Vralkans lead lives of brutality and violence, but their culture is nevertheless surprisingly sophisticated. Cruelty is a way of life here. Fear of pain and fear of death serve as the
prime motivators rather than wealth
or advancement.
Clock of Kala, page 213
Non-Vralkans are often sought as captives to be sacrificed for additional blessings. Animals are also sacrificed, but intelligent sacrifices are more valuable as they are carefully made to understand the meaning of their death on the Red Gods’ altar, and that knowledge “empowers the blood.” Thus, abhumans and other intelligent nonhumans are better than animals. Creatures without blood are of no value at all and, in the eyes of the Red Gods, aren’t even truly alive.
Priests of the Red Gods are people with great power and prestige, but the door is open to only a few. Priests suffer greatly in every ceremony they conduct, for the blood sacrifices they make usually involve their own blood as well. A tolerance for pain and blood loss is crucial. Priests are also required to be among the most intelligent of Vralkans, for the hours-long rituals require extensive memorization. In addition, they must have considerable medical knowledge, as they must tend to the wounds of their fellow priests after a ritual. Despite this, priests in Vralk are not spiritual counselors, emissaries on Earth. These gods demand
sacrifices of blood, and most Vralkans sacrifice their second-born children in elaborate ceremonies to give the blessings of strength and power to their firstborn, as well as any subsequent children. True devotees perform some sort of self- mutilation to honor their gods with the glory of more red (bloody) flesh. So that they remain strong warriors, however, this mutilation is nothing that would overly debilitate them. Instead, they mutilate their faces, the flesh of their backs, their genitalia, or something similar.
The Red Gods are always referred to as a group. Their individual names and even the exact number of gods are kept secret from all but the priesthood. Worshippers know only that the understanding of true sacrifice—usually through pain, loss, and death—feeds the gods, and when fed, the gods reward and bless those who made the sacrifice. A priest will say, “Sacrifice must involve blood, for blood is the central thread of life, strength, and health, but it is also the conductor of pain and loss.”
not. Food and goods are distributed to all, as pertinent to each person’s station and needs. For example, an individual of high station might get a large portion of food, but so do manual laborers and soldiers,
who need to be strong and well fed. The accumulation of unnecessary goods is not the path to betterment—rather it leads to punishment and pain.
The Vralkan system of dispersing goods based on need and station would be complex except for the fact that Vralk is a
very poor kingdom overall, and resources are scarce. The difference between the
food served to the queen and the food served to an average citizen
is relatively slight. This scarcity of resources makes Vralkans eager for war and conquest.
In a manner of speaking, all Vralkans are slaves of those in stations above them, but they would never use that term. They do, however, make use of abhuman slaves to perform manual labor and supplement their armies. The most common types of abhuman in Vralk include margr, sathosh, grush, and igothus. All nonhuman, non-Vralkan creatures are resources to use, game to hunt, or challenges to overcome (and sometimes all three).
Vralkans also make heavy use of mounts called shantags—curious, leather-skinned beasts with apelike forelimbs that walk on all fours most of the time. Shantags have vicious horns and teeth, and trained specimens are as deadly on the battlefield as their riders, if not more so. Shantags can also be used as beasts of burden, particularly because they possess grasping forepaws.
MILITARY
Vralk is a militarized society, and every city has a fortress or garrison from which military “selectors” pick warriors (or potential warriors) from the population and bring them into service. This is a great honor and is an individual’s best opportunity to increase his station other than joining the priesthood.
Over the centuries, the Vralkans tore apart leaders, healers, or teachers, as they are in
other societies. In fact, for the most part, they are kept separate from regular citizens to ensure their purity. Typically, a citizen lays eyes on a priest only when a sacrifice is made to the Red Gods.
Most who attempt to enter the priesthood die during the rituals (or afterward, due to infection). Only the hardiest—and perhaps the most insane—survive to become priests. And even then, few live particularly long lives.
Priests take on idiosyncratic dress and manners in different locations throughout Vralk. For example, in Morlash Kor, they are covered in bloody thorns, but in Vastorn they pierce the entirety of their flesh with large, black needles. In Nabir Enthru, they wear long red robes and carry hidden bloodsacs (see below). There is no distinction between male or female priests.
ECONOMY
As mentioned above, the Vralkans have no currency. Shins mean nothing to them. The occasional trade happens, but there is no formal system of barter. People perform their appointed tasks and work at their assigned jobs not for hope of financial gain, but out of fear of pain and punishment from their superiors if they do
Grush: level 4, Might defense as level 5, Intellect defense and resistance to trickery as level 3; health 16; Armor 1; regenerate 1 point of health per round; see The Ninth World
Bestiary, page 62
Igothus, page 231 Shantag, page 240 Margr, page 244 Sathosh, page 256
BRISANTS
Fulfilling an important role in Vralkan society, brisants are punishers who inflict pain on those who fail at their duties. These torturers master many styles of inflicting pain: slowly, quickly, pain that leaves a scar to remember, and pain that leaves no mark at all. They can carry out their task quickly with a few lashes of a whip, or take days or weeks with a subject in a chair. All brisants carry numenera artifacts they call “consequences.” A consequence looks like an iron rod with a silver tip. It measures and records the amount of pain a subject endures so the information can be shown to superiors, confirming that the subject has been properly punished for wrongdoing. Thus, a Vralkan can request a brisant to give a punishment of a specific level, rated on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the highest, achieved over a period of many weeks and involving processes most subjects cannot survive). The brisant then reports back that the punishment has been doled out at the proper level.
Brisants wear black and red armor and carry an array of devices, most in a large black leather satchel. They bear their consequence as a badge or symbol in a sheath across their chest.