Blurb from the publisher: 'The Glorantha Sourcebook is an essential resource forGreg Stafford's world of Glorantha, one of the most extensively developed and renowned fantasy settings of all time. A world of mythology, gods, and heroes, Glorantha has inspired roleplaying games, board games, computer games, comics, fiction, and more, a settingbeloved and revered worldwide.
Gods Of Glorantha Pdf Download
Inside this sourcebook, you'll learn about the creation of the world; the main ages of its past; the history of Dragon Pass and its people; the pantheons of the gods, including the Lightbringer and Lunar pantheons; the Coming of Argrath; Elder Races such as the Elves, Dragonewts, Dwarves, and Trolls; genealogies of the major royal dynasties; legends and lore of the various tribes and peoples inhabiting Glorantha; the fundaments of Gloranthan magic and the Runes that shape the world; the history and gods of the mighty Lunar Empire; and finally, the Hero Wars!
In Glorantha, magic operates from the everyday level of prayers and charms to the creation and maintenance of the world. Heroes make their way in the world, and may also venture into metaphysical realms to gain knowledge and power, at the risk of body and soul. In the more recent material competing magical outlooks such as theism, shamanism and mysticism, exist to explain the world. Within each metaphysical system, adherents may also compete - such as when theistic worshipers of rival gods battle each other. The world is flat, with a dome-like sky, and it has been shaped in large and small ways by the mythic actions of the gods. The 'historical' world of Glorantha is in a more or less fallen state, having recovered only partially from a universal battle against Chaos in the mythic Godtime.
Contents: The Introduction sets the book's goals very clearly. This is not a gaming book, with mechanics, rules or scenarios, neither is it a a gazetteer or an encyclopedia. Instead, it contains a collection of Gloranthan texts on ten different subjects viewed mostly from a mythological, as opposed to a materialist, point of view. These are the world's geography, the history of Dragon pass (the most prominently and well-explored place in Glorantha), the Elder races, the world's Theogony (and remember, there is no distinction between myth and history in this world), the Time (from creation to time keeping to history), the gods of the Lunar way (one of the pantheons that calls Glorantha home), the history of the Lunar Empire, Gloranthan magic, gods and mortals, and the Sartar Magical Union.
The strong points: Nothing I ever write for Glorantha will ever be enough. This is a fearless world on the forefront of innovation even today, decades after its first inception. It was never meant to be another fantasy world based on the same principles as ours with only the details changing. This is an alien construct built on different fundamentals. Magic is not another word for science, the gods do not watch from far away, neither are they loathe to interfere. There is no distinction between mythology, religion and history; it is all one and the same. The difficulty for a roleplayer, and even more so a game master, lies in making sense of it all without having to resort to an 800-page, two-volume guide of gargantuan proportions. Don't get me wrong; under no circumstances is The Glorantha Sourcebook an abridged collection of the Guide to Glorantha. What it is however, is an excellent introductory product for those who have never tackled Glorantha before and have no idea where to start from.
For those more interested on the roleplaying aspects than about the book's literary value, the targeting is clear: get a basic understanding of the world's basics, and the grasp Dragon Pass, the Lunar Empire, and its gods. That's what you need to know, or alternatively that is what you need to focus on in order not to get drowned by waves upon waves of information. I am certain that more traditional campaign books will be published in the future, for the time being however the one sourcebook that is out reads as much as a roleplaying supplement as it does as a novel. The fun part? One can totally buy this and read it as a novel, without any intent of ever using it for roleplaying.
The production values are sky high. I am really getting used to having bound bookmarks in my books. The lavish art is from another planet. Some of the pieces have been seen before, others haven't. They don't all belong in the same style. Colour and black and white imagery are used in copious amounts, with many different genres finding their way in the book. I am a big fan of Jon Hodgson's art, and he has tackled the cover in this book, in my eyes however the god Yelm manifesting in the battle of night and day (take that ἐν τούτῳ νίκα, this is the appearance of a real god and not just a sign!), the psychedelic images of dragonewts, or the six-armed Orlanth charging in full fury are unsurpassable. So are the genealogy lines and links of the gods, the courtship of Ernalda the Earth Mother by Orlanth, the depiction of Hwarin Althippa, the kabbalah-like illustration of the runes and elements - wait, I am listing pretty much every piece of art from the book. I wrote this in the Guide to Glorantha and I will repeat it again: no matter what it touches, Glorantha makes it its own. If you think you see Greek, Indian, Japanese and Hebrew influences, amongst others, that's because they all fit this world. 2ff7e9595c
Comments