I feel like bringing up a strange topic. Feel free to scroll down if this is not your area of predilection (did I really need to say that? :-)
I’ve started to write something about the Elf Coast people of
Glorantha
(I hope the PCs' next destination in a long-interrupted itinerant campaign).
In GD v2#15 (!!) Sandy Petersen mentioned an unpublished story of Elamle-ata – the published bits being « devoid of all the cool stuff » (sic). Oh well.. Here’s a first draft anyway (and devoid of all the cool stuff as well. I’m ready to send a letter of supplication to Issaries :-) but could someone in the know (if such a person should exist) confirm the existence of this story to me?)
Elamle-ata
Elamle-ata is one of the founder heroes of the people of Elamle, certainly the most important one. Her deeds were so incredible that the Errinoru House decided to rename the former land of Miirdek « Elamle », so showing their respect and admiration for her. No such honor has ever since been granted to a human by Aldryami.
Elamle-ata was born in Sharzu and was the daughter of King Kanawa, but set out to sea in search for a new land when the waters threatened to submerge her land. She found it, although she was the only survivor of her migration, destroyed by Sevabos’ angry minions. She befriended the embyli and creatures of the forest, and got somewhat famous as a healer. And when her brother Miirdek came to the land a century later aboard the Wave Calmer, followed by all her people, she asked the embyl queen to let them settle there and live in peace, instead of killing them all. The queen and her Councils required many things in return. Then Elamle-ata asked her brothers and sisters to pay fair service for the queen’s land. People were reluctant at first, but she persuaded them and they finally accepted. And all that her long-lost people could not provide, Elamle-ata provided. When this was done, everyone met at the Novarooplia queen’s Council, and they pronounced the Oath of Elamle, which has 592 parts, one for each participant.
Then, as Elamle-ata had given all that she had, and even all that she had not, she disappeared forever. Neimengu is the last place she was ever seen. There she left her tears, all that’s left of her (1). They’re her last gift.
Elamle-ata gives no magic, for she has disappeared forever and everyone knows she will never come back again (2). But the elves and humans of Elamle remember her and love her, and as long as this will be so, her Oath will never be broken. Elamle-ata is celebrated every Sacred Time when the Elamlites bring traditional gifts to the Elf Queen’s emissary. Other gifts and services are offered all year long and Elamle-ata is always remembered whenever men and embyli deal together, whenever a section of the forest is slashed and burned to make a new field or trees cut for lumber, whenever an animal is killed for food, etc. All of this empowers the Oath all along the year. Rumors of an Elamle-ata seat on the embyli’s councils are not unheard of.
The Oath of Elamle contains huge powers of Harmony and Life, though it is confined to the Land of Elamle. (3) If it were to be broken, men and embyli would kill each other again and the damage could not be repaired (4). But breaking the Oath would require great magics, and anyway neither elf nor human would ever think of doing such a thing, for they see what has been happening in Onlaks.
Elamle-ata is the ultimate self-sacrificing hero of these people (5). She sacrificed herself, so that the people she loved did not suffer. Without her sacrifice, her elf friends and human kin would have killed each other, as they do in Onlaks.
Footnotes
(1) Having given all that she could, I think she finally wept for herself.
Thus her tears have no special power.
(2) I’m not too keen on making her a Chalana Arroy clone. The closest
comparison could be Arroin, though EA’s fading out has little to do
with Arroin’s magic being eaten.
(3) Think of Arkat’s Curse in Dorastor, for a (clumsy) comparison.
(4) Except by PCs.
(5) Though they don’t make such a big matter of it as I do. Their
veneration is much simpler and genuine IMO.
to be continued in part II
Powered by hypermail