The Big Pent Collection Post: Secret History of the Horse Sun
It has been pointed out to me that I haven't actually ever written a post explaining what the hell Secret History of the Horse Sun is. So, uh, doing that now!
The Fuck's A Glorantha
Glorantha is a TTRPG setting attached to one of several rulesets for the games Runequest, HeroQuest, QuestWorlds or other names which I've probably forgotten. It is a vaguely Bronze Age-ish world focused around religious fantasy and spiritual power rather than traditional medieval stuff, as it was designed by anthropologist and practicing shaman Greg Stafford. I think it's pretty cool! But it is largely focused on an area named Dragon Pass, where a bunch of guys called the Orlanthi live. They're a mix of Vedic, Celtic and Norse ideas thrown into a stewpot, and they're cool and all...but there's other regions, and not all of them are particularly well written.
Like Pent
Pent is a very large steppes plain - somewhat larger than the entire nation of France, maybe five or six times bigger than Dragon Pass - which goes criminally underused by Glorantha. It exists solely as a place for horse nomads to rampage out of and threaten the people the game actually cares about, and as an origin point for historic figure Sheng Seleris, mighty warlord who conquered the Celestial Empire of Kralorela (read: Not China, generally poorly written) and almost destroyed the Lunar Empire (the primary villain nation of mainline Glorantha these days) before the Lunars defeated him and imprisoned him alive in the depths of Tax Hell.
Pent is a grassland steppe vaguely based on Mongolia and Sheng Seleris is vaguely based on Temujin, the Chinggis Khan. This is an area of IRL history and culture that deeply fascinates me and which I love reading and talking about. So I looked at Pent and its generally boring or outright bad writing and decided it needed to be done better.
As such, I started Secret History of the Horse Sun, a total rewrite of Pent as a location and culture. It is heavily based on Mongolian, Tibetan and Central Asian Turkic cultures, backed by my academic research on these areas but very much fictionalized and changed to fit the world of Glorantha and its preexisting mythos. This work is not an accurate representation of real world Mongolia, Tibet, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, ancient Scythia or anywhere else on Earth, though it is my goal to be as respectful of these real world places and peoples as I can be in my portrayal of a fictional culture similar to them.
This post is intended to collect my work on the project into a way that is easy to understand, read, and link to. Below, posts will be divided up into categories based on what they're about. If anything confuses you, please feel free to comment or send an ask or whatever - I love talking about my work and am happy to explain stuff.
The actual work is set shortly before the rise of Sheng Seleris, as I think this is the most interesting time for Pent; it has retconned a number of details to make things more interesting for me, though, like the Winds being gods despite it being pre-Sheng. I will eventually be writing a guide to adventuring before and during Sheng's rise.
Eventually.
The Pentan Gods
The first part of the project was a writeup of the Pentan pantheon, a group collectively known to the Pentans as the First Herd. These are writeups in the HeroQuest 2e/QuestWorlds system, and are mechanically usable in that system, but because the mechanics are highly narrative and descriptive, each writeup is also a description of the god and their cult within Pentan society; in Glorantha, religious cults form much of the bedrock of all societies.
Yu-Kargzant, the Sun Khan, God Above Gods
Basko, the God of the Bad Death, Lord of the Dark Shamans
Dostal, the God of Bow Hunting
DuTukhos and Arcos, the Gods of the Arcos River
East Sting Wind, the God of Bandits and Crime
Erissa, the Goddess of Healing
Eyritha, the Herd Mother, Goddess of Herd Animals That Aren't Horses or Sheep
Galana, the Chooser of Khans, Goddess of Horses
Golden Bow, the God of the Good Death, Lord of the Bright Shamans
Gor Gorma, the Goddess of Terror, the Malign Earth, and Vengeance
Hurfor, the God of Secrets and Law
Hyalor and Gamari, Man and Horse, the Good Ancestors
Issaries, the God of Trade and Mules
Kargzant, the Light Khan
Lozarl, the God of Impure Fires, Mining, Labor and Asses
Manurl, the God of Cats and Trapping
North War Wind, the God of Death
Orania, the Khatun of Heaven
Oria, the Goddess of Earth
Pole Star, the God of Strategy and Warfare
Samnal, the Bad Ancestor, God of What Not To Do
South Rage Wind, the Storm Bull and Chaos Killer
Sirdaryo, Goddess of Wrestling and the River Sirdaryo
Tarhel and Heltar, the Gods of Sheep, Clouds and Weaving
Tepekos, the God of Smiths
Tholm, the God of Falconry
West King Wind, the Storm Khan
Whirlwind Fool, Raven, and other Tricksters
Elyu-Ene, the Emissary of the Winter Gods
Pentan Cultural Overview
This collection of posts was written to try and provide a broader understanding of Pentan culture as it exists without wholly being about the religion. While religion permeates every aspect of Pentan life (and Gloranthan existence in general), there is life outside of the gods, after all.
Horses
Age
The Ancestral Peoples of Pent
Food and Daily Life
Fashion
Law
Love and Hatred
Slavery (CW, uh, Slavery)
Sports
Warfare
Non-Pentan Peoples
The Khuruldan
Life from the Pure Horse Perspective
Life from the Kargzanti Perspective
Life from the Four Winds Perspective
The Pentan Tribe Creation Questionnaire
The Stations of Night: A Myth of the First Night
The Children of the Dragon: On the Wildlife of Pent
I decided to write an in character guide to the animals that live within Pent, because I make good decisions.
Part One: Animals, People, and Classification
Hsunchen and Qa Ying
After I finished the above, I decided I needed to properly detail the non-Pentan cultures in and immediately around Pent. The first grouping I began to work on were the Hsunchen of the Shan Shan mountain range east of the Pentan plains. The Hsunchen are a type of person in Glorantha - "beast people," human beings who are able to transform into animals due to their worship of ancestral beast gods and spirits. Within the Pentan area they are not considered to be human, either by themselves or their neighbors, and could broadly be compared to werewolves, werebears, etc. They are largely non-agricultural, often viewing intensive agriculture as a violent assault on the living earth, and have societies roughly based on the animals they consider to be their kin. The Qa Ying are winged people also called the Wind Children, and are potentially descended from literal winds or are possibly eagle Hsunchen, or a mix of both in the past who became one thing.
The Qa Ying
King Violent Wind, God of Rulership and Storms
Merciful Rain Consort, God of Clouds and Water
Inner Wind Sage, Spirit King of the Wind Spirits
Blazing Wings Hunter, God of Hunting and Ancestral Raptor God
The Lo Fak Yak Folk
Lo Fa, Ancestral Yak Goddess of the Lo Fak
Undrung, God of Draconic Mysticism and Seeker of Mystic Truths
Yi Da, Spirit Yak and God of Shamans
The Lo Fak also worship their own version of Storm Bull but I didn't do a full writeup because he's very similar.
The Chen Ga Snow Leopard Folk
Chen Gar, Ancestral Snow Leopard God of the Chen Ga
Freezing Wind, God of Winter
Snow Woman, Goddess of Mountain Peaks
The Hsa Tiger Folk
Hsa Black Stripe, Ancestral Tiger God of the Hsa
Yumaryu, the God of Light and the Sun Spear Man
Gods of the Cat Brothers, Shared by the Hsa and Chen Ga
Bieti, the Mountain Witch and Patron of Shamans
Sakkar Swordtooth, God of Fear and Hunger
The Ri Si Woodpecker Folk
Ri-si, Ancestral Woodpecker Goddess of the Ri Si
Cucul, Cuckoo God of Shamans
The Damali Deer, Antelope and Gazelle Folk
Damal, the Ancestral Deer, Antelope and Gazelle God of the Damali
The Gord-Un Marmot and Gopher Folk
Gord, Ancestral Marmot and Gopher God of the Gord-Un
Spala, Spirit Zokor and Patron of Shamans
The Orathorn
The Orathorn are the only real sorcerous group in Pent - a small order of necromancers led by the immortal sage Orathorn, granted an imitation of immortality by his magic. They seek the conquest of Death, hoping to grant immortality to all humanity, that they might be free to pursue their true power and goals rather than be bound to what the Orathorn see as slavery-in-afterlife to gods in exchange for power within a paltry mortal lifespan. Most Pentans consider them horrible monsters for, among other things, their casual use of undead, their casual blasphemy, and their terrifying power...insofar as most Pentans ever deal with them, anyway. They are still sometimes hired as mercenaries by those Pentans who are less concerned by prohibitions on the use of sorcery, and they believe their selflessness will be vindicated...eventually.
Orathorn Overview
Principles of Sorcery and the Sorcery of the Zaburi
Sorcery of the Talari, Horali and Dromali
The Trolls
There are several troll and troll-influenced cultures around Pent, most notably the Blue Moon Plateau trolls, who ally with the Lunars, the traditionalist trolls of Dagori Inkarth in the south, the snow trolls of the Great Glacier across the White Sea, and the trolls of Dozakiland in the east, who once ruled over Chen Durel. Their name for themselves is the Uz, divided into a number of breeds or subspecies. They are traditional enemies of the Pentans, and so I felt a need to detail them.
Kyger Litor, Queen-Mother of All Uz
Basko, the Dark Brilliance, God of Chen Durel
Mee Vorala, the Sporebringer, God of Fungus
Gorakiki, the Swarm Queen, God of Insects
Sekever, the Dark Dragon, Antinomian God of Suffering and Enlightenment in Chen Durel
Hunaxi Mura, the Shadow Cancer, Chen Dureli God of War and Vengeance
Subere, the Primal Dark, Goddess of the First Darkness
Zorak Zoran, the Lord of the Demons of Death, God of Hatred
Annilla, the Blue Moon, Goddess of Tides and Secret Power
The Rise of Sheng Seleris
Jolaty, the Awakening Eye, God of Draconic Liberation
