Bloody-Handed Name of Bronze
Know Your Nature
You may be clad in glittering horse-crested bronze, a fated hero seeking your destiny that you might do deeds great and awe-inspiring, to die bathed in glory overthrowing the Great Name that has heretofore commanded you.
Or you may be a Dealer-In-Names, clad in the tattered rags of a mendicant oracle or in the name-inscribed brocade of a city’s priest. When you speak the Language of Names to the ancient tree whose roots reach the Waters of the Underworld; to the beautiful tiger, mistress of its forest; to the great ocean, its depths teeming with the dead, they will treat with you.
When you are either of these:
describe your appearance, your expressions (what's a thing or two you often say?), and your actions (what's a thing or two you often do?).
You will do the following things:
--Pursue with vigor the Will of the Names of the World, from a simple cooking fire to the Great Queen and her twelve greatest hero-warriors.
--Describe with all the senses the world and the things in it: the expression on a face, the sweet herbs of honey wine; the touch of rain on desert-chapped lips, the sound of a ktesh-skinned viol singing to the wind that gives heart to your bright-eyed sea vessel.
--When you encounter a new people, describe their ways as you experience them.
--Describe the trophies of legend both known and untold that your opponents bear.
But right now, answer these questions:
1. How are you called?
Draw from the Well of Names (see below) until you have find found your true name.
But give this name only when treating in good faith with another. If another knows your true name, you must deal with them in good faith when so called.
2. So now, draw from the well of names also for the false name which you tell your companions.
But beware of using that name for too long! It may take root, and if you answer to it for too long to those who believe it true, you will be bound as if it were your true name.
Below, is The Well of Names. Draw herefrom until you find that which you seek.
a du il lu ne ti
ad e ir lug nu tu
ak en ka lum pa u
al fa kal ma ra uk
ar gal kin mard ri un
as gil ku mat rim ya
ash gish kur mni ru yog
bar gu la mu sar za
bi gue lab mum sha zi
bur hf lil na shu zu
dim hu lim nam siz zug
Examples:
The Spear of Ludug was beaten from the teeth of Ashti, the legendary hero of bronze from the people of the volcano Unak. The Spear of Ludug wishes to find itself in the heart of she who wrenched the teeth from Ashti's bronze skull, and will aid any who promise such a thing. But it is a vengeful name, and will not take betrayal lightly.
Namedealer question 1: If you are a Namedealer (skip this question otherwise): from whom do you flee?
--You can coax lightning from the clear sky; speak to the stony earth that it might swallow your enemies; seduce king and queen both. But you trade in promises, and one of these you have not well discharged-- or perhaps in discharging it, you may have found yourself the enemy of a king stoking with their rage the fire burning in their broken heart, or of a rival jealous of your success, or of the very sky itself, affronted at a lie.
Namedealer question 2: Tell your companions how you appear: your age or youth, your robes tattered or adorned.
Namedealer question 3: The Will of the Names of the World wishes something of you. What is it?
Namedealer question 4: What name do you know, that it now aids you?
A bronzesmith knows the name of a fine sword. A priest, the name of the broad sky of their city. A gambler knows the name of a proud-plumed ktesh, raised from its leathery egg to fight its kin with needle teeth and killing claw.
What name do you know?
Is the name: Old? Big? Beautiful? Mighty? Known to All? Inscribed?
Count how many of these are true, and remember the number.
These attributes may change as circumstance flows like a river; as names grow in renown, as they are written or forgotten.
Namedealer question 5: Namedealer, what does the Will of the Names of the World demand of you in exchange for its aid?
Heed this warning:
Beware the company of heroes, for those who are born with destiny often wash their blades in the blood of those found closest. And yet, they may be far mightier than those who pursue you, and the great name they follow may be persuaded to send them to your aid.
Hero question 1: Hero, what Great Name grants you your destiny?
You, who strives to die well, who are fast of foot or strong of limb; friends with death until it betrays you; feared by the wise, and challenged by only the mighty or the foolish,
Draw from the Well of Names until you have found that which you seek.
When you have found the name you wish all of your descendants to know, tell it to all of
your companions that it might echo through the ages.
Hero question 2: Tell them of your frame, your face, your attire and jewels.
Hero question 3: What is your fate? What Dealer-Of-Names has told you the will of a Great Name?
Hero question 4: What is the Will of the Names of the World?
Is the Great Name: Feared? Generous? Beautiful? Mighty? Known to All? Present in Eidolon?
Count how many of these are true, and remember the number.
These attributes may change as the tides of war build the honor of a city on bone; as foes crumble and the mighty lose their names; as the great are forgotten or the humble rise.
Hero question 5: Take a trophy.
The shell of the Great Tortoise of Gho, borne as a shield. A sword of bronze, forged by the volcano, Unak. The sandals of Zhafaya, the East Wind. What magnificent trophy, invoking awe and desire in those whose eyes fall thereupon, have you already won?
Is the trophy: Old? Generous? Mighty? Known to All?
Heed this warning:
Namedealers usurp the power of the names of the world. You might persuade one to use their stolen power in pursuit of your glory or reveal to you the Will of the Names of the
World, but their tongues often spin lies and false promises. Be sure of their loyalty.
Example: Lamat, hero of the city of Hu, flies forth on Paruk, the winged lizard she tamed in the northern mountains when she pursued a group of raiders to their home and forced them
to swear fealty to the city of Hu. Lamat's mother, the oracle Lusarya, has charged her to voyage into the world and return with the head of the giant Ashya that she might build a temple dome of his skull. She flies far from the eyes of the sky of the city of Hu into
lands unknown.
TO START THE STORY:
Where are you?
What are you doing?
Who else is with you?
Examples:
--On the Great Road, traveling with a caravan toward the Deepest Well
--In a wadi, hoping to remain unseen by the army marching above
--Astride an akum, flashing lance in one hand, singly charging the great hero of a city that quakes at the mention of your name
--In the last place to which you fled
--Do you travel in pursuit or flight?
--Do you prepare now for a confrontation? Will you face whatever comes next with a shrug, without preparation, for life is unpredictable, or will you aggressively face all possiblities?
--Are those around you others in the same caravan? Your enemies, who have lain in ambush for you? The obeissant members of the court, surrounding you upon your ill-gotten and undesired throne of the City of Ab?
When you meet one from a people yet unknown, describe what legend tells us of one such. If you come to know any of them, they will both satisfy and defy expectations.
What do the names of the world now present in the place where you are want from you?
A name might be a stele, ancient when the sky was the face of a child and the moon was
as bright as the sun; a fellow traveler at the caravanserai who seeks love in the arms of a companion; a cooking fire, young and brash, with a wish to grow as large as the world.
--There are no random connections nor coincidences. The will of some name has brought about every seeming coincidence.
--Secrets and mysteries wish to be discovered. What name holds the secret and wants to tell it to a namedealer, perhaps when wishing to strike a bargain?
--When a companion chooses a consequence that alters the will of a name of the world, you have learned something new about the will of that name.
--The will of all names is fickle, a mystery of the heart.
--When you attack a companion with word or deed, warn them that they will become harmed or shamed unless they take action.
--If their attacker is named, they may be harmed twice before expiring.
--If that attacker has chosen to die for the sake of victory, they may attack once more as they die.
Draw from beyond the borders of that which is seen.
--To the northeast, lies the Great Road and the First City where many settle from their travels. None have traveled the Great Road to its easternmost point and few have traveled to its westernmost terminus on the border of the Great Sea and the Waters of the Underworld.
--Far to the north, there are warrior tribes who ride to battle upon akum, the great and terrible flightless birds, toothy of maw. In their mountains live tribes who ride the kurka, lizards of the sky. The skin of these people bear stripes, like those of a tiger.
--To the west is the Great City, in which you might find Shuat, the Deepest Well. It is a port to the azure sea, sailed by ships of stout bow and keen eye, crewed by people of the islands of Ity, where their smooth and grey skin protects them from the sun and sea in which
they live. Their villages and farms of seaweed stand in the clear, shallow water of their flooded islands. The people of many lands join them in their travels.
--Far away, someone builds an empire of iron. No name of iron is old. All are ugly. No people you know speaks its language.
--Beneath the firmament lie the Waters of the Underworld.
--Above the dome of the sky stretch the boundless waters of heaven. The sky of all places
you know looks down with its strong right eye of the sun and its weak left eye of the moon.
The Monolith, known only by that epithet, stands tall and alone in the desert. It rose at the first morning, a manifestation of the Waters of the Underworld reaching up to the Desert Sky, that the world might begin. It was once the Great Name of a people of the desert who could read all things in the many words inscribed thereupon in the Language of Names. It wishes to be known to all again, that all earthen-beings might know the wisdom of the Language of Names.
Zikru was once a beautiful man, a poet of great skill. Drunk one night on a subtle wine, he boasted that his knowledge of the Language of Names was greater even than that of Ashlala, the Great Name of the People of the River Uklal.
Ashlala itself rose from the river, water gushing in cataracts down the reeds of its hair, its horns piercing the limb of the moon above, and demanded that Zikru persuade the mighty Great Name with his skilled tongue, or bow down and pledge himself to its service forever.
Zikru asked what Ashlala would offer should he so persuade the Great Name to spare him.
Ashlala’s words dripped with contempt: “I will make your tongue the greatest in all that floats above the Waters of the Underworld."
The poem Zikru composed moved Ashlala, indeed, coaxing tears of pearl from its many eyes. In shame, Ashlala fled the River Uklal and made good with its promise, saying, “You shall have a vision to see into the hearts of earthen-beings, and the tongue to move them.”
The people of the River Uklal, having already seen the horror of their Great Name, stood frozen as Zikru’s beautiful face erupted with a third eye, his smooth brown skin became thick and scaled, and his tongue, the treasure of his people, grew forked.
Zikru lives among them to this day, commanding them as a Great Name might, unable to cry for his own lost beauty.
The City of Guruk tells its future in the deaths of its gladiators. Each match is observed closely by oracles who tell from the splashes of blood whether the Queen may conceive this year; from the cries of pain of a victor whether the Northerners may raid again; from the pattern of intestines on the ground whether the barley might rise early.
The city’s four gladiatorial families, fecund with adopted slaves, grant the arena their purported offspring at each festival.
Amegh of the Family of Nur stands for three years now the champion of the Guruk. To aid in the foretelling of good fortune for the Family, Amegh fights with the bronze, double-leaf-bladed weapon, the Wind that Blows Both ways. He will, if the oracles decree it necessary, supplement the weapon with others, but it is the Wind that Blows Both Ways that finds its home in his palm and in the breast of his opponents.
In his dreams, and with the tongue of his trainer Nur Geshur, the ancient voice of the Sun of the Sky of the City of Guruk lends him purpose. It drives him to a truth written in
blood — a truth that ever further glorifies the future of those who believe they own
him.
Around his waist he wears the grimacing Face of the Sky, the harness of the champion of
the city.
But Amegh has interests beyond those best sought in the arena. He finds in his hands the fate of the city that enslaved him and drives him to kill and, eventually, to die.
He would seize that destiny for himself.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:37, Fri 07 Aug 2020.