in the Spirit Rune or in a charm, you may specify you are a member of a spirit society (assuming you meet their prerequisites for joining). Write down your spirit society beneath your tradition.Available to everyone. Use your Runes to augment another ability (rather than use the Rune directly). E.g
For example, a hero with the Movement Rune might use that Rune to augment his fighting by attacking with “blinding speed”. Or a hero with the Darkness Rune might use that Rune to augment her ability to sneak past the temple guards by “staying in the shadows”.
You can also spend points to create a breakout ability from a Rune, and use that ability directly (but not overtly supernaturally).
Spirit magicians are those who use the Spirit Rune to communicate with spirits and exchange favours with them
Charms are physical objects that house a spirit. They can be used by everyone. They should be listed with the Rune associated with it, its descriptive name, and its associated taboo.
For people who aren’t Spirit worshipers et al, a charm is a stand-alone ability that starts at rating 13. To use the charm, you call upon its spirit using spoken words and a gesture. You must explain to the GM why that spirit can help with what you’re trying to do. Asking a spirit to do something it’s not suited for releases them from the charm, making it useless; same is true if you suffer a Complete Defeat in its use. On a Major Defeat, you can’t use the charm until the next session.
Charms always have an associated Taboo. Taboos should be narrow but relevant to the game; can’t have a taboo that forbids you from something that wasn’t going to come up. Your highest rated Spirit Rune breakout ability (or the Rune itself if you don’t have any) acts as a flaw you need to overcome in a contest when you try to act against the taboo. If you succeed, you can act against the taboo but you suffer a Consequence of Defeat to use that spirit’s help.
If you have the Spirit Rune, you can communicate with spirits. Write after your Spirit Rune your specific tradition and the Runes associated with it.
You have a number of charms (see above). Give yourself up to five charm breakout abilities as part of your Spirit Rune rating.
If you’re a spirit worshiper, a charm’s innate powers are based on your Spirit Rune rating, although you can spend a Hero Point to improve a charm ability above that. If you’re not a shaman or a member of a spirit society, charms based on the Spirit Rune can only be used to augment, not for overt supernatural effects.
As a spirit worshiper, you are expected to participate in your community’s rituals and contribute to its survival.
Spirit societies are cults with special relationships with spirits. If you have a rating of at least 1 in the Spirit Rune or in a charm, you may specify you are a member of a spirit society (assuming you meet their prerequisites for joining). Write down your spirit society beneath your tradition.
You may use the spirits in your charms to act directly rather than merely augmenting. You may also describe extraordinary effects. These effects correspond to the spirit types permitted by your spirit society. You may increase your ability in a charm or the spirit society keyword without limit.
Once per session per charm, you can release the spirit from its containing object to gain a +3 bonus. You can’t draw on that spirit again until the next session, since it needs to make its way back to the charm from the Spirit World.
You can also take free-roaming spirits as companions, but they also impose their own taboos.
Once per session, you can do a contest of your Spirit Rune against a Moderate difficulty to create a charm usable by anyone. If you succeed and give it to a player’s hero, they need to buy a new ability to use it. If you give it to a non-player character, you gain a social or economic benefit from it.
As a member of a spirit society, you are expected to devote time to support your society.
Shamans are powerful spirit magicians who can travel to the Spirit World (members of spirit societies can also do that, but it’s a bad idea).
To become a shaman, you need your Spirit Rune at 11 or greater and to overcome a major plot obstacle during an ordeal ending in your first solo journey to the spirit world, where you awaken your fetch.
A shaman has all the abilities of a member of a spirit society, for every spirit society associated with their tradition that they are eligible to join. Once per session per charm, you can release a spirit from its charm to get a +9 bonus (once again, you cannot draw on that spirit until the next session, because it needs to travel back to the charm) Shamans can travel to the Sky world and the Underworld if prepared, and can take people (up to twelve companions) to the spirit world.
Shamans don’t need to renounce magic from other sources, but they can’t make use of it unless that’s part of their tradition
Shamans have increased obligations to their community compared to spirit society members. When contesting against your Spirit rune as a flaw, you’re always at a penalty of at least -6
A fetch is a spirit that stands guard over your body when you leave it to travel to the Spirit World. It renders you immune to multiple opponent penalties from spirits and other discorporate entities. With the help of your fetch, you can escape the Spirit World immediately with a simple contest success against a difficulty no greater than Moderate (and bring back any companions as well)
The fetch is treated as a breakout ability from your Spirit Rune. If it’s destroyed, you die too.
Rune cults are associations of people dedicated to some subject of worship, be it a deity, a powerful spirit, a Hero, etc. Major cults for the great deities like Orlanth have more than half a million, associated minor deities, a large organised hierarchy, several places of worship, and their initiates have access to up to three Runes. Smaller deities have fewer worshipers, no minor deities, and access to two Runes. The smallest kind of cult for a hero, a powerful spirit or a subsidiary deity would often have no priests, only shamans
Lay members are worshipers who participate in the rituals of a cult without dedicating themselves to a deity. You can be a lay member of multiple cults. Being a lay member may have social implications depending on the cult but does not give you any magical benefit.
Priests are people whose full-time occupation is leading magical activities. They conduct rituals, maintain holy places, and organise the support of the cult.
Priests are important figures in their communities and are chosen, and supported, by those same communities. Because of this community support and their relationship with their cults, priests often become devotees (or vice versa), though this is not necessary.
There are no game-mechanical prerequisites to be a priest, but communities choose them on various bases, such as knowledge of the myths, magical affinities, or bloodlines. All priests are expected to obey the chief priest of their cult, and individual cults will have their own requirements.
Like a lay member, being a priest does not intrinsically grant any magical benefit, though of course a priest who is an initiate or a devotee would have the benefits associated with such.
An initiate into a cult pledges themselves to their deity. Initiates are expected to support their cult materially and spiritually and obey the cult hierarchy and the cult’s strictures. Violations of these obligations can have serious consequences.
To become an initiate, you have to share at least one Rune with the god of your cult at 1, plus meet whatever other cult-specific requirements. Heroes can start as initiates or become one during play.
As an initiate of your god, you approach them through the highest-rated Rune you share with them. Write on your character sheet Initiate of (Deity) along with the highest eligible Rune you can use as your divine connection to the god. This Rune is called your divine Rune affinity. You also use your divine rune affinity:
Initiates can use the Runes they share with their god directly, as any other ability, and describe overtly supernatural actions and contest results. Use the Rune as you would any other ability, except that credibility tests do not apply to them as long as your use is within the scope of the Rune.
If you share more than one Rune with your god, you may use all of them, not just the one you approach them from (but at their own, presumably lower ratings).
Your use of Rune magic relies upon your god’s power, and as such is subject to any restrictions that god has for that Rune. The owner of a Rune (e.g. Orlanth for air) can use it more broadly than other gods that are also associated with it. Each cult’s description tells you the scope of what cult members can do with each Rune.
Runes are treated as broad abilities, but you can always specialise in abilities within your Rune.
Your GM should give you a Situational Bonus or even a Plot Augment on your divine Rune affinity when you have been consistently acting in a manner in keeping with your god’s personality. Conversely, the GM should assign penalties to your divine Rune affinity when you are not acting like your god.
At times (more often during religious rituals, holy days, and at places of magical power), a god may compel an initiate to act in ways they are not fully aware of. You can try to resist this compulsion, at the cost of penalising your Runes.
Devotees dedicate their whole life to their god. They abandon all magic that doesn’t come from their god, and their time commitment to the cult becomes all-consuming. They should have some external source of support that allows them to spend all their time in worship and ritual (external meaning not coming from their labour, not that it must be outside the community or cult)
An initiate with a rating of at least 11 on a divine Rune affinity can attempt to become a devotee in the corresponding cult, which should involve a number of plot obstacles.
Feats are repetitions of your god’s great deeds. You learn one feat when you become a devotee, and can learn more by overcoming a small plot obstacle and spending a hero point. A feat lets you fully identify yourself with your god and use their magic as though you were them.
Feats are breakout abilities of a specific Rune. Feats are always considered to be specific Abilities. A feat that has been specifically prepared prior to use and is appropriate for the situation can result in a major bonus of up to +9. When the feat is performed on the Other Side this bonus can be up to +
When using a feat, you visibly manifest the power you are channeling by e.g. growing in size, crackling with lightning, or even resembling the image of your god. To use the feat, the devotee typically chants verses inviting their god to pay attention and to share their body. You can try to enhance your feats with a situational augment by reinforcing your identification with your god, by e.g. arming or dressing yourself as they did in the myth.
As part of the preparations, you declare the objective of the feat. When the objective is achieved, the feat ends.
During a feat, a devotee has to act as their god did during the myth or else weaken their magic. If you want to do something outside the feat but not contrary to it, you must end the feat prematurely and might at GM discretion suffer a Consequence of Defeat on the feat’s Rune.
If you want to do something contrary to the feat, your GM may force you to overcome your divine Rune affinity. If you succeed, you act as you wish but yout ability to use the rune is penalised by the degree of success. If you fail, you act as your god did.
Sorcery is the direct manipulation of Runes by use of spells that always produce the same effect. It does not rely on gods or spirits.
Spells are based on applying four different principles to Runes:
Applying these principles to a Rune or combination of Runes creates a spell, with a specific magical result. The GM should take a strict and literal-minded interpretation of what spells can do; if what you’re trying to do seems a stretch, it should not be possible.
Spells can be learned and improved like any other ability. They can be stand-alone or part of a grimoire
Grimoires are bodies of knowledge that analyse the metaphysics of Glorantha. Grimoires are usually focused around a single Rune, or some subset of it, and contain spells applying the four principles above to that Rune.
Each grimoire is an ability that can be treated as a breakout of the Law Rune or another appropriate keyword, or as a stand-alone ability.
If you start the game with a free grimoire, choose or create five spells as those you have already learned. When you acquire additional grimoires, choose or create one additional spell. Spells that are part of a grimoire are not breakout abilities and you use them at your grimoire’s rating.
On your character sheet, write down the name of your grimoire and its main Rune. For each spell, give it a descriptive name and if it’s based on the combine/separate principle, also write down what Rune you are combining with or separating from the core Rune.
You can’t try to learn new spells from a grimoire until you have a rating of at least 1 on the grimoire or associated keyword. If you do, you can spend a hero point to add a spell to it.
Once you have a rating of at least 11 in any grimoire, you can become a mage, though you need to overcome at least one significant plot obstacle to earn this status from your colleagues. Mages can gain grimoires from any wizardly organisation and create new grimoires.
To create a new grimoire, start with a theme that makes sense within your school’s philosophy. Examples can be manipulating a different Rune, combining spells, or building on ideas from different grimoires. To create the grimoire, you must achieve intellectual unity with whatever your philosophy considers the source of magic, overcoming at least one dangerous obstacle. If you succeed, you rediscover a forgotten philosophical truth that allows you to complete the magical formula. You can now develop this grimoire and teach it to others. (if instead you fail, you surfer the Consequences of Defeat)
Mages have increased administrative and community obligations, but also gain increased prestige and can use their grimoire rating as an augment for e.g. intimidating other sorcerers.