Summary of Kitori, Arkati, etc.

From: David Cake <davidc_at_cs.uwa.edu.au>
Date: Tue, 4 Jun 1996 14:51:05 +0800


>Maniria: Either the Trolls or the Temple of Black Arkat. Others
>are more qualified to detail the nature of the Temple of Black
>Arkat as it has been the subject of more than one flamewar in this
>digest (Keywords: Kitori, Whitewall).

        As, I guess, one of those more qualified (ie I was involved in the various interminable flamewars on the subject) I will try and fill in my version of what is currently known.

        There is an Arkat cult among the trolls, who worship Arkat for bringing sorcery to the trolls. Humans may also join the cult, but you must be a member of a darkness cult first (KL counts, so all full trolls are eligible, but most humans are not). There is also at least one temple somewhere in the Holy Country called the Temple of Black Arkat which is an exclusively human temple of the Arkat cult.

        There is a tribe in the Holy Country area (just at the bottom of Sartar) called the Kitori, which is a mixed troll human tribe. There has been much debate on the nature of their religion, and also on what exact territory. The controversy over their religion seems to have settled down - they are Argan Argar worshippers mostly, though we don't know much beyond that. The human tribespeople may also worship Ernalda (and some may worship Orlanth, but probably not as Orlanth Rex, just as a weather god), the troll tribespeople also worship KL. There may be a tribal founder called Kitor (probably the same as Voraz Kitor mentioned in The Broken Council?). The origins of the tribe probably lie in human refugees from the Kingdom of Night joining with an existing troll tribe. As a human tribe most of whom are darkness cultists, it is presumed that a large proportion (possibly almost all) of the human Arkat worshippers in the region are from this tribe.

        Matters still open to debate are mostly geographical. Is the Temple of Black Arkat in Kitori lands, or elsewhere? And a related debate - exactly what are the Kitori lands (and do they include Whitewall). My conception is that the Kitori are pretty much a forest tribe, and their lands don't extend much beyond the troll woods, but this is debated (usually by those who think the human half of the tribe are more or less Orlanthi).

        IMHO the Kitori lands do not include Whitewall, but last time I looked there was strong disagreement (notably from John Castellucci? who wrote the RQA Whitewall issue). But this is a side issue, and besides, I don't think anyone has any new evidence, so this debate is probably not worth reopening.

        Where is the Temple of Black Arkat? No one really knows. Place it wherever you want in your game. Greg appears to have forgotten where it was originally. Some possibilities worth considering are - a) in Kitori lands and full of Kitori Argan Argari. b) in Kitori lands, next to the Footprint (a famous Chaos Nest), and thus full of rabid chaos fighters, and probably not a few Zorak Zorani. c) somewhere else within Kethaela - I think Joerg had it within Heortland, for example. If its not within Kitori lands, then it needs to have a darkness temple of some kind nearby (or combined) in order for there to be darkness initiates to recruit from.

        My preferred option is probably that it is outside Kitori lands, but somewhere else with links (historical or otherwise) to the Shadow Plateau. The Kitori then have no actual Arkat temple, but still have Arkat worshippers among them (maybe secret society like).

        Note that as the Arkat cult is sorcery based, it doesn't need temples of its own, and worshippers do not need to gather en masse.

        David


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