Does Theomachy Take Place in the Glorantha Universe?
No, it does not. Theomachy: The Ancients is a bluffing card game built around Egyptian, Greek, and Mesopotamian gods plus the Outer Gods of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, while Glorantha is a completely separate fantasy world created by designer Greg Stafford and licensed by Petersen Games for the board game The Gods War.
Search around long enough and you will find people online lumping every "gods fighting each other" game from Petersen Games into one mental bucket. Fair enough. The company does publish more than one game about deities going to war. But Theomachy and The Gods War are not set in the same place, and nothing on either product page claims otherwise. Here is what actually connects them, and where the line sits.
What Is Theomachy, and Which Mythologies Does It Actually Use?
Theomachy: The Ancients is a poker-style bluffing card game for 2 to 4 players. Each round deals a shared row of "constellation" cards, similar to the flop, turn, and river in Texas Hold'em, and players ante followers before betting across the hand, calling, raising, or folding on cards only they can see.
The pantheons in the box are real-world ones: Egyptian, Greek, and Mesopotamian gods, according to the product's own catalog description, with the Outer Gods of Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos sitting alongside them as a Petersen Games signature move. The companion set, Theomachy: The Warrior Gods, adds Celtic, Norse, and Slavonic pantheons and pushes player count up to 8 when the two boxes combine. None of that touches Glorantha. Petersen Games does not credit an individual designer on Theomachy's own product listing, and the game's rules never mention runes, Heroquests, or elemental empires, the vocabulary that defines Glorantha. It is its own small box with its own mythology roster.
What Is The Gods War, and How Is Glorantha Connected to It?
The Gods War is a different animal entirely. It is an asymmetric strategy board game designed by Sandy Petersen and set in Glorantha, the mythic world Greg Stafford built. Players take the part of powerful elemental forces, fighting over territory, casting miracles, and commanding monsters and gods while the world edges toward collapse into the Chaos Rift, per Petersen Games' own product description.
Stafford introduced Glorantha in 1975 through the board game White Bear and Red Moon, published by his company Chaosium, according to Wikipedia's entry on Glorantha. The setting grew from there into the RuneQuest and HeroQuest roleplaying lines and a genuinely deep library of published lore. Stafford, an American game designer who lived from 1948 to 2018, spent decades building that world out. Petersen Games licenses Glorantha for The Gods War. It does not own the setting, and Stafford's mythology is credited accurately on every product page that touches it.
So Why Do People Connect Theomachy and The Gods War?
Theme, mostly. Both games put gods, or god-like forces, in direct conflict, and both come out of the same studio. That is a real similarity worth noticing. It is not a shared story.
BoardGameGeek's listing for Theomachy: The Ancients and BoardGameGeek's listing for Glorantha: The Gods War describe two structurally unrelated games. Theomachy runs on hidden hands and betting rounds finished inside 30 minutes. The Gods War runs on territory control, resource management, and council-phase diplomacy across a session that typically lands between 90 minutes and two hours. One is a filler-weight bluffing game. The other is a sit-down centerpiece wargame with a licensed setting behind it. Fans who own both tend to describe them as separate branches of the same publisher's catalog, not two windows into one continuity, and that is the accurate way to frame it.
If you want an actual physical crossover point instead of a thematic one, look at the Battle Dice set. Those troll-skull custom dice were made for The Gods War first and also work with Cthulhu Wars, Petersen Games' other big-box mythic wargame. Theomachy is not part of that crossover. It ships with its own cards and needs nothing else from the catalog to play.
Is Theomachy or The Gods War Currently in Stock?
Theomachy is not. As of this writing, both Theomachy: The Ancients and Theomachy: The Warrior Gods show sold out on petersengames.com, with no restock date listed. That is worth knowing before you go looking for a way to buy in.
The Gods War is available, but check the edition carefully. The original English-language listing for The Gods War is also currently sold out on the site. The edition in stock right now is The Gods War VF, the French-language edition, priced at $129.99. Same game, same Glorantha setting, same Sandy Petersen design, just printed in French. If a French-language rulebook and component text is not a dealbreaker for your table, it is a real, purchasable way into the setting today.
Should You Buy The Gods War VF If You Are a Theomachy Fan?
If what you liked about Theomachy was the "gods clashing for supremacy" premise and you want to see that idea scaled up into a full strategy game, yes, it is worth a look. Just go in knowing it is a genuinely different experience: no bluffing, no betting rounds, no shared card row. You are managing an empire, building power over multiple rounds, and negotiating with the table over whether to close the Chaos Rift or let it consume someone else's territory first.
That is a fair trade for a lot of hobbyists. Theomachy fans who want more of the "clash of the gods" theme without waiting on a Larva Games restock now have a real, in-stock option in The Gods War VF, and it happens to be a heavier, longer, more collectible centerpiece title than the card game that first got them interested. In-stock orders from Petersen Games process within 48 hours, and US orders ship via USPS Ground Advantage in 2 to 5 business days, with rates calculated at checkout.
Frequently Asked Questions About Theomachy and The Gods War
Does Theomachy: The Ancients take place in Glorantha?
No. Theomachy: The Ancients draws its gods from real-world Egyptian, Greek, and Mesopotamian mythology, plus the Outer Gods of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. Glorantha is a separate, wholly original fantasy world created by Greg Stafford, and Theomachy's product page and rules make no reference to it.
Who created Glorantha, and how is it connected to The Gods War?
Greg Stafford created Glorantha, introducing it through the 1975 board game White Bear and Red Moon from his company Chaosium. Petersen Games licenses the setting for The Gods War, an asymmetric strategy game designed by Sandy Petersen. Glorantha itself remains a Chaosium property.
Is Theomachy in stock right now?
As of this writing, both Theomachy: The Ancients and its companion set Theomachy: The Warrior Gods show sold out on petersengames.com. There is no listed restock date, so check the live product pages directly before planning around either title.
Is The Gods War in stock, and how much does it cost?
The Gods War VF, the French-language edition, is in stock on petersengames.com at $129.99 as of this writing. In-stock orders process within 48 hours, with US orders shipping via USPS Ground Advantage in 2-5 business days.
What is the actual link between Theomachy and The Gods War?
Both come from Petersen Games and share a theme of gods fighting for supremacy, but they are not part of one shared canon. Theomachy is a small-box bluffing card game pulling from real-world pantheons and the Cthulhu Mythos. The Gods War is a big-box strategy game licensed into Greg Stafford's Glorantha and designed by Sandy Petersen. Think of them as thematic cousins from the same catalog, not chapters of the same story.
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