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How To Play A Kralori

In document Glorantha the Second Age 2e (Page 35-38)

X Contemplate carefully before acting.

X Deny the value of all foreign thought.

X Refer to outlanders as barbarians or foreign devils. All of them are barbarians, even if they come from cities larger than yours.

X Speak in poetic aphorisms.

X Defer to rightful authority.

X Give respect to elders; expect respect from juniors.

X React with dismay when tradition is challenged or altered.

X Refer to dismaying events indirectly, if at all.

From 739 to 741, they come each spring to bombard our coasts with green fi re from their humming ships. Yanoor responds by writing a banner refuting their Six Effronteries.

Festivals of celebration are held to note this triumph. The God Learner outposts continue their infi ltration unmolested.

In the year 762 the fi rst whisperings of a dangerous new cult circulate through the southern part of our land. The Darudic monk ShangHsa fails to achieve contact with the Cosmic Dragon, distracted by the frenzied whisperings of the masses. So, aided by the foreign devil Cham Dao (called Gillam D’estau in his own unspeakable tongue) he designs a new, wrong course of dragon mysticism allowing quick progression from novice to master. Its practitioners assume the outward features of dragons but irreversibly cripple their true spiritual progress.

The cult rapidly spreads. Followers of the Mikaday school, then the dread Bodkartu Society, fi ght its growth but are overwhelmed. The common man loses his bearings and seeks easy dragon transcendence. By 766 the Immanent Masters deploy armies of draconised fi ghters near the cities of Wah Hua and Sha Ming.

ShangHsa marches on the forbidden palace in 768 and murders Yanoor. Thousands of good people commit suicide to express their distress. The offi cials of his beheaded government fl ee to the benighted Kingdom of Ignorance. ShangHsa becomes false Emperor two years later.

In 862, a God Learner ally, the Ogre King, uses his Legion of Red Bones to conquer the metropolis of Chang Tsai. ShangHsa initially objects and sends forces to expel this mercenary marauder from the municipal palace. Dark intrigues by the accursed one’s western masters allow the ogre to remain in place. Chang Tsai earns its grim nickname as Cannibal City.

Two years ago, in the Fire Season of 906, a string of poison murders fells nearly a dozen of ShangHsa’s foreign conspirators.

He announces reprisals, fi rst against the presumed killers, the Bodkartu Society and later against all sages who oppose him. He invades monasteries and private libraries throughout the kingdom. All books and scrolls, no matter how ancient, recording any dragon path other than his own, are piled up and burned. The outrages continue…

My Life

An outsider might think that little has changed in Kralorela since superior men were forced to fl ee to the Kingdom of Ignorance. We who know our land can see the fault lines form, like cracks which mar and will eventually destroy a vase of sublime beauty.

When we ruled, everyone understood that individualism is an empty and dangerous creed. Social harmony was blessed;

personal fulfi lment, a disruptive illusion. Foreigners were held at arm’s length. Leaders sought to establish their refi nement, manners and subtlety.

Now the School of Immanent Mastery preaches base, outward fulfi lment through the deceptively quick attainment of magical power. Spiritually untrained men and women, fl ush with draconic powers they do not understand, fi ght for personal glory. The humble have become avaricious. Riots break out at the slightest provocation. Persons are elevated to high position by caprice or on the demonstration of new dragon powers.

They vie with one another to show who among them is the greediest, mightiest and most brutal.

The Empire still has 15 provinces, whose institutions are still ruled over by offi cials called Xia Ko, or exarchs. True exarchs have spiritually progressed to dragon status but rarely manifest as such, as it retards their transcendence. ShangHsa’s so-called exarchs are his false dragon masters, who parade around in their reptilian hides. Some are, unbelievable as it is, foul foreigners!

A well-ordered society maintains itself as follows. Exarchs guide the wisdom of mandarins, the sages of peace who rise to administer public offi ces by passing the ancient exams handed down by Daruda himself. Martial artists, the sages of confl ict, protect us from our enemies. Patricians own land or large urban businesses but are too unwise to rule. Beneath them are the peasants and workers, and then the soldiers who man our army. At the lowest level are delinquents. Anyone else is outside the system, from the beast men of the hills, to devils, to foreigners.

Now Immanent Masters pose as exarchs, anybody can be anything, all as ShangHsa and his dog Cham Dao decree.

My Magic

Our magic is mystical. It comes from long contemplation of the true dragon secrets. Inner transformation begets outer transmutation. Those of greatest accomplishment are least likely to show base outward manifestations, as these tie them to the falseness of the world. Immanent Mastery falls into precisely this trap. It is mysticism practiced with the impatience and materialism of a foreign devil. All other magic is foreign and thus unworthy of contemplation.

Why I Adventure

A wise man does not adventure. A good servant of Kralorela may selfl essly struggle to defeat enemies or gain wealth or information of benefi t to all of society. Troublemakers and

rebels use their abilities for personal aggrandisement, seeking status in the world of martial arts.

Orlanthi

I am of the Storm Tribe. I follow Orlanth, God of Kings. He is the storm who shelters me from foes, striking them down with electric bolts from a blackened sky. I follow Ernalda, Queen of the Earth. She fattens our cattle, strengthens our grain and makes our children grow up strong and bold.

We fi ght as Orlanth did, against sterile authority, against the forces of Chaos, against those who would steal our freedom.

We delight in the stories of his victories. Yet it is in the tales of his failures, his overreaching, that the true measure of a man is found. Anybody can win all the time. Greatness is tested when you act foolishly and ruin things, and then must make matters right.

of gods, including Yelm the Emperor. The distant gods made a range of perfect plants, animals and people. The Young Gods made copies of them and they populated the world we know.

The fi rst person like us was Grandfather Mortal. Orlanth did not make him, either. He did not exist yet.

Umath, Father of Orlanth: Into the peaceful but stifl ing world came Umath, the fi rst storm, his entrance announced by thunder and hailstorms. He went to pay respects to Emperor Yelm, who dismissed him like he was nothing, because he did not fi t the rules they had back then. So Umath seized divine territory for himself and jealous Yelm did not like this. When he invented the laws of hospitality, which we still use today, Yelm said his rules bound kings as well as men and were therefore out of order. Even when Umath saved the gods from destruction by the fi rst enemies, the Predark Demons, Yelm turned up his nose. Umath fought the enemies until he was tired and wounded, and fi nally fell.

Orlanth the Hero: Umath’s fi ve sons took over the fi ght for him. The youngest and cleverest of these was Orlanth. Other gods attacked them but they won, and Orlanth made them stronger by forging them into a ring, like the ring of elders that runs our tribes today.

Orlanth Challenges Yelm: Orlanth wanted his position recognised, as any hero would and so went to Yelm and challenged him to a series of contests. They danced, performed magic and played music. Each time Yelm did the old boring thing, as his rules required. Orlanth was fresh and innovative each time. He did a war-whoop, unveiled the magic of change and played on a new instrument. The old gods hated these new things and blindly awarded the challenge to Yelm each time.

The fi nal contest was of weapons and now Orlanth was angry.

So he accepted a sword from the crazy trickster, Eurmal, who can be useful but always in a troublesome way. This sword was a new thing called Death and when Orlanth struck Yelm with it, Yelm died. And then the sun went out.

The Storm Age: As the name suggests, this time was good for our people. The skies were always grey and stormy. Instead of imperious Yelm, the sky was lit by Elmal, a brave hero from the Emperor’s Fire Tribe who pledged unbounded loyalty to Orlanth. At this time Orlanth and the other heroic gods of his tribe had many big adventures. He slew a dragon, Aroka, ending a drought by pulling the rain god, Heler, from its gullet.

He tussled with gods of all kinds, from elf gods to dwarf gods to troll gods. And of course he won against all of them.

Most importantly, Orlanth rescued the beautiful Ernalda from the Emperor’s palace, where she had been imprisoned. Yes, this sounds like it takes place before Yelm was slain. Remember that Time did not exist then, allowing the stories to jumble

My Myths

Creation: Orlanth was not the fi rst god. There were many others before him. First came the goddess Glorantha. She birthed other gods, who are big and distant. These early, rigid gods made up the Celestial Court. Then came another generation

together. Do not worry about this. It means that each story tells the right lesson without getting sidetracked by unneeded detail. This is the difference between a myth and an ordinary tale you tell down at the ale-house.

Anyway, Ernalda tested Orlanth, giving him many tasks. He passed them all but most of all he had to learn her lesson. His lesson was: ‘Violence is always an option’. Hers was: ‘There is always another way’. Together these make up the two big rules of Orlanthi life. Peace and war exist in harmony and each is only used when it should be.

Armed with this knowledge, Orlanth learned to make justice.

And he and Ernalda made babies, starting with Barntar, god of farmers.

The Great Darkness: One awful day, the Storm Age gave way to the Age of Horror, the Great Darkness. Orlanth led the fi ght against the corrupt gods of Chaos, especially Wakboth the Devil. Even though he was never beaten, they slowly destroyed everything. They killed Ernalda and Barntar and the grain goddesses and the animal mothers. Everybody starved.

The world nearly died.

The Lightbringer’s Quest: This would not stand, so Orlanth entered the Underworld to bring Ernalda back. He accepted gifts from his surviving thanes, to help him on his quest.

Heler the rain god gave him weapons and armour. Elmal the Loyal Sun gave him a fi ery mirrored shield, to light his way.

Mastakos the speeding god gave him a chariot.

He journeyed for a long time. He met friends, like Lhankor Mhy the Knowing God and his friendly rival, Issaries, the silver-tongued Talking God. He fought many terrible foes along the way. More allies joined him: Chalana Arroy, the healer and Flesh Man, a mortal who had been driven mad by all the death he had seen. When they found Eurmal the trickster in trouble, Flesh Man begged Orlanth to save him, which he did, reluctantly. This turned the tide, because the trickster could lead them where they needed to go. Finally they met Ginna Jar, and if you know who she is, you are privy to an eternal mystery and should not tell the God Learners about it.

They journeyed across the world, where the sorcerers and immortals were, and then descended into the land of the dead. They wandered for a long time there, until unreliable Eurmal guided them to the Hall of the Dead, where Ernalda and Humakt and Barntar and all the others were. There was Yelm, also. And Orlanth saw what he had to do. He had to atone for what he had done and save the Bright Emperor, too.

They tested each other again and fi nally were reconciled.

Their new cooperation spawned the last rightful god ever to be born, Arachne Solara, the spider. She wove a net, which was the Great Compromise. It started Time and separated gods from mortals.

The Great Darkness was ended. Orlanth saved the world.

In document Glorantha the Second Age 2e (Page 35-38)