La competencia

Wilderness

Thousands of years of prowling darkly fantastic forests and reeking black swamps creates a rather sinister outlook on the gods and the spirit world. Shamanism is the primary Pictish religion, although it is hard to speak of Pictish ‘religions’ as though the concept is similar to the Western religions that exist alongside secular, daily life. For the Picts, their ideas of spirituality, superstition and rites are inextricably intertwined with their day-to-day lives in such a tight manner that separation is impossible. Religious life and secular life are one and the same, both utterly dominated by the menacing environment around them. The most minor and trivial of daily activities has a deep spirituality involved in its performance. Mystical power resides in every thing and in every action. Every Pict must pay heed to the baleful spirits that infuse all things. To insure a proper understanding of the threatening environment around them a class of Pict evolved to speak to the dreadful spirits and to harness the mystical powers of all things. This is the shaman.

The shamans of the clans wield terrible magical powers, often wielding more influence than the chiefs of the clan. The shamans are the centre of the nasty religious and horrible ritual aspects of the Picts. Picts understand good and evil as indications of whether or not obligations to the malicious spirits are being met and the shamans control this aspect of life. They are mediums acting as intermediaries between this world and the hateful spirit world. If a Pict is ‘evil,’ not meeting the obligations of the spirit world and the ubiquitous environment, he may find hunting sparse, for the darksome spirits control the quantity and quality of game animals. Intense rhythmic drumming induces a ritual trance when the hunters require the shaman’s help, allowing the shaman’s soul to enter the spirit world to find the source of the

‘My brother had not painted a skull black for you and hurled it into the fire that burns for ever on Gullah’s black altar. He had not whispered your name to the black ghosts that haunt the uplands of the Dark Land. But a bat has flown over the Mountains of the Dead and drawn your image in blood on the white tiger’s hide that hangs before the long hut where sleep the Four Brothers of the Night.

The great serpents coil about their feet and the stars burn like fireflies in their hair.’

R. E. Howard, Beyond the Black River

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difficulty in hunting. The shaman then tells the Pict what will appease the cruel spirits and cause them to release the animals they have hidden away. To not meet the responsibilities required by the spirits is a sign of disrespect, shredding the balance and harmony of the environment around them. The nightmarish environment and the hateful spirits are one, bound together, the source of life for all, the source of identity for the tribe and the source of strength for the individual Pict.

The tribes are named after their totem animals. These totems are vitally important to the clans. To the Turtles, the shell of the turtle encompasses the universe. The turtle is enduring and patient, as are the clansmen of the Turtle. Their jewellery is made of tortoiseshell, which has an amazing lustre and translucency when polished. To the Alligator, their totem animal is a ferocious hunter, able to take down large prey. The Alligator clan sees themselves in this light. The tribe’s shamans use the alligator’s liver and entrails to create powerful magic.

The Hawks and Eagles are among the most predatory of the clans, their totems symbolising the warrior and the hunter. The Wildcats are perfectly adapted killing engines, lithe and silent, traits that clan emphasises. The Wolf clan attacks in packs, often driving their victims over long distances while making sporadic attacks designed to exhaust their chosen foe. The raven, which taught the early Picts how to survive, is seen as a messenger or prophet from the spirit world. In any case, the clan’s totem animal serves as a spirit guide, especially to the shaman.

Costume and performance are inextricably linked to a shaman’s success. They may act like animals, dress as animals and possibly even transform into animals.

Feathers hold mystical significance to the shaman and his followers. Masks are also common to enhance the mood or as a magical focus. The ability to change form to fight spirits is also crucial to the shaman, either in reality or via his convincing performance, for he

Once all living things worshipped him. That was long ago, when beasts and men spoke one language. Men have forgotten him; even the beasts forget.

Only a few remember. The men who remember Jhebbal Sag and the beasts who remember are brothers and speak the same tongue.

R. E. Howard, Beyond the Black River

‘But what was that – that thing you killed in the altar-hut?’ asked Balthus, with a shiver at the memory of the dim seen horror.

‘One of Zogar’s gods. One of Jhebbal’s children that didn’t remember and had to be kept chained to the altar. A bull ape. The Picts think they’re sacred to the Hairy One who lives on the moon – the gorilla-god Gullah.’

R. E. Howard, Beyond the Black River

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must be a trickster to outwit the harmful spirits that plague the Picts. Drums are another vital part of the Pictish shaman ritual.

The drums are holy to the Picts, who liken it to the heartbeats of the spirits. With such emphasis on performance, for shaman magic must be shown and displayed to the tribe despite the inner experience of it, Charisma is a vital characteristic for the successful shaman. They must hold the attention of the tribe and convince them they are powerful enough to command the spirits that infuse their wild land.

Shamans are skilled at the use of herbal medicines and the use of plants for rituals and spellcasting. Still, healing is not their primary focus. In the world of the Pict, catching game is far more important for the clan, so most of the shaman’s magic is directed in the direction of bringing about prosperous hunts.

Family and clan are still at the heart of Pictish society and the shaman exists as a community servant, not as some private sorcerer delving deep into his own personal needs and goals.

The magic of the Pictish shaman is bloody and grim. Their altars are crude affairs, charred with fire and stained with blood. Accompanied by thundering drums, the shaman dances grotesquely and the captives are sacrificed to their dire gods and vile spirits. Blood makes their magic mighty. They burn captives alive in these gruesome ceremonies, torture the captives and kill the captives. These ceremonies revolve around the hunt and the cycle of life, including births, rites of passage and deaths.

The Picts believe in a dark afterlife. After death, their souls will enter the spirit world and haunt the black Mountains of the Dead in the uplands of the Dark Land.

In addition to the spirits that infuse everything, the Picts also have their own sinister nature gods that oversee the cosmos. Jhebbal Sag, a pre-Cataclysmic god of darkness and primordial fear, is an ancient nature god that was once worshipped by all living things, man and animal alike. Both animals and man have largely forgotten him, but a few still remember. Those who do remember are considered to be family, for they are brothers. The Pict who remembers will treat animals and foreigners who remember as though they were literal brothers, for

family and clan is important to the Pict. Jhebbal Sag has many children, each a god over a certain type of animal.

One of these malevolent Pictish gods is Gullah, ‘The Hairy One Who Lives In The Moon.’ He is a gorilla god and the Picts consider the bull apes of their wilderness to be his totem animals. His altars are black with an eternal flame set upon it. To summon Gullah and begin the process of destroying an enemy, the shaman paints a skull black and casts it into Gullah’s fire. Upon entering a trance, the shaman then can speak to the ghosts and spirits. Gullah, as a moon deity, probably also serves as a guardian of the spirit world. He mirrors the vices of humanity, and of all the creatures in the animal kingdom his anthropoid appearance most closely mimics that of man. Likely he is credited by the Picts as the inventor of time and, as a moon god, has a fertility aspect.

Another son of Jhebbal Sag is Jhil the Raven, a bloodthirsty trickster deity. His children are the ravens, crows and certain fiendish spirits, and he is likely the patron of the Raven clan of Picts. He commands dark spirits and is associated with mortality. Jhil taught the Picts how to survive in the wilderness and how to honour Jhebbal Sag according to his myth cycle.

Jhil has a insatiable craving for food, blood and sex. He is also a messenger for Jhebbal Sag and the spirit world. Endowed with the gift of prophecy, he has empowered mortals to use dice to reveal his messages, giving man a method of augury. His worship is a gory ceremony, for he demands that prisoners be flayed alive on his altar.

The Picts worship the old gods who sleep in the Outer Abysses but are not dead. With the help of sacrifices and magic, these old gods sometimes awaken…

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The Pictish Wilderness

The Picts were a barbaric race during even the dim, legendary age before the Cataclysm. They lived out on the western ocean on a chain of islands. When the Great Cataclysm rocked the foundations of everything, the Pictish islands were thrust up, forming mountains in a new continent. The Picts were annihilated, save for a single colony in the south of Valusia. For the next millennium the Picts reverted back to stone-age savagery and even lower. They hunted remnant groups of Atlanteans in the ruins of Valusia.

Even through the Cataclysm they retained a sense of identity and remained in one area, but the lesser cataclysm destroyed this and the Pictish clans were scattered. The term ‘Pict’ no longer was a term of racial identity, but just a word used to distinguish them from the animals, for they no longer had contact with any other human beings. The Atlantean survivors who were formerly the enemies of the Picts fell even further, regressing and degenerating into apishness.

Thus they stayed until the coming of the Hyborians from the north.

They found the Picts still at a stone-age level, having had no contact with the Acheronians nor the people of the Zingg Valley. The Picts were driven into the forests of the west, a region of wilderness that

stretched from the border of Vanaheim in the north to Zingara in the south. To the west the ocean bound it, and to the east the Bossonian Marches hemmed them in.

In recent history, Aquilonia made an ill-fated attempt to colonise part of the Pictish Wilderness. It was an expansion effort initiated by King Vilerus and continued by King Numedides. The Picts refused to submit meekly and they unleashed their fury, destroying the fort the Aquilonians built in a war reminiscent of Aquilonia’s colonisation attempt in Cimmeria.

Local Creatures

Boars, elks, panthers, sabre-tooths, snakes, bears, wolves, stegosaur dragons and all sorts of strange monsters and animals lurk in the forests of Pictland. Among the strangest are the Chaken, semi-human ape beasts, with peaked heads and the Swamp Devils.

Adventure and Campaign Hooks

The characters have heard of a lost treasure deep in the Pictish wilderness and must go into that trackless land of death to seek it out.

Characters on a sea voyage find their luck has finally run out when their ship splinters on the shores of Pictland. The characters must now decide to build a fort on the shore and hope for an unlikely rescue or to plunge into certain death and try to cross Pictland into some more civilised realm.

The Picts have risen again to assault Aquilonia, Cimmeria or Zingara. The characters must either defend the nation in question, the city in question or, perhaps, they are fighting on the side of the Picts.

A Nemedian scholar is putting together a Hyborian bestiary and wants reports of sub-humanoids in the Pictish Wilderness confirmed. He is putting together a safari into that wild land, heedless of the dangers, dismissing tales of the Picts as simply primitive men running around naked and fearful of civilised man.

Alternatively, this scholar could be putting together a menagerie of sorts and wants some Pictish wildlife captured, especially the elusive Chaken.

A scholar may wish to document Pictish shaman rites for his own mystical researches into sorcery. He may hire characters to kidnap a shaman or to lead him to a tribe so that he may try to bribe his way into their society.

Soon the character of the coastline changed. No longer they sailed past steep cliffs with blue hills marching behind them. Now the shore was the edge of broad meadowlands which barely rose above the water’s edge and swept away into the hazy distance. Here were few harbors and fewer ports, but the green plain was dotted with the cities of the Shemites; green sea, lapping the rim of the green plains, and the zikkurats of the cities gleaming whitely in the sun, some small in the distance.

Through the grazing-lands moved the herds of cattle and squat, broad riders with cylindrical helmets and curled blue-black beards, with bows in their hands. This was the shore of the lands of Shem, where there was no law save as each city-state could enforce on its own. Far to the eastward, Conan knew, the meadowlands gave way to the desert, where there were no cities and the nomadic tribes roamed unhindered.

Robert E. Howard, The Hour of the Dragon