Tolat is the god of Love and Death. For the Amazons, he is a war god, as well as the personal lover of every one of them. He is also an astronomical object. The Amazons, of course, do not name him "Tolat". He is called this because a certain large pale planet is identified with him by the Amazons
TOLAT'S LOVE ASPECT: Once a year all the Amazons except for a sufficiency of guards retire to their huts and await Tolat's arrival. He comes and they each make love to him. Sex with Tolat is, presumably, 294 times as good as sex with a normal man, because all his partners are orgasmically fulfilled until the next year. I personally suspect that all the guards that night are on punishment duty, since they miss out on Tolat's visit. I also suspect that for the next couple of days, the Amazons are very relaxed and might walk kind of funny.
There is no doubt a big important ceremony when a young Amazon is finally old enough for her first visit from Tolat. "Now at last you are a woman." She probably gets her first armor and weapons (obviously she's been playing & training with weapons before now, but these are the first weapons that actually belong to her personally), and the following summer she gets the three privileges of womanhood: she can leave the island to go raiding, she can fish on the ocean (as opposed to just freshwater), and she can hunt birds and reptiles (instead of just invertebrates and mammals). Note that the "age of womanhood" is determined by the Amazon herself. She, and only she, gets to decide if she's ready for Tolat's visit. Of course, in practice, peer and maternal pressure and example help to determine this.
CHILDREN: if an Amazon does a special fertility prayer the day before Tolat's visit, then she will automatically get pregnant on that day. The Amazons have two fertility prayers; one involves only the Amazon herself, and the other requires the participation of a captured man. The man is ceremonially sacrificed the day after Tolat's visit. The difference between the two prayers is that the first always results in a daughter, but that daughter is generally very similar to the mother in appearance, talents, etc. The second ritual, involving the to-be-slain man, results in a daughter only half the time, but the daughter can vary quite widely from her mother. Of course, if a son is born, he is subject to one of three fates; turned into a eunuch slave, sacrificed to Tolat, or, if he is born on the Unholy Day of Trowjang, he is ritually scarified and given away to Teshnan or Kralori traders.
To keep Amazon bloodlines from stagnating, the second ritual is periodically recommended by the Amazon chiefs, despite the risks.
Of course, all Amazon pregnancies begin on the same day of the year. The pregnancies last about 270 days (the same as on Earth), which means they end about 20-30 days before the holy day of Tolat, giving the mothers just enough time to get ready for their next romantic visit. Basically, for several weeks before Tolat's holy day, the frequency of Amazon raids is diminished, and neighboring lands really look forward to this season of year.
MEN: men usually get pretty short shrift from the Amazons. Basically, a man has only five possible functions in Amazon society:
WOMEN: Amazons feel no special bond of friendship with women from other lands, and are perfectly willing to kill them. However, they also have no special axe to grind with regards to such woman, and don't necessarily seek them out for torment. Usually they hold them in some contempt, at least the non-combatant ones. A woman that sails to Trowjang and seeks refuge among the Amazons is always accepted, though she is distrusted and kept in a separate hut for at least a year, lest she be a spy. Promising female children captured in raids are nearly always returned to Trowjang to be raised as an Amazon.
TOLAT'S WAR ASPECT: the Amazons are ferocious. Even if you normally use the alternate female stats when rolling up human PCs, use the male stats for Amazons (except for recent converts). Though they are racially Kralori, they do not get the -1 Size or +1 Power of other Kralori peoples.
The Amazons are a spirit-magic-using theistic culture, all the adults of whom are initiates of Tolat. Many different and unusual spirits dwell on their island, and their religion incorporates some shamanistic practices to deal with these entities. While their spirits, Rune magic, and spirit magic is suitable and useful for their chosen way of life, they are not generally considered a magicially proficient people by their enemies. The threat of the Amazons is not that they will blast you with their terrifying incantations, but that they will gut you like a fish.
Frequently-used spirit spells include the obvious ones: Bladesharp, Firearrow, Protection, Heal, Haste, etc. They know the Parry spell.
Rune magic includes Berserker, Fear, Shield, and similar things.
Special Rune magic includes the two pregnancy rituals mentioned above, Reflect Tolat, and Strongspear.
Reflect Tolat 2 point Rune spell
touch, temporal, non-stackable, reusable
Adds +10 to each of the target's STR, CON, DEX, and APP for the spell's
duration. In addition, the target is indefatigable while the spell is in
effect -- she cannot get tired or fatigued, has no ill effects from
hunger or lack of sleep, and so forth. The target must have engaged in
lovemaking with the god Tolat at some point in her life.
Strongspear 1 point Rune spell
ranged, temporal, non-stackable, reusable
Makes a wooden weapon haft unbreakable. Its armor points do not change,
but no matter how much damage is parried by the weapon, its armor points
will not decrease. Despite the name, it works on axe hafts, flails,
etc., as well as spears.
Sandy P.
End of The Glorantha Digest V5 #638
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