5 – Argrath Faces Evil
The Great Secret
Heort was the first to meet the Second Son, back in the Great Darkness when the world was destroyed. He followed the trail of the Second Son and learned the secret of the Star Heart. He experienced Everything, only to encounter that which is Outside of Everything. He confronted the Devil’s Face and refused to be devoured by the Void. He survived and recreated the world, distinguishing between the living and the dead. As a result, the Orlanthi call themselves Heortlings in his honor.
All Orlanthi experience at least part of this. Most get to the Second Son, who explains to them the things that lie beyond. Most people are content with that.
But some will have to go farther, and they will see, perhaps touch or (more rarely) even get their own Star Heart and place it into their breasts.
A rare individual sees the place where the Devil’s Face appears and most of them then retreat.
Some confront the Face and survive, emboldened and empowered far beyond normal humanity.
Survivors of the Void are rare, for it dissolves the soul of most who dare to look on it. A survivor of this would have his name added to the list of Second Son, Heort and Harmast. Such a survivor was Argrath.
Argrath and Arkat
Argrath means “Liberator” in the Heortling language. It is a corruption of “Arkat”, the name of an ancient hero who liberated the Heortlings from Gbaji the Deceiver and his Bright Empire more than a thousand years ago.
Lovely. Again!
For or those that are interested, the orange hair and eyes and the brown skin is, as I understand it, the way that Greg envisioned that (many) Orlanthi look.
And Argrath is called out in the (future) histories as having orange eyes.
Wow!
The act of separating the living from the dead… what does that mean exactly? That he/Heort embodied Orlanth 100%?
it’s not Orlanth who separates the living from the dead… more a function of Daka Fal… sounds like his initiation went beyond the normal and he was selected for Herodom by the ancestral Spirits… probably got some Shamanic powers into the bargain
Now we need the Lunar initiation rite…
On the lower left image the star heart can be seen in his shadow. Can this be seen by everyone who has a closer look at his shadow?
Cool, I didn’t notice that.
I’d say that if it suits your story or your game then yes. Some possible ideas:
– as he’s just come back from his first major visit to the other side, then the magic is more visible
– when he is using a lot of magic or in very magical situations, it becomes more visible
– as he rises in power and/or becomes recognised as a hero, it becomes more visible
The runes that we can see on young Argrath are the runes for Air/Storm, Mobility, and Sartar’s rune. Interesting!
And Mastery.
which replaces the star heart in the glowing stages where the other runes are formed.
Also, don’t forget his clan tattoo on his right arm.
And tattoos are created magically. Neat.
Just caught up with this. I like *the* Argrath. This is tremendous stuff.