The Secret Sects of St. Humakt

Introduction

As noted in the St. Humakt description, there are secret sects at work within Otkorion. Described here are the two secret sects that have emerged over the years.

The two battle against one another, and yet their battle is not one of open violence and death, but of political intrigue and machinations, of control of temples, of manipulation of cult members and of schemes to infiltrate the Houses.

The reason that the two cults do not engage openly, but instead in a political dance of silent threats, is that both sects need the cult of St. Humakt, and as both sects have members in high positions of power they cannot kill each other as this would create a political vacuum which would reduce the cult of St. Humakt to it's knees. The less powerful, less influential members do not fight each other, because the revenge that would be carried out against their deaths, by the more powerful members, would have exactly the same effects. Sometimes the two break into open warfare on a personal scale, but such battles are carried out either in the greatest secrecy to avoid retribution or when battles are inevitable.

The sects round out the schisms within the St. Humakti cult; there are the schisms of House, of proHenotheism or antiHenotheism and the schisms caused by these sects.

In the campaign, use these sects carefully. Not every temple has members of these secret sects, not every House is manipulated by them, not every Sword is approached by them for membership, not every Arkati cult and Illuminate knows of them. Indeed, they probably number little more than one hundred members between them.

The Arkalemsyre

This sect of Arkatism arose near the start of the Third Age when the Okorioni people returned to Otkorion, when the Great Plague struck. They gathered around Mt. Fiesive, then a monastery of Arkati monks. While most people remember that at this time the Humathi of Valantia were independent, fiercely so at that time, and eventually were subsumed into the new Otkorioni culture, they neglect to remember that Humathi from Lankst emigrated as well. It is with those Humathi that the roots of the Arkalemsyre emerge.

A small collection of younger, less traditional Humathi, began to learn from the Arkati monks. With very few worshippers of the God of Death in the area to guide them they were very susceptible to the Arkati teachings and secrets they were exposed to. The Arkati monks commissioned the Humathi to construct a temple to Humath at the bottom of their mountain. This was unprecedented - the monks had never taken any interest in Orlanthi religion before.

The temple was, apparently, as normal as any other. It was frequented by Humathi, both those native to the locale of Fiesive and those who were not. However, in reality the first members of the Arkalemsyre ruled it. It remained Fiesives temple to Humath for quite sometime.

When the worshippers of Humath Darkblade, a sect of Humathi from mid-Otkorion, discovered the true nature of the Arkalemsyre, their temple and their secret agendas they moved against them. In 1307 ST they deposed the temple leaders and took power. The Arkalemsyre members went south and headed towards Valantia. Here, rather than setting up their own temple, they all joined separate temples, sects and Houses, and advanced through the hierarchies of the various individual temples. Through this they gained power and influence, and this is how the Arkalemsyre was formed and has remained ever since.

Mythos

The Arkalemsyre have a very bizarre view of Orlanthi mythology. They believe that Humakt was nopt one god, but many. They believe that the gods Umath, Humakt, Zorak Zoran and Kajaboor are all the same being advancing along a path of development. People misunderstand that they are all one being at different points during his existence, and in so doing worship different aspects, rather than paying homage to the whole. The myths of antipathy between Humakt and Zorak Zoran are merely symbolic of the inner turmoil of the god as having been honourable and then become a Darkness creature, the transformation from one mask to another being very traumatic. It is this entity that embodies these aspects that the Arkalemsyre know as Arkat!

They see Arkat as having been born in the Godtime, and he began as a violent, barbarous being of primal power, having little sense or brains. He was labelled Umath at this stage, and he ruled a mighty kingdom of godlings. Yet Arkat the Umath was not like the other gods - he was capable of undergoing great change. He grew bored with being ruler and left to wander Glorantha, leaving his kingdom to his brother Orlanuth. When he returned to his kingdom, he had harnessed his power and his violence, becoming a staunch, skilful warrior called Arkat the Humakt.

For years he remained as the protector of his kingdom, but the world's woes grew worse. Arkat slowly understood that merely protecting his kingdom was not enough, and that his Enemy must be destroyed by sallying forth. He slowly understood that in his current frame of mind, victory was not assured. Arkat started using dark magics, unethical magics, and while his kingdom despised him for it, he knew it was necessary for survival, and he became Arkat Zoran. He assumed the Zorani mantle of power in Hell, a myth known only to the Arkalemsyre. He was a fanatical, skilful god who had harnessed many so-called evil magics.

After centuries of fighting, Arkat realised that even this was not enough, that the Enemy was too numerous, too strong, to be defeated. When all seemed at it's worst it occurred to Arkat, if he had no Enemy he would have no need to fight. He became his Enemy, called Kajaboor, so that he no longer had an Enemy to be afraid of. He then let himself be devoured so that the world could be made anew. He did not die, however, for he was the greatest of all Gods, having discovered and defeated Death, and become Oblivion itself, he was immune to destruction of any form.

In the First Age Arkat returned to defeat the Enemy, and to teach the path of Arkat to the world so that the Enemy could always be defeated. He was sent by the Old Man. He developed through all of his former stages, from being a Humathi to a Zorak Zorani, to finally meeting with his Enemy at the Tower of Dreams. Here he became Gbaji and defeated him that way.

The Arkalemsyre know that the secrets of Arkat's teaching were lost, preserved only by the monks of Mt. Fiesive, and after their destruction preserved only by the Arkalemsyre. They see the path and advance along it in an effort to vanquish the Enemy.

Cukt aims etc...

The Arkalemsyre infest the Humathi society of southern Otkorion, they have a lot of political power and influence - Sreng Kirwan, Death Sword of the Church Militant and Temporal Incarnation of St. Humakt is even a member. Their aim is, and always has been, to advance the entire cult of Humakt along the path of Arkat, starting with changing it to the worship of Zorak Zoran. They believe that the eventual transformation of the entire cult into the Enemy and their consequent sacrifice will end all troubles that the world has. It is not that they believe that Zorak Zoran is superior, only that it is necessary for this advancement to occur so that the cult can be prepared to defeat Gbaji when he returns. This conversion is, of course, not going to be well liked - indeed, the Jalmari have caught wind of it and seek to stop them. The conversion is a slow process, and has to be well timed, for centuries it has slowly been planned, and one day they hope that they will succeed in a cult wide conversion.

Other than this, the worshippers of Arkat believe that they must search for information on the return of the Enemy, so that they can be prepared for his eventual return, ready to defeat him.

Cult Structure

The cult is organised into three loose tiers, at the bottom there are the followers of the path, above them are the Council of Arkalemsyre and above them are the Enemy.

The Enemy are those members who have advanced and assumed the mask of Kajaboor. They no longer have active participation in the cult, for they are the Enemy, and their aim is only to sacrifice themselves to destroy the Enemy. They have all mastered the Sacrifice of Kajaboor (see below). No more than one or two members of the Arkalemsyre master the path and become the Enemy in any one lifetime. Most Council members remain on the Council till they die, trying to mastermind the transformation of the entire cult as opposed to their personal transformation.

The Council of Arkalemsyre consists of Four Death Lords of Zorak Zoran, who have passed on from being Swords and slid into obscurity. They organise the great scheme of converting the entire cult. All of their followers follow their words to the letter, otherwise the Arkalemsyre assassins, a group of ten or so mysterious killers, will help change their mind.

The followers of the path are the main body of the sect. There are those who are merely within Humakt, furthuring the aims of the cult, and those who have advanced far enough to allow themselves the duality of joining Zorak Zoran alongside Humakt. Only those who have aquired the Illumination power of possessing conflicting passions (see below) and have a Piety (St. Humakt) of 15 or more (see my HeroQuest rules) can begin to follow the path of Zorak Zoran. Not all followers of the path end up joining Zorak Zoran, some choose to remain in power in the cult of St. Humakt to give the Arkalemsyre more power and influence. An example would be Sreng Kirwan, a powerful man in his own right, but remains in his position as Death Sword of the Church Militant to help the aims of the cult by converting it in the future.

Only Illuminates are asked to join. Once they join, they advance through the hierarchy of St. Humakt, garnering power and influence, readying for the great conversion. Those followers who do not gain great power and influence (say being high in the cult hierarchy or having great control over a particular House of St. Humakt) usually become Zorak Zorani, and then are charged with the mystical and magical manipulation of the Humakti cult (usually via HeroQuests).

The Arkalemsyre have their own secret tongue for communication. Those who join are trained up to 30%+ in it before being treated as true members of the sect.

The cult teaches the following sorcery spells on the sly; Animate Dead, Evoke Death, Hand of Death, Neutralise Armour, Poison Tooth, Tap. Descriptions of these spells are to be found in Sandy Petersen's Sorcery rules.

Other benefits include staunch help from other cult members - want to become a Sword? Who better to help you then Sreng Kirwan, Temporal Incarnation of St. Humakt. This prejudice favouring Arkalemsyre members is responsible for the vast power and influence they wield, and in turn it is this that often puts them in conflict with the Jalmari.

Rules Systems

The Arkalemsyre only take Illuminates, those touched by Arkat himself, into their fold. They teach the following Illumination power, this teaching is not in the form of training or research, but in a combination of sect doctrine and mystical rituals. If you wish, the game mechanic for this is to make an Illumination skill roll every Sacred Time - when it succeeds the power is gained.

The power is that the Illuminate can possess conflicting passions/traits. For instance, in my system they could have Hate (Orlanthi) and Piety (Orlanth) both at the same time, and could choose which one to choose on a given occasion. They must, however, be one or the other, they must either hate Orlanthi, or be pious towards Orlanth, not neither. This obviously makes members more flexible HeroQuesters. Under a personality trait system like Pendragon Pass the Illuminate can have ratings in their traits that add up to more than one hundred (or twenty if you use a scale of zero to twenty for Personality Traits), so you may have Lust 70 and Chaste 70 both at the same time. The Illuminate can choose which trait to use in a given situation.

For those advanced members of the sect, they have access to the Sacrifice of Kajaboor ritual. This allows sect members to allow themselves to die, and in doing so destroy the Enemy. All members learn it before leaving the Council of Arkalemsyre and taking upon themselves the varying masks of Gbaji to aid in his destruction.

The ritual occupies one point of Free INT, and is a ritual Ceremony spell. It is used prior to a HeroQuest of a cult that is a mask of Gbaji. Cults that are masks of Gbaji is a very flexible term - you should incloude chaos cults, but not exclude other cults. Anything that the Arkalemsyre can identify as being "the Enemy" is susceptible to this ritual. This includes enemy Arkati cults.

The HeroQuester must purposefully fail in the most spectacular way possible on the Quest, at the final, culminating point of the myth. For instance, if you were on a HeroQuest ot Thed, you would allow yourself to be skinned and killed by Kyger Litor, and have your soul devoured, or trapped, or some other gruesome end. If you were on a Boristi HeroQuest you would allow yourself as Quanatan van Deen to be slain by the Krjalki demons you face. The result is that whereas normally your Supporters and the cult you represent in general would suffer, combined with the Sacrifice of Kajaboor the results are multiplied ten-fold, effectively allowing your failure of the Quest to be a complete and utter screw-up! Supporters lose access to the god that the HeroQuester was repsenting, they become incapable of acting in any capacity beyond that of floundering around aimlessly (so a group of Krarshti would find themselves constantly stopped when trying to use their years of political secrets and influence) and almost always leads to the dissolution of the Enemy.

The worshipper who sacrifices themselves in this way believes that their soul travels not to the afterlife, but to wherever it is that the dormant Arkat now resides.

The Jalmari

Thanks to Ian Thomson and his cult rewrite of Jalmar Ironwood

The Cult of Jalmar Ironwood is MOB's invention, but seemed to fit so well into Otkorion's Humakti centered society that I use it there.

The cult of Jalmar was imported into Otkorion alongside the cult of Urox, and because of a combination of luck and Queen Kristine's ear, they managed to gain power and influence. Queen Kristine's personal advisor was a Jalmar worshipper, she knew of his true nature and appointed him General of the Liotcolml (the city guard). When he passed on, it was her who appointed General Stefan to replace him. Virutally from thsat day forth, Jalmari in positions of power have always ensured that other Jalmari are in positions of power. As the Arkalemsyre already exist in the south, and control the southern temples and a lot fo the Houses, the Jalmari worshippers are normally in the northern reaches of Otkorion, in and around Fiesive, and have far and away less influence within the Houses of St. Humakt than their opposite number in the south. Also, without the backing of one of the Temporal Incarnations of St. Humakt on their side they do not have as much clout as the Arkalemsyre do.

The aims of the Jalmari cult within Otkorion are the preservation of the lore of Jalmar, to see to it that Gbaji is kept at bay and lastly to seek out and destroy Dark Side Illuminates. This brings them into conflict with the Arkalemsyre. However, whilst the Jalmari despise the Dark Side Gbajism (as they see it) of the Arkalemsyre, the Arkalemsyre do not reciprocate this hatred - they see the Jalmari as being staunch Humakti just waiting to become Zorak Zorani... sometimes Jalmari are converted to the Arkalemsyre, and vice versea.

The Head Knight of Jalmar Ironwood is a Humathi Death Lord from Lankst called Benevan Scanthil, advisor to the Scanthil King. Notable figureheads in Otkorion are General Stefan and his brother Crelatia who lead the city guards of Fiesive and Valantia respecitvely. They are noted for their disdaining of sorcery, one of the things that stops Jalmari from joining more mainstream Henotheistic institutions and gaining power and influence that way.

Messages are sent between Benevan and the other Knights of Jalmar via Spirit Raven spirits. All other Knights of Jalmar have equal status, no matter what their rank or status elsewhere. All Knights gather in a randomly determined location for a meeting once every nine years. Knights have influence in southern Lankst, Otkorion, Marost and growing influence in Helby.

The Jalmari, in my conception, have access to some special rituals to allow them to route out Dark Illuminates. They do this by testing them, tempting them and then killing them if they fall into temptation. The Jalmari in Ralios also have rituals to allow them to join and advance in other Law-orientated cults without needing to be part of the cult hierarchy, or know other worshippers in the cult. This mythical and magical plundering of utilizing gods powers without being part of their cult sometimes brings them into conflict with other Arkati, while the Jalmari don't see it as being the path of Gbaji other Arkati do. The Jalmari are Illumianted during initiation, and gain all the normal powers of Illumination, even though they must still adhere to their geases they have the power to ignore them (the true power of a Jalmari is his ability to resist temptation). They also have a heightened Illumination detection, they can instantly detect Illuminates who are within POW metres (much as immortals in HighLander detect one another).

Additionally, Jalmari have the ability to refute and resist sorcerous influence and powers. All Jalmari gain access to a new skill, Resist Sorcery. It begins at 5% and has no category modifier, and can be increased by experience and research, but not training. Research into this skill is in the form of meditation. The skill use is simple, whenever a sorcerous effect is used upon the Jalmari (anything from Dominate to the extra damage from Boost Damage) a successful skill use negates the effect. If a critical roll is made, then the spell expires if it was a temporal spell (such as Boost Damage on a sword). This skill, however, may not be used to dispel sorcery already in effect. (Many thanks to Ian Thomson's idea for that skill).

The Jalmari stance on Henotheism is that the Church is a good, unifying force that, alas, has fallen afoul of Gbaji's falsehoods and uses evil sorcery. The Jalmari seek not to bring down the Church, but to expunge sorcery (a difficult task indeed). Nuatha Firestaff, Sword-Magi of the Red Circle, is a Jalmari given special dispensation by Benevan to learn sorcery in an effort to bring down the Circle from the inside and decimate the sorcery power base across Otkorion. Hopefully, shaman allies from Lankst will then migrate south and reintroduce more theistic elements into Otkorion society.