MODES OF ADDRESS
The Queen—‘Eternal Salmissra’, ‘Beloved of Issa’
The High Priests—‘Most High’
The High Chamberlain—‘My Lord High Chamberlain’
Others at Court—My Lord this or that (Title)
Commoners—Called by name only
Slaves—‘You’ or ‘Slave’
Note on the Queen: The drug she takes to keep her perpetually young is also a powerful aphrodisiac, and since she must dose with it daily, the Queen is in a perpetual state of sexual arousal. (It also inhibits—prevents—pregnancy.) It is this that makes most Queens docile. They are too busy satisfying their lusts to have time for government. Part of the duties of court functionaries are to service the Queen. She also keeps a stable of slaves for this purpose. Other drugs make them unnaturally potent.
Note on Drugs: The antidotes to the various poisons are usually addictive. Thus most Nyissans are addicts—euphoric and sometimes half-asleep. These addictions are what hold down the Nyissan birth-rate. The men are too doped-up to be much interested in sex. Nyissan women frequently turn to slaves for satisfaction, and lesbianism is quite common.
MANNERS
Elaborately formal. No open hostility. Hissing is considered a sign of respect.
HOLIDAYS
Erastide—Not all that important in Nyissa
Day of the Serpent—Issa’s Birthday
Day of Salmissra—Traditional birthday of the Queen
Festival of the Poison Ones—The day when Salmissra kisses a cobra—(a special drug she takes makes her odor pleasing to the snake so that he will not bite).
RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES
Lots of snake-stuff—snake handling, etc. Day of the Serpent—a naked group-grope in the temple in company with a lot of nonvenomous snakes. Pet snakes are household gods. Etc., etc.
POPULATION
About 2 million Nyissans. 250,000 in Sthiss Tor.
THE ANGARAK KINGDOMS
NOTE
Because their history is so completely interwoven, it would be largely impractical and repetitious to deal with each of the Angarak Kingdoms separately. Indeed, while there are slight cultural differences between Nadraks, Thulls and Murgos, they are hardly more than those differences one might distinguish between the inhabitants of Tol Rane, Tol Honeth and Tol Vordue in Tolnedra. Further, because of the unity of their policy, it is perhaps useful to consider these kingdoms as little more than administrative districts of one single national entity.
GEOGRAPHY
The Angarak Kingdoms, consisting of Gar og Nadrak, Mishrak ac Thull and Cthol Murgos, lie along the eastern edge of the continent. The most notable features of the kingdoms are the vast stretches of inhospitable mountains, barren steppes and dreary wastelands. While their lands are rich in mineral wealth, the Angaraks have never fully exploited those riches.
Gar Og Nadrak
The northern-most of the kingdoms is covered with vast forests in its central and north central portions and with the
inevitable and towering mountains to the west and north. To the east and south, moor-lands stretch to the shores of the Eastern Sea. Two major rivers, the Cordu and the Drak on Du flow generally southeasterly, joining at Yar Turak in the central moors to form the Greater River Cordu which empties into the sea at the site of the twin cities of Yar Marak and Thull Zelik, the eastern termini of the North Caravan Route. The only other population center of any significance in Gar og Nadrak, aside from the capital of Yar Nadrak, is the fortified city of Yar Gurak on the northwest border with Drasnia. It is generally believed that to the northeast lies the land bridge to the endless reaches of Mallorea, although the Nadraks refuse to confirm this. The evidence of this bridge and the possibility of another caravan route across it, while largely presumptive, is borne out by the fact that vessels observed in the ports at Yar Marak and in Thull Zelik in Mishrak ac Thull are coastal scows incapable (or so observers from Cherek have informed us) of sustained ocean voyages. Our friends from Cherek further advise us that the Angaraks are woefully poor seamen and would be unable to sustain any significant transoceanic commerce. Thus, since Mallorean trade articles—silks, spices and jewelry for the most part— appear regularly in the inventories of Nadrak merchants, it must be assumed that there exists some dependable route to the east.
Mishrak Ac Thull
This is the central Angarak Kingdom. Again, its western boundary with Algaria is mountainous and the eastern foothills are tree-covered, a southern continuation of the vast forests of Nadrak. Aside from the northern River Cordu, which forms the northeastern boundary with Gar og Nadrak, the land of the Thulls is drained only by the River Mardu, and their capital of Thull Mardu is located on an island in that river some hundred leagues inland. Extensive grasslands lie to the north of the River Mardu, and significant cattle herds are grazed in that area of late. (Probably developed as a result of the serious meat-famine which followed the Angaraks’ disastrous adventure in the west.) To the south in the foothills of the mountains a sparsely timbered belt exists which soon gives way to the empty reaches of the wastes of Murgos. The southern boundary of Mishrak ac Thull is the Taur River.
Cthol Murgos
This southern Angarak Kingdom is the most bleak and uninviting. The seaport of Rak Goska at the mouth of the Taur is the only city of any size in Cthol Murgos, aside from the theological capital at Rak Cthol, and forms the eastern terminus of the South Caravan Route.
Cthol Murgos is, by any civilized standard, an uninhabitable wasteland. Because of the aridity of the country, agriculture is minimal, and the Murgos must import virtually all their foodstuffs. The bleak coastline is backed for a hundred leagues with the bleak wastes of Murgos; there is again, as in Mishrak ac Thull, a narrow belt of stunted trees; and then there is only the endless barren waste of the southern mountains.64
The only geographic feature worthy of note in those mountains is the vast, flat Wasteland of Murgos just to the west of the first range of mountains. The area, perhaps a hundred leagues wide and three hundred long, appears to have been a huge inland sea at some time in the dim reaches of the pre-historic past. Either the sea was drained during some cataclysmic geological upheaval, or a drastic change in climate to the present aridity caused it to gradually dry up. Whatever the reason, only the sea-bed remains. Enormous stretches of barren salt-flats are interspersed with endless expanses of black sand and ridges of tumbled basalt slabs. Somewhere near the center of the wasteland is the Tarn of Cthok, a foul-smelling lake seething with chemical salts and so noxious that even the vultures of Cthol Murgos are frequently overcome by the fumes as they fly over it and fall into the water and perish. The marge of the lake is a bubbling quagmire, forever churned by stinking gasses rising from the very bowels of the earth.
Somewhat to the west of the tarn rises the solitary peak which is the site of Rak Cthol, the forbidden theological capital of the Murgos. The sides of the peak are smooth basalt, and the only approach to the city is by way of a narrow, inclined causeway, built in the distant past by unspeakable amounts of human labor. One is sickened at the thought of whole generations of slaves toiling away their lives to lay this pathway to Rak Cthol. The walls of the city are as high as the peak itself. What lies within the city is a mystery, since no outsider is permitted to enter.
As is the case with Nyissa, which forms the northwestern boundary of this bleak country, the southern border of Cthol Murgos is indistinct. The western reaches of the land of the Murgos are arid mountains, bleak and uninhabited.
THE PEOPLE
While they are all Angaraks, there are subtle distinctions between the inhabitants of the three eastern kingdoms and
between them and the Malloreans (also Angarak) who dwell in unnumbered hordes in the uncharted lands beyond the Eastern Sea.
THE NADRAKS
These northern-most Angaraks are more volatile than their brothers to the south. While all Angaraks are war-like, it was the Nadraks who conducted the centuries-long campaign which continual
ly probed the borders of Drasnia and Algaria during the third millennium. Fortunately, the Nadraks are also acquisitive, and it was this characteristic which made possible the opening of the North Caravan Route from Boktor to Yar Marak. With the growth of trade, there has also been a growth of information, and as a result of more frequent contact, we know more about the Nadraks than we do of Thulls or Murgos or Grolims. Nadrak hunters range the vast forests of the north, providing the luxuriant furs for which Gar og Nadrak is so justly famous. Nadrak miners, unlike the Murgos to the south, scorn the use of slave labor and hack gold and gems from the living rock with their own hands. A rowdy group, these foresters, hunters and miners are susceptible to the pleasures of keg and flagon, and Drasnian agents, posing as merchants, have for centuries used this susceptibility to their own advantage. Much information can be gained concerning concentrations of troops, movements and even the temper of officials in Yar Nadrak, the capital, for the minor investment in a few kegs of ale in wayside camps and villages.
The present King of the Nadraks is Drosta lek Thun, an excitable man in his early forties who has made some effort to make the court at Yar Nadrak a more courtly and civilized one, but the ambassadors of the western kingdoms realize that beneath his shrill charm, Drosta is a treacherous and dangerous ruler.
THE THULLS
These central Angaraks are bulkier than the Nadraks to the north, who tend to be nearly as rangy as Alorns. Thulls tend to be broad of shoulder, wide-backed, thick-hipped and somewhat slow-witted. In battle we have observed that the Thulls are more likely to rely on brute strength rather than on any degree of skill or tactics.
While it might appear that such people would be easy to best in any kind of trade, merchants renowned throughout the west for their canniness and the sharpness of their dealings have been frustrated by the Thulls who display that suspicion that is frequently a characteristic of the less-intelligent. Further, dealing with the Thulls is a dangerous business since they tend in the direction of homicidal rages at the first hint of chicanery—real or imagined.
Perhaps the fairest indication of the Thullish character is the fact that the favorite sport at village fairs in the back-country of Mishrak ac Thull is the head-butting contest— a form of competition that is not infrequently fatal to both participants.
The Thulls are prolific, perhaps as a result of the legendary appetite of the generously proportioned Thullish women.
The aged King of the Thulls, Clota Hrok, still sits firmly on his throne in Thull Mardu, despite the efforts of his eldest son Gethel to persuade him to retire.65
THE MURGOS
These are the most savage of the Angaraks. All Murgo men are warriors and habitually wear armor as casually as civilized men wear wool or linen. They are stockier than the Nadraks, but not so bulky as the Thulls.
The Murgos are close-mouthed to the point of rudeness, which makes trade with them extremely difficult. The bleakness of their homeland has perhaps infected their character. It is not uncommon for a Murgo merchant to conduct negotiations without ever speaking. He will examine the merchandise offered, lay a certain amount of gold on the table, and, if the trader objects to the sum, he will simply pick up his gold and depart. For the trader, for whom haggling is often more important than profit, this can be frustrating in the extreme.
Murgos will not discuss their theological capital at Rak Cthol (or even admit that it exists), and large portions of their uninhabitable country are absolutely forbidden to outsiders.
It has been persistently rumored that the Murgo population is much more extensive than the scanty numbers which are evident along the South Caravan Route or in the streets of Rak Goska would indicate, and many have suspected the existence of vast Murgo cities lying in the southern mountains of Cthol Murgos below the river Cthrog. Since those areas are strictly closed, however, the rumors are impossible to substantiate.
One note of caution must be sounded in any discussion of the Murgos. Murgo women are kept closely confined and are never seen in public—not even the youngest female children. To the casual observer it might appear that Cthol Murgos is inhabited entirely by males. This, however, is not the case, and travelers and merchants who visit would be well-advised to avoid those portions of Murgo houses normally marked by black doors, for to violate the sanctity of the women’s quarters in any Murgo household is to invite instant death.
The King of the Murgos is Taur Urgas, a man of uncertain sanity, who holds the country in an iron grip.
THE MALLOREANS
Little is known in the west of these strange people. Occasionally, by chance, Mallorean merchants are encountered in Yar Marak, Thull Zelik or Rak Goska. Since they speak an Angarak dialect that is virtually unintelligible to westerners, direct communication with them is almost impossible. The extent of the Mallorean Empire is unknown, but the traditional words, ‘limitless’, ‘boundless’, ‘vast’, and so forth indicate lands of staggering dimensions.
Agents of the Drasnian Kings, who from the time of the establishment of the North Caravan Route, have probed the Angarak kingdoms in the guise of merchants, have devoted centuries to the unraveling of the mystery of the Malloreans, but with only small success. What little we do know of them, however, is a tribute to the patience and perseverance of these Drasnian agents.
Physically, the Malloreans appear to be the archetypical Angaraks, neither as tall as the Nadraks nor as thick-bodied as the Thulls, nor are they quite as muscular as the typical Murgo. Their dispositions would seem to be more open, but the keen-eyed Drasnians have noted a tendency among them to be—if not precisely fearful—at least apprehensive in the presence of Grolim priests. Drasnian intelligence speculates that Mallorea is in all probability a theocracy dominated by Grolims who rule by terror in the service of Torak, the Angarak God.
NOTE
The only Mallorean who has played any significant part in the history of the west was the 49th century conqueror, Kal-Torak, who led the invasion of the Malloreans and western Angaraks and who was defeated at the famous Battle of Vo Mimbre. The prefix ‘Kal’ is untranslatable, but would seem to signify that the meaning of the name was ‘Arm of Torak’ or possibly ‘Spirit of Torak’. The popular superstition that it was the God Torak himself is, of course, nonsense.
THE GROLIMS
These are the ubiquitous Angarak priests who are seen in all parts of the Angarak kingdoms. Little can be known of them except by implication, since they steadfastly refuse to even speak to non-Angaraks. No hints can be gathered as to their physical appearance due to the shrouding, hooded black robes they customarily wear and the soul-chilling steel facemasks which are the marks of their priesthood. These masks, supposedly replicas of the face of the God Torak, conceal the entire face and help to explain the awe with which the Grolims are regarded.
It is unknown whether the Grolims are an order, selected from the body of the Angarak populace, or if they are a separate tribe. Drasnian agents have attempted for millennia to unravel this mystery, but without success, since not even the most drunken Nadrak miner will ever discuss the Grolims.
Fragmentary reports from the battlefield at Vo Mimbre hint at the possibility that the Grolims are not exclusively male, but that there were also priestesses among the bodies on that field, but the necessity for rapid disposal of the dead to avoid the possibility of pestilence made verification of this impossible.
Whatever their origins and true nature, however, the Grolims dominate Angarak life. The hideous orgies of human sacrifice which characterize the Angarak religion are presided over by Grolims, and the sacrificial victims, despite popular belief in the west, are not drawn exclusively from the ranks of slaves. Even the remotest villages of Nadraks and Thulls have the traditional black altar of Torak, stained with the blood of the unnumbered victims who for millennia have gone screaming under the knife.
No information exists, of course, about the nature of the organization of the Grolim priesthood. One suspects that there exists somewhere—either in Mallorea
or perhaps at Rak Cthol or some other inaccessible place—some high priest or chief priest or some such figure, but this is sheer speculation.
THE HISTORY OF THE ANGARAKS
Little is known of the early millennia of these people. It appears that their migration across the northern land bridge from Mallorea took place at the end of the second or the beginning of the third millennium, much later than the western migration of the other peoples of the west.
The first western contact with them came, as is almost always the case with primitive peoples, in the form of war. It was the Nadraks who led the probing attacks against Drasnia and Algaria during the third millennium until the time of the great unnamed battle in eastern Drasnia which has been roughly dated to the 25th century. It was at that time that a major Angarak penetration occurred. The decisive defeat of the Nadraks at this battle quelled Angarak expansionism in the north until the time of Kal-Torak.
As relations between Gar og Nadrak and Drasnia normalized (roughly by the end of the third millennium) trade between the two nations began—tentatively at first and with great suspicion on each side—but gradually growing until the North Caravan Route was established, more by custom than by any formal agreement between the two kingdoms.
It was in 3219 that the Kings of the two nations met at a great border encampment astride the Caravan Route to formalize what had simply grown as a result of the human need to trade. Kings Reldik III of Drasnia and Yar grel Hrun of Gar og Nadrak ultimately concluded the treaty that has been the despair of Tolnedran commercial barons for over two thousand years. Under the terms of the agreement, only Drasnian caravans are permitted access to the Nadrak portions of the North Caravan Route and conversely only Nadrak caravans may enter Drasnia. Thus, even as Drasnia dominates all western commerce generated by the Caravan Route, so Gar og Nadrak dominates all trade with the other Angarak states. Thus, it is as rare to see a Murgo or a Thull in Boktor as it is to see a Sendar or a Tolnedran in Yar Marak, since the fees charged by the rapacious caravan masters of both states quite literally eat up any possible profit.
The Rivan Codex: Ancient Texts of THE BELGARIAD and THE MALLOREON (The Belgariad / The Malloreon) Page 23
