Time for a break from rules related OQ matters. Here’s another tale from Gatan’s folklore.
Once upon a time Saran and his family came down from their cave homes in the hills and came to live on the great plain of Sur. Sarran who was head of his household decided to build a home for his family.
So he gathered up straw and mud and made a wattle and daub house. Then an awful Piggie (1), that walked on two legs came and wielded a big tree trunk as a club destroyed his new home, causing Sarran and his family to run to the hills.
When the pig was gone from the plains, Sarran and his family returned from their wanderings in the hills. Sarran built a new house made of strong sturdy timber. Or so he thought. Another Bad Piggie, that wielded a vicious two-handed iron great ax, came down from the mountains and chopped Saran’s wooden house into bits and made a fire out of it, on which cooked and Saran’s first son, who had not been quick enough to run away back to the hills (2)
Next, when Saran came down from the hills, this time on his own because his family still mourned the deceased son (and were quite frankly not seeing the joy in leaving their safe caves), he made a hall and a tomb for his son, made out of rocks. He piled the stones one atop another and made a sturdy thatched roof, but it still didn’t stop a third bad piggie from coming along and trashing the place! Sarran who only got out in the nick of time, ran off to the mountains this time.
There he resolved to become a holy hermit, forsaking his family and material life. He climbed the highest mountain and looked skywards to some deity to answer why he was such a failure at life.
And lo the Grand Builder, who dwells in the Sky, answered his wailing. He told him to pull himself together get his family and return to the blessed plain of Sur. So putting his trust in this new god, Sarran did just that.
Once there, the Grand Builder taught Sarran how to build gleaming buildings of white stone. Made out of massive blocks of stone, without mortar or gaps. And roads, aqueducts and other such wonders that allowed Sarran’s family to finally prosper.
When the Bad Piggies came again to blow Saran’s house down, not only could they not do this, but Sarran and his family drove them from their homeland, using the steel axes that the Grand Builder had taught them to make in their new forges.
So the Bad Piggies, went whee, whee, whee, all the way up the mountains where they stayed and became the Dwarves problem instead.
Notes (for grown-ups)
Overall this is sort of an origin story for Saran the Builder (see OpenQuest page 214). Its commonly taught to all children ages two and up in the Empire of Gatan, since its tells of the foundation of human civilisation.
- The Pigs of this nursery tale are commonly held to be pig-faced Orcs (or Orc Tribes, led by a Warlord) who came out of the mountains and fought wars against Sarran’s Kingdom.
- some versions have Sarran’s first son – Derak – as a doomed but heroic warrior who sacrificed himself holding off the Bad Pig.
Note: The entirety of this text is product identity, and will be part of a future OpenQuest book.
