Nawr the All-Consuming

Symbol: Stylized image of a rat-king, as if the animals are dancing in a circle.

Alignment: Chaotic

Ravenous Nawr is one of the group of petty deities know as the vermin gods.  It is not so much worshipped as placated.  Every harvest, offerings of grain are arrayed around small statues or carvings of rats where real rodents can consume them.

If this ritual is not observed, there is chance that rats will gather and in the twist and tumult of rodent bodies, a rat-king will form and instantiate the godling.  The composite deity wil summon up a swarms of rats and swirl through the community that has offended it, chewing, biting, and possibly consuming everything in its path.

The visitation always occurs at night and is of variable duration, but always ends by sunrise.

Supermen of the Black Sun

The saucer-shape of German spacecraft, employing a radically different design paradigm than the vessels of other nations, suggests a source of technological information separate from the captured resources of the failed “Martian” invasion of 1898. The preponderance of evidence suggests this knowledge was shared with certain occult societies that support the Nazi Party by a more advanced race--the beings referred to in intelligence reports as the “Blond” or “Nordic” adepts.

Captured documents refer to these beings as “Hyperborean.” It is the belief of the Thule Society and other German occult groups they are the pure-blooded descendants of the original “Aryan” race they once lived in a polar Atlantis. Some cataclysm led to their empire’s collapse and they retreat to a hidden redoubt. This is variously described as “underground” or within the “hollow earth.” The name Agartha is often used for this enclave.

The Agarthans or Hyperboreans are associated with a symbol called the “Black Sun.” Psychometric intelligence gives the impression that their civilization may be nourished by a literal black sun--some sort of sphere of concentrated vril energy.

If the Hyperboreans are of terrestrial origin, it raises the question as to where they have been throughout recorded human history. Their attractive forms and metaphysical powers suggest the possibility that encounters with these beings may underlie much of human mythology and folklore.

Hyperboreans are physically and psychically stronger than normal humans. Extreme caution should be taken when encountering them either physically or astrally.

(More from an alternate Spelljammer Pulpier Space.)

Conan and Cthulhu

The preparation going on out in the Hill Cantons for a game in the Hyborian Age got me to thinking about a couple of works of nonfiction of that should appeal to the fans of the "Weird Tales Triumvirate" and anyone looking for pulpy inspirations.

Dale E. Rippke used to have a great website devoted to several prominent characters of Sword & Sorcery.  That's gone, alas, but you can still get a hardcopy collection of Rippke's speculations on mysteries of Conan's world in The Hyborian Heresies.  If you've ever pondered just what happened in the Great Cataclysm or wondered who built those green stone cities that Conan occasional happens upon, Rippke's got some guesses.  It also includes his "Dark Storm Chronology" which radically rethinks Conan's career and was utilized as the backbone of the new Dark Horse series.

Several of Howard's stories touched on Lovecraft's mythos.  The third edition of Daniel Harms's The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia not only covers the contributions of the gent from Providence and the man from Cross Plains, but also stuff from Thomas Ligotti, T.E.D. Klein and Stephen King.  Its entries from Abbith to Zylac also includes material from Chaosium and Delta Green.

Warlord Wednesday: In the Hands of the Brood-Brothers

Let's re-enter the lost world with another installment of my issue by issue examination of DC Comic's Warlord, the earlier installments of which can be found here...

"The Prophecy: Chapter 2: In the Hands of the Brood-Brothers"

Warlord Annual #2 (1983)

Written by Cary Burkett; Penciled by Dan Jurgens; Inked by Mike DeCarlo

Synopsis: After capturing our heroes in Chapter One, the theriocephalic “Brood Brothers” of New Atlantis bind Morgan and Krystovar to poles and carry them to the coast. They suffer from the eternal sun and the cruelties of their captors. At the coast, they’re thrown in the hold of the Brood Brother’s ship, on their way to New Atlantis.

Krystovar resumes his tale of the history of their destination. As the community built by Norrad and his band began to thrive, a group of Atlantean refugees arrived under the leadership of Ar-Diamphos, one of the princes who had led in the evil rites. Norrad made them swear an oath to abandon their former wickedness before allowing them to join the colony.

Unfortunately, Ar-Diamphos was not to be trusted. It wasn’t long before he was presiding over the old rituals again. Ar-Diamphos influence grew to the point that he was bold enough to send assassins against Norrad.

Norrad slew the attackers, but was himself fatally wounded. As he was dying, he dictated a prophecy concerning his winged helmet. It would leave New Atlantis but would someday return—and herald a final doom for Atlantis’ evil. Norrad’s wife and the scribe who wrote down the prophecy fled the colony as soon as he died. Those loyal to him either fled or became victims of Ar-Diamphos’s experiments. The prophecy didn’t stay hidden from Ar-Daimphos for long:

The strongest of the beast-men became Ar-Daimphos’s bodyguard, known as the Brood Brothers. In the centuries since, the descendants of Ar-Daimphos continued to replenish the Brood’s ranks with slave captives.

While telling his story, Krystovar has managed to slip free of the chains by use of some ancient body contraction techniques. Morgan’s appreciative, but he still wonders how Krystovar wound up being chased by the Atlanteans.

Krystovar’s twin brother was captured by Atlantean slavers when they were children. He spent most of his life searching for their hidden city. Eventually, he found it and stole certain items from their vaults (though it doesn’t say what those were).

Morgan doesn’t pry. He tells Krystovar to take up a link of chain so they can strike back. They sneak up on deck, where Morgan is surprised to discover their surroundings: There's a cave ceiling above with glowing stalactites:

He doesn’t have time to marvel further, as the Brood Brother’s discover them. They’re out numbered and poorly armed, but Morgan’s got a plan:

They climb the mast. Morgan decides that jumping into the sea is their only chance. He puts his plan into action—but Krystovar doesn’t follow. He won’t leave the ship without the items he risked so much to steal. Morgan is unaware of his new ally’s concerns but has troubles of his own:

 
To Be Continued


Things to Notice:

• Morgan calls Krystovar out on his blatant exposition.
• The allure of blasphemous rituals is apparently just too much for Atlanteans.  They just can't resist getting into it. 
• Given the number of aquatic monsters we've seen in the series (even in fairly shallow water) Morgan's dive into the sea seems pretty bold.

Where it Comes From:

Again we get the Warlord against up against the  Warrior Beasts.  Too bad Remco didn't make Krystovar toy.

Which Way to the O.K. Corral?

Over Thanksgiving I found a street map of Tombstone, Arizona, I got on a visit several years ago.  I had the thought of scanning it, but its too large for my scanner.  I did find this decent stand-in online and a map of Old West Deadwood as well.  Next time a black hat in a Wild West game tells a PC "this town ain't big enough for the both of us" these ought to be helpful in determining the veracity of that statement.  They might have a use in other settings, as well.

Tombstone was a silver mining town, though it is, of course, most famous as the site of the O.K. Corral where the gunfight took place in 1881.  Much of historic Tombstone remains to this day, though wikipedia notes the National Park Service as taken the town to task for having a lax approach to historic preservation.

Deadwood, South Dakota, also trades on its historic past.  That and gambling seem to be the town's primary sources of revenue.  Thanks to several fires over the decades, less of Old West Deadwood remains than of Tombstone.  The graves of Wild Bill Hickok, "Calamity" Jane, and Seth Bullock can still be found in the cemetery on Mt. Moriah, however.

Tombstone:

Deadwood:

Gods from the Comics Page

Fantasy rpg settings usually make-do with Bullfinch’s Mythology derived/inspired pantheons, monstrous deities of the Lovecraftian or Howardian variety, or the occasional monotheism. Nothing wrong with those, but looking to the pages of comic books suggests some interesting variations:

Space Gods
Kirby’s Eternals posits that those classical pantheons were just misidentifications of a subspecies of humanity uplifted enigmatic aliens. In the fantasy context, maybe the aliens are some sort of elder gods (recall that Lovecraft’s Elder Gods felt unaccountably protective to the gods of the Dreamlands) and the Eternal stand-ins could be something like the Menzter’s Immortals. The other option would be to play up the science fantasy aspects for the full von Daniken. “A sufficiently advanced technology, etc., etc,”--maybe the world only appears to be a fantasy world and alien super-science is the order of the day?

The Endless
Neil Gaiman’s Sandman strips down the pantheon idea with the Endless. Destiny, Death, Destruction, Despair, Desire, and Delirium are (as their names would imply) personifications of concepts. Marvel Comics has a similar (though less developed) class of beings like this: Eternity, Oblivion, Lord Chaos and Master Order, and again Death. The Endless fit into the mythologies of various cultures in various ways, but they don’t have mythology of their own really, just personal history. A group of beings like the Endless could be the sole deities of a world, just worshipped under different names by different cultures, or (like in Sandman) these sorts of personifications could be an order of cosmic beings separate and “above” the usual pantheons with whom PCs could interact.

New Gods
“There came a time when the old gods died!” as Kirby told us in New Gods #1. As the title suggests, Kirby started in with the exploits of the New Gods--and Grant Morrison gave us even newer new gods in Final Crisis. A world could be post-god shift, adding some interesting background, or the setting could be in the midst of the “godless” period, post-Götterdämmerung but pre-reemergence of the new gods. Players might actually have a roll in finding/shaping the new gods that would appear.

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everybody has a good holiday and doesn't spend it running around, particularly to escape arrows.