EWF
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RosenMcStern
Mongoose
Well, suppose that you are a high priest of a powerful, really powerful cult. Suppose you can wield all the magic a human mind can reasonably comprehend.
Now suppose that you are exposed to the most alien of cultures (see the Dragonewt book for info), one for which time flows backwards and against which mere mortal magic simply does not work. Suppose that you suddenly realize that all of your power is just as substantial as a pinch of dust in the wind.
Suppose that you suddenly realize that you can awaken the True Dragon within yourself and wield the Real Power instead of the travesty you used to practice. And that it comes for a price, but you can have others pay that price (or at least you believe it).
This is the EWF.
Now suppose that you are exposed to the most alien of cultures (see the Dragonewt book for info), one for which time flows backwards and against which mere mortal magic simply does not work. Suppose that you suddenly realize that all of your power is just as substantial as a pinch of dust in the wind.
Suppose that you suddenly realize that you can awaken the True Dragon within yourself and wield the Real Power instead of the travesty you used to practice. And that it comes for a price, but you can have others pay that price (or at least you believe it).
This is the EWF.
Lord High Munchkin
Mongoose
Dear All,
Evil lizard-kissers.
Regards
Evil lizard-kissers.
Regards
sidkfjjteidlkkf
Mongoose
All this is in a nutshell of course.
Empire of Warms Friends. Their main goal is to make the world a dragon. They are the worst enemies of the God Learners, as they are the second power of the world.
When humans learned to speak Ald Wornish or dragonese, they could communicate with Dragonewts. With this communication, they learned the secrets of their mysticism.
Many ORlanthi hate them as well, as they make a mockery of many of their myths.
Empire of Warms Friends. Their main goal is to make the world a dragon. They are the worst enemies of the God Learners, as they are the second power of the world.
When humans learned to speak Ald Wornish or dragonese, they could communicate with Dragonewts. With this communication, they learned the secrets of their mysticism.
Many ORlanthi hate them as well, as they make a mockery of many of their myths.
The EWF stand for the Empire of Wyrms Friends, which is an empire of humans that aspire to become one with the cosmic dragon through learning draconic mysticism.
Lesson One: Dragons.
Dragons in Glorantha are mystical beings of Immense Power - more akin to gods on a power level than a D&D dragon. They are cosmic beings and rarely interact with the world. When they sleep, sometimes their dreams are so powerful that they take physical form, and sometimes their dreams dream of doing things wise and cosmic dragons are far to deep for - like looting and pillaging and hoarding treasure. These are called dream dragons, and are analogous to D&D dragons, and would have statistics like the dragons in the RQ book or SRD.
Lesson Two: Dragonewts
Dragonewts are a kind of immature dragon. They are reincarnated over and over into new bodies and progress through the stages in RQ Monsters as their soul evolves. Ultimately they can ascend to true dragon status.
Lesson Three: The EWF
Dragonewts speak Auld Wyrmish. For some reason, the Inhuman King (head dragonewt guy) of Dragon Pass teaches Auld Wyrmish and the Draconic Mysticism to a Human, and the EWF is born. The EWF is built on converting people to the Draconic Way. It is a religeous pyramid scheme of sorts, and it's ultimate goal is to transform a huge part of Glorantha into a great dragon of which all of their souls will be a part. They of course need to control this part of Glorantha that is intended to be transformed into a dragon, and while changing a huge part of the world into a dragon seems like a good idea to the faithful, it is not so well received by those who don't buy into the plan - particularly those who like live in the areas to be converted.
Cool Factoid One:
As humans master or convert to the draconic way they take on draconic features, such as scaly skin, or forked tongues, or lizard eyes, or the like.
Cool Factoid Two:
The God Learners who can basically invade and manipulate and study the God Plane (and spirit plane) at will are completely unable to 'see' how draconic mysticism works.
This is of course a very fast and dirty primer, but hopefully conveys the essence of the EWF adequately.
Lesson One: Dragons.
Dragons in Glorantha are mystical beings of Immense Power - more akin to gods on a power level than a D&D dragon. They are cosmic beings and rarely interact with the world. When they sleep, sometimes their dreams are so powerful that they take physical form, and sometimes their dreams dream of doing things wise and cosmic dragons are far to deep for - like looting and pillaging and hoarding treasure. These are called dream dragons, and are analogous to D&D dragons, and would have statistics like the dragons in the RQ book or SRD.
Lesson Two: Dragonewts
Dragonewts are a kind of immature dragon. They are reincarnated over and over into new bodies and progress through the stages in RQ Monsters as their soul evolves. Ultimately they can ascend to true dragon status.
Lesson Three: The EWF
Dragonewts speak Auld Wyrmish. For some reason, the Inhuman King (head dragonewt guy) of Dragon Pass teaches Auld Wyrmish and the Draconic Mysticism to a Human, and the EWF is born. The EWF is built on converting people to the Draconic Way. It is a religeous pyramid scheme of sorts, and it's ultimate goal is to transform a huge part of Glorantha into a great dragon of which all of their souls will be a part. They of course need to control this part of Glorantha that is intended to be transformed into a dragon, and while changing a huge part of the world into a dragon seems like a good idea to the faithful, it is not so well received by those who don't buy into the plan - particularly those who like live in the areas to be converted.
Cool Factoid One:
As humans master or convert to the draconic way they take on draconic features, such as scaly skin, or forked tongues, or lizard eyes, or the like.
Cool Factoid Two:
The God Learners who can basically invade and manipulate and study the God Plane (and spirit plane) at will are completely unable to 'see' how draconic mysticism works.
This is of course a very fast and dirty primer, but hopefully conveys the essence of the EWF adequately.
Mage said:
See current thread on Races and Factions for more info on God Learners.
The book Magic of Glorantha is actually mostly a sourcebook on both the God Learners and the EWF. The overview of both empires are in that book, as well as the rules for Draconic Mysticism (the magic system). The book Jrustela then goes on to detail more of the God Learners while Dragonewts builds on the Draconic stuff - I'm not sure how much of it is actually on the EWF as my copy hasn't come in yet.
The book Glorantha: the Second Age is a very good world overview book that covers the basics of all the cultures and is probably the starting point for all other Gloranthan titles.
Blood of Orlanth is a campaign set in the EWF, so it should have some good details. It is due out this month.
I hope this all helps.
GbajiTheDeceiver
Mongoose
The more-or-less official from-the-pen-of-Greg history is here: http://www.glorantha.com/library/history/cot-history.html#second-age
sidkfjjteidlkkf
Mongoose
John Pare' said:
TYPO 1 Should be Wyrms not "Warms"
TYPO II Should be Auld Wyrmish
Like I said, in a nutshell.
Glorantha is a facinating world with myths cultures play a big role.
Your players should pick a side to play: God Learner's, EWF, Orlanthi barbarians, Hsunchen, or any of a few others.
sidkfjjteidlkkf
Mongoose
Gold Learners are the followers of who they claim is the TRUE GOD. MOSTALI. They are huge on Sorcery. They travel (Quest) into the God Realms (and other realms) to distort gods and thier myths. Each time they travel, they gain something and change something in the world.
They mass produce magic items.
They use Mecha magic to augment there physical bodies (More or less CYBERNETIC).
Glorantha the second age by Mongoose places you near the end of the age. WHere the Glorantha itself gets a little pissed.
They mass produce magic items.
They use Mecha magic to augment there physical bodies (More or less CYBERNETIC).
Glorantha the second age by Mongoose places you near the end of the age. WHere the Glorantha itself gets a little pissed.
Lord High Munchkin
Mongoose
Dear All,
Don't you mean Makan the Invisible God - Malkion was his prophet.
Regards
Don't you mean Makan the Invisible God - Malkion was his prophet.
Regards
sidkfjjteidlkkf
Mongoose
Loz said:
Sorry, My bad!!
Loz said:
Typical foolish theist. Malkion is not a god, he is the prophet of the creator Makan. And Mostal is simply a personification of an empty abstract ideal - even the dwarfs do not worship him as a god. That's why we understand the world around us, and you foolish mystics simply try to leave it by becoming dragons. Fools!
Loz
Mongoose
True Dragons see both the simplicity and the complexity simultaneously and understand that they are merely expressions of the Infinite.
Dragons know that gods are abstractions created out of necessity to present the Infinite to the frailities of the mortal mind.
Gods persist because the Infinite is Broken and they are necessary to express its damage. When the Cosmic Dragon repairs the Infinite, gods will no longer be necessary and disappear just as memory and awareness of the self will disappear.
All is irrelevant save for the wisdom and truth expressed by the Cosmic Dragon. We Are All The Egg. The Egg Is All Us.
Acknowledge your irrelevance, theist dolt. Accept the inevitable realisation of Ouroboros.
Dragons know that gods are abstractions created out of necessity to present the Infinite to the frailities of the mortal mind.
Gods persist because the Infinite is Broken and they are necessary to express its damage. When the Cosmic Dragon repairs the Infinite, gods will no longer be necessary and disappear just as memory and awareness of the self will disappear.
All is irrelevant save for the wisdom and truth expressed by the Cosmic Dragon. We Are All The Egg. The Egg Is All Us.
Acknowledge your irrelevance, theist dolt. Accept the inevitable realisation of Ouroboros.
Sinisalo said:
Hmmmm? I doubt Greg and I have ever viewed it as a Cold War analogy. We've spent a lot of time over the last few years writing about the EWF and the MSE and that's the first time that idea has been put forward! Although sometimes the God Learners are us moderns with our hubristically rationalist approach to trying to define the undefinable.
Jeff
Not consciously I expect. Now tell me about your relationship with your fatherrichaje said:We've spent a lot of time over the last few years writing about the EWF and the MSE and that's the first time that idea has been put forward! Although sometimes the God Learners are us moderns with our hubristically rationalist approach to trying to define the undefinable.
Jeff
