Teki-nura-ria
by Marco Dalmonte English translation by Gary DaviesTapu and Arna (Gorrziok) - Creation and destruction, extremes
Notes:
1. The island of Teki-nura-ria (see module X8, Drums on Fire Mountain) is situated several kilometres to the east of the island of Hattias, and is inhabited by olive-green skinned half-orcs called Kara-kara, who live as herders (raising wild boar), as fishers and especially raiding the merchant ship cargoes of gold and exotic foods. The kara-kara worship in an extremely primitive manner two Immortals who according to their mythology have created the sea and the sky, have given them a land on which to live and have revealed to them the secrets of navigation and war, in order to make them stronger than the foreigners. Tapu is the lord of the land and of the sky, the one who gives strength to the warriors and who created life in the world. Arna instead is the lady of the water, patroness of the sea and storms, of the destructive side of nature thus as of the marine creatures. In realty the kara-kara worship with two different names the same Immortal, Gorrziok, given her strongly dualistic nature as creator and destroyer. The kara-kara were created by the Nithians as a result of crossbreeding between orc and Tanagoro slaves, and used for colonising the most northern islands of the Sea of Dread. Following the fall of Nithia, the only kara-kara to survive were those of Teki-nura-ria, which however forgot their masters and thought they had landed on the island once inhabited by a people known as the Old Ones. Two storm giants appeared on day from the water and the kara-kara were so terrorised by them they began to worship them as Immortals. These giants, Tapu and Arna, taught the kara-kara to navigate, to build watercraft and to recall to their own favour the spirits of the wind (the kal-muru, children of Tapu and Arna according to the myth), and also later on to worship the Lord of the Waves (Gorrziok). When the two giants disappeared in the III century BC, the kara-kara believed that they had left them since they had nothing more to teach them. They thus began to put to fruition the knowledge learnt raiding the neighbouring islands and the merchant ships that cross off-shore, keeping secret the location of their island thanks to the kal-muru. They continue to worship Tapu and Arna, even if it is Gorrziok who answers their prayers.