Cult of Lhankor Mhy

originally published in Cults of Prax and River of Cradles

This document is Copyright © 1998 Issaries, Inc. It may be freely linked to, and one copy may be printed for personal use, but any other reproduction by photographic, electronic, or other methods of retrieval, is prohibited.

Mythos and History
Other Notes

Mythos and History

Lhankor Mhy was born before the Gods War of two members of the Celestial Court, Mostal (son of Acos Lawgiver) and Orenoar (Mistress of Truth). He lived with them upon the great Spike of Law and sang songs of Knowledge and Power.

When Orlanth slew Yelm, gods and goddesses of all forms of light went with him to Hell. One of these was the Goddess of the Light of Knowledge, and Lhankor Mhy suddenly was bereft of inspiration. He set out during the Lesser Darkness to find the missing goddess. Along the way he met the others and when the Spike exploded Lhankor Mhy joined with them to rescue the Sun and free all light from the Darkness.

When they returned from their successful quest, Lhankor Mhy married his quest object, and all knowledge was his forever.

While Lhankor Mhy was able to embrace all knowledge, mortals have no such opportunity, and have found ever since that their knowledge must always be incomplete, and what they know does not always apply to the problems at hand. Yet many follow Lhankor Mhy's constant quest for knowledge, for the thirst for knowledge remains, and his worshippers constantly search for new knowledge. They also constantly gather such chunks of the Spike as are collectable, to better understand the universe which once took its form from the Spike.

These worshippers of the Seeker and the Sage remain above the quarrels of other gods, and are impartial advisers to all. They have no binding ties to any element, and can advise Sun, Wind, Moon, or Earth with equal enthusiasm.

The worshippers of Lhankor Mhy know that they will travel to his Court inside the Tower of Ivory to sit at the feet of the Eternal Source of Knowledge. Their time in the tower will depend on how well they have fulfilled the lifetime quest of the cult: the amount of true knowledge known determines the time allowed in blissful research before mortals once again take their place in the eternal circle of life and death.

These lords and priests prefer to be laid into stone tombs, whether natural or constructed; shaft graves are preferred. The poorer members are simply buried with a rock as a pillow. Members buried with cult rites always have long accounts of their knowledge read during the services.

The principal runic association is the Truth rune. Lhankor Mhy also is connected to the Stasis rune of his father, Mostal. Thus the cult both seeks Truth and holds on to it.

Other Notes

The Libraries

While the priests are dedicated to the collection of knowledge, they have never developed a consistent classification system. After a few years of getting to know the collection, priests are usually familiar with the location of items relating to their specialties. Often, they add to the confusion by starting their own private library from material they take from the main library, and their hoard is not found until after their deaths.

Thus, while all the knowledge of the world might be somewhere in a Lhankor Mhy temple, it may take years to find a particular item. Each High Priest traditionally vows to straighten out the system, but each has a different procedure, and they rarely live long enough to implement their full system and document it. The next priest invariably has a new system. In areas such as Pavis, where new information and artifacts are brought in every week, the sages have long since realized that order is impossible, or at least unlikely, until a cult hero arrives to bring law out of disorder. Until this arrival, they merely look for a free shelf or build a new one. Some libraries have areas completely hidden by later construction.

Appearance

Particular temples of Lhankor Mhy will often adopt specific color schemes for all to wear. Thus, in Pavis they have taken the name Grey Lords from the color of the robes worn by the original Rubble survivors.

Also, all Sages wear beards, symbolic of the god Lhankor Mhy, who is constantly in pursuit of the goddess Knowledge. Women and races without natural facial hair will wear fake beards, which are often highly ornamented. The usual color of a fake beard is grey or white, and real beards are often dyed grey as well.

Pronunciation

In the Holy Country, from which this cult originates, the god's name usually is pronounced with an aspirated stress on the second syllable of the first word ("Lankhor Mhy"). In all other parts of Glorantha, the first syllable of the first word carries the aspiration and the stress ("Lhankor Mhy"). People of Dragon Pass consider the Holy Country pronunciation and spelling to be uninspired foppism.