my Final Riddle, in part because there is nothing else quite like Black Spear. There are some very deep dives into Gloranthan lore here, some terrific heroquests, but Black Spear also leans into pop culture and some really trippy shit, man. That is what I think is brilliant about it. There is absolutely no mistaking the setting it was conceived for. This could never unfold in Middle-earth, Thedas, or Westeros. This is some top shelf, high-grade Gloranthan-psychedelia.

I simply cannot recommend it highly enough. It's a slickly produced and wonderfully illustrated feast for the eyes, with tons of options and support for GMs taking it on (with plenty of advice on making it more "vanilla"). This is one journey upriver that you and your players are going to want to take.  

SIX (MORE) SEASONS IN SARTAR: A CAMPAIGN LOG

DECEMBER OF 2019 saw the final blog post of my Six Seasons in Sartar/River of Cradles campaign. We were 16 sessions in. Breaking for Christmas and New Year, we made plans to meet up for the next chapter in late January 2020.

That never happened.

Here in Japan, the news media was abuzz with a story about a quarantined cruise ship, the Diamond Princess out of China. Apparently several people aboard were infected with some new and puzzling illness. People started wearing masks. Things ground to a halt, and we delayed the session.

You know the rest. Everyone reading this has lived it.

As I mentioned in the last post, I used the suspension of the campaign as a chance to put Six Seasons in Sartar on paper and let it loose on the world. As the pandemic dragged on endlessly came The Company of the Dragon. But now, with my gaming group now fully vaccinated and infection numbers in Japan starting to head in the right direction, we have started talking about resuming the campaign. With nearly two years of water under the bridge, however, we decided to restart it instead of resume. The "Six Seasons in Sartar" we played was not the Six Seasons in Sartar that was published, and the campaign that followed at our gaming table, "The River of Cradles," was totally unrelated to The Company of the Dragon. We decided to start all over again and play the two published campaigns.

The twist is, the group decided to play the same characters all over again. This meant translating a party of Heroquest characters to Runequest Roleplaying in Glorantha.

Black Stag Vale, the setting of Six Seasons in Sartar. My map, annotated by Nick Brooke

Remaking the Characters: HQ v RQ

"Translating" might be the wrong word for how we handled character creation. More of a "reset." I told them to think of this new campaign was a remake, and I made it clear that the characters could be different in any ways the players wanted. We didn't have to fuss with converting abilities across the two systems. It was a simple question of starting the player characters from scratch with the same concepts in mind...and in a new system, which turned out to be an important factor.

Back in 2018 my players were new to Glorantha. The idea of using Heroquest was that they could create their characters "as they went," fleshing the characters out as they played the campaign and grew to know more about the setting. The problem with that is that the characters did not start with a strong, defined concept. They were amorphous and "fuzzy." I don't think they really came into their own until a dozen sessions in. In retrospect, this is my primary criticism of Heroquest (and for the record I mean the second edition, both Hero Wars and Heroquest first edition offered a lot more detail). It is a great game system if you have players who know the setting, but does little to support those who don't. Note this is not a criticism of the mechanics; I feel the system needs a more defined Glorantha "genre book" to make it feel more true to the setting. This is something I am hoping Questworlds will eventually fix.

RQ by contrast contains tons of information about the setting right there on the character sheet. The Runes, the skills that exist in the setting, the characteristics that define people, are all right there. I found it helped my players focus this time more clearly on who exactly their characters were. They had felt a bit lost and bewildered when we started HQ. "But what does the Heortling Keyword actually do?" This time they had a lot more information to work with.

Now, the original characters from the HQ version were:

Beralor "Three-Father" Harvarrson (Keith)

With his real father killed in the struggle against the Lunar Occupation. Beralor has been raised by the redsmith Harvarr Horviksson and his husband, the Nandan Affar Dronnsson. Beralor is now sixteen, and has the Heortling, Crafter (Smith), and Black Stag Community keywords. His Runes are Air, Motion, and Mastery.

Kalf "Lightfoot" Broyansson (David)

The son of a cottar sheepman (killed in Kallyr's rebellion), Kalf lives alone with his mother in a cottage on the edge of the Vale. He is the oldest in the group, 17, having just missed the last Adult Initiation ceremony four years ago by having been just a bit too young. He has the Heortling, Black Stag Community, and Herdsman keywords. His Runes are Air, Stasis, and Beast.

Leika "the White" Faransdotr (Vicky)

The albino daughter of a cottar spirit-talker, Leika's condition renders her sensitive to sunlight and slightly ostracized by some of her peers. She overcompensates with a forceful, "bossy" personality. Leika is 14, and has the Heortling, Black Stag Community, and Spirit-Talker keywords. Her Runes are Air, Motion, and Spirit.

Kalliva Kallessasdotr of Twin Stone (Ira)

The daughter of an Ernaldan carl in the prominent Twin Stone stead, the identity of her father has never been divulged by her mother. Kalliva is torn between what her mother wants for her (marriage, family) and following the path of her Vingan aunt (currently a rebel living in the hills and mountains striking at the Lunars). She has a close relationship with her uncle Garnath, who is one of the chieftain's housecarls. Kalliva has the Heortling, Black Stag Community, and Warrior keywords. Her Runes are Air, Truth, and Mastery.

With these ideas and the aforementioned sixteen sessions of play, we grabbed the RQ rulebook and remade them according to the guidelines in Six Seasons in Sartar (pp 20-22).

Character (Re)Creation

We took advantage of Zoom to create each character separately in a one-on-one game session with the GM. In general, I think there are often good reasons to create characters as a group--it makes sure everyone is one the "same page" and encourages characters that mesh together well as a team--but we opted out of it this time around. For starters, these players already know the other player characters. They all played together for a year and a half. Second, I think RQ characters are better made alone. A good chunk of the character creation process is "Family History," and unless two or more of your players are related, it is really more an exercise of communing with your ancestors rather than with your contemporaries. And I wanted to spend a lot of time on Family History (RQ pp. 27-45), because that was an aspect absent from the original HQ rules we used.

Because these were established characters, I let them chose whatever results they wanted as we went through Family History, rather than roll. As you can see from the character summaries above, the first time around the players were careful to include their parents in their backgrounds. Six Seasons in Sartar starts you off as young adults, and your relationship with your parents is critical as you get started on the road of adulthood. What surprised the players this time, however, was how RQ took you a step further back. The players had not really given thought to their grandparents before.

Here are summaries how the recreation turned out.

Kalf, Son of Broyan

Kalf went through some of the biggest changes in this character "remix" process. David decided to start with his paternal grandfather as the favored grandparent (RQ, p. 28), Derister, a warrior who was killed at the Battle of Grizzly Peak. This shifted Kalf's backstory from being the son of a cottar sheepman to actually coming from a line of thanes. This left Kalf's father fatherless, with a grudge towards the Lunar Empire. He grew up to fight both at the Fall of Boldhome (1602) and south in the Holy Country in 1605. After Kalf's birth, his father is killed fighting in Starbrow's Rebellion (1613). This last event is the same as it was in HQ, but rather than Kalf's father being a cottar who volunteered he was a thane loyal to Kallyr's cause (part of Kalf's arc in HQ was the resentment he harbored towards Kallyr for "getting his father killed," but this have shifted now towards hatred of the Empire). We decided with both his father and grandfather as warriors against the Empire, during the Lunar Peace his father's family was stripped of their status by the new tribal king, converted Lunar Kangharl "Blackmoor." Young Kalf and his mother were thus reduced to cottar status, giving him a heightened reason to Hate the Lunar Empire and Kangharl (which if you know Six Seasons in Sartar will matter later). Instead of a herdsman, this time Kalf is a hunter, being trained in the craft by neighboring cottar Beroth Son of Beyor (SSiS p. 69). Beroth has a younger son, Ashart, who privately resents the interest Beroth has taken in Kalf. Adding complexity, the widowed Beroth has been courting Kalf's widow mother.

Leika, Daughter of Faran

In the HQ campaign, Leika's defining trait was her albinism, but the fact is this never really came to much in actual play. Vicky decided to jettison that this time around and focus more on the character's connection to the Spirit World. In Family History, then, Leika's maternal grandmother Kenvali emerges as an important figure (one never existing in the original campaign). Kenvali was a powerful shaman, and a person the young Leika feels an affinity for. Kenvali fought, actually, at the Battle of Grizzly Peak, not as a combatant as much as aiding with magical support. She went south and fought in the Holy Country as well (1597). Kenvali was not at the Fall of Boldhome, however, remaining instead in Black Stag Vale, where the following year she was actually killed by the neighboring Telmori. This is a terrific twist: in the HQ campaign Leika finds herself in almost a Romeo and Juliet relationship with a young Telmori warrior, but now she enters play hating the Telmori for her grandmother's murder. Ah, pathos in future sessions, I think! 

This changes Leika's relationship with Faran, her father, a shade. Her grandmother is the shaman she wishes to emulate, not him. Still, Faran is himself a shaman and one who fought in Starbrow's Rebellion, helping Kallyr escape. This connection will come into play later in Six Seasons in Sartar. 

Beralor, Son of Harvarr

Beralor changed less between campaigns than Kalf or Leika, but something that disappointed Keith is the first campaign was how little we were able to explore his craft as a smith. This time we are shifting the focus there a bit more. In Six Seasons we will dig a bit deeper into the mysteries of Gustbran and in Company of the Dragon, Beralor will have more time to practice that art.

We also decided to keep the background largely intact. It emerged in the last campaign that Beralor is being raised by his uncle, Harvarr, and that his aunt had either been seduced or assaulted by the Eurmali clown, Keladon Blue-Eye...his true father. Beralor is being raised by Harvarr and his Nandan partner after his mother's death. This time we went into character creation with full knowledge of the backstory. For this reason Beralor's favored grandparent is his maternal grandfather, Harrakin, a warrior who fought at Grizzly Peak. Father of both Beralor's mother and Harvarr, Harrakin died by accident in 1597 (we have yet to develop this thread). Harvarr fights in the Fall of Boldhome, originally a warrior like his father. His sister gives birth to Beralor in 1604 and dies by her own hand. Harvarr takes the child in, raised by his Nandan husband Affar while he himself fights in the Holy Country against the Lunars (1605). Harvarr comes home, but fights against for Kallyr Starbrow (1613). In the wake of her defeat he is outlawed and cannot return home. He camps outside the gates of Dwarf Mine until they accept him, and returns years later as a smith.

Kalliva, Daughter of Kallessa

Kalliva is another character changed only lightly by the character recreation process, but there are still interesting changes nonetheless, mainly in her mother's backstory.

Again, I credit this to the Family History rules. What emerges is Kalliva's maternal grandfather, Bereth, a warrior who fought at Grizzly Peak and later witnessed the murder of Sartarite royals he was guarding in the Holy Country (1597). Bereth was also at the Fall of Boldhome, but he died there, devoured by the Crimson Bat (his soul destroyed forever). Also in Boldhome, Bereth's daughter Korolmara is enslaved and ends up owned by a Lunar officer. There she births a child for him, Kalliva. She takes the baby and escapes.

The hideous death of her father radically changes the character of Kalliva's birth mother, Korolmara. In the HQ campaign she was a Vingan, this time around she became a Humakti. She cuts ties to her old life and gives her daughter to her sister, Kallessa, to be raised. Korolmara fights in Starbrow's Rebellion, and with Leika's father is among those who help Kallyr escape to safety. She returns to Sartar and ends up fighting as one of Kallyr's rebels up in the mountains.

It is too soon to see if Kalliva will, herself, become a Humakti rather than a Vingan this time around, but we will see in play.

The Runes

One of the key differences between HQ and RQ is the addition of Rune affinities. Now, bear in mind that HQ pioneered the idea of characters having Rune affinities. In classic RQ you got Runes by joining a cult. The latest edition adopted Rune affinities from HQ and greatly expanding the idea, drawing on two other classic Chaosium games, Pendragon (the paired Power and Form Rune affinities) and Nephilim (the Elemental Rune affinities). 

Where the characters started with three Rune affinities in the previous campaign, they now have affinities with all the Runes (well, not all). For the most part, the players kept their original Rune affinities in mind choosing their new ones, but there were changes, and I think it gave these remixed player characters greater definition and depth.

Kalliva, for example, keeps her powerful Air Rune affinity but Fire/Sky is a close second, reflecting her idealism and "straight arrow" personality. She also gets a touch of Moon Rune affinity this time to reflect her parentage. Beralor also comes in with a strong Fire Rune as well as Man, to reflect his refocusing on Gustbran and the forge. He took a very high Disorder as well, to show the influence of his Eurmali biological father. Kalf's Fire Rune is actually equal to Air, again a reflection of a character who could be very righteous, focused, straight and narrow. His high Beast Rune as a hunter matches as well. Leika actually emerges with Fire as her highest Rune, with surprisingly strong Darkness as well. 

I am intrigued that the characters in the remix all came out with high connections to Fire/Sky (which is of course Kallyr's chief affinity as the Starbrow). 

In short, both the Family History and Rune affinities produced characters more complex and fleshed out than before. The Passions contributed a lot to this as well.

Magic? Cults? Additional Experience?

Six Seasons in Sartar starts with the characters undergoing their adulthood rites, and follows them over their first year as adults. As such the characters do not yet have magic or cults, and have only cultural and occupational skills (derived from the occupation of their parents). Starting with their adulthood rites, which we also conducted over Zoom and separately, magic will come into play.

But that is for next time.