The most important thing to remember about Alkoth is the immanence of Shargash within the walls and around them. The city thrums to the drums, is piled with the ash of the slain and has demons walkin the streets that are actually GODS from other pantheons that Shargash has beat and bound to his service.
This is a bit I wrote to the GD a while ago now:
Firstly Alkothi is in the Underworld. It is a section of the heroplane in its own right. In HW terms this means that you have to overcome a reistance to enter it of w3 or so. Naturally this would be rather difficult for the average joe. BUT people who belong to a place on the heroplane do not have to overcome this resistance, as they are innately part of the place. The Alkothi do not have a problem entering or leaving the place as it is part of them to enter the land of the dead and then re-enter the land of the living. Its their mythic cycle. The cycle of Shargash
For a stranger, things are different. If you are attacking the city then simply to get over the walls requires such an effort, which is one reason why Orlanthi warriors never tried to fly into Alkoth in the first age. The very sky above Alkoth is different, it is as it was during the darkness, when the underworld and the upper world were one. Hence, if you walk through the gate on a nice sunny day, by the time you come out on the Alkoth side, there is no Yelm, there is a bleak dark, stormy and malevolent (unless you're an Alkothi, then its wonderous).
Alas, sometimes the Alkothi want other people in their city and they had to find a way to allow this to happen without having to summon a load of ritual help every time someone came to see the Red King etc.
Instead, they have created a quick ritual that makes the visitor and honourary Alkothi for the time they are there.
Step 1: You are tested by the gate priests for signs of Kazkurtum, who must not be allowed in, nor ever has. If you are chaotic, or manifest evil ways, you are not only forbidden entrance, but are attacked and hacked to pieces in His name. Bear in mind that the Alkothi concept of evil is different to most people. Disloyalty to ones lord and people is evil, whereas slaughtering helpless enemies at your lords command is not.
Step 2: You are grabbed by the guards, forced onto a chopping block and then beheaded with a reed axe. Though the axe does not bite your flesh, it does bite your soul. In effect you feel dead, you feel seperation of soul and body and the full horror of that, yet they inhabit the same point and can interact as normal.
Step 3: You can now survive in the underworld and are allowed through the gate.
Step 4: On leaving the city you are brought before the Shargash Rakenpas
(dissolution) mystic who sits on a pillar by the gate. He sees the heart of you
and judges you to be
worthy of renewal. This always happens unless you have committed some crime
or sin within the city. Then you are removed to the Enclosure and given to
Shargash.
Step 5: On leaving the city, you feel soul and body merge as one and feel the joy of returned life flood through you. However, there is still that lingering feeling of death, one is never the same after dying.
Alkoth is not a popular place to visit.
Best source is Enclosure 1, also read the wonderful "What my Father told me" that Pam Carlson write for Enclosure and is on the Issaries web site as the Dara Happan entry. It should give you a strong feeling for the city.
ILH 3 has a load of Shargash in it and will be providing much fuller description of the people and the city than did ILH 1
Martin Laurie
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