Glorantha: A Personal View of Ogre Culture 
What My Father Taught Me
A Personal View of Ogre Culture
by Martin Crim
originally published in Shadows on the Borderlands
This document is copyright 1993 by the Avalon Hill Game Company, and is used by 
permission.
Who are you?
My father gave me my first cover name, Einar. Now I usually answer to Talsta 
Greybeard. My have adopted many names and disguises. I have lived long and know 
all the ways of not being found out.
Who are we?
We are the hidden secret, the superior masters of the world. None can approach 
our greatness. We live among the food-men, our lawful prey, and fool them into 
thinking we are like them.
What makes us great?
We are the original human beings and keep the original gifts of chaos to the 
human race. Our bodies are stronger than the average food-man's. We call upon 
the greatest gods and have great magical powers. Thus, we can flout the laws of 
the food-men and draw power and nourishment from eating them.
Where do we live?
We live in the Zola Fel valley, now under the boot of the Lunar Empire. We 
travel around from place to place, and also travel to Sartar to our west and 
Tarsh to our northwest. Pavis holds a place of power for ogres, a place 
dedicated to Cacodemon: Ogre Isle.
How do we live?
We masquerade as merchants of the Etyries cult, which gives us a license to 
travel anywhere in Lunar-occupied territory. We can disappear from one place 
when the danger of discovery looms. Then we change our names and make new lies, 
and travel on to another city. We carry official Lunar papers showing names and 
backgrounds which we use only when we must.
What is important in my life?
To avoid being found out by jealous lawful folk. To hasten the Day of Chaos by 
breaking all laws and slaughtering the food-men. To make more children of our 
race, replacing the inferior food-men. To support our brethren. To undermine the 
food-man society so that it will collapse on itself like a rotten vegetable. 
Thus we hasten the Day of Chaos.
Who rules us?
I rule you. You will obey me, or I will rip your throat out. The Lunar army 
rules the occupied lands. We seek their protection when necessary.
What makes an ogre great?
Breaking the laws of the food-men, preying on them, and thus increasing our 
power. We always delight in killing our enemies and devouring their bodies. Rape 
is another fun thing, because it is illegal and also because it increases our 
kind. We revel in arson, because it often pits the food-men against each other. 
Anything the law forbids, we wish to do. The more we break the laws, the more we 
please Cacodemon and come closer to the Day of Chaos. But be careful lest you 
give yourself away.
What is the difference between men and women? 
Men more easily create more of our kind. One reason we move from place to place 
is to avoid discovery through someone's recognition of an ogre child. If we 
cannot raise the child ourselves, it is better that he grows up among lawful 
folk and take his chances.
Ogre women are more tractable than men. Thus, I prefer to lead a group of women. 
Our women are much larger and stronger than food-women, so they must be extra 
careful to avoid attention.
What is evil?
True evil is thwarting your own kind, or weakening the forces of chaos. The 
food-men say we are evil for breaking their laws and reveling in our power. They 
are wrong. The lawful gods have deceived them because they fear the destruction 
of this vomit-world. It is the food men who do evil in trying to halt the 
glorious growth of chaos and the coming of the day we reunite in the Immolation 
of Primal Chaos. The greatest good lies in hastening the almighty paroxysm of 
the last day.
What is my lot in life?
Your lot is to glorify Cacodemon, the Devil, and Chaos by sowing discord, 
unhappiness, and destruction among lawful folk. You can count on support from 
your family, if you follow obediently and lead boldly. All others are hostile to 
you, except that other ogres may work with you.
How do we deal with others?
With chaotics, we must discover whether they are more powerful than us. If they 
are, we submit to their will until we can break free. If they are less powerful, 
we seek to make them do our will.
With lawful beings, we must first deceive. Then we find out how best to 
victimize them. Perhaps we will cheat them in a sale of goods, which is a petty 
wickedness only. Perhaps we will father an ogre child upon an unsuspecting 
woman, or seduce a young girl.
What I like best is when we catch someone all alone, where none can see us. We 
slowly kill our victim and eat him. That is a real kick, and good for laughs. We 
will do it again soon.
Who are our enemies?
All lawful folk are our enemies. Powerful chaotics who seek to dominate or 
destroy us are also enemies. Anyone, including the Lunars, who tries to stop our 
great deeds is an enemy. Anyone who tries to blow our cover is an enemy, so 
Storm Bull cultists are special foes. We oppose anyone who opposes the Day of 
Chaos.
Who are our gods?
We worship Cacodemon, the true son of the devil, harbinger of the day of Chaos. 
He protects us from the gaze of enemies, and lets us move at will among the 
food-men.
Etyries is our cover goddess. She is part of the Lunar Goddess's pantheon, and 
thus accepts chaos in principle, though not in practice. We worship her as part 
of our disguise. She provides useful contacts and skills, and some serviceable 
spirit magics. We carefully avoid notice by remaining mediocre in wealth and 
cult rank.
We also know an ogre shaman, called Rat-Headed Blood-Licker, who teaches us any 
spirit magic we want. He demands money and live victims, however. He lives near 
Snakepipe Hollow, a place of chaos power.
What is there to do around here?
You can learn the trade of merchant so as to mingle in society and gull the 
foolish food-men. You can practice your weapons so you will be able to slaughter 
our prey quickly and quietly. You will do what I tell you when we perform great 
deeds to honor Cacodemon. You can have fun on your own, but eat your enemy in 
secret or we will all be killed.
Note: Many ogres have a much less rational attitude, and have never wrestled 
with the seeming contradictions of their inner nature. Those ogres only know 
that illegal deeds make them powerful and give them pleasure. They believe in 
their innate superiority to non-ogres with never a question. They also accept on 
faith the corollary that they should prey on non-ogres. This makes them amoral, 
but not evil inside - at least not in the light of Lunar philosophy. (Think of 
Alexander DeLarge, in the Anthony Burgess book and Stanley Kubrick movie A 
Clockwork Orange.)
A third ogre philosophy is alien to human minds: true evil. Few sane humans 
claim to be evil, and those who do are more banal than frightening. People who 
claim to be evil still must tell the truth sometimes, work with their families 
and friends, and do all the other lawful things good people do. Some ogres have 
a way around that.
Truly evil ogres believe that everything the food-men say about ogres is true. 
They believe themselves to be innately evil, driven by their inner natures to 
break the moral and legal rules of the food-men. They care little about 
Cacodemon, the Devil or the Day of Chaos. The gods only increase their power to 
do evil, and serve as exemplars of evil and destruction. These ogres follow the 
laws and do good things only to disguise themselves. They are the mirror-image 
of the normal person: they rationalize good acts as justified by an evil end.
In any case, ogres never do selfless works. They always have a payoff in mind. 
This makes them hard to distinguish, morally, from the vast majority of their 
prey. They raise their children, which requires time, energy, and risk, but they 
expect their children to serve and aid them. They are kind and generous to their 
followers, at least to the extent of sustaining their followers' lives, but only 
because they expect a return on investment. They seem to lack a sense of honor, 
but so do most food-men.
Ogres do have a sense of humor, however, and appreciate the irony in food-men's 
recurrent false accusations of ogre-hood directed at other food-men. Usually, 
these accusations fly against rude or antisocial persons. Thus, most ogres are 
unfailingly polite and friendly on the surface. Sometimes, ogres make the false 
accusations, but only to avoid being accused themselves.
The only clues to an ogre's identity are observation of anthropophagy 
(human-eating) and detection through the Storm Bull Sense Chaos ability. Seeing 
the ogre eat human flesh does not rule out the possibility that he is a 
worshipper of the Hungry Ghosts. Sense Chaos never points out the source, and 
does not rule out the possibility that the chaotic being is a corrupted human. 
But few food-men quibble about such matters, being ready to slay the discovered 
being out of hand, whether or not he is an ogre.


See also:
Chaos in Glorantha
Eat Your Enemy in Secret
What Do You Want? Shut Up!
What the Broo Shaman Says
Secrets of the Chaos Gods


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