Cults of Glorantha

Valind

Valind in the Winter King; god of the frozen wastes of the north, a land of ice demons, blizzard demi-gods and the winter winds, the Vadrudi, liberated from Orlanth. His father, Vadrus, was killed by Chaos in the Great Darkness and Valind is ever watchful and vengeful as a result, keeping his realm in intense cold as a way of guarding against Chaos’s return. The wider Storm Tribe has little to do with Valind as this cold, distant god keeps to his own territory and freezes out the people of the lowlands. His breath is felt in winter as it brings icy blasts into cool Fronela and northern Peloria but he sees some worship amongst the Fronelan Orlanthi and those of the lands of Talastar. Once his realm was greater, a massive ice-sheet covering much of the northern lands but the sorcerer Zzabur destroyed large swathes of it in the Dawn Age causing Valind to retreat to the regions he now occupies.

Runes Cold, Disorder.

Mythos and History

Valind Battles Two Foes (Resonance 70%) – The World is the Enemy of the North: Vadrus was the Lord of Ice and Snow and was a calm god. Through the Cold Rune he kept things stable and frozen, white-gold permanence that few dared challenge. Likewise his son, Valind, born in an ice storm, was a subtle god but with little in the way of malice. At first neither cared when the Great Darkness came. They were far away from where it struck and had managed to keep the Sun Emperor at bay for a long time. Life was good for them and what was happening in the world was of little concern. But then the Hot creature crept into Vadrus’s realm through a fissure in the earth, which some think Eurmal showed it. It came into Vadrus and Valind’s lands and began to attack what was there. Vadrus told Valind to rally the Hollri, the Ice Demons, to fight the Hot monster. Whilst he did so, Vadrus faced the Hot Monster alone with his blizzards and the Vadrudi all but perished. His death rattle is the howl of the winter winds and is still felt throughout these lands. Valind and the Hollri battled the Hot Monster at Vornash’s Gap. Valind tore at it from above and the Hollri from below. It plunged through the ice and into the deep. Its blood flows still through the geyser at Vornash’s Gap: this blood is poison to the Hollri.

Valind turned his father’s body into the Great Sheet of Ice, preserving it for eternity. But, when the sun rose, a new power, the heat known as Zzabur, came from the south looking to extend its own realm. With its sorceries – a new magic that Valind could not understand – it melted Vadrus’s body until Valind drove the sorcerer out of the north and purged its followers with ice-hail and ice-spears. Their bodies are entombed beneath the frozen lakes, which were formed from Valind’s tears for his dead father.

Nature

Every year Valind tries to reclaim the lands stolen from him through his father’s death. Cold winds sweep from the north and try to impinge on the lands of the sun Emperor and those where Zzabur once trod in Fronela. This vindictive annual attack is symptomatic of Valind’s cult and raiding the warmer climes is an annual tradition for all Valind worshippers who would have Valind reclaim half the world, ruling it as his father did in the God Time.

The cult is primitive and visceral. Its followers venerate the cold and are most vibrant and active during Dark Season. They are angry that Valind has been forced into retreat and feel ever threatened by Zzabur’s legacy, the Malkioni and the power of the Solar Gods led by Yelm. They are pleased that the Wyrmfriends have conquered Peloria and believe that the Great Dragon will help make the world vacant, heralding a new age of ice and the resurrection of Vadrus so that father and son might rule in splendour once more.

This is therefore not a forgiving or forgetting cult. It is cold, brutal and numbers men, demons and elementals in its ranks.

Organisation

The cult’s structure is very loose. There is no formal sect of priests and thus few temples or shrines. The Talastaring Valindites – those of the very north of Talastar who worship Valind most fervently – have made the Great Ice Hall, carved from a huge angular block of ice and hold strange ceremonies there but otherwise only a few shrines exist and all of these in cold climes, which limit Valind’s power over the world.

The bulk of Valind’s worshippers are the Hollri, or Ice Demons, which can be commanded through Valind’s magic. These primitive, violent creatures worship Valind in their own way through their own, savage rites that are not mirrored anywhere else. Human sacrifices are sought each year when small Hollri raiding parties rally south to snatch whatever wayfarers they can, casting them, alive, into the boiling waters of Vornash’s Gap, in the hope of abating its poisonous outbursts.

Membership Standard.

Only the Talastarings of Peloria have a Rune Priest rank, known as Ice Voices. Rune Lords are Ice Lords. Initiates do not feel the cold although prolonged exposure to sub-zero temperatures causes them the same harm as anyone else.

Rune Lords and Priests of the cult gain the ability to Command Hollri. This puts a number of Hollri, equal to the Dedicated POW of the Pact, under the control of the Ice Lord. The Hollri may resist this control using their Persistence in an Opposed roll against the Ice Lord’s Pact skill. If this fails, they are compelled to complete one task and then are free of the influence.

Common Magic

Dispel Magic, Extinguish, Frostbite, Mobility, Strength.

Higher Magic Standard.

Valind also offers Cloud Call, Elemental Summoning (Sylph), Freezing Wind and Snow.

Freezing Wind

Duration 15, Rank Rune Lord/Priest, Ranged, Resist (Resilience)

For the Duration of the spell the caster can decrease the temperature of the prevailing wind by 1D6 degrees for each point of Magnitude. The spell has a radius equal to the caster’s POW in metres x5.

Snow

Duration 15, Rank Initiate, Ranged

This spell must be cast when there is precipitation. For the Duration of the spell all rain is transformed into snow, sleet or hail depending on the heaviness of the original precipitation, for a radius equal to the caster’s POW in metres. Each point of Magnitude increases the radius by POW in metres.

Gifts and Compulsions

Valind’s worshippers abhor the warmth and prefer the chill of winter. In warm and hot climes they suffer fatigue more readily and treat Resilience rolls as half normal value for the purposes of handling Fatigue results.

Cult Skills

Athletics, Brawn, Dagger/Knife Combat Styles, Lore (Valind), Perception, Resilience, Spear Combat Styles, Survival.

Allied Cults

Orlanth provides Flight.

Urox provides Face Chaos.

Yigg provides Sail Through Ice.

Hollri – Ice Demons

The true physical shape of the Hollri is difficult to see but it is malformed and terrible. The ice demons are wreathed in swirling snow and ice crystals that move with them. Their cruel, pale bodies lurk in the centre of this swirling ice, misshapened and ghastly, the result of Vornash Gap’s poisonous waters on their natures. When Vadrus lived, the Hollri were beautiful; but the fights with Hot Monster and then Zzabur have left then twisted, bitter and ugly.

Hollri manifest as swirling columns of snow and ice, three metres in height. The column moves with frightening speed and always in a zig-zag pattern. The central body of the Hollri can be glimpsed within but the true horror of this core is always hidden from sight and, when dead, melts rapidly. Ice Daggers are fired by the Hollri and are blades of pure ice that whip out from the swirling column of ice and snow that wreathes the physical form. One Ice Dagger can be fired per Combat Action but there is no reload time and the demon can manufacture a limitless supply of them, whilst within the reaches of Valind’s territory.

If able to, the Hollri will close for melee combat and lash-out with taloned claws but its Ice Daggers are used to incapacitate a foe (they are wanted alive, to be sacrificed) from range. Hollri continually radiate a numbing cold. Every round Adventurers within a number of metres equal to the Hollri’s POW must make a Resilience test or suffer a –5% penalty to all DEX-based skills owing to the cold generated by the demon.

Hollri are vulnerable to heat and heat-based spells. All such attacks ignore the Hollri’s ice-armour.