Tag Archives: lore

The Arraqu or Tuptal-people of the western highlands

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The word Arraqu (a term from the Assyrian Magog language meaning “green ones”; the actual native name being Tuptal, “human”) signifies a culture of geographically isolated farmers, herdsmen and small crafting villages that settle the dales and hills of the Sillani mountains. Like most post-human races on the face of Earth, they descend from escaped slave stock of the otherworldly masters from the now-forgotten past.
Their moss-green skin and ascetic composition lend them a certain similarity with the slender reeds they sow in wide irrigated terraces. A proclivity to stand still for hours at a time  brought with it a misled reputation for tardiness. The truth is very different – being a very introvert people the hectic mannerisms of other races (foremost among them the hated Magog) alienate the Arraqu.

From the tenth year on, hair growth begins in Arraqu males. Their head hair is straight and resembles silky threads of a metallic hue. Women grow foot-long silver threads from the wrists along the arms up to their shoulder blades; visiting people often find they resemble birds when they spread their arms. Beards are uncommon in both sexes.

Clothing is worn in layers, and often very thick due to the cold of the highland passes. Garments of plant fibre or the skins of the great amphibian livestock they keep in shallow pools are prefered materials. Arraqu (or rather, Tuptal) interaction happens mostly inbetween members of a family; the extended families and clans  only gather for certain festivities in scattered ancestor temples to celebrate, barter and arrange marriages. The temples are also considered hordes of old knowledge: their collections include banishment spells against the demons and horrors from the deep pits of the ancient ones, as well as a few preserved artefacts handed down over generations. Arraqu tales are full of proud exorcists, speaking of enduring battles against nightmarish creatures fought in and by the minds of legendary priests of old. Some legends hold it was the threat of powerful sorcerers, summoners and all their legions that made their people climb the mountain and find life in isolation, although the greatest enemy nowadays is the Magog empire. Where once the foothills had been settled, they have now fallen to the red-skinned conquerors; their smelting ovens hungry for burnable wood as to create ever more weapons. Now that the hills have been all but deforested, the conquerors yet again look to enslave and remove the Tuptal people. The cold valleys between the mountains have great reservoirs of water; whole forests grow on the cliffs and mountainsides. Repeatedly Magog troops dared small missions to claim some of the lands. Most of them ended in a few burnt down villages and humiliation for the leading commanders – even though the Arraqu appear calm and peaceful they are very much able to defend their homeland. More than oneself-proclaimed conqueror fell victim to sudden landslides, cut-off icy passes or whole storms of arrows and thrown missiles. What the Arraqu of today lack in technology and strength of arms they make up for with stoicism and knowledge of terrain.

There are no noteworthy towns per se in the land of the Arraqu. In the last couple of centuries, and especially decades, the importance of the temples grew, though. Strongest among them is Hala, House of Ghosts.
The temples serve as gathering places in face of the threat of Gog; here council is held regarding the defence of the mountain ranges when the isolated villages face overwhelming force. By now a permanent war council has been established in Hala.

In the city of Gog many Arraqu serve as slaves; most of them are used as scribes, copyists and accountants, being too weak for manual labour in comparison to other slave stock. They are held in low esteem and often collectively punished when word of failed conquest reaches the empire, as to prove dominance over the hated enemy by humiliating defenceless captives where actual victory seemed impossible. The simple people of Gog enjoy such displays.

Meanwhile, scouts and explorers from Gog bring news from the far western lands. They report of a realm of similarly green-skinned people, obviously of the same species as the Arraqu, but with a different language and very different culture. They are rumoured to be lords of a strong kingdom in the deeper lands, riding thundering beasts and able to shape the glass plains with their magic. This may or may not be related to the oldest Magog records from the founding days of the empire of primitive city states of the green-skinned race laying in regions under rulership of Gog for a millennium. It seems their species was once amongst the most widespread, before the arrival of the Magog in this world.

The typical Arraq is no adventurer; his people is too prudent for the lure of risk, the search for doomed treasures and ancient royal tombs. An Arraq adventurer would be a free spirit among his kind; where his people look into the past and only at what is their own, he seeks the world beyond the cliffs. The mountains are a wall to him just as much as for all of his race, although not one of defence and security, but one to climb and surpass. His journey  can never end far from, but only via the outside world and all its wonders. Most Arraq know little of the world. Their temples hold great and dusty archives and knitted story-rugs, but mainly deal with their own myths, history and traditions. An Arraq walking the path of xenophilia and curiosity is not to be trifled with – he may be fragile-looking, but his mind is strong, his will impenetrable. More than one secret has been lifted by one such unusual person.
Other reasons for leaving the homeland may be the search for enslaved relatives, a rare case of vengeful desire or the reclamation of holy relics. Some Arraq priests travel the land as banishers and exorcists, attempting to purge the out-worldish demons from the world and prevent their return to the world. If he must use grimmer tools and perhaps claim possession of a few of the beasts himself while doing so, the price may be worth paying if it means he has a shot at saving future generations…

The Tuptal speak their own language that follows very rigid rules. They use syllables with fixed meaning (many of them, unknown to them, deriving from the language of the ancient Snake sorcerers they once escaped) which are arranged to form terms and sentences. The word for human consists of Tup, “wise”, and Tal, “creature”. The most important livestock of the Arraqu, the Búoptal, is called after Bú, “friendly”, Op, “source or spring”, and Tal; therefore meaning “friendly being from the spring”. The pitch of a syllable signifies whether it describes an object or an attribute. For example, while Bú is friendly, Bu is friend. Verbs follow a weirdly abstract system; one “does” not, but one is a “doer”.
Typical names consist of up to three syllables. The name knows no grammatical gender and most names are used for men and women. Sometimes male sex is signified by the suffix”-u”.
Buban (“friend of cloud”), Honlakí (“singer of ghost merciful”Sänger-Geister-gnädig, Geisterbesänger, eine Art Schamane), Pantalha (“Pan-being house”, the Pan-tal being a kind of huge iridescent snail.)

Arraqu characters in D&D-like systems would have decreased strength and increased wisdom or intelligence. Those who grew up in the mountains will fare well at survival and guerilla tactics in that terrain, while slave-borns may be good at dealing with pain.

The Citadel of Jogovar: Background and Upper Ruins (pt1)

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JhoghovahrAußenBeschriftet

A map of the area; one field equals six metres. Dashed areas below ground. Click to enlarge.

This post details one location found in the setting of Gog, Part 1 describes the history and the current inhabitants of the outside area of a ruin; the next parts will delve deeper.

Juggool was an alliance of several smaller city states and forts, collecting tribute from surrounding farming villages. It had been established by a race of posthumans similar to the modern herdsmen called the Njema tribes – oily-skinned, with elongated and slightly backward-curved skulls, light blue eyes, delicate features and long limbs. The lords of Juggool were gifted with great weapons they had found deep beneath the earth. The firelances, as they were called, brought ruin to all enemies on the field of battle. Other people of their time, armed with simple bows and hatchets of hewn stones, could defy their blaze. “Jogovar, Maw of the Red and Blue Fire”, was the strongest citadel of the Juggooli people. Beneath it, the realm’s sorcerers brought forth the weapons in labyrinthine cavers of a more cruel age.
The Juggooli were among the first people to be fought by the reappearing Magog, and among the most formidable foes, resisting for many years. Many soldiers lost their lives to the burning rods of the defending army, but eventually the flamebringers were cast down from the battlements and their corpses paraded, the siege towers and catapults of Gog – now save from the fire – tore down the walls. The town with its round stone huts was all but annihilated; the palace area was plundered and razed, the land covered with salt. The statues of the Juggooli gods were shattered in their holy places, the priests forced to denounce them.
While the remaining firelances were carried to the city of Gog as valuable loot – now laying in its treasure vaults for hundreds of years -, their origin remains a mystery: before the secret of their providence could be lifted, the last living witchking of Juggool impaled himself upon his sword.
The destruction of Juggool and its forts brought rich farmlands near the river Tsab to the Magog empire, gifted to settlers and veterans.
Distracted by more urgent problems at other fronts, at the passing of many decades, the search for the firelances quickly faded from memory. The fortress Jogovar turned to myth, and had it not been for a season of exceptionally strong winds a couple of years ago it would have remained but a story. As it stands, the broken remnants of its second defensive wall and parts of two others have been uncovered. Ruins of a few round stone buildings grow from the dust.
On this foundation, and with a sheer limitless supply of ready debris, an assortment of outlaws and fugitives (of about 20 permanent residents) began building a settlement about three years ago. Far from the more important trade routes the camp proves a secure retreat. Sometimes they rob travellers, sometimes they share the  water from the thousand year old well with them (marked as the circle above building d). The group of make-shift stonehuts, mended with clay, dung and rubble as well as sometimes a few leather tents (temporary; every two months for one week +3d6 nomadic inhabitants trading in livestock before continuing their march through the steppe) functions as caravansary, mercenary barrack and den of thieves. The nearby ruins serve as nothing more but a source of hewn work stones. Nobody knows of their eventful past, nor of the treasures – and dangers – waiting below.

Adventurers may turn this run-down “colony” into a base of operations; they may rebuild the citadel with help of the locals and take control over the area. In that case they would eventually become tributaries to Gog – or face retributions.  They may also come here to collect bounties on the residents, or find bloody work on the local thieves’ behalf.

Here follows a description of the inhabited areas of the rubble. Buildings a to h are part of the nameless settlement. Unless mentioned otherwise all buildings consist of reddish, roughly hewn rocks and possess floors of clay mixed with grasses. Roof are normally made from bount reeds and wood held in position by clay. The general inventory as well as room layouts is up to the reader’s imagination.

a) Juthul the Archer. A yellow-skinned Ulak man, who left behind the life of a herdsman and troubled the plains for a while as a bandit of some reknown. The inofficial leader of the local scum. Rules-wise, he is an ageing warrior who gets a big bonus to all attacks with bows or thrown daggers due to his eagle eyes. He is rather supple, with sun-dried wrinkly skin the colour of saffron and a long white beard. He wears an armour of hareded layers of linen with a coating of snake leather, the scales of which being of peculiar size. He has final word on whether strangers are accepted in as guests or robbed as enemies. Juthul lives in the uppermost of the inhabited houses, which is protected by a non-inflammable roof made of clay, supported by strong wooden beams on the inside of the house. Livestock is kept in his yard, where there is a fireplace. The house has an antechamber, a sleeping chamber, a common room for visitors with once-valuable futons and rugs as well as storage room with a humble collection of fine clothing and his collection of weapons. The most prized possession in their is a carefully knitted rug depicting an Ullaki woman and a child. Juthul does not tolerate questions regarding the rug or the depicted. He was once patriarch of a sizable family clan, but lost all relatives in a bloody feud with a bigger tribe resulting from his pride.
Juthul is surprisingly old, his strength diminishing, but as a foe he is not to be taken lightly, possessing an iron will, experience in battle, loyalty for his men and a stern conviction to defend what is his.

b) Gruula the Terrible. A yellow Ullak man, fugitive slave from the quarry town of Qutta, who first cut his master’s throat and then proceeded to murder his captor’s whole family. For two years he roamed the hills of Qutta as a cattle thief and petty robber before meeting Juthul. He has been working alongside him for eight years, seeing in him a sort of heroic father figure he is willing to protect with his life.
Gruula looks harmless, but he is an experienced cutthroat and in battle is filled with near-demonic frenzy. The other men fear him for his ferocity and his swings of temper. Gruula often talks to himself. For these and other reasons he lives in a house of his own instead of with the other men.
The walls to east of Gruula’s house stand only about as high as benches. They serve as the community’s meeting place.

c) Drushayanti, the Gubi woman. Blue-skinned, almost two metres tall, with mighty tusks with silver-filled carvings. Exceedingly strong and able to grant minor magical blessings. Seven years ago, her village in the great Rift was raided by slavers from the deep lands led by a male Gubi from a rival tribe; the prisoners were sold to all corners of the world. She sided with Juthul three summers past when he robbed a caravan where she had to work as burden-slave. Her training to become village shaman was never finished.
Drushayanti is smarter than she looks, working as a sort of logistician to the bandits organizing the gang’s equipment, provisions and supplies. She often takes over for Juthul when it comes to trade with friendly travellers, selling or bartering goods.

d) The great common housing. The western building serves entertainment, with beer kegs, tables, dice and whatever else belongs into a make-shift “inn”. Visitors of the settlement will be met here and catered for. In the eastern building live twelve men, including fugitive Magog triplets who had deserted from the army. The men are loud, obnoxious, violent and looking for quickprofit.
e) Glmuth the Cook, “Father of the Stable”. A fat Ullak with sickly skin responsible for the preparation of the meals in the common building d). In fact an astonishingly capable fighter who had served with Juthul long enough to possess certain privileges like a house of his own. Sometimes dares criticise Juthul, but surprisingly still possesses two ears. He misses two fingers, but for unrelated reasons. Glumith smells horribly, which might be due to him sleeping just one wall away from the camels and riding donkeys. Very agile for a man of his shape.

f) Dumuq-Ishkur, sagely healer from Gog. Nobody really knows why he’s here. In any case, he’s been caring for the wounded from Juthul’s gang for years. He keeps a few goats in the tower ruins. Next to his work as healer he is also the village’s butcher. Dumuq-Ishkur is not a man of violence and will run if battle erupts in the settlement. He owes a great debt to Juthul – some think he holds a share of responsibility for the feud that destroyed the old Ullak’s family. Others claim he found the dying Juthul, pieced him back together and thus robbed him of the possibility to die with honour with his family. Juthul trusts him.

g) Ruins of the outer tower. The circular walls are man-high and protected from the sun by tall grasses. The floor itself is about one step lower than outside. Entrance is possible via a bow-shaped hole in the wall and a small ramp between the buildings in f). The tower serves as a goat stable and, if necessary, a prison for captives. Shackles and chains are fastened to the wall. A half meter below the well-stomped clay and goat dung a lucky character may find an ancient silver ring bearing strange symbols. The ring emits faint magic (visible through the earth for those in possession of the gift) and protects its wearer from spells of control and influence. The plain-looking trinket was a gift from an enarmoured Juggool witcher to the secret man of his heart, an officer who died defending this very tower against the army of Gog. The ring was supposed to always remind him of the importance of true feelings.
Each day the ring is worn there is a 1 in 2 chance that, an hour after the sun’s highest position, a man will be heard weeping for a few moments.  Should the wearer become alerted of this he may concentrate and hear the weeping every day. This may come in handy as a rough measurement of time if below ground and without the sun to tell days apart.
Furthermore, each day there is a 1 in 100 chance that the translucent ghost of the witcher Houlagal, in a fine blue scale-like garment, is awakened. He will attack every Magog (or, for the matter, every Homo Sapiens Sapiens) in the group with relentless hate. Should there be a male Njema in the group the witcher will see in him his former lover reincarnate (the truth of this sentiment is up to the game master). He speaks Juggool (which might be similar to the tongue of some Njema tribes) and very broken antiquated Magog, works magic like a moderately advanced magician or sorcerer and otherwise works like ghosts in the used system. He knows the secret of the creation of the firelances, but will only share it if convinced to have found his former lover or if the group will use it to fight against the resented empire of Gog. Being bound to a ring that protects against charms and enfeeblement, the ghost is hard to deceive and completely immune to mind control.

h) Here the foundations of a very large building with a big yard reach from earth and thorny bushes. Nobody talks about why it is not being used. At least everybody says nobody talks about it. In fact everybody will have their own story – there are claims of a ghost haunting the ruin, of poisonous scorpions, of Juthul having bad dreams about it or that once a corpse was found in there.