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Kingdom of Heroes

HeroQuestHeroQuest

Written By Greg Stafford and Jeff Richard

With: Simon Bray, Matthew Cole, Ian Cooper, David Dunham, Martin Hawley, Rick Meints, Neil Robinson, David Scott, Lawrence Whitaker, and many others.

Based on material by Greg Stafford, Sandy Petersen, Ken Rolston, Nick Brooke, David Hall, Ian Cooper, Robin D. Laws, Michael O’Brien, Roderick Robertson, Simon Bray,

Charles Corrigan, Stewart Stansfield, John Hughes and many others.

Design & Layout by Rick MeintsCover Art by Simon Bray

Illustrations by Dan Barker, Bernard Bittler, Simon Bray, Damon Brown, Frederic Chernier, William Church, Jed Dougherty, Stephano Gaudiano, Alejandro Fernandez Giraldo, Manoel Magalhães, Juha Makkonen, Regis Moulin,

Michael O’Connor, Mike Raabe, Darran Sims, Stewart Stansfield, and Greg Stafford.

Cartography by Colin Driver, Gillian Pearce, Phil Anderson, Nick Brooke, and Wesley Quadros

Art Direction by Simon BrayAssistant Art Direction by Claudia Loroff

Project Management by Jeff RichardCopy Editing by Matthew Cole and Martin Hawley

Playtesters included Pam Carlson, Ray Chopping, David Dunham, Christian Einsporn, Sven Grottke, Rob Helm, Claudia Loroff,

Neil McRea, Robin Mitra, Michael O’Connor, Martin Oehler, Dave Pearton, Christine Reich, Neil Robinson, Dana Schack, Leticia Wilke, and Marc Wilke.

Special thanks to David Hall and his Reaching Moon Megacorp crew, the Seattle Farmers Collective, and The Monday Nighters.

Copyright © 2009 Moon Design LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this work by any means without written permission from the publisher, except short excerpts for the purpose of reviews or game play, is expressly

prohibited. Glorantha and HeroQuest are trademarks of Issaries Inc and are used with permission.

Publication ISS 2002. First Edition - November 2009. ISBN# 978-0-9777853-2-2

Would you like to know more about Glorantha? See the extensive website at www.Glorantha.com

Credits

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Table of ContentsIntroduction 5Book One: Making Your Orlanthi Character and Clan 11

Your Rune Affinities and Magic 22Examples of Characters 27Your Daily Life 29Making Your Clan 36

Book Two: Magic and Religion 67Rune Magic 68Charms, Spells, and Natural Magic 74The Orlanthi Religion 76Orlanthi Mythology 93Cults of Sartar 105The Seven Lightbringers 117The Cult of Orlanth 121The Cult of Ernalda 135The Cult of Chalana Arroy 145The Cult of Elmal 150The Cult of Issaries 155The Cult of Lhankor Mhy 160The Cult of Humakt 167The Cult of Urox the Storm Bull 173The Cult of Yinkin 179Heroquests 183Running a Heroquest 188

Book Three: The Orlanthi Book 205Report on the Orlanthi 206A History of the Kingdom of Sartar 219The Tribes of Sartar 228Sartarite Places of Interest 236The City of Boldhome 241Traveling Through Sartar 246Neighbors and Other Enemies 252The Lunar Occupation and Rebellion 266The Colymar Tribe 273

Book Four: The Colymar Campaign 287Starbrow’s Rebellion: A Flashback 293The Feast of Beasts 294The Red Hands of Hofstaring 300

Interlude: Consequences 313The Second Task: The Howling Tower 315The Greydog Feud 326Descent into the Underworld 334The Kingdom of the Dead 344The Pit of Hell 349The Return 354

Appendix 357Index 365

Maps and IllustrationsLocation of Sartar and Kethaela 5Dragon Pass and the Holy Country 8Character Sheets 23Example of Clan 60Clan Sheets 61Orlanthi Tattoos 67Common Orlanthi Runes 69Major Cult Centers for the Sartarites 117House of Sartar 222Tribes of Sartar 232The Kingdom of Sartar 237Jonstown 238Swenstown 240Wilmskirk 240View of Boldhome and its Vicinity 241Boldhome 244Geo’s Inns 249Grazelands 258Central Tarsh 269Kerofin and the Dragonwilds 271Colymar History 281Clans of the Colymar 283Colymar Lands 285Guide to Cover Illustration 286Old Man Village 291Nymie Vale and the Starfire Ridges 292Upland Marsh 321Greydog Lands 329The Underworld 343

The pen of Lhankor Mhy wrote this book, and his blessing lies upon it and all who use it properly.

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HeroQuestHeroQuestForewordMy tribe, my clan, my brothers and sisters[Members gather, standing together, at the Crossline. The chief and the ring stand before them. Everyone is instructed to pick up a handful of dirt. Some of that dirt has been used in the making of this book.]

Here we are now, standing upon the edge of a new time for us and all our descendants, preparing for a new realm. What you are holding is the ground of the world we have sought, looked for, travelled for so long to reach–here it is. Here is Sartar.

This journey has been long. Thirty four years ago we began with old maps and rumors; all based on the maps and rumors of old times, and on the desires of the first brave souls who sent themselves into danger to discover what lay behind that map. Have you seen the results of that first foray? That map of ours, so difficult that everyone says it was hexed. So we sought more.

After that it was Rurik the Restless the plowed the way. Golden soldier he was, and an unlucky adventurer whose many great deeds are mocked by his own failures (surely the most humiliating being death by trollkin, twice.) But he, great explorer that he was, did not come here to the center of the world. No, he lived and adventured out there, in the wastelands, while this sacred land was ignored like some sideline.

But Sartar is no sideline! This is the center of the world, the center of adventure, the center of life and discovery that we all seek. Here it is now in your hands, like a book of knowledge with a thousand clues to the future.

This is what we have been waiting for—the knowledge both shallow and deep that will bring the world to life. Here is Sartar. Here are the fruits of years of labor, the feast presented by a generation of creators and co-creators delving into the unknown to bring the facts forth that will allow us to adventure, to quest, to seek the challenges and opportunities of danger and luck. Here in your hands, you have it now: the center of the world, the core of Glorantha, the seeds of epic and legend and myth. Sartar, the Kingdom of Heroes.

Enter it! Use it! Delve from this gloriously detailed basis into the deeper realms of imagination and experience. Turn its mysteries into fact. Scrutinize its facts and flaws. Enjoy it all. Have fun. Play.

--Greg Stafford, October 24, 2009

ForewordWelcome to Sartar, the Kingdom of Heroes! Contained within this mighty tome is everything you need to play a campaign set at Ground Zero of Greg Stafford’s Glorantha. For thirty years, we’ve been promising this book. King of Sartar tantalized us with the possibilities that Thunder Rebels didn’t quite deliver. Ladies and gentlemen, this book delivers the goods!

For those who don’t know it well, Glorantha is the richest fantasy roleplaying setting ever created. If Middle Earth is the fantasy setting constructed by a linguist, Glorantha is the fantasy setting constructed by mythologist. In Glorantha, men interact with gods and myth, and we reconnect with something forgotten in our post-modern world. It is an unbelievably rich setting, beautiful and complex.

For those of us lucky enough to have known Glorantha for years, Sartar is the very heart of his Glorantha. We all know the tales of the tragic Prince Salinarg and his successor, the pathetic Prince Temertain. We told tales of Starbrow’s Rebellion and the heroic deeds of Queen Kallyr Starbrow and King Hofstaring Treeleaper. Who hasn’t haggled with Gringle Goodsale or sought information from that wily old sage Minaryth Purple. We all knew that Sartar suffered under the Lunar Empire and equally that one day Argrath the Liberator would free Sartar and start the Hero Wars.

I was first introduced to the Greg’s World of Glorantha in 1981 by my good friend Michael Gibson. “Check this out; you can play a were-pig!” Many years of fun adventures in Pavis and Prax were had, but Sartar – the homeland of our characters – was always just out of reach. Years later, I rediscovered Sartar after spending a summer in old cyclopean hill forts in mainland Greece and Crete. I realized that those youthful adventures were infused with stories from the Illiad and Egil’s Saga, from the Upanishads and the Epic of Gilgamesh. And I rediscovered the depth and the charm of Greg’s Gloranthan stories.

With new material, unpublished material, updated old material, and a smattering of old tales to keep it rooted in classic Glorantha, Sartar is written to be equally accessible to old Gloranthaphiles (who want new insights into Glorantha) and the next generation of gamers (who want fun and exciting games in a cool and interesting setting). Run with it. Make your own tales, your own heroes, and your own Argrath. Keep the eternal Flame of Sartar ablaze!

-- Jeff Richard, November 9, 2009

From the RQ 2nd Edition Rulebook ('79)The Sartar Campaign: Maps, personalities, histories, local cults and other material about the storm Kingdom of Sartar. Includes tribal specifics, extensive Road Encounters section, and a full explanation of the Orlanth cult. Based on the campaign led by Greg Stafford.

From the publisher:We pretty much made this all happen a mere 30 years later! We regret that the extensive "Road Encounters" section got cut in our scramble to meet the printer deadline. We'll see what we can do to get it into the Sartar Companion due out next year...

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Using this BookThe Sartar Book, together with the 2nd Edition HeroQuest rules, provide a Narrator and Players with everything they need to play a HeroQuest game set in the Kingdom of Sartar in the magical world of Glorantha. A Narrator should read the entire book to really understand the people and gods of Sartar, but this chapter provides enough information to get a basic grasp of the setting.

The rest of this book is divided into four sections each called a “Book”. These sections will describe how to make characters and clans, how Orlanthi magic and religion work, and copious detail about the culture and history of the Sartarites. A campaign arc set in the Kingdom of Sartar is the final section of the book.

Introduction to GloranthaGlorantha is a world where everything is magical and myth is truth. At first, it seems much like our own world. The sun rises each morning in the east and sets each evening in the west. There are mountains and valleys, oceans and deserts. There is weather which changes season to season. People are born; work in the fields, wage wars, raise families and die, just as they do in our world.

Many human civilizations exist, functioning at levels roughly equivalent to our Neolithic to Bronze Age cultures. However, Glorantha is not our world and anachronisms exist; for example, the “Bronze Age” Orlanthi know how to make bronze chain mail even though in our world such technology only appeared in the Iron Age.

This Book is from a

Gloranthan Point of View!

Most of the Sartar Book consists of Gloranthan

documents compiled together. These documents

are written from a Gloranthan perspective,

usually Sartarite, and do not strive to be objective

or impartial; instead they strive to detail Glorantha

as the Sartarites understand it or as others understand the Sartarites.

Future source books will provide a different

or even contradictory perspective on the peoples, gods and events described

here. As always, Your Glorantha Will Vary!

Your Glorantha Will Vary!

This book is a starting point, not the ending point.

This is Your Glorantha. Whether you are a player

or a narrator, if you need a solution, YOUR answer is the right one.

Introduction

Location of Dragon Pass and Kethaela

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HeroQuestHeroQuestAnd yet, when examined carefully, Glorantha is

very different from our own world. Glorantha is a magical world, not a planet floating in space. Magical Runes define it, not the laws of Physics. The world of men is a flat, square mass of earth floating in a limitless sea of water. Two major continents, a northern continent called Genertela and a southern continent called Pamaltela, and a myriad of islands rise from this mass above the surface of the sea; in the center, a devouring whirlpool, Magasta’s Pool, draws the world’s waters down into the Underworld.

To understand Glorantha you must understand its magical nature. In Glorantha, the sun rises from the east each morning, and then passes over the air, and across the sky to set each evening in the west. It then travels beneath the seas and earth through the Underworld, and finally again up to the eastern lands of the dawn. In Glorantha, the sun is a living god, sometimes called Yelm or sometimes Elmal (which are two very different gods), not a star.

Above the dome of the sky is a realm of light and purity. At night the stars show where the magical denizens of the sky world peep through to guard their followers below. Similarly, the underworld is populated by immortal creatures, as well as by evil dreams and by the souls of the dead and unborn. Many other deities and spirits besides Yelm and Elmal exist, some more powerful, and all have the power to directly affect the regions where humanity lives.

Rulers and leaders in Glorantha use magical means rather than technological to achieve their ends and even the most humble persons may encounter magical manifestations.

Men are a very young species in Glorantha and gained sway only recently, in the Second Age (about 1000 years ago). Before this, they were only one species among many. The majority of sentient beings

of Glorantha are humans, but many other creatures and entities of ancient origin still exist and interact with humanity on occasion. The sentient non-humans of Glorantha are known collectively as the Elder Races. The most important Elder Races are the dragonewts, dwarfs, elves, merfolk, and trolls.

Men are divided into many nations and tribes. Most of mankind is still at a Neolithic or Bronze Age stage of civilization. Communication and trade between distant regions are rare in most of Glorantha and people rarely travel beyond their homeland. The mightiest empire of Men is the awesome and decadent Lunar Empire.

The Elder Races are at various stages of development. Most agree that the trolls are at a lower stage of civilization, and place the dragonewts and dwarfs at the top (assuming that anyone can evaluate the dragonewts’ ancient, almost inexplicable civilization).

Magic and ReligionGlorantha’s central theme is the relationship between man and the gods, between the mythical and mundane worlds. Glorantha religion and magic are basic to existence, acknowledged by everyone. The gods are accepted, encountered, and exert powerful influence on the world.

The presence of magic in Glorantha means that daily life is different in many ways from that which we experience. Life centers around one’s cult and religion. Magic is a source of both life and protection, and yet is also a source of conflict and even terror.

Mythical BackgroundGlorantha was created out of the Primal Void of Chaos by the Old Gods of the Celestial Court. At first, there was no history, for the initial creation formed the period of magic and timeless simultaneity called the God Time. The birth into this world of Umath, the Primal Air, shattered the period of peace with crowding, confusion and fear. This escalated into the Gods War, resulting in the killing of Yelm by Umath’s son Orlanth.

Orlanth’s success in bringing freedom and change led to two world-changing events: his marriage with the Great Goddess Ernalda and his acclamation as King of the Gods. However, three evil gods let Chaos loose on the world. The gods and most of the world were killed during the Great Darkness. Total Destruction seemed near.

But Glorantha was not destroyed. Spurred on by Hope and Chance, Orlanth led the Seven Lightbringers through the Chaos-ridden Cosmos and liberated the life giving gods. The sun leapt to his

A Bronze Age WorldGlorantha is largely a Bronze Age world. Armor and weapons are not the shiny steel of our Middle Ages but the reddish-orange of bronze. Bronze is the most commonly used metal; many people do not even have access to bronze, making use of substitutes such as stone and bone. Iron is exceedingly rare, a secret of the dwarfs that was stolen by a few human cults.

Existence is dangerous in Glorantha. Violence and war is a common means of settling disputes. Mankind must deal with frequent natural and chaotic disasters, constant wars of conquest and religion, quarrels with the Elder Races, feuds with neighbors, and raids by foreign tribes. Gods, demons, and spirits are omnipresent, interacting with men for good or ill.

It is impossible to overstate the traditionalism of most Gloranthan societies. New ideas and innovations are fiercely resisted. Human technology is simple, most people are illiterate, and priests are amongst the most important people in any Gloranthan society. The world beyond the next hill or local market-town is a mystery to most Gloranthans; many places in Glorantha have never been tread upon by the feet of men!

/ The Red Moon /The Red Moon first appeared in the sky some four centuries ago. The moon hangs motionless and ominous, the crimson light endlessly sweeping her domain as she turns slowly counter-clockwise; the phases of the moon cycle once each week. Lunar magic is most powerful on those days the Full Red Moon is visible, and weakest when the Dark Black Moon is present.

The Red Moon is the body of Shepelkirt, the Red Goddess, the ruling goddess of the Lunar Empire. The Orlanthi believe She is Chaos-Returned and Her ascent portends a new Gods War that could destroy Glorantha.

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HeroQuestHeroQuestrightful place in the sky and the Great Darkness was banished. To keep Chaos from coming to their realm again, the gods swore great oaths and compacts resulting in the Great Compromise, constraining their ability to intercede in the mundane world. Men call this Time. By altering the world, the gods saved it, and History began.

Dragon PassThe setting for this book is an area called Dragon Pass, probably the most important place in Glorantha. Dragon Pass is the crossroads of the northern continent of Genertela and is the only passage for large armies through the Rockwood Mountains, which extend unbroken for more than a thousand miles to the west and another thousand miles to the east. This alone makes Dragon Pass an extremely strategic location.

More important is the fact that Dragon Pass is an extremely magical region. It is the ancestral home of the dragons and center of the world for many Gloranthan myths. The greatest mountain in Glorantha, Kero Fin – the home of the gods - rises an impossible 40,000 feet and can be seen for hundreds of miles. Here the storm god Orlanth was born and it is the homeland of the culture bearing his name: the Orlanthi. However, a greater proportion of the region’s population is non-human than almost any other area in Glorantha.

Dragon Pass contains many forests, hills, mountains and other easily defended terrain. Its warlike population and many magical entities make it a daunting region for any one political entity to conquer and for more than a century, two Orlanthi kingdoms divided Dragon Pass: Tarsh in the north and Sartar in the south.

North of Dragon Pass, in the region called Peloria, arose the Red Moon Goddess. In her were balanced Stagnation and Change, Life and Death, Love and Apathy, and all the dichotomies of the Universe, including Chaos. Her arrival violated the Great Compromise and changed the face of Glorantha. After living in Glorantha a short time, the Red Moon Goddess ascended to the heavens where she remains, viewing the Empire which she left to her family below. The immortal Red Emperor of the Lunar Empire is her son and her pride.

The Lunar Empire expanded greatly from its founding four centuries ago. When defeated it rebounded stronger than ever. It went north to the icy wastes, east to the bounds of the horse barbarians, and west until halted by powerful sorcery. But in the south, the Empire continued to grow and grow.

When the Lunar Empire reached Dragon Pass they found it ruled by the kingdoms of Tarsh and Sartar. After many years of resistance, those kingdoms fell one-by-one to the growing power of the Lunar Empire. The Red Moon sent one of her daughters to seduce and conquer the Tarshites. The kingdom of Sartar, ruled by a wise dynasty cautious to maintain the great and magical laws which gave it its strength, resisted far longer. But despite many defeats at the hands of House of Sartar, the Red Emperor eventually marched into the Sartar capitol of Boldhome. He defiled the Temple of Orlanth and ravaged the city. That was in 1602 ST, sixteen years ago. It is now the year 1618 ST.

Despite the Lunar Conquest, great events, magical and religious, are occurring in Dragon Pass. Many prophets and scholars predict that the Hero Wars that threaten to again plunge Glorantha into Darkness will begin in Dragon Pass.

What is Heroquesting?

Heroquesting is the most important source of powerful magic in

Glorantha and the means by which individuals

can interact directly with mythology acquiring

magical powers for the benefit of themselves and

their community. The participants leave the

mundane world of men and enter the realm of

legend and myth to interact with heroes and god.

A noble Sartarite couple display their wealth and power. By his equipment, the husband is a thane or even a chieftain or king. His wife’s dress is of a style traditionally popular

amongst wealthier women.

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