The Cult Of Gloomshark

By Nicholas Effingham, with help from Scott Knowles

I. Mythos and History

When chaos entered Glorantha and the Devil held an iron grip over the Cosmos, and squeezed the life and vitality out of a dying world, there was a child of Golod and Tholaina, which had been named Shark. A huge beast, it swam with speed and agility, it managed to out pace most of the sea beasts except for Magasta's monstrous behemoths.

Shark had twevle children, who in turn had spawned thousands of sharks, but the twelve were, apart from Shark himself, the greatest specimens of their species. The sharks were excellent fighters, for Shark had defeated Robber, a darkness god, and stolen Death from her, and then passed it down to his children. The sharks defended the mermen with ferocity. When chaos attacked, they swarmed to the defence. In an attempt to reach the Spike, Wakboth was forced to wade through the ocean. As he placed each suckered tentacle into the waters, a putrid explosion of impurity seethed out through the waters, turning all it touched into chaos sludge. When the sharks attacked, the greatest of the twelve children led the charge. As the demon hordes battled aside the sharks, this child swam into a flood of the Devil's chaos taint and was corrupted to the soul. What was left was a blasphemy of creation, a hideous malformation of what beautiful life the sea could create. What was left was Gloomshark.

Thenceforth, the beast fought on the side of the Devil. Ever since, the ferocious nature of chaos, the need to destroy and rampage, has been apparent in all sharks. As the chaos entourage advanced upon the World Mountain, the second wave of mermen stalwarts surged to help, this time came the dolphins. The ancestor dolphin came to meet Gloomshark, and engaged him in jaw to jaw combat, biting at his tough leathery hide, as tentacles slithered across his skin. In a viscious attack, Gloomshark tore out Dolphin's throat, and although he survived he was never again able to speak. Since then, all dolphins and sharks have been the direst enemies. Eventually, however, even in his weakened state Dolphin turned Gloomshark back, but in the bedlam, the Devil managed to evade the sea dwellers and destroy the Spike.

Gloomshark did not appear in the chaos wars after that, although it did attack many minor mermen settlements, and devastated one or two colonies. Gloomshark was rumoured to have been present at the battle of Genert's death, where he devoured Genert's left arm, and this became the first piece of living matter that was lost to the world. One merman hero supposedly cut off a fin of Gloomshark's before being devoured, and hence all knowledge about the merman was lost to the world. It is said that the fin still exists, blighting the ocean trench it settled in.

At the Dawn Gloomshark had lost its many spawned children in battles and skirmishes and so it slept in a deep chasm. When Gbaji came to power the cult of Gloomshark was mainly, but not totally, overlooked and so the potential power of Gloomshark was never realised by the Bright Empire.

However, it did reawaken and purge the oceans again. In the time of the Second age the God Learners sought out Gloomshark and recorded the most details about the creature. They discovered that it still had the bestial urges of a normal shark and followed a strange pattern of hunting behaviour, the exact pattern has since been lost although Pamaltela was never noted in it. After many God Learners had died trying to discover information about the creature they left it alone. At the end of the Second Age at the time of the Closing the people could be thankful that Gloomshark was largerly unable to reach the shores of Genertela. It was at this time that Gloomshark preyed on the isles of Vormain and earned the hatred of many of the East Isles gods.

With the appearance of the Red Moon in the start of the Third Age the few Gloomshark cultists revelled it as a portent that Gloomshark would soon ascend, many of the more open tongued cultists have told that Gloomshark will be instrumental in the creation of the White Moon at the end of the Hero Wars.

The Lhankor Mhy scholars of Sartar have said that more legends of Gloomshark, as well as specific occurences, as whatever Gloomshark eats is never seen of in any form again, and the memory of that person quickly fades.

In Mermen legends the cursed being has been sighted travelling down Magasta`s pool into the Void beyond, many claim that Gloomshark empties whatever it has eaten into this Void. Gloomshark has never been seen exiting Magasta`s pool, or falling from Pole Star, the method of travel for the goddess Annilla. The Blue Moon Plateau trolls have been noted as having documents saying that Gloomshark chases Annilla across the skies as all sightings of this passage are done close to the tidal cycle. Whether this is done for hostile or benign reasons is unknown, and all theories are heresay.

Being only a beast, Gloomshark offers no afterlife, although many shamans will agree to escort dead souls to oblivion if they so wish, by feeding them to Gloomshark itself.

Gloomshark has the runes of Chaos, Sea and Hunger, with minor associations to Beast aswell.

II. Cult Ecology

Gloomshark is the chaos god of Hunger. It is worshipped also by chaos loving sea creautures as their primary chaos god in some places.

It is worshipped by ogres and broo, and is instinctively worshipped by chaos sea beasts. Sea troll tribes are known to worship this god, as they share the association of chaos, the sea and like all trolls they continually eat.

The cult holy days of Gloomshark fall on Waterday of every season in Disorder Week. The High Holy Day is held in Sea Season or Dark Season, as the priest of the temple desires.

III. The Cult In The World

Many broo and ogres worship Gloomshark, so do many sea-faring chaos races including chaos sea beasts. Normal chaos creatures do not worship Gloomshark due to its destructive tendencies and bestial passions, although due to the association between Gloomshark and Krarsht it is worshipped as a friendly cult and places it's few land based temples in those temples dedicated to the Maw. Its main area of worship is nearby Magasta`s Pool and has a small cult in Dorastor. A sect of the Gloomshark has its eyes on Skyfall Lake and aims to emerge from its home in Snake Pipe Hollow and claim it for their own.

The cult has small shrines dedicated to it throughout the tunnels where the Krarshtkids burrow. Most of its temples are in temples of Krarsht, or among the chaos tribes within the sea. The shrines have little connection and many fight each other merely for worshipping conflicting sub-cults, or merely for the fun of it (see below).

Shrines are organizied by whoever has the most power, one will fight the other and devour it and all it's occupants to gain power. This applies everywhere except the main temple in Dorastor which uses subtle magic to subvert other Gloomshark followers to follow its complex and detailed plans. This temple is generally not acknowledged by other Gloomshark worshippers although it is virtually certain that this temple holds great power over them due to the lack of intelligent plans from their god. This temple is prevaded over by an ancient ogre hero who was allegedly present when Gloomshark devoured Genert. This hero is a priest that is known to be immune to his gods desire to devour. He is known only as High Shark.

The worship of Gloomshark is carried out with extreme care, as their god does not understand the difference between worshippers of Gloomshark and food. The cult rituals are held as mass orgies of consumption followed by the hunting and devouring of a great creature, this worshipping is feared as many local villagers may end up as a gourmet dinner served for the cultists. The worshippers of Gloomshark soon grow fanatical and long term exposure usually ends up with the victim being a crude form of dessert, restraint in the cult is small and many cult members eat each other not only for power in the cult but merely that the member may be hungry. The organization of the sea trolls exemplifies what is worst about the trollish culture, with barbaric killings in an almost animal manner. Many Lhankor Mhy sages consider it fortunate that they cannot breath underwater, else they might actually be sent to investigate this most terrifying of cults.

Shrines teach Drown.

IV. Initiates

Any canidate for iniation must petition the nearest priest of Gloomshark. They must make a POWx4 or be attacked by the priest, who will try and eat the petitioner as if he was a mortal enemy. The petitioner may never try and enter the cult through that priest ever again, but may try and different priest if they so wish. If and when the petitioner is not eaten by a priest, they will normally be required to do a task connected with hunger and gluttony in order to prove themselves.

A canidate must, during initiation, see if Gloomshark desires a portion of their body. They must roll a d100, on a 1-25 they need not amputate or mutilate anything; 26-55 they must mutilate their body, but in such a way that the mutilation is obscured by clothing and is only recognisable when naked; 56-80 they must heavily mutilate themselves, making them readily apparent worshippers of chaos and reducing APP by 2d6 (to a minimum of 1 -- a canidate cannot die through mutilation); 81-95 they must cut off a random limb; 96-00 they must cut off 1d4 random limbs.

Once this is done the iniate must then sacrifice a point of POW to Gloomshark and are initiated into the cult.

Spirit magic is taught to iniates of Gloomshark via the cult shamans.

V. Priests (Shamans)

All priests of Gloomshark must deal with the beast directly on the Spirit Plane. This can only be done by becoming a shaman, either via the Horned Man or Bad Man (or other numerous cult shaman rituals). Shamans loose their positions to other shamans via challenges to the Death, similar to the cult of Thed.

The new priest of Gloomshark has few restrictions other than to ritually consume large amounts of food each and every holy day. "Food" is defined as anything organic.

Priests of Gloomshark may only bind chaos and sea spirits to their fetches. Sea spirits do so under great duress. A priest of Gloomshark need not devote any time or money to the temple as long as the food is eaten. This applies everywhere except for the temple in Dorastor, where the more rigid organization means that the normal 90% of time and income be donated.

Common Rune Magic: Worship Gloomshark.
Special Rune Magic: Command (Sea Beasts), Devour, Drown, Summon Shark.

VI. Special Gloomshark Rune Spells

Devour
2 points
touch, instant, stackable, reusable
This spell requires a successful natural weapons attack in combat. The caster must suceed in a magic points vs. magic points. Each point then causes an automatic 1d3 points of damage to a creatures general hit points. These points may not be naturally healed and so magic of some form or other must be used. The points that are lost are transferred to both Gloomshark and the caster, half to each. These hit points are added to general hit points and remain until the caster is damaged for that many points all fractions rounded down in favour of Gloomshark, i.e. the priest causes 2 damage to a target and receives 1 hit point. This hit point will be lost, never to regenerate, when the caster suffers a single damage point.

VII. Sub-cults

Spirit of Reprisal
Gloomshark has no Spirit of Reprisal, but all apostates are hunted down and killed.

The Followers of Moonshark
This group of Gloomshark worshippers base themselves in the high temple at Dorastor. They believe that in the future Gloomshark will devour Annilla and vomit her out again after absorbing part of her Lunar rune. Gloomshark will then be granted intellect from the Red Goddess and rise as the prophesised White Moon. They use their arcane powers to manipulate all other subcults in an effort to complete their strange plans. High Shark is the mad hero who leads this cult.

The Spawnsharks
These are the spirits of the dead chaos spawn of Gloomshark. They were killed long ago by mermen wishing to rid their seas of chaos and now roam the spirit plane.
They are used by the cult as allied spirits. They do not have the normal statistics of allied spirits, instead they have 2d6 INT and 2d6+6 POW. A shaman must wander the spirit plane to find one, defeat it and then bind it into a suitable artifact. Usually it can take weeks to find one of these obscure spirits.

The Dark Masters
These silent, dark killers walk across Gernetela, and sometimes Pamaltela, spreading the hunger of Gloomshark where they go, devouring everything in their path. They never speak to anyone, except to each other in their own secret tongue, and trying to join their ranks ends up with the petitioner being devoured. They are all high priests of the cult, and are apparently ageless and, some say, immortal.

VIII. Associated Cults

Krarsht
Many people consider that Gloomshark is merely a shard of Krarsht's soul and only acts as her proxy in the places Krarsht cannot reach. This leads to the assumption that Krarsht is unable to burrow her infernal tunnels underneath the sea. Krarsht provides the spell Chomping.

Primal Chaos
The source of chaos provides the cult of Gloomshark with Blessing of Chaos.

Kajabor
Kajabor is the almighty hunger, and provides Summon (chaos spirit).

IX. Notes

Divine Intervention
Gloomshark has no Divine Intervention.

X. Gloomshark

Here are the statistics for Gloomshark, they vary constantly due to the chaos present within the sea beast, although some people link the level of it's power with the tidal cycle:

Gloomshark

characteristics average attributes
STR 6d6x24 432 Move:4/10 swimming
CON 10d6x10 300 Hit points:180
SIZ 6d20 60 Fatigue:732
INT 2 2 Magic Points:350
POW 5d100+100 350
DEX 5d6+6 21

area melee missle armor/hit points
Tail 01-02 01-02 72/60(.33)
Hind Q 04-07 04-07 72/72(.40)
Fore Q 08-11 08-11 72/72(.40)
R Fin 1 12 12 72/45(.25)
R Fin 2 13 13 72/45(.25)
R Fin 3 14 14 72/45(.25)
L Fin 1 15 15 72/45(.25)
L Fin 2 16 16 72/45(.25)
L Fin 3 17 17 72/45(.25)
Head 18-20 18-20 72/60(.33)

weapon SR a% damage
Bite(1) 3 460 10d6+ 29d6+grapple
Fin Slash 6 350 29d3
Tail 8 240 10d8+29d3
Devour(2) 10 Auto. Special

1=Gloomsharks tentacles around his mouth can grapple anyone hit. Those captured must make a STR vs. STR on the victinms DEX SR. If this roll is made the victim escapes, if it is not made the victim is devoured in SR 10.
2=On SR 10 Gloomshark immediately devours anyone in its tentacles, other than this Gloomshark can devour upto one target of SIZ 70 per turn. If the target is not in its tentacles then a amgic points vs. magic points will allow the victim to escape the attack. Anyone so devoured is never seen of again, and all memory of the victim will dissappear. Ressurect spells, divine intervention etc... will not stop this, or bring the victim back.
NOTE:Gloomshark will remain for 2d10 rounds before departing. In that time it will attack living beings first, followed by inanimate objects such as buildings. All non-chaos is attacked, chaos have only a POWx2 chance of not being attacked, this applies even to its followers.
CHAOTIC FEATURES:It has 2d6 chaos features.