Cult of Kyger Litor

originally published in Cults of Prax

Table of Contents

• Mythos and History
• Other Notes

The troll races first lived within the bowels of the Underworld, and it was a satisfying though primitive life for them. Kyger Litor walked freely among all living trolls, and she founded many houses of noble trolls to rule over the lesser breed. These ancient beings are called the Mistress Race Trolls.

When Yelm the Sun god came to Hell after being killed, Kyger Litor was among those Darkness deities who fought against him. Like the others Kyger Litor was defeated, and so Yelm earned his place as a God of the Dead. But the bright death was too much for the dark troll races to bear, and they fled in fear and anger from their birthplace. Kyger Litor led them by secret ways to the surface world where Night already hid, and so began the Great Darkness. Trolls and their Dark God allies fought against the forces of the Surface World, where all was already well-disintegrated in the Gods War. Many spirits were killed trying to fight the exiled trolls, who still were very powerful.

The trolls ruled much of the surface world during the Great Darkness, but they also bore the brunt of the fighting against the things of chaos which swarmed upon the world with the Devil. Islands of life clung precariously to their questionable existence through the War Against Chaos, and were often led by Trolls and their gods. Of those gods Kyger Litor was the most popular.

During this war against chaos, Kyger Litor built the legendary Castle of Lead in the region of the Rockwood Mountains near Dragon Pass and Prax. This region, a center of troll population called Dagori Inkarth, attracted the greatest amount of enemies of Chaos, and aided all nearby enters of population by doing so. Kyger Litor also aided Waha once, and she was once saved by Arroin, the Healer. Also, trolls from there fought in the I Fought We Won battle where chaos was defeated in the Great Darkness.

Kyger Litor was one of the more powerful deities at the Dawning. She had to be consulted in the Great Compromise which made Time, and she agreed to it as did all the gods. Many of her minions were frightened again by the orb in the sky, but it was much weaker this time, so many could withstand it. Even so, trolls prefer to act during the comfort-able darkness hours.

In the Dawn Ages (Dawn-c. 500 S.T.) the races of trolls were active and often took a part in the political affairs of the regions. In Dragon Pass/Prax area one of the members of the First Council was Kyger Litor. Even after Kyger Litor was removed from the Council she was the most popular deity among troll kind.

At the end of the Dawn Ages the trolls were the first to quit the Second Council which was performing a massive ritual to try to create a god. The trolls all claimed this was too close to chaos. The dragonewts eventually agreed and were the second to withdraw, as well as most of the priests of the Old Gods. The Council continued its experiment and spawned the god Gbaji, who deluded and seduced the world and was responsible for the Chaos Wars which destroyed the Dawn Ages.

In that time the Broken Council (those who remained of the Second Council) cursed the troll race, and despite the best defenses of Kyger Litor and her followers the curse struck and worked. Trolls call this the Great Woe, or Trollkin Curse.

The Great Woe did not destroy the trolls, but merely stunted their growth. Not all the race was affected, so some always bred true, but almost three quarters of all births after the curse were of stunted things called Trollkin. It was almost obscene that these creatures lived, but they did, and soon represented the bulk of troll population. Their inferior status always was accepted by trolls; trollkin rarely have the mental, magical, and physical abilities to think otherwise.

Several attempts to break the curse have been unsuccessful. One attempt resulted in litters of trollkin being born rather than single ones. Breaking this curse is the prime interest of Kyger Litor, who wishes to cleanse her race.

Great Woe certainly affected the trolls fate during the second age, when the Old Races of Elf, Dwarf, and Troll set upon each other to leave only Mankind as the winner. Trolls were driven hither and yon in their defeats, but in the end they won all of the dark and foreboding places of the world as their potential haunts, and there they have lived through all of the rest of history.

Even so, they have continued to be strong in Dagori Inkarth, and from that area they have often traveled to plague other races. One army marched out and managed (with great magic) to defeat the plains nomads and occupy the city of Pavis (see the Cult of Pavis). Also, after the Dragonkill war (circa 1100 S.T.) much of Dragon Pass was occupied by trolls. In the Legends of the Hero Wars several troll armies are noted, either for hire or as invaders.

Trolls all know that their Goddess lives in a secret place of the Underworld and that they will be sent to her after death by the Judges of the Dead. Life in that hell is a bliss for the trolls, but consists of an empty grey plain populated by giant insects which are food for the dead, and of occasional springs where they may drink and (depending on whatever random pool they drink from) determine what troll race they will be born into again for their next life. (Cursed trolls who are a plague on the race are condemned to be humans, elves, or dwarves next lifetime.)

Such assurance in rebirth does not make trolls favor death any more than other races. They dislike pain and misery for themselves just like everybody else, and are fearful of their own deaths.

Funeral rites for the cult are simple. The trolls chant a prayer (the full impact of the prayer is only possible in Darktongue):

Friend go; don't be slow
To find the home all life must know;
The goddess will help you go

From the lands that see,
I am am bound and you are free;
No longer bound must you be.

Of Darkness you learned
For Darkness you yearned
To Darkness you are returned.

The soul is sent off and the living then sit down and return the body to Darkness by devouring it. Trolls are always happy to perform these rites over any other race, animal, or plant. Although the cult of Kyger Litor forbids killing other trolls for food, trolls will so kill trollkin.

Kyger Litor has two runes: Man (form) and Darkness (element).

Other Notes