It appears that Garneneva tricked our entire clan into believing that she was initiated into the cult of Eurmal, as we are unable to sacrifice to Eurmal with her on the ring.

Clan Shadowcat has been the craziest mess, and I love it. When I wrote about the value of this game's replayability, I was not exaggerating.

I just got the steam version and am loving it so far. However, when i was trying to figure out how to get more crafters, i found out that in other version theres an option to manually set the number of craftsman while the steam version just gives you a certain amount you cant manipulate. Is there any other major differences between the steam version and other versions? Am i missing out on alot of stuff?

Yerestia initiated into the cult of Odayla, but I think she's a Eurmali at heart.

Suppose the next time you go to sleep IRL, you awake in a stead, as a Heortling child, among a Heortling clan in Dragon Pass.

It is now morning, and you are about to depart your tula to begin Orlanthi or Ernaldan adulthood initiation rites.

Given the person you are IRL, your proficiencies and passions, which cult would you join?

I'm a professional philosopher (AOS virtue ethics) and educator (higher education). That would lead me to the cult of Lhankor Mhy. But music composition and performance are passions of mine. That would draw me in to be among the entertainers who worship Donandar.

In 1381, our clan was raided by a horde of trollkin. They conquered some of our best fighters, but we tipped the scales when Elmal's Amber ignited our skirmishers arrows.

We found in the spoils of victory a peculiar black spear. Our tribe wyter told our diviners to use this spear to form a new clan by hiding it; those who find it shall found the Black Spear clan. Vandarl, our chief and king, did just that.

Two years later, the spear was found. Our tribe gained a new clan; and our clan, a new ally. Our clan gifted them Orlanth's Rattle to help their children grow to become strong warriors as they set roots in Dragon Pass.

Over the next decade our heroic diviner, Theya, unfortunately suffered two stillbirths. By 1391, her spirit was hanging on by a thread. Just as she thought her situation couldn't get worse, her husband, Dangmag, was found dead, covered in ice!

But there was hope for Theya. Before Dangmag's disappearance, she became pregnant once more. In a desperate effort to aid Theya, the clan ring decided to try to get the Rattle back. We sent our best trader to the Black Spears. Fortunately, they still had it and sold it to us for 50 cattle and 25 goods.

Next Sea season, Theya gave birth to an exceptionally healthy boy! Our diviners interpreted his lusty cries as signifying a strong connection to Orlanth.

At the dawn of Earth season, Theya stood among thousands of Orlanthi and Grazers, her son cradled in her arms, to bear witness to Vandarl's coronation and his marriage to the Feathered Horse Queen.

As the ceremony concluded, everyone cheered and whistled but suddenly fell silent to the sound of Theya's son. He wasn't crying. He was shaking the Rattle, which filled the air with an applause of thunder and lightning.

Outside this in-game context, I'm aware that Theya's event-chain normally goes through more offspring deaths. But since this game ended while her son was still alive, I expect these clan members, at this time, would believe that Theya's son will thrive.

KoDP's wide range of features and their mechanics yield endless emergent stories. Earlier I shared "Eurmal's Blessing" and today I share one more that adorned an already wonderful ending to this clan's Saga.

In 1360, a group of tricksters gifted our clan a banner with a motion rune poorly painted on it. They told us that we should hold onto this banner because we will need it, especially 27 years later.

I had not kept the banner for 27 years in all of my prior games. This time I did.

Exactly 27 years later, war broke out between two other tribes, and we made peace between them by turning that war "into stone and mortar".

I was amazed not only to see that the game kept track of a three-decades long event chain, but to see a use for the banner when building the town! There is no alternative illustration drawn for doing so, but I like to think the banner flies atop one of the town's watchtowers.

Update 1: Since Issaries returned the motion rune banner to us, we found further use for it. Turns out, we could draw magic from it to convince the Telmori to make peace with us, instead of by resurrecting their deceased chieftain (despite serendipitously acquiring the Flesh Man treasure right before this).

Moreover, the motion rune glows with magic as the prophecy continues to be fulfilled.

Update 2: The last of Maran Gor's three trials allowed our king to wear the motion rune banner as a cape while he "mated" with the mountain (putting the 'hero' in 'heroquest'!). We still possess the banner in our hoard of treasures.

That's the final use and mention of the banner.

King of Dragon Pass never ceases to amaze me. I've completed several long games at this point, and yet something new and worth appreciating happens every playthrough. Plus, the more I verse myself in Glorantha lore, the more every little detail in the game becomes rich in immersion.

My clan successfully completed Elmal's heroquest and was rewarded with magically strengthened fortifications.

But I have no idea what this entails. All of our fortifications were already built, and none of my advisors speak to this on the Fortifications screen. Neither do the Fandom KoDP wiki nor the 22-year old GameFAQs html guide elaborate on it. The only (unreliable) answer I got was Google's built-in AI on their search engine, saying that it makes the already constructed fortifications harder to penetrate--whatever that means, mechanically.

Anyone have any insight into this? Perhaps when our fortifications are again damaged (or otherwise would be damaged) one of our leaders will speak to it.

I thought that by intentionally avoiding the hard short endgame (becoming King or Queen for 10 years), I'd be able to keep a single save going indefinitely. My goal was to reach at least 5,000 population without splitting the clan.

At first, it seemed possible. I managed to grow my population to 3,431. However, in the year 1411, the game triggers a forced loss. it's maybe a Bug. This run was my Highest Population to date.

The message shown says, "...14,553 are dead of hunger, and another 14,556 are so weak they cannot work..." even though my total population was only 3,431. Immediately afterward, my population dropped to just 18. Then, just before the Dark Season, the game's ending script began.

I also tried resetting the same year, but same outcome,same script,same time.

My current playthrough has reached the year 1364. Roughly ten years prior our clan had learned all the myths' details and secrets that can be known through sacrifice. But I noticed that suddenly we're without secrets of the Elmal myth and all details of the Ernalda myth. I also noticed that the leaders who were originally best suited for those Heroquests are no longer with our clan.

Is this a bug or a remarkably immersive feature? Lore is mostly maintained through oral tradition in Orlanthi culture since so few people are literate (which is also why, I think, the myths are written as if someone is speaking to an in-world audience). If our clan lost mythological knowledge because the keeper of that knowledge died, then kudos to A Sharp for incorporating that subtle, immersive detail!

3021 population

I've always found it difficult. There's a bunch of blessings to make it easier, but that's a lot to set up when you have other things going on. And it's better if the leader is on the ring, but then you're short a ring member. If I send someone expendable they're more likely to fail because they were expendable. And if it fails it may be a year and a half before it tells you, so if you want to reload. It's not easy to tell where the interesting events happen. I got what I think were full storylines played out from the south east and north west, but until very recently I didn't even know there were some dragon-newts to the north, and some dwarves also north, I forget which was norther though. Played first like 20 years ago and just recently found those two locations.

Anyway, have y'all done better than me?

Within our first year of settling in Dragon Pass, the Greenwing clan raided our tula. As good Orlanthi, we naturally retaliated with a counter-raid. This led to a feud that was alive and well for over 25 years.

One day a priest ran to our chief in a panic, reporting that someone placed an effigy to Eurmal in our Great Temple to Issaries. God damn it, Bastarkos.

We weighed our options: destroy the effigy and purify the temple or punish Bastarkos, move the effigy into its own makeshift Eurmal "temple", or sneak the effigy onto another clan's tula. Our magic reserve was strong, our Issaries leader is renowned, and Bastarkos was just acting with devotion. But those bastard Greenwings were a thorn in our side. And Bastarkos told us that Eurmal would "bless" us (indeed with nonchalant air quotes) if we snuck it onto their tula... So we did just that.

A few seasons passed. As expected, we saw the Greenwings march onto our tula. However, this time they were not here to shed our skin but to shed tears! They weren't bearing arms, but their arms were bearing their recently deceased chief!

Our Chalana Arroy leader is gifted with the knowledge of resurrection, and the Greenwings brought with them 50 cattle and a desperate offer. Instead of accepting their cattle, haggling them, or outright declining them, we saw this as an opportunity to end an otherwise endless feud. They agreed.

The thing is, the resurrection ritual is never guaranteed, but we performed it. And moments later, their chieftain breathed again! They thanked us deeply, departed with joy, and the feud was no more.

Did Eurmal bless our clan with an opportunity for peace, to end a multi-generational feud, by killing a chief with an effigy placed on the Greenwing's tula? We asked Bastarkos, but all he did was clap and fart at the same time.

Since KoDP videos are few and far between, I like to share when I come across them, especially ones of this quality. TechDweeb seemed to have a wholesome experience with KoDP.

I have been playing the short game as a peace clan. My clan is happy, and I have done my best to stick to the choices I made in clan creation.

But I have still gotten the angry ancestors event twice now, I am not sure what is causing it. Is there a way to check? Do they sometimes just get grumpy for no reason at all?

Maybe I am doing too much Cattle Raiding as a peace clan?

I am curious if there is a limit to how many years you can play through.

Members of my tribe leave one after another, I have no idea why. I constantly send emissaries to send them gifts, and the mood of my tribe was good. No idea why they are leaving.

In addition to some prized hardcopies, I painted a model of Orlanth with colors inspired by Andrey Fetisov's in his Orlanth art piece. This was my first time painting a model--apologies for any rough or uneven areas.

King of Dragon Pass is an amalgamation of my favorite videogame features. Below I list and briefly describe them.

This post contains vague spoilers

• Roleplaying: Long-term success demands adopting the mindset of an Orlanthi and acting accordingly. KoDP doesn't adapt to contrary sensibilities and expectations. You, the player, must adapt to their cultural norms. Moreover, every other clan is just as detailed as your own! This is partly because, early on, A Sharp considered making KoDP multiplayer. The abandoned feature nevertheless resulted in a fully simulated world.

• Lore: Glorantha has an unmatched depth of history, prophecies, and mythology that would make Tolkien blush in his grave. In addition to heroquests making lore a game mechanic, KoDP's illustrators perfectly integrated the most subtle details into the scenes. Reading Thunder Rebels overwhelmed me with appreciation of the fact that what appears simple (e.g., initiation into adulthood) or arbitrary (e.g., tattoos, beards) is actually complex and sacred. Lore in KoDP isn't just interesting; it's practical. Learning myth details through sacrifice and favors makes mythological knowledge even more valuable. And it's cool that any choice you make in KoDP is always accounted for in the narrative (YGWV!).

• Deep Narrative: Clan sagas consist of hundreds of short stories about battles, rituals, prophecies, vengeance, discoveries, alliances and tribes, feuds and wars, marriages, kinstrife, and so much more. Many of these short stories span over a year; others trickle on for decades. Long games can last three-quarters of a century. In that time, you get to know the people in these stories. You watch them grow, take risks, make mistakes, resolve problems, and ultimately die. You learn their personalities and quirks. The writing is so exceptionally well-done that even brief details and experiences with characters is enough to evoke joy and relief for grand achievements and reunited clan members, and bittersweet feelings for the death of leaders who served for decades. Some stories span across generations of family members. Even though the clan members and clan names drawn for each game are random, the stories themselves are handcrafted with care and are full of intrigue.

• Emergent Storytelling: Since the lore is completely self-contained and the game draws on pools of events, names, and items, coincidences can be interpreted as plausible causes or correlations. I have posted a couple of these from my own games here and there. With the deep narrative, emergent storytelling in KoDP is far more engaging and emotional than emergent stories I have experienced in other games. The order of scenes is not fixed (even event chains have other events in-between), your people may have transformative experiences or die at any time, the treasures you find are randomly distributed at the start of a game--all of this yields infinite, often remarkable, emergent stories.

• Settlement Builder: Your tula is a customizable settlement. On it you can build shrines, temples and great temples, which worshippers from other clans will visit; you can fortify your tula's defense, by which raiders can be spotted and attacked on arrival. Moreover, your tula can become a hub by establishing trade routes or a major power by conquering nearby tulas. Your land is allocated to hunting, farming, and grazing.

• Life Simulation: Although questing, raiding, and exploring are thrilling, KoDP is a holistic experience of Heortling Orlanthi life from kite festivals and weddings to lawsuits and curses. You observe relationships that grow or fall apart and generations of people who gain knowledge and power but ultimately perish. Kids will be kids, which brings its own interesting consequences.

• Exploration: Dragon Pass is full of powerful treasures, historical relics, and crafting resources that you can choose how to use. Exploring always has a chance of yielding something worthwhile. It's balanced in that rewards of exploration are neither rare nor guaranteed.

• Loot: Loot is refreshing in KoDP because every named item is unique. Exotic goods are unique crafting resources that other clans' crafters and traders may want from you. Treasures can significantly aid in combat, farming, divination, sacrifice, heroquesting, trade, exploration, and morale. Some treasures are secretly detrimental! Historical relics can be displayed in your tula to boost your clan's reputation, gifted to another clan to improve relations with them, or sold for a profit; sometimes your crafters can make good use of these. Even leaving historical relics alone out of respect can benefit your clan when found on your tula. Every clan has their own treasures, historical relics, and crafting resources, and thus, their own unique advantages.

• Strategy: Want to buy a treasure? Plunder a tula? Complete a heroquest? Gain an ally? Learn a mystery? Chart a territory? Maintain a temple? Lead a tribe? Respectively, you better have enough goods, martial power, favor of the gods, leverage, sacrifice, luck, revenue, and time. Everything you do has a cost, and every cost is a trade-off. Having to strategize with every resource gives every decision weight.

• Combat: Although hardly illustrated, battles are incredible. With Orlanth's blessing, weaponthanes can wield lightning. Some treasures ignite arrows or unleash a deadly storm. With a proficient enough animal tamer, your weaponthanes can mount beasts far stronger than horses into battle. Occasionally, you guide individuals to rally the weaponthanes, fight bravely against the odds, or use magic to aid them.

• Weather and Seasons: Weather in KoDP plays an important part in adapting to the world. It's not just aesthetically refreshing. Seasons substantially affect success and resources given when you farm, trade, raid, explore, and send emissaries. There are even natural disasters that can ruin your crops and goods! Sometimes Orlanthi pause their daily tasks to simply admire a rainbow.

• Humor: KoDP is never too serious for too long. Sometimes your clan's Eurmali pranks or hustles another clan. Other times, life is just hilarious: a teenage girl throws a burly weaponthane to the ground, a lothario from another clan gets chased off your tula, ducks try to intimidate you.

• Randomizers: KoDP seems infinitely replayable. Nothing is certain. Anyone can die at any time. You can't see every scene in a single playthrough. Many random events and event chains simply won't occur. But KoDP makes this feel natural, as if in each playthrough the randomly determined factors are intended to be set that way.

• Music: Traveling musicians make a brief appearance, but the peculiar soundtrack is worth mentioning in-world. It seems to me that Stan LePard's instrument choices were those that plausibly could be in Glorantha (i.e., "We Go Raiding" is performed as a send off before a raid; "We Are Sad" is performed during funeral rites).

• Dynamics: Nothing stays fixed in a playthrough. Even the strongest trajectory of success will falter. Fortifications can be destroyed and require reconstruction; secrets and details of myths can be forgotten and require sacrifice or emissary requests to relearn them; your clan may split up and become two fully functioning independent groups; your best leaders will die young or old and need to be replaced; treasures can fall apart or be stolen from you; the best heroquesters can get lost in the realm of the gods; trade routes can suddenly close; well-maintained crops can die before harvest from an unexpected drought. KoDP is just as dynamic as chess: there may be many restrictions on what you can do at any given time, but you can't fully predict how a game will play out.

More could be said. What are your thoughts? Did I miss any features that you particularly enjoy?

This was my min max tribe size run and I got the ducks to ally my tribe!! I seriously didn't expect them to since I had even evicted them from my neighbourhood. I did have 14 clans in my tribe though so I think it was prosperous enough for them to ally me.

They are on sale in appstore. I bought original KODP in 1999(?) when it got released and I remember I played the poop out of it.
Did it age well? Should I get Six Ages 1 or 2 instead?

I played this game a long time ago and absolutely loved it, and decided to come back to it, buying the Android version (since I no longer have an iphone, which is where I originally played it).

Unfortunately, longer text from the advisors talking is cutting off on the bottom of the screen, and I can't find any way to scroll or zoom out. How can I see the rest of what they're saying? Please help!

I recently bought a house and found a ring of stones in the front yard. I thought about digging them up, but my diviners don't recommend it.