Gnarlignomes and their deities are interchangeable, for the most part. Both are short, wrinkled like an ancient boot left propped against the garden all winter, and irascible to a fault. While there are reputedly at least five gods in the gnarlignome pantheon, the only one routinely invoked is Arfsweener, the “Protector of the World,” as he is sometimes called because of an inscription on an ages-old stone megalith in Tantatku. At least one scholar who specializes in ancient engravings insists that the text actually reads “Expectorator.” With gnarlignomes the distinction hardly bears discussion.
Bugbears tend to worship the Deep Ones, gods of the N’plorkian subsurface regions. The origins of the association between underground structures and bugbears are not immediately obvious. While it’s true that most affluent bugbears choose caves or cave-like dwellings to call home, the historical record does not show any particular evolutionary connection between bugbears and the subn’plorkian lifestyle. It may be simply that underground spaces were a niche not already occupied by the other races. Bugbears are smaller, on average, than any race but gnarlignomes and not at all warlike in disposition, so they might have seen the as-yet undisputed realm of the cave and cavern as quite attractive.
Their above-average intelligence and peaceful, studious demeanor is ideal for developing magical prowess, yet few choose the mantle of mage (although those who do often reach considerable heights within the profession; see for example Archmage Ballop’ril of Qoplebarq). The vast majority of bugbears are, not surprisingly, miners; a few choose to farm the numerous species of fungus used in their own and some other races’ cuisines. As an aside, a race reported by early goblin voyagers to the cavern-rich regions of Litria, a race that spent all of their time underground and were capable of “clawing the rock with their own hands,” whom they designated as deep gnomes, were almost certainly bugbears. The goblins had never before encountered the heavy tool-laden gauntlets habitually worn by bugbear miners and were therefore excused for mistaking them for their actual hands. Today the title ‘deep gnome’ is still bestowed upon the class of bugbear miners who do the most expert work in cavern-building, creating underground masterpieces without disturbing the native rock formations or the natural cave ecology, which all bugbears regard as sacred.
Ogres are too primitive and easily angered to have much of a spiritual life. Any deities they worship would need to be ones impressed by clubbing wildlife, hitting stones together, and clubbing other ogres. Although ogres are capable of language, some of the more intellectual among them achieving a vocabulary rivaling that of tropical mimic-avians, they choose to communicate with gestures—and by ‘gestures’ is meant ‘aggravated assault.’
After tens of thousands of years of clubbing one another incessantly, ogres have developed protective bony plates or plaques embedded in the space between their epidermis and dermis. This adaptation has enabled them to avoid succumbing to blunt force trauma long enough to reach reproductive maturity and keep the species going, despite most unbiased observers’ strong advice to the contrary.
There is one archaeological find relevant to ogre theology: on the southern tip of Nerr, children playing discovered an ancient barrow that contained an altar and numerous artifacts— presumably of a religious nature—of workmanship that could only have been ogrish in origin, owing principally to their having been shaped by bashing various raw materials with a club. The simple engravings showed great skill in that engraving anything at all with a club is difficult to say the least. They invoked the god Imo (eye’ moh) in some form of retributive curse: “Imo kill Gug,” “Imo beat Huk” and “Imo take Dob female” among the most legible. Scholars who study ogres (from a distance) are divided as to the origin and ultimate relevance of this site.
Trolls are not deeply intellectual, but they do possess a superficial intelligence that seems anomalous when coupled with their enormous frames. This intelligence lends them a benign outlook on life and society, which is fortunate for the rest of the races because an angry troll can do a lot of damage in a short time. The Trollish approach to religion is equally benevolent: trolls believe they were put on N’plork as protectors or guardians of their smaller brethren.
They worship only two deities: Blok reigns over the domain of solid matter, such as stones, soil, mountains, and so forth. The aqueous realm—which includes air and other gases—is the dominion of Plisj. There is a small priestly caste in troll society, but their role seems to be limited to divining the gods’ moods and issuing the occasional demand or warning on their behalf. Most of these demands involve the priests’ own subsistence, as they are supposed to be provided with the necessities by the troll population at large but trolls, while extremely diligent when devoted to a cause, are likely to forget what they’re doing in mid-activity under other circumstances. Providing for their priests does not inspire devotion, it seems.
Kobolds are something of a mystery in all aspects of their lives, spirituality being no exception. They are extraordinarily insular; their interactions with the other races are by necessity only, although there are enclaves in major urban areas that are social to an extent. They mostly frequent taverns and similar venues, and the primary purpose in these excursions seems to be looking for other kobolds with whom to mate, since their traditional social outlets require a certain infrastructure lacking in the artificial setting of polyracial cities.
In their native villages, kobolds are tribal, with the average tribe consisting of 75 – 100 individuals. The Great Tribes are exceptions to this rule; as remnants of the earliest tribal affiliations they accumulated larger membership by dint of their long existence, and by aggregation of tribes that could no longer sustain themselves as independent groups. The three Great Tribes are Galga, Hinza, and Klaba. Each of these tribes boasts in excess of 1,500 members, although an exact count has never been released to the outside world by the Kofewalda, the grand moot of tribes that meets every ten years. Each tribe must send a representative to this moot, bearing certain mandated statistics and chronicles, including a tribal census.
In likewise fashion, the precise number of tribes existing in the Kobold nation, or Kabout, is uncertain. Most demographers place it at around 700. Lesser tribes are primarily geographically-oriented, although by tradition the Great Tribes were founded as trades guilds: Galga for wagoneers, husbanders, and artisans; Hinza for miners, laborers, and charcoalers; Klaba for sailors, dockworkers, fishers, and shipwrights. Members of the Great Tribes still primarily cling to these professions, although the percentage of ‘outers,’ as those who follow other paths are called, is growing steadily.
Orcs are of primitive mindset and seem to be mentally ill from birth as a racial characteristic. Their insanely aggressive personalities, triggered by seemingly random events, make them very difficult to study. It is thanks to a pair of dedicated scholars who risked life and limb hiding in the bushes for months that we possess the body of knowledge we do.
Orcish culture, if that word may be fairly applied here, dictates a strong hierarchical society with the leadership at each level consisting of those who can gain and maintain their positions by force of arms. Despite this warlike disposition, there is some evidence to suggest that quite remarkable works of art and artifice have been produced in orc compounds. The circumstances under which these artifacts were created are still a mystery.
Spiritually, orcs fall solidly in the shamanistic belief system. A shaman (Teg-Neg) is ‘called’ to his or her profession in a fit of religious ecstasy, which appears to be a seizure brought on by consumption of one or more of several psychoactive plants common to orc horticultural traditions. When one shaman challenges another for the title of Teg-Neg, a series of contests of wit and skill known collectively as the Lud-a-lud takes place, with the loser being forbidden ever to practice shamanic rituals again on pain of exile. Given that the other races both fear and intensely dislike orcs in general, exile is tantamount to execution, as lone orcs seldom survive more than a few weeks.
Orc gods are
gods of basic drives: Al-Dat is the chieftain of the gods, and preserves his preeminence against the almost constant stream of challengers by right of arms: for orcs believe that only the strongest may lead.
The god of combat (personal or in battle; orcs do not distinguish between them) is Wup-Dat. To him is also assigned the patronage of athletic competitions, illustrating that in orcish culture warfare is sport and sport is combat.
The god of knowledge and wisdom, such as exists in orc society, is Wuz-Dat.
The god of sexual relations (romance is an unknown concept to orcs) is Gyump-Dat. He is called upon, rather obviously, when one orc, almost always the male, desires to arrange a tryst with a recalcitrant member of the other gender. To balance things out, there are twin goddesses named Stawp-Dat and Slugg-Dat the females seem to invoke rather often, presumably when the advances of the males are undesired or poorly executed.
They only additional deity that the researchers heard reference to was one presumably involved with agriculture, cuisine, and food supplies, who the orcs called Chyawmp-Dat. There is also reference to a sacred artifact known as the Valtir, but its nature and purpose remain a mystery.
Titans, despite their immense size, are secretive and aloof. Little serious scholarly work has been done on their culture or even basic habits, as they are powerful, seemingly intelligent, and jealously guard their privacy, both individual and collective. Nevertheless, sites they have occupied extensively and then for whatever reason abandoned contain a wealth of inferential information. [Editor’s note: this monograph was written prior to the re-occupation of Hellehoell]
Arcanelementals
No treatise on mythology would be complete with mentioning the so-called Arcanelementals. Evidence for their presence is spotty, although they are accepted as having lived without question by a vast majority of the inhabitants of N’plork. They figure in many folk tales and lay histories, yet they left only a few tantalizing clues as to their origins and in fact objective existence.
The composite folk story of the arcanelementals is that they were the primary inhabitants of N’plork long before our ancestors evolved sentience and the races diverged. They were “seeded” to N’plork by The Slice itself, although as far as scholars can ascertain there was no connection between the two realms prior to the parasciencers’ pivotal achievement. They were creatures of flesh and bone, but with an intrinsic, seemingly limitless, conduit to The Slice. Some researchers do believe that their primary or even sole purpose was to nudge those parasciencers along the right path to establishing the magic markers. This hypothesis, while not universally accepted, does help to explain how those goblins made the enormous leap from non-magic users to archmages in the incredibly short span of about two years.
What impetus would The Slice have for providing these magic mentors? The Slice, at least as current research would suggest, is almost as long as the universe itself, wrapping around the physical structures in chaotic patterns undetectable by any current astronomical instruments. Nevertheless, it has mass and contributes to the overall mass of the cosmos as what some call “dark matter,” although The Slice itself constitutes only a small percentage of that phenomenon. It has been conjectured that other as-yet-to-be-discovered overlapping dimensions containing energies totally unlike any known to N’plorkian scholars may account for the balance of this unseen mass.
The Slice itself is a vast regenerative organism, the largest living structure in the universe so far discovered. It generates manna on an almost incomprehensible scale and this magical energy pools into vast reservoirs that at length begin to destabilize the structural fabric of The Slice itself. In order to keep the manna accumulations down, it must be siphoned off somehow. The most expeditious means of accomplishing this seems to be creating colonies of mages on nearby planets who act as ‘relief valves’ when they draw manna for magical use. N’plork rests in a dense pocket of The Slice and so is an ideal candidate for providing such an outlet.
Another fact that lends credence to the arcanelemental theory is that the historical record and physical evidence supports the assertion that they went ‘extinct’ less than a centum (perhaps even within a few years) after the last Speculum was set in place. It could well be that, their mission over, they simply returned to their native habitat.
It is hoped that one day sufficient hard evidence will be uncovered to solve the mystery of the arcanelementals once and for all and fill the gaps in our understanding of the origins of the force we call magic. That day, when it comes, will represent a significant intellectual milestone for all the races of N’plork.
Table of Contents
Title
Copyright
Acknowledgements
Maps
Contents
Chapter the First
Chapter the Second
Chapter the Third
Chapter the Fourth
Chapter the Fifth
Chapter the Sixth
Chapter the Seventh
Chapter the Eighth
Chapter the Ninth
Chapter the Tenth
Chapter the Eleventh
Chapter the Twelfth
Chapter the Thirteenth
Chapter the Fourteenth
Chapter the Fifteenth
Chapter the Sixteenth
Chapter the Seventeenth
Chapter the Eighteenth
Chapter the Nineteenth
Chapter the Twentieth
Chapter the Twenty-First
Chapter the Twenty-Second
Chapter the Twenty-Third
Chapter the Twenty-Fourth
Chapter the Twenty-Fifth
Chapter the Twenty-Sixth
Chapter the Twenty-Seventh
Appendix
Gathering of the Titans: The Tol Chronicles Book 2 Page 33