Glorantha

Introduction
Glorantha is a very old game world being created back in the 60s by Greg Stafford. Since its inception a broad wealth of material has been published. This can overwhelm many people who think that they can’t play in Glorantha because there is too much to know and they don’t know it or have the time to learn it. Several things with this.
You only really need to know what your PC knows.
They change canon so often it sometimes gets lost as to what version is being used so each GM has his own version of Glorantha (Mine differs slightly from Jim’s)
I’m going to cover some of the basic knowledge PCs will have at the start of the game and that will be enough to join in and understand what’s going on. I’ll cover geography, religion (this probably the biggest area to cover), races, human cultures, calendar and chaos.

Geography
Glorantha is not a globe. It is a large lozenge floating in an endless sea. The land is divided into 2 continents. Genertela to the north and Pamaltela to the south.to the east is a chain of islands called (funnily enough) the Eastern Isles. The wide ocean between Genertela and Pamaltela is all but impassible due to an event in the distant pass called the Closing which has made ocean crossings impossible but coastal routes are available.
Genertela is as follows. To the west are Carmania, Ralios, Seshnela and Fronela. While you may have heard the names of these lands that is about all you know of them.
Running centrally through Genertela is a mountain range called the Rockwoods. These mountains are all but impassible except in a few places the main one being Dragon Pass. To the north of Dragon Pass and covering a huge area is the Lunar Empire (more on that later) and it’s capital city Glamour.
To the south is an large area called Maniria and in Dragon Pass is the Kingdom of Sartar (again more on that later). Dragon Pass is also the ancestral home of the dragons. Dragons in Glorantha are huge, so big that the resemble parts of the landscape. There is at least one that people think is a mountain range.
East of Dragon Pass is a wide barren land called Prax filled with beast riding nomads and still further east a very wide empty land called The Wastes. East of the Wastes is the land of Kralorela. Little is known of the lands as it is very rarely visited.
To the north east are wide open steppes called pent. Fierce horse riding barbarians live here.
The main focus of this game is Dragon Pass and the surrounding lands including some of the Lunar Empire.

Religion
Glorantha is a world with living gods. The gods are closely ties to things called Runes. These are a source of power for the gods and their followers. All races have close ties with their gods and its allies. People have formed cults to organise their religion. The people who dwell in Sartar in the main follow the storm god Orlanth and his pantheon (and are known as Orlanthi). Part of his pantheon are other storm gods or allies and another part are 6 gods who with Orlanth form what is called the Lightbringers after mythic events perform by these gods to return the Sun (Yelm) to the sky after Orlanth had killed him. The lightbringers are Orlanth, Issaries (trading god), Chalana Arroy (healing godess), Lankhor Mhy (knowledge god), Eurmal (trickster god), Flesh Man, and Ginna Jar (nothing much known about the god).
The Lunar Empire follow the Moon goddess Sedenya and her pantheon. The chief group in this pantheon are the 7 Mothers. These gods are Yanafal Tarnils (God of war and death), Irrippi Ontor (knowledge god), Jakaleel the Witch (magic goddess), Danfive Xaron (God of punishment), Deezola (healing goddess), Teelo Norri ( Goddess of orphans and the poor), She who waits (an early version of Sedenya).
Their is much mutual antipathy between Lunars and Orlanthi. There are several reasons for this.
    1. Sedenya ascended to the Sky breaking the celestial accords agreed before time started.
    2. The Lunar Empire is expanding and has invaded Sartar.
    3. The Lunars (or at least the leaders) think chaos is acceptable.
There is another feature of the Lunars. Within the area they have conquered and is now their Empire the Moon is always full (this affects how their magic works), it casts a red light on everything. Outside of the Empire the moon goes through a weekly cycle from new to full to new again. The horizon glows red in the direction of the empire and this is known as the Glowline.
The other main human pantheon is that of Yelm the Sun and his son Yelmalio.
Every culture and race has its own gods except for a race called the dragonewts. Dragonnewts are and exception because over many lifetimes the develop and grow into actual dragons.
The trolls follow the goddess Kyger Litor and her pantheon. The dwarves follow Mostal and the elves follow Aldrya.
There is also a wide range of chaos gods, these are seen as enemies by most people.
As seen with the Lunars and Orlanthi not all gods are friendly with each other. Some are downright hostile while others are merely neutral and are not necessarily antagonistic to each other.
All of the gods provide their followers with magic. Anyone can use magic and only requires that the spell is learnt. There are 3 types of magic in the game although you will only encounter 2.
There is divine (or rune) magic This can only be obtained from your god and does require a sacrifice of POW to get. If you are of a sufficiently high rank in the cult this magic can be reusable otherwise it is single use.
Next is spirit (or battle) magic. This does not require a POW sacrifice but there is a limit (INT) on how many points can be learned. It is generally quick and easy to cast these spells. There are some special cult spells magic that you can only get from your cult but otherwise it can be obatined from a shaman or someone willing and able to teach it.
The third kind of magic is sorcery but generally Orlanthi are wary of it and distrustful of practicioners.

Races
The dominant race in Glorantha is human although they do come in many varieties depending on place of origin and (as humans in RL) are often hostile to each other and find themselves at war.
The are other species known as the Elder Races, the main ones being trolls, elves and dwarves.
Trolls are also known as darkmen or by themselves as Uz. They are closely tied to the darkness rune and prefer underground places to dwell. They are generally larger and stronger than an average human. There are several sub species of troll although the one humans mostly encounter is the dark troll. Due to an ancient curse trolls rarely breed true anymore and produce stunted creatures known as trollkin. Trolls are perpetually hungry and can eat literally anything, rumours exist that they can eat air at a push.
Elves, also known as Aldryami, are more akin to plants (being tied to the plant rune) than humans. They are not elves like Tolkien’s version of them. They are closely tied to their forests and defend them fiercely. They are rarely seen outside of their forests.
Dwarves also known as Mostali are probably the version most closely resembling ther usual view of dwarves. They are tunnellers, inventors and builders. Mostali believe that the world is broken and that they must fix it. The spend a great deal of time in their underground cities carrying out these repairs and are rarely seen outside. They have some amazing technology but if such stuff comes into the hands of non dwarves and they find out about it they will attempt by any means to retrieve it.
Elves, dwarves and trolls had a deep emnity and will almost always fight if they encounter each other.
Another species that may be encountered is dragonewts. Humans know little of dragonewts and understand even less. The live in great cities which it is impossible to access for non dragonewts. As far as humans can tell dragonewts go through about 5 stages before they reach maturity. What most humans don’t realise is the final stage is changing into a full grown dragon. These stages can take a long time to achieve. When a dragonewt dies it is reborn in its city and if it is sufficiently spiritually developed it will progress to the next life stage otherwise it is reborn as it was.
There are many other sentient races in Glorantha, the chaos creatures will be dealt with under chaos. As well as the usual beast creatures found in most fantasy worlds (Centaurs, Minotaurs etc.) there is also a unique species called Ducks or Durulz. They are bipedal, sentient and have hands capable of use of tools and weapons. In the main they follow the Orlanth pantheon but also some of their own gods as well. Durulz can be encountered anywhere Orlanthi are found but the main population (and that of other beastmen) is to be found in Beast Valley west of Sartar.
There are a few other sentient species of note. In Prax it is possible to encounter Morokanth which are like Tapirs known for eating humans. Other Praxians mistrust them but not for the same reason other humans do. Also in Prax it is possible to meet baboons, these are sentient creatures that travel in large family groups and generally worship their ancestors. Giants, which can be encountered in the Elder Wilds are also sentient and can be very intelligent.

Human cultures
There are too many cultures to be able to cover fully here but a brief overview can be given of the main ones you are likely to encounter.
Orlanthi
The Orlanthi as the name suggests follow Orlanth and his pantheon. The residents of Dragon Pass are know by several names Heortlings (after the hero Heort who made the rules by which they live), Sartarites (for the Kingdom the live in) or Orlanthi. The closest real world analogue for them is probably Irish/Celts/Picts/Angles/Gaul and Germainians. Sartar has a King who rules over the tribes. The tribes are made up of a number of clans and each clan made up of a number of family groups. The clan is where people tie their loyalty. Various clans can be friendly, neutral or hostile to each other depending on many things including feuds between families or just because it has always been so. Now added into that mix some clans have sided with the Lunars. It is common practice for clan members to carry out raids on the other clans to steal cattle and possibly take captives as slaves.
Lunar
The Lunar empire worships the moon and all her aspects. There is an immortal Emperor who is the son of Sedenya. He is currently on his 6th reincarnation. A real world analogue for the Lunars is the Roman empire but again is not an exact match but gives an idea of the flavour of the empire. They are currently fighting with the Sartarites over Sartar but using the classic Roman tactic of divide and conquer. There capital city is Glamour and is a very decadent place. On the fringes of the empire the governors are given almost complete control and tend to rule with an iron fist.
Prax and Pavis.
Prax is a wide open semi desert land. It is inhabited by tribes of beast riding nomads who live by the rules of their god Waha. The beasts they ride are such animals as rhino, bison, llama, sables and zebra. The morokanth are counted as one of the tribes with human animals as their beasts. There are many other tribes living in Prax. There are a couple of holy and magical places in Prax such as the Block, a large piece of magical rock pinning the devil, Wakboth, beneath it. In the north east of Prax there is a city called Pavis. Once it was a large and flourishing place but wars and invasion destroyed it and left a large ruins called The Big Rubble. Against the walls of the Big Rubble aNew Pavis has sprung up. It has been taken over by the Lunars as it secures a river route to the sea for them.
Others
The are several other notable peoples in the area of Dragon Pass. A tribe called the Grazers are very important because of their leader the Feathered Horse Queen. It is custom and law that to become King of Dragon Pass one must be married to the Queen. Within Dragon Pass a kingdom of werewolves live. They call themselves the Telmori and have at various points in their history aligned with the royal family of Sartar.
There are many hsunchen peoples throughout the area as well as hunter nomads. The people of Balazar fall into the category of hunter nomads.

Calendar
The Gloranthan calendar is split into 5 seasons of 8 weeks and two weeks at the end of the year called Sacred time. Everything stops during Sacred Time while people worship their gods and follow their myths and rituals. The 5 seasons are Sea Season (spring), Fire Season (summer), Earth Season (autumn), Dark Season (winter) and Storm Season (winter+).

Each season has the same names for the 8 weeks. Disorder, Harmony, Death, Fertility, Stasis, Movement, Illusion and Truth.

Each week has the same 7 days. Freezeday, Waterday, Clayday, Windsday, Fireday, Wildday, and Godsday.

Dates are written as day, week, season, year. The current year is 1620ST. So Clayday, Disorder week, Earth Season would be written (season are written in Roman numerals).
3/1/III/1620

Chaos
Chaos is the bane of the world. It was let in during the great darkness after Orlanth killed Yelm. There are many chaos gods and many chaos creatures. All Orlanthi and most other peoples hate chaos and are sworn to destroy it. There are even several cults dedidcated to killing chaos. In the Orlanth pantheon is Urox the Storm Bull, who’s followers are super violent berserkers and fearless in the face of a terrifying foe. The trolls also have a berserk chaos killing god called Zorak Zoran. These cults are friendly to each other.
While chaos creatures come in many varieties the main ones are
Broos (also know as goatkin). They (usually) have a goat head, human like torso and goat legs. The are filthy and disease ridden but that is by no means their worst trait. They are able to mate with anything living and will impregnate it if they do. The resulting offspring will be a hybrid of both parents. For this reason if broos gain access to any livestock farmers have to kill them all to reduce the number of broos but also to reduce the suffering caused by his beasts. The method of birthing is like an Alien being born.
Scorpionmen. These are similar to centaurs but instead of a horses rear end they have the rear of a scorpion. They are vicious and semi intelligent. They eat their victims to gain their knowledge of skill and magic. Generally ruled by a scorpion queen.
Walktapus. Walktapus look like a huge man but with an octopus where the head should be. They only have animal intelligence but are a deadly foe all the same. The thing that makes them most deadly is their regeneration. It is all but impossible to kill a walktapus as it will eventually heal itself of all injuries. The best you can hope for is to incapacitate it before it recovers and make a hasty exit.
Jack O’Bear Jack O’Bears are like a large brown bear but with a pumpkin for a head. They are more deadly than a usual bear because they can hold prey transfixed and unable to defend itself while it attacks.
Gorp. Gorp are like massive amoebas. If you enter an infested waterway you can rapidly find yourself being dissolved in their strong acid.
Many chaos creatures have chaotic features. These are features that given extra arms, armour or other benefits, some may even explode on death taking down its own killer.