Glorantha noob question

[Exubae]

The RQ3 metals ran

Earthly equiv/Gloranthan Name/ Associated Element/ (Associated God)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bronze / Hu-Metal / Air (Umath's Metal)
Silver /Ul-Metal/ Air (uleria's metal)
QuickSilver*/ Sa-Metal/Water (Sramak's Metal)
Aluminium*/Lo-Metal/ Water (Lodrils metal)
Copper / Ga-Metal / Earth (Ga(ta)'s Metal)
Lead/ Na-metal /Darkness (Nakala's Metal)
Gold/ El-metal / Sun-Fire (Elhim's Metal)
Tin /Ze-metal / Sky (Zrethus/Dayzatar's metal)

Iron / Ur-Metal / ?Death? /(Uritam/Mostals invention)

*Really the same metal in a different state

RQ2 was much the same except silve was allocated to the Lunar power.

 

[Exubae]

Adamantite cropped up as well being purified True stone, If I remember right theres a pillar of it in the Rainbow Mounds

Paul

 

[Mark Mohrfield]

There's a very (extremely) rare metal, the name of which escapes me, that conducts magic! If the caster and target are connected by wires of the stuff, the magician can cast spells as though they were touching.


Simon Hibbs

IIRC this was silver, as used by Dwarves.

Is it? Is there a reference for that? That's one of the coolest ideas I've heard in a long time.

Here it is

http://glorantha.temppeli.org/digest/gd2/1995.09/0672.html

I note that what it actually says is that the wire is used by Silver Dwarfs, not that the wire itself is actually silver (though that is a possibility.)

 

[Exubae]

I note that what it actually says is that the wire is used by Silver Dwarfs, not that the wire itself is actually silver

Nah, its poperty of silver its just the wacky sorcery of the Silver Dwarves, and their part in the repair and refit of the world machine.

 

[Exubae]

I'll try again, Its Mostali sorcery not a property of the silver...

Its getting late and my typing is dying

Cheers
Paul

 

[Exubae]

I suppose Glorantha is predominalty in a Bronze age, but the metal isn't really Bronze its hu-metal (prodominatly bones of air gods).
Magic makes it unnecessary to need iron, a plough or bronze axe can have bladesharp applied.

The other point, Iron is an 'artifical' metal created by the Mostali to help fight the Uz(who found mostali more-ish) and the Aldryami who were spreading like wild fire over Gloranthas surface.
In games I've played in and ran, iron is only ever found in worked state/finished items, be they battered or shattered, but never found as ore.
The secret of its Manufacture rest solely with the Iron Mostali.
Thus items and the metal are rare, cults hoard the stuff and only dish it out to cult heroes, even then its usual only to get a weapon and a piece of armour crafted from iron.

So although Glorantha is tied to Bronze, magic lets it by-pass alot of the restrictions of bronze age cultures.

Paul

 

[Chewie]

Wow.

If it makes you all feel good, the fact that Glorantha can encourage this much debate on the use of metals has sold me on the setting. Obviously I've got a lot of information to sift through, but I like the fact that the depth is there.

If I understand correctly, bronze comes from the remains of dead sky god from battles before the birth of time (I did some research on Glorantha.com). So if the players, members of the local bronze-working guild, overhear a tale from a nomadic storyteller about a great battle involving sky gods in some distant land far from civilization that has no history of bronze mining they might want to investigate.

This would of course lead to a harrowing journey through unforgiving wilderness filled with Broo and other nasties. But eventually they reach....well I'll work that out later.

As for the bronze age feel, as long as I stay away from a feudal culture, emphasize the importance of myth and the multitude of gods it should feel close. Also if I could give everyone Akkadian or Assyrian names to make it feel more alien.

Thanks for all the advice.

 

[atgxtg]

Wow.


If I understand correctly, bronze comes from the remains of dead sky god from battles before the birth of time (I did some research on Glorantha.com). So if the players, members of the local bronze-working guild, overhear a tale from a nomadic storyteller about a great battle involving sky gods in some distant land far from civilization that has no history of bronze mining they might want to investigate.

This would of course lead to a harrowing journey through unforgiving wilderness filled with Broo and other nasties. But eventually they reach....well I'll work that out later.

Thanks for all the advice.

TO be honest, bronze is common enough that it might not be worth a expiedtion. Iron hoewever is rare stuff (as are rune metals) and heroes often go on quests to get it. Someone who found some could bring it back for sale or even make an arragment with one of the major temples. Iron is pretty much more vlauable than gold, but has to be enchanted, so it would be something for a cult to deal with.

On the other hand, a worshiper of one of the smith gods (I can't recall any, specific ones off hand but they certainly exisit) would probably have access to the right magic, or at least a master smith probably would.

 

[Rurik]

As for the bronze age feel, as long as I stay away from a feudal culture, emphasize the importance of myth and the multitude of gods it should feel close. Also if I could give everyone Akkadian or Assyrian names to make it feel more alien.

You may want to consider using the Third Age setting for your games. It is actually more primitive than the late Second Age. The second age is a kind of golden age of Empires, where the world reaches it's technological height. The Second Age ends with cataclysmic collapses of the empires and the third age is kind of like a dark age that follows.

The MRQ setting will be in a more feudal society in the late Second Age. All the old RQ2 campaign material is being reprinted by Moon Design Publications and is excellent. Griffin Mountain is set in an almost stone age setting, and Borderlands and Pavis/Big Rubble will all be more primitive than a 'Classic' Fantasy setting. I cannot recommend them highly enough.

Personally, after having spent many years adventuring in 3A Glorantha I am really looking forward to the new Second Age stuff. But the 3A sounds like a good fit for you, and the classic Glorantha stuff are some of the best supplements ever made for games despite being 25 years or so old.

 

[GbajiTheDeceiver]

As for the bronze age feel, as long as I stay away from a feudal culture, emphasize the importance of myth and the multitude of gods it should feel close. Also if I could give everyone Akkadian or Assyrian names to make it feel more alien.

You may want to consider using the Third Age setting for your games. It is actually more primitive than the late Second Age. The second age is a kind of golden age of Empires, where the world reaches it's technological height. The Second Age ends with cataclysmic collapses of the empires and the third age is kind of like a dark age that follows.

The MRQ setting will be in a more feudal society in the late Second Age. All the old RQ2 campaign material is being reprinted by Moon Design Publications and is excellent. Griffin Mountain is set in an almost stone age setting, and Borderlands and Pavis/Big Rubble will all be more primitive than a 'Classic' Fantasy setting. I cannot recommend them highly enough.

Personally, after having spent many years adventuring in 3A Glorantha I am really looking forward to the new Second Age stuff. But the 3A sounds like a good fit for you, and the classic Glorantha stuff are some of the best supplements ever made for games despite being 25 years or so old.

Just what I was thinking. I reckon he's a Pavis man!

 

[Rurik]

Just what I was thinking. I reckon he's a Pavis man!

All the best men come from Pavis.

 

[atgxtg]

Just what I was thinking. I reckon he's a Pavis man!

All the best men come from Pavis.

"Tuskers! THe cigarretes of Pavis men."

 

[soltakss]

Ah well, someone got me started .....

Gold not tin is the sky metal anybody who tells you otherwise is a misprint.(sorry RMS )
Tin is the metal of the wind/air.

and ...

Tin was the original rune metal for Air Gods like Orlanth, but it seemed to later have been changed to silver. LIke some people I prefefereed Tin and in my games Tin is still the Air rune metal.

In my games, Tin is the Storm Runemetal, Gold is the Fire/Sky Runemetal and Silver is the Lunar Runemetal.

In RQ2, Tin was the Air/Storm metal, we had Lightning Bands and the Tin COmb made from Tin, both of which had Storm Powers. Silver was the Lunar Runemetal, presumably because in the RW the moon is silvery.

Then RQ3 came along and Silver was the Storm Runemetal and Tin was a Sky Metal.

The rationale for this was that Tin is the metal for Lightning and Lightning was stolen from the Sky Gods by Orlanth, so Tin is a Sky metal. This is utter rubbish, of course, because Lightning came from Umath originally and Yavor Lightning and Shargash stole it when Umath was killed. So, Tin was Umath's metal, the Sky Gods nicked it and then Orlanth nicked it back.

There was another rationale that Sky (Tin) + Earth (Copper) = Bronze (Umath), which is another load of rubbish. They also said that Lunar/Storm fought on many levels, one of which was that they both had Silver as their Runemetal. Another load of rubbish.

This is a typical case of stupid misprint just like that rubbish with the undead rune "uh this makes sense so we are going to change so it doesn't."

Well, it was more than a misprint, it was a fundamental misunderstanding and a fundamental change for the worse.

The RQ3 metals ran

Earthly equiv/Gloranthan Name/ Associated Element/ (Associated God)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bronze / Hu-Metal / Air (Umath's Metal)
Silver /Ul-Metal/ Air (uleria's metal)
QuickSilver*/ Sa-Metal/Water (Sramak's Metal)
Aluminium*/Lo-Metal/ Water (Lodrils metal)
Copper / Ga-Metal / Earth (Ga(ta)'s Metal)
Lead/ Na-metal /Darkness (Nakala's Metal)
Gold/ El-metal / Sun-Fire (Elhim's Metal)
Tin /Ze-metal / Sky (Zrethus/Dayzatar's metal)

Iron / Ur-Metal / ?Death? /(Uritam/Mostals invention)

*Really the same metal in a different state

RQ2 was much the same except silve was allocated to the Lunar power.

RQ2 had:
Tin /Ze-metal / Storm (Orlanth's metal)
Silver /Ul-Metal/ Lunar (Lunar's metal)
Bronze / Hu-Metal / Everyone (Mixed Deities' Metal)

and having Aluminium as Lodril's metal shows how mixed up the RQ3 lists were.

Anyway, it's all long past now. Hopefully Mongoose won't make the same mistakes.

 

[Exubae]

There was another rationale that Sky (Tin) + Earth (Copper) = Bronze (Umath), which is another load of rubbish.

The Rationale was that Umath (bronze) was the son of Primolt the Primal Aether (origin of Tin) and Gata the Broad Earth (origin of Copper).
Umath was the first of the Brutae, the gods composed of conjuned powers-
Umath the child of Sky and Earth... who raised him self between his parents for ever seperating them.
It has a certain degree of internal consistency...

They also said that Lunar/Storm fought on many levels, one of which was that they both had Silver as their Runemetal. Another load of rubbish

Nothing mythical or tangible to associate Silver to Air, and in Glorantha where the moon is Blue (Annilla) or Red (skepilkirt)(not counting its phases) the link to silver is also tenuous... on earth the link between silver and the moon is the apparent reflective quality of the 'silver' moon.
Rumours of a White moon crop up late in the 3rd age, as the moony cult gathers a following in Peloria and the Empire.

Aluminium also is badly aligned - possibly cold or Ice gods should have be assigned to it.

Cheers
Paul

 

[simonh]

Nothing mythical or tangible to associate Silver to Air, and in Glorantha where the moon is Blue (Annilla) or Red (skepilkirt)(not counting its phases) the link to silver is also tenuous... on earth the link between silver and the moon is the apparent reflective quality of the 'silver' moon.
Rumours of a White moon crop up late in the 3rd age, as the moony cult gathers a following in Peloria and the Empire.

Verithurusa, the first moon in the most ancient solar myths, was orriginaly white. She changed colour when she was violated (red blood) and died (a blue corpse) long ago. Rufelza is red IMHO because she is a sacrifice.

Aluminium also is badly aligned - possibly cold or Ice gods should have be assigned to it.

Isn't it Sea Metal?

Simon Hibbs

 

[Exubae]

Verithurusa, the first moon in the most ancient solar myths

Yep, forgot about that...

Isn't it Sea Metal?

Yep but 'Secrets of Glorantha' refers to it as Lo-Metal and links it to Lodril... which is a bit bizzare.

I was thinking more along the lines of 'Frozen water' when refering to cold/ice... If I remember the diamond (Ice) rune was dropped so assume it was swallowed up by the cold rune...
Tenuous but water was born from the Styx the last drop of darkness (cold)...erm..... perhaps... maybe...

Tin is the Storm Runemetal

Can't remember seeing that reference in any RQ material, but I could be wrong... Pretty sure the Main RQ2 book has no reference for air in the table of association... but its ages since I flicked through it.

Paul

 

[Exubae]

Ah you fresh faced folk don't know the meaning of production quality, if you want see production quality see the 'Secrets of Glorantha' or 'Troll Gods'...

I still have nightmares about the art-work in Troll gods, Dark cults with truely horrific art work.... :shock:

 

[zanshin]

Yes i was showing elder sectrets to a mate the other day - he was thinking about playing a Mostali (heretical of course) , and it was a case of 'ignore the pictures, keep your eyes on the text!'

He did break down into tears of laughter at the Mostali reproduction paragraph - absolute classic Glorantha.

 

[soltakss]

What? You think that having to grind away for weeks on end, grinding "mortar" into "pestle" is funny? Mark my words, it's a chore. Talk about splinters!

 

[GbajiTheDeceiver]

Ah you fresh faced folk don't know the meaning of production quality, if you want see production quality see the 'Secrets of Glorantha' or 'Troll Gods'...

I still have nightmares about the art-work in Troll gods, Dark cults with truely horrific art work.... :shock:

Don't forget the Tusk Rider in Elder Secrets. We must never forget the horrors of the past, lest they revisit us in the future...