Cults of RuneQuest: The Gods of Fire and Sky is a supplement for RuneQuest Roleplaying in Glorantha by Greg Stafford and Jeff Richard (with other authors) detailing 14 cults of the main Gloranthan deities of sky, light, heat, and fire. It also describes the stars and constellations of the world of Glorantha, as well as providing some snippets of information on two of the main cultures that worship the solar pantheon.
As the rest of the Cults of RuneQuest books, The Gods of Fire and Sky is both as a source of lore about the organization and cultural significance of these cults and the myths of the deities, and as a source for creating RuneQuest player and non-player characters who belong to these cults and wield the powers of these deities. Below you can read my review, where I go over the different cults and other information.
The cult write-ups
This 154-page-long book includes write-ups of the following 13 cults: Yelm, Dayzatar, Dendara, Entekos, Gorgorma, Lodril, Lokarnos, The Lowfires (Mahome, Gustbran, Oakfed), Ourania, Polaris, Shargash, Yelmalio, and Yelorna.
Roughly speaking, since the RuneQuest rulebook focuses on creating characters from the areas of Dragon Pass and Prax, where the cults of Storm and Earth are the most widespread, The Lightbringers and Earth Goddesses supplements mostly contain cults for player characters, while The Lunar Way describes enemy cults (unless you want to play a Lunar like Vostor!). However, the cults in The Gods of Fire and Sky are more varied: some will often be used for enemy characters, like Polaris or Shargash, while others will be attractive for player characters, like Yelmalio, Yelorna, Lodril, and Yelm, as these have followers and temples in Dragon Pass or Prax. In fact, the four first books in the Cults of RuneQuest series round off the main cults in central Genertela and complement each other a lot.
For example, while The Lightbringers describes how Orlanth rebelled against Yelm's injustice, The Gods of Fire and Sky tells that story from Yelm's point of view, so you understand why there is a certain eternal rivalry between the worshippers of these two gods. Another example is that the heartlands of the Lunar Empire are still one of the main centers of the solar pantheon, so The Gods of Fire and Sky completes the picture that The Lunar Way paints. Finally, Yelmalio is a well-known cult in Dragon Pass and Prax, and being a god of light, it is described here.
Moreover, from the point of view of an Orlanthi-centered campaign, the Solar pantheon and its derived cultures are great frenemies. For example, Orlanthi always fight against Chaos and other monstrosities, and they could get the Solars as allies, but the rivalry between the sun and the storm gods extends to their worshipers. Moreover, the Dara Happans, a predominantly solar culture, are now part of the Lunar Empire who is an enemy of the Orlanthi tribes in Sartar, so this relationship becomes much more ambiguous, and that can be the source of great roleplaying opportunities. The same goes for other sun-worshipping peoples in Dragon Pass, such as the Grazers and the Sun Domers. Can your (mostly) Orlanthi PCs trust them? Sometimes they will be staunch allies, but other times they can follow their own goals due to the honorable rivalry between the Storm and Sun pantheons.
The head of the pantheon is Yelm, the Sun. Much like sun gods from our Earth like Kinich Ahau, Shamash, or Ra, he is the ruler of the heavens and all the universe, and, aside from Light and Fire, is identified with Justice, Purity, Rulership, and other concepts like horses. However, Greg Stafford imagined a sun god that is different enough from any sun god from real mythologies, but is still coherent and its own thing. His runes are Life, because he is the source of life for many beings, but also Death, because he dies every day and travels through the Underworld back to the east. Finally, he is the current ultimate source of the Fire rune, according to the classification of the God Learners. As befits the main cult of the solar pantheon, it is the longest in the book, containing many subcults and associated deities.
Speaking about the God Learners, this book includes a table with the equivalencies these scholars found among the Fire and Sky deities across several cultures (there is a similar table under the topic "interpretatio graeca" in the Wikipedia). Thanks to this, you can learn how the names of the gods vary in different lands of Glorantha. This helps open up a bit the point of view of the Cults of RuneQuest series, which is focused on the cults of central Genertela.
Moreover, the Yelm, Dayzatar, and Lodril cult write-ups include some brief paragraphs about how their cults vary in faraway regions such as Pamaltela, Teshnos, or Ralios. Although they mention what subcults are the most important in every region, they do not offer all the details. Since the sun cult is obviously so widespread, it is reductive to offer just one general version of it covering all the variants. After all, you cannot expect different cultures to worship the sun god in exactly the same way or to share exactly the same myths. Following the example given above, Kinich Ahau, Shamash, and Ra sure have some similarities, but their myths are quite different. Of course, having just one general version of a cult is practical in game terms, and less confusing, as you can refer to that and just mention what differs in other regions, but something important is lost in the process anyway. Hopefully, future supplements about the regions where this is the main cult will describe how it differs from the general write-up in further detail. For example, I am curious about the cult of Yelm in Kralorela (called HeenMaroun).
The rest of the cults are described in alphabetical order, but they can roughly be divided into two main groups. One comprises the deities of the sky, and the entourage of Yelm (Dayzatar, Polaris, Ourania, Dendara, Gorgorma, Entekos). These are all cults often restricted to the aristocracy, and have only a tiny following according to the cult distribution charts at the back of the Mythology book. The other group includes deities that are far friendlier to mankind, more accessible, and whose cults are often more widespread, like Lodril, Lokarnos, Shargash, the Lowfires (Gustbran, Oakfed, and Mahome), Yelmalio, and Yelorna. Let's start by looking at the first group.
It makes sense that Yelm and other deities of the sky are only accessible to people on top of the social hierarchy, as that matches the inaccessibility of the natural phenomena these gods embody. Just as the sun and the stars are high in the sky, higher than the rest of nature, it is fitting that only a few chosen can worship them, precisely those who are the highest in the social pyramid. Therefore, for example Yelm is usually a cult for rulers, the same way the sun rules over the sky. There are some exceptions, though, like the Grazers, who worship their own version of Yelm due to having closely followed strict traditions.
Dayzatar is another example, being the god that stays beyond the sky dome to maintain the utmost purity, so his worshipers are ascetics and hermits who retire from mundane life. It is clearly not a cult for your typical adventurer, but not all cults are, obviously, as that would not make sense at all. Only priests of associated cults can join its ranks, and it provides some cool spells related to the heavens, light and truth. Despite this, these spells will rarely be used in a RuneQuest campaign, but they are so cool that they make me want to include Dayzatar monks in a scenario. For example, you could run a murder case at a Dayzatar monastery, in which the resident monks (the PCs!) must find the culprit, ala The Name of the Rose!
Similar to Dayzatar is the only-female cult of Ourania, the Virgin Queen of Heaven. Her initiates' main task is to sing praises to Dayzatar and sing as a choir at the ceremonies of the other sky gods. Aside from that, they live secluded in their nunneries. Although her cult is tiny, she provides many different and cool Rune spells. Strangely, the Rune spell she gets from Arraz, Summon Luxite, is different from the Summon Shanassae spell Dayzatar provides, even though the book claims Shanassae are Luxites. The book does not explain why. Also, the section about life after death does not mention where do the souls of her worshipers go after death.
Both the cult of Ourania and Dendara fulfill the worldbuilding purpose of informing us how patriarchal the sun-worshipping cultures of Glorantha are, as they strongly imply upper class women must be virtuous and relegated to unimportant roles (as sadly many cultures of Earth did). I love that you can see the culture through these write-ups. Dendara is the cult for the spouses of leaders, the same way this goddess was the virtuous wife of Yelm. It is also extremely similar to the cult of Ernalda, with obvious clues that make it clear that it is actually the cult of Ernalda, but as seen through the filter of the solar cultures. For example, while in The Earth Goddesses you can read all about the many husbands of Ernalda, Dendara is strictly only married to Yelm. Therefore, Dendara might actually be the piece of Ernalda that was happily married to Yelm, before she managed to escape his court and became Queen of the Earth with many husbands.
The patriarchal theme is also present in the cult of Gorgorma, which encapsulates men's irrational fear of certain womanly things. This is shown in her myths, and in the memorable Rune spells she offers. Similarly to Dendara's case, I guess Gorgorma is the solar culture's way of looking at the cult of Maran Gor (and perhaps Babeester Gor too), the dark side of the Earth and the feminine. Thus, it makes perfect sense that her cult's role is to provide balance against the overwhelmingly patriarchal society of solar cultures like Dara Happa. For this very reason, it is a tiny cult that was suppressed by the Yelm cult for a long time (it's no surprise one of her favored passions is "Hate men or solar authority"!). However, it is interesting that the cult is now allowed by the Red Goddess, as she finally managed to reinstate feminine power in the male-dominated Fire and Sky pantheon. These "tricks" Greg Stafford did with the cults of Glorantha are fascinating, as they let you to see deities from other pantheons if you squint enough at them and read between the lines. However, a small detail I dislike is the fact that the Red Goddess provides the cult with the Illumination spell, which is not described anywhere (not even in The Lunar Way book).
The cult of Entekos is even more intriguing. Entekos is the goddess of calm air, the only air deity that did not cause any trouble to the Fire and Sky gods, and therefore, was welcomed in their court. Again, her cult is tiny and relegated to a small region of the Lunar Empire. The greatest mystery lies in its weird association with the cult of Dendara. Why is it possible that the initiates of Entekos can participate in the rites of Dendara as if the two goddesses were the same? Is it perhaps due to the fact that in her myths, she married Bijiif, which is the part of Yelm that reigned in the Underworld? Her mysteries do not stop there: She is the mother of the gods Lokarnos and Annilla, but if that is the case, why does the wonderful Genealogy of the Fire & Sky Deities by Katrin Dirim show Lokarnos as the son of Lodril and Annilla as the daughter of the river Styx? Oh well, the Mythology book already warned that myths can be conflicting, and that truth is inconsistent. And this was intended. As I mention in my review of The Lunar Way, I bet Greg Stafford left these mysteries unexplained both to make his mythology feel real and to excite our creativity, letting GMs and players find their own explanations. Despite all this, the Rune spells this cult offers do not match that well its role in the world. According to the book, some farmers worship Entekos to tame the weather and fend off the cold storms. However, the only magic Entekos offers in this regard are the spells Increase/Decrease Wind, and Dismiss Air Elemental, which do not sound particularly useful for that purpose. I would expect her to offer spells to stop cold or stormy weather. Moreover, her spell Predict weather is not even described in the book (you can only find it in The Red Book of Magic).
The group of deities for the upper classes finishes with Polaris, god of the Pole Star and General of the Armies of Heaven. His cult provides cool Rune spells to commanders in the armies of the solar cultures. His spell Captain Souls is particularly representative of his role, and his relationship to dance makes it unique. However, I wish the book had also included the full write-up of the cult of Avivorus, so that we could know what magic common soldiers get aside from Truespear.
Speaking now of the deities of the lower classes, the main cult here is that of Lodril. This lusty god of Heat and the Fire Below is the opposite to Dayzatar. Whereas the god of purity is aloof, Lodril merrily went down to the Earth and cavorted with the Earth goddesses. That goes to explain why he lost the power of Light and thus his Fire rune provides only Heat. It is a nice metaphor of the power of magma, the fire inside the earth, as he is also the god of volcanoes. He is also the god of peasants in the solar cultures and other places like Caladraland, and of all the common people who actually do most of the work. His cult's write-up includes fantastic details of its main holy days that make me wish the rest of cults would have also included their own. I wonder what causes this strange disparity in the level of detail of certain aspects of cults. As a powerful, widespread cult, he has many subcults and some paragraphs dedicated to his cult in distant lands such as Teshnos. For the same reason, he offers a wide range of Rune spells, some fearsome like Firespear and Lava spear, and others for protecting crops and travelers like Earthwarm. As Lord of the Underworld, he also offers the Smoldering rebellion spell which priests can cast in order to rise the whole peasant population in revolt against unjust rulers. I love it because it ensures the nobility will take care to treat their farmers well, and it is a means to put an end to tyrants in an otherwise obedient society.
Other gods of the lower classes are Lokarnos, god of wheels, wagons, and wagon drivers, and the Lowfires, a triad of small gods related to fire. Gustbran is god of the work fire, not only of furnaces and smiths, but also of kilns, Mahome is the goddess of the hearth fire, and Oakfed is the god of the wildfire or the holy fire, depending on who you ask.
Fire can provide life, but it can also destroy, and Shargash fully embodies the latter concept. Reading his myths, I guess he stands for the unbound fury of the sun and his outrage at being dethroned. Therefore, he is a brutal war god of the Fire and Sky pantheon. In fact, if you thought the solar culture looks rather soft, this god is there to thoroughly change your opinion, as he demands sacrifice of sentient beings, can call fiery underworld demons (whose stats are provided), and is all about mayhem and endings. He reminds me a bit about the fearsome aspect of Shiva. His cult is mostly limited to the Dara Happan city of Alkoth and its environs in the Lunar Empire, but he is also known as Tolat in Teshnos. The text includes a cool story about Tolat's Red Sword that can inspire a whole campaign. Moreover, the book also dedicates a page to the faraway Trowjang amazons who worship Tolat as their patron god of love and war. Nothing is said about his cult in Fronela, although Mythology mentions the god is known as Vorthan there (this is included in the celestiology section though).
An interesting detail is that Shargash was only released after Yelm's demise, when Yelmalio could not suppress him any longer. But Yelmalio was born when Yelm died, so how could he have suppressed Shargash before that? I take that to mean that Yelmalio is Yelm's pure light, so he was the part of Yelm that suppressed his fury in order to be just, but that was released once the sun was cast down and his parts became separated. Anyway, Yelmalio's write-up is another big reason to buy Cults of RuneQuest: The Gods of Fire and Sky, because he is a popular cult for adventurers in Dragon Pass, Tarsh, and Prax. I must admit I like this god of Light without Heat, who has many detractors among the fans of RuneQuest and Glorantha. Fans often dislike this cult because they consider it underpowered compared to other warlike cults like Orlanth, Humakt, or The Seven Mothers. Moreover, many were disappointed when the cult of Elmal from the videogame King of Dragon Pass was later turned into the cult of Yelmalio, who is a rival of Orlanth, instead of his staunch ally. However, I understand Yelmalio is not a war god, but a god of survival and persistence against all odds. He is the honorable god who kept fighting through the Great Darkness, and protected humankind (including the Orlanthi) from trolls and other dangers, to the point that, although he was defeated many times, he never actually died like most other gods did. I love how his mythology encapsulates the idea of the undying light, even though I wish it were more detailed.
The write-up includes an explanation of the relationship between Elmal and Yelmalio, which makes perfect sense, and it is a fine example of how cults can evolve through time. Moreover, it still allows you to create Elmal initiates, and now the cult also offers the Rune spell Shield on top of the usual light-related spells from earlier versions back to its first appearance in Cults of Prax. Thanks to this, and other small changes, the authors have at least tried to make Yelmalio's cult more congruent with his myths, and more amenable to the fans. Still, I wish they had given him a couple more spells derived from his myths. For example, having access to Detect lies and Oath would match his Truth rune, and having some sort of spirit magic to dazzle foes would also make sense. For the sake of completeness, it would have been great to include the location of the Sun Domes (as they did in the cult description in Pavis: Gateway to Adventure, an out-of-print book for HeroQuest/QuestWorlds), although that will surely be included in the Lands of RuneQuest supplements.
Finally, Yelorna is a similar cult to Yelmalio, as she is also a goddess who descended from heaven to protect mankind against the monsters of Darkness. However, her powers come from the stars instead of the sun, so her Rune spells are similar to those of Polaris, and her cult is much smaller. The description is almost the same as Michael Trout wrote it in 1983 for The Big Rubble, but now it provides a couple Rune spells more from Ourania and Polaris to round it out. It is a cool cult for adventurers, particularly if they ever get to ride a unicorn. For the heroquest to acquire one, look for the piece Simon Phipp included in the fanzine Tradetalk #17.
Note that these are not all the gods of the solar pantheon. If you look at the cult distribution charts of the lands of the Lunar Empire in Mythology, two popular gods are Buserian and Erissa, but they are included in The Lightbringers book as the cults of Lankhor Mhy and Chalana Arroy. Similarly, the grain goddess Pelora/Oria and the spring goddess Voria are in The Earth Goddesses, the river goddess Oslira is described in the cults book of the water deities, and Nysalor in The Lunar Way. Finally, I wish the book had also included full write-ups of other minor cults such as Hyalor Horsebreaker, because fans of the videogames Six Ages would have loved it; Avivorus, god of the spear, which would have been helpful to stat up common soldiers of the Lunar Army; or the cult of Vrimak, god of birds, the same way the Orlanthi have the cult of Yinkin (god of shadowcats).
The constellations
At the back of the book is a section about the stars, the planets, and the constellations of the Gloranthan night sky. Some of this information had already been published in The Guide to Glorantha, and the old supplement Elder Secrets of Glorantha. It is fitting to include this here, because many of the deities described in the book have a presence, representation or home in the sky, and the descriptions of these stars and planets contain additional information on them. This will come in handy to plan prophecies and events for your campaign that can only happen one particular night, like: "When Lightfore overlaps with the constellation of the Tree, the path to the secret forest will be illuminated", and then the PCs must roll their Celestial Lore skill to determine the exact day of the year. This section also includes a brief rundown of what went on during the Dragonrise event in 1625, as it had a lot to do with the sky and the constellation known as Orlanth's Ring.
The section about the Gloranthan sky describes all stars and constellations
There is a wonderful piece of art depicting the night summer sky with all the constellations and planets that is a bit more complete than the one in The Guide to Glorantha. Unfortunately, this one does not tell you how to look at it, as it does not indicate any cardinal directions aside from including the Dawn and Dusk stars. Besides, some stars are in different spots, so now I do not know what picture is more correct. Another cool detail is a small table showing the brightness of planets such as Shargash, Entekos or Lokarnos, although I wish they had included the sun and the red moon. It is missing the brightness of the sun, so you have nothing to compare the magnitudes with. According to the Wikipedia, the brightness magnitude of our sun is -27 and the full moon -13 (the more negative the magnitude, the brighter it is). I was also surprised to find out how big Lightfore looks in the Gloranthan sky.
The art
The art is amazing. As in the other supplements in the series, you get idealized images of the deities by Loïc Muzy, Katrin Dirim, and Agathe Pithié, and realistic pictures of their followers doing mundane activities by Ossi Hiekkala and Lionel Marty. On top of that, the depictions of devotional objects and items used by the cults offer even more verisimilitude to the world and helps it feel more "lived". My favorite pieces are the god Polaris, the mural-like drawing of the history of Yelmalio, and the picture depicting the different strata of Dara Happan society. The piece I like the least is the one of the volcano, (also included in The Earth Goddesses) because it does not tell me anything new at all.
In a nutshell
This is another great book in the Cults of RuneQuest series, beautifully illustrated, and useful for creating enemies, frenemies, and adventurers of cults related to the Fire/Sky rune in some way. It is also an unvaluable sourcebook for playing RQ campaigns in regions where the solar cults dominate, such as parts of the Lunar Empire, Pent, Teshnos, and the Grazelands. However, you will need a copy of The Guide to Glorantha, or else you are limited to the background on the Grazers and the Sun Domers included in the RuneQuest rulebook and the Lands of RuneQuest: Dragon Pass book. Sure, the boxed texts about the Dara Happans and the Pentans are great, but by no means enough to play a campaign. Anyway, the cults have the internal consistency that makes Glorantha a strange but at the same time believable world, with tantalizing mysteries included. Moreover, some cults had never been described in RuneQuest terms before, and the range of Rune magic can bring out interesting challenges and situations in your RuneQuest adventures, particularly if you are playing a campaign of Orlanthi adventurers against the forces of the Lunar Empire. Finally, it is also a great read even if you just enjoy reading about fantasy cults and mythologies.
That being said, the book could have been better, had its authors paid a bit more attention to some details, to avoid having cults with very different amounts of information in some of its sections. As it is, some cults detail all that goes on in their main holy days, which is great, but all the others do not, while some cults lack the information about where exactly the souls of the deceased go. Most importantly, the descriptions of the most widespread cults, such as Yelm and Lodril, should have included clear indications on what subcults are available for different cultures, and how myths change in different lands. The need to cover all versions at once can make the result confusing. It would have been better to limit the cult description to a couple lands with clear guidelines on the differences. Luckily, some cults like Yelmalio and Yelorna have been updated a bit from their earlier iterations, and those changes are good, even if I would have changed them even further to round them off better. To finish with, here's your TL:DR:
The best:
- The art is stunning, including not only idealized images of the deities, but also realistic pieces of their worshipers, religious items, and even Rune spells in use.
- The cults are thematic, have internal consistency, include mysteries, and depict a varied, and credible pantheon.
- These write-ups complete the list of cults most usually worshiped in the Lunar Empire, so if you own The Lunar Way, now you can get a more detailed picture of those lands.
- Some cults incorporate small changes that please long-time fans, like Yelmalio having access to the Shield spell.
The worst:
- Presenting only one general version of cults that exist in very different lands is reductive. It would have been great to know exactly how the cult differs in other lands and how the mythology changes from one place to another (although that would have taken many more pages).
- Some write-ups have sections that are a bit lacking in information.
- The piece of art for the night sky and its constellations has no indication on how to look at it.
- There is no full description of solar cults such as Hyalor Horsebreaker, Avivorus, or Vrimak.
Cults of RuneQuest: The Gods of Fire and Sky is available from Chaosium's website, DrivethruRPG, and your FLGS. The hardcover book is 40$ (PDF included if you buy it from Chaosium or any store affiliated to the Bits and Mortar alliance), and the PDF alone is 20$. What do you think of it? Do you agree 100% with my review? Did I miss anything? Please let me know in a comment below.
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