Prosopaedia

Who's Who Among Gloranthan Gods and Goddesses

originally published in Gods of Glorantha

This document is Copyright © 1998 Issaries, Inc. It may be freely linked to, and one copy may be printed for personal use, but any other reproduction by photographic, electronic, or other methods of retrieval, is prohibited.

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Table of Contents

Babeester Gor Bad Man Bagog the Black Fang Brotherhood Blue Moon
Bolongo Brastalos

Babeester Gor [BAH-bees-ter GOR]

Elf, Orlanth, and Pamalt pantheons -- the avenging daughter and sacred guardian

When the Gods War perverted the world, the earth brought forth its own grim defender. Babeester Gor was born from her mother's corpse, axes in hand, body ritually scarred to carry deadly magic. She destroyed all kin-slayers, all oath-breakers who swore by her mother, and everything which desecrated the sacred places of the earth.

She was merciless and cruel. Once she slew so many defenseless residents of Healing Valley that she waded breast-deep in the gore, drinking the blood of victory and slaughter. Eurmal saved some of the healers when he turned the blood to beer, which Babeester Gor drank to blissful oblivion.

Every important temple to the earth deities is guarded by Babeester Gor's initiates and includes a shrine to her.

She is usually represented in temples as an iron axe decorated with scalps, genitals, and other grisly trophies.

Bad Man

Chaos pantheon -- First Enemy

The Bad Man is a powerful, maleficent spirit which can appear in many places at the same time. His existence causes people to fear contact between the spirit plane and the mundane world, for he seeks to halt the dissemination of magical knowledge. Now that the Horned God has spread the secret of shamanism across the world, the Bad Man has become the shamans' special foe, eternally trying to destroy shamans before their spiritual birth.

He appears in a variety of forms, usually becoming whatever the viewer fears most.

Bagog [ba-GOG]

Chaos pantheon -- chaos scorpion queen

Bagog is a huge bloated monster that invaded the world during the Greater Darkness. She birthed millions of hideous hybrid monsters by hapless fathers, whom she devoured. The race of scorpion men still blight the world, and though not all this species worship her, all descend from her.

Her crude worshipers rarely use images or pictures. In prehistoric manuscripts she is drawn as a gigantic wrinkled scorpion woman.

For more information on Bagog, see the Cult of Bagog.

the Black Fang Brotherhood

Orlanth pantheon -- assassin organization

The Black Fang Brotherhood is an organization of murderers-for-hire based in the ancient ruins of the city of Pavis, located in Prax. They worship Black Fang, the spirit of a ruthless bandit.

His temple image is reputedly a stiletto shrouded in a black hood.

the Blue Moon

see Annilla

Bolongo [boe-LONG-goe]

Pamalt pantheon -- the false god, the trickster

This empty being haunts Pamaltela, pretending to teach and pretending to mask secret wisdom behind his fooleries and mad actions. But there is nothing behind his mask. Those who are enthralled by him expend their lives in meaningless waste.

Whenever anything goes catastrophically wrong, people know that Bolongo had something to do with it. The Arbennan have a saying, "wearing Bolongo's mask," which is applied to anyone acting in an unusually stupid manner, to anyone who is possessed, and to that person chosen as the annual scapegoat.

Bolongo is always portrayed in art, myth, and legend as a mask.

Brastalos [BRASS-tal-ohs]

Merman and Orlanth pantheons -- sea storm

Brastalos is the wife of Magasta and psychopomp of the sea pantheon. She personifies both the raging hurricane and the calm eye of the storm. Her home is located at the center of the world above the Homeward Ocean. The children of Magasta and Brastalos are deadly waterspouts and whirlpools which dot the places where the air and sea meet, a plague to the godless.

She is portrayed among men as a raging wind or a waterspout. Among mermen (as usual for that race) her image is not graven.


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