Gathering of the Titans: The Tol Chronicles Book 2 (42 page)

The next level is Procept, ruled by Sofricia the Beneficent. The upper boundary of this stage is as far along the path as most adult elves choose to travel. Those who have mastered Procept are considered fully mature and ready to lead lives of quiet contemplation and doing good works. Successful students take the title
Mellus
.

The third level is Concept, under the protection of Belfragos the Blind. During this phase of the journey, students must look only within themselves; the outside world ceases to exist for them. They are brought their meals and do not leave their small, windowless cells. For this reason, and because attainment can take as long as twenty years, only priests and those who seek high levels of spiritual enlightenment for other reasons will customarily enter into Concept. On average ten to fifteen students per year are admitted into the stage; of these only three or four will complete the training. Those who attain all aspects of Concept are addressed as
Stellus
.

There is a rarified fourth level, Transept, which has no patron deity. Stella who enter into Transept will serve as their own instructors and spiritual guides. They shed all possessions except a hooded robe and a walking stick they harvest and carve from a tree that grows only above ten thousand meters on two adjacent peaks in the Folmnissi Mountains of Turmia. Once they get their breath back, they then wander N’plork as beggars, meditating all the while. The Transeptian Pilgrimage, as it is called, may take the entirety of a candidate’s life to complete, if indeed it is completed at all. Those vanishingly few who do complete Transept are designated
Elevatus
and treated as demi-gods. As of this writing there are only three known living Elevata. None of them are able to walk very far on their own.

Dwarves are ‘reformed monotheists’ in that they once worshipped the god Acerbicon as a race, but after mass prayer failed to halt an epidemic that virtually wiped that race from the face of N’plork, the survivors turned their back on their deity and became confirmed agnostics. Now they get up on worship day and play ‘Supplicate
This
,’ a game involving hitting the many statues and stone murals of Acerbicon with as large a rock as possible while cheering and jeering. It does not seem to have brought about any further mishap to them. If Acerbicon exists and is watching, he may in fact be entertained by the ritual.

Gnome spirituality is not easily understood by outsiders. To the other races agnosticism, or rather strict antitheism seems to be an instinctive gnome behavior, but that is driven more by privacy than theology. Gnome domestic life can in fact be fraught with spiritual content, but is of a type that manifests in myriad superstition- like activities that are easily overlooked or misinterpreted by the unindoctrinated. Instead of formal worship rituals, for example, gnomes leave food, drink, and used (‘blessed’) containers for their domestic deities on designated altars called t’Vtraiz. To casual observers this simply looks like sloppy housekeeping. Gnomes invoke their deities by name only when agitated, ecstatic, or grieving. Unfortunately, researchers have been unable to make out what is being uttered on these occasions and so that aspect of gnome culture is still unknown to the rest of society. It may be that no one has thought simply to ask them. Gnomes can be rather terse when they think you are being too personal, which is almost always.

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.