Post by yewtree on Oct 15, 2005 15:47:33 GMT
The Lady of the Slug Totem gathered the folds of her shimmering cloak about her, and looked around at the gathering of her Clan. It was the annual festival of the Inundation, and all the peoples of the Mevheng Delta had gathered for the festivities. The twin moons of !K’alxhan were rising over the Mbunim Sea, and two paths of shimmering light stretched away to the horizon on the waves. The blue light of the campfires flickered along the shore as the people kindled the driftwood impregnated with the salt of the sea. She was standing on a slight hill, known as the Place of Intertwining.
Qymbali, a junior priestess of the god Apwele, approached the Lady and bowed low in the graceful motion of the Slug Asana. “The Trail is ready to be kindled, my Lady,” she said.
“Bring the torch, then,” said the Lady. She looked to the west to check that the stars Hwuyad and Dzeledh had risen to the third station of the sky, then received the torch from the acolyte who brought it. She held it above her head, and an expectant hush fell over the People of the Slug Totem. Qymbali waited with excitement for the moment of blessing when the sky was joined to the earth; although she had seen it since she was a small child in the temple of Apwele, it never failed to move her.
The Lady spoke, seemingly quietly, but with sufficient projection that all could hear her. “Behold, people of the Slug Clan, the kindling of the Trail. Here in the Place of Intertwining, where Hwuyadh and Dzeledh ascended to the heavens, I kindle the Trail of the Holy Slug. Behold the semen of the sky god poured out upon the earth, that the plains of the Mevheng Delta may be fruitful. May the blessing of the Holy Slug be upon you all.”
With these words she bent down and kindled the dried seaweed which formed the fuel for the Trail, and the fire illuminated the hillside in a line which undulated westwards down to the sea. The traditional cry went up from the crowd, “Hwuyad and Dzeledh went forth!”
After the ceremony of the kindling, the people began feasting, while the priestesses and priests began an all night ritual to ensure the fertility of the land.
The next morning, the various moieties of the Slug Clan, which had gathered from far flung corners of the Mevheng Delta, began the annual fair - trading commodities and artefacts from every shore of the Mbunim Sea. Qymbali crept out of her tent quietly to avoid waking the other priestesses, and wandered among the market stalls. The quiet people of the northern forests, from the Brown Spotted moiety, were selling the shimmering cloth they wove from the trails of the Silk Slug, a species unique to !K’alxhan, which had been created by the genetic engineers among the early settlers from Terra. The coastal people from the mouth of the Mevheng Delta were selling dried fish, seashell beads, and the curious horned hats traditional in their region. These hats were particularly popular among devotees of the ecstatic Intertwining cult, who placed particular emphasis on the myth of Hwuyad and Dzeledh, and whose rites consisted mainly of dancing and drinking the juice of the sacred Jhangz plant. In its pure form this juice gave the devotee visions of the many worlds of the multiverse, but when distilled it had the effect of suppressing any psychic powers possessed by the user, and as such was very popular on highly populated planets. Qymbali, as a devotee of Apwele, had been brought up to disapprove of the ecstatic cults, but secretly enjoyed the sensuous grace of their dancing and admired the wild abandon of their mysteries. She wandered through the market, enjoying the scents and sounds of the Slug Clan at play. She had a small purse of money given to her by her mother on her last visit to the temple, and had decided to spend it on a new xidaerr, a stringed instrument made by the people of the Tmuley Hills. Before she could get to the Tmuley quarter of the camp, however, she was distracted by a storyteller of the Orange Fringed moiety, recounting the Great Legend. A crowd had gathered to watch his performance; he wore the brown and orange robes of his moiety, and accompanied himself on the xidaerr. He delivered the story in the Fluid Mode; that is to say, with gestures derived from dance and using devices such as the run and the threefold repetition.
“In ancient times in the country of Ægypt upon Terra, there were many deities watching over the people. Among these was the sky god, whose semen gave life to the land. The people honoured the slug as the embodiment of the sky god’s semen, and as moisture was scarce in that land, this was a high honour. After many centuries another religion came to that land and the temples of the ancients were abandoned and ruined, but some of the writings of the ancients were carved in stone, and survived, and others were written on papyrus and buried with them, so that their wisdom was preserved into the post-dynastic period, when the ancient religion was revived again after twenty centuries. In that time Hwuyad and Dzeledh were born in the city of Lezstah, in Onghlend. They were the first people of the Slug Totem; they studied the life cycle of the slug and collected wooden slug-shaped magnets for their household shrine. Even today the holy magnets of Hwuyad and Dzeledh are kept in the shrine at the great temple of Apwele. They were ridiculed at the time for their adherence to the Slug Totem; others’ power animals were panthers, wolves, and ravens, and the humble slug was deemed too lowly to be a totem. But Hwuyad and Dzeledh had seen the sacred intertwining of the slug, and the beauty of the Brown Spotted and the Great Black, and nothing could deflect them from their faith.
Qymbali, a junior priestess of the god Apwele, approached the Lady and bowed low in the graceful motion of the Slug Asana. “The Trail is ready to be kindled, my Lady,” she said.
“Bring the torch, then,” said the Lady. She looked to the west to check that the stars Hwuyad and Dzeledh had risen to the third station of the sky, then received the torch from the acolyte who brought it. She held it above her head, and an expectant hush fell over the People of the Slug Totem. Qymbali waited with excitement for the moment of blessing when the sky was joined to the earth; although she had seen it since she was a small child in the temple of Apwele, it never failed to move her.
The Lady spoke, seemingly quietly, but with sufficient projection that all could hear her. “Behold, people of the Slug Clan, the kindling of the Trail. Here in the Place of Intertwining, where Hwuyadh and Dzeledh ascended to the heavens, I kindle the Trail of the Holy Slug. Behold the semen of the sky god poured out upon the earth, that the plains of the Mevheng Delta may be fruitful. May the blessing of the Holy Slug be upon you all.”
With these words she bent down and kindled the dried seaweed which formed the fuel for the Trail, and the fire illuminated the hillside in a line which undulated westwards down to the sea. The traditional cry went up from the crowd, “Hwuyad and Dzeledh went forth!”
After the ceremony of the kindling, the people began feasting, while the priestesses and priests began an all night ritual to ensure the fertility of the land.
The next morning, the various moieties of the Slug Clan, which had gathered from far flung corners of the Mevheng Delta, began the annual fair - trading commodities and artefacts from every shore of the Mbunim Sea. Qymbali crept out of her tent quietly to avoid waking the other priestesses, and wandered among the market stalls. The quiet people of the northern forests, from the Brown Spotted moiety, were selling the shimmering cloth they wove from the trails of the Silk Slug, a species unique to !K’alxhan, which had been created by the genetic engineers among the early settlers from Terra. The coastal people from the mouth of the Mevheng Delta were selling dried fish, seashell beads, and the curious horned hats traditional in their region. These hats were particularly popular among devotees of the ecstatic Intertwining cult, who placed particular emphasis on the myth of Hwuyad and Dzeledh, and whose rites consisted mainly of dancing and drinking the juice of the sacred Jhangz plant. In its pure form this juice gave the devotee visions of the many worlds of the multiverse, but when distilled it had the effect of suppressing any psychic powers possessed by the user, and as such was very popular on highly populated planets. Qymbali, as a devotee of Apwele, had been brought up to disapprove of the ecstatic cults, but secretly enjoyed the sensuous grace of their dancing and admired the wild abandon of their mysteries. She wandered through the market, enjoying the scents and sounds of the Slug Clan at play. She had a small purse of money given to her by her mother on her last visit to the temple, and had decided to spend it on a new xidaerr, a stringed instrument made by the people of the Tmuley Hills. Before she could get to the Tmuley quarter of the camp, however, she was distracted by a storyteller of the Orange Fringed moiety, recounting the Great Legend. A crowd had gathered to watch his performance; he wore the brown and orange robes of his moiety, and accompanied himself on the xidaerr. He delivered the story in the Fluid Mode; that is to say, with gestures derived from dance and using devices such as the run and the threefold repetition.
“In ancient times in the country of Ægypt upon Terra, there were many deities watching over the people. Among these was the sky god, whose semen gave life to the land. The people honoured the slug as the embodiment of the sky god’s semen, and as moisture was scarce in that land, this was a high honour. After many centuries another religion came to that land and the temples of the ancients were abandoned and ruined, but some of the writings of the ancients were carved in stone, and survived, and others were written on papyrus and buried with them, so that their wisdom was preserved into the post-dynastic period, when the ancient religion was revived again after twenty centuries. In that time Hwuyad and Dzeledh were born in the city of Lezstah, in Onghlend. They were the first people of the Slug Totem; they studied the life cycle of the slug and collected wooden slug-shaped magnets for their household shrine. Even today the holy magnets of Hwuyad and Dzeledh are kept in the shrine at the great temple of Apwele. They were ridiculed at the time for their adherence to the Slug Totem; others’ power animals were panthers, wolves, and ravens, and the humble slug was deemed too lowly to be a totem. But Hwuyad and Dzeledh had seen the sacred intertwining of the slug, and the beauty of the Brown Spotted and the Great Black, and nothing could deflect them from their faith.