EMGARVU
Emgarvu is the keeper of the Dead, Bringer of Death, Keen Edge of War,
Slayer of Men, and the Taker of Breath. This was his name as
worshiped by the Spolites, who worshiped anything from the Underworld.
The Black Magi of the Carmanians consecrated worship of Emgarvu as
acceptable - "some of us are killers".
Here is a typical Carmanian invocation of Embarvu:
Oh Great Emgavu, we send you these hearts of seven beasts and a man, that you will keep our swords sharp, blind our foes and take their souls to hell for eternal suffering.
During the wars with the EWF, the cult of Emgarvu was strongly influenced by the Talastaring cult of Enbaktavar the First Death. Worshipers of Emgarvu discovered they could worship at Enbaktavar's sacred places and that Enbaktavar was another name for their god.
ENBAKTAVAR
Enbaktavar is the local name for Humakt amongst the Talastarings,
Anadikki and Brolians.
"There were two gods in the Dark Times, and both were harsh and cruel.
One had his fortress nearby, and he was terrible and evil. The other
had his fortress far away, and he was terrible but not evil. The god
who was terrible but not evil was called Enbaktavar, and the god who
was terrible and evil is called Shargash. But neither of them wa as
terrible as the Great Eater, whose trolls swarmed everywhere. Yet even
She was not as bad as the Destroyers, the chaos demons. For these
reasons we still revere and respect Enbaktavar, who the missionaries
called Humakt."
"One day Felgrar, who was a grandfather of Lokomayadon, sacrificed to
Humakt, as he had een instructed by the mssionaries. But he was killed
in a duel of honor by his foe, who used the sacred name of Enbaktavar,
and no one sacrificed to Humakt afterwards."
Enbaktavar's most holy place is in Anadikkiland and is called Serkarkos. Here Enbaktavar emerged from the Underworld bearing Death. Serkarkos is a dark rocky crevice into the earth, surrounded by marshy fens. Survilstar Dragonslayer built a temple atop it, a low squatting thing of dark rock and worshipers must descend into the temple and perform their sacrifices before the crevice. Survilstar instisted that Enbaktavar was given respect and approached in humility and so the only doorway is only two feet tall, so everyone has to enter on their bellies.
"Leave your clothing there, purify yourself in that spring over there,
walk through the smoke between those two fires, make sacrifice at this
altar and smear the blood upon your face and crawl through there."
The Many Names of Humakt
Many Gloranthan gods have multiple names. For example, The oldest
name for Orlanth in Talastar is Viskuranth – "the Son of the Spike".
In the First Age, Theylan missionaries proved that Viskuranth is just
another name for Orlanth. No worshiper of the Tarkarlings believes
that Viskuranth is not Orlanth – they just have several names for him.
A Talastaring knows that Viskuranth is Orlanth - but knows that
Viskuranth is the preferred name at various sacred places.
Similarly, a Talastaring knows that Enbaktavar is the same as Humakt, but that at the sacred crevice of Sekarkos where Death emerged, you must invoke Enbaktavar, not Humakt. A Carmanian knows that Emgarvu is the same god as Enbaktavar, but that it is not proper to invoke Enbaktavar inside of Carmania.
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