Glorantha: Cult of Pamalt Cult of Pamalt by Greg Stafford and Sandy Petersen originally published in Wyrms Footnotes #11 This document is Copyright © 1998 Issaries, Inc. It may be freely linked to, and one copy may be printed for personal use, but any other reproduction by photographic, electronic, or other methods of retrieval, is prohibited. Table of Contents Mythos and History Chieftain Membership Variations on the Theme: Different Cultures' Ways of Worshiping the God Mythos and History In elder days the world was inhabited by many gigantic and potent beings. Pamalt was one, a son of Ancient Grandmother. He took to wife Faranar the earth mother and they had many children. They lived among the other immortals. In those days everyone had plenty of free time to do whatever they wanted. Pamalt wandered around, making friends and learning about the world, while everyone else practiced new magics or studied hard. Artmal, a pompous god, condemned Pamalt as no more useful than Trickster, and the people of Artmal shunned Pamalt afterwards. Pamalt instead turned his attention to a new race of mortals, called Agimori. The old trees were jealous that the Agimori could walk and talk. One day Pamalt found some bad trees trying to break the heads of the oldest Agimori grandparents. Pamalt rubbed his fingers together and showed the grandparents how to make a fire which punished the trees. The Agimori were pleased with the place they had made to live, and Pamalt became known as the Land Clearer. Pamalt gave his secret to Firebearer and that friend created the great wide plains for the Agimori to live and hunt in. In vengeance, the trees created their own people, called elves, to fight the Agimori and replant the hated jungle. In those days the world was divided into two parts. Lodril, the good god, ruled the south, while Yelm ruled the north. When Yelm was killed, his realm was conquered by fierce and wild gods. Ever since then only bad has come from the north. One time many invaders came from the north -- trolls, elves, dwarfs, and pale humans in an unholy alliance against the Peace of the South. Pamalt told his friend Assegai to make weapons for the Agimori, and ordered his friend Lodril to protect the land. Lodril raised a barrier mountain against the foes, which held them back until the Agimori gained strength enough to defend themselves. Since that time the world becomes ever less calm as one travels north, and even the coastal fringe of Pamaltela is partly hostile or disbelieving of Pamalt's powers. The Meeting Contest was popular then, just as it is now. When two great men meet they introduce themselves and offer a challenge to each other to use some skill or another. If one man is notably better at his skill, he wins and the other loses. To refuse a challenge is acceptable only if the foe refuses as well, for then both opponents lose nothing. Refusing a challenge when yours was accepted is an insult. In those early days, unlike our decadent times, there was never any guile or ill-will involved in these contests. Pamalt always lost the first contest of each pair, because he was the oldest god and could not offer the first challenge. But every opponent lost to Pamalt in the second contest, and so no one lost any honor. This also showed that, though every god excelled Pamalt in some way, Pamalt excelled over everyone in another way. One day a new challenger came to the land, and his challenge was for all skills against all skills as the initial challenge. Worse, no one could think of what they might do to challenge the newcomer back. The stranger called himself Surprise-From-The-North. One courageous god, who is remembered now only as First Lost, went to meet the challenge. He was so badly beaten that no one remembers anything about him now, except that when the women of Pamaltela heard of his doom, half of them died of grief. Second Lost was no luckier. When he disappeared all the food of the world changed to an inferior flavor. Third Lost left no trace at all. Some wise men say others also opposed the newcomer, all of whom perished forever. None of them went to the Land of Death, none became ghosts, no corpses were found. All the gods gathered in their meeting grounds to discuss the problem coming their way. "Who will meet this one?" asked Mouse. "I am the One," spake Pamalt, "I am He to take this task." He stamped his spear thrice on the field, shook his shield, and called the name of his grandmother and his tools to help. He tried everything against his foe, and sometimes he lost and sometimes the monster lost. Pamalt was aided by his friends and neighbors. Kolat helped him hear a secret. Slor helped him douse a fire. The outsider was helped by his monster cronies, too. In the end, both were equal in wins and losses. "My challenge to you, Filth-Which-Walks, is this: make something new, as I can." And Pamalt made a living necklace, and each shell, stone, and bead in it was one of his assistants. That is why his council of gods is called the Necklace of Pamalt. The invader could make no such thing, but he and his minions exposed fearful weapons and attacked. All of Pamalt's friends were slain in that treachery, and only the god escaped alive to his home. Ever since that time anyone who attacks at a Meeting Challenge is also called Vovisibor, Filth-Which-Walks. Pamalt took his newly made necklace and called out the powers which he had hidden there. The spirits of his friends came alive again, and together they plotted the downfall of his enemies. Ever since that time the gods of the south have followed Pamalt as king. Two armies of foes left from the Ground of Evil Challenge. One of them absorbed the life from the dirt and rock, and so when they left the whole land disappeared from the world. The main army, under Vovisibor, went south, seeking Pamalt. They met and fought at the Field of Jaranpor, where all the friends and allies of Pamalt worked under his command, and fought the foes to a standstill. Then, Pamalt made the sky break and vomit endless eternal flame upon the enemy army, whose enormous capacity for absorption was cancelled out with a terrible thunderclap which ignited the whole land and left behind the Scorched Earth, which separates the realm of Pamalt from that of mortals. The other army from the Ground of Evil Challenge were defeated by the dark warriors of Qualyorni, the Cold One. The remnants from that defeat were then crushed again at the battle of Sporebore, whose chaotic survivors fled into the Scorched Earth. But the fight was not over. Chaos armies crossed to Pamalt's land over a bridge of slime and broke upon the land like waves of acid. In the midst of destruction, Pamalt held true. Though realms of beauty perished forever, he fought valiantly to protect their dead shells. His persistence and refusal to admit the defeat bore fruit. All the wretched inhabitants of the land girded themselves and flung themselves into the face of the fearsome Enemy. With the variegated armies of Pamaltela behind him, he exposed the hollow horror of Seseine, healed the suppurating wounds caused by Krjalk, burnt out the impurities of Pocharngo, and slew the undead hordes of Gark. When the carnage ended, Pamalt discovered that most of his powerful allies survived, and so did many of his mortal followers. Through the long gray age which followed Pamalt guided his peoples to survive and prosper, and personally conducts the annual Dance of Twenty-Seven which limits the growth and curse of the Scorched Earth. The only threat which followed the defeat of chaos was Usurper Qualyorni, the Cold One. In Qualyorni's wake came a long train of ice-demons and other frigid beings. Qualyorni claimed that he was rightful ruler of the South because he, too, had conquered chaos and saved the land. He came to bring winter to Pamaltela. King Artmal said, "I will beat him alone," and went to meet the Usurper. Qualyorni gave Artmal seven unhealable wounds and threw him off the top of the Tarmo Mountains. Then Pamalt said, "I will beat him," and went with his friends to meet the Cold One. He took the spear of Stingray, the club of Ankylosaur, the shield of Tortoise, the armor of Pangolin, the magic drink of the Earth Witch, and the stomach of Molandro. Thus prepared, amalt struck down the troll god, wounding him and making him a weak shell of what he had been. But the ice demons which Qualyorni had brought with him were able to live on in the lands where Artmal had been conquered. This is why Enkloso and Vralos are cold in the winter. Pamalt has survived intact since then, relatively unchanged. His strength, and interest, lies with the vast grasslands and the common free man of Pamalt. The northern coast, while rich and diverse, is far from the heart of his realm. Upon death, Pamalt grants loyal worshippers a choice: either to join him as an Earth Dancer to care for the land, or (when one's body has rotted away) to be reborn in one's tribe under the same conception totem. This is dependent in part on the rituals performed in one's present or past lifetimes. If a worshipper is reborn, usually Pamalt takes away their memories, but leaves the knowledge of their Song of Power. Pamalt's Runes are Earth and Mastery. Chieftain Membership Not just anyone can be a chieftain. Almost all Doraddi follow the rule that only folk from very specific lineages can be chief. The exact lineage varies from tribe to tribe, and sometimes other requirements are in order. When a tribe's chieftain is killed or deposed, the Women's Circle gathers together to decide upon his replacement. No woman who belongs to a chieftain lineage may vote, nor may any woman who has married anyone in a chieftain lineage (however, such women can speak in the Circle). The Women's Circle can summarily remove a cruel or incompetent chieftain and replace him at any time. Sometimes the voting and negotiating for a chieftain takes weeks, and haggling can be very crass, to the point that one woman promises blankets or other goods to other women to buy their vote for her candidate. If one (or two) woman proves recalcitrant about a chieftain which the rest of the women agree on, she can be kicked out of the tribe on a temporary or permanent basis, so the others can get the chieftain elected. On very rare occasions, it proves impossible for the women to agree on a chieftain, in which case the tribe may split, following two chieftains, or part or all of the tribe may merge with some other tribe. In some tribes, chieftain lineages are few. A few tribes have been forced to merge with others because all qualified chieftains actually died out. But in other tribes, the bulk of the tribe qualifies for chieftainhood. Some tribes, such as the Neckring clan of southern Jolar, have as many as 90% of the tribe qualified for chieftainhood. In these tribes, the voting women (those few belonging to non-chieftain lineages) have great power, and sell their votes accordingly. Variations on the Theme: Different Cultures' Ways of Worshiping the God Arbennan The Arbennan people of the Pamaltelan savanna worship Pamalt pretty much as described above. The Pamalt pantheon has a large variety of different gods with highly useful spells -- yet most individuals are nomad huntsmen, with only a limited access to great temples. This problem is resolved by the existence of oases. When an Arbennan becomes too old or too crippled to continue in the hunter-gatherer life, he or she retires to one of these oases. Most oasis-dwellers are at least acolytes in one or more cults, and they hold large or even great temples services for the benefit of any tribe that passes by. In this way, relatively imposing temples to even the most minor gods are generally available to worshipers at the price of one or two week's walk. For those familiar with Genertelan customs, the contrast between the oasis-dwellers of Prax and those of Pamaltela savanna is striking -- in both cases, nomad life would be nearly impossible without the oasis-dwellers, but in Genertela, the oasis folk are oppressed slaves, while in Pamaltela, they are highly honored members of all tribes. Kresh The Kresh are a nomadic Agimori people. They ride in gigantic wagons across Kothar and northern Zamokil and rule a savanna empire which is based on trust and custom rather than conquest and domination. The Kresh social structure is different from that of the Arbennan, but they, too, worship Pamalt. Their enemies claim that Pamalt is not truly worshiped and this claim probably has some truth to it, at least insofar as the wagonmasters appear to be required to worship a secret deity, though Pamalt is often worshiped, too. The Kresh are not the only people in Kothar -- the bulk of the inhabitants are typical Doraddi folk, who belong to the Kresh Empire and fulfill their responsibilities to them. Coastal Along the jungle coasts of Pamaltela, the worship of Pamalt has taken many strange routes. The city folk of Elamle and Flanch almost all recognize Pamalt's supremacy, but he is rarely the dominant religion in any city. Each city is very individualistic, approaching the worship of Pamalt in its own way. See also: The Chieftain Speaks [ New Here? | Greg Sez! | Main Page | Product Listing | Coming Events | Cool Links ]