Notes on Tepat

Assorted notes on Tepat and its culture, in no particular order.

The Planetary Stones and the Shrine of All Souls

The Planetary Stones

Within ancient Milim, there were a set of Six Stones, claimed to be from each of the major planets of the night sky, and hence called here the Planetary Stones. (Yuktepat: Tlam i-Sûy, also known as Qû-Tlam) Each one was made of a different kind of rock. While each one has its own origin stories, they have long since come to be considered a set. Perhaps the stones weren’t just stones, but particular objects carved out of those stones, like idols or jewels.

Originally, one belonged to each of the original towns / chiefdoms along the river. Each revered its own stone, claimed to be a gift from their divine patron, who ruled over the corresponding planet. Each Stone was kept in its own temple, with its own priest.

What do they DO? I honestly have no idea yet.

When the Tsaltep succeeded in conquering the entire river valley, uniting all of the independent chiefdoms into a Milim Empire, he took all of the stones to a new temple in his capital, where they were set on dais or pillars in the sanctum.

According to legend, when the Milim were about to be beaten, the stones fell off their pedestals, or the king held the stone but dropped it, foretelling his doom. When the people of Tepat had conquered Milim, they received help from some of the local chiefs - descendants of the originally independent chiefdoms - who rebelled against the Tsaltep. The high priests of Milim (or someone replacing those sacrificial priests) gifted the Stones to Prince Womuq, asserting his right over the Milim, and that he was now the legitimate ruler. The king was suspicious though, and thought to destroy the stones. His people were not star-worshippers, but worshippers of humanity, borne out by their worship of the Shrine of All Souls. The Era of Man, not Stars, has begun. He was stopped, however, when the stones spoke to him; then he restored them to a new temple, the previous one being damaged in the siege of the Milim capital. However, to signal its dominance, the new housing of the Shrine of All Souls was set at a higher level than the stones.

Over the course of early Tepatic history, the Stones figured in the major controversy / struggle of the Tepatic Nyow dynasty - the balance of power between the court of the Nyow kings and regional lords. Eventually, the lords who were heirs of the Milim chiefdoms that allied with Tepat asked that the Stones be returned to their original homes, arguing that the King already had the Allsoul. Hoping to secure the support of the lords, the contemporary king complied. The six balls were distributed to six different temples, in six of the provinces, ruled by the six dukes.

The internal tension was never solved, and eventually the kingdom split asunder, creating the Shattered Land. The stones were each taken by a different lord, and spread to the far areas of the realm.

The Loss of the Stones. It was said ^{[Wikipedia
editor:}^{by whom}^?] that whoever held all six would rule the land of Milim. As Qathûq of Qom succeeded in conquering more and more of the realm of Tepat, he threatened to come in possession of all the Stones, making him unstoppable. Character took to stealing the stones to keep them away from Qom. Eventually, Qom had possession of one stone, while another king had possession of the other five.[ Possibly, 6 to 0.] Thinking himself invincible and destined to rule all, he forced a confrontation with Qom, which he lost. Still hoping to prevent Qom consolidation, he threatened to destroy the remainder of the stones. Lord Qom called his bluff, and he chickened out. Lord Qom then took possession of all, and cast them off a cliff or mountainside himself, causing them to split, and for some of the fragments to be lost. Qom had destroyed them, thus no one could have them and claim the throne.

With the loss of the Allsoul and the Stones, the country experienced moral confusion and crisis of faith comparable to the Death of God, and the priesthood became nearly irrelevant.

Soul Banishment

The most severe punishment of ancient times was known as Soul Banishment, which was used to block the absorption of deceased souls into the collective Allsoul - a ritual that required the the use of the Allsoul.

Rarely used, the curse was last used to block the soul of Lord Qom from joining the souls of other past kings. Along with Qom, his followers including his son and heir, and his prime minister were banished too, to wander the world as a lonely ghost in the swamp, suffering and regretting their sins and wishing they would be able to rejoin humanity. The Banishment of Qom’s Soul required the Conciliarity to make peace / rapprochement with the tliw, and invite the last of the tliw leaders to take part in the ritual of banishment, making use of the damaged Shrine.

Once complete, a wind blew through through the yard, swelling steadily to a smooth blast of unseasonal cold. While the venue darkened, with the sun itself seeming to grow less dim. The sky turned dim, though with no visible clouds, and lingered for 3 days, giving everyone a sense of ill ease, though relief when it passed. In the ensuing years, the Black Wind was claimed to be seen at various times, and was blamed for various disasters that occurred in the early years of the Conciliarity. Hence Lord Qom became a wandering ghost (tuq thoq). His tuq was so powerful that he did not simply disappear though, but became a vengeful demon-like figure, an evil god and bogeyman of later generations, with a new ominous name like The Black Wind or something. Far into the future, parents would warn their children to behave lest the Black Wind carry them away.

The Lonely Ghost - Soul banishment was a big fricking deal both because this permitted immortality and the eternal companionship of communion with other souls, but also because souls that died alone were believed to become 'lonely ghosts,' doomed to wander and haunt the earth. If they survived. But actually, souls were also believed to dissipate eventually, when disconnected from a body, unless 'fixed' somehow, in the Allsoul (or theoretically in certain other objects). If you didn't, you would slowly fade to black, ceasing to exist, and that's REAL death. Soul banishment was the supreme punishment in Tepat, beyond simply killing someone. Hence, after the anathematization of the Qom rulers, the new Covenant of the People of Tepat proscribed Soul Banishment along with capital punishment.

Quick and dirty Ghostmaking - While rituals to block souls from entering the stream of souls were ancient and often practiced locally, early in the Tepatic era, the Shrine of All Souls (with the king) asserted its prerogative to have sole authority to cut off souls from the people, and suppress its arbitrary application elsewhere. Nevertheless, for folks who were cruel enough, a 'poor man's soul banishment' was sometimes carried out - typically by binding the victim in the middle of nowhere and shooting at them from a distance, while forbidding anyone to go near them, with the intention of forcing a lonely death. Of course, this risked turning them into not just a lonely, but a VENGEFUL ghost, which required even more precautions.

Swearing Oaths - For extra assurance of dependability, people making oaths would swear by 'the souls' - often, their ancestor's souls, but for more gravity, swearing by the Shrine of All Souls itself - for best effect, done in front of the Shrine itself when possible. The idea, often implicit, was that the swearers invited the Souls, writ collectively, to bar the entrance of the swearers' own souls into their midst, condemning them to ghosthood. This was often sealed by the offer of something of value. This was usually deeply connected to the swearer in some way - for example, offering a lock of hair, drop of blood, or nailclippings. In later days, when soulcatchers were common, it was common for the oathtaker to give the recipient of their promise a soulcatcher of their own, to be held in class - a heavy offer indeed, for with a piece of this person or their soul, the other one had free reign to take this piece and perform voodoo magic on it.

Home.