From: Martin Crim (CRIMMARTI@urvax.urich.edu)
Date: Wed 13 Feb 1991 - 09:56:33 EET
This document gives some of the background to my current Sartar
campaign. It gives information all the player characters would
have, in the form in which they would have heard it. Like all
histories, it puts a framework around a portion of a seamless,
complex, often baffling river of events. It is probably no less
accurate than modern history, but it follows different rules.
GARHOUND FOUNDING LEGENDS
1. HOW THE TRIBE WAS FOUNDED
Before Belintar became Pharaoh, but after he had swum ashore
[roughly 300 years ago, or 12 generations as the Sartarites
reckon], Swen and his family left Heortland. In those days, the
land here was just called Dragon Pass, or the Haunted Lands, or
worse names. No humans lived here, except the Grazelanders in
the west. Swen walked here without fear, because he was a big
man, stout of heart, and endowed with mighty thews. His wife
spoke with the voice of the goddess, and appeased the spirits of
the land. Other clans and families went up at about the same
time as Swen's family, so Swen staked out his land to protect his
kin.
Swen laid the cornerstone of his longhouse, that was to become his city. His family slept that night in a long tent, and he set out guards. However, during the time of night when the bullfrogs croak, trolls slung bullets at his guards and slew them without a sound. Then all the trolls and trollkin crept up towards the tent, with nothing to protect the sleeping folk within. All at once, there came a loud barking and snarling, but eerie and spectral, sounding like it came from far away or from underground. Everyone inside the tent awoke, shivering and with their hair standing on end. They seized weapons and torches, and rushed outside the tent. They saw the hideous trolls, and fell upon them with a shout. As they were fighting trolls, blue-gray dogs attacked the trolls from the rear. Between the dogs and our valiant fighters, the trolls had no chance. They broke and fled, and were cut down.
Then a blue dog spirit approached Swen. Swen greeted the dog in friendship, and the dog replied with praise. Swen offered the hospitality of his home, and the dog accepted humbly. The embodied dogs followed the dog spirit into the long tent, and have lived with us ever since. The blue dog spirit, called the Garhound, wanders the hills and plains of our lands, often at night. He always returns to Swen's longhouse, though, to be by his friend and master. Thus it was that Swen's kin took the name of Garhound, and tattoed that mark on themselves as a sign of the alliance that helped them in the new land.
SWEN MAN, HARMONY
SPIRIT CULT: CITY AND TRIBE-FOUNDER
Spirit Magic: Coordination, Extinguish, Protection, Repair
Divine Magic: Common: Binding Enchantment, Command Cult Spirit,
Dismiss Magic, Divination, Extension, Heal Wound, Mindlink,
Sanctify, Soul Sight, Spell Matrix Enchantment, Spellteaching,
Spirit Block, Summon Cult Spirit, Warding, Worship Swen; Special:
City Harmony, Shield
Subservient Cult: The Garhound
Special Divine Magic: Howl (1 point, self, temporal, stackable,
reusable). Allows the caster to howl like a preternaturally loud
hound. The howl awakens all within 1 kilometer per point of the
spell. Prolonged howling can communicate with other cultists
within that range, as if it were normal speech. Outside that
range, the howl cannot be understood.
2. HOW THE ALLIANCE WITH THE HIGH LLAMAS HAPPENED After Swen had built his longhouse and raised the palisade around it, he looked to the east and saw a horde of Sable Riders coming up the valley. His sons drove his cattle and sheep into the palisade and shut the mighty gates. The Sable Queen rode up and demanded tribute, but Swen refused. The Queen's archers launched flaming arrows into the palisade, but Swen's sons put them out before they could burn the longhouse. The Queen then set a portion of her tribe to besiege the fortress, and she plundered the valley.
While she was away, Swen led his sons out in a foray against the Sable Riders. Although they were outnumbered, Swen's band had the advantages of surprise and their fighting dogs. As the battle hung in the balance, a troop of High Llama riders loped over a nearby hill. The Sable Riders, fearing a lance charge, turned and ran. Swen cut them down like stalks of grain.
The High Llama Men praised Swen for his prowess and courage. Their leader was a Wind Lord named Anvil Head, who swore that any enemy of his enemy was his friend. Anvil Head and Swen dismounted and clasped hands. Then they exchanged gifts, and feasted together. Since that day, our tribe and the High Llama Tribe have been friends.
3. HOW WE CAME TO OWN PIMPER'S BLOCK
When Swen came to this land, Pimper's Block already stood, a
market city for all Praxians. The oasis people lived there, and
served and sold to all the human Praxians. After Swen became a
god, one of his sons went there to buy slaves. This son's name
was Knut.
Knut was a hot-tempered man, a follower of the Storm Bull. He had taken a wife from the High Llama Tribe, who calmed his rages. He had been on the pilgrimage to The Block, and had been to Pimper's Block many times before.
Knut went to the chief man of the city of Pimper's Block. This chief man was of the oasis people, and small and craven like all his kin. Knut paid the chief for the right of first pick of all slaves brought in that week. The chief accepted payment. Then Knut paid for a place to stay while he viewed the captives. The chief gave him a dank, smelly house to live in, worse even than the dark, filthy huts the oasis people live in. Knut was angry, but held his temper because this was not his land. The next day, however, Knut heard that some slaves had been brought in and sold without his knowledge. Knut returned to the chief in a fury. The chief's brazen lies and craven whimpering drove Knut into a berserk frenzy, and he struck off the chief's head with a single blow. Then he seized the chief's house and property.
That day, Knut declared himself Lord Mayor of Pimper's Block. He ruled till the end of his life, and his sons after him, until the Lunars came. But the people there are still mostly oasis people, but with a large number of Zwaard clan folk of our tribe.
Under Knut's rule, the city grew and built new fortifications. Buyers came from Tarsh and the Holy Country.
Now the Lunars refuse to treat the city as part of the Garhound kingdom. It is under the rule of a lunar Etyries priest. They take the first choice of slaves and pay below market prices.
4. THE COMING OF KING SARTAR
This land was twenty-four separate kingdoms before King
Sartar took the High Throne. That was almost 5 generations ago.
Sartar didn't become king overnight, though. He first traveled
all around the various kingdoms as a simple traveler, meeting and
talking with all folk, both lords and commoners. He traveled
alone at first, but gradually acquired several followers. One
was a big fellow named Geo, who later founded his own cult.
Sartar never told why he was travelling, except that he wanted to meet all the inhabitants of Dragon Pass. He said the same thing in Beast Valley, Sun Dome County, the Grazelands, Black Horse County, and Tarsh. He would never take part in anyone's horse, cattle, or even sheep raid. He never offended anyone, and always had a good word for the folk he had met.
Then Sartar went back again to the seventeen tribes he liked the best, and told them to send one representative for a great ritual to Orlanth he planned in the Quivin Mountains. He didn't say what the ritual would be. Anyway, all the tribes except Sun Dome County sent representatives. The Sun Domers said they didn't care about Orlanth rituals. The sixteen tribes were the
Vedda, the Kanikar pygmies, the Irular, the Kada, us Garhounds, the Yenadi, the Kheldon, the Shabar, the Colymar, the Khond, the Aranwyth, the Maboder, the Malani, Tworidge Farm, the Culbrea, and the Torkani. Sartar did the ritual, and it turned out to be a doubleritual. In part, he traced the outline for a city, which he called Boldhome. All the tribal representatives had to participate, because they had agreed to enter the Orlanth ritual. The other part was a coronation. Sartar spoke to all present that the lands of Dragon Pass needed a High King, and he spoke wisely. All agreed that he should be King over them all, so the Patriarch of the Old Wind Temple, who represented the Irular, crowned Sartar High King over Dragon Pass. The next day, Sartar wed the Feathered Horse Queen of the Grazelands, confirming his right to rule.
The biggest thing Sartar did after that was to pacify the Telmori. Those wolf-runners had plagued Dragon Pass since before we came out of Heortland. Sartar made a treaty with them, set boundaries for their land, and accepted their oaths of fealty and homage.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.7 : Fri 10 Oct 2003 - 01:54:07 EEST