Glorantha

To the few Glorantha Anons out there

I'll soon start a game set in the heartland of the Lunar empire and i got some Questions.

What is the "white moon movement", some sort of doomsday cult or sign or is there a deeper meaning behind it, also where does it come from?

"The night of Horrors" is a event frequently mentioned when it comes to Horse nomads, was is genghis khan the astronaut and what actually happened?

Is there something super obvious, you know, besides the artificial moon up in the lower atmosphere, that i could overlook but is more or less important or cool ?

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Bump for Glorantha.

The movement comes from age old prophecies of a white moon and the belief that the next evolution of the goddess is meant to be that. Even the mostali admit they fucked up the construction of the new moon and hope it'll turn white when it "cools down". The Night of Horrors was one of the first times the lunar empire used its chaos powers to summon all manner of horrible creatures, and forced the horse nomads out of the Redlands and into Pent.

Even the Lunar government accepts that the white moon is coming -- they believe that this is just the next stage in Sedenya's great turning. But this will only happen when all the world accepts Her light.

The white moon cult on the other hand, believes that the empire is not what She intended, and that She has been deliberately trapped in this cycle so that the elites can hold and expand their power -- notice how the top view nicely segues into imperialism.

Two cool things about the empire:
First, inside the Glowline the moon is always full, and lunar magic is constant; it does not wax and wane as She changes faces.
Second, every year Kalikos the Icebreaker journeys into the far north, to the edge of the world, and fights the gods of winter. In doing so, he prevents winter from ever entering the Lunar heartland.

>Even the Lunar government accepts that the white moon is coming -- they believe that this is just the next stage in Sedenya's great turning. But this will only happen when all the world accepts Her light.

>The white moon cult on the other hand, believes that the empire is not what She intended, and that She has been deliberately trapped in this cycle so that the elites can hold and expand their power -- notice how the top view nicely segues into imperialism.

So the good old "multiple versions of the same story" but yeah, I can see why the government would push their own idea.

I forgot to put a cool thing, lunar hell is mostly designed as a punishment for tax dodgers and occluded people, and is under the rulership of Ivex Devouring Dog, head of the IRS and the Demon-king of Tax Demons.

Right, but this is less godtime fuckery and more straight up lies.

>IRS
The what?

Tax demons sound hella rad but I never found a visual description of them, which might be intentional.

>Right, but this is less godtime fuckery and more straight up lies.
So the Dara Happans bastardized the movement for their own ends?

I think that illuminatio itself is a metal thing and can be good if the being it's prepared and has as strong will, which I highly doubt that it's the case since Lunars seem to hand it out like candy.

>IRS
Imperial Revenue Service. It's one of those on the nose things that people have injected into Glorantha. It isn't official, but there is a tax department of their government.

>So the Dara Happans bastardized the movement for their own ends?
Let's not blame the poor Dara Happans for *everything*. It's more that there's an official party line about the white moon, and then there's the rebellious cultists who disagree.

>Lunars seem to hand it out like candy.
The Lunars are actually very careful about who they Illuminate (a state they call being "Sevened"), and they have a strict and rigid structure to control the process.

The Nights of Horror actually has little to do with Sheng Seleris, just his people, the Pentans.

You see, at this stage, the Star of Pain had already been slain by the Red Emperor and the Carmanians in the Battle of Kitor.

But, the Pentans never truly gave up their claims on the Redlands and Oraya. They kept travelling through the lands, raiding the Lunar settlers, and herding their herds; until the whole place was overrun.

They grew to be such a problem that the Lunar armies were sent in to drive them back. Which may not have been a wise move.
In the worst battle since the Dragonkill, 150,000 soldiers, magicians, and demigods traded death for death. The Pentans had hired the sorcerers of Orathorn to aid them, and the might of their combined strength caused the Red Emperor to call upon the dark side of the Red Moon's power.
Chaos.
The Orothorni unleashed their own secret magics, and the battle became a slaughter. Things appeared that should not be, the Emperor's daughter, the goddess of maize, Hon-Eel was herself killed when trying to save her siblings from some of the horrors.

In the end, the Pentans were defeated, their army destroyed. The few survivors limped home after arranging peace with the Lunar Army.

Although technically not the Red Emperor, who'd also perished in the chaos.

Believed dead by the Empire, he returned in a new form, with a new face, in a small town in his Empire. He then went to Glamour, and proved he was the Red Emperor. (And deposing the High Priest of Yelm they'd sought to elevate to the role in the process)

He spent the following years rescuing the souls of those who'd been killed in the Nights of Horror. Which brought a lot of respect from the living kin of those unfortunates.

Of course, this also had some ramifications. Some of the nomads who still lived in the Red Lands would in the future rise up in rebellion against the Empire. Including a young Aelwyn.

How did Harrek the Berserk do the completely bonkers shit that he did? Like killing and binding his god in a fur fucking coat. Is "god" in this case, supposed to be understood as a super powerful spirit, instead of someone like Orlanth who's trapped outside of Time?

There's some stuff that suggests the bear God, which yeah is most likely a huge spirit, wanted to become bonded to him for greater free will. Whether it wanted to help harrek become the Superhero of Death is up for debate.

Hail Glorantha! Bumping for great animism!

You know what I really like about the idea of a game starting in the lunar heartland?
The players have a realistic chance to like them.
The new mask off the red emperor sounds like a really swell dude, people seemingly can live their belives, they can contain chaos and are the most civilized folk around.

Have the Red Emperor be a viewer in the championship and having him holding a short speech about how he dislikes violence but can feel the love the fans have for their fighters and remind them to respect the other team to for they too are loved.
Sounds to me like a thing that could totally happen in Canon Glorantha.

Praise the horned man!

So in short, the Lunars are great because they aren't mono cultured, mustache twirling villians.

Plus some rambling about the transcendent nature of violence etc etc

So when you guys run games, do you pick a culture and the whole group runs with that or do you do more multicultural games in cosmopolitan areas?

OP here, the later one is what I'm doing.
Currently have a Druluz, a Zentaur and a Hsunchen as the "Beastly three" gladiator team in the Lunar empire, good shore in silver shadow to be more exact.

Everyone get's a short rundown on the most important rules for their culture and they get to explore the lunar one.
They also tell me what their specific community is/was like.

>Everyone get's a short rundown on the most important rules for their culture and they get to explore the lunar one.
I like this as a newb. Lets me explore an unfamiliar culture in and out of character.

So i can basically use the idea of the white moon for anything i want in my game?
That sounds cool to me.
Could even bring in a "true" moon rune along with the cult of the white moon if my players decide to pick up that direction.
Or maybe they'll help conquer whitewall and keep the crimson bat alive.
or maybe go to Prax and support the expansion
join rebels
support orlanth
or just keep doing gladiator things
So many possibilities

Just have to keep in mind that the PCs are supposed to be the main characters, so other canon NPCs might just get diarrhea in that week, you just never know when it strikes.

Yeah dude. It's your game. Just remember that there's an internal logic to Glorantha, so make sure that what you change is either well thought out or vague enough to change to fit new circumstances.

Is there any source on what happened to the white moon during the god time or what it was?
Besides a white celestial body.

Currently considering multiple options
-Actually the Spike: Going with the idea that it was mostly white, kept the world in balance and missing it made everything "broken"
So Sedenyas final form would be something in between the gods and arachne solara

-Original holder of the light rune, the moon rune is a bastardized version of light.

least favourite one:
-Lunar empire goes almost full god-learner and created it themselves because it was a myth "laying around"

How would you guys make a Vadrus cult? Valind is a fag, I want the original bad boy of the Air gods.

Well, the celestial body recorded as the white moon probably wasn't.

The being recognised as the goddess of the White Moon, Zaytenera is also known as Zayteneras.
They're sometimes recorded as a child of Yelm, and is one of the original ten planets of the Golden Age.
When Umatum intruded in the perfect sky, Zayteneras rose up higher, and is not recorded afterwards.

Given that she exists at the same time as Verithurusa, her earlier incarnation, something fun is going on here.

My guess, and this is all YGWV here, is that Zaytenera was a Pelandan goddess of the sky world, possibly a daughter of Entekos and Brightface (Yelm). She and Zator (another one of Yelm's sons) were the kings of the sky world, until the heavens were corrupted and their planets went away.

>Well, the celestial body recorded as the white moon probably wasn't.
Wasn't what, the "new" white moon, the spike?


> something fun is going on here
You know, that things happen before or after they could happen is pretty normal for god time.
But having things going on simultaneously is pretty fucky.

>YGWV
True words user.
>Zaytenera was a Pelandan goddess
So shewas the old white moon, will be the new white moon or what.
I'm a little confused

HeroQuest Voices makes the Lunar Way sound downright pleasant. It's all about healing the world and oneness and belonging. Everything has a proper place. Everything is good and meaningful. Even Chaos. Isn't that nice.

HQG also mentions that one form of the insanity that can come with illumination is thinking that chaos isn't all that bad.

>The Lunars are actually very careful about who they Illuminate
Can't let have people we power up have another mindset than us, can we?

>Even Chaos. Isn't that nice.
Yeah, that place is "outside of creation"

>Can't let have people we power up have another mindset than us, can we?
That's certainly one aspect of it, but they're very aware of the dangers posed by the Occluded -- and not just to their political objectives.

She was a daughter of Yelm who was cast out for losing her virginity. The Lunars claim that all the moon goddesses were in fact just stages in the life of one being.

Other viewpoints differ.

>and not just to their political objectives.
Yeah they are not idiots on such a small scale

>Other viewpoints differ.
Got you senpai, at least now i got a more or less stable point to work with.

I Guess i will go with the idea that she would become aware that Yelm isn't the person he claims to be when she reclaims her full divinity.
Sounds like a good kicker to me.

How much of the whole reincarnation business is "true" will be dealt with when the players should actually start to interact with it.

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Also i just read the creation myth again.
Umath came from outside the dome
Which would make things pretty fun
or is a part of the dome, which still carries some implications but none like the first idea.

>She was a daughter of Yelm who was cast out for losing her virginity.
You mean Verithurusa who was after the incedent known as Lesilla?

I think I'll go with the idea that Yelm was a being from Kralorela which ascended to become the second emperor and a true dragon and then replaced the original Yelm At some point during godtime, guess Umath killed him and newYelm took his place in a clever ruse.

Verithurusa learned somehow about that and newYelm made her claims implausible by stating that the got knocked up by Umath, exiled and replaced her with the entity know known as Lesilla.

So the worship directed to her would go instead to Lesilla, nobody knew she was who she is and a god who isn't worshipped fits the bill of the red goddess which "died without being dead"

does this pass the smell test ?

>Wasn't what, the "new" white moon, the spike?
Wasn't a white moon.
She didn't have a variable/cyclical sequence, and the Dara Happans didn't recognise her as female, so she wouldn't be counted as a moon. Same as her sibling Verithurusus.
The Dara Happan definition of moon is a female planet. Making Uleria (who the Orlanthi know as Mastakos), Entekos, Mahaquata (Artia) all moons to them.

>So shewas the old white moon, will be the new white moon or what.
>I'm a little confused
Yes. She is a moon that was, and a moon that will be. She was an ancient child of Yelm, and the coming white moon to replace Rufelza.

Is there are for the various Praxians anywhere?

I guess you want to ask for a summary of Praxian tribes.
Try the guide to glorantha, all large ones are mentioned including some small ones.

This sounds pretty out there to me, but it's your game at the end of the day.

>Uleria=Mastakos
Do you mean as stellar bodies? The Orlanthi definitely know of Uleria and worship her as a separate goddess.

I gotchoo senpai

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I was about to ask what flavor of bison the Bison Tribe had and we seem to have one pic of each.

I like the High Llama's long-axes.

Yeah, the celestial body, the blue planet.

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Missing the most important tribe.

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Umath was also born inside the earth in the orlanthi myths, one of the main characteristics of deities (not in the strict sense but also Great Spirits and powerful Essences) is that they have many bodies and emanations.
That creation myth is really about the celestial bodies of the deities who have one in the Sky. (but it's also a good analogy for the deities in general)
The fact that he came from outside could be him entering the Sky from the earth or him coming from "above" the Dome like how Dayzatar left Glorantha for the Transcendant Realm with the Goddess who is the Source of Truth (and with him also being the current owner of the Truth rune, means that objective truth doesn't exist in Glorantha anymore), as Umath was the last of the transcendant deities that are the pure incarnations of a single Rune.

Praxians are probably my prefered part of Glorantha, the idea of the beast riders and all the otehr groups living around pavis and prax is so flavourful I tend to transport it to any fantasy setting I do.

I really like it, but how do you handle the animal? Are they all animal buddy-less outcasts unless everyone is tribe members or is there some kind of mechanics for it?

A Spirit can be as powerful as a God (but then they are as restricted as Gods) but the White Bear spirit was just Demigod/Heroe tier (like Kallyr and Argrath, Harrek and Jar-Eel are a tier above) on his own.

I don't think this is correct. Spirits are perfectly capable of interacting with and changing the world, the gods are the ones who are restricted.

I don't understand anything!

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Welcome to Glorantha, avoid the Lunars and God learner behaviors and you will be fine.

Okay let me try to explain it.
There are more or less sentient forces in Glorantha.
If you treat the force like a spirit you will interact with it like a spirit and out will interact with you like it.
If you treat it like a god the interactions will fit the god mold.

When you interact with spirits you accept them as individual beings who you need to ask for help

With gods you worship them and try to thin the line between them and yourself to trap into their powers.

The source of the power is the same but your perception of it changes how it works and both perceptions can work simultaneously.

What is their behavior?

Great chart; doesn't show that gods and spirits have the same limitations.

Trying to make sense of everything for one. Merging gods and industrial heroquesting is another thing best avoided

It's more a net of sense instead of a clear line.
Like Yelmalion and Elmal can be two different aspects of the same god or two different similar ones, depending on the story.

But all that "red goddess, white moon" stuff really made my head spin.
Maybe the red goods is supposed to be this fucking confusing with all that chaos influence.

Pamalt can't walk in the middle world (and the Agimori myths have their own version of the Great Compromise despite all of their deities being Great Spirits), and Zzabur only do stuff when the Great Compromise is broken.
The Great Compromise is not affecting only specifically Gods and Stafford insisted many times on the rough equivalence of gods / spirits / essences (daimons can be as weak as the spirits shamans usually deal with, malkioni saints are the equivalent of minor gods,ect...) and how it's power that gradually make you more entangled with your mythical role, static and eventually forced to abandon embodied existence for one of the otherworlds. (obviously some beings exist in several but physicality is not a problem for beings of that level of power)
It's possible for an initiate (but more generally a devotee) to be gifted with a lesser god as a companion and they pretty much are the theistic equivalent of a common spirit without additional restrictions because they roughly have the same powerlevel.
Nymphs are immortal magical beings who live inside the middle world and several types are daimons, there are races of demigod-tier beings who live in the four corners of the physical world (but outside the middle world proper) and each is of a different nature. (divine, sorcerous, spiritual and mystical)

What's the source on this? Looks like I'll have to dive into the Stafford Library eventually if I want to answer some esoteric questions for myself.

Oh wait shit. I'm dumb. It's number VII.

To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Glorantha. The mythology is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of metaphysics most of the myths will go over a typical reader's head. There's also Sedenya's illuminated outlook, which is deftly woven into her characterisation - her personal philosophy draws heavily from Joshep Campbell works, for instance. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of these myths, they realize that they're not just funny- they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence people who dislike Glorantha truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldn't appreciate, for instance, the mysticity in Sedenya's existencial catchphrase "We Are All Us" which itself is a cryptic reference to the hindu epic Mahābhārata I'm smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as Greg Stafford's genius unfolds itself on their computer screens. What fools... how I pity them. And yes by the way, I DO have a Red Moon tattoo. And no, you cannot see it. It's for the Helering' eyes only- And even they have to demonstrate that they're within 5 IQ points of my own (preferably lower) beforehand.

Our first Glorantha copypasta. I'm so proud.

I'd recommend it. There's some great material in there.

Attached: The Stafford Library #07 - Arcane Lore.pdf (PDF, 1.36M)

They told me that memes grow quickly out off communities, but it happened so far.
Time just flies by.

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So a more practical gameplay related question on how the different systems handle Glorantha. As far as I can tell, the "standard" gameplay progression from RuneQuest goes like this.

Start off young and dumb (16) -> Try to get shitloads of money doing dungeon delving/mercenary work -> Use that money to train in cults (training skills are fucking expensive) -> Join that cult eventually -> Spend so much money and train so hard you reach 90% -> Become Rune Level and therefore become embedded into your cult in a leadership position ->Hero Quests???? (Rune Quest doesn't seem to have good rules for this) -> Become Hero -> Become Superhero

RuneQuest does gritty Bronze Age pretty well but kinda loses focus once you're at Rune Level. From the name itself, does HeroQuest start later in the sequence and focus on the more mythological side of Glorantha instead of the grit. I know 13th Age in Glortantha does since that has Wind Lord as a class. You're already Rune Level at level 1, which is weird but eh.

>industrial heroquesting is another thing best avoided
You mean like traveling to the north every year and kick the god of Winters ass, just so winter won't be so bad ?

Now you're starting to understand why the Lunars aren't such a a great thing for the cosmos.

Runequest and Heroquest are totally different.

You can absolutely play a low level cows and farms lifequest with Heroquest, just as you can run a high level game where your players are Argrath, the Red Emperor, and Broyan of Whitewall.

It's a stated aim of the new Runequest to allow players to really dig into heroquesting and high level play.

13th Age is its own thing. DnD but in Glorantha; heroquests are dungeons.

The thing with the rpg system Heroquest is that it's narrative driven and the difficulty of problem is based on context, not in straight up math.
Something that is a rating 14 problem for Bijorn the herdsman would be something the emperor would not even need to consider rolling for.
On the other hand Bijorn wouldn't need to roll on a rating 14 problem for the emperor, because Bijorn is dead now.

There's definitely a lot of GM power in Heroquest.

It's good to hear that HeroQuest can handle different scales. I honestly prefer the cows, raiding, and tribal/cult intrigues parts of Glorantha. Hero Quests in my games will be more about making sure there's a good harvest rather than being a path to personal power.

As it should be, user. Orlanth smiles upon you.

Mostly only because the GM sets the initial time of the game.
In it writing the system sees the GM only as another player who likes to narrate and makes the thing fun for everyone, just as everyone else should try to make it fun.

I would disagree with that statement on the basis of the Pass-Fail cycle alone.

You mean the mechanics where they explicitly stated "hey this is just an aid in case you are too insecure about reading your players mood" ?
The system that also mentions, like every second page, "hey man, I'm just a book, not a cop, do what's fun and rock on"

Not sure why you're so hostile about this.
I never said that the Pass-Fail system was "mandatory", I just said that it was an indication of GM fiat within Heroquest.

Take that for what you will.

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Every system lives on the idea of your GM not being a massive cunt.
Everything in almost every system ever happes because there is a GM.

I'm not so sure why you get defensive about it, or what ever your point was.
I'm sorry if I scared you but I'm still wondering if you understand the basic dynamic of RPGs.

To be fair, most people would look at those entities in different ways.

The common term "spirit" would apply to people of the god planes (sky world people, underworld demons, etc), petty deities, minor and strong spirits, and founders.

Gods would apply to deities, common deities, great gods, great spirits, saints (now known as Ascended Masters) and higher powers.

The highest reach isn't generally known. The god learners would call the Celestial Court members, the Vithelans would recognise the High Gods, and the Malkioni recognise the Invisible God.

The Lunars claim that Sedenya is also of this rank, in her form of Taraltara.

Heen Maroun/Govmeranen is Yelm, his successor in Kralorela was Metsyla/Osdero (The Light of Enlightmnent, represented as a perfect sphere and had the Runes of Nysalor without Chaos, he lived in what is now Vormain before being drowned during the Lesser Darkness by sea gods
"Metsyla was created byYelmto teach others spiritual truths, he never left the site of his creation, and he spread his influence over Kralorela. Though Metsyla was always clear-sighted in his enlightenment, he never learned to be close to things, or to be wise, or to search his inner feelings for their truths. Similar traits mark his worshipers and have plagued the region for all of its history.")
and Kralorela only became draconic later with Daruda even if they claim that their first two emperors (Vith/Aether Primolt and Yelm) were dragons too. (The East Islanders who were ruled by them too deny that claim though)

He was killed by a demon so like the Orlanthi, the Kralori just seems to not make a distinction between Yelm and Murharzarm. (In Dara Happan myths, Orlanth killed Murharzarm and Yelm was desintigrated out of shock)
Bizzarely enough, the Storm Age Ruler of Kralorela (and first emperor to not reign over the rest of the East) Shavaya seems to be a mix of Murharzam and the first "mortal" Dara Happan Emperor (they are the Best/Perfect Man*, Shavaya has the Man Rune, but Shavaya was unrelated to Yelm and was emperor in a age that began with Murharzam death) but Peloria, Pent and Kralorela could have remained united after the Eastern Isles and Vormain were isolated, on the other hand Metsyla doesn't really fit the timeline.
(there could have been some form of reunification later but that's unlikely given the pattern of how vithelan civilization was divided with time) but it's probably just a god-learner error to try to create an "objective" version of the events, rather both versions are clearly talking about the same things even we can't completely reconcile them.

*Murharzam's death even caused the mortality of all humanities in the Dara Happan version, so he is even more obviously the equivalent of Grandfather Mortal.

Speaking of Grandfather Mortal, I was reading Cults of Prax and this bit about Daka Fal stood out.
>In times of crisis, when the gods fail their worshippers, this cult gets very popular. (Such as the situation in Prax, anyway. Other distant lands [such as Seshneg in the Dawn Ages] developed this form of worship until they made their ancestors surpass the mighty gods in power, or else reduced the immortals into mere superhuman heroes or mutli-naitonal ancestors. Such developments are outside the immediate scope of this book.)
What's the story behind this? Was it ever followed up on? How can Daka Fal worship even do something like that.

I can kinda understand the logic of why people tend to think that but in the context it's more like : spirits = spirit otherworld, god = divine otherworld and essences = sorcerous otherworld, it's rather confusing if we use the terms both for categories not defined by power and and power tiers.
>The Lunars claim that Sedenya is also of this rank, in her form of Taraltera
My guess would be that Taraltera is the Moon equivalent of Aether and Tarumath (Aether Primolt/Vith and Umath? it's possible that these are already lower aspects of the former but I think that even their characterizations in myths could be fake, Tarumath didn't care about being worshipped by a dude trying to replace Orlanth with himself so it's unlikely that he is really Umath, the deadbat father of Orlanth who still recognized him as his successor and "died" and the Celestial Court also probably just became too high as the world devolved rather than actually being killed off or to have ever been people the same other deities are people), the raw transcendant power of the Moon Rune. (Probably the Rune itself or its direct emanation)

There were other places where true Daka Fal ancestor worship was practiced but they eventually just worshiped apotheosized important ancestors : maybe a few mortals who became gods, heroes of hero cults, intermediary spirits that are part of other spirit traditons, Saints,etc...
True ancestor worship generally don't last and people who are not praxians (who have a hard life not much better than during the Great Darkness at times and whose gods are almost periodically "defeafed" for a while, especially Waha) don't need it and eventually just use other magics for dealing with their ancestors. (Among Orlanthi, just communal magic to honor their ancestors once a year and Humakt to keep the dead separated from the living)

Oh and if you played KoDP then you probably know that the ancestors of a clan can just manifest themselves if they are that unhappy (and in-universe they do have a share of the sacrifices + one specifically for them once a year), that's the kind of interactions most people in the world have with their ancestors of having daka fal shamen.

*instead of having daka fal shamen
Trolls care more about their ancestors but a lot of their deities are already their ancestors (Kyger Litor and her children) and she also has magic to deal with common ancestors even if not as much as Daka Fal.

Thanks for answering my questions user.

>Daka Fal
This isn't a term I recall seeing before, is it just a type of ancestor worship or something else?

It was my understanding that while Praxians were all about Animism, the Orlanthi were mostly Theists, but with Animists for the ancestor spirits (which seems a bit niche), am I misunderstanding?

You know what.
I understand what you are saying.

If my players even become interested in the white moon cult (and knowing my players one of them has a pretty good chance for that, peace loving hippy).

They will be actually good guys and so will be the white moon.

I'll just say that the lunar cult got so tangled up in their imperialism that they don't want to lose that power and claim that "their" white moon is totally different.

cont.

Trying to go to deep into, whi the white moon actually is, if there is a relation to other white celestial bodies or if it's just a metaphor, which are of course real things in glorantha, will just lead to god-learnism (aka headaches)

My guess is this is some central Genertelan misunderstanding of the veneration of Ascended Masters like Gerlant and Hrestol.

Daka Fal is the Praxian Judge of the Dead, the great spirit who teaches how to deal with ancestors.
The Orlanthi know him as Darhudan, Havan Vor, or just as Grandfather Mortal.

As for the Praxians, they're a bit more mixed between animism and theism. Many of the more powerful spirits are also worshipped as gods. (Waha, Eiritha, Storm Bull)

In some respects, the Praxians can be said to be a variant Orlanthi culture. Prax itself does fall into the radius of Orlanth's holy mountain, and the Praxians are all children of Storm Bull.

On the other hand, I did not realise how vile the Empire is before actually studying it in depth. The amount of double-think and duplicity is staggering.

They have an incredibly hedonistic Emperor, but that's alright, he is experiencing it all "for you, the people", they are bringing "peace" to other lands by waging war on them with terrible monsters, while also wasting a lot of lives at home on wars between noble houses.
They have even enslaved their own goddess to perpetuate their Empire, instead of letting her focus on enlightenment and rebirth.

Orlanth is basically a reformed anarchist biker that married, settled down and became a community leader.
Vadrus is the bike that never settled down, and goes around complaining that Orlanth "used to be fun".

So which country/culture is the most "good" in Glorantha? It seems like everyone I read about has a skeleton in their closet, whether it's from accepting/performing hideous stuff or backstabbing other people just out of greed or spite. Admittedly, I haven't read much yet though.

Sartar used to be "good" when they still had their wise, magical, infrastructure-conjuring pacifist god-king. Without him, they are just a bunch of war-like savages.

>everyone I read about has a skeleton in their closet, whether it's from accepting/performing hideous stuff or backstabbing other people just out of greed or spite
Nah that seems about right.
Lunars just take the cake by slowly eroding reality.

Praxians are, in comparison, pretty chill tho.

Loskalm, they're so good because they tapped away all their evil.

Please ignore where that evil may have gone. Like the Kingdom of War

Morokanth creep me out, and the Praxians sacked Pavis too.

>Morokanth creep me out
Then that's you personal thing, not a skeleton in the closet.

>Praxians sacked Pavis
Yeah they did, but that's what nomads to.
Not saying that the generation doing that isn't guilty but that's pretty minor compared to distorting the order of the world because you feel like it (storm gods)
Or enslaving a godess and starting to unravel reality (lunars)

Probably the East Isles, there are a few pirates and islands that try to conquer others but otherwise they are chill without being xenophobic and don't seems to be murderous towards entire races because their ancestors fought them. (unlike probably everyone else)
Teshnos also seems to be a cool place without Lunar/Kralorela tier shenanigans but maybe we just don't know about theirs.

So what exactly does let Chaos into the world?

Some publications imply it's a cosmic nemesis that's always trying to seep in and disregarding ancient rites and compromises that reinforce the world will allow it in.

Other publications state that it is indeed the cosmic nemesis, but that anything will invite it, including unknowingly breaching some universal arbitrary rule that's pretty easy to breach by accident.

From how I see it, and keep in mind YGWV and this is probably not the official view anyway...

The world is maintained by various laws of morality. The problem is this varies by culture.
For example, cannibalism will often invite Chaos (for example, see the ogres and ghouls).
But on the other hand, for trolls it's part of their nature.

This is why Orlanthi have the stricture against Kinslaying. Because Orlanthi law is maintained by vengeance, a wound for a wound, Kinslaying creates a problem. If you've wounded your family, then trying to repay wouldn't fix it and would just strengthen it. You can't even pay wergild, because that'd be paying yourself for your own crime.

That inability for the law to work, that hole in justice, is what lets Chaos in.


Then you have the Dara Happans, whose concept of Justice is intricately tied to Authority. Their word for it literally translates to "Measured Command From Above."
Disobeying the head of the family, your commanding officer, the city's overseer, or-Yelm forbid-the Emperor; that's a crime. But one that can be punished, so doesn't let in Chaos.

But let's say that the Emperor is himself a criminal, who disobeys order, acts in impure ways, and consorts with darkness. That would let in Chaos (although Dara Happans would call it the Other, or refer to the Empty Emperor Kazkurtum.)

The Brithini see this as entropy. Which is why if they disobey their caste laws, they die. (From old age, but to them it's all the same)

The simplest answer is that Chaos entered Glorantha because of how the world was broken by how reality was stretched by the confllicts in myths, especially when two opponents choose to not accept the same version of an event, (the divergences in myths that are obviously the same but from the viewpoints of different cultures is not propaganda) in a way deities in the Godtime were doing some God-learner tier shit because reality back then worked like in the Hero Planes and time wasn't linear or really global so they could just go back to a defeat to retroactively win, often only in their corner of reality.
That and the whole devastation caused by the Gods War in the Lesser Darkness/Storm Age was also damaging reality.
Eventually that allowed Chaos to invade Glorantha in force, the destruction of the Spike, the death of everyone and the recreation of the world with Time.

Chaos in Glorantha globally diminished greatly in history though, Genertela had much more chaotic creatures and ravaged lands a Dawn than now.
But the Chaos Gods that survived are also part of the Great Compromise, so they are still able to manifest the way they did in the Great Darkness (Broos born from rape -> rape is still chaotic) and the events of the Godtime are still being cyclically reflected in Time again and again so the Devil still come back in some form all 600 years.

The Godtime is even reflected on a yearly basis and if gloranthan cultures stopped ritually reanacting the Dawn during the Sacred Time then that would leads to a disaster as they would prevent the yearly recreation of Glorantha. (even at a local level, failing to do do is a disaster for a community)