The Seven Warrior Paths

Part of the reorganisation of the religion of Otkorion into a single, unified Church was to popularise certain Hero Cults. Rather than leaving them as small, distinct sub-cults, Surantyr wanted to unify them into the larger (more useful) warrior paths.

The Seven Warrior Paths are seven Hero Cults with large memberships centred around, and popularised, at Tempest Halls - the great temple to St. Orlanth in east Otkorion. To encourage membership, grandiose annual parties are held. The Seven Warrior Paths are relatively easy to join. They are all organised in the same, simple, manner - homogenising them together to make them easier to access, manage and control. Each is headed by a Warrior Caste priest answerable only to Kien Stormheart, Lord of Warriors in Tempest Halls. The priest organises the initiations into the Hero Cults, all of which have equal status. The priest has no power over any but the most devoted members - although he may excommunicate any who transgress the path.

The Seven Warrior Paths each demand a simple entry test and use the normal RuneQuest or Hero Wars rules for joining Hero Cults.

The Seven Warrior Paths are:

Alakoring Dragonbreaker: Described in the description of the St. Orlanth religion.
Emir Blackheath: A Hero from the Second Age who fought with a weapon all of his own design.
Alfaf Headtaker: A Hero who could sever the neck of any foe.
Heirsha Brodie: A Heroine from a few decades ago who fought with a spear and a sword.
Angryn the Dirty: An Eurmali warrior from the Grey Age who could use the powers of wind to blind and injure foes.
Merisanc the Impious: A pagan worshipping Malkioni, again from the Grey Age. Labelled an impious heretic by later Malkioni reigns, although now the Henotheists honour him. Merisanc had powers against the true atheists such as the Brithini or Vadeli.
Ferana Mountainthane: A First Age Heroine who had magics concerning the art of mountain fighting.

Emir Blackheath

Emir was a follower of Orlanth Four-Weapons in the Second Age. When the God Learners advanced upon Otkorion many Orlanthi formed rebellious groups against them - one such group were the Storm Kings of the Blackheath, led by Emir. Emir was to die after many valiant raids against the God Learners, his five great raids are told in the epic poem of Emirssaga.

Emir went on a HeroQuest to the Golden Age, and travelled to the Diamond Chamber of Kargan Tor. Here he learnt how to make a new weapon. It was constructed with a thick metal shaft with a semi-circular blade on either end, on opposing sides of the shaft. Members of the subcult can join and learn to use the weapon.

Hero Wars: The Hero Cult can be joined once a combat skill has been trained to 10W. Teaches a wholly new skill of Emir's Weapon at 12, and the cost of Hero Points. The weapon is a rank 3 weapon, any successful attack warrants a second attack and the target must resist as if having been attacked twice. No more attacks are warranted.

RuneQuest: The subcult can be joined at the cost of 1 POW, and the candidate must have a weapon attack skill at 90%+. Emir's Blade is a weapon with the following statistics:

SR	base att%	STR/DEX		dmg	ENC/ap
2	     05		10/13		1d8+1	2.5/10

The weapon gives an additional attack when a special attack or parry is made. No more than one extra attack can be gained in this method.

Alaf Headtaker

Alaf was a Third Age Hero. He perfected the ability to sever the heads of foes, and defeated the Seven Headed Emerald Dragon of Vustria, for which he is remembered.

Hero Wars: Teaches the feat of Sever Heads. Can only be used for the Coup De Grace to gain an edge. However, the edge that is gained is doubled.

RuneQuest: Teaches the Rune Spell of Sever Head:

Sever Head
1 point
touch, temporal, non-stackable, reusable
Can only be cast on a slashing weapon of size SR 2 or larger. If the weapon strikes the head, match the damage inflicted by the weapon after armour against the hit points of the head before damage is deducted. If the resistance roll is successful, the head is severed. It falls 2d6 metres in a random direction. Only effective when the weapon is used in it's slashing mode.

Heirsha Brodie

Heirsha is a Heroine from around 1570 ST. She was known for her activities against Sentanos, who were known to be actively working against the Church back then. Heirsha was a master of a spear and sword, one in either hand. She was assassinated, most claiming the culprits to be Sentanos killers.

Hero Wars: Members learn the Spear and Sword Skill, and may learn the feat of Dual Attack. Devotees can learn Heroforming.

RuneQuest: Teaches the rune spell of Dual Attack.

Dual Attack
2 points
self, temporal, non-stackable, reusable
Can only be used whilst using a spear in the left hand and a sword in the right. Gives one additional attack per round with the off-hand weapon i.e. one attack with sword, one with spear and one extra action per turn.

Angryn the Dirty

Angryn the Dirty was an Eurmali Hero from the Grey Age, known for his inventive use of tactics. He was also a worshipper of Orlanth, and learnt secrets from Orlanth Adventurous himself. The myths are unclear as to what happened to Angryn.

Hero Wars: Teaches the feat of Wind Blind. This blows dust and dirt into the foe's eyes to blind them. For every 4 ap's the opponent suffers, they are at -1 to actions as they are blinded (as with inflicting injuries, the ap's are not actually lost). This reduces by one every round that passes.

RuneQuest: Teaches the Rune Spell of Wind Blind:

Wind Blind
1 point
ranged, instant, non-stackable, reusable
This spell summons a blast of wind that blows grit, dirt and dust into the foe's eyes, blinding him. If the foe fails a (POW+head armour)x3 roll on 1d100, they are blinded. It takes 1d6 MR to clean the grit away to allow free vision.

Merisanc the Impious

Merisanc of the Western Shores was born in the Grey Age when the Malkioni actually toyed with theistic worship (a fact easily forgotten by the Rokari but well documented by Henotheistic sages). Merisanc was one of those who worshipped so-called pagan gods and was later branded "the Impious" by Malkioni churches after the Dawn.

Merisanc was a warrior who believed in the evil, base nature of all true atheists, those who believed in no higher power than themselves. His campaigns against the Brithini and Vadeli are also well remembered.

Merisanc vanished, never to be seen again, after a foray onto a Vadeli vessel.

Hero Wars: Teaches the feat of Destroy Atheists, which can only be used against True Atheists such as the Vadeli or Brithini.

RuneQuest: Teaches the Rune Spell of Destroy Atheist:

Destroy Atheist
2 points
touch, temporal, non-stackable, one-use
This spell can only be cast upon a weapon (although fists, feet etc... qualify). The weapon becomes Powered against true atheists such as the Vadeli or the Brithni, but versus anyone else the user is at one half attack and parry.

Ferana Mountainthane

In the First Age, there was a mountain in Lankst called Gwythalasane. When Arkat came, it cowered for he brought with him armies and men, fighters and killers. In their advance across Ralios, they plundered and destroyed, and Gwythalasane was a bountiful mountain who feared for his safety. He sought warriors to protect him, but only the Earth worshippers at his feet could hear his whispers. He called to his side a young woman named Ferana, and gave to her a suit of chainmail woven from sod and a sword cleft from granite.

She had the true blood of a warrior in her veins and the powers of Gwythalasane on her side. When the soldiers came she leapt from rock to rock and saw off her assailants as they stumbled up the mountainside. Ferana remained till the day she died, protecting her husband, the mountain. The mountain remains still in Lankst, now called Feranalamael.

She is worshipped now by those who fight in mountainous regions, such as Surkorion.

Hero Wars: Teaches the feat of Mountain Fighting. Devotees can learn to Heroform.

RuneQuest: Teaches the Heroic Skill of Mountain Fighting. For more Heroic Skills clich here.

Mountain Fighting
(Agility skills; Base 00%, make penalties for ENC)
This skill can only be increased by experience and starts at 05% upon joining the cult. It's maximum is always the characters Climb skill/2.

It is used to allow the fighter to utilise rocky outcrops, branches and other mountainous terrain in their fighting. Whilst engaged in battle, the character must choose at the start of the round which attack, parry or dodge to apply the skill to. On that specific action, if the skill roll if also underneath their Mountain Fighting skill, their success level is bumped up by one i.e. if a special parry is made, and that roll is also underneath Mountain Fighting, it is increased to a critical. This skill can only be used in mountainous terrain.