Cults of Glorantha

Esrola

Esrola is the Mother of Life and the power of the earth manifest. She is worshipped by all that draws life and is the daughter of Asrelia, sister of Ernalda and Maran Gor. She is the source of the earth’s great bounty, with children, sexual desire, lust for life and vitality all beings manifestations of her nature, drives and desires. Whereas Ernalda is the nurturing All Mother, Esrola is the sheer expression of earthy desire and needs. Her broad rule includes all forms of nourishment, so that she is worshipped with the barley, wheat, oat, rye, cow, goose, sow or ewe goddess as appropriate – all are her daughters. Esrola had many lovers and many children: even amongst the Uz she is known; as the lover of Argan Argar she was the mother of Ezkankekko, the Only Old One.

Runes Earth, Man, Plant.

Mythos and History

Esrola and Argan Argar (Resonance 75%) – Honouring Women in the Right Way: Every day Esrola left her mother’s house and ventured to the river to bathe. Every day, Argan Argar passed by and saw this vision descending into and rising from the waters, glistening and beautiful. Argan Argar fell in love. He came to Esrola one day and proclaimed what he felt. She refused his attentions. ‘Am I so ugly to you?’ Argan Argar cried.

‘No, but I require a gift, and you must discover what that gift is. I do not know but will know it when I see it.’ Argan Argar was puzzled and troubled. He did not understand what this goddess wanted so he went to various gods and sought their advice. Zorak Zoran suggested death. Gorakkiki offered a prized larvae. Ernalda suggested a new comb. None of these seemed fitting.

Finally Argan Argar went to the captive god, Lodril, who seemed wise in such things. ‘What do women of the earth want?’ He asked. Lodril looked-up from his toils, for he was always working, and said:

‘Why, to be the empress of all they survey. That is all any woman wants.’

And so Argan Argar commanded Lodril to create a throne for Esrola. Lodril made the earth move and shift and raised a huge plateau that overlooked the great bay and all the lands around it. On top of the plateau Lodril raised a palace that equalled Esrola’s beauty but could not exceed it.

When Argan Argar showed Esrola this gift and told her she was now an empress of all that was within her sight, she accepted him and they married. A child was born from that union who was a troll, like his father, and this was Ezkenkekko, the Only Old One, who ruled all the races that had thought and reason that came onto the earth.

Nature

The cult venerates Esrola as the life force of the earth. Her daughters are the grain and fruit goddesses and within her sight come all births and the power of life to assert itself against whatever forces may attempt to prevent it. The cult celebrates life, the harvest, fertility and abundance. It is a lusty, straight-forward cult with many rites and ceremonies aimed at the celebration of creation in all its forms. Esrola is the more earthly sister of Ernalda and even though Ernalda is the All Mother and queen of the Storm Tribe, Esrola is the joyful sister who runs with abandon and creates life with each care-free step.

The cult therefore appeals to the wives of farmers and land workers who wish for something less pious than Ernalda. The cult is popular in the land of Esrolia, where a matriarchy dominates, but it is not the most important of the cults.

Organisation

Esrola is not as widespread as Ernalda and has few great temples. Shrines proliferate on the edge of grain fields and in orchards, tended by a priestess who generally propitiates more than one goddess (usually Esrola, Ernalda or even a local crop or nature spirit).

The Holy Day for Esrola is Wild Day of Fertility Week, with this day in Earth Season being the High Holy Day. Rituals are lusty and bawdy, involving much feasting, merry-making and so on. Conceptions tend to be high amongst Esrola worshippers around High Holy Day.

Membership Standard.

Common Magic

Clear Path, Detect Food, Mobility, Vigour, Warmth.

Higher Magic Standard.

Esrola also offers: Bless Crops, Clear Skies, Evergreen, Rain. It also provides Delivery and Festival Ritual.

Festival Ritual

Duration 1 Day, Rank Rune Lord/Priest, Resist (Persistence)

This spell is cast on all participants (10 per point of Magnitude) in a feast of celebration. Even the most meagre fare tastes like the most delicious food ever brought to the table and water is the sweetest of any tasted. Even the oldest, most vinegarlike wine tastes like nectar. People feel compelled to enjoy themselves, eat, feast and be merry but do not feel as though they are being controlled or directed. The enjoyment feels natural and can be discarded simply by removing ones’ self from the festivities.

Gifts and Compulsions

Those who join the cult and become Initiates may, at the cost of one Dedicated POW, choose a Gift from the following list but must accompany the Gift with a Compulsion.

Gifts

Divine Training: Raise a cult skill to 100%.

Increased Health: The Adventurer’s Hit Points are recalculated, based on the sum of CON, SIZ and POW.

Magical Recovery: Magic Points regenerated at twice usual rate.

Tireless: Never suffer the effects of fatigue.

Compulsions

Gluttony: Cannot stop eating or drinking. Becoming corpulently fat. +1 SIZ and –1 CON for every 20 points in Pact skill

Jealousy: Uncontrollable, irrational obsession over some trivial matter: a jealousy over a lover, or the tendency to find a slight where none occurred.

Perfectionist: Develop an uncontrollable anger and violent temper if things are not done perfectly – and they never are. No one can meet the cultist’s impossibly high standards.

Sex Obsession: Unable to derive self-sexual gratification under any circumstances. Become enraged and ever-more obsessed with sex and self-gratification as a result.

Cult Skills

All Crafts and Lores related to cultivating crops, fruits and grains, Brawn, Dance, Influence, Lore (Esrola), Resilience, Seduction.

Allied Cults

Ernalda teaches Elemental Summoning (Gnome).