1103 Anaxials Cover 7/11/2006 1:25 PM Page 1 ISS 1103 ISS 1103 Creatures of the Hero Wars Creatures of the Hero Wars million kinds of beasts live on the continent of Genertela in Glorantha. They appear in all the Astories of the world. Some are friends, many are foes, a few are magical harbingers, and others are just food. Horses, dogs, and cats are nearly ubiquitous, wolf packs and metal goats are foes, ravens and rattlesnakes can talk, and cattle and deer are the feasts of every story. This book contains over 150 entries describing more than 300 animals, monsters, and other creatures, including game statistics and other pertinent facts. Fifty illustrations illuminate the text. the Creatures Eleven additional stories animate the collection. These creatures of the Hero Wars are a part of a changing world, where men can become immortal. The old ways are over, and even some creatures can become gods. Hero Anaxial’s Roster is a play aid for Hero Wars, which you must also own to play the game. This reference will significantly enhance a Narrator’s game. Wars of By Jamie Revell and Greg Stafford Additional material by Stephen Martin Issaries, Inc. IllustrationsIllustrations byby HeatherHeather BrutonBruton Hero Wars and Issaries, Inc. are the registered trademaks of Issaries, Inc. All rights reserved. Discover more at www.glorantha.com ISS1103 206.71.200.65 ANAXIAL’S ROSTER s ANAXIAL’S ROSTER Creatures of the Hero Wars By Jamie Revell and Greg Stafford Additional material by Stephen Martin Cover and interior illustrations by Heather Bruton Map by Cyrille Daujean and Charlie Krank Edited by Stephen Martin Layout by Philip Reed Runes by Jim Catel Runes in chapter titles drawn by Lecia Badran-Doane Published by Issaries, Inc. 900 Murmansk St, Suite 5; Oakland, CA 94607 All contents copyright © 2000 by Issaries, Inc. All rights reserved. Any similarities between characters in Glorantha and any persons living or dead are strictly coinci- dental. Cover illustration is copyright © 2000 by Heather Bruton. Interior artwork is copyright © 2000 by Heather Bruton. The reproduction of material from this book for the purposes of personal or private profit, by photographic, electronic, or other means of storage or retrieval is strictly prohibited. Request your FREE catalog and address questions about this publication to Issaries, Inc. First Printing July 2000. Issaries Publication ISS1103. ISBN #1-929052-07-3 Visit www.Glorantha.com to learn more about Glorantha! Hykim and Mikyh are the ancestors of all animals. Hykim, Animal of Thought, curses the mind of he who would abuse his sons. Mikyh, Animal of Matter, rends the body of those who would harm her daughters! 1 206.71.200.65 ANAXIAL’S ROSTER This book made possible by the Glorantha Trading Association Issaries salutes the volunteers of the Glorantha Trading Association whose con- tributions made this book possible. For their generosity, we ask that the good animals provide for them and protect them from the bad animals forever. Heroes Randy Tomaszewski, Murase Yoshiyuki, Andre Jarosch, The Clan Coriales, Hiroto Kawakami, Andrew Kelly, Christopher Johnson, Hayato Niitsuma, Mark Leymaster of Grammarye, Yoko “Anesan” Miyamoto, Bob Vesterman, Richard Katsaros, Andrew Cowie, Rex Andrew Bean, HANATAKA the Stormer, Michael Trout, Andrew Joelson, David Dunham, Walter Manbeck, Anonymous Are you interested in learning more about the GTA? Check out the web site at: http://www.glorantha.com/inc/gta.html Biographies Jamie Revell Ever since being mistaken for the deceased communist leader in a London pub, Jamie Revell has been better known to gamers by the pseudonym “Trotsky.” He has been role- playing since the early ‘80s and gaming in Glorantha since 1985. He studied zoology at Hull University and keeps a small library of natural history books so that he can appear to know more about the subject than he actually does while debating on inter- net mailing lists. Born in northern England, where he spent much of his childhood on a goat farm, he feels that goats are far more cool than Gloranthans generally give them credit for. Having also lived in a house with significantly more cats than humans, he is well aware of which of those two species actually holds the upper hand. He cur- rently works as a biomedical scientist at a hospital in southern England. Greg Stafford Greg Stafford discovered Glorantha in 1966 and began a life-long creative effort to explore and publish the world. In 1974 he began his first game company, Chaosium, and published the first Gloranthan game the next year. It was White Bear and Red Moon, followed in ‘77 by Nomad Gods, another board game. In ‘78 RuneQuest was published, a revolutionary and popular role playing game also based upon Glorantha. Since then he has contributed to dozens of supplements and hundreds of articles about Glorantha. Hero Wars, a new role playing game, continue Greg’s lifelong commitment to Glorantha. Greg is also game designer, developer, and author of Pendragon (the award-winning game on Arthurian roleplaying) and its supplements, five other board games, and another six roleplaying games and books. Greg is also one of the game designers for King of Dragon Pass from A Sharp. Greg was born in 1948, is married to Suzanne Courteau, and has three children: Noah, Alisha, and Jason. He is currently employed by Issaries, Inc., which he founded in 1998 to continue the publication of Gloranthan games and books. 2 206.71.200.65 TABLEOFCONTENTS Table of Contents Introduction: Anaxial’s Ark ...........................................4 Anaxial’s Ark..........................................................5 Genertela ...............................................................8 Creatures of Above.......................................................18 Vrimak and Avarnia .............................................19 Domesticated Animals .................................................36 How Cats Domesticated People ............................39 Wild Prey Animals .......................................................58 The First Herd ......................................................59 Vadrus and the Logic Tribe...................................72 Wild Predators ..............................................................79 Creatures of Below........................................................99 Aquatic Creatures.......................................................114 The Descendants of Wartain...............................121 Outside the Ark: Other Survivors...............................123 The Monster Army .....................................................124 Gigantic Creatures......................................................145 Lodril Paints the Animals ...................................146 Monsters .....................................................................155 Unnatural Creatures ..................................................172 The Migration Downland....................................175 Otherworld Entities: “The First Deck”........................188 Daimones ...................................................................190 Essences.......................................................................200 Zzabur’s Descent of Animals ..............................209 Embodied Spirits.........................................................212 An Aldryami Shaman’s Grove .............................217 Otherworld Spirits ......................................................224 Demons.......................................................................237 Unusual Entities .........................................................243 Uleria Tames the Boggles ...................................244 Index ..........................................................................251 3 206.71.200.65 ANAXIAL’S ROSTER Introduction Anaxial’s Ark Anaxial’s Roster provides descriptions for many mundane and magical creatures of Genertela, along with that continent’s key sentient races and a selection of powerful Otherworld entities. No such listing can be defin- itive, and the narrator should make up new creatures as necessary. Fur- ther creatures appear in the Narrator’s Book, and future supplements will detail others as the need arises. We have tried to include creatures that heroes will find interesting or challenging, whether as opponents, allies, prey, or even followers. Sentient creatures with complex cultures have necessarily brief write-ups in this book. Many of these races will be the focus of future Hero Wars products, which will explore their societies in much greater detail. Anaxial’s Roster is arranged in sections, each dealing with a particular category of creature. The God Learners grouped animals into five broad classes: mammal, bird, reptile, fish, and invertebrate, and placed beings descended from the Man and Spirit runes into additional groups. Such a system is less useful to Hero Wars narrators and players than it is to Gloranthan taxonomists. We chose to take a more functional approach, with, for example, predators grouped into one chapter. This approach sometimes has to be arbitrary, so we have provided an extensive index for quick reference. Almost all of the descriptions include a myth about the animal’s origins or habits. Throughout the book, we have included several longer animal myths from various Genertelan cultures. The narrator can use these as a basis for heroquests, or as inspiration for designing Otherworld beings related to the creatures (of which several examples are provided). The myths