The Glorantha Sourcebook

A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement The Glorantha Sourcebook

The Glorantha Sourcebook is a role playing game supplement published by Chaosium Inc. for use with Glorantha and RuneQuest.

The supplement is available as a PDF from DriveThruRPG for $19.95 and is also available in printed form from sites such as Amazon. The PDF is the version reviewed although it was purchased at a reduced price during a sale and has 226 pages. Two pages are the front and rear covers, two the front matter, one the Table of Contents, six the Index and one is an ad.

The Introduction explains that Glorantha sprung to life in 1966 and owes more to Bullfinch’s Mythology and Joseph Campbell than Tolkien as many games do. It explains that the book has no mechanics, rules or scenarios and gives an overview of the contents, as well as explaining where some of the material came from.

Geography explains that Glorantha is a cube of earth surrounded by and floating on Sramak’s River, which immediately shows that this is not a normal Earth-like setting. There are two main continents, islands and a whirlpool at the centre that drains into the Underworld. Above this is the Sky Dome and beneath it is the Underworld. The Mundane World details one continent and the goddesses associated with it, along with the second continent much more briefly, and there is a two-page colour map of Dragon Pass and a sidebar which discusses this region’s importance. The Lunar Empire, which has come to greatly influence Dragon Pass, is also briefly covered in another sidebar.

History of Dragon Pass starts with the God Time, before Dawn was born and before the coming of Death. It starts with essentially the creation myth of Glorantha, with the Gods War and the Great Darkness, before moving on to the Empire of the Wyrms Friends. This lasted for five centuries until it was crushed by humans, until they faced the events of the Dragonkill War. After this, Dragon Pass was closed to humans for about a century and a half, and the peoples who survived the Dragonkill War are listed. One branch of survivors, the Beastmen, are covered; these are half-human, half-animal creatures whose human side was often overpowered by their animal side.

The Glorantha SourcebookThe Troll Wars were a result of trolls moving into Dragon Pass, and eventually starting to attack others both inside and outside the pass. Following the collapse of the Empire of the Wyrms Friends, the Carmanian empire conquered Peloria, north of Dragon Pass, until seven people conspired to bring back the Red Moon, and she was reformed as the Red Goddess, her son, the Red Emperor, founding the Lunar Empire.

The Holy Country is a region south of Dragon Pass and, after the Dragonkill War, a stranger came to it. He possessed great powers and became the God-King. The Grazelanders are one of the few remaining Pure Horse Peoples who fled to reach the edge of Dragon Pass, following a defeat. The God-King Belintar would hold tournaments when his mortal body wore out to choose another. Dragon Pass became settled and the Lunar Empire started to expand and Tarsh became a power. There are details on the Feathered Horse Queen and her dynasty and the founding of Sartar by Sartar. The Lunar Empire continued to expand, though it waxed and waned, eventually conquering Tarsh and Sartar and invading the Holy Country. More details on different dynastic lines are covered, as well as various rebellions and conquests, which ended up causing the Hero Wars. The chapter covers the history of the region in a decent amount of detail.

The Elder Races looks at the four races that preceded humanity’s dominance of Glorantha. The first of these is the Aldryami, which consists of elves, dryads, pixies and runners (the last being very small elves). All claim descent from the goddess Aldrya and all are vegetative in nature. Their history is briefly covered. Dragonewts are an ancient race of lizard-like beings that are usually bipedal and humanoid, and often tailed. They are descended from the immortal dragons and there are several different shapes, who all claim they are the same species. There are more details on dragonewts, which are alien in nature, and again a brief history of them. The Mostali are dwarves who claim descent from Mostal the Maker. They come in separate castes, each named after a mineral, with details as to what these do. Again, there is a brief history of the species. Finally, the Uz, otherwise called the trolls, are a subterranean people that were chased from the Underworld by Yelm’s light. There are different kinds of trolls, which are described, and again there is a history of the species.

Theogony is said to be a collection of God Learner texts, and it starts with an overview of them. The God Learners existed during the Second Age and managed to create a worldview incorporating all the popular philosophies they encountered. The God Learners attempted to identify and define the gods, spirits and other powers, and arrange them into a coherent unity and thus impose their will upon the mythical reality of the God Time. They grouped deities into artificial pantheons arranged around the various elemental Runes.

The God Learners developed an order to the four philosophies of Glorantha, and these are gone into. This is followed by the draconic creation myth, with details on various dragons and types of dragons. The Twins are another, which imposed a dualistic concept on Creation, and then looks at Glorantha, as the goddess who was the Empress of the Celestial Court, then the Celestial Court itself, the different deities of it and the great elementals.

The mortal races are considered next, and they are considered to be hybrid deities; their founders being hybrids of different Elementals and Powers. The Xeotam Dialogues are a couple of pages of in-universe writings on powers.

Deities of Darkness looks at the different gods that fall into this category, from the earliest ones to the gods of the dead, a depiction of the Underworld and a “family tree” of the gods of the dead, as well as some guardians of the underworld and troll deities. Deities of Water looks at the water deities, who originated in Darkness, in a similar way, looking at the different gods, and overview of the waters and another family chart and the different waters of the world. Next is Deities of Earth, which again follows generally the same layout, though without a map of the earth.

Again, Deities of Sky and Fire follows the same process, with details on the deities and their genealogy, as well as the Gods War and Cosmic Justice, with a map of the world. Deities of Air once again follows the same general structure, with another map. Lord of Terror looks at the birth of Chaos, the Devil, the Great Darkness and the relevant deities, with a map, and the final section is The End of the Gods War, which is the end of the Great Darkness and the defeat of Chaos, and more important deities.

Sidebars through this section give details on relevant material.

Time is a significant component for Glorantha, for before time began events were non-sequential and things would happen at the same time. The world is 1,627 years old, which dates back to the first rising of the Sun God. Time itself is a god, and the most powerful god of the new age. Time, which was born in Hell, resulted in a cosmic compromise to which all beings were bound. Time permanently separates the gods and their world from the destruction they caused in the Gods Age. Time is measured in different ways. Calendrical time is how it is measured by nations, though these use different methods. The Gloranthan calendar is covered, which has seven days, eight weeks and six seasons, which are described. History is separated into three Ages, which are covered, and there is a map of the world and the major powers during each Age.

Gods of the Lunar Way looks at the gods of the moon, starting with a depiction of their family tree, looking at the seven ancient gods of the moon, the Blue Moon, the Seven Mothers who prepared the way for the return of the Lunar Goddess, the Red Goddess herself who was broken during the Gods War and was reassembled and reborn by the Seven Mothers, founding the Lunar Empire, Illumination and becoming Illuminated, the Crimson Bat, who was bound to the service of the Red Goddess, and the New Gods, a number of followers and children of the Red Goddess, who have become immortal and become the New Gods of the Lunar Religion.

The Redline History of the Lunar Empire is the court history of the Lunar Empire and the particular history described is linked to a specific individual’s possession. It starts prior to the formation of the Lunar Empire itself, with details on the Carmanian Empire. The history of the Lunar Empire itself is divided into Wanes, starting with the Zero Wane and the birth of the Red Goddess, and ending with her apotheosis. There are eight different Wanes for the history, and Wanes Zero to Seven have a map of the extent of the Lunar Empire at that time. The events of each Wane are described. The Eight Wane is different, and is the time of the Hero Wars, and the Lunar Empire has suffered great losses during it.

Gloranthan Magic looks at Runes. It starts with a section on these, classifying them in different manners and describing each Rune, along with the Rune itself. The first is the Elemental Runes, and there are six elements, as Air and Moon are elements. Powers are the Runes symbolising the members of the Celestial Court and are formed of mutually antagonist pairs, which no other Runes are. There are eight of these. Form Runes, of which there are seven, are the basic moulds used by the gods to populate the physical plane. There are four Condition Runes, and many minor ones, with two of the minor ones described. These Runes modify or condition other runes. Brief mention is given to other Runes that were known, followed by four pages showing the relationship between Runes and cosmology.

It then looks at what magic is, and it’s described as the interaction of mortals existing in Time with the timeless and eternal powers of the God Time, before the power of Death was introduced, which caused war to enter the world, caused reality to fracture and would have destroyed the gods if not for the Cosmic Compromise, which limited the gods to their God Time actions. Supernatural entities connected to the Otherworld are classified by those of Dragon Pass as gods, spirits, demons, heroes and demigod, the last being heroes whose deeds have made them gods, and there are examples of these.

It then looks at different kinds of magic; three, four or five types are considered, these being spirit magic, Rune magic, sorcery and, possibly, mysticism as the fourth and Lunar as the fifth. In each case, though, Runes are the ultimate source of power. Cults provide communication between mortals and the divine, and they can be dedicated to almost anything. Rune cults have widely recognised individuals of different grades known as Rune Masters. Shamans are specialists who interact with spirits, and exist part in the Mundane World, part in the Spirit World. Cults may prohibit members from becoming shamans.

Gods and Mortals starts by explaining that there are four concepts of dealing with the universe have a lot in common, though the methods vary. The four methods are Pantheistic, Humanistic, Abstract and Naturalistic, and examples of cultures that used each is given. A look at how the gods affected history is given, and followed by an incomplete and short list of Heroes known to be prominent in the Hero Wars period, with each named and given a comparatively brief description.

Sartar Magical Union covers the innovation of Argrath, mounted battalions comprised of various disparate groups, all casters of different types of magic or wielders of magical weapons. Warlocks explains that this is the title that the magicians are commonly known as and gives some broad details on them. Following this are details on all the different groups of the Union and peculiarities of their magics.

The Glorantha Sourcebook in Review

The PDF is bookmarked, though primarily just the larger sections, and some of the nesting doesn’t follow the chapter layout. The Table of Contents is to a similar level of depth and is hyperlinked. The Index is much more thorough and is hyperlinked. Navigation is okay. The text maintains a two-column format and appeared to be mostly free of errors. There are a variety of illustrations, both colour and black and white, up to full page in size, and many of them are definitely custom. Presentation is decent.

Though this supplement is for Glorantha, and therefore RuneQuest, it is actually system neutral. It could be used with other systems as background material for a world if desired; the main difficulty would be translating concepts from RuneQuest to other systems. This might be more difficult than it sounds, though; RuneQuest has some pretty significant differences in theme and concept to many fantasy role playing games. Runes play a big role in the game and the gods are certainly different. For one thing, the difference between gods and heroes is not a sharp one, and it’s possible for a mortal to become a hero and then a god.

This is not the only difference, of course; the species are different and the setting isn’t a standard world either. All told, Glorantha is a significantly different place to a standard fantasy world. This does make it stand out more from the rest, but it also means it will need more effort to grasp it, and by itself, this means this book works less well as a standalone supplement. It is standalone in some respects, but it’s also tired firmly to Glorantha, and Glorantha is tied to RuneQuest, so though this might function as a system neutral supplement, it will work better when used as part of RuneQuest. The Glorantha Sourcebook can be found by clicking here.


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