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# Part of Simon Phipp's RuneQuest/Glorantha Site

Glorantha is Copyright Issaries Inc, RuneQuest is Copyright Hasbro Inc
Glorantha is a Fantasy world setting and RuneQuest is a Fantasy Game.
All articles on this web site are game rules or background to the Fantasy setting and are not intended to be taken in any other way.

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Simon E. Phipp

Copyright (c) 2000 Simon E.Phipp
Last Updated On 1 May 2000

# Lunar Malkionism

The Lunar Empire accepts many kinds of people as part of the Lunar Way. One of the groups accepted are the Malkioni, although the Lunar version of Malkionism has its own slant and is different from other versions. This is acceptable to most Malkioni as all the sects of Malkionism differ, although some of the Lunar beliefs are radically different and have not been accepted by other Malkioni.

When the world was hurting, the Creator sent Angels to help the world. He first sent Malkion the Prophet who preached the word of the Creator and was heard by many people. However, these people were rigid and did not hear the true meaning of his words, preferring to listen to the letter of the Law. He then sent Hrestol who taught people to listen with their heart, but the people of Hrestol did not like other people and thought that his words were the only Law. The Creator then moved people to help each other and sent Nysalor the Liberator who taught people to listen to their inner selves and freed them from their fears. Unfortunately, many people listened to themselves and became selfish and cruel, so the Creator sent Arkat who taught people to listen to the inner self and also to exercise restraint and freed them from their freedom. Many people lost sight of what Hrestol and Malkion had taught and went astray, so the Creator sent Talor to teach people to listen to the laughter within. Finally, the Creator sent the Red Goddess who taught people to listen to the Truth.

There are three prophets sent by the Creator. Hrestol freed men socially, he created a new society that was free of the rigid caste system of the old ways. He taught how it was not necessary to be perfect to reach Solace and that rules could be broken for good reasons.

The Red Goddess freed men spiritually, she created a new society where people could belong to one caste, all the castes or no castes. She taught that men could reach Solace without following Malkion's Laws, as long as they lived good lives and followed the Lunar Way.

The Creator also sent many Saints to help his people. At first, those Saints interceded for those who followed the Malkioni Way but were not perfect. As long as they lead good lives, followed the Way and paid homage to the Saints, they could still reach Solace as the Saints helped them. This helped many people to Solace, but there were many more people who had never heard the Malkioni Way and did not know of the Creator. To help these, the Creator sent other Saints who followed the teachings of the Red Goddess. These Saints also intercede for the people, but their worshippers do not need to follow the Malkioni Way. These Saints allow those people who follow other deities to achieve Solace.

Most Old Malkioni are atheists, these include the Brithini and Vadeli, although some follow other deities, such as the Waertagi. The New Malkioni normally follow the Invisible God, which is their name for the Creator, and some also follow a few other deities, so some of the Hrestoli allow the limited worship of other deities as well as following of Malkion, Hrestol and the Creator. Those who follow other Saints will have moved further along this track, so Arkati, Carmanians and Henotheists follow the worship of their deities. The Lunar Malkioni also accept the Red Goddess as the Third Prophet of the Creator and follow the Lunar Saints and deities, but there are many people in the Lunar Empire who simply follow the Saints and do not follow the Malkioni Way. These can reach Solace by worshipping the Lunar Deities and following the Lunar Saints.

The Lunar Saints allow their followers to worship other Lunar Deities, and even other non-Lunar deities in certain circumstances. They do not require the following of the Malkioni Way and only require that the people follow the Lunar Way and lead good Lunar lives. Lunar Malkionism is Stygian in nature, so the followers can worship other deities and can use Divine and Spirit Magic as well as sorcery, this has been proven to be acceptable by the Red Goddess as she was accepted at Castle Blue, when the Carmanian Malkioni tried to force her to recant her ways, and is demonstrated by the fact that the Red Goddess grants new magics similar to the Malkioni magics.

Name | Purpose | Blessing Cost | Effect
Jar-Eel | The Killing Moon | 7POW/1POW | Permanent Truesword on a nominated scimitar
Yara Aranis | The Reaching Moon | 7POW/1POW | Personal Glowspot for 1 day
Yanafal Tarnils | Warlord | 7POW/1POW | 2xAttack skills, no fumbles, immune to fear/demoralises for 15 minutes
Irripi Ontor | The Knowing Moon | 7POW/1POW | Knowledge of all the properties of a magic item
Queen Dee 'Zola | The Healing Moon | 7POW/1POW | Heal all normal damage taken or all general hit points taken
Red Goddess | The Red Moon | 7POW/1POW | Double all Lunar manipulate skills for one day, on Full Moon, skills are trebled, on a Dark/Dying Moon skills are multiplied by 1 1/2
Etyries | The Speaking Moon | 7POW/1POW | Double all communication skills for 1 day
Danfive Xaron | The Cleansing Moon | 7POW/1POW | Immune to pain and functional incapacitation, lose no fatigue, no need to sleep for 1 day
Hon-Eel | The Artful Moon | 7POW/1POW | Doubles Agility Skills for 1 day

Lunar Malkioni describe the Trilogy of Prophets by Malkion laying on the floor, holding Hrestol at his feet and the Red Goddess at his head. Hrestol leans forward and holds the Red Goddess who leans on him and makes the third arm of the Law Rune. Thus, all are based on Malkion's Law and Hrestol supports the Red Goddess. Together they complete the Creator's representation in the world.

Illumination is the new light of the Creator, granted to the world through Nysalor and the Red Goddess. When all fall under the sway of the Lunar Empire and become Illuminated then the Creator will return and will set the world back to how it was in the Golden Age.

Malkion's Law - Love those the Invisible God created - this is taken as loving those who do not oppose the Red Goddess.

## Lunar Carmanians

As an illustration of the Lunar Malkionism, let's look at the Carmanians.

The Carmanians followed Carmanos who was a Malkioni Saint at the time of Arkat. They moved to Pelandia during the Second Age and settled a Malkioni kingdom but with a Stygian slant. The Carmanians worshipped various deities in addition to the Malkioni worship, although these deities were restricted by caste and function. A Knight could not worship a farmer god, for instance.

### Farmer Deities

- Orlanth Thunderous
- Issaries
- Ernalda
- Grain Goddesses
- Third Eye Blue

  ### Knight Deities

- Humakt
- Lion God

  ### Wizard Deities

- Lhankor Mhy

  ### Lord Deities

- Orlanth Rex
- King Karmanos

  The Invisible God is seen as a High God, worshipped by all the castes.

  Castes were fixed and there was no inter-caste mobility.

  During the Lunar Conquest and after Castle Blue, the Carmanians were defeated and their deities were either defeated or killed. This meant that they were shown as weak and many Carmanians looked to the Lunars to increase their power.

  The Lunars tried to convert the Carmanians and introduced the worship of new deities to replace the worship of the old, defeated deities. Once these were worshipped, the Lunars showed that it was possible to worship those deities that belonged to different castes, so they introduced inter-caste mobility.

  ### Farmer Deities

- Hon-Eel
- Etyries
- Lodril

  ### Knight Deities

- Yanafil Tarnils
- Jar-Eel
- Hon-Eel
- Yara Aranis

  ### Wizard Deities

- Irippi Ontor
- Red Goddess
- Spindle Hag

  ### Lord Deities

- Red Emperor
- Yelm

  This meant that the Carmanian culture was changed to be more flexible, less rigid and more open to other new ideas. Even though there are many adherents to the Old Carmanian Way, there are many followers of the New Carmanian Way.

  [End]