Cults of RuneQuest: The Lunar Way is a supplement for RuneQuest Roleplaying in Glorantha detailing 15 cults of the Lunar pantheon, plus its general philosophy. It also includes some background information about the Lunar Empire and the Red Moon, the rules for the Red Goddess magic, and the rules for illumination.
The struggle between the Lunar Empire (an expanding theocracy worshipping the red moon goddess) and the Orlanthi rebels (who worship the Lightbringers) is the most central conflict in the history of publications about Glorantha. The Lunar Empire conquered Dragon Pass, and since RuneQuest focuses on creating adventurers from Dragon Pass and its environs, the Lunar Empire is often the big enemy of Gloranthan player characters. For campaigns set in Sartar or Prax, the Lunars were the main villains for a long time as the occupation forces of the Empire made life difficult for Sartarites and Praxians. Now they are beginning to lose battles, but they are still the main villains. Cults of RuneQuest: The Lunar Way details the cults, and therefore the magic they use against PCs. Not only that, it also details their philosophy and outlook on life.
However, Glorantha is also a fantasy world with no completely good sides. The Lunar Empire is not necessarily evil, it's a matter of point of view. This means there is an interesting middle ground full of shades of grey that is rife with roleplaying opportunities and drama. Since cults are such an integral part of Glorantha and RuneQuest, detailing the cults of the Lunar Empire opens up the possibilities for both GMs and players to include this ambiguity and roleplaying opportunities in their campaigns. As an example, one of the pregens in the corebook is a Lunar soldier now allied with his former enemies. But you could also use this book to play an all-Lunar campaign, with Lunar Tarsh adventurers belonging to different Lunar cults. Below you can read my review, but first, a note on biases.
A note on biases: I've been playing RuneQuest since my teens, when I got started with the 3rd edition. For a long time, the only information about the Lunar gods was in Gods of Glorantha, which included almost no lore or myths, basically just the magic of two Lunar cults. Much later I got a copy of Cults of Prax for RQ2, which describes the Seven Mothers cult in long format. As for the rest of cults, the narrative RPG HeroWars had a thin supplement on Lunar cults, titled Lunar Handbook vol. II, but for cults in RuneQuest format one had to read fanzines like Tales of the Reaching Moon and fan write-ups on personal websites. Obviously, fans like me were eagerly expecting the current long-format treatment of 15 Lunar cults. Aside from that, Chaosium sent me a copy of the book so I could review it, but I have tried to assess it objectively, pointing out the good and the bad. Please tell me in a comment below if you feel it is not so. I'll deal with the look first, then the lore and the rules, and finally a summary of my opinion.
The look
The art in the Cults of RuneQuest series continues to be stunning. The cover by Loïc Muzy depicts the Red Goddess, armed with a sickle and a scythe, riding the horrifying Crimson Bat and surrounded by her armies, with a huge red moon on the background. The composition and the bright red color make it a vibrant, powerful image. As in The Lightbringers and Earth Goddesses, Muzy has also produced full-page images of all the deities whose cults are described in the book. I particularly like the composition in the Seven Mothers' piece, Hon-Eel's dynamism, Hwarin Dalthippa because it has classical vibes, and She Who Waits because she looks creepy, while Irrippi Ontor's is the piece I like the least because of the garish colors and funny hat.
As for the interior art, you can find another of Agathe Pitié's colorful full-page pieces depicting the Seven Steps of the Red Goddess, which looks like a fresco or a tapestry on a temple, as well as Katrin Dirim's pieces such as "The Ancient Moon Religion" and the individual pieces for the Seven Steps that look like images from Antiquity. Loïc Muzy has also done several pieces in a style reminiscent of pulp posters that make a really cool contrast with the rest. Ossi Hiekkala has done two full-page pieces in a realistic style that transport you to the scenes depicted, although I dislike the mounted Lunar officer because the exaggerated expression and the smallish horse makes it look like a parody. Finally, the layout is also well done and makes the book feel special thanks to the omnipresent phases of the moon and the bright red color that predominates. Still, I have found more blank space than in previous supplements.
The lore
The main focus of this 151-page-long book is the lore and rules for 15 cults of the Lunar pantheon: 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 lore outshines the rules part, because it is as fascinating and mysterious as the moon itself. In this case, the Red Moon of Glorantha:
The Red Goddess is the goddess of the Red Moon and the core of the Lunar Empire and the Lunar pantheon. She is a complex, special goddess for mainly three reasons. Firstly, she was a moon goddess in the mythical era who was cast down, killed and dispersed. End of the story? No, many centuries after the beginning of Time, she was resurrected and brought back by a group of mortals now called the Seven Mothers. She then quested to reassemble all her missing parts and she finally ascended back to the sky as the Red Moon. Since all the other gods of Glorantha remain locked in the God Time, the Red Goddess has more freedom, and thus she is a wonder to her worshipers, but also an anomaly according to the worshipers of the old gods. She is clearly not the typical Gloranthan divinity.
Secondly, most of the Lunar gods started out as mortals who attained immortality by helping the Red Goddess or furthering her goals. Therefore, I recommend reading The Lunar Way after you have read at least another book in the series. Reading first about any of the more usual pantheons of gods helps you see the contrast more clearly. One of these contrasts is that most of these gods do not have myths, only history. Another is the section about "Life after Death", where most point to the Red Goddess for that, and then she seems to provide only rebirth, but not any kind of afterlife like other major gods like Orlanth or Ernalda. In fact, the text implies that only when all the earth is under the rule of the theocratic Lunar Empire, will the Red Goddess be able to create a paradise, which goes to explain why the Empire is expansionist, and its core religion proselytizing. I had assumed that good Lunar worshipers go to a paradise on the Red Moon after death, but only one of the 15 cults promises that, and it is not the Red Goddess. This is another clue that the Lunar gods are not your typical Gloranthan gods.
Thirdly, and perhaps the biggest contrast, is Chaos. While most other gods hate the forces of Chaos, the Red Goddess accepts Chaos and claims it is part of the world. This is outrageous for the old gods, because Chaos is the force that almost destroyed Glorantha, and keeps trying to destroy it. However, unlike the other gods, the Red Goddess is not against it. She even bound and controlled the horrifying Crimson Bat, a huge Chaos demon, and so now the Lunar Army still uses it, as well as other Chaos monsters, against enemies. This is one of the biggest paradoxes of the Red Goddess, which supposedly has its roots in the fact she attained illumination during her quest to godhood.
Illumination is a deep change of perception and mystical experience that is explained under another Lunar cult, that of Nysalor/Gbaji. This is fascinating not only because it incorporates mysticism in the game, but also because it is a radical break from the predominating structure of the rest of pantheons, where initiates are taught to oppose Chaos and strictly follow the laws of the gods. Some aspects draw inspiration from the koans of Zen Buddhism, but its goal is quite different. Moreover, the powers illumination bestows can lead to huge misuses (a munchkin's dream come true), but it poses interesting roleplaying opportunities for players whose characters attain this state, as they will see the world differently from that point on. The most common change is that they no longer see Chaos as evil in itself, and this has repercussions. Of course, it is also great for villains.
Still, the book does not detail the basis for this revelation. It is only said that in the rites involved the person "dissolves into the All", but what does that exactly mean? You have to go back to the introduction of the book to find one more clue, but it is not enough. Neither does the text explain the reasoning behind the fact that illumination can grant other powers beyond that. The authors should have elaborated a bit more on each of these aspects in order to provide a better basis for roleplaying an illuminate, particularly because it is such a special and central part of the Lunar philosophy. I also miss some explanation about the means the Lunar Empire uses to ensure illuminates do not fall prey to the dark side of illumination. Instead, the book does quite the opposite and adds a paragraph towards the end exposing all the evils of the Lunar Empire as a product of illumination. It is so partial that it looks like a deliberate attempt at making the Lunar Empire be the "clearly evil" side, which sadly goes against the interesting ambiguity of Glorantha I mentioned earlier. It would have been better to include this only as the writings of an enemy of the Empire. That's how I have decided to take it.
And that is not the only detail in The Lunar Way stressing the evil side of the Lunar Empire. This might be a consequence of having all the cults together in a single book, but the huge "Chaos demon in the room" is the cult of the Crimson Bat. This monster's stats are described in the Bestiary, but here you get the organization around it (the cult is mostly as Rudy Kraft designed it originally for Cults of Terror). The souls the Bat devours are lost forever, it has to be fed at least a total of 1050 people a year or it goes back to hell for a long while, and the initiates of its cult are forced to hunt for more sacrifices lest they are next! So, it is a cult based on fear of and end worse than death, and its leaders are always anxiously looking for more people to sacrifice, so they can keep it under control. In spite of all this, the Lunar Army keeps it around the edges of the Empire because it is a great weapon to scare off invaders, crush rebellions, and win wars. Like an atomic bomb that needs people as fuel.
The cult of Yara Aranis is less horrifying. She is a demoness the Red Emperor created as a desperate attempt to get rid of an invading horde of horse-riding barbarians. Worshiped to keep those barbarians away, she is also the source of the magical Glowline. This red aura irradiating from Yara Aranis' temples makes the cyclic magic of the Lunar pantheon stable, thus eradicating a weakness. However, in order to keep it going the priests must sacrifice criminals and rebels, whose souls remain enslaved in the temples (!). Want more human sacrifice?
The cult of Hon-Eel the Artess worships this grand Lunar heroine who lived several centuries ago. She is the Lunar version of a benevolent Earth goddess, providing bountiful crops of maize to her worshipers, and thus securing their food and livelihood. However, her holy days involve human sacrifice, "either literally or figuratively". The former involves gladiatorial fights, and bloody duels, the latter only the "sacrifice" of a figure made of corn stalks. It looks straight out of a folk horror movie! Like the Earth Goddesses, it encompasses both life and death, acknowledging like Ernalda and Maran Gor, that both are part of a cycle.
Still, not all cults in The Lunar Way are horrifying or bloody. Most actually fulfill the needs of the regular inhabitants of the Lunar Empire, providing magic and support for their chosen way of life. For example:
The cult of the Seven Mothers, described in first place, is the "gateway cult" for newcomers and for the general public in the Lunar Empire. It is a group of deities worshiped together, already briefly described in the RuneQuest rulebook, but here expanded with more detail (most of it copied from 1979's Cults of Prax). They offer a range of powerful spells like Mindblast, Shield, and Regrow Limb, and each of them can also be worshiped individually in their own more specialized cults:
- The grim cult of Danfive Xaron focuses on redeeming criminals and monsters through self-mortification and harsh standards. If they ever leave the cult, they will be judged and sentenced for their past misdeeds. Its initiates are used for difficult or even suicidal missions.
- Deezola's cult is for nobles, poets and healers, but also for women in general, making it the most widely worshiped of the Seven Mothers. Still, she does not provide much more magic than what she already offers within the Seven Mothers' cult. Although the book does not say so, I guess many women in the Lunar Empire join this cult to escape from patriarchal societies like Dara Happa.
- Irrippi Ontor is the cult for scribes, sages and bureaucrats of the Lunar Empire. The cult has libraries and universities, and teaches some sorcery spells aligned with the Truth, Moon, and Fire runes. For example, the Moonfire spell makes crimson fire rain from the sky and is used by sorcerer units in the Lunar Army. Sorcerers acting as artillery units! I also loved finding out that he was perhaps the first instigator of the search for the missing moon goddess.
- Jakaleel the Witch is a cult for shamans within the Lunar Empire. She offers spells like Discorporation, control over Moon elementals, and even Invisibility through the associated cult of Annilla (which will be described fully in the Darkness cults book). It would have been cool to include some subcult or some powerful initiates, as the unofficial version in Tales of the Reaching Moon did.
- Yanafal Tarnils is a cult for soldiers and officers of the Lunar Army. It is almost identical to the cult of Humakt (described in the Lightbringers book), but with more emphasis on regiments than on grim lone heroes. It includes some information on the army units. For example, one officer in every regiment is in charge of casting spells for the rest of the soldiers. Still, it would have been great to get a bit more detail on how exactly do these regiments work, and how they were able to conquer kingdoms such as Sartar.
- Teelo Norri's cult works basically as a Fund for the Poor, providing free food and shelter to any comers. Providing a stark contrast against the bloody cults described earlier, it is another example of a cult described merely for worldbuilding reasons (similarly to the cult of Voria in the Earth Goddesses book), which is great, because not all cults are made for adventurers. This cult also brings to the fore how the Lunar pantheon is full of contrasts and paradoxes, as it balances out the awfulness of other cults.
The Seven Mothers act as the first stage in "The Lunar Way". Their initiates who want to delve deeper in the Lunar philosophy can then become initiates of a specific cult of their liking, progress in it and become priestesses or rune lords, and then study illumination thanks to the Nysalor cult, become illuminated, and go on to become initiates of the Red Goddess proper and learn her deepest secrets and magic. A further stage can be to join the cult of the Red Emperor, and perhaps even become one of the mysterious Egi. Although the book does not say it directly, you can piece this together by reading the details in each of these cults.
You can also read the history of the Lunar Empire by piecing together the history sections of several individual cults, starting with the Seven Mothers, continuing with the heroines Hon-Eel and Hwarin Dalthippa, and of course the Red Emperor.
The cult of The Red Emperor aka Moonson, the mortal leader of the Lunar Empire and highest priest of the Lunar (and Solar) religion is a fun but also mysterious bit of the book. He is worshiped as a demigod who supposedly reincarnates in a new body when the old one dies. I love the ambiguity that permeates this cult, in that you get many hints the text could be just Lunar propaganda hiding ugly truths. For example, the text mentions how the Red Emperor became the emperor of Dara Happa when Yelmgatha and him ruled side by side, only to mention some lines later that "there can only be one emperor". OK, but there were two at the beginning! Moreover, this section provides many insights into the history of the Lunar Empire through a list of its emperors. It is an amazing mix of the Pharaohs, Roman and Persian emperors and weird fantasy, and you get to know the lowest moments of the Empire, as well as the crazy feats and obsessions of a fair number of emperors: one was fond of games, the next was interested in the army, another one appointed many proxies to avoid some duties, and the current one likes "love and ecstasy", and his consorts are his granddaughters (yuck!).
You get the impression that the imperial court must be a total crazy mess, brimming with intrigue and backstabbing, even more so because you have to be an initiate of the Red Goddess to belong, and therefore, illuminated (!). So, on the one hand, the cult of the Red Emperor obviously encourages its initiates to have a high Loyalty Red Emperor passion, but on the other hand we know from the cult of Nysalor that some illuminates have the power to overcome their own passions... And the Red Emperor obviously knows that because of course he is also illuminated! All in all, it is fitting that the center of power of the most powerful empire on Glorantha is a nest of vipers... on magical steroids.
What I love the most of The Lunar Way book is the sheer creativity Greg Stafford poured into these cults and how they work together. Even if Yanafal Tarnils is almost like Humakt, Irrippi Ontor is very similar to Lhankor Mhy, and Etyries is almost like Issaries, the Lunar pantheon stands out for its uniqueness and complexity, and also because of its mysteriousness. The mysteries of these cults are not fully explained, which makes them fascinating but at times also a little bit frustrating. I get the impression Greg Stafford was hiding a great truth in plain sight which I cannot fully grasp, as by reading the hints of myths behind the Red Goddess you only see glimpses of the full picture. And I'm sure he did that on purpose to keep you guessing and spark your own creativity. To make the moon be mysterious and secretive. And he absolutely succeeded.
The main examples of this are the details of the prehistoric moon goddesses, the resurrection of the Red Goddess and the Seven Steps of the Goddess. Very little is explained of the moon goddess from the God Time who bore different names (and colors!) as it changed appearance many times, but at the same time the book claims the Seven Mothers reassembled the goddess from parts of these previous goddess or goddesses. Were they just one goddess or several different entities put together to create a new one? The ritual (a heroquest) the Seven Mothers performed to recreate the Red Goddess is also left unexplained. It is only said that Danfive Xaron's role was the most dangerous as "Bridge for the Seeker", but it is not explained what that entailed. Teelo Norri seems to have been sacrificed at some point in the ritual, as her illustration with a slit throat suggests. But that is it, there is nothing concrete, and even less so for the role the other "mothers" played. Finally, the Seven Steps of the Goddess is the heroquest the Red Goddess undertook to reach her apotheosis, but the book does not explain what those steps involved. Although this quest is illustrated in three different ways in the book, that is the only information about it. You have to imagine what every step involved. For example, in the last step, the Red Goddess bound the Crimson Bat with a spell. But how did she manage to do that? And why does she not provide a similar spell to his worshipers? It is left unexplained.
Speaking about Chaos, why is she considered a Chaos god? Unlike the rest of the Chaos deities, she is not trying to corrupt or destroy the world. Other questions with no answer: Why is the moon red? Why has the Red Goddess her own sort of magic? Why does the Crimson Bat produce a "Glowspot effect" (where Lunar magic works as in the Full Moon phase)? How does Yara Aranis exactly stabilize the Red Goddess cycles? Why is Irrippi Ontor called the "Brown Man"? What does it mean that most Lunar gods "had no life before time, save for that shared by all enlightened mystical beings"?
I understand if everything were fully explained, it would not be as sexy. And the Lunar pantheon is fascinating as hell, I love it because of that, and I hope I have provided ample evidence so far in this review. Nonetheless, some aspects should have been given more context. For example, between 2010 and 2012 Greg Stafford published online the diegetic tale The Lives of Sedenya that sheds more light on what the Seven Steps of the Goddess actually involved. It would have been great to include it in Cults of RuneQuest: The Lunar Way, to provide more context and be able to better roleplay a Lunar character. Neither does the book explain the Lunar principle "We Are All Us", that was so key in the lore of the supplements published for the HeroWars and HeroQuest games. It was a cool piece that summed up quite well the Lunar philosophy, but here it is only mentioned in passing (page 110).
The rules
As for the rules, the book includes all the details you need to create characters who are initiates of all these gods. Moreover, the spells these deities provide match their powers so their initiates can mimic the feats of their gods, which is the source of Rune magic. For example, Yara Aranis provides Terrify Horse so their initiates can rout armies of the horse nomads she was created to vanquish. Or Hwarin Dalthippa provides Create Bridge because she created magical bridges. In the same vein, it would have been cool for the Red Goddess to provide some spell to control Chaos creatures, since she bound a huge Chaos demon in her quest.
The rules for illumination were originally published in 1981 in the supplement for RQ2 Lords of Terror and their current iteration in The Lunar Way is basically the same with some tweaks. The small changes improve those rules and mash them well with the runes in RuneQuest. For example, most illuminates can embrace runic opposites, and so their opposed runes (such as Harmony and Disorder) do not need to add up to 100%, meaning they can now go beyond 100%! Moreover, Jeff Richard has included more ways to become illuminated, like being hit by some spells such as Mindblast. This could mean that by fighting against Lunar warriors and priestesses, your Orlanthi heroes now risk attaining illumination involuntarily, but this is ultimately left to the GM, as later on the text suggests that, for that to happen, the individual must be unconsciously open to the mystical inspiration of Illumination. I guess if your character has some % in the Moon rune you might be more susceptible, but at any rate, I would make sure the player is OK with that change to their PC before imposing it in any way. Finally, it is also open to the GM to decide exactly what powers an illuminate gets. This makes it harder for a munchkin-oriented player to pursue illumination for his PC only to get the power "Ignore cult restrictions". Because, just imagine a Humakti who can ignore his geasa! That is a good tweak. Still, in my games I will make your % in the Illumination skill determine what powers you get. So, for example, you get the most basic ones just by becoming illuminated, but you can get the next one when you reach, say, 50%, a new one when you get 75%, and so on. This way you have an even greater motivation to augment the skill.
As for the rules of the unique magic of the Red Goddess, they are the same as presented in Gods of Glorantha (1985). A mash-up between spirit magic and the 4 sorcery skills, it can produce fearsome effects. But, since becoming an initiate of the Red Goddess takes a lot of dedication (you need to be an illuminated rune lord or priest of another Lunar cult), this magic is only accessible to veteran devotees, who then need to spend many hours of study to master 4 new skills. I guess this means only few people can confidently use this magic (and very few PCs). Also, since spirit spells reduce your free-INT, but you need free-INT to cast powerful spells, I imagine people who use this kind of magic tend to forget most of the spirit magic they know and focus on just one or two spirit magic spells they manipulate to great effect, such as with the destructive Meteor Swarm spell. I wish the text would have confirmed my guesses with some examples on how these Lunar mages work in practice.
Other rules details also leave you guessing. For example, the Red Goddess is associated with the Chaos rune, but why do their initiates automatically get that rune at 20% even if they haven't been tainted by Chaos or used any Chaos magic before? (maybe the book of Chaos cults will clear that up). Another example: the Red Goddess provides the spell Cyclic Characteristic making one characteristic increase or decrease according to the Lunar phase. It looks incredibly useful for Lunar sorcerers to augment their intelligence a lot during the day of the Full Moon. However, since the Glowline makes Lunar magic constantly subject to the Half Moon phase, this spell is useless when cast within the Glowline (which covers all the Lunar Empire), as during that phase the characteristic remains unaffected. Therefore, for the spell to be effective, the sorcerer needs to cast it and go outside the Glowline during the Full Moon day to be able to enjoy its advantage, so it does not look that useful. If this is working as intended, the book should have confirmed it with a small paragraph explaining how Lunar initiates use it.
The effect of the Lunar cycles on Lunar magic is a great concept that matches the lore with the rules, as it mimics the phases of the moon, themselves a product of the steps of the Red Goddess to godhood. Greg Stafford originally created this for his seminal wargame White Bear and Red Moon. However, the implementation in RuneQuest terms could be improved, as getting only 15 extra minutes of Rune spell duration in the Full Moon days looks too small an advantage when the common Rune spell Extension already does that. Instead, getting the effect of one extra Rune point for free would have been more fitting, as it would be more symmetrically opposed to having only 1-point spells available during the Black Moon phase. The same goes for the effect on Lunar sorcery spells. As written, sorcerers can still cast all sorts of Lunar sorcery spells during the Black Moon phase; all they need is more sources of magic points. It would have mirrored better the path of the Red Goddess to have sorcery spells be less powerful during the Black Moon (f.ex. by limiting their strength) and more powerful during the Full Moon (by increasing their strength or providing free-INT points for free).
The magic effects of the Lunar cycle are presented in a nicely laid out Lunar Timetable (although this information is also in the rulebook), but this table, together with the paragraph about the Glowline, is repeated 8 times in the book. While it is handy to have it always close at hand so you don't need to refer to another page in the book (or the rulebook), it is still a waste of space. There is more repetition of text in the Seven Mothers cult, where you get brief paragraphs about "Other Lunar Cults". These are totally unnecessary in a book where all these cults get their own full description. Besides, the book already includes brief descriptions of the whole Lunar pantheon in an overview right after the introduction (like a focused Prosopaedia). All this repetition would not have hurt at all had the book provided richer explanations and answers to the all the questions I posed earlier, but that is not the case. You could argue some of this answers can be found in the articles by Jeff Richard compiled in the Well of Daliath website, but they should have been included in the book.
Summing up
Compared to the other major gods, such as the Storm God, the Earth Goddess, or the Sun God, the Moon goddess is the most original. The Lunar Way presents a unique, fascinating pantheon of gods, with many paradoxes and mysteries. Few of these mysteries are fully explained in this book, so it raises a lot of questions, which is part of the charm. On the one hand, some of these questions can be answered by playing RuneQuest, and having the GM (and the players) come up with explanations, which fosters creativity and imagination. On the other hand, it can also be frustrating if you end up not grasping some concepts of the Lunar philosophy, like illumination, or the source of the Red Goddess' magic. Maybe there was not enough space in the book for that, but if that is the case, it cannot be denied that the space the unnecessary repetition of some material takes, like the Lunar Timetable and the brief descriptions of the Lunar gods, could have been better used to round off the contents.
Despite that, the book is a must for playing characters from the Lunar Empire or lunarized kingdoms, be it player characters or NPCs. It provides many options for creating varied and interesting characters, and it will also satisfy readers looking for some more information about the Lunar Empire. It is also a book you just need to better understand the Lunar Empire and its motivations, which are key for one of the most central conflicts in Dragon Pass. For long-time fans of Glorantha and RuneQuest, the best bits are the cults that had so far never been described in RQ terms such as Hon-Eel or Hwarin Dalthippa, together with powerful Lunar magic such as the Moonfire and Meteor Swarm spells. However, precisely these long-time fans may miss some good ideas from earlier editions, such as the philosophy behind the the "We Are All Us" motto. As for newcomers, the whole book is a gem, but I have doubts on the understandability of some concepts such as illumination, the Cyclic Characteristic spell or the viability of playing a Danfive Xaron character, which should have been better explained. In other words:
The bright side of The Lunar Way:
- Plenty of Lunar cults for playing varied Lunar PCs or creating adversaries.
- Lots of interesting details about the Lunar Empire, and its history.
- The ambiguity of the Lunar pantheon, with its many lights and terrible shadows.
- Rules for the Red Goddess magic and illumination.
- Gorgeous art by exceptional artists.
- Many mysteries are left unexplained, so you can develop them as it best suits your campaign.
- Long-time fans now have all these cults in just one book, including some so far never published in RQ terms.
The dark side of The Lunar Way:
- It makes you wish for a supplement about the Lunar Empire, with its satrapies and provinces, and examples of Lunar characters (some fan publications in the Jonstown Compendium may ease the wait, like Citizens of the Empire, Life of Moonson, or A Rough Guide to Glamour).
- The mystical experience of illumination should be better explained.
- Many mysteries are left unexplained, so at times it can be frustrating.
- Some information, like the effects of the Lunar phases, is repeated unnecessarily.
- Long-time fans might find some unwanted changes or omissions.
