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In the beginning times when the world was new and young, with the primordium a recent nightmare and the first city barely having begun being built, the Old Gods walked the earth. Among the greatest were named Thapari the clever, Uth the glorious one, Urfarah the fierce, Iduth the beautiful, and many more, but of interest to us is Uha the wise. As brother of Thapari, he too enjoyed playing tricks and fooling others, but unlike his brother Uha always had deeper reasons for what he did. His pranks were not merely done for his own amusement, but also to teach others what they needed to learn, or to teach lessons that needed to be learned. He was thoughtful and forging plans even when full of mirth, for he saw many things and knew their importance. Thus was his Nature, as Iduth would constantly change her form, Uth would never compromise or yield and Urfarah would always uphold the balance of the World as it should be. So would Uha feel the shape of things to be, being neither as fast as Inari or as strong as Urfarah, but patient was he beyond the measure of all others, willing to wait for the end of all things. For this he was also, the end of everything, feeding on death and guiding the dying through their final moments. Thus was he doom-bringer and omen seer, and he laughed at all misfortune, for he saw the truth of the world that all others missed. Yet for all this he always knew his place in the world, and never did he step out of bounds, for above all else he was Wisdom.

Now did it come to pass that many of the Old Gods begot children, lesser versions of themselves, each in his own fashion. Urfarah had his Dumusag, whom he taught to hunt and who went with him as a pack. Iduth birthed her Lushar, giving of her sublime gifts before leaving them as her next change took her. Uha, in turn, begot three sons, with his might and his powers divided among them. These then were the Hifira Uha: There was Nam Uha, whose jests and tricks surpassed even that of his father, as did his cleverness. Also was Akalu Uha, the Carrion Prince, whose delight in death and corruption was beyond compare. Lastly there was Uzuga Uha, who spent more time contemplating all doom that was to come than he ever devoted to the present, seeing omens as he feasted on the entrails of others, using death to divine the secrets of the world. Three sons, all of them reflecting their own part of their shared father, and all of them mighty and fearful. Yet the wisdom of their father was divided amongst them, with each gaining but a third of the whole, and for this reason is it that but one of them still dwells in the heavens, alive and free. For two of them stepped outside the boundaries of how the world should Be, and were harshly punished for it.

Nam Uha was a foolish being, caring more for his own amusement than his safety. Where Uha would challenge others to games of wit and skill Nam would rather ridicule, lacking the temperance of his divine progenitor. In the end one of his victims was too powerful, and Nam had gone too far, and so a great hunt began. The trickster fled, changing shape and form, hiding and deceiving, yet his pursuer was an implacable foe, and soon Nam Uha began to despair. In the end he was cornered and slain outright. Yet in his haste and desperation he hatched a desperate plan, his final trick, and roughly hid a seed of himself inside the soul of a mortal woman. As it grew and took her over he had hoped to be born again, thus surviving his own demise. But ah, in his own cleverness he had tricked himself, for he found himself bound to the flesh of his new host and could not escape that mortal coil. He had become subject to the cycle of Life and Death as all mortals are, only able to survive by repeating his trick anew, birthing himself again and again within the human subjects he could fool into submitting. Thusly began a new race, a merging of the divine and the material, constantly implanting their children-selves into select mortals, to make sure Nam Uha will never die completely. Thar Akuru are they called, and unto this day do they still seek a way to be free of their fleshy prisons and return to the pure and divine world of the Gods. Thusly was Nam Uha undone, in the end, by himself, the only one who could ever have outwitted him.

Less known is the story of his eldest brother, Akalu Uha, for his victims dread to speak his name, and his murderers are dust and less than dust, remembered only by forgotten tomes in lost libraries. His sin was that he grew too greedy and soon was not content to wait for things to die in their own time, and so he took matters into his own hands. At first he merely manipulated others, engineering slaughters and murders, wars and desecrations, all to sate his insatiable hunger. Yet this too soon became insufficient for the Prince of Carrion, and in the end he sharpened claws for himself and began to fell his own prey. This was unacceptable, for as the God of Carrion he was only to feed off of Death, not cause it himself directly. And so there were those who would oppose him, and he would have ended in those times, too arrogant from his gorging to consider his own downfall, were it not for his brother, the middling Uzuga Uha. He had witnessed the death and entrapment of the youngest, Nam Uha, he saw the future dooms of other gods like Bursuma Lubalak and Asag Taskarin, and he knew also that a Hunter would come and strike a death-blow upon his brother for his transgressions.

Bonds of kinship and family urged him to act, but the knowledge that all of them would be weakened if one of the three Hifira Uha were to be gone forever is what compelled him to intervene in the end. He flew then to his brother, now grown monstrously large from his gluttony and power, and he advised the elder to seek some sort of escape or hope of resurrection should his demise draw near. Prideful he was, Akalu Uha, who was also named Pagru-Nun, but he knew his brother saw further than any, and so he bethought himself to take certain precautions. Sooner rather than later did the Dumusag track him down, and he fled from them. Coming upon a small human settlement at the edge of the world he decided to take them as his own, and consume. Yet this place at the top of the world was Hyperborea, and they defied the godling, refusing to let him consume them. Sent they then their greatest warrior, and armed him with their mightiest weapon. Tired and wounded already was Akalu Uha, and potent indeed was that strike, and so it was that the Prince of Carrion was slain. Yet he died in the land of mortals, and there his body lay when he fell, and so ravens ate his remains and left naught but bones behind. But by doing so they took into themselves those pieces of his soul that he in his cunning had hidden within his own flesh with insidious crafts. It transformed them, but alas, each shard was not strong enough to claim them fully, though they still became more than mere ravens. Yet the folly of Pagru-Nun was that he had not done the job properly or fully, for no competent creator or innovator was he, and so his souls lay slumbering for many an age, passing from bird to egg, generation after generation.

In the end the great cataclysm struck as Atlantis fell beneath the waves, an event of destruction big enough to awaken the slumbering soul of the Prince of Carrion. Across the land his host-ravens changed and gained new purpose, and powers of divine providence. Thus were made the Halaku, and this is their plan and religion: That only by gorging themselves on the biggest devastation of all can they become powerful enough to merge together and become Akalu Uha once more. And so they act, fool and manipulate. Only by turning the globe itself into a battlefield will their appetite finally be slaked and their bellies filled enough for their apotheosis. And so to this day do they seek the end of worlds.

In the land there are therefore the Thar Akuru, seeking lore and magics to free themselves, the Halaku who spark wars and exacerbate atrocities so they can return to glory, and all the while Uzuga Uha still looks out for his brothers. He is their protector and guide, speaking to them in visions and omens when he can. He is their Totem, for as "children" of his brothers he has become their uncle, of a sort. Though he has his own affairs to tend to his consort sometimes convinces him to return with gifts and assistance. And still there is Uha.

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With the "Spirit Tongue" spell active Skadi could give the following translations:

  • Uth - Sun
  • Iduth - Moon
  • Thapari - Trickster Fox
  • Urfarah - Father Wolf
  • Uha - Raven (more correctly 'corvid', but that's not as poetic)
  • Dumusag - Firstborn
  • Lushar - Tribes
  • Hifira Uha - Sons of Raven
  • Nam Uha - Fated Raven
  • Akalu Uha - Consuming Raven
  • Uzuga Uha - Omen Raven
  • Bursuma Lubalak - Spinner Hag
  • Asag Taskarin - Demon-King of Plague
  • Pagru-Nun - Carrion Prince

.

Annotations

  • Features certain names & encountered before, such as Halaku, Thar Akuru, and sort-of/indirectly Uha's brood
  • Is the second instance of the word ''primordium'' in campaign thus far, though the concept itself has been alluded to and mentioned outright more often
  • Ask, the norwegian mystagogue whose health, sanity and quality of life had been ruined by his studies, explained about these so-called ''old gods'' at some length

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