After Every Storm The Sun Will Smile

Since 1979, what has been fundamental to RuneQuest and to the world of Greg Stafford’s Glorantha, has been the integration and prominence of its myths, pantheons, and their worship into the setting and as part of everyday life for the Player Characters. Although the original RuneQuest—more recently published as RuneQuest Classic—mentioned the importance of cults, it only detailed three of them, offering limited choices for the player and his character. That changed with the publication of Cults of Prax, which presented fifteen cults and their myths and magics dedicated to fifteen very different deities. Fifteen very different cults and deities which held very different world views and very different means of approaching problems and overcoming them. Fifteen cults which provided their worshippers with a link to their gods and in turn their gods with a link from god time to the real world. Fifteen cults which provided their worshippers with great magics granted by their gods and with paths to become Rune Lords and Rune Priests and so bring the power of their gods into the world. Cults of Prax provided the RuneQuest devotee or Gloranthaphile with a framework via which his character could enter the world of Glorantha, giving form and function to faith and above all, making it something that you could play and something that you wanted to play. For at its most mechanical, a player and his character’s choice of cult works almost like a character Class of Dungeons & Dragons, giving the character benefits and powers in terms of what he can do and how he does it. However, to reduce the cults of Glorantha to such mechanical simplicity is to ignore the ‘why’ of what the character can do, and it is this ‘why’ where the world of Glorantha and its gods, myths, and cults comes alive. Cults of Prax did not ignore this ‘why’, but introduced it, and that is arguably why it is the most important supplement ever for both Glorantha and RuneQuest. However, in 2023, some forty-four years after its publication, Cults of Prax has a successor—or rather, a series of successors.

Cults of RuneQuest is a ten-volume series of supplements each of which is dedicated to the different pantheons of Glorantha. Each entry in the series details the gods—both major and minor—within their pantheon, along with their myths and cults, magics, favoured skills, requirements and restrictions for membership, outlook and relationships with the other gods, and more. Each book is standalone, but because each of the gods and pantheons has connections and often entwining myths with other gods and pantheons, the series will together provide a wider overview of all the gods of Glorantha as well as differing approaches to them. This is further supported by the two companion volumes to the series—Cults of RuneQuest: The Prosopaedia and Cults of RuneQuest: Mythology. The standalone nature of the series means that the Game Master or the player—and it should be made clear that each of the ten volumes in the Cults of RuneQuest is intended to be used by both—can pick or chose their favourite pantheon and use the gods and cults from that book. However, some volumes are quite tightly bound to each other and some are, if not bound geographically, have strong ties to certain regions of Glorantha. So, for example, the first two entries in the series, Cults of RuneQuest: The Lightbringers and Cults of RuneQuest: The Earth Goddesses are tightly bound to each other as the myths of their gods often combine and cross paths, not least of which is the fact that the heads of the pantheons in both books are married to each other. Geographically, Cults of RuneQuest: The Lightbringers and Cults of RuneQuest: The Earth Goddesses provide support for the region of Dragon Pass, including Sartar, Esrolia, Prax, and Tarsh, whilst Cults of RuneQuest: The Lunar Way provides similar geographical support for the Lunar Empire and its client states. This is not to say that the presence of the cults in these volumes will not be found elsewhere, but rather that these are the regions where their worship is most prevalent and if a Game Master is running campaigns in these locations, then the relevant geographical volume will be very useful. Lastly, of course, the Gloranthaphile will want all of these volumes because he is a Gloranthaphile.

Each of the entries in the Cults of RuneQuest series is well-organised. The introduction explains the purpose and subject matter for the book, highlights how the book is useful for player and Game Master alike, and examines some of the book’s themes and both their nature as myth and mature treatment of subject matters including death, sex, gender, survival, vengeance, and unconscious fears given form. It also notes that the artwork throughout the book is divided between depictions ‘in-Glorantha’, seen within the world itself, and those seen from without in reading the book. All of this is tailored slightly to the pantheon presented in the particular entry in the series. This is followed by a group depiction of all of the gods of the pantheon—which the book notably returns to a few pages later with a labelled version—and a hymn to them all, and then an overview of the pantheon, answering questions such as, “Where does the world come from?”, “Where do I come from?”, “Why am I here?”, “How do I do magic?”, and more. Lastly, there is a discussion of the relationship that the pantheon has with other pantheons and a listing of all of the gods in the pantheon or associated with it.

The bulk of each book though is dedicated to individual entries in the pantheon. Each of these follows the same format. They begin with the Mythos and History of the god, the Nature of the Cult and its Organisation, its membership at various levels—lay member, initiate, God-Talker, Rune-Lord, Rune-Priest, and Chief Priest, and continue with subservient cults, associated cults, and subcults, and more. This will vary from god to god and from cult to cult. This follows the format seen in RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, but in every case greatly expands what is included in the core rulebook, whether in terms of individual entries or additional entries. The number of pages dedicated to each god and thus each cult will also vary. A god whose worship is widespread—and also a popular choice for players to select for their characters to worship—is explored over the course of multiple pages whereas a less popular and less worshipped god many only receive two or three pages. All gods though, receive a full colour depiction at the start of their entry that includes their runes too, in addition to their being depicted elsewhere.

Cults of RuneQuest: The Gods of Fire and Sky is the fourth examination of a pantheon in the series. It is a slimmer volume than the previous three, detailing just thirteen cults in comparison to the nineteen of Cults of RuneQuest: The Lightbringers, the sixteen of Cults of RuneQuest: The Earth Goddesses, and the fifteen of Cults of RuneQuest: The Lunar Way. With the mighty sun god, Yelm, at its head, it looks at the deities of heat and light, fire and sky, order and obedience, who regard the Orlanthi gods, those of the storm, as barbarians who rose up and threw down order, Orlanth himself striking the blow that would kill Yelm, and so began the Gods War. Despite their histories, the members of the differing pantheons maintain a rivalry between each other rather than an open hostility and there are gods, such as Chalana Arroy and Lankhor Mhy, who are part of, or strongly associated with, the Solar pantheon, yet are worshipped by the barbarians. On the other hand, Yelm and his celestial court maintains strong ties with the Lunar pantheon—which the Orlanthi despise—and know the Lunar pantheon as a subcult since the Red Goddess is the reborn daughter of Yelm. Within the Lunar Empire, worship of Yelm, the Red Goddess, and the Red Emperor is intertwined. In regions outside of the Lunar Empire, this is not the case, such as in Sun County, west of Prax, but nevertheless, worshippers of Yelm and his pantheon are far more tolerant of Lunars than any Orlanthi.

The supplement begins with an examination of Yelm’s foundation myth and an overview of the gods of the Solar pantheon in the style of Cults of RuneQuest: The Prosopaedia. The supplement begins with an examination of Yelm’s foundation myth and an overview of the gods of the Solar pantheon in the style of Cults of RuneQuest: The Prosopaedia. The former is examined in more detail in the first examination of the cult in Cults of RuneQuest: The Gods of Fire and Sky, which naturally enough, begins with Yelm. His worship is likely the one to be most recognised by those outside of his cult and so he takes pride of place. His ‘Mythos and History’ is a fascinating read since it directly counters and complements the foundation myth of his interaction given under the similar entry for Orlanth in Cults of RuneQuest: The Lightbringers, but even though they fundamentally tell the same story, the variances between foundation myths do not vary between pantheons, but also between gods. For example, according to Yelm, when the Earth appeared beneath the Sky, his elder brother, Dayzatar, withdrew from its impurity into the Sky World, whilst he ascended into the Middle Sky to become Emperor of the Universe. Their younger brother, Lodril, gave into the temptation of the world and descended into gross matter. According to Dayzatar, who remained the God of the Sky and Above, Yelm descended to the Middle World and Lodril to the Underworld, whilst Lodril, God of Peasants and the Fire Below, says that Dayzatar, his eldest brother, sleepy and selfish, turned his back upon the great work their father asked of them and was rewarded with emptiness, whilst Yelm, his elder brother, asked for another task and received a more challenging task, a disloyal family, and a strength that ebbs and flows. Thus, Lodril gained the greater inheritance, a larger family care of the Central World, and greater inner strength. This all serves to bring out the tensions and differences between the gods and their cults, and so add a little further depth that a player can help enhance his roleplaying.

Many of the entries in Cults of RuneQuest: The Gods of Fire and Sky do not lend themselves to ordinary adventuring types. Indeed, some cults are so dedicated to their respective gods that their members rarely excuse themselves from their worship. For example, worshippers of Dayzatar are monks, ex-priests of other Sky cults, who are typically retired and spend their days in solitary worship and meditation, staring at the sun and going blind! Similarly, the cult of Ourania, his virginal daughter, Goddess of the Sky and Heavens, consists of nuns who devote themselves to maintaining the Celestial Song through its highly regarded choirs. This is not to say that there are not roleplaying potential in the members of these cults and in many cases, they could be the basis of interesting NPCs. Conversely, cultists of Yelm, of course, are ready made as the basis for adventuring Player Characters, but potentially so are worshippers of Polaris, the Polestar and General of Heaven, who is a war god for some of the Dara Happen regiments, of Shargash, the God of War and Destruction, whose worshippers can summon Underground Demons, and of course, Yelmalio, the Bright God, as seen in Sun County and Tales of the Sun County Militia. Certainly, it should be no surprise that the write-ups of Yelm and Yelmalio are the longest in the supplement. Female warriors, seeking life free of the paternal, even misogynistic strictures of the cults of Yelm and Yelmalio, may seek membership of the cult of Yelorna, the Starbringer, though they still chafe under the attitudes of male warriors, despite being reknowned by the knowledgable for their prowess and for the fact that their cavalry ride unicorns into battle. 

Cults of RuneQuest: The Gods of Fire and Sky comes to a close with a guide to the Gloranthan celestial sky at night, when Yelm descends into the Underworld, followed by a description of the Orlanthi hijacking of the Celestial Realm to invade the new Temple of the Reaching Moon in Dragon Pass in Earth Season, ST. 1625, and disrupt the Lunar ritual to consecrate it and so trigger the Dragonrise. It brings the supplement to a dramatic close. In addition to detailing its thirteen cults, Cults of RuneQuest: The Gods of Fire and Sky also describes the various Rune spells known to each cult and delves into the history of the solar-worshipping empire of Dara Happa and its ties to both Yelm and the Lunar Empire today. The origins of the horse, ripped from Hippogrif, during the Gods War are also given. One aspect of Yelm not explored in the supplement though, is his Illumination. That though, lies outside the scope of traditional Solar worship.

Physically, Cults of RuneQuest: The Gods of Fire and Sky is very well written and presented, but needs a slight edit here and there. As with the earlier Cults of RuneQuest: The Prosopaedia, Cults of RuneQuest: The Lightbringers, Cults of RuneQuest: The Earth Goddessess, and Cults of RuneQuest: The Lunar Way, the artwork in this supplement is of an extremely high quality. Some of it is of an adult nature.

Cults of RuneQuest: The Gods of Fire and Sky is a great counter to Cults of RuneQuest: The Lightbringers and in that it complements Cults of RuneQuest: The Lunar Way. There are fewer cults in the book and fewer straightforward adventuring cults, but none of them are no less interesting for that, and some of the less adventuring cults would still be interesting to bring into a game. Ultimately, Cults of RuneQuest: The Gods of Fire and Sky presenting a fascinatingly different point of view than we normally see in RuneQuest through Orlanthi eyes, and makes it playable. There can be no doubt that for certain regions of Glorantha and for certain campaigns, Cults of RuneQuest: The Gods of Fire and Sky is going to be no less than indispensable. For elsewhere and in other campaigns, it still has the potential to be very useful and if not that, an informative and enlightening read.

Under a Waning Red Light

Since 1979, what has been fundamental to RuneQuest and to the world of Greg Stafford’s Glorantha, has been the integration and prominence of its myths, pantheons, and their worship into the setting and as part of everyday life for the Player Characters. Although the original RuneQuest—more recently published as RuneQuest Classic—mentioned the importance of cults, it only detailed three of them, offering limited choices for the player and his character. That changed with the publication of Cults of Prax, which presented fifteen cults and their myths and magics dedicated to fifteen very different deities. Fifteen very different cults and deities which held very different world views and very different means of approaching problems and overcoming them. Fifteen cults which provided their worshippers with a link to their gods and in turn their gods with a link from god time to the real world. Fifteen cults which provided their worshippers with great magics granted by their gods and with paths to become Rune Lords and Rune Priests and so bring the power of their gods into the world. Cults of Prax provided the RuneQuest devotee or Gloranthaphile with a framework via which his character could enter the world of Glorantha, giving form and function to faith and above all, making it something that you could play and something that you wanted to play. For at its most mechanical, a player and his character’s choice of cult works almost like a character Class of Dungeons & Dragons, giving the character benefits and powers in terms of what he can do and how he does it. However, to reduce the cults of Glorantha to such mechanical simplicity is to ignore the ‘why’ of what the character can do, and it is this ‘why’ where the world of Glorantha and its gods, myths, and cults comes alive. Cults of Prax did not ignore this ‘why’, but introduced it, and that is arguably why it is the most important supplement ever for both Glorantha and RuneQuest. However, in 2023, some forty-four years after its publication, Cults of Prax has a successor—or rather, a series of successors.

Cults of RuneQuest is a ten-volume series of supplements each of which is dedicated to the different pantheons of Glorantha. Each entry in the series details the gods—both major and minor—within their pantheon, along with their myths and cults, magics, favoured skills, requirements and restrictions for membership, outlook and relationships with the other gods, and more. Each book is standalone, but because each of the gods and pantheons has connections and often entwining myths with other gods and pantheons, the series will together provide a wider overview of all the gods of Glorantha as well as differing approaches to them. This is further supported by the two companion volumes to the series—Cults of RuneQuest: The Prosopaedia and Cults of RuneQuest: Mythology. The standalone nature of the series means that the Game Master or the player—and it should be made clear that each of the ten volumes in the Cults of RuneQuest is intended to be used by both—can pick or chose their favourite pantheon and use the gods and cults from that book. However, some volumes are quite tightly bound to each other and some are, if not bound geographically, have strong ties to certain regions of Glorantha. So, for example, the first two entries in the series, Cults of RuneQuest: The Lightbringers and Cults of RuneQuest: The Earth Goddesses are tightly bound to each other as the myths of their gods often combine and cross paths, not least of which is the fact that the heads of the pantheons in both books are married to each other. Geographically, Cults of RuneQuest: The Lightbringers and Cults of RuneQuest: The Earth Goddesses provide support for the region of Dragon Pass, including Sartar, Esrolia, Prax, and Tarsh, whilst Cults of RuneQuest: The Lunar Way provides similar geographical support for the Lunar Empire and its client states. It also showcases a pantheon whose members are often diametrically opposed to the Gods of the Air and Storm as described in Cults of RuneQuest: The Lightbringers, but then can also be said the pantheon detailed in Cults of RuneQuest: The Gods of Fire and Sky. This is not to say that the presence of the cults in these volumes will not be found elsewhere, but rather that these are the regions where their worship is most prevalent and if a Game Master is running campaigns in these locations, then the relevant geographical volume will be very useful. Lastly, of course, the Gloranthaphile will want all of these volumes because he is a Gloranthaphile.

Each of the entries in the Cults of RuneQuest series is well-organised. The introduction explains the purpose and subject matter for the book, highlights how the book is useful for player and Game Master alike, and examines some of the book’s themes and both their nature as myth and mature treatment of subject matters including death, sex, gender, survival, vengeance, and unconscious fears given form. It also notes that the artwork throughout the book is divided between depictions ‘in-Glorantha’, seen within the world itself, and those seen from without in reading the book. All of this is tailored slightly to the pantheon presented in the particular entry in the series. This is followed by a group depiction of all of the gods of the pantheon—which the book notably returns to a few pages later with a labelled version—and a hymn to them all, and then an overview of the pantheon, answering questions such as, “Where does the world come from?”, “Where do I come from?”, “Why am I here?”, “How do I do magic?”, and more. Lastly, there is a discussion of the relationship that the pantheon has with other pantheons and a listing of all of the gods in the pantheon or associated with it.

The bulk of each book though is dedicated to individual entries in the pantheon. Each of these follows the same format. They begin with the Mythos and History of the god, the Nature of the Cult and its Organisation, its membership at various levels—lay member, initiate, God-Talker, Rune-Lord, Rune-Priest, and Chief Priest, and continue with subservient cults, associated cults, and subcults, and more. This will vary from god to god and from cult to cult. This follows the format seen in RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, but in every case greatly expands what is included in the core rulebook, whether in terms of individual entries or additional entries. The number of pages dedicated to each god and thus each cult will also vary. A god whose worship is widespread—and also a popular choice for players to select for their characters to worship—is explored over the course of multiple pages whereas a less popular and less worshipped god many only receive two or three pages. All gods though, receive a full colour depiction at the start of their entry that includes their runes too, in addition to their being depicted elsewhere.

Cults of RuneQuest: The Lunar Way is the third examination of a pantheon in the series. It is a slimmer volume than the previous two, detailing some just fifteen cults in comparison to the nineteen of Cults of RuneQuest: The Lightbringers and the sixteen of Cults of RuneQuest: The Earth Goddesses. More importantly, it addresses a fundamental issue with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. Since it published in 2018, the roleplaying game has been pitched as the one which would take Game Masters, players, and their campaign into the Hero Wars, the tumultuous conflict between two radically different cultures, worldviews, and pantheons that would profoundly change both and change Dragon Pass. Much anticipated and much anticipated for decades, RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha still has not got there yet, but its publisher, Chaosium, Inc., has been laying the groundwork for it. What has been missing up until this point, is details of one of those participants in the Hero Wars—the Lunar Empire. Of course, details of the Lunar Empire and the Lunar pantheon have been published previously, but not for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. Details about the other, the Orlanthi and their allies, and their cultures, worldviews, and pantheons were given in the core rules and have been greatly expanded upon since with both Cults of RuneQuest: The Lightbringers and Cults of RuneQuest: The Earth Goddesses. With the release of Cults of RuneQuest: The Lunar Way, we get to learn all about the ‘enemy’. Except that ‘enemy’ is not entirely accurate.

In the Hero Wars and in the events leading up to them, both the Orlanthi and the Lunars are enemies. After all, the Lunar Empire invaded Sartar, the home of the Orlanthi, and attempted to annex it as another province of empire, whilst the Orlanthi put up fierce resistance that would lead to the Dragon Rise. Also true is the fact that the barbarous—and the book specifically refers to them as such—Orlanthi rebelled again and again, rejecting the civilising spread of the Lunar Way and the beneficence of the Red Goddess. It is also a matter of perspective, culture and belief. Fundamentally, what Cults of RuneQuest: The Lunar Way does is allow the creation of both Player Characters and NPCs who belong to the cults it details. This expands greatly upon the single cult, that of Seven Mothers, given in the core rulebook. It opens up the possibility of more nuanced characters with different magics and different outlooks, though still loyal to the Lunar Empire, and it also provides a more detailed overview of the Lunar Empire.

The fact that the Lunar Empire invaded Sartar and the Sartarites rebelled is not the only reason why they and their gods hate each other. The primary reason is that the Red Goddess and the Lunar pantheon accept and tolerate Chaos as part of the natural order of the universe whereas the gods of the Storm and Earth pantheons do not and violently oppose Chaos. Worse, the Red Goddess has even harnessed the one of the worst creatures of Chaos as her personal mount—the Crimson Bat, which has its own cult detailed in Cults of RuneQuest: The Lunar Way. The people of Sartar know this Chaos demon all too well, many having served as sacrifices to keep it bound to the Middle Kingdom, their souls permanently lost.

This acceptance of Chaos is not the only major difference between the Lunar pantheon and the gods of the Air, Earth, and many other pantheons on Glorantha. The main difference is one of Time. The gods of the Air, Earth, and other pantheons are trapped out of Time in God Time, whereas the gods of the Lunar pantheon are not. Before Time, there was a Moon Goddess, but she killed and dismembered, her parts scattered. Some four centuries ago, seven men and women came together to search for those parts and having found them, resurrected her. Though born a human, she would ascend to divinity as the Red Goddess and the Lunar Empire was founded. Other men and women would follow in her footsteps, becoming gods and demi-gods in their own right, part of the Lunar Way. The first of these would be the Seven Mothers, those who had resurrected the Red Goddess. There are other differences too, many of which will influence the outlooks of the followers of the Lunar Way.

Cults of RuneQuest: The Lunar Way begins with an introduction to and overview of both the Lunar pantheon and the Lunar Empire. This includes a full list of the pantheon members, a description of the Red Emperor and the major Imperial families, and of the Red Moon. This hangs over the Lunar capitol, Glamour, and being actually accessible to followers of the Lunar Way, its full geography is detailed. There is some background information on the Moon Goddess and her faith, and the recovery of her fragmented mythology in the modern era. The bulk of the volume, though, is devoted to the fifteen cults of the Lunar Way. These are The Seven Mothers, The Crimson Bat, Danfive Xaron, Deezola, Etyries, Hon-eel the Artess, Hwarin Dalthippa, Irrippi Ontor, Jakaleel the Witch, Nysalor/Gbaji, the Red Emperor, the Red Goddess, Teelo Norri, Yanafal Tarnils, and Yara Aranis.

The examination of the cults in Cults of RuneQuest: The Lunar Way begins with the cult of the Seven Mothers. This is the cult that will be familiar to most people outside of the Lunar Empire. It is not only the first cult dedicated to the Red Goddess, it is the “[o]fficial state organ responsible for keeping foes of the Empire out and for letting friends of the Empire in.” as well as spreading the Lunar Way far beyond the borders of the empire. It is also the cult that will be the most familiar to players of RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, since it is the only cult described in its pages. But as much as Cults of RuneQuest: The Lunar Way expands upon the Lunar faith and its associated cults from just the Seven Mothers in the core rulebook, the supplement expands greatly upon the Seven Mothers. This is because the cult is not so much one, but seven subcults—in actuality, most of them cults in their own right—that contribute towards the whole. The seven consists of Danfive Xaron, once an unrepentant murderer, now the god of redemptive suffering whose cult accepts criminals of kind and places them on a grim path to absolution; Deezola, favoured by Lunar nobles, poets, and healers, and the Lunar Goddess of Women, who shows that physical suffering and life are connected and in understanding this, one can be released by the Red Goddess into divine euphoria; Irrippi Ontor, the ‘Brown Man’, an outlawed priest of Lhankor Mhy who became the Lunar god of literacy, learning, and celestial lore; Jakaleel the Witch, the ‘Spindle Hag’, shamanic in nature and source of the Lunes of the Lunar pantheon, who serves mortal realm and the hellish world of spirits, insanity, and the dead; ‘She Who Waits’, a figure of mystery whose secrets and powers are known only to the Illuminated initiates of the Red Goddess; Teelo Norri, cupbearer to the Red Goddess, source of the Poor Fund movement, and Lunar goddess of youth, acknowledged more than worshipped; and Yanafal Tarnils, the ‘Ram and Warrior’, an exiled nobleman who still ruled his lands, and who would later defeat his master, Humakt, in battle before becoming the god of war.

It then goes on to look at the other gods in turn, from Etyries, the goddess of trade, roads, and merchants and also the Messenger of the Red Goddess, to Yara Aranis, goddess of the Glowline—the furthest reach of the Red Moon’s light, and patron goddess of the seven Temples of the Reaching Moon, who was born to terrorize and slay the horse nomads of Pent. Chief amongst these are the Red Goddess and the Red Emperor. Hers is the longest entry in the book, delving deep into her history and her seven steps to becoming a god within Time, able to bring about direct change when her enemies locked in God Time cannot, and so more readily and directly spread her spiritual freedom. Her initiates need to be members of another cult, Illuminated, and willing to accept the Chaos Rune! Just as the magics of all the gods of the Lunar pantheon wax and wane according to the phases of the Red Moon, the power and influence of the Red Goddess waxes and wanes over the course of a twenty-seven-year period. The Red Emperor is her son, resurrected over and over done the centuries, who is worshipped as a god in his own right. His initiates were also initiates of the Red Goddess, but highly loyal to him, so there is a path of worship through the Lunar Way, from the Seven Mothers, both the spiritual and geographical borders of the Lunar Empire, through the worship of the Red Goddess and her required Illumination to that of Red Emperor.  The Red Emperor is the supreme high priest for the Lunar faith and for the Yelm cult in the empire and his mother’s representative in the middle world. The path is also one of greater complexity in terms of play, the cults of the Seven Mothers being easier to roleplay and portray, whereas the inner workings of the Red Goddess, the path to Illumination, and then the Red Emperor, less so.

Although one aim of Cults of RuneQuest: The Lunar Way is to counter the claims by the Storm gods and the Earth gods that the Lunar Empire is evil, but two of the entries in the supplement confirm it, each in their own way. One is the entry on the Crimson Bat, the chaos demon that Red Goddess rides as a beast of war and which its cult feeds twenty-five souls a week. When not used on the field of battle, it is used as a weapon of terror on the border. Monstrously evil, it is fully detailed in terms of stats in RuneQuest: Glorantha Bestiary, much like the Aldryami and the Mostali are for their respective cults detailed in Cults of RuneQuest: The Earth Goddesses. However, the cult dedicated to the Crimson Bat is not one that a Player Character should casually consider initiating himself into, and further, the book recommends that no Player Character start out as an initiative, since it is a Chaos cult.

The other entry is dedicated to the Nysalor and Gbaji, the Bright One and the Deceiver, respectively. This is not a cult, but rather a philosophy that asks questions of the universe and in answering them, shifts the thinking of those that seek the answers onto the path to Illumination. Once Illuminated, such a person accepts the role of Chaos in the universe, seeing it neither evil or a threat. This is not the only thing that Illumination can change in a person—he can also overcome his own Runes and Passions, embrace Runic opposites and rise above them, and ignore restrictions on cult membership with reprisal from any god—but it is the most notorious. This is because Chaos is evil is a given fact by almost every Gloranthan bar Lunarites and the Illuminated. To say otherwise would be profoundly shocking. Worse, the sense of enlightenment is accompanied by a detachment from morality that can lead to selfishness and tip over into immorality. The Red Goddess is Illuminated, which enables her to summon and control the Crimson Bat, as difficult as it is, and use as a weapon of war and a means of punishment. She also encourages her worshippers to follow the path to Illumination. The chapter on Illumination is accompanied by some example fiction that engagingly illustrates the path, but it is not accompanied by mechanics or rules. This is intentional. “The writers despair of capturing the flavor of a revolutionary mystical philosophy in any game mechanics.” and “Illumination is less significant as a mechanical set of rules and far more important as a source of roleplaying opportunities—especially when it comes to heroquesting.” Helped by the examples, this is a very well written and engaging piece, providing a brilliant explanation of not so much how it works, but how it should be roleplayed.

In addition to the descriptions of the various cults, Cults of RuneQuest: The Lunar Way also does provide a fair amount of information about the Lunar Empire. This is in addition to the overview at the beginning of the book. There is a more detailed, personal history for several of the daughters of the Red Emperor, such as Hon-Eel the Artess or Hwarin Dalthippa, and then again of the Red Emperor. It adds a great deal of flavour and feel to the Lunar Empire, but Cults of RuneQuest: The Lunar Way is not a sourcebook for the Lunar Empire and is not intended to be. Perhaps that is the issue with this sourcebook, in that whilst it can easily be used as is, it is waiting for that sourcebook as a companion volume. Despite that, the book could have done with a broader glossary, since it does in places without explanation.

Physically, Cults of RuneQuest: The Lunar Way is very well written and presented, but needs a slight edit here and there. As with the earlier Cults of RuneQuest: The Prosopaedia, Cults of RuneQuest: The Lightbringers, and Cults of RuneQuest: The Earth Goddessess, the artwork in this supplement is of an extremely high quality. From the incredible power of the Red Goddess riding the Crimson Bat to the rich depictions of the gods and demigods at the start of each cult write-up, this is a great looking book. Further, the illuminated seven steps of the Red Goddess, as well as other pieces of art in the book, would also serve as great handouts in play.

In comparison to the mythologies of the previous two books, that of Cults of RuneQuest: The Lunar Way looked to be daunting, even impenetrable. Yet, with this volume, that is very much not the case. It brings to life the gods, their worshippers, and their beliefs, making them highly accessible and easy to grasp, even a subject as potentially difficult as Illumination, whilst also making clear the contradiction of the Lunar Empire’s willingness to bring its civilisation to others and also use a Chaos tool like the Crimson Bat to enforce that civilisation. Cults of RuneQuest: The Lunar Way is the essential guide to the Lunar pantheon and outlook, that no RuneQuest: Roleplaying In Glorantha Game Master should be without.

Calm After The Storm

Since 1979, what has been fundamental to RuneQuest and to the world of Greg Stafford’s Glorantha, has been the integration and prominence of its myths, pantheons, and their worship into the setting and as part of everyday life for the Player Characters. Although the original RuneQuest—more recently published as RuneQuest Classic—mentioned the importance of cults, it only detailed three of them, offering limited choices for the player and his character. That changed with the publication of Cults of Prax, which presented fifteen cults and their myths and magics dedicated to fifteen very different deities. Fifteen very different cults and deities which held very different world views and very different means of approaching problems and overcoming them. Fifteen cults which provided their worshippers with a link to their gods and in turn their gods with a link from god time to the real world. Fifteen cults which provided their worshippers with great magics granted by their gods and with paths to become Rune Lords and Rune Priests and so bring the power of their gods into the world. Cults of Prax provided the RuneQuest devotee or Gloranthaphile with a framework via which his character could enter the world of Glorantha, giving form and function to faith and above all, making it something that you could play and something that you wanted to play. For at its most mechanical, a player and his character’s choice of cult works almost like a character Class of Dungeons & Dragons, giving the character benefits and powers in terms of what he can do and how he does it. However, to reduce the cults of Glorantha to such mechanical simplicity is to ignore the ‘why’ of what the character can do, and it is this ‘why’ where the world of Glorantha and its gods, myths, and cults comes alive. Cults of Prax did not ignore this ‘why’, but introduced it, and that is arguably why it is the most important supplement ever for both Glorantha and RuneQuest. However, in 2023, some forty-four years after its publication, Cults of Prax has a successor—or rather, a series of successors.

Cults of RuneQuest is a ten-volume series of supplements each of which is dedicated to the different pantheons of Glorantha. Each entry in the series details the gods—both major and minor—within their pantheon, along with their myths and cults, magics, favoured skills, requirements and restrictions for membership, outlook and relationships with the other gods, and more. Each book is standalone, but because each of the gods and pantheons has connections and often entwining myths with other gods and pantheons, the series will together provide a wider overview of all the gods of Glorantha as well as differing approaches to them. This is further supported by the two companion volumes to the series—Cults of RuneQuest: The Prosopaedia and Cults of RuneQuest: Mythology. The standalone nature of the series means that the Game Master or the player—and it should be made clear that each of the ten volumes in the Cults of RuneQuest is intended to be used by both—can pick or chose their favourite pantheon and use the gods and cults from that book. However, some volumes are quite tightly bound to each other and some are, if not bound geographically, have strong ties to certain regions of Glorantha. So, for example, the first two entries in the series, Cults of RuneQuest: The Lightbringers and Cults of RuneQuest: The Earth Goddesses are tightly bound to each other as the myths of their gods often combine and cross paths, not least of which is the fact that the heads of the pantheons in both books are married to each other. Thus, with these two volumes, the first two in the series, it is difficult to argue that one should not be bought without the other. Geographically, Cults of RuneQuest: The Lightbringers and Cults of RuneQuest: The Earth Goddesses provide support for the region of Dragon Pass, including Sartar, Esrolia, Prax, and Tarsh, whilst Cults of RuneQuest: The Lunar Way provides geographical support for the Lunar Empire and its client states. This is not to say that the presence of the cults in these volumes will not be found elsewhere, but rather that these are the regions where their worship is most prevalent and if a Game Master is running campaigns in these locations, then the relevant geographical volume will be very useful. Lastly, of course, the Gloranthaphile will want all of these volumes because he is a Gloranthaphile.

Each of the entries in the Cults of RuneQuest series is well-organised. The introduction explains the purpose and subject matter for the book, highlights how the book is useful for player and Game Master alike, and examines some of the book’s themes and both their nature as myth and mature treatment of subject matters including death, sex, gender, survival, vengeance, and unconscious fears given form. It also notes that the artwork throughout the book is divided between depictions ‘in-Glorantha’, seen within the world itself, and those seen from without in reading the book. All of this is tailored slightly to the pantheon presented in the particular entry in the series. This is followed by a group depiction of all of the gods of the pantheon—which the book notably returns to a few pages later with a labelled version—and a hymn to them all, and then an overview of the pantheon, answering questions such as, “Where does the world come from?”, “Where do I come from?”, “Why am I here?”, “How do I do magic?”, and more. Lastly, there is a discussion of the relationship that the pantheon has with other pantheons and a listing of all of the gods in the pantheon or associated with it.

The bulk of each book though is dedicated to individual entries in the pantheon. Each of these follows the same format. They begin with the Mythos and History of the god, the Nature of the Cult and its Organisation, its membership at various levels—lay member, initiate, God-Talker, Rune-Lord, Rune-Priest, and Chief Priest, and continue with subservient cults, associated cults, and subcults, and more. This will vary from god to god and from cult to cult. This follows the format seen in RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, but in every case greatly expands what is included in the core rulebook, whether in terms of individual entries or additional entries. The number of pages dedicated to each god and thus each cult will also vary. A god whose worship is widespread—and also a popular choice for players to select for their characters to worship—is explored over the course of multiple pages whereas a less popular and less worshipped god many only receive two or three pages. All gods though, receive a full colour depiction at the start of their entry that includes their runes too, in addition to their being depicted elsewhere.

Cults of RuneQuest: The Earth Goddesses is the second examination of a pantheon in the series. It is a slimmer volume than the first, detailing just sixteen cults in comparison to the nineteen of Cults of RuneQuest: The Lightbringers. As with the previous volume, Cults of RuneQuest: The Earth Goddesses begins with the head of the pantheon, Ernalda. Hers is the lengthiest of the entries and mythologies, but nowhere as near as long that given for Orlanth in Cults of RuneQuest: The Lightbringers. The initial focus is upon Ernalda and her cult and role in society, but it broadens out to examines various facets of her worship. This adds the Summon Snake Daughter Rune Spell—neatly supporting the depictions of Ernalda with snakes wrapped around her arms—as well as various other Rune spells under subservient and associated cults. Thus for Eninta, the goddess of childbirth, there is the spell Birthing, and for the god of brewing, Minlister, the Rune spell, Brew, as well as rules for the new skill, Craft (Brewing). The list of subservient and associated cults consists of a mix of deities mentioned just under this entry and those given their own entry elsewhere in the book, such as Babeester Gor and Ty Kora Tek. In addition, there is some crossover with Cults of RuneQuest: The Lightbringers with the inclusion of Barntar, the Plowman.

The entries for both Aldrya, the Goddess of the Woods, and Mostal, the Maker, are of a similar length to that of Ernalda. In the case of Aldrya, worshipped in particular by the Elves or Aldryami, this includes ‘The Elf Story’, which highlights the differences between the deities worshipped by Humans and the non-gods of the Elves in telling they grew and came to be planted across Dragon Pass. Guidelines are given for Aldrya shamanism, the High King Elf subcult, which is the most widespread, and even Elder Sister for Dryads! In this way, the book is both a useful supplement for the player who wants to play an Elf and the Game Master who wants to support that and create interesting NPCs with a more detailed look at Aldryami culture. In either case, it supports the details of the Aldryami given in the Glorantha Bestiary. The inclusion of Flamal, the Father of Vegetation, complements Aldrya, though is not as detailed. As with Aldrya, the inclusion of Mostal expands Player Character and NPCs options and backgrounds in similar fashion, but for the Mostali or Dwarves, rather than the Elves. Just as with the entry for Aldyra, the entry explains that Mostal is not revered as a cult as with other gods, but rather that ‘way of Mostal’ is a ‘socio-magical complex’ which structures and organises Dwarf society. Consequently there is less variation here than with other cults and what there is concerns itself mainly with a page or two of new Sorcery spells organised according to Dwarf type and a discussion of heresies, which of course, allows for more Player Character and NPC options.

Besides Ernalda, there are several entries in Cults of RuneQuest: The Earth Goddesses that will be familiar. Primarily, these consist of Babeester Gor, the Avenging Daughter and Maran Gor, the Earth Shaker, both tightly bound to the Ernalda cult, and they are joined by the God of Music, Dance, and Theatre, Donandar. His inclusion nicely complements the Entertainer occupation in the core rules and covers his half-brothers and similar gods, as well as his links to both Eurmal and the Puppetteer Troupes. Eurmal typically performs as the clown, whilst the half-brothers emphasise different styles of performance. Just as Cults of RuneQuest: The Lightbringers expanded geographically into Prax by including Waha, so Cults of RuneQuest: The Earth Goddesses complements this with the inclusion of Erithia. Again, her coverage is more detailed as she fulfils a similar to Ernalda in Prax and her worship is widespread across the region. Ty Kora Tek, the Goddess of the Dead and Underworld, is an interesting addition for older Player Character Earth worshippers, whilst there is a pleasing nod to Apple Lane and its lone temple, with inclusion of Uleria, the Goddess of Love.

In addition to the many entries in Cults of RuneQuest: The Earth Goddesses which will be familiar, there are many that are not. For example, the Cult of the Bloody Tusk, the god of the Tusk Riders, which again expands upon information in the Glorantha Bestiary as well as the RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack, is included, but really only for NPCs, as it comes with the advice that Tusk Riders are not suitable as a Player Characters and no details of the Cult of the Bloody Tusk initiates are given, preventing their creation. Perhaps the strangest inclusion is that of Pamalt, the Earth-King of Pamaltela, the southern continent of Glorantha. There is no denying that it is an interesting read, but given the roleplaying game’s focus upon the northern continent and Dragon Pass, its inclusion is not of immediate use. Other cults in Cults of RuneQuest: The Earth Goddesses include Asrelia, the Goddess of Wealth and Fortune, as important to miners as protecting the collected harvest; the volcano twins Caladra and Aurelion; the Grain Goddesses, the regional Goddesses of the Land; and Voria, the Spring Virgin. These last few are better suited for NPC use rather than for Player Characters, but they add setting detail in each case.

Physically, Cults of RuneQuest: The Earth Goddessess is very well written and presented, but needs a slight edit here and there. As with the earlier Cults of RuneQuest: The Prosopaedia and the Cults of RuneQuest: The Lightbringers, what stands out is the quality of the artwork, which begins with its cover and its depiction of Ernalda. In comparison to the majestic imposition of power in the depiction of Orlanth on the cover of Cults of RuneQuest: The Lightbringers, that of Ernalda on the cover of this book is all poise and assurance. The power of the Earth goddesses are instead saved for the energetic, even manic illustrations of Babeestor Gor and Maran Gor. In many of the illustrations there is a sense of embracing warmth, but whatever the nature of the gods and goddesses depcted in the volume, the artwork is uniformly excellent.

Cults of RuneQuest: The Earth Goddessess continues the series’ options for the players and their characters in terms of who and what they want to play and what gods they want their characters to embody, providing them with the background and the details to do so and the Game Master to also make interesting NPCs. There are perhaps more options for the latetr than the former in Cults of RuneQuest: The Earth Goddessess, but all of the entries add background detail and flavour to the world of Glorantha. Cults of RuneQuest: The Earth Goddessess is the second essential book in the series for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, complementing Cults of RuneQuest: The Lightbringers with connections between their respective pantheons as well as expanding upon the information, background, and options for the Earth goddesses.

—oOo—

An unboxing video of Cults of RuneQuest: The Earth Goddesses is available to watch on Unboxing in the Nook.

The Storm Gods Strike!

Since 1979, what has been fundamental to RuneQuest and to the world of Greg Stafford’s Glorantha, has been the integration and prominence of its myths, pantheons, and their worship into the setting and as part of everyday life for the Player Characters. Although the original RuneQuest—more recently published as RuneQuest Classic—mentioned the importance of cults, it only detailed three of them, offering limited choices for the player and his character. That changed with the publication of Cults of Prax, which presented fifteen cults and their myths and magics dedicated to fifteen very different deities. Fifteen very different cults and deities which held very different world views and very different means of approaching problems and overcoming them. Fifteen cults which provided their worshippers with a link to their gods and in turn their gods with a link from god time to the real world. Fifteen cults which provided their worshippers with great magics granted by their gods and with paths to become Rune Lords and Rune Priests and so bring the power of their gods into the world. Cults of Prax provided the RuneQuest devotee or Gloranthaphile with a framework via which his character could enter the world of Glorantha, giving form and function to faith and above all, making it something that you could play and something that you wanted to play. For at its most mechanical, a player and his character’s choice of cult works almost like a character Class of Dungeons & Dragons, giving the character benefits and powers in terms of what he can do and how he does it. However, to reduce the cults of Glorantha to such mechanical simplicity is to ignore the ‘why’ of what the character can do, and it is this ‘why’ where the world of Glorantha and its gods, myths, and cults comes alive. Cults of Prax did not ignore this ‘why’, but introduced it, and that is arguably why it is the most important supplement ever for both Glorantha and RuneQuest. However, in 2023, some forty-four years after its publication, Cults of Prax has a successor—or rather, a series of successors.

Cults of RuneQuest is a ten-volume series of supplements each of which is dedicated to the different pantheons of Glorantha. Each entry in the series details the gods—both major and minor—within their pantheon, along with their myths and cults, magics, favoured skills, requirements and restrictions for membership, outlook and relationships with the other gods, and more. Each book is standalone, but because each of the gods and pantheons has connections and often entwining myths with other gods and pantheons, the series will together provide a wider overview of all the gods of Glorantha as well as differing approaches to them. This is further supported by the two companion volumes to the series—Cults of RuneQuest: The Prosopaedia and Cults of RuneQuest: Mythology. The standalone nature of the series means that the Game Master or the player—and it should be made clear that each of the ten volumes in the Cults of RuneQuest is intended to be used by both—can pick or chose their favourite pantheon and use the gods and cults from that book. However, some volumes are quite tightly bound to each other and some are, if not bound geographically, have strong ties to certain regions of Glorantha. So, for example, the first two entries in the series, Cults of RuneQuest: The Lightbringers and Cults of RuneQuest: The Earth Goddesses are tightly bound to each other as the myths of their gods often combine and cross paths, not least of which is the fact that the heads of the pantheons in both books are married to each other. Thus, with these two volumes, the first two in the series, it is difficult to argue that one should not be bought without the other. Geographically, Cults of RuneQuest: The Lightbringers and Cults of RuneQuest: The EarthGoddesses provide support for the region of Dragon Pass, including Sartar, Esrolia, Prax, and Tarsh, whilst Cults of RuneQuest: The Lunar Way provides geographical support for the Lunar Empire and its client states. This is not to say that the presence of the cults in these volumes will not be found elsewhere, but rather that these are the regions where their worship is most prevalent and if a Game Master is running campaigns in these locations, then the relevant geographical volume will be very useful. Lastly, of course, the Gloranthaphile will want all of these volumes because he is a Gloranthaphile.

Each of the entries in the Cults of RuneQuest series is well-organised. The introduction explains the purpose and subject matter for the book, highlights how the book is useful for player and Game Master alike, and examines some of the book’s themes and both their nature as myth and mature treatment of subject matters including death, sex, gender, survival, vengeance, and unconscious fears given form. It also notes that the artwork throughout the book is divided between depictions ‘in-Glorantha’, seen within the world itself, and those seen from without in reading the book. All of this is tailored slightly to the pantheon presented in the particular entry in the series. This is followed by a group depiction of all of the gods of the pantheon—which the book notably returns to a few pages later with a labelled version—and a hymn to them all, and then an overview of the pantheon, answering questions such as, “Where does the world come from?”, “Where do I come from?”, “Why am I here?”, “How do I do magic?”, and more. Lastly, there is a discussion of the relationship that the pantheon has with other pantheons and a listing of all of the gods in the pantheon or associated with it.

The bulk of each book though is dedicated to individual entries in the pantheon. Each of these follows the same format. They begin with the Mythos and History of the god, the Nature of the Cult and its Organisation, its membership at various levels—lay member, initiate, God-Talker, Rune-Lord, Rune-Priest, and Chief Priest, and continue with subservient cults, associated cults, and subcults, and more. This will vary from god to god and from cult to cult. This follows the format seen in RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, but in every case greatly expands what is included in the core rulebook, whether in terms of individual entries or additional entries. The number of pages dedicated to each god and thus each cult will also vary. A god whose worship is widespread—and also a popular choice for players to select for their characters to worship—is explored over the course of multiple pages whereas a less popular and less worshipped god many only receive two or three pages. All gods though, receive a full colour depiction at the start of their entry that includes their runes too, in addition to their being depicted elsewhere.

Cults of RuneQuest: The Lightbringers is the first examination of a pantheon and its title is both a misnomer and not a misnomer. It is not a misnomer because it does detail the gods and other mythical figures—Orlanth, Issaries, Lhankor Mhy, Chalana Arroy, Flesh Man, Ginna Jar, and Eurmal—who performed the Lightbringers Quest, redeeming Orlanth’s slaying of Yelm with Death which brought about the Great Darkness, by descending into the Underworld and having Orlanth test himself before the dead emperor that would lead to agreement between the two that would see the restoration and repairing of the world. However, it is a misnomer because it details with more than just those figures, encompassing some nineteen gods, the majority of whom did not participate in the Lightbringers Quest, and their cults. It is thus more accurate to say that Cults of RuneQuest: The Lightbringers is the book of the gods of the air or the storm, but given the significance of the Lightbringers Quest and its participants, still appropriate to call it Cults of RuneQuest: The Lightbringers and both the Lightbringers Quest and its participants are examined in detail throughout the book.

Cults of RuneQuest: The Lightbringers begins with Orlanth, who has over a tenth of the book and over twenty pages devoted to him. His is the lengthiest mythology, exploring his life and role before and after history began in some detail before presenting the details of his cult. This encompasses subcults, Orlanth Adventurous, Orlanth Thunderous, Orlanth Rex, and Orlanth Lightbringer, and including new Rune spells such as Command Priests, Command Worshippers, and Detect Honour for Orlanth Rex. Barntar is included here as well as having his own entry elsewhere in the book, because of his close association with his father, and Sartar is detailed as a subcult too, along with his Rune spell, City Harmony, which can be cast in any city or any road with Sartar. There are also details of the spells provided to the Orlanthi subcults by Engizi, the river god, and Kero Fin, the Mountain Goddess, as well as descriptions of Vinga—Orlanth’s daughter and/or female incarnation—his numerous associated cults (many detailed elsewhere in the book) and the depiction of Orlanth and his cult in lands beyond Dragon Pass. It is a huge amount of information, but presented in very accessible format that provides numerous options for paths through the cult that an Orlanthi can take, from impulsive warrior-adventurer and Orlanth Adventurous to the wisdom and responsibility of Orlanth Rex. Throughout there are pieces of flavour text that can add colour and detail to an Orlanthi and the cult, such as the section of poetry that sets down the price to be paid when calling for assistance in combat. Alongside all of this is a section of boxed text that present the starting skills, cult spirit magic and favoured passions of the main cult and the subcult, similar to that in the cults chapter in RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. In the case of Orlanth, this repeats some information, but for many of the other gods and cults it will be new.

Similar treatments are accorded to each of the other entries in the book. This continues with Chalana Arroy, which has notes on her healers as adventurers and expanded healing rules that include the use of plants and spirits. The disorderly nature of Eurmal feels suitably upside down and roundabout with determined lack of cult or organisation and fascinatingly odd subcults like Dismembered, Fool, Glutton, Imp, Lightbringer, Mask, and Murderer! The entry on Issaries also discusses trade across Glorantha and Issaries caravans as well as the legendary Desert Trackers that trek into Genert’s Wastelands, daring to lead where only Praxians might. Lhankor Mhy perhaps feels the most political of all entries, though that is only within the cult itself and Barntar, the most ordinary, but his association with Orlanth means he is still interesting (perhaps even as a cover for Orlanthi-related activities under the watch of Lunar eyes). Other entries include Daka Fal, the Judge of the Dead, which is suitable for Shaman Player Characters; Heler; Humakt, which includes details on Humakti duels, honour, and sword; Odayla, the Sky Bear and god of the wilderness favoured by hunters; Storm Bull, the foe of Chaos; Waha, the God of the Animal Nomads of Prax and the Wasteland; and lastly, the God of Cats, Yinkin.

Whilst there are many entries in Cults of RuneQuest: The Lightbringers which will surprise no-one, there are some that will. Some of these include Gagarth, the Wild Hunters, whose worshippers are mostly violent outlaws and outcastes, and Lanbril, the God of Thieves, a covert cult that hides all. Other gods are included who have almost no worshippers, like Mastakos, the God of Movement or Valind, the God of Winter, or Ygg, the Roaring God, who is little worshipped beyond the Wolf Pirates and the peoples of Ygg’s Isles. Their inclusion will probably be of interest to the Game Master in creating interesting NPCs rather than to the players.

Physically, Cults of RuneQuest: The Lightbringers is very well written and presented. What stands out is the quality of the artwork, which begins with its cover and its majestically imposing depiction of Orlanth, that perhaps is only matched by the depiction of Vinga wearing the same regalia as her father and/or male counterpoint inside the book. The illustrations throughout are uniformly excellent, with some of the in-world depictions having a fascinating sense of otherness in capturing the key myths around the gods, such as those for Yinkin and his relationship with his half-brother, Orlanth. It is a pity that there are not more of these are as they are exceptionally good.

Cults of RuneQuest: The Lightbringers presents options for the players and their characters in terms of who and what they want to play and what gods they want their characters to embody, providing them with the background and the details to do so and the Game Master to also make interesting NPCs. In doing so, it both expands upon the information in the core rulebook and complements its sister volume, Cults of RuneQuest: The Earth Goddesses, in a very accessible, readable, and literally fantastically illustrated fashion. Cults of RuneQuest: The Lightbringers is an essential book for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, opening up the mythologies and gods of the air and making them playable by player and Game Master alike.

—oOo—

An unboxing video of Cults of RuneQuest: The Lightbringers is available to watch on Unboxing in the Nook.