Lore Garbage

Kiel Chenier has suggested over on G+ that for DM appreciation month (never knew there was one until now) DMs should waffle self-indulgently about useless things about their own game world. I need very little encouragement to waffle, so here are ten bits of trivia about the fantasy English Civil War:

1. As far as practitioners are concerned there are two sorts of magic; witchcraft as practised by uneducated peasants and sorcery, practised by educated gentlemen. In truth it is all the same; the same effects are achieved by both in similar ways. The chief difference is in language. Witches say their spells in English, with maybe a bit of old Anglo-Saxon, Cornish or Welsh, Sorcerers tend towards educated tongues like Latin, Greek, Hebrew and Arabic or even for followers of Dr Dee, Enochian, the language of the Angels. Though even that distinction is breaking down as since the Reformation more and more Sorcerers are finding that spells in vernacular languages work well enough.

2. If you are a magician researching spells you need a library, and many religious works are as good a source of magical knowledge as any. No magician in England is without a Bible (though the Old Testament is worth a mere 50sp for research purposes and the New Testament another 25sp) and the Talmud and Koran weigh in at 50sp each. Giordano Bruno got himself burned at the stake for openly saying that the Bible is a manual of magic, and if someone can divine all its secrets they will be a master of such. More abstruse religious works such as the Liber Divinorum Operum by Hildegard of Bingen or the Mirror of Simple Souls by Margaret Porete are worth a lot more as research material, but possession of such night be considered heresy by  various churches.

3. Clerics can research spells as well, and they can often do so by reading the same kinds of books as magicians. The Bible and religious works are worth a lot more to them, but works by religiously minded sorcerers like Pico della Mirandola are pretty good too. Again the spectre of Heresy rears its ugly head. An Anglican who openly quotes the Koran while giving blessings is looking for a painful defrocking.

4. The Ranter prophet Abiezer Coppe is only 23 in 1642 when the wars begin in England, not long out of Oxford University, but he is already making his mark with his impassioned preaching and advocacy of free love and anarchism. One of his key slanders against the Anglican Church is his insistence that various Bishops are up to their eyeballs in witchcraft.

5. Sightings of mythical beasts have always been common in rural England due to a combination of excessively cheap ale and benighted ignorance. Now learned men are taking an interest in such matters, and there is a definite feeling that something awful is happening to the fabric of mundane reality. The Reverend Dr Samuel Fell, former chaplain to King James and supporter of King Charles, is interested in any such outbreaks and is rumoured to be sending exorcist spies to investigate them. He blames the Puritans for questioning the doctrines of the Anglican Church, but was himself a Calvinist in his youth.

6. Prince Rupert's dog, Boye, is a hunting poodle of a rare breed and is reputed to have magical powers, including leaping up and snatching musket balls aimed at his master out of the air. The Ottoman Caliph, Murad IV, wants one just like him and if you can dognap Boye for him he might award you some of his fabulous wealth.

7. Mother Shipton's prophecies are all the rage since they were published in 1641, and many a wacko theory of impending doom has been hatched on the basis of reading portentious poems such as: When pictures seem alive with movements free, When boats like fishes swim beneath the sea. When men like birds shall scour the sky. Then half the world, deep drenched in blood shall die. Watch out for the Hag's Head moths that have Mother Shipton's profile marked on each wing.

8. The Royal Navy is now Parliament's Navy, the whole lot mutinied and are having a whale of a time drinking themselves stupid in every port town in England. Trouble is that the Barbary Corsairs never went away - sure there were treaties to stop their razzias and slave raids but don't forget Jan Janszoon, the Dutch Muslim renegade, once took over the Isle of Lundy in the Bristol Channel and used it as a slave market for five years from 1627. They had better sober up and get back out on patrol...

9. Bermuda is run by the Somer's Isle Company, a collection of nobles who support the King. The Parliamentarian population of Bermuda may yet rebel; the North American tribesmen sent to Bermuda as slaves after the Pequot War in Massachusetts may still have some fight in them, if they can be induced to fight. Others have left with the Eleutheran Adventurers to establish a religiously free (ie Puritan) colony in the Bahamas, though the last expedition sent that way was lost...

10. Men can turn into wolves. It is a well attested phenomenon that during the German wars men who had seen too much of the blood and terror of those interminable campaigns, still raging on, have become conscienceless beasts and eat human flesh. And it wasn't just foreigners who were so weak, oh no, English and Irish mercenaries were known to partake of the anthrophagous feasts as well, and many such men have returned to England to fight for and against the King. It will be a savage war...

Scarabomancy

Ohe! 

Let it be known among the wise that the ancient and most perfect art of Scarabomancy has been rediscovered and that lectures in such will commence in Tumissa on 12 Fesru, at the gong of Awakening in Azure at the Temple of Ksarul .

Herein I shall outline for the curious what this art entails, for in this decadent age few, even among the wisest of the wise the adherents of the Doomed Prince, have even heard of this most marvellous method of divination and interpretation of the knots of Skeins of Destiny.

First you need a scarab beetle, obviously. This attractive little beetle is most sacred to Ksarul, master of the most mighty beetles that roll the planets and moons through the sky, and himself manifest in the great fireproof beast that moves the sun itself. Each scarab is, in a minute and most infinitesimal way, an aspect of Ksarul himself and thus can impart wisdom from beyond this most prosaic of planes.

Second you will need chalk and a bit of flat floor, and on it you shall inscribe the Ten-Fold Circle of Fate and the Fifty-Five glyphs of the Tongue of the Scarab (copies available from myself after the lecture, price 50 kaitars and worth every qirgal). The very best method is to permanently incise the Circle on the floor of a dedicated Shrine of the Scarab, but as the Provost of the Fabric of the Sacred Space has no spare rooms at the moment, I will instruct students in the use of Mriddu’s chalk.

Thirdly, you will need pen, ink and paper, and fourthly, the most important ingredient, dung. Most dung will do, chlen is ideal, but hma and hmelu do just as well. Do not be tempted to use human dung! It is easily available (all too easily given the woeful culinary standards of the Tumissan temple refectory) but the stench is awful, the consistency poor and it will make your scarab ill, if he can be persuaded to approach the stuff at all.

The procedure is as follows:

Ask the questioner (or yourself (but not out loud or people will think you mad (which I am not))), to state their request of the Mightiest and Wisest of Gods in no more than thirteen words and two symbols of punctuation. Write this question, in any language, scarab beetles are perfectly multilingual like their master, on a piece of paper two choptse wide by one hoi long and roll it into as tight a cylinder as you can.

Take a lump of dung, ten mlo will do nicely, but a weak or small beetle might only be able to cope with seven or eight, and roll it into a ball. Insert the question into the ball of dung and place it on the Glyph of Questioning in the very centre of the circle.

Take a Darsha leaf, and roll it round a mlo of Aira grass, a mlo of Chumaz, three mlo of Hnequ weed and a pinch (and believe me, only a pinch) of dried Urugal root. Set fire to the roll of herbs and inhale the smoke in Loruni fashion. When the room has stopped spinning, get your scarab and blow upon it the smoke. When the scarab has stopped waving its legs in the air and coughing place it on the circle at the Glyph of Wisdom (that’s the big square one).

Observe closely the path it takes to the question using the left eye, and then observe closely the path by which it rolls the ball of dung out of the circle using the right eye. Do not use both eyes at once! If this process takes more than two kiren you have probably used too much Aira grass. If you lose consciousness before the end of the process I suggest you use fresher Chumaz, and if you find yourself distracted by the green translucent Vringalu singing Pijenan drinking songs you have used too much Urugal root and should seek professional demonological help immediately.

By analysing the path of the sacred scarab it is possible, with practice, to determine with amazing accuracy the course of the questioners skein of destiny with respect to his question. So if you are asked ‘Ohe, shall I wed the handsome mat weaver or the ugly slave merchant?’ and the scarab crosses the Glyph of the Impaled Ahoggya, the Glyph of the Left-Centre Eye of the Zrne and then abandons its ball of dung on the Glyph of the Missing Finger and bites the questioner, the answer is of course neither you silly person, you are going on a long sea voyage in the course of which you will inevitably drown.

The many relations of Glyphs to knots of fate are detailed in the scroll ‘Key to the Skein of the Scarab, or Silly Answers to Stupid Questions’ by the mighty seer Arkha’anu the five-legged, who himself was a scarab, so he should know. Copies of this are being produced in the scriptorium of the Plume of White clan for those students willing to take ship on this barge of most excellent wisdom to its ultimate destination, the Sea of Fate itself.

Oh, yes, the last stage of the process is wash your hands.

Rusala Yi’isia hiNashomai, Friend of the Scarab, Twitcher of the Refulgent Blue Curtain and Kusijaktodali of the Temple of Azure Ambivalence, Teacher of Scarabomancy

All hail Ksarul!

Yan, Tan, Tethera, Methera

I am currently re-reading a book I last read when I was maybe eight or nine, the Cuckoo Tree by Joan Aiken. It is set in an alternate 18^th or 19^th Century (it isn't clear which) and among the fine collection of grotesques and rascals decorating it's pages are a gang of Smugglers called the Wineberry Men. Aiken did her research well, smuggling was a big deal in England's past, and my own reading has shown that it is entirely plausible to suggest that the early 17^th Century could have been it's origin as a big business.

Tonnage and Poundage

It was all about the money. It had been traditional for centuries for Parliament to vote newly crowned kings of England the right to levy 'Tonnage and Poundage', customs duties on goods entering and leaving English ports. King James I had however abused the system. He upped the rates, levied extra surcharges and put the whole operation under the control of customs farmers. These were consortia of rich merchants and aristocrats who paid the king a fixed annual rent for the right to take duties at ports; they of course hoped to make a profit, and brought a keenness and rigour to the task that the easygoing Royal officers had always lacked. However this early attempt to privatise public services went about as well in the 17^th century as similar efforts have in recent decades; the system was full of corruption and the new farmers were accused of all sorts of abuses, but the king got a regular income and he had saved himself and him ministers a dreary administrative burden so he was happy.

When his son Charles came to the throne Parliament refused to vote him Tonnage and Poundage until the abuses had been stopped. He carried on levying the duty anyway through the farming companies his father had used. Parliament declared the imposts illegal and in not so many words implied the king was a thief, one of the reasons Charles refused to call a Parliament for over a decade, until his disastrous handling of the Bishop's War in Scotland forced him to.

The Owlers

The chief item being smuggled was wool. There had been efforts throughout the later middle ages and Tudor period to transplant Flemish weavers to England, but most English wool was still going to the continent to be made up into cloth and wool duties made up most of the customs income. The Owlers were smuggling gangs who spirited the stuff away in the middle of the night, and hundreds of armed men were engaged in the trade to fight off the privatised excise agents.

Woolpacks

Packing wool for export involves compressing the rather low density fleeces into compact packs by sticking it in a wooden form with a square jute bag inside, stamping it down and sewing it shut. The packs are about two foot by tow foot by three and are damned heavy – an oversized item in the LotFP rules – and these are bound up by rope into gigantic packs weighing twenty-six stones. The importance of the wool trade to the economy is symbolised by the Lord Chancellor sitting on a woolpack in Parliament.

They are also ideal for smuggling. Once the pack is sewn shut no one is keen to cut it open as it will be the devils job to get it all back in, and all kinds of stuff can be hidden in the padded depths of a woolpack. In the early seventeenth century sugar and tobacco were starting to be brought into England from her newly founded colonies in the Americas and Caribbean. There had always been a good trade in imported wine, especially fortified wine like port and brandy – tonnage was in fact 'tunnage', a levy charged per tun (barrel) of wine.

Counting Sheep

Back when the Anglo Saxons invaded the British Isles everyone spoke Celtic. Over most of Britain the Celtic language died out and there are remarkably few Celtic loan words in modern English, but somehow it hung on in counting systems for sheep. There are many local variants of this counting system and a gang of smugglers called the Riggwelters (the local dialect for sheep on its back that can't get itself upright due to a heavy fleece) in Lincolnshire use the words as code names. From one to ten the numbers are; Yan, Tan, Tethera, Methera, Pimp, Sethera, Hethera, Hovera, Covera, Dik.

Any, all or none of the following reprobates may be members of the gang;

• The Vicar of Holbeach St Marks, the Reverend Dr William Toad. Toad is a local man, son of the previous smuggler 'king' who made enough money to send his son to Cambridge to study Divinity. William's position in the Church of England used to put him above all suspicion, but the local Puritans have no respect and openly accuse him of all sorts of crimes in the street, some of which are actually true. He's dying to have a couple entombed alive in woolpacks and dumped in the salt marshes in the local version of the mafia concrete boots, but prudence has so far stayed his hand; but with a war on all kinds of vengeance may be possible.

• Lucy Hay, Countess of Carlisle. A society beauty and cousin of the Parliamentarian general the Earl of Essex, Lucy's husband is one of the chief investors in the Yarmouth Customs Farm. Lucy goes through his papers tipping off her smuggler cohorts as to their operations. She got into the trade in her youth; her father is the Earl of Northumberland, who made deals with his local Owlers to get the wool from his estates to market without paying the King his cut. Lucy has gone the whole hog and become an Owler herself.

• Lionel Pepys, Norwich gadabout. Lionel learned witchcraft in his youth from his grandmother, being particularly adept at spells of charm and illusion. He lives a fine life among the provincial gentry and aspires to be published poet, while at the same time ordering his rival Owlers kneecapped with blunderbusses and gifting them mutton pies laced with scrapie infected sheep brain.

• Toby 'the Frog' Letchworth, customs clerk. Officially a customs officer, he went over to the Owlers long ago, and cheerfully abuses his position as Land-Waiter at Yarmouth to intercept goods being brought in by rival smugglers from abroad and appropriate them for himself. He usually haunts the 'Happy Flounder' alehouse in Yarmouth, an obese oaf with a broad grin who holds court in a backroom with his bewarted cronies. Actually immensely strong and can fold a silver sixpence in two round a whispered curse with his fingers, and have it planted on a man he wants harmed by a nimble fingered potboy.

• Diligence 'Ma' Lubbage, confectioner. Ma smuggles Caribbean sugar and spices from the far east and even chocolate, though the early 17^th century version is more closely related to the bitter drink of the Aztecs than the modern sweet. Has an African slave working at her shop in Norwich who helps her cast spells and adds various dubious herbs to her sugar loaves to make them addictive and much in demand. Half hearted knife fights between podgy addicts have broken out in alleyways over her 'sweets'.

• Harry Dangerman, 'I am not the Sethera, I am a free man!'. Harry claims he is forced into being a smuggler by witchcraft but he may have just partken in too much of the potent hashish and opium he picks up from Levantine company traders in Amsterdam. Says he is haunted by the ghosts of dead rivals who follow him around with their mouths stuffed with wool and that he was once ambushed by a demon shaped like a great white bladder filled with air when he tried to quit the business.

• Piet Vanderboer, sea captain. Known as 'Vanderbastard' by his crew, Piet is a Calvinist who dresses in bible black and a fierce disciplinarian who will keel haul a man for picking his nose on deck. His rather unique theological view is that all tithes and taxes are inspired by Satan to prevent God-fearing merchants like himself making a living, and that the guilds of sailors and tradesmen who try and set wages and trade practices are devil worshippers. The Hidden Hand of God works his miracles of prosperity through markets, and his blessing is reflected in the gift of wealth to the Godly. More conventional types wonder if he has mistaken Mammon for Jesus, but he always has a suitable Bible quote to justify his many acts of fraud, piracy and murder.

• Lillian 'Poxy Lil' Lasalle, gun runner. Lillian was a much in demand prostitute until smallpox ruined her looks. She learned to hate the gentry and their wicked ways while she was on the game and is now an ardent Parliamentarian who brings in firearms from the continent to supply the various pockets of resisters in Royalist dominated areas like the South West and Ireland. She has contacts in the perfume trade in France and can source poisoned Eau de Cologne.

• Gerard 'the Giblet' Smethwick, butcher and poulterer. Runs his contraband overland on the backs of pigs with the aid of his swineherds and he and his confederates retail their smuggled goods in their butcher shops, just ask for the 'special meat'. Sometimes you will get just that, special pork-tasting pies with a good thick crust and plenty of pig-trotter jelly and maybe the odd toenail.

• Michael Maunder, publican. Runs the 'Fighting Cock' alehouse known for its cheap beer and lively cockfighting scene. Will dope his own birds on 'Colombian snuff' and watch them rip the shreds out of his rivals and then offer the losers the chance to work off their gambling debts by carrying a woolpack for him. Woebetide someone who dies not play their part, Michael is a witch with a talent for spells of seeking and finding, and marks all his packs with rune carved magic bones for easy recovery.

God Forgot

I first became aware of the islands of God Forgot in Glorantha when I read the Runequest Companion article on the Holy Country over thirty years ago. Since then the only substantial thing I have seen published on the place was the uninspiring Mongoose Clanking City book, which I am going to utterly ignore. So, based on snippets from the Guide to Glorantha and the ancient Companion, here is my utterly uncanonical take on the islands that God Forgot.

Where did God Forget?

The islands of God Forgot in the Holy Country are bleak, windswept and flat, with many windmills and small farming villages and a couple of small cities.

The Ingareen, as the natives call themselves, say they colonised God Forgot back in the Godtime, they came from Brithos on a giant Waertagi Dragonship to find a land devastated by wars between sorcerers who had grown too big for their boots. These sorcerers claimed to be 'deities' and demanded that lesser beings give them power in a nefarious magical pyramid scheme. The Ingareen scoffed at this nonsense (though they admired it's ingenuity) and in a mighty battle slew the contending 'deities' and incorporated the liberated mortals into their eminently logical and peaceful society, based on the Logical Laws that Malkion drew up before he went bonkers and started ranting about the 'Invisible God'.

While neighbouring theist peoples say that Chaos killed the deity of the island, the Ingareen insist it was them. The theists are uncomfortable at this and say no mortal can kill a God, must have been another God that did it, or the Devil, and living without a deity has obviously addled the Ingareen's brains. The Ingareen say bullshit, 'mortals' can become immortal if they follow the Logical Laws, and gods are eminently killable, it has happened on several occasions within time. Even that Orlanth feller you hairy hooligans think so much of has been done in on several occasions... and yup that's a nice sword you have there mate, blessed by the death god you say, we'll just be shutting up now...

The Ingareen have been on the wrong end of a crusade before. During the Second Age a good part of their population became Zistorites, operators of the so-called God Machine. It was not regarded as a deity by the Ingareen of course, it was merely a bloody great machine that they had built, but so awesome were its capabilities that the theists thought it was a God, and an evil one at that. The Iron Crusade that followed was a nasty business that left the islands devastated and the land polluted. The Ingareen have been careful ever since not to provoke another.

Culture and Caste

The Ingareen follow the old atheist Brithini way of life. In lost Brithos and in Arolanit and other colonies close adherence to the Logical Laws of Malkion results in immortality, but in God Forgot people are no longer sure just what the Logical Laws are. The Zistor business, the God Learners who helped it along and the attempt to obliterate their culture that followed have all left the Ingareen with mere fragments of the Laws, and most are convinced that they probably wouldn't work any more even if you tried, at least not on God Forgot's devastated soil.

Dronar

The lowest caste are the Dronar or peasants. In accordance with Brithini laws they are illiterate, banned from using magic and using weapons and armour, wear modest identical brown smocks and flat caps and are members of craft guilds. A very few actually follow these laws to the letter, but most others consider the literacy laws to cover the Brithini language only and can read Heortlander, Tradetalk and the other 'foreign' languages of the Holy Country, regard the 'magic' referred to as being Ancient Brithini Sorcery only and make free use of folk magic and even sorcery spells that have been developed within time. The wealthiest have 'brown smocks' of expensive fur with gold collars, velvet flat caps with gold pins etc. They only use agricultural and craft tools. like wickedly sharp sickles, billhooks, heavy spiked masonry hammers, long thin chisels that look a lot like stillettos etc. and of course the bronze rings sewn into the lining of their leather tunics are an old herdsman's trick to avoid goring by bulls.

Horal

The Horals, or soldiers, are likewise banned from conducting a trade or craft or owning land, and are also supposed to be illiterate and unable to use magic, and must wear red uniforms. However there is nothing stopping the warrior families getting 'donations' from the other castes and nothing stopping them threatening violence if the donors refuse to pay up. The Horals do not 'own' lands, they just have certain territories within which other castes choose to donate a certain proportion of their income in appreciation of the soldiers performing their traditional role of protectors and also not stabbing them. The Horals have six 'legions', which are somewhat like mafia families operating a few monopolies in certain varieties of extortion while competing in others. They all also operate mercenary regiments which fight abroad. Ingareen Horals are efficient fighters, and are the only ones in south central Genertela to make use of the crossbow. They also make use of Folk magic and many have taken up Sorcery in a small way as well on the same terms as the Dronar. They do not believe in the afterlife and are experts in defensive tactics and manoeuvring enemies into well prepared ambushes and massacres. While the Humakti of neighbouring Heortlander tribes may scoff at them for their supposed cowardice they are not in the least bit keen to face their pike squares and withering crossbow fire.

Zzaburi

The Zzaburi can use magic, though they are banned from using armour and weapons. In the far west Brithini Zzaburi disdain Folk Magic, but Ingareen wizards make free use of it and have researched lots of extra little cantrips and charms not seen anywhere else. Their use of traditional sorcery is limited though, they lost almost all their Grimoires in the aftermath of the Iron Crusade and have pieced together what sorcery they have from their own research and from half recalled fragments. They have gone on expeditions to the western lands to try and regain their lost knowledge, but have found the snooty 'real' Brithini and deluded Seshnegi and Fronelans utterly unhelpful.

The Zzaburi may not have a religion but they do have an Inquisition. Anyone dabbling in mechanisms or magic enchantments is thoroughly investigated to ensure they do not fall into any of the old Zistorite ways and unleash the Crusade again. Leonardo the Scientist, the best known dabbler in such matters, sails very, very close to the edge with many of his devices but his insistence on never making more than one of an item and avoiding mass production seems to be working so far.

The Talar

There is only one surviving Talar and he is the only true immortal left in God Forgot. He lives in a hermetically sealed glass box in the throne room of the vast Forbidden Palace at Jon Barat (Talar Hold to outsiders), where numerous ministers and wizards scrutinize him closely for omens as to what he wishes them to do in his name and what fate awaits the country. For example, a tiny amount of condensation was seen on the interior of the box, presumably from the Talar exhaling a breath (though he has sorcerously Abjured Air for centuries) and there was a terrible hurricane in the southern part of the islands the next day; when one of his mightinesses few remaining strands of hair fell out it signified that a tranche of royal forest must be felled; when his mightiness acquired a slight fungal infection above his left eyebrow and a rash appeared on his wrinkled forehead many Ingareen died of a plague. In 1312 the omniscient Talar predicted the arrival of Belintar the Stranger by dropping his scepter onto the floor from his withered hand, though it took months of debate to work out just what he had meant by this gesture, and whether it would be proper to replace the scepter in his mighty hand with aid of glue.

The Talar has not in fact moved, spoken, eaten, drunk or defecated since at least the year 917 when he took up full time residence in his box. Cynical foreigners say this seclusion coincided with the arrival of a delegation from the wronged and oppressed people of the rest of Kaethela, there to put him on trial for his part in the creation of the God Machine, but his loyal advisers say it was part of a mighty spell to preserve the nation from further devastation from the natural forces that had been twisted and abused by the Crusaders and, regrettably, Zistor's murkier mechanisms as Mistakes Were Made. 

Philosophy, Mathematics and Religion

The Ingareen may not have a god, but that doesn't mean they don't have belief. Various books of philosophical musings, hints on self-improvement and outright gibbering lunacy have been written since the disaster of the Iron Crusade, all purporting to contain true interpretations of Malkion's Logical Laws and thus the key to eternal life and ultimate sorcerous power. Their effectiveness varies considerably – usually the more erudite ones written in ancient Brithini and read by educated wizards appear to extend the lifespan by a few years, but then wizards tend to be better off and have an easier life; the common ones written in Tradetalk or vulgar Ingareen make little difference at all.

Each is still a grimoire of its own though, with sorcerous spells of varying effectiveness and often folk magic and other magical effects besides.

The Ingareen are also obsessed with luck and fate, and why theirs has been so universally bad. They say that the logical laws used to be absolutely effective in all circumstances but now there is only a chance of them working, and they have developed relatively sophisticated statistics to analyse this variability. This interest in chance has also led to an addiction to gambling, and they are vulnerable to any number of silly superstitions that will supposedly bring 'luck'.

The Dronar and Horals actually depict this luck as a lady on various casino advertisements and lucky charms available in Casino Town and there is even a shrine to 'Our Lady of Credit, she who giveth and taketh away', though it looks more like a shop full of one armed bandits with a loan sharks office attached. There are foreign shamen who claim to have summoned her as a spirit though, and a few really down at heel Ingareen gamblers have actually prayed to her – God Forgot might be acquiring a deity whether it wants one or not. Her symbol is a double-tailed coin, such is the fatalism of the Ingareen.

Creating an Ingareen character

If using RQ6 , Ingareens are Civilised, and always have the option of choosing Gambling as one of their Cultural Professional skills. If you are a Zzaburi you can learn Lore (Mathematics) on the same basis.

They roll for Social status on the following table:

01-02 Outcast – you have lost it all in the Casinos and have had to leave God Forgot before the money lenders break every bone in your body or, even worse, drop you off in the Clanking Ruins to fetch them a cursed technological artifact or die trying. Money x0.25

03-30 Poor Dronar – You grew up a peasant on some forsaken patch of infertile mud in the shadow of a Wizards tower or Soldiers fortress. Money x0.5

31 -60 Rich Dronar – You lived in a more prosperous village or perhaps in the towns of Jon Barat, Casino Town or Refuge. Money x1

61-86 Poor Horal – You are a townsman and a footsoldier in one of the legions/ protection rackets that form the backbone of modern God Forgot society. Money x1.5, if you make a Gambling skill roll x2.5

86-90 Rich Horal – You are part of the ruling family of one of the six legions. You grew up in reasonable wealth and comfort with foot soldiers at your command and maybe a fief to extort money from. Money x2.5, if you make a gambling skill roll x5.

91-00 Zzaburi – You are a wizard, you grew up in reasonable wealth and if you are male you will almost certainly have been educated in the High Brithini language and in sorcery. The wizards are not so keen on daughters and will be looking to marry you off to a wealthy Horal who can pay a decent dowry, you will still have more education than a typical Ingareen, but your father and his cronies will throw a fit if you actually practise any magic. Money x 2, if you make an Influence or Bureaucracy roll you have a job working for one of the Companies or the Talar's court and get x4.

Sample superstitions

If an Ingareen breaks one of his superstitions he will lose a Luck point, if he performs a lucky act then he has a 50% chance of gaining a Luck point, other acts may have a 50% chance of loss or gain. Tempting fate in any way will assuredly result in bad luck. Any Ingareen may take Superstitious as a Passion and may be affected by it positively and negatively as random omens appear in his environment.

1 Black cat crosses your path, gain 1 luck, if it hisses at you lose 1 luck.

2 Always give a clack to a beggar, if he wishes you well you will gain luck, if not you lose.

3 Spit at the Red Moon when you see it, it may thank you for the gift of water, or it may curse you for your rudeness.

4 Never tread on the cracks in a pavement, or break a twig under your feet. Dance ten yards on cobbles and you will have bountiful luck the rest of the day.

5 Your lucky colour is black/red/blue/green/orange/yellow etc. always wear a garment that colour and look out for others wearing it.

6 Never face into the wind when walking, choose a different, circuitous path if you have to, or tack like a ship.

7 Never whistle on a boat, never hum on land, and stop your ears if you hear someone doing it.

8 Bare your head to the sky every morning, the heat of the sun will warm your brain. If it happens to be raining you will have bad luck, don't bother going out unless you have to as you will catch a chill.

9 Never give anyone a knife as a gift and never accept such. The edge will cut the bonds of friendship.

10 Never sheathe a blade that is unblooded or it will break next time you use it.

And many more are possible. 

Example Brotherhood : Company of the Sable Star

Open to the Horal caste only, the Company of the Sable Star are one of the five controlling legions of Casino Town (the sixth legion are the Talar's palace guard). They have a straightforward approach, give them money or face extreme violence, nothing fancy, and they run their casinos, streets and fiefs round God Forgot with a brutal iron fist in an iron glove policy. The runes associated with the Company are Darkness and Law.

They also have a mercenary regiment available for overseas service, a mix of pikes and heavy crossbows that deploys in more or less static formations with a generous body of engineers to build fortifications.

The Company believes that any fight where you face into the sun will be lost and take care when setting up their formations that this is not a possibility. They will even retreat on a sunny day to avoid the possibility arising, and hire theist shamen to control the weather to ensure it is overcast on the day of battle.

They teach the Folk Magic spells Protection, Might, Bludgeon, Darkness and Shove.

Skills: Crossbowman combat style (includes Mace), Pikeman combat style (includes Mace), Lore (Strategy and Tactics), Endurance, Willpower, Athletics

Example Grimoire: Oblivion Awaits Us

'Oblivion Awaits Us', a series of meditations upon the nothingness that comes after death, how to avoid it and how to get as much wealth as possible before it comes. Written in Ingareen, many adherents memorise spells by rote learning from a 'reader' of the text. The sorcery spells are learned 'in order', so novices will learn Sense Silver first, then Bypass Armour etc. The runic associations are Death and Stasis.

The Trap Soul spell is used on souls of fellow followers of the 'Oblivion Awaits Us' philosophy to avoid them falling into utter nothingness. They are trapped in little stone figures, preferably a black stone like slate, black marble or basalt and are buried in secret unmarked locations for fear that evil sorcerers might unearth them and Tap them for power.

Special Power: Resist Discorporation – add 1/5 of the skill in Invoke (Oblivion Awaits Us) to any save vs any magical attack that tries to forcibly detach the spirit from the body.

Folk Magic: Appraise

Sorcery spells: Sense (Silver), Bypass Armour, Damage Resistance, Protective Ward, Trap Soul

Those who follow the book often believe that unless they put a handkerchief over their mouths when asleep their soul will leave their bodies and wander off in the night never to return.

The Ingareen and the Esvulari

The closest neighbours of the Ingareen are the Bandori tribe, who are Esvulari and follow the Aeolian Church. This church believes in the Invisible God and that Orlanth is his chief manifestation here on Glorantha with the many deities of the Heortish pantheon as Saints. The city of Refuge at the mouth of the Bandori River has a majority Ingareen population with a substantial Esvulari minority.

The Aeolian Church dates back to the First Age invasion of Arkat, but it got a big boost at the climax of the Iron Crusade when Orlanth himself manifested and personally slew Zistor the Machine God. Many previously skeptical Ingareen converted to Aeolianism on the spot. There was a bit of a civil war among what was left of the Ingareen population and lands on the Genertelan mainland and the islands of the eastern Choralinthor Sea were lost to the Talar, only the city of Refuge remaining out of these possessions.

Since then the Esvulari and Ingareen have both been treated with suspicion and mistrust by the theist majority in Heortland and have become more or less allies. Each suspects the other of rank heresy and probable insanity, but these days they only argue theology over a pint of ale rather than fight wars and will unite in the face of polytheist oppression.

The Uncanny Threat of the Morris

In 1644 Parliament banned Morris dancing. They banned a great deal else at that point as well such as maypoles, Church Ales and the other entertainments mentioned in the 'Book of Sports' reissued by King Charles in 1633. This book listed the pastimes permissible on a Sunday after church and was intended by King James, who first published the book in 1617, to stop everyone piling down to the alehouse as soon as the service was over by giving them something else to do. 

It also berated Catholics yet again for not attending C of E services and rebuked the Puritans for not allowing any pastimes on a Sunday. It did ban the most boisterous of games – bull and bear baiting, putting on comic 'interludes' and bowling – but allowed archery, dancing, leaping and vaulting, and allowed May-games, Morris dancing and maypoles.

But all this was too much like fun for the Puritans, who were later to go on and ban Christmas and all the other traditional church feast days in favour of once monthly 'Thanksgivings' and provoke anti-Parliamentarian riots.

But what is Morris dancing anyway? Why ban it? 

We are told it is English folk dancing performed on May day by middle aged blokes with beer bellies waving white hankies, wearing floral wreaths in their hats and bells on their legs. It is all a bit silly, but being traditional and usually accompanied by lots of strong beer to give the participants the confidence to make utter fools of themselves it is kept up regardless.

The Truth!

• Morris dancing isn't traditional. The earliest records go back to the 15^th century – old but not hoary pre-Christian old.

• It isn't English. The name 'Morris' is a corruption of 'Moorish', ie North African, and related dances are found all over Europe in the 17^th century and 'Moresco' dances are still performed in northern Spain today. Some routines bear a distinct resemblance to West African dances.

• It isn't a 'folk' dance. It was originally performed by professional troupes for such august personages as King Henry VII and at feasts of the Goldsmith's Company of London. It is still a paid job in the 17^th century. Cromwell made a speech in Parliament condemning it as a form of begging, the dancers picking up tips for performing, and the 'blackface' make up worn by some dancers, while it may be reference to the Moorish origins of the dance, may well also be a form of disguise so farm workers could hide the fact they were moonlighting as Morris men from their bosses.

The Inner Secrets of the Morris Revealed!

Any of the following may be true. On the other hand none may be, or perhaps they all are in some form or other.

• It is a bit of drunken rural fun. The dances are easy enough to do and when it fell out of fashion amongst the wealthy in the 16^th century the troupes went on tour round the country fairs and it just caught on.

• It is a form of actual sorcery which enables a group of low level magicians to combine and magnify their power. Various spells are encoded as dances including Invisibility, Summon, Sacrifice and Protection from Evil. Not every troupe can do this, but those which have been infiltrated by witches covens can. Both men and women can do Morris dancing, though sides which are are male or are all female are more magically effective, especially if they corss dress as the opposite gender.

                                  (Sinister eh? You can see why it was banned...)

• The Morris was originally brought to Europe when the Reconquista in Spain destroyed the cosmopolitan culture of Granada and the West Africans who performed the dances were forced to move on to pastures new – initially Italy, then the Holy Roman Empire and northern Europe and England. Strange old West African gods are invoked – the blackface isn't mere make-up or a disguise, it is an invocation of African animist spirits that may take control of a 17^th century English dancer in a Voodoo possession, and one or two troupes still have the wooden masks used by the original pagan priests. The 'hobbies', the dancers who wear a costume based on a mythical beast can physically transform into that creature of legend and nightmare.

• The Catholics have always been more relaxed about festivals and celebrations than the miserable Puritans – it is noted that during Elizabeth's reign Catholics sometimes betrayed themselves with the lavishness of their celebrations of Christmas, and while the sober Protestant advisers of Edward VI and Elizabeth advocated bans on Morris dancing and maypoles, those of Queen Mary allowed them. The Morris men are in fact Catholic plotters, a cunning way for Jesuits to travel the country openly. The 'fools' in ragged motley who often accompany the dances giving out farthings and sweets are in fact priests giving out Hosts, and each festival ends in a secret mass.

• Most of the dances and songs off the Morris are jolly bucolic tales of ploughing and chasing farmer's daughters, but not all. There are sword and 'rapper' dances that have a more martial air. One, the stately Grenoside Sword Dance, is a tamed version of a rite of human sacrifice where the leader of the troupe is decapitated by the other six members to create magic swords. This has only been used once as far as the current holder of the secret, Gilbert Earnshaw, knows, when Alan de Moulton sacrificed himself to create magic blades intended to slay King Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485.

• The energetic Rapper sword dances use a flexible sword and are in fact a form of martial arts training. The 'Rapper' is a blunted practice form of the Indian Urumi sword and a master of these dances could, if he so chose, mince you in nothing flat. No one in the Royalist armies take these yokels seriously as yet and think they are a bunch of Durham peasants after a bit of the King's silver for nowt. However the Scots Covenanters who occupied the north west of England lost many men to mysterious stealthy attackers in the middle of the night, and though they never made the Morris dance connection (and let's face it, who the hell would?)

• Morris dancing is more fun than it looks. Even the Undead have been known to participate.

Black Dogs in Balazar

My last post was on the Barguests, the ghostly black dogs of Britain, and +PT on Google+ asked me do do a Runequest version.

It just so happens that I had already had the basics done, there being a lot of spooky dogs in Glorantha. They come in a wide variety of sizes; some are spirits, some are daimones there might even be essences that manifest as dogs.

In Balazar black dogs are usually nothing to be scared of. As I mentioned in the post back in August 2012 (http://expanduniver.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/dogs-in-balazar.html), there are a number of dog breeds with a variety of skills.

In Balazar it is extremely common for a shaman's fetch to manifest as a dog, but dogs can also be shamen in their own right. Dogs kept by Brother Dog shamen can become 'awakened' and achieve human levels of sentience, and even become heroes.

Awakened Dog

A dog that gets the maximum score in INT, POW and CHA is considered enlightened and among the approximate 1% of Gloranthan animals that can talk. It will gain a further 1d6 in each of these stats.

Balazaring Dogs will be Primitive, gaining 100 cultural skill points. They may take Folk Magic as an addition to the Primitive Professional Skill list.

Professions available are: Hunter, Physician, Scholar, Scout, Shaman, Thief, Warrior, and dogs owned by the White Goat clan have the option of being a Herder as well.

All Balazaring Dogs may spend Bonus skill points on Binding (Brother Dog Tradition) and Trance.

Awakened Dogs do not need to use fetishes, their spirits will inhabit their teeth, which will magically acquire tiny carvings when so inhabited.

Awakened Dogs who live independently of humans will spend their time caring for stray dogs and human children, and may help a tribesman who has become lost in the wilds. They also patrol the plains looking for creatures of chaos, and will band together in a pack to hunt them down, or seek out a human tribe to inform of the danger. They are often able to smell out criminals and will hunt down those who have murdered their kin. They gather on the perimeter of tribal camps to howl when a notably evil member of a tribe dies and will pursue and hunt down his spirit in the spirit world as it flees his body. They also gather to honour great shamen, and guard their mortal remains during sky burial, at least until the funerary rites to inter the naked bones in a burial mound.

Awakened dogs do not learn the skill Obey Orders, they may follow any order they have the language skill to understand of any complexity and quite frequently come up with plans and issue orders to the humans in their hunting party.

Spirit Cult of Brother Dog

Follower

Any Balazaring, human or dog, may be a follower of Brother Dog, and bind up to ¼ of their CHA in Dog Spirits. Being a member is simple, look after your own dog (if you are a human) or look after your own human (if you are a dog). May learn Train Dog or Obey Orders, Dogspeech and Speak Balazaring. Dogs are limited to INT+POW %age in Speak Balazaring unless they are awakened.

Spirit Worshipper

Must have 50% in five of the following skills: Train Dog, Obey Orders, Dogspeech (if a human) Speak Balazaring (if a dog), Survival, Athletics, Bite attack, Track by Scent, Endurance, Folk Magic, Binding (Brother Dog). They may bind up to half their CHA in dog spirits.

Shaman

Must have 70% in four skills which must include Binding (Brother Dog) and either Dogspeech or Speak Balazaring, depending on species. A Shaman may summon a Brother Dog fetch. This will always have Manifestation as one of its abilities, appearing as a dog. If it has the shape change ability in addition it will enable a dog shaman to temporarily appear as a human. They may bind up to ¾ of their CHA in Dog Spirits, and they may go on a spirit quest to bind one of the heroic powered spirits noted below.

High Shaman

A High Shaman needs 90% in three skills, one of which must be Binding (Brother Dog). A High Shaman may summon Dog Ancestor spirits, which can be bound into their living descendants to create Awakened Dogs. This is no easy task, as an ancestor powerful enough to do this is at least Intensity 4, and must be willing to lose a good part of its Power in order to become mortal again. They may bind all of the CHA in Dog Spirits.

Special Spirits of Brother Dog

These spirits may be found after quests into the spirit realm and bound there if the Shaman has the skill and the standing in the Brother Dog tradition. Most may be used by humans as well as dogs.

Detect Kinslayer, Intensity 4, Geas: Never let a kinsman down, dog or human.

This Truth rune spirit enables a shaman to detect the odour of guilt on a person who has slain a member of their own tribe. There is no obligation to take the person to task for this, though independent dog shamen often do.

Spirit Hunt, Intensity 4, Geas: Never let prey escape.

Makes Trance skill rolls one step easier when hunting down a specific spirit in the otherworld, enables the hunter to add their Trance critical range to their tracking skill as they can follow the prey's spiritual traces as well as is scent and can allow a spirit hunter to enter a trance and follow a trail as a disembodied spirit for up to 1km per point of POW. Linked to the Spirit rune.

Giant size, Intensity 2 + 2 per d6 SIZ+STR gain, Geas: Never obey a smaller creature or one with less CHA.

Can only be used by dogs, this spirit is linked to the Earth rune and enables them to grow to sizes comparable to or even larger than humans adding at least 1d6 to STR and SIZ and 1d3 to CHA. Dogs with this spirit become very assertive and will not obey anyone smaller than it is, regarding itself as a free agent and perhaps the master of any human it comes across.

Howl of Darkness, Intensity 4, Geas: Only hunt at night

This spirit is linked to the Darkness rune and makes the fur (or hair) of the shaman go jet black giving it +10% Stealth at night. It allows use of the Theist miracle Fear at an intensity equal to the Binding (Brother Dog)/10. At night the spell has +25% intensity, and if a pack of dogs joins in they add their Binding (Brother Dog) crit range to the intensity as well.

Eyes of Light, Intensity 3, Geas: Only hunt by day

This spirit is linked to the Sky rune and makes the fur (or hair) of the shaman go yellow. It enables the shaman to see twice as far with clarity by day, makes all visual perception rolls one step easier, and gives use of the Folk Magic power Witchsight at will for no mp cost. Only shamen descended from the Golden Legion of Balazar or one of their loyal guard dogs may use this spirit; roll (Cha+Pow+Str+10) or less to be such a descendant.

Telmor's Foe, Intensity 4, Geas: Never let a wolf escape

This spirit embodies Brother Dog's enmity for Telmor the Wolf. Dogs with this spirit develop a white patch somewhere on their body, since this is the colour of the sky spirits and this spirit is linked to the sky. The dog gains 4 AP vs any attack by a wolf or werewolf, reduces any dmage from attack by a wolf spirit by 4mp, may attack a wolf with its normal bite as if a magical weapon, may try and sniff out werewolves in human form using perception and gains one step easier in any task to track a wolf. Needless to say the Grey Wolf tribe of Balazar do not use this spirit, as its powers work equally well against their totem spirits. They insist that Telmor was Brother Dog's father and that Brother Dog spared the wolf after he and Foundchild hunted him down so as not to kill kin.

Two Stone spirit, Intensity 3, Geas: Hunt one reptile a month

This spirit is associated with the Storm rune and makes the fur or hair of the Shaman turn orange-red. The shaman becomes able to smell the winds and, if the wind is strong enough, tell what lies miles away upwind. The shaman also does once dice step greater bite damage to reptiles and dragonkind, any any bite against such a target has a chance of paralysing the location hit for one round. This manifests as sparks of lightning.

This spirits can only be gained by visiting the shrine at Two Stone and starting a quest from there into the frozen land of the hurricane giants of the Three Little Giant Mountains where gales mutter and curse forever through the canyons and glacier carved glens, resenting their banishment from the lowlands by Balazar.

Approaching Two Stone across Balazar's East Plain (Albert Bierstadt)

Two Stone

This sacred site is in the Brothers Hills, where the three sons of Balazar took refuge while their father went with the True Golden Horde to Dragon Pass to kill the Dragonewts. It consisted of three stones, one for each brother, but one, to the south, has fallen and shattered.

The ground within is marshy and wet and lies a couple of feet below the surrounding hill top. Above it is a permanent thundercloud, and the whole area feels tense with electricity, as if a thunderstorm is about to be unleashed. The area is closed off by carved wooden posts strung with painted bison hides to make a sacred enclosure, and is only entered by a wooden gateway to the west. Just outside this gate are a few stone beehive huts where two shamen and their families dwell, with an enclosure for a small herd of goats (the local White Goat clan are unusual in herding these animals), and shelters for a pack of red mastiffs.

The shamen warn people not to venture within the sacred enclosure beyond the stone step they have built just inside the gate. Those with Trance or Spirit Sight will be able to see why, a huge red mastiff paces beneath the ominous cloud and if anyone gets too close it will bark a warning and then savage the trespasser.

Legend has it that this spirit is Grozak, Balazar's own personal guard dog that he took to Dragon Pass with him, and the only Balazaring spirit to return from the Dragonkill war with news of the disaster. The stones represent Trilus, Elkoi and Dykene. Elkoi's is fallen; he was the first to fall out with his elder brother Trilus and was banished into the Elder Wilds, from whence he returned with a group of giants who built him a citadel of his own. The storm cloud represents the enmity of the three citadels, prophets say that when the storm finally breaks, Balazar will be plunged into its worst war yet, and when it clears there will be peace between the three citadels forever.

Scholars will note that the stones bear a remarkable resemblance to the Dragonewt plinths of Dragon Pass, though far more weathered and battered and miraculously one has actually broken; they are commonly thought to be indestructible. Getting close enough to confirm this with the bloody great dog there won't be easy though.

Grozak, huge Red Mastiff Wraith-Shaman

STR 48

CON 18

SIZ 35

DEX 10

INT 18

POW 42

CHA 12

AP 3 SR 14 Armour 3 points

Brawn 166%, Willpower 120%, Evade 20%, Endurance 128%, Howl 126%, Bite 116%, Binding (Brother Dog) 126%, Trance 128%, Perception 120%

Attacks

Spirit damage 1d8+1d6

Bite 1d10+2d8

Howl – Willpower save or flee in panic, Brawn or Evade save or fall over.

Spirits

Great Bite Intensity 4 Int 7 Pow 25, Dog Spirit, +20% Bite attack

Crusher Intensity 4 Int 5 Pow 30, Dog Spirit, Special Effect – Break weapon

Greyhound Intensity 4 Int 7 Pow 25, Dog Spirit, Boost Action Points +2

The Loper Intenisty 4 int 11, Pow 28, Cha 7, Guardian spirit, Spectral Combat 85%, Willpower 106%

Yipper Intensity 3 int 10, Pow 19, Cha 10, Guardian spirit, Spectral Combat 79%, Willpower 88%

Blaster Intensity 3 Wind elemental spirit

Howler Intensity 3 Wind Elemental spirit

Requires a magic weapon to affect in the same manner as a Wraith, and all wounds it causes are permanent and will not heal.

It has the abilities of a Two Stone Spirit – its bite damage is enhanced against reptiles and can paralyse and it can smell approaching enemies on the wind from almost anywhere in Balazar.