Introduction

What is RuneQuest?

RuneQuest is a game of fantasy roleplaying. In it, you participate with a group of people in the creation and elaboration of a story set in a unique magical world. One member of the group acts as gamemaster, who moderates the game. He or she creates and directs the world in which play occurs, often with the assistance of published scenarios or background material, and plays the role of characters or creatures the other players encounter in the course of play. The other players take on the role of one or more adventurers who live in the world.

The game is the interaction of the gamemaster and the other players. Together, they create a story. The events of the game serve to shape and form the story being told. The RuneQuest rules are the common thread that bring the players and gamemaster together. They provide mechanisms for resolving the situations that arise in the course of the game and add a random element to the game, which brings an element of risk to the most well thought out action or a chance for success in the most hopeless situation.

The world of Glorantha has been associated with RuneQuest since the game's inception. The world, its magic, religions, mythology, people, and places are described in detail within these rules. The world has provided the inspiration, mystery, magic and background for thousands of campaigns. Whether the world through which your adventurers roam is Glorantha, or one of the gamemaster's own creation, the background material provided here should provide a wealth of ideas and examples to draw upon.

What is Glorantha?

Glorantha is the most thoroughly explored game world in print available today. Its exploration was begun in 1966 by Greg Stafford, who has continued to compile information about the world. In 1976, the boardgame, White Bear & Red Moon, first appeared. That game, considerably revised, is still available from Avalon Hill under the title Dragon Pass. In 1978, RuneQuest appeared, and from 1978 until the present, dozens of adventures and source books set in or concerning Glorantha have been published, much to the delight of thousands of fans.

Glorantha is a complete universe. It is self-contained, and from its myths to its molecules it must be taken on its own terms. None of the cultures of Earth exist on Glorantha, though there certainly are analogs of Earthly cultures and peoples. Many creatures rightfully rooted in other worlds have no representatives here. The information that follows should provide you with the information you need to run or play in a Gloranthan campaign, although any campaign will almost certainly vary at least in small ways from the published materials. Sheer creativity alters details, if nothing else.

The World of Glorantha

The world of Glorantha is a magical one. The lands of Glorantha float upon Sramak's River, which flows into the Primal Sea of mythology. The Sky Dome, tilted off its center since before time began, rotates above the earth and sea. The theists of the northern continent call their land Genertela, the body of the dead earth god Genert. The center of the night sky is Pole Star, the god who is the only stable point in the Sky Dome. Between the earth and sky lies the turbulent realm of the storm gods, who, led by Orlanth, King of the Storm Gods, struggle with the Red Moon, which floats serenely above the lands of the Lunar Empire, for control of the Middle Air.

The sun god, Yelm, rises from the east each morning, then passes across the sky to set each evening in the west. While he is in the sky, the Sky Dome shines bright blue. Of the other heavenly bodies, only the Red Moon is clearly visible during the day. Through the night, Yelm travels beneath the seas and earth through the underworld, and finally again up to the eastern lands of the dawn. The goddess of night, Xentha, rules over the surface world in Yelm's absence. At night, the slow revolution of the Sky Dome can be seen, as the darkness is broken by thousands of stars, which mark the points that the magical denizens of the sky world peer through to guard their followers below. The Red Moon can be clearly seen at night, its face bright red, black, or both, depending on the location of the viewer and the day of the week. A blood red planet, Tolat, which crosses the night sky every two weeks, and a slower pale planet, Wagon, can almost always be seen. A bright constellation of nine stars, Lorian, is almost always visible, as is Orlanth's Ring, a constellation of seven orange stars and one bright green star, the Dragon's Head, which spirals across the Sky Dome.

The Inner World

The Inner World of Glorantha is the world of men. It is shaped like a huge lozenge floating upon an unlimited sea. Waters wash parts of the lands. Most humans live near the center of this lozenge, and are content to live only in the mundane world, leaving it to their priests, sorcerers or shamans to protect them from the magical world. But the influence of the magical world is always there. The underworld is populated by immortal creatures, as well as by evil dreams and by the souls of the dead and unborn. The world is filled with magical entities who are personifications of things, who represent life essences, or who are spiritual truths. Many of these beings are alive in every sense, but many are not. Some live primarily in the spirit plane, the world of the spirits, others primarily on the god plane, the land of myth and the home of the gods. Shamans regularly contact and enter the spirit plane and priests regularly contact the god plane, bringing the mundane and magical worlds together.

Genertela

The northern continent of Glorantha, called Genertela, land of the dead earth god Genert, is the land most heavily inhabited by humans. Here the elder races—the dragonewts, elves, dwarfs, and trolls have been reduced to powerful pockets of resistance surrounding ancient holy places. A variety of human cultures dominate the better lands. The land was badly damaged in the Greater Darkness, when chaos swept the land and its ruling god, Genert, was destroyed by it. The Wastes astride the continent and the land's loss of fertility testify to the physical losses suffered. The magical damage was comparable. Genert embodied some powers of unity and harmony never yet recovered by the residents of the land.

The Runes

Runes are the building blocks of Glorantha. They are symbols, archetypes, embodiments, and actual matter or energy of the mundane world. Runes originated with the very creation of Glorantha. Their precise origin is unknown, and believers in particular runes always insist that theirs was firstmade. Tales link the gods of the Celestial Court with the runes, each god embodying a rune. Their interactions led to the births of the Young Gods; these newer deities are often associated with one or more parental runes as a result.

Each rune has myths associated with it. Some have elaborate cycles woven around their stories. All begin with a member of the Celestial Court who owned the rune, and end with the current Greater God who owns it. In these stories the runes are sometimes treated as things, or beings, or abstract powers, or even all three. The powers of the Great Runes are universally acknowledged. The deities who own those runes cannot be changed without altering the very fabric of the universe. Such alteration is against the Cosmic Compromise which begot Time, and cannot occur. There are lesser runes, not shown here, and many signs and symbols as well.

One of the goals of many Gloranthan adventurers is to acquire mastery of a rune, the first step along the path to becoming a hero. Becoming a master of a form of magic, that is, becoming a shaman, priest or magus, helps one gain mastery of the Magic Rune. Becoming a master of skills or men helps one gain mastery of the Mastery Rune. Along the shaman's path lies mastery of the Spirit Rune, among others. Along the sorcerer's path lies mastery of the Law Rune, and through the manipulations of sorcery, the mastery of other runes. Along the myriad paths of the cults lies the mastery of the runes belonging to their gods.