From: Nick Brooke (100270.337@compuserve.com)
Date: Tue 30 Jan 1996 - 10:46:49 EET
Here's the story I wrote and told at RQCon Down Under:
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KING ARGRATH
King Argrath was the greatest ruler Glorantha had ever seen. He ruled all of
Dragon Pass, and his court was full of the wisest men, the most beautiful women,
the bravest soldiers and the rarest treasures from all over the world. He owned
gold, and jewels, and magical prizes which made his heart content. But then one
day a twisted little man came to the court. He looked around, and then he said
to the king:
This is all well enough, I suppose, King Argrath. But do you not know that the
Yellow Emperor of the East possesses a treasure so wonderful that everyone in
his lands is better off for it? They live longer, they work harder, they pay him
more taxes, and they love him for it! King Argrath was struck by rage and
jealousy to hear this. He summoned his armies, and marched against the Empire of
the East.
Nobody had ever done this before, of course, because the Yellow Empire is
separated from Dragon Pass by the Great Wastes. But Argraths army included all
of the Tribes of Prax, and they showed him how to survive in that desolate land,
bringing their herds of nomadic beasts to feed and protect the army, and leading
him swiftly and surely through the desert.
But even the warlike Praxians had never attacked the Empire of the East, because
it is guarded from the Wastes by a great wall of impregnable Iron Forts. These
are protected by an army of inscrutable dragon soldiers, and behind them are
great grey beasts called elephants, which can dash a man to death with their
noses. And they had never been defeated.
King Argrath drew up his army in the desert before the line of impregnable
forts, and he ordered the Praxians to march their herds widdershins around the
host. Faster and faster they went, until the greatest stampede in the world was
turning about King Argraths army. Then a great whirlwind spun down, amid clouds
of choking dust, and picked up the army and carried them to the other side of
the Iron Forts.
They fell upon the great grey elephants from behind, and found that they were
not so fierce with their noses cut off. The injured elephants charged away from
King Argraths army, crushing the army of dragon soldiers into an inscrutable
paste against the impregnable iron forts. King Argrath then rushed into the
Empire of the East in search of the Yellow Emperor.
King Argrath caught him just as he was fleeing across a mighty bridge to his
palace on the other side. Yield! he cried. Give me the treasure which I seek.
Give me the only thing in the world which I have never owned! Or I will smash
your palace, and break your bridge, and let the nomad herds of Prax graze in
your pleasure-gardens!
The Yellow Emperor of the East turned pale at these threats, and said: I would
gladly yield my treasure to you to avoid such a fate, but the truth is, I dont
have it any more. I believe the Black Jann of the South possesses it now:
perhaps you should go to him and demand it with menaces? I am very sorry to
inconvenience you in this way, and greatly regret that your trip to my Empire
has been such a waste of time.
Nothing daunted, King Argrath called off his forces (who were plundering the
rice paddies and knocking the tops off pagodas) and marched them to the sea. He
called his wise men, and they designed a great boat, shaped like a Cradle, which
could carry his whole army across the Ocean to the Black Lands of the Southern
Continent. The army leapt aboard, and they were off, whizzing southwards across
the Ocean, spinning around the Great Whirlpool like a twig in the stream, before
running aground on a sandy beach beside a jungle in the lands of the Black Jann
of the South.
The Black Jann had drawn up his army of Agimori Men-And-A-Half to meet them at
the jungles edge. These great black men from the Southern Continent are half
again the size of normal men in every direction, and as the firstborn children
of Lodril they carry mighty spears. They had no intention of allowing King
Argraths army to disembark from the Cradle, but swore they would chop them to
bits piecemeal, and then eat them.
So instead of sending out his troops to be cut to ribbons, King Argrath ordered
his dancing girls out first. The beautiful women of Esrolia swirled out onto the
sand, in the most erotic and enticing display ever seen in the South. The
Men-And-A-Half were profoundly affected: the blood rushed from all their
extremities into their mighty spears, and as they fell fainting to the ground
and wrestling with their engorged manhoods, the army of King Argrath rushed from
the Cradle and took them from behind. The carnage was terrible.
The Black Jann of the South fled the destruction of his army in a chariot pulled
by peacocks (for there are no horses in the Southern Continent), but King
Argrath was faster upon his Grazeland charger, and swiftly ran him to earth.
Yield! he cried. Give me the treasure which I seek. Give me the only thing in
the world which I have never owned! Or I will crumble the towers of your coral
palace and burn your jungle to ashes!
The Black Jann of the South turned white with fear, and said: Master! Do not
slay me! The treasure you seek is not here any more! But the White King of the
West rules a mighty Empire: he must know where it is to be found! With
unflinching resolve, King Argrath called off his forces (who were ravaging the
bazaars and souks of the southern cities) and returned them to the Cradle. They
pushed off from the Southern Continent, and whizzed past Old Jrustela as the
spinning currents dragged them towards the White Kingdom of the West.
In the Kingdom of the West, their landing was unopposed. For the Army of the
West is of mighty horsemen, called Knights: they fight dressed from head to foot
in iron, on the back of black warhorses from Hell, and they are undefeatable in
battle. Behind them were batteries of artillery, great dwarf-built catapults and
mangonels and trebuchets for hurling mighty rocks upon their foes. They arrayed
themselves on the green Asgolan Fields to meet the army of King Argrath.
King Argrath knew he had no troops as good as these Knights of the West, who
would surely cut through his army like an iron knife through straw. So although
he lined up his battle-troops against them, when they charged he pulled aside
the centre of his line, and the nomad herds of Prax were revealed. The smell of
these beasts is odious to horses, even to the black warhorses of Hell: they
turned white at the shock and collapsed, thrashing and vomiting on the ground,
throwing their riders who were impaled upon their own lances, or who sank into
the ground at the impact.
The White King of the West saw the disaster, and fled upon his charger to his
great, stone-walled castle, banging shut the iron portcullis and locking himself
up in his topmost tower. But King Argraths wise men had already fathomed the
workings of the catapults and mangonels and trebuchets, and they launched his
warriors spinning through the air: they landed atop the highest battlements, and
fought their way down into the castle from above.
King Argrath himself caught the White King of the West on the spiral staircase
of his highest tower. Yield! he cried. Give me the treasure which I seek.
Give me the only thing in the world which I have never owned! Or I will tear
apart the very stones of your castle, and hurl you out to sea from that mighty
catapult yonder.
The White King of the West turned whiter still, and said, I yield me! Thou hast
bested me, and my strength availeth not against your force. Prithee, good sir,
for the treasure you seek is not to be found in my dominions. The only ruler
greater than I is the Red Emperor of the North: an he possesseth it not, surely
no man may do so!
Taking heart from this news, King Argrath called off his forces (who were
holding impromptu tourneys through the fields of the West) and turned against
the Red Empire of the North.
Now you must know that the Red Emperor had never invaded the lands of the White
King of the West only because there is a lofty mountain range between their
lands, uncrossable except at one pass. And no normal army can use this pass, for
it goes so high, between cliffs of ice and snow, that the slightest sound will
trigger an avalanche and sweep everyone to their doom, be it only so little as
the slightest cough, or belch, or fart.
King Argraths wise men knew this, and before the climb they gave everyone a
drink of golden mead and a bowl of porridge to eat. The herbs in the mead
ensured that no-one would catch a cold and sneeze, while the stodgy, salted
porridge ensured that everyone was bunged up inside and would not suffer from a
catastrophic bowel movement while the army was in the pass. In grim silence they
crossed the mountains, and when they descended to the other side they all
relieved themselves: the land where they did this is now a festering cesspit
called Dorastor, and you should know that it was King Argraths army who made it
that way, as they marched against the Red Empire of the North.
The Red Emperor had seen them coming from his highest minaret, and he drew up
his army to meet them in a mighty phalanx, rank upon rank of iron-armoured
hoplites, who moved as one man and were invulnerable in defence. Behind them,
the Red Emperor himself sat upon the Crimson Bat, a mighty demon with
all-devouring appetite. The Red Army of the North fought as normal men, but when
the Moon was full none could stand against their warped fanaticism. As King
Argraths army deployed against them on the plains of Peloria, the Red Moon was
turning its quizzical gaze more and more fully towards them, summoning up all
its magical powers.
King Argrath knew, though, that until the full of the moon the hoplites would
not attack, only defend (though in defence they were invulnerable). So he
waited, and he waited, as the iron spearpoints shone more and more redly in the
ever-brighter moonlight before him, until the Red Moon was full. Then, as one
man the Red Army of the North turned about, falling to their knees to offer
praise to the Full Moon at their rear. At that moment, Argrath unleashed his
berserkers, men who fought naked, swinging great swords as tall as themselves:
swirling and chopping they ran amok through the prostrated ranks of the army
upon their prayer-mats, and left none living.
The Red Emperor pulled on the reins of the Crimson Bat, to send it to devour
King Argraths army, but seeing a feast of mangled men before it, the demon
glutted itself upon them instead. As the Red Emperor raged upon its back, he
fell off, down through the air, to land in the mud with his neck beneath King
Argraths booted foot.
Yield! King Argrath cried. Give me the treasure which I seek! Give me the
only thing in the world which I have never owned! Or I will smash your
aqueducts, and sack your cities, and wash my armies in your bath-houses!
The Red Emperor of the North blanched and replied, I cannot give you the
treasure which you seek. But my mother, the Moon Goddess, surely can. She dwells
on the Red Moon, and all the treasures of the earth are hers to bestow.
Argrath spoke with his wise men, and they told him how he might reach the Red
Moon itself. He led his army to the tallest mountain in Glorantha, called Mount
Top-Of-The-World. They marched around and around, higher and higher, cutting a
path into its side as they rose until it was carved like Stormwalk Mountain with
a spiral road to the top. When they reached the summit, they could see the Red
Moon hanging across from them, floating in the Middle Air. King Argrath spurred
his charger and leapt through the empty air, mile after mile, high above the
world below, until with a shock he landed upon the Red Moon.
The Moon opened before him like the petals of a flower, and within he saw a
beautiful woman, fairer than any at his court. She spoke to him softly, but he
would not listen. Dragging his iron sword from its scabbard, King Argrath held
it to the throat of the Goddess of the Moon, and cried: Yield! Give me the
treasure which I seek! Give me the only thing in the world which I have never
owned! Or I will tear you from the sky, and shatter you across the earth, and
make it as if you had never been!
The Moon Goddess smiled, and said, Yes, great King. I possess the treasure for
which you have made war against the world. And I will give it to you freely, if
you will accept it. For that treasure which you have never owned, and never
known, is Peace: a treasure so wonderful that everyone in the land which
possesses will live longer, work harder, pay higher taxes, and love the ruler
who can grant it to them.
She reached out her hand, touching King Argrath upon the forehead. There and
then, he knew Peace. He looked out from the Red Moon to see the ruin he had made
of the world, and he wept like an unconsolable child.
The tears of King Argrath washed over the Red Moon, draining it of colour,
turning it white. They fell down upon the world below like rain. The
lamentations of King Argrath unbalanced the White Moon, shaking it from its
place, moving it across the heavens. They boomed out over the world below like
thunder. Argrath cast aside his weapons: they fell like bolts of lightning. He
cast aside his crown: his hair and beard covered the sky like clouds, at first
the blackest stormclouds, but later, white as snow.
Below the wandering Moon, the empires of the world lay in ruins: King Argraths
doing. Great storms covered the sky, bringing grief and destruction: King
Argraths doing. Greed and ignorance had destroyed the old world, wrecked all
that was beautiful, banished peace forever: King Argraths doing.
This is the thing King Argrath did. This is how the White Moon came to be. This
is the story of the Man in the Moon, and how he weeps for the world below. This
is why Peace is nowhere to be found.
Hail the Goddess!
Bless us!
====
Nick
====
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End of Glorantha Digest V2 #349
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