The picture that started it all...

This is the first image I ever drew of a duck, back in the Spring/Summer of 2003. I'd moved back to Bolton from Bristol, was supposed to be writing my thesis up, and getting into Glorantha in a big way for the first time. I'd not really drawn much since leaving school, and the composition is somewhat static, but I did like how it came out. It was a bit of a fluke in some ways, as many attempts since then have been less successful.

The big influence for this picture (though obviously not in terms of panoply) was Ralph Horsley's lovely illustration on page 101 of Wyrms Footprints. Ducks 101 indeed! Obviously, everyone's ducks will vary, but I really liked how Ralph expressed the duck part of 'anthropomorphic ducks'. The short, thin bird's legs; the swollen belly and rump; the large head; the exaggerated (relative to humans) proportions. I like my ducks to waddle just a little, after all!

My own sketches are slightly more anthropomorphic than Ralph's (as much by accident as design, at times), but that picture will always define ducks for me.

Confounding My Academic Nemesis

Those who have followed my travails will be aware of my continuing academic disagreements in the field of durulzology, with no lesser a personage than Mr Keith Nellist. His residence in the Antipodes, home in itself to all manner of strange explorations in the durulzological sciences, has only exacerbated this rift.

In a letter to the Editor of the Glorantha Digest, Friday 3 February 2006, Mr Nellist stated that he was "going to compare [Dr Stansfield's] Caladraland stone heads to an Erich von Daeniken-style Chariots of the Gods theory - in other words, one that I do not really believe."

Though I personally think a comparison to the wholly eminent research of Herr von Daeniken is not pejorative in any sense, this resulted in a strident response from myself, to wit:

"If you are implying, [Mr Nellist], that the fact that I alone have met, befriended and caroused with the hitherto unknown Caladran duck tribe, ignored of anatopology; that I alone have been trusted with their secrets, for they will meet with no others; and that I have no photographic or representative evidence to prove my claims whatsoever, other than a quick sketch which curiously includes the word 'concept'... somehow invalidates the empirical basis of my research, then I'm outraged."

Nevertheless, Mr Nellist had a point. My evidence was somewhat limited; my recollection hazy. Therefore I embarked upon a new expedition into the Caladran jungles, and was overjoyed to bring forth new, wholly irrefutable evidence for my claims. I ask, gentle reader, whether such penetrating insights could possibly be the product of a madman or a charlatan?

Kuaktzulub's Ladder

Of Luak's firstborn, only Kwala'ikki and Drulzekka guarded their father. The First Tribe, descended of Zlalok Zorn, were overcome by rage and Chaos. The Second Tribe, descended of Umatathoa, fled and gave themselves over to worship of his rebellious son, Orlok. The Third Tribe, descended of Klolak, were overcome by inaction and dulled by their mysticism, and driven to the east as Guanote'ela fragmented under the assault of Chaos. Now they live in fear of the First Tribe, who dwell in the same seas.

Only the Fourth Tribe, descended of Kwala'ikki, remained true to Luak. They were the poorest and most humble, but were aided by Kuaktzulub, the greatestchild of Zlalok Zorn, who held back from the sins that engulfed his fatherand in so doing became the first tribeless drulzek. Together, Drulzekka, Kwala'ikki and Kuaktzulub journeyed into the depths of the world, as they sought to free Luak. They found a passage that wound deep beneath the mountain that imprisoned him, down into the great abyss in which He was held.

Below them they could see the burning, raging form of their creator, flightless as they and trapped in his donjon. Then Kuaktzulub took his great obsidian weapon, which he had won from the Scaled King, and sliced it across Drulzekka the Ancestress' belly. He drew out her intestines, which he wrought into a charnel ladder, and cast it down into the abyss. Yet it would not reach Luak, so he turned to demand the sacrifice of Kwala'ikki. Overcome by horror, the Fourth Son had danced away from Kuaktzulub's razorclub, and fled gibbering into the darkness.

Unperturbed and immune to any craven vice, Kuaktzulub knew the task that lay before him, and slit open his own belly, revealing the steaming mass of innards within. These he affixed to Drulzekka's on the great ladder. Still it would not reach to the bottom of the abyss, so there Kuaktzulub, god of death and evisceration, and Luak, the fallen creator, remain to this day. Kwala'ikki overcame his terror and watches over them, deity of what the humans call the Vent, but which the Drulzekki know as Trickster Mountain.

There, in its great shadow, the remnants of the Fourth Tribe live, guarding Luak's legacy. Kwala'ikki has fooled the humans into thinking he is their god: when his flaming tail feathers flutter above the crater rim they cry in terror; when he belches and the earth shakes they panickedly sacrifice to assuage his anger; and when he is overcome by flatulence, they take his noxious fumes as signs of divination.

The disciples of Kuaktzulub remain, the greatest warriors of the Drulzekki beyond the Zorns. They are tribeless as their ancestor, and seek to capture their enemies, who are then ritually disembowelled by Kuakti priests on the skull-formed ziggurat of the temple of Luak. Their intestines are cast down the gore-slick steps into the lava-lit smoking lake out of which the temple rises.

Beneath the smoking lake is Kuaktzulub's Realm of the Dead, a horrid mirror image of the realm above. He collects the intestines, and adds them to his ladder, a ladder that will one day prove long enough to rescue Luak, so that He will return to lead the Drulzekki to greatness. When a Kuakti warrior dies, he is ritually disembowelled and sent on a reed boat into the smoking mists, so that his god may take him.

Durulz Gods: A Mythographic Addendum

I know very little of mainstream semi-Orlanthi durulz, as John and Mike have described, but will offer a few snippets of my own Glorantha in case you ever go down into Caladraland (where Benedict will suffer the doom of being slowly devoured by the thousand bills of Gor-Gor-Ma!).

Throwing in a volcano doesn't just transmute to Caladraland standard durulz-mythology + volcano god IMG (and general thoughts on myth), so their thoughts on cosmology are a little different (but hey... you can't *not* have duck Humakti).

In my own Glorantha the Drulzekki of Caladraland worship Luak (a subsequent'Luak', as in 'Luak-Luak' is occasionally used; or the term Loueydril for fun games, if it doesn't bring apoplexy) as the big boss god, but don't really represent him in any artistic form, other than a burning sun, which was infinitely brighter than the false sun that currently blemishes the sky. Fire that will blind the sight of all was a bit difficult to achieve, so they tend to stick with a plain biggish circle.

The sarifice-hungry Nexarchs (read priests of Luak) claim to be the manifest representations of their chief god, and wear flaming volcanic headresses--the height of the headress representing the power of the priest and closeness to Luak's fiery grace... if providing the counter of a rather more unstable gait*.

Other gods do indeed allow more artistic representations of their glory... with the obvious exception of Drulzekka, mother of the Drulzekki. Her transition to Gor-Gor-Ma, the Hungry Dark and defender of her children, has proven problematic: how do you draw a durulz with a thousand razor-billed maws of terror? Some vine-shrouded shrines to Gor-Gor-Ma, frequented only by the matrons of the cult, do seem to make a good attempt, however.

Other gods are better depicted. Kuaktxulub the Eviscerator** is probably most described, appearing as a durulz happily drunk with death, cloaked inthe protective rainbow-hued feathers of the firebirds, holding the klanth he captured from the Lizard King and with his belly slit open to reveal half his guts hanging out.

The art of the Drulzekki has suffered somewhat in recent years, however, and few modern representations can match the strange, humongous 'Drulzek Heads' that litter the near-primeaval forest landscape of (parts of) Caladraland. They represent old Drulzek gods and heroes, many of the latter lost to current legends.

Kwala'ikki the Trickster makes his home in the Vent, under which Luak was imprisoned ages ago. He guards his father until the time when enough sacrifices have been made to Kuaktxulub that he can gather up their entrails and make his gut-wrought ladder to climb down and release the Creator.

The stupid humans of Caladraland think that when the bright fire-fountains of the mountain jet into the sky, it's their 'god' erupting. Bah! That's just Kwala'ikki poking his flame-feathered head up to get a break from hisfather's constant rumbling anger. He's taken to like being called a god by the Caladrans, and finds it hilarious. He is starting to develop airs and graces, mind...

There are not too many gods worshipped by the Drulzekki: Luak, Kuaktxulub and Gor-Gor-Ma are among the most common. But occasionally other deities arefollowed, such as Ghumba the Golden Hippo. The Drulzek War Hippopotamus is a strange creature, found in the steaming volcanic mudpits that lie close to the vent, and from which it draws its vigour. Its purplish-blue hide is broken by tens to hundreds of rock-hard irridescent glass orbs, which provide a 'studded armour' of sorts.

Ghumba is represented by the Guardian of a Drulzek hippo-rider regiment, appearing as a crude golden idol of savage god (who is reputed to have a hide of gold and armoured orbs of purest diamond). Captives are sacrificed to Ghumba in the horrid death dances, squashed to nothingness beneath thepouding feet and rolling forms of bloodthirsty, mud-splattered, ecstatic hippopotami... all to the background of the keening death yodels of the Drulzekki.

*Popoquackapetl XXXVIII, High Nexarch many years ago, claimed that his instabilities in movement were not something to be laughed at (or that he'd had too much palm wine), but a mortal reminder of the omnipresent powers ofthe Rumbling Earth to Luak's chosen.

**Kuaktxulub is (mistakenly!) called Humakt/Hueymakt by the durulz elsewhere, possibly from the phrase Huey Makt (meaning 'great warrior'). Evisceration Yodel Berserk is rather different to Death Song Berserk, however.

(Originally posted on the Glorantha Digest, 24 April 2004.)