Eight Arms and the Mask

 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 u...

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 ben...

  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 ...

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 o...

A selection from the Manirian portion of the library.  A Personal View of Pralori Life: What My Mother Told Me.  Who are you? I am Corla Splits-The-Herd. A little calf like you would listen to me and follow me to stay safe and protected, even if I wasn't your mother, but I am. Who are we?  We are the Westernmost Mother Herd. We move freely through the lands that lie on the edge of the Tarinwood and the New Fens. We are of the Pralori people, who are the greatest of all the peoples of the world. What makes us great?  We are the children of Pralor, the Great Elk who comes again and again to guide the herds of the world whenever they run astray. We remember what everyone else has forgotten. Unlike the Scratch People around us, we know how to respect our Grandmother the Earth, and unlike the Tree People of the Tarinwood, we know that all plants are important, not just trees. Many people resent us for our greatness. Sometimes we give them reason to! Back in...

I burst forth from my body in a flare of wings, flapping and spinning in circles around myself for a while. It has been too long since I have come here. I whistle and sing at my fetch, which settles herself on my body, brooding over it, ready to defend me against whatever threats may encroach on my little alcove of repose. She sings back, telling me that I am a fool. I am well aware, I tell her, after all, how long did it take for me to recognize you? We part, and I flap for altitude, grateful for the calm updrafts the Right Air gives a sanctuary to, allowing me to gain height over the world, leaving behind the flat land for the middle of the air, where the proper birds can gather. There are a great many of us today, flocking and forming parliaments and assemblies in the skies, declaiming and practicing our rhetoric. When I returned to the the deepest illusion, what we call the Middle World, freshly awoken and split, I will admit to being disappointed. I had, in many ways, started ...