Year 50,000: The Bellaron Sacrifice Chamandra

Previous history

     Year 0: The Brun return to the frozen north 
          Year 30,000:  The cleansing ritual of Oparron

(I started off the players with How The Beast of the Sea Slew the Weak.  The title alone made them apprehensive.  The fingers began pointing in Connor's direction almost as soon as the story was concluded.)

The Oparron tribe has crossed the island chain, in boats and rafts, for millennia. In that time, their society has changed; those who are strongest survive, and those who perish weren’t strong enough. Leaders of the tribe (now called Bellaron) are chosen by combat prowess; a loser who survives, which doesn’t happen often, is exiled. A loser who fails to survive is purified: that is, boiled or burnt. Mates are often selected by contest as well, with men fighting for the right to a woman or, just as frequently, women fighting over men.

Upon reaching adulthood, men and women must undergo a rite of passage, to do something daring and possibly deadly. Thousands of years ago, such demonstrations included hunting game alone; more recently, demonstrations involved far-ranging expeditions to find new islands, or deep-diving demonstrations to bring up pearls.

Now, as the seas are rising, their islands are disappearing, but salvation is in sight: land is just visible on the horizon.

The leader of the Turning Shell tribe has organized expeditions to neighboring islands to bring back as many trees as can be found, to make rafts to get the people to the mainland. The leader, Windstrong Ravvy (M, 50) is a tough, judicious leader. Yes, the trip to the mainland is perilous, but we cannot remain. Some will die, but the strong will make it.

Not all are happy with the decision to go. Many of the younger generation follow the words of Nightsky Chamandra (M, 16) who says he is the strongest who ever lived. He has personally killed seven men in combat, he can have any mate he wants, and he is not afraid o the water. He will remain behind with all his mates and any who will stay. In fact, Chamandra claims that the Sea Spirit spoke to him and told him he was immortal. He will remain behind and the tribe will witness that no harm comes to him.

Ravvy says he cannot allow this. Those that follow Chamandra include most of the women of childbearing age, and without them, Ravvy will have a short-lived time on the mainland.

The medicine woman of the Turning Shell tribe, Copperdawn Dainar (F, 43) is not much use. Although she agrees that the waters will consume all the island and it is not safe to remain, it is also not safe to go. The berries which grow on the island are key to fertility: without the seaberries, we have no children. Have you not noticed that a woman only bears children when she eats of the seaberry? Have you not noticed that men only sire children when they have eaten the seaberry? There is a reason we use the seaberry in our rites of passage ritual, she says; we cannot abandon the islands, and yet we cannot leave. Our way of life is doomed; the world is ending; game over, man, etc.

That is nonsense, says Queenfisher Abda (F, 22). We all eat of the berries. Who here has not? In any case, the sea will support us. I will show you the way. I, who have dived deeper than any, and I who can remain below the water for hours at a time, will show you how the sea can sustain us.

Chamandra and Ravvy are squaring off to see which of their people will follow them.

What The Players Decided  

"He says he's immortal?" asked Connor.  "Let's kill him.  That will solve it.  They won't pay any attention to him once we kill him off."

What if he is immortal? I asked reasonably.

"Oh." And they went back to the drawing board.

"Hang on, that purification ritual," Joe the Leader said, glaring at Connor.  "The whole burning and boiling heads thing. If he is immortal, he'll be the last to fall. So who will purify his remains? He can't leave his people. What does he say to that?"

"I am immortal," said Chamandra. "The question shall never arise."

"So he says he's immortal," the Joe said, trying again. "That doesn't mean he can protect the people that stay behind. Doesn't he care about them?"

"If they're strong," Chamandra says, "they'll survive. If they don't, they weren't strong enough."

"Boy," said Connor the Mystic, "we really messed these people up."

"What do you mean we?" asked Dave and Joe, together.

"All right, let's test his immortality," Joe said, coming back around to Connor's first solution. "He doesn't seem to afraid to demonstrate it. If the people see that he's not immortal, they won't be as likely to take his advice and remain on the islands."

"We'll make him dive into the water and stay there for ... like, two days," Dave said.

"What about that water-breathing chick — Abda?" Joe asked.  "She can stay down for hours. What if she breathes air into his mouth?"

"We don't let her go down with him."

"What if he can breathe water too?"

"Hmmm. Okay, let's not use water. Let's say, All right, you're immortal, do as you will. Before we depart the island we must perform the purification ritual for you. For if we all leave, who would perform these rites for you? Just step over here and stand in this fire..."
 

They built a giant bonfire to purify the body of Chamandra prior to his death. If he really wasn't immortal, he'd die, no problems, and we don't have to worry about him.

Chamandra was happy to oblige, and gathered the people before the fire. "I accept my purification directly from the hands of the Four Warriors, the only ones who have the power to do so—"

("I knew he was going to do that!" said Joe.)

"I will die, but I will be reborn—"

("Aaargh, why didn't we think of that?" asked Dave.)

"—for I am immortal. You must now leave my islands. You will rue the day that you ever chose to leave."

He then stepped into the fire and burned to death.

The Players looked at each other.  "Oh, great," said Joe.

Results  

The effects of this event are too complex to enter into here, but suffice to say that the tribes of Brun who would now populate the mainland would have a strong element of sacrifice in their mythology.  They would all tell the tale of Chamandra, who was sacrificed to make the rising waters fall.  At the time I prepared this event, I thought it might be amusing to introduce a character that was actually immortal, considering how the Players would continue to return to the world and see the changing face of culture and technology.  Wouldn't it be fun to see one familiar face?  I did not, however, expect the Players to immediately resent this supposed immortal and order him burned to death.  You might say that the Players hadn't handled this particular Event very well.  I say that they gave me a gift, such that any GM would love to receive.

How the Beast of the Sea Slew the Weak

When the world was young and the seas were cold and the skies rained, the Island People did long ago live in the Land of the Setting Sun.  Their leader, a mighty leader called Axe-Hand Oparron, led the people to a place where there was nothing but water on all sides, and here he told them to rest and prepare for the hunt.

As the people rested and prepared, Four Warriors came forth from the Land of the Setting Sun, and they called out a warning.  But the people did not listen, and behold!  Two giant beasts of shell and horn emerged from the sea, and did slay five of the people.

Huntress Javaz said, “We must slay these beasts in kind,” and she led her mighty warriors to the battle, and they did kill the beasts of the sea.

And the mighty leader Axe-Hand Oparron said, “You have done well, you have slain the beasts.  Now we hunt.”

But the people were starving and two of the weakest of them ate the flesh of the beasts, and those people turned red in the face and died at once.

And the people said, “These are not beasts that we can eat!  Axe-Hand Oparron, what shall we hunt?  For there is no food.”

Huntress Javaz said, “Only the strongest among us can eat the flesh of these beasts.  Dare you to see if you are strong, or if you are weak?”

And Axe-Hand Oparron consulted Warrior Zoad and Mystic Olan, and they said, “From this day forth, on the day when a boy becomes a man, and on the day a girl becomes a woman, each shall taste of the sea berry, and each shall partake of the flesh of the sea beasts, and we shall know if they are strong.”

And thus it was so.

And Huntress Javaz said, “And if ever question arises who is to hunt, the hunt shall be led by the strong, and not by the weak.”

And Mystic Olan said, “And if ever question arises who is to be our medicine man, we shall choose the one with the strongest spells, and not the weakest.”

And Axe-Hand Obarron, who was wisest of all, said, “And if ever question arises which is the strongest, remember the Four Warriors, who saw the beasts of the sea when others saw it not.”