Ragnaglar's Tomb

From: Dave Green <101357.2762_at_compuserve.com>
Date: 08 Mar 96 13:51:23 EST


From "The Travels of Dafith Verdann"

While travelling amongst the nomads of farthest Erigia I overheard a Shaman, Spirit-Voice by name, mention "Ragnaglar's Tomb". I asked him about it, politely of course, these people are easily offended. He replied with a smile "Know ye not of Ragnaglar's Tomb? Attend the fire tonight stranger, and I will tell of it in your honour"

I did as he bade, and that night, with his tribe for company, settled myself at the camp fire. He waited in silence until only the thin cold wind could be heard, then he began to speak.

In the days of the Storm King's contest with the Sun King, Ragnaglar was just one of the Storm Brothers, and he was jealous of his lord and wondered how he might exceed him in might.

And when the Storm King defeated the Sun King and wed the Earth Queen, many of the storm spirits took her sisters for wife. Ragnaglar saw his chance and chose Bija, the land spirit of the great north plains which separate our lands from Far Altinela. For though her lands were wide she tended them not and they were not fruitful and his elder brothers sought her not. But she rejected him.

And long he wooed her for he could not bear the thought that any earth queen would refuse him, but still she rejected him.

And he said, "If I cannot have you to wife, I shall have you for servant", and he enslaved Bija. His icy blasts covered her land until the earth itself was frozen hard as rock, and the land was nothing but permafrost and tundra. And those who had lived there fled or died.

Then, one day, as he rode around his frozen empire, Ragnaglar espied an encampment deep in the frigid wastes. It was a troupe of Hsunchen goat people, with their flocks.

Now the Hsunchen peoples were manyfold and common in those days, and one of the most widespread were the Thedi, followers of the Goat Spirit, of the family of Hykim the Beast Father. Her flocks could eat where other flocks would starve, and climb where others would fall, and fight where others would flee. And her people camped where no others could, in the deserts, the wastelands, and the mountains.

When Ragnaglar discovered the power of the Thedi to live in his wastes, he thought first to destroy them, then he thought to enslave them. But as he raised his hand against them, their Goat Lady appeared before him, and demanded that he give way.

And she said, "Of all the Hsunchen spirits, I am the greatest, for my people can go anywhere". But her people were often forced out of the fertile lands by others of the Hsunchen races. And this angered her.

Impressed with her power and pride and arrogance he first courted, then wed the Goat Lady. And their children were the goat-men, the broo.

But Ragnaglar was still not content, and he travelled about the world to seek new power. And in his travels he passed deep below the earth where dwelt the spirits of darkness. And he met the guardian of the outer gate, a great spirit of darkness, sister to Subere. And the guardian barred his passage. So they fought, and neither could overcome the other. And Ragnaglar said, "Give way before me, and let me enter through the outer gate, and I will give you power that is beyond all others of the darkness spirits."

But the guardian laughed and said "What power do you have that you can give me, when beyond the inner gate is power beyond measure".

And Ragnaglar heard this and resolved to enter both the outer gate and the inner gate and take the power for himself, though he knew not what it was. And he fought the guardian, then he wooed the guardian, then he seduced the guardian. But she would not let him pass.

And he said "If this power is so great, why do you not take it for yourself?".

And she said "The inner gate is guarded by Subere, and none may open it, for beyond it is the ultimate power of creation and destruction, where all of Glorantha was formed and where it will be destroyed".

And Ragnaglar knew that if he could not have this power he would never be satisfied. And he said "Open the outer gate to me, and we shall enter together, and we shall take the power of creation and destruction, and together rule the world". And the guardian weakened and together they entered the outer gate.
And the guardian went before Subere, who guarded the inner gate, and said "Dehore, your lord summons you. Go quickly for he is much troubled".

And Subere said "Malia, why do you leave your post, that you have sworn to guard through all eternity?"

And Malia said "By command of Dehore do I leave my post, to guard the inner gate ere you return. Fear not my lady, none know of the power beyond, and you alone hold the key to the gate".

And Subere was satisfied and flew swiftly to her husband, Dehore, lord of the darkness spirits. "My lord I answer your summons, what troubles you so greatly that I must leave my post?.

And Dehore said "I summoned you not!". And they knew that they had been deceived.

And Subere and Dehore and the hosts of darkness spirits flew straight to the inner gate at the speed of dark. And it stood open, and Malia was gone, and chaos was everywhere flowing through the portal.

And the darkness spirits stamped and crushed the chaos things, and slammed shut the gate. But not all chaos was destroyed. And the gate could not be fully shut, for Malia and Ragnaglar had no key and had forced it open. So chaos still seeped through its twisted frame.

Thus did chaos first enter the world.

At this point all the men seated about the fire spat into the flames. Some looked at me and I too spat into the flames. Then there was silence, even the wind was silent.

Spirit-Voice spoke again.

And Ragnaglar took Malia back with him to the frozen land of Bija and placed the chaos power before his wife Thed. And she wondered at it. "With this we can create a great spirit, the like of which has never been seen". And Ragnaglar was its father, and Thed was its mother, and Malia was its midwife, and Wakboth the Devil was born.

And Thed took the afterbirth and formed with it a new gate to the void and whenever anything was hurled through this new gate a creature born of chaos would emerge. And she summoned her children, the Broo, to her and taught them of the power of chaos, and gave them as servants to Wakboth and they were his first army. And the Thedi of Bija were his first meal.

The Great Spirits of the Land, of the Sky, and of the Storm spent much blood and tears in the Great Darkness when the chaos armies overran the world, but the treachery of Ragnaglar and Malia was ever in their minds. And the spirits of darkness were first in the hunt for them. Kyger Litor, Mother of Trolls, caught and skinned Thed and stripped away much of her power. But the worship of her Broo-children sustained her and she survived.

The storm spirits hunted down Ragnaglar and the Storm Bull tore him apart and scattered his pieces across the length and breadth of the land of Bija, and Heler the Rain Spirit poured his waters in a mighty storm across the land and Valind The Ice Spirit froze the waters and a mighty glacier arose, crushing and hiding the parts of Ragnaglar so none might find and restore him.

Malia left the conspiracy soon after the Devil was born, and used the raw chaos she had stolen to create her own children, the disease spirits, and though Subere ever desired to hunt her down and destroy her for her treachery, she was forever busy destroying the chaos that seeps through the twisted inner gate. So Malia, Mother of Disease, escaped and lives on.

The remaining Thedi divided, some continued to follow Thed and embraced chaos, and ultimately were destroyed for they also became broo. But many of the Thedi refused the Chaos Mother and turned away to her gentle sister, the Sheep Mother, and were welcomed and protected by her, and so escaped the wrath of the spirit powers.

Ragnaglar himself lies broken and trapped between the rock hard land of Bija and the solid ice of Valind's Glacier. Only by removing the glacier itself will the chaos scum ever hope to restore him.

Though the People of the Red Moon are slowly driving back Valind with their worship of Kalikos Ice-breaker, no-one believes that they are insane enough to release Ragnaglar from his Tomb.

With this mention of the Red Goddess, May Her Name Be Praised, I felt many eyes upon me. I continued to stare at the fire, waiting for Spirit-Voice to speak further.

But Spirit-Voice had lapsed into silence and remained motionless, staring into the fire like he was carved of wood. Quietly the tribesmen drifted away to their beds as did I, pausing only to commit this tale, as best I could remember it, to paper.

Next morning, I thought it prudent to give my thanks to my hosts and quickly move on. I do not know if the tale continued or whether Spirit-  was just being polite. I never saw him or his tribe again.


End of Glorantha Digest V2 #425


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