Report on the Multilexia, Part RQ2

 Or maybe it goes like this.

THE CULT OF THE MULTILEXIA

I. MYTHOS AND HISTORY

A. BEFORE TIME

Before time, the Multilexia had other names, or none. She fought with the lesser powers of the world, alongside the armies of Chaos, and was defeated by a prior incarnation of the Red Goddess, though she survived into time to become one of the surviving Chaos monsters. 

B. SINCE TIME BEGAN

The Multilexia was found by the Red Goddess and they fought again, and the Red Goddess returned with her in tow. She then hung around in the “groupie squad” while the Red Goddess remained in the world, contributed to the first editions of She Blesses Those Who Read This, An Appeal To Those Who Suffer Seinschmerz, and Handbook of Lune Management, and left for the new Moon as an instance of historical trivia. 

She then, like fellow Chaotic entity the Crimson Bat, returned to the middle world at some point in the Third Wane. (The details of why are disputed- see “The Multilexial Myth” below.) Cultic devotion began in the Fourth Wane and achieved a full independent cult in the Fifth, when Hon-eel the Artess proposed a challenge to the Multilexia. Since then, this demideity has remained active within the middle world, somewhat secondarily compared to many other Lunar Immortals. She has also produced or contributed to a variety of textual works.

C. LIFE AFTER DEATH

The cult offers a “pension of merit” for the members, wherein contributions to the cult in life are paid back out in death and reincarnation. Because cultists rarely are solely devoted to their demigoddess, the pension enhances their standing with the other cults they interacted with in life. The rarer sole devotees know there are quiet places for them on the Red Moon, fishing piers on the ruby seas and little laboratories in the crimson cities, where they can relax and never be interrupted by unreasonable demands from the Etyries people or the Hwarin Dalthippa people.

D. RUNIC ASSOCIATIONS

The Multilexia has, within the strict idiom of Runequest “2”, the Runes of Chaos (Form) and Harmony (Power). It is certainly acceptable and maybe more accurate to use Communication (Condition) and possibly Moon (Element) as well, if you're not as wedded to the strict numbers. 

II. NATURE OF THE CULT

A. REASON FOR CONTINUED EXISTENCE

The Multilexia offers an example of “self-improvement” for Chaotic beings in following the Lunar Way, as well as an exemplar of the growing “red-collar worker” element in the urban Lunar Empire, providing a social and professional organization for such people. Thus, her cult has both general admiration from the public and direct support as a form of mutual aid

B. SOCIAL/POLITICAL POSITION AND POWER

Her cult is minor but important- they have a similar veto power to the Ourania cult or the Lodril day worker subcults when it comes to labor issues, and a great deal of technical input on matters of large-scale magical engineering projects. 

C. PARTICULAR LIKES AND DISLIKES

As a Lunar cult, the Multilexia likes other Moon-related cults and has positive working relationships with the gods of most other cults found in the Lunar Empire. She is typically neutral to most non-Lunar cults. 

As a Chaotic entity, she detests Storm Bull, Zorak Zoran, Kyger Litor, and most other “Chaos fighter” gods and their cults. Her cultists are warned to limit involvement with them for their own safety. She also has an ongoing feud of uncertain origin with the cult of the Conquering Daughter, though not one anyone takes seriously. 

Rumors persist of a certain one-sided relationship of her cult towards all cults associated with the Lightfore planet which worship a masculine entity (Antirius, Yelmalio, Kargzant, Elmal, Metsyla, etc.) marked with positive feelings on the Multilexic end and varying degrees of fear and hostility on the Lightfore end. 

III. ORGANIZATION

A. INTRACULT ORGANIZATION

The cult is a smallish one, with perhaps twenty thousand initiates across the Lunar Empire, divided into “affiliates” for each major geographical region and then “locals” in each, typically one local for each major city and then a few more which cover smaller cities and rural work. Each local is thus a temple, and the priestesses of each local serve terms in rotation as the titular head of the affiliate. There are few enough of the affiliates that no single head is needed- collegiate and collegial decisions are sufficient. Ladies of the Cult have the authority on their own to submit petitions before the board of affiliates. 

B. INTRATEMPLE ORGANIZATION

Each local consists of all the members of the cult in a given geographical area, typically centered around a city or a portion of a city. The cult follows a simple working hierarchy, where laity defer to initiates, initiates to rune levels, and rune levels to high priestesses and rune lady-priestesses. This is complicated by the fact that the locals typically organize the membership to perform various tasks- keeping the temple structure up, performing works of light charity and public service to butter up officials, strategically protesting or blockading under certain circumstances, running continuing education classes, etc. and these committees have their own hierarchies based on individual factors like skills or family connections. 

Each local has at least one priestess in residence, and more often has several. When this is the case, members of the local of initiate and above vote annually to select one of the priestesses to be the Priestess Clerk for the given local. (This is independent of Chief Priestess or High Priestess rank!) Where locals have multiple ladies of the cult, the same process is used so that each year one is chosen to be the Lady Steward for the local. The Priestess Clerk is responsible for the internal matters of the local, including organizing holy days and worship ceremonies, and for communication with other locals and the affiliate the local is under, while the Lady Steward is responsible for the external affairs of the local and for directing the efforts of other ladies of the cult. 

Chief Priestesses and Rune Lady-Priestesses have no formal higher rank, but are treated with great respect and often can sweep elections if they so choose. Others choose to permanently sit on the staff of an affiliate, the overall college of affiliates, or to accompany a material manifestation of the Multilexia, or to position themselves at the cult's archives in Elz Ast, giving them a great deal of power but less public attention. 

C. CENTERS OF POWER AND HOLY PLACES

The cult's Archives are kept in Elz Ast, and are the functional center of power for the cult, where the Multilexia almost always has a manifestation hanging around and a great deal of interesting oddities are kept. 

The second-most-important holy place for the cult is somewhere out to the east of Torang, which can only be found by riding (or walking, or flying, or traveling in some fashion close to the ground) out from any city on the grasslands in First Blessed or Oraya without any specific destination in mind. It is an expanse of grass where a path cuts through the tall areas, tramped down wide enough for a wagon, and leads to a little open meadow where, it is said, the Red Goddess fought with the Multilexia a second time. The ground is scarred, and bits of brass are embedded in the ground all over the meadow if you look closely. This is a place of power, and it is also a Chaotic place, and not infrequently people or monsters associated with Chaos will find their own way there, and may even be waiting for you when you arrive. (It can't be a Heroquest because the events being reenacted are in time, of course.) 

Other holy places to the cult are scattered around. Many of them have small brass plaques to identify that the Multilexia ate or slept or read a scroll there.

D. HOLY DAYS AND HIGH HOLY DAYS

The cult maintains a calendar of holy days, which are on Wildday of Harmony week for Sea, Fire, and Dark seasons, and on Wildday of Illusion week for Earth and Storm seasons. The High Holy Day is in Fire season. There is also a minor ceremony performed in Sacred Time. 

Each holy day consists of a shared gathering centered around a meal, with worshipers eating at the table with their demigoddess following an opening consecration of the space. During the meal, conversation is free, and anyone may ask the demigoddess whatever they please, making the occasions frequently raucous. As the meal concludes, the priestesses and ladies of the cult each give a brief report on their activities since the last holy day, the Multilexia blesses the participants, and then typically music is performed, before the ceremony concludes and the worshipers return to the fully material world. Each gathering has a particular name, and particular food and drinks are provided for it, as best as the worshipers are able to. The following table sets them out:

The High Holy Day is slightly different. Following the meal, the Multilexia herself gives a speech to the worshipers, discussing the events of the year, the efforts of the cult, plans for the future, and the status of the Pension of Merit. She then invokes the Red Goddess herself, who manifests and performs the sacred ritual of Witnessing the Signing of the Minutes, and then departs with the “carbon copy” of the signed minutes. The Multilexia then signals that the meeting is “off the clock”.

What follows is an opportunity to participate in an orgiastic celebration with the demigoddess and her servants. Those worshipers who are uninterested in this or grow tired may leave at any time by miming plucking their heart and eyes out and tossing them to the nearest body of the Multilexia, by which act their sacrifice of temporary POW down to all but 1 point is accepted, and they return to the temporal world. Participants who continue in the festivities sacrifice their temporary POW at the end (1d4+1 hours later), with priestesses and ladies of the cult finishing last as their duty of channeling POW is concluded. 

If for some reason the referee and other players have a reason to want to play this material out and determine the “last worshiper standing”, the suggestion of the author is to select a time interval that feels appropriate and then use the Resistance Table, with DEX, CON, CHA, POW, and perhaps INT and even STR and SIZ all being viable “attacking” and “defending” attributes if you're creative. Depending on the position of the characters involved, select which one is “attacking”, and then roll. Failure means the loss of one point of temporary POW for the character attacking. (Under many circumstances, two rolls for each character may be necessary as both are performing actions that constitute “attacking”). Repeat this for every time interval, determining whether characters have switched partners before setting up the roll. For the purposes of this procedure, the Multilexia has infinite POW and a CHA and INT of 27, and always uses these attributes for the relevant rolls. She prefers to receive from her worshipers at this event, but can certainly be giving. Make up your own percentile chances for that.

(If you, the reader, have objections related to refractory periods, please stop and consider the subtext of this cult. If you still wish to continue, you have the author's blessing to adjust the duration of the orgy to 2d4+1 minutes, or rolling d6-1 for the tens place and d10 for the ones place to determine minutes, or anything else you please.)

There is one last holy ceremony performed during Sacred Time, a reenactment of the two duels of the Goddess and the Multilexia, performed in the temple space on Fireday of Luck week. The ceremony is not a full holy day, and nothing is asked of the worshipers, only that they watch as the performers play things out. The pageant varies on a theme, and is never the exact same twice. (It is said that if it were to be the exact same twice, the goddesses would intervene to disrupt the show, and if it were deliberately an attempted perfect reenactment, all involved would be cursed.) 

IV. LAY MEMBERSHIP

A. REQUIREMENTS TO JOIN

Lay membership in the cult is open to everyone who is willing to swear an oath before its demigoddess to refrain from acting to harm other members of the cult while a member and pay 10 Lunars. 

In addition, if the person works for pay and that work involves the use of magic, then within the bounds of the Lunar Empire and a recognized local/temple, they are automatically a lay member of the cult, but voluntarily seeking the cult out to register membership has benefits. (See below.)

B. REQUIREMENTS TO BELONG

Lay members must show up for holy days if not automatically a member, and contribute both the required temporary POW and 5 Lunars at the holy day ceremony. They may pay 20 Lunars and be good on contributions for the next year. 

If automatically a member, the laity must contribute at least 4 temporary POW annually and attend the high holy day once every two years at a minimum. If holy days are skipped, the temporary POW will be accepted at the next one attended, or else at the first available opportunity after a year without making good. They must also contribute a certain quantity of their income earned from magic-working labor to the cult. Individual contracts are negotiated for larger employers, and the referee is invited to come up with convoluted ones, but the standard “adventurer contract” for freelance workers demands 1 and ½ Lunars for every 100 earned in a year, plus an additional 15 Lunars annually. Failing to contribute this income means the cult is free to send one of its spirits of reprisal after the scab. 

If the automatic lay member formally registers with the cult as a member, the annual fee is waived for the first year and they only need to contribute 2 temporary POW that year. 

C. MUNDANE BENEFITS

These depend on the contract. For the adventurer's contract, the lay member receives the following benefits:

They may appeal to the cult in the event of a dispute with an employer. Where it is not apparent how the cult would react to the appeal, use the formula for becoming an initiate or convincing the examiners with the following modifiers: add 1 for every full season (not including Sacred Time) the character has been a member of the cult in good standing as well as the 1 for every 100L donated to the cult. 

They may make use of cult facilities within reason, including using temples as a place to sleep while traveling. 

The cult will post potential freelance work opportunities at a convenient location within the temple and provide whatever introduction may be needed. 

C. SKILLS

Lay members of the cult receive training in Read and Write Lunar/New Pelorian for free if they do not already know the skill. They may receive training at half the price of the Free Sages in Speak Other Language and Read and Write Other Language for the following languages and others relevant to Lunar magicians and “Knowledge skill” workers:

• Spiritspeech, the language of disembodied spirits. 
• Moontalk, the slangy dialect of Firespeech used by the Lunar Immortals and New Gods when at home. 
• Firespeech, the divine language of the gods of fire, light, and heat. 
• Laketalk, the divine language of the gods of fresh water.
• Icespeech, the divine dialect used by the gods of cold and snow. 
• Pallidic, the semi-divine language used by the peoples of Altinela to the north of the Lunar Empire and the material world. 
• Dara Happan, Doblianish, Rinliddi, Henjarlish, Sylilan, Pelandan, Darseni, Low Carmanian, High Carmanian, Spolite, Eolian, Velthili, and Sugarspeech, regional languages of the Lunar Empire, some of them moribund as spoken languages, all of them relevant for written documents. (Or any other regional languages the referee wants to put there.)
• Tradetalk, the lingua franca of much of Glorantha, though with much eyerolling if training is requested.

They may also learn any other skill offered by the Free Sages at full price, skills offered by the Alchemists Guild at double price (“licensing fees”), and any generally available Knowledge skill in the referee's campaign. In addition, three such skills are laid out in section X., “Printing”, “Sourcing”, and “Reporting”. The cult also provides an additional special cult skill, available at the same price as the Lhankor Mhy General Knowledge skill: 

Practical Magic

Practical Magic consists of a little bit of theory and a lot of recorded experience of how to best perform or facilitate magic. This skill conveys, without needing to roll, the capacity to create and engrave Battle Magic foci for other people. It also provides a percentage chance for the user to do the following things:

• Evaluate whether an object is magical or not and the general outline of how to manipulate it for use. 
• Determine the flow of POW and other magical currents in the layout of a temple, shrine, sorcerer's workshop, or other magical/consecrated area, and thus a sense of its functionality and general purpose. 

D. Battle Magic

Repair and Shimmer are available at ½ cost, all others at normal cost.

V. INITIATE MEMBERSHIP 

A. REQUIREMENTS FOR INITIATION

Becoming an initiate of the cult requires that the prospect have been a lay member in good standing for at least three seasons and that they have a sponsor within their local. They must swear an oath to first attempt to resolve all disputes with other members of the cult within the cult. They then may, at the discretion of the referee, either make a simple speech about their willingness to act in solidarity with fellow cultists and attempt to convince one of the officers of the local, or roll as per a modified form of the Convincing the Examiners roll. Add POW, CHA, and 1 for every 100L the prospect has paid dues on, then 1 for every 100L offered in donation at the moment. Divide by three, multiply by five, and roll against this value. Failure means the prospect hasn't demonstrated their solidarity to other cultists. 

B. REQUIREMENTS TO REMAIN INITIATED

Initiates pay twice the dues of lay members, sacrifice two temporary POW points at holy days, and must attend high holy days annually and at least one other holy day. They owe a further four points of temporary POW annually which they may contribute more flexibly. They are required to abide by their oath and violating it will earn a visit from a Spirit of Reprisal. When attending the holy day in Earth Season, they must bring a dish to pass or some other way of contributing in kind to the meal. 

C. MUNDANE BENEFITS

Initiates vote in their local's elections for Priestess Clerk and Lady Steward, and as a consequence of their higher dues receive healing, fully paid for up to Healing 4 or its value, with half the price paid by the initiate for anything more than that. This includes traditional donations to the Chalana Arroy or Erissa cults, up to and including for Resurrections. Initiates may make use of cult facilities and receive room and one meal per day gratis when traveling, and they may make use of the Pension of Merit. The cult will also, in the cases where ransom is demanded, pay upfront and require the ransomed cultist pay back half. 

D. SKILLS

Initiates may receive the same skill training as lay members, but all skills taught at full price to lay members are taught at half price, and ones taught at double price are taught at full price. 

E. SPELLS

REDUCED COST: Repair, Shimmer, Mindspeech, Harmonize, Dispel Magic, Detect Magic. 

NORMAL COST: All others.

In addition, initiates may learn the following unique Battle Magic spell at normal cost for a variable spell. 

Cult Special Battle Magic Spell

ALKAHEST

Range - touch

Temporary POW used - 1 point/point of spell.

Type - focused, passive, temporal. 

This is a variable spell that dissolves inanimate matter. For an object with 100 square centimeters of surface area or less, one point of POW will soften the object to the consistency of wet clay. It will hold its shape while being malleable and soft enough to remove a stuck lid or stopper. It may also be molded to reshape it. A further point of POW will soften it to the consistency of a somewhat viscous liquid, like molasses, and render it able to be dissolved in water given a sufficiently large quantity of water and something to stir with. Additionally, further points of POW may be used to expand the maximum surface area that may be affected or extend the duration for an additional five melee rounds (one minute). Once the spell expires, the object solidifies and attempts to return to its original shape, removing incidental fingerprints and the like.

Thus, Alkahest 2 may be used to reduce one object of 100 square centimeters of surface area or less to a liquid state, or one object of 200 square centimeters of surface area or less to a softened state, or one object of 100 square centimeters of surface area or less to a softened state for three minutes (15 melee rounds) instead of two (10 melee rounds).

(Note that even a short sword will have more than 200 square centimeters of surface area, and a short spear will have at least 1500 square centimeters of surface area. Melting them with this spell would require a substantial dedication of POW and INT and money.) 

Spell Matrices for this Battle Magic spell which are made by the cult are called, by tradition, “Soft Machines”.

In addition, initiates may purchase reusable Special Cult Rune Magic spells as one-use spells, if they really want, and call upon Divine Intervention, as per the Runequest and Cults of Prax procedures for such. 

VI. RUNE LADY MEMBERSHIP

A. GENERAL STATEMENT

While this text uses feminine forms, there is no requirement to be restricted to such in play, and it is simply adopted for convenience. 

The title for Rune Ladies of the Multilexia cult is simple: Lady of the Cult. They are not first and foremost martial figures, but rather focus on organizing the cult in areas where locals are not yet present or are weak, negotiating with employers on contracts for regularizing pay, rallying cultists behind work stoppages, and interacting with the hierarchies of other cults on behalf of the cult as a whole. They may drop in for “surprise inspections” on a licensed expedition, or in a workshop turning out educational pamphlets, or the like.

B. REQUIREMENTS FOR ACCEPTANCE

Becoming a Lady of the Cult follows the requirements in Runequest (1980), not Cults of Prax, as its model. Thus, the following requirements must be met:

The prospective Lady of the Cult must have 90% in five skills, one of which must be Oratory, one of which must be a Playing Instruments skill, one of which must be a Knowledge skill, and one of which must be a fighting skill. 

The prospective Lady of the Cult must have a POW of 15 at a minimum.

The prospective Lady of the Cult must have been an initiate for a year minimum and must undergo an ordeal to prove her dedication. The ordeal typically consists of the prospect being bound in a way that disables either their sight or their hearing and keeps them unable to move freely, and then they are confronted with a spirit (generated via the table for summoning a fetch), who engages in spirit combat with them, but reversed, as if the prospect was a disembodied spirit and the spirit was an embodied one. They must survive five rounds of spirit combat without fleeing.

C. RESTRICTIONS

Ladies of the Cult must wear a visible token of brass about their person, and their handwriting immediately becomes terrible. They are forbidden to keep their mouth shut if they have an idea to offer, and they must behave with gallantry towards anyone who is not specifically and exclusively a man, with the exception of members of Chaos-fighting cults like Zorak Zoran, Storm Bull, Kyger Litor, etc. If they learn of the mistreatment of workers by bosses, they must either act on this knowledge themselves or raise a hue and cry so that others might.

D. BENEFITS

They receive the standard benefits of Rune Lord status- aid in allying a spirit, Divine Intervention, etc.- as detailed in Runequest and Cults of Prax. These include iron weapons and armor, which the cult typically does not have in sufficient quantity for spares to give to new Ladies of the Cult. 

(Allied spirits for all Rune Levels are also placed in dolls and jewelry, in addition to the common weapon, armor, and animal choices laid out in Runequest.)

In addition to these other benefits, Ladies of the Cult may sacrifice permanent POW to receive access to the following cult special Rune spell as if they were a Rune Priestess:

One-Point Spells

DOUBLE TROUBLE

Duration: one day, Range: within 10 meters of caster, Reuseable.

This spell splits the caster into two, creating a pair of precise duplicates in appearance. Both of these entities are “real” and can act within the world, being made by redistributing the material of the caster and filling in the remainder with an approximation via energy.

As such, when the spell is cast, the caster decides, and must decide, whether they are going to distribute evenly, and produce a pair of mostly-physical bodies, or distribute unevenly, producing one body that's very physical and one that's barely so. 

In the first case, some math must be done. Both bodies have half of their original HP (rounded up), both in general HP and in each location. Their CON and SIZ are reduced by half for the purposes of the Resistance Table only, again rounded up. 

In the second case, the second body produced will return to nothingness if it takes 1HP of damage, but is immune to poisons. Treat CON and SIZ as the minimum possible for their species for the purposes of the Resistance Table. The original body is not affected at all. 

In both cases, the spell does not split the mind, but does allow it to operate both bodies. Where time and focus are not critical, or when both bodies are engaged in the same task in close proximity, this has no real rules effect. Where this is not true, then it is appropriate for the referee to require that one body must “act” at a time and then be somewhat passive while the other is “acting", or assess a small penalty on skill rolls, or similar. However, if the caster has an allied spirit, then the allied spirit can be incorporated into the second body, using their INT, CHA, and POW, and no ongoing penalties are appropriate. 

If the caster already has a split mind, then they can simply act without penalties with the caveat that the split portions of the mind must be associated with a specific body and played in accordance with the nature of the split. 

The spell may be ended early by the two bodies kissing, interlacing their fingers, or some other intimate act of physical contact, which the caster can declare at the time of casting or leave undefined. Extension 2 will make the spell last for a week, Extension 3 will make it last for two weeks if the bodies are united by a single mind, and permanent unless the end of the spell is triggered if there are separate minds in the two bodies. If this is the case, their HP recovers at the standard rate of healing until its normal maximum, while their CON and SIZ take four weeks of normal living, or two weeks with an abundance of food and plenty of free time for exercise, to return to its normal maximum. 

VII. RUNE PRIESTESSHOOD

A. GENERAL STATEMENT

Rune Priestesses of the cult are also called Manifold Priestesses, a title which is obscure. They are otherwise as standard for Rune Priests generally.

B. REQUIREMENTS FOR ACCEPTANCE

As per Cults of Prax, but with the caveat that the prospective Manifold Priestess must also Read and Write Lunar/New Pelorian if that is not their native tongue. 

C. RESTRICTIONS

Manifold Priestesses must never address a Rune Lord or Rune Priest of Hwarin Dalthippa directly, but only passive-aggressively or indirectly. Upon attaining Manifold Priestess status, a small part of their body, such as a finger or toe or similar amount, will turn to living brass. If this is cut off or destroyed due to injury, and it is regrown rather than reattached, the Priestess will be visited by a Spirit of Reprisal to return the regrown area to its brassy condition. Where the climate and practicality permits, the Manifold Priestess must expose their collarbones and bare their midriff. Finally, they must address any initiate or higher of the Red Goddess cult as “Bestie”. 

C. BENEFITS

Beyond the standard benefits of Rune Priest status and those outlined in previous sections, Manifold Priestesses receive discretion over how to apply the Pension of Merit, lodgings and three meals per day, the authority to call assemblies of their temple/local together, and a personalized nameplate made by their demigoddess.

D. RUNE SPELL COMPATIBILITY 

As per Runequest. 

E. CULT SPECIAL RUNE SPELLS

In addition to the spell listed for Rune Ladies, the following two special Rune Spells are available: 

One-Point Spells

SHARE SENSATION

Duration: 15 minutes, Range: 10 meters, Reusable, Stackable.

This spell, when cast, causes the caster and the target to share their senses. For the duration of the spell, both participants see what each other sees, hear what each other hears, and feel what each other feels. This rush of information is difficult to process, so important ritual aids include blindfolds and in some cases earplugs to make practical use of the spell to enable one person to send information to another. This spell does not allow the telepathic transference of thoughts or sharing of magic. Additional uses of the spell may be stacked to add additional people to the effect. All participants in the spell share all sensations with each other. 

While under the spell, it is always possible to distinguish your own sensations from those of others, but only with effort. If it becomes necessary to make such distinctions, roll as if the character was attacking with CHA vs. their own POW value on the Resistance Table. Success means the character can clearly distinguish what information to act on, failure means they cannot make that distinction. If they attempt to act regardless, the referee should consider the action, and where appropriate, require a roll on the fumble table, disallow the roll altogether, or require them to roll against a reduced ability, reducing it by 5, 10, or 20%, again depending on the specifics of the situation and action. 

Use of this spell to share the sensations of beings with body parts or hit locations the caster does not themselves possess can nevertheless leave them with phantom sensation of said parts after the spell expires. There are no procedures for this, only food for thought. 

Two-Point Spells

BIND CHAOS

Duration: Instantaneous, Range: 160 meters, One-Use

This spell may be cast on any Chaotic object or corporeal being. If the object has a POW score, or in all cases for beings, the caster engages in a POW vs. POW attack using the Resistance Table. Success means that the caster and target are both Discorporated, and the target may be the subject of spirit combat. Succeeding in binding the target via spirit combat means that the target no longer registers as Chaotic on the Sense Chaos ability, must heed the words of the binder (a permanent Mindspeech effect between the two), and will not suffer the effects of the Spirit of Reprisal for apostasy towards any Chaotic cults. These benefits last until the target participates in a worship ceremony (including the recovery of reusable Rune spells) for a Chaotic cult that is not associated with Multilexia. 

F. CHIEF PRIESTESSES AND RUNE LADY-PRIESTESSES

These ranks are not seperately titled, but as detailed above, cultists who achieve this rank have substantial prestige. What follows is an order of prestige for dinner seatings and introductions and the like:

1. Manifestations of the Multilexia
2. Members of the Board of Affiliates
3. Rune Lady-Priestesses
4. Chief Priestesses
5. Priestess Clerks
6. Lady Stewards
7. Other Manifold Priestesses
8. Other Ladies of the Cult
9. Initiates
10. Laity

VIII. SUBSERVIENT CULTS

Spirit of Retribution One: Sabo. Sabo is a spirit that comes against automatic lay members and initiates who refuse to contribute their dues. Sabo typically appears in the form of a spectral black or dark purple-furred cat with glowing yellow eyes. Sabo first arrives on the first day of Sea Season after a year in which the lay member has been delinquent and delivers a warning. The lay member then has one season to begin to make good, and after that, if they're still delinquent, Sabo will attack on a random day each season. Sabo has 3d6 POW and INT, and attacks with POW vs. POW. On a successful attack, the target receives a curse. Roll 1d4. On a 1, they receive the Wildcat Curse, meaning that they will automatically fumble the next time they attempt to make an attack roll. On a 2-4, they receive the Slowdown Curse, meaning they will automatically fail at any Knowledge skill roll for the next week unless they take twice the time they would usually need to perform the task. Sabo does not remain long enough to receive attacks in return, but Allied Spirits can attempt to retaliate. Sabo will withdraw if the target begins to pay dues owed, and will only return if they skip a full season with them owed, or if they go a full year without working in the labors the cult oversees in the areas the cult covers. 

Spirit of Retribution Two: The Gentle Kindred. The Gentle Kindred are sent after those who violate the less fiscal restrictions on cultists, such as breaking the oath initiates must swear and the like, and those who voluntarily aid members of Chaos fighter cults. They appear to be nude women or feminine figures made of glass and filled with a shifting cloud of colorful light, speaking with voices that shift between soft and fluid and harsh like glass being scratched. They manifest with 2d6+6 POW, 3D6 INT, and 3D6 CHA against initiates and 3D6+6 POW, 3D6+3 INT, and 4D6 CHA against Rune levels. Where the violation is small (eg loss of a brazened body part), the spirits simply correct matters and depart. Where the violation is significant, the Gentle Kindred will manifest, declare the charges, and give the offender a chance to explain themselves. CHA vs. CHA, first the spirit attacking, and then the offender attacking. 

If the Kindred fails, then the offender may defend against their attack with spirit combat, and if the offender fails, then the Kindred attacks immediately and with full force, which is subjectively felt as a bite (roll for the hit location). The Kindred's attack doesn't decrease POW, but rather lowers the skill category modifiers of the offender by 5% for each successful attack in spirit combat. If the attack is with full force, the attack continues until all skill category modifiers are at least at -10% or the Kindred has lost more than half her POW. These spirits cannot be bound. 

In the event of a success on CHA versus CHA by the offender, the attack is only carried out until one skill category modifier has been reduced to -10%. Skill category modifiers recover after this attack by 5% every week. Especially egregious violations may see multiple Kindred manifest. Each challenges the offender in turn before attacking. 

These spirits can be summoned in other contexts and do not always appear as agents of retribution- when they are on pleasant business they wear clothing, typically a belted tunic that comes down to just the knees and a cloth diadem, in the opposite color on the color wheel to the color of their light. 

IX. ASSOCIATED CULTS

All Imperial Lunar cults are associated with Multilexia, though most of them offer no particular spell or skill from the association. Several cults that are not formally Imperial Lunar ones are also associated: Entekos, Lodril, Oria, Ourania, and Yelorna. The cults that offer special benefits beyond pure association are as follows:

Entekos

The Lady of Fair Weather offers the following spell to Manifold Priestesses, by virtue of the Multilexia's demonstrated virtuousness and righteous aid offered to women: 

One-Point Spells:

CALM WEATHER

Duration: 6 hours, Range: 250m-radius hemisphere centered on the caster, Reusable, Non-stackable. 

This spell, when cast, creates a bubble of beautiful weather, without more than light clouds, let alone precipitation or heavy breezes. Perfect for a picnic! When acquired in this way, this spell is incompatible with Extension.

Lodril

Lodril appreciates the willingness of Multilexia to roll up her sleeves and get to work, and so offers the following Battle Magic Spell:

SOFTEN EARTH

Two points, temporal duration, 10 meter range, focused, passive. 

This spell softens a patch of soil or gravel with a total area of 1 square meter and a depth of a meter for its duration to make it as workable as loose sand. 

 Yelorna

The typical Yelornan hands-off, suspicious attitude towards Lunar cults is softened for Multilexia, caused, so it is said, by the cunning linguistic tricks of the Multilexia's many tongues. Some would compare this to the Entekos cult's relationship with the Vinga Rufina cult of Saird. This dramaturgic relationship allows members of Multilexia to learn Kuschile Archery. 

X. MISCELLANEOUS NOTES

A. BRASS

What is brass in Glorantha? 

Perhaps brass is simply a grade of bronze, and brasses are bronzes that are more yellow than red. Maybe brasses are made from the bones of lowfire gods, like lesser gold, or impure gold. The author has suggested in other articles an extension of real-world metallurgy, where brasses are copper alloys incorporating significant quantities of zinc, and produced a theory of zinc in Glorantha which makes it somewhere between a joke and a flight of fancy, but which does not clearly distinguish between bronze and brass. 

But perhaps brass can be alloyed from natural bronze by melting or heating it in the presence of the right rocks, or from tin and copper in those rocks if your heart burns at the thought of something so trashy as mining bronze from the bones of dead gods. Or you add a tiny quantity of gold, or maybe silver, because ha ha, Lunars. Maybe zinc is slarge-metal, if you care about slarges. This may sound dismissive, but the point is not that this doesn't matter, but that the precise origin is open with regards to this text. Discover it through play! Or pick something! Or leave it undefined! Go wild! 

What matters for this text is that brass exists and is distinct, is a metal, and has the following properties of the brass of Earth: it is similar in color to gold, it is not useful for standard weapons or armor, it is useful for decorations and some tools, and it is less valuable than the gold it resembles. If you want more specific procedural interactions, you might as well treat it like tin or copper in terms of prices. Is it a Rune metal? If it is, I don't know who would know how to enchant it for such use, nor what Rune it would be associated with, but that's out there as a possibility.

If, however, it is unacceptable to add a metal to the sacred texts of Gloranthan canon, then it's simply a kind of stone that's hot pink in color and is totally unlike the metal in most fashions. Have fun with reconciling that one!

-The Multilexia, Who Knows Not Walls Of Greater Than The Second Kind.

B. ADDITIONAL SKILLS

Printing

This skill is a Manipulation skill, and while it covers the full range of mechanical processes of carving blocks and laying out type to perform printing in any language the character has a Read/Write skill in, the use of rolling against the skill is to determine whether the print job comes out well or not. On a failure, the print is flawed, and the quality of the written speech as a method of communication is decreased by one step on the language skill table, down to total illegibility if the printer was unskilled enough in the source language. It follows the cost progression of the Lockpicking skill from the thieves guilds. 

Sourcing

Sourcing is a Knowledge skill which covers the process of finding where you might buy something unusual, or conversely, tracking down where something out of the ordinary was purchased. Rolling against it as an ability means that on a failure, the character using the skill is unable to make that determination, but finds something else instead. Success means that the character is able to make that determination. If the referee has a good understanding of where such an item might be found, they should of course communicate it on a success, but if not, it is appropriate to make or improvise charts for a random determination. It follows the cost progression of learning to speak another language from the Free Sages. 

Reporting

Reporting is a Knowledge skill that works like speaking another language, but for the specific and limited purpose of communicating information via summarized reports, memorials, memoranda, presentations, et cetera. When such an event is relevant, combine the Reporting skill with the relevant Speak or Read/Write ability of the person the report is being delivered to and make the usual pair of rolls- failure on the part of the reporter means the character doesn't know what the receiver took away from it, while failure on the part of the receiver means a misunderstanding took place. If Reporting is used in a referee's game, it should have a base chance of 5%, rather than the 0% of the other two skills. Training costs the same as Read/Write Other Language.

C. GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENT OF THE CULT

It can probably be safely assumed the cult does not have any locals in Sartar or Prax, and perhaps not in Tarsh. But maybe it does. If this cult is relevant in a game, you're probably not playing a cliché game of Runequest anyways, so feel free to make them a presence wherever you want in the Lunar Empire- or even beyond. But by default, the author assumes the cult extends across the Lunar Heartlands and Western Reaches.

D. THE MULTILEXIAL MYTH

It came to pass one bright and beautiful day, sometime in the spring, that the Multilexia was visited in her apartments in the Ruby City of the Moon by no less than the following: Buserian, Lhankor Mhy, Irippi Ontor, Ourania, Lodril, all Ten Servants and Sons, Oria, Antirius, and Yelorna. As she was in retirement, without even the chiropteran staff of the Bat, this was quite an assemblage. 

“You go first,” the Multilexia said, pointing to the trio of sages. She then remembered to add that it was a great honor and she was their humble servant and so on. 

“It so happens,” Buserian said, “that in the world below, there are a great many scribes now who work without any connection to sagacity, and their prayers which filter up to us are increasingly difficult to understand- ballpoint blessings, prayers for cor. flu., and so on, and so we asked if the Lady of Heaven could handle them.”

“I can't, shan't, and won't,” Ourania said. “They are employed privately and outside of my remit, and what would the neighbors think if they thought I had abandoned the public interest?” She waved a hand in the air. “So I supposed my cousin Oria could take them on.”

“This type of labor is new to us,” Oria said, and Lodril nodded, the Ten Servants and Sons waiting in the hall outside and passing a blunt around. “We could handle it, by analogies and freighted metaphors, but if we could-” 

“You did introduce woodblock printing as an exercise of logic, didn't you?” Lodril added. “So I thought you would be the best deity, or deities, to take on these poor working souls.” He strummed his guitar, which had “This Machine Kills Fascists” on the side.

“I'm here for moral support, O devourer of carpets,” Yelorna said, and hooked her thumb at Antirius. “O practitioner of the three-finger discount, my… brother here also wishes to ask you to take on these responsibilities.” She chewed her lips for a bit. “O shoplifter of the pootie,” she ventured, then sighed at the looks she was getting. 

“Please just get these built-up prayers and sacrifices off of my books,” Antirius mumbled, staring at his feet, his radiant golden solar mantle formed into a hooded cloak that obscured his body in light. “I don't like having to be the divinity of last resort for prayers to a goddess of paperwork and precisely ruled lab notebooks.” 

“Fine,” the Multilexia said, blowing a kiss at Antirius and making him shrink back into his hooded cloak, “on one condition, which is essential for this to work smoothly.” She cleared her throats. “I shall have to meet with Hwarin Dalthippa and Etyries first to clear the metaphysical landscape and appropriately direct the impulses and desires of my followers.” 

“Sure,” Lodril said. 

“Fine,” Lhankor Mhy said.

”I'm not jealous in that way,” Yelorna said.

And that was how she returned to the middle world.

E. IMPORTING THIS CULT TO OTHER GAMES IN THE RUNEQUEST LINEAGE.

What am I, your maid? 

Fine, fine, just think up some Passions that would fit the milieu of Runequest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, like Love (Chaos), Hate (Decent Folks Everywhere), and Devotion (Poking Holes In Things) and you should be good to go! Never mind any of the other differences between the games.

If you try to use this cult for Runequest: Adventures in Glorantha, Runequest: Slayers, Runequest (2006), Runequest II, or Mythras, please please please let me know how it went and I owe you a drink. 

F. CHAOS AND MULTILEXIA MAGIC

This is one of those matters which is really up to the referee, but the author's view is that the magic isn't Chaotic, but Rune levels, with their bodies modified, read as lightly Chaotic to such senses.

G. MANIFESTATIONS OF THE MULTILEXIA

These have 3D6+2 STR, CON, and DEX, 2D6+6 SIZ and CHA, 3D6+6 INT, and 4D6×2 POW. They go about unarmed and unarmored in most instances, but treat their skin as 4-pt armor. They all have green eyes and part of their body will appear to be visibly brass- roll on the Hit Location chart and then D100 to determine the percentage that's visibly brazen. They wear practical, workaday attire for the locale. These are material manifestations rather than those which might be encountered through a shaman's ventures, a trip onto the Hero Plane, or dreams/visions/Divination, etc.