Vinga

Welcome to the Vinga page. Or rather, my Vinga page: despite rumours, John Hughes is the Vinga expert these days, not me. But people have asked me to keep this available, so it's been moved across from the old site. Here you will find the RQ cult writeup that got published in Tradetalk, a couple of temple descriptions and other background bits I wrote to go with it, and a collection of all the source material I used as a basis for the cult write-up. I'll try to add a list of the later (KoDP and HW) reference material as well, but there's a lot of it. And maybe someday I'll get round to writing up my theories on the history of the Vinga cult within Glorantha.

The RQ cult write-up

Related background

(non-rules, but RQ based)

Mothers and daughters.
The temple in Pavis
The Great Temple of Tarthcaer
and a HQ-based alternative myth about its founding

Other (RQ) versions and related cults

Early source fragments

Stories

Vinga and the Cloak of Snakes
Alison Place. This is the story that first got me really interested in Vinga: so it's all Alison's fault :)
Woad
A myth by Alexandre Lanciani, published here with his permission.
How Vinga Saved Orlanth
A story Pete Nash posted to the Digest, published here with his permission.
Dave Dunham's tale of How Vinga Joined Orlanth's Household
A story from Ralios.
How Polaris joined the Storm Tribe
One of mine, which mentions Vinga here and there. Pre-HW, and probably doesn't fit with the new, redefined Pole Star.
"Why Vingans Aren't Afraid Of Trolls", by Bruce Ferrie, explains Fight against Uz and the Deadly Spear Throw (yes, we're getting into HW territory now)
A recent and not very serious HQ-based myth about the founding of Tarthcaer

Vinga in KoDP

The Gloranthan computer game. If you've never heard of it, go to A Sharp's site and buy it. Now. It's that good.
Right, advert over (no, they don't pay me). KoDP shows Vinga as she was in the very early days of Dragon Pass, and shows her effects at clan level, rather than as she appears to individuals. There are two blessings she can give:

Fyrdwoman: pretty obvious, allows women to join the fyrd
Pathfinder: improves Explorer ability.

Now, this is a new idea on me. Dave Dunham points out that when Dragon Pass was first being resettled, Exploration was far more important than it is in the 1620s, so perhaps this aspect of Vinga's abilities has lost prominence. Sadly, he gives no myth showing how Vinga got her powers of Pathfinding. I'll have to write one someday.
If (when) you buy KoDP, you will also find some extra artwork on the CD. In the "Issaries" subdirectory, take a look at a file called "vinga.jpg". It's a stunningly good picture, even by the standards of KoDP: to my mind possibly worth the price of the CD alone.

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