The World

Glorantha is not a globe, but instead is a slightly bulging, squarish lozenge, the shape of the Earth Rune. It floats upon Sramak’s River, the Primeval Ocean that encircles the world. Between the Earth and Sky is the turbulent realm of the Air gods. Underneath both Earth and Water is the dark, silent Underworld. Beneath the Sky and the Air, and sitting on top of the Earth, is the Middle World—the realm of mortals. It has a northern and southern continent, and many islands.

The Sun rises from the east each morning, passes over the Air, and across the Sky to set each evening in the west. It then travels beneath the seas and the earth through the Underworld, and finally again up to the eastern lands of the Dawn. While the Sun is in the Underworld, the Goddess of Night rules the Sky.

The Sky itself is an off-center bowl, rotating about the Pole Star which marks its center: the only stable point in the Celestial Dome. Beyond the Sky is the Sky World. At night, the stars show where the magical denizens of the Sky World peer through to guard their followers below. Similarly, the Underworld is populated by immortal creatures, as well as by evil dreams and by the souls of the dead and unborn.

Beyond the Middle World are the lands of immensely powerful supernatural races, such as Altinela, Vithela, or Luathela. The beings of these lands occasionally come to the world of men, but few men ever travel to them. Some are areas of myth, like the Sea of Fire where the Sky fell to Earth and set everything burning, or the Lands of Dawn and Dusk where the Sun rises and sets each day. Only Heroes can travel to such realms and survive, and from there they can find their way to the very worlds of the gods.

Genertela is the northernmost continent. It is colder than the southern continent, and the northernmost regions are uninhabited except by ice demons and snow trolls. The White Sea separates the permanent winter from the northern lands of mortals. The continent is temperate in climate, and in the south the seasons are moderate.

The great central oceans of Glorantha are mild and almost balmy, though seasons affect them. The many islands are pleasant places, semitropical in nature. At the center of the world, Magasta’s Pool draws all the world’s waters into it and drops them to the dark primordial sea below.

The inhabited lands of the southern continent developed independently from the north, though both cultures came into violent conflict during the previous era, called the Second Age. The northern coastal regions are extremely pleasant, but the temperature increases the further south one travels. Beyond the lands that men know are dense jungles and, finally, the arid and unlivable Burning Wastes.

The world is everywhere populated by magical entities who are personifications of things, who represent life essence, or who are spiritual truths. Many of these beings are alive in every sense, but many are not. Most people live only in the normal, Mundane World, content to let shamans and Rune Masters protect them.

But the influence of the magical world is always there.