Eight Arms and the Mask

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Personal Recollections of a Sutler with the Warm Sisters - Excerpt from 9th Fragment

This work is well-known to the scholar from frequent references in our near-complete sources, particularly the magisterial "Peregrina Prodigiosa Uleria" (Pilgrimage of the Prodigious "Uleria", for a discussion of the meaning of this see my article in the 'zine TILTED TILNTA ). But while it is not totally lost, it has only returned to us in definitely incomplete sources, primarily individual fragments preserved in the Jonstown Library and the Hilltown Cache. All of these are, of course, from variant manuscripts. After some extensive reconstruction and textual criticism, I am pleased to offer the first corrected text of a portion of "Personal Recollections of a Sutler with the Warm Sisters", (one of the few surviving examples of that finest of literary genres, the pornographic memoir,) what is generally accepted as Fragment 9. We- Xorshid, Yanranda, Soritha White-mane, and myself- had been engaged in practice, what would be called "drill"

The Great Families of the Lunar Empire

Our Goddess set forth her virile Moonson to be her representative on Earth, and he was obliged by responsibility to accept the offer of co-rule with Yelmgatha, and then to pass the Ten Tests and prove himself Emperor of Dara Happa. As the Sun on the Earth, the incarnation of bright Yelm, it is thus the case that any child of Moonson is in their own right a descendant of Yelm twice over- firstly, they are a first-generation child of Yelm via Moonson himself, incarnate as Emperor, and secondly, they are also descended from Yelm, a great-grandchild of the Sun through the Red Goddess and her own son. As this is so, it is therefore simple and inevitable and factual that these children are not merely noble in their own right, but also more noble, possessed of greater purity, than the majority of Dara Happan nobles. Thus, it is only right and true that the Imperial Families should have precedent over all but the absolute purest of old nobles. When this was understood, there was much outcry,

A Teaching of Masks; The Great Seven Faces

Where is there to begin? Here, unroll this scroll. This, where there is nothing at all, where nothing has touched the bare parchment after its preparation and adornment, this is ZAYTENERA . Zaytenera is the beginning, the White Moon, the representation of ignorance. There are no secrets here. Or so we think. But now we move on. Here, the ink is red, paler than the Rufelza which hangs in the sky. This is VERITHURUSA , who has encountered the occult now, and bleeds heavy with the desire to share it, to spread her knowledge about, and demonstrate that there is nothing to fear in it, for she does not fear, and why should she? She is young and strong and there is nothing that will hurt her willingly. But here we pass on, and the ink becomes blue, and it is a dark blue indeed, deep like a river. LESILLA dominates here, because we have discovered that the sharing of knowledge can bring pain. We have learned that it is not always the will which makes one bleed. Now we understand that ther

Regiments, Battalia, and Corps: Dissecting the Lunar Army

The Lunar Army had, for the majority of its existence, precisely two advantages over its opposition. Firstly, it had the Lunar Way and the ability to combine magicians of assorted types into consolidated magical units, which enabled the Lunar Army to consistently pull magical surprises out of its back pocket, even when (as was often the case) the raw power of its opposition was somewhat greater. Examples of this are well-known in the specialist literature. The ability of the magicians during the Second Invasion of Prax to use their Lodril priests to suppress the summoned Oakfed Lowfire stands in for the type. Secondly, however, the Lunar Army spread this consolidation somewhat into the conventional units, allowing them to create heterogeneous tactical and operational forces, where existing armies fought with homogeneous subunits that operated separately from one another. This consolidation proceeded only fitfully and in very limited quantities. It was as often a hindrance as a benefit

Two New Rune Spells

The following spells are provided here for three reasons: 1) in case you really want defined game mechanics for trans characters to get the body they desire, 2) as an expression of bemusement at the "Pregnancy" spell in the recently-released Red Book of Magic, 3) as an excuse to talk about transness in Glorantha. Freemartin Fertility, Movement 3 points Ritual, Permanent, Nonstackable This spell enables the target to become capable of impregnating people if they could not otherwise do so. This spell does not permit interspecies pregnancies on its own. Flowing Body Water, Illusion 1 point Ritual, Permanent, Stackable This spell operates in a special fashion. When cast using a single Rune Point, this spell causes the target's body to change shape in accordance with a desired vision along gendered norms. This does not alter any characteristics (eg SIZ), but does allow them to make their body more masculine, more feminine, or more androgynous in a particular fashion. They

A Tale of Two Princes

I. The Terrain Sartar was a relatively young kingdom that occupied the southeastern quadrant of the location known as Dragon Pass. It lasted as an independent kingdom for about 110 years before it was conquered by the Lunar Empire, being placed under direct Lunar rule for 11 years, then becoming a client kingdom for another 11, then spending a year under direct Lunar rule again before an uprising drove the Lunars out. Sartar was Heortling in culture, founded primarily by Heortling traditionalists fleeing the reformations of Belintar in Heortland, with an admixture of Esrolians and some Tarshites coming south. It also incorporated the Duck/durulz people of Dragon Pass. Heortling society operates on several levels of kinship, the smallest level of which is the bloodline, a relatively mutable unit that largely amounted to “who do you share a house with?” Above that, there was the clan, a collection of bloodlines centered around a particular set of regalia and a particular bit of sacred