KALIN – Father of the Kobolds

Status:  2nd Generation Elder God

Level:  5500

Avatar:  Barint

The Kobolds say they are the children of a being called Kalin the Creator, who is believed by most modern day scholars to have been a demigod in the service of Grond the Earth God, though the Kobolds believe him to have been far more important than Grond. Kalin is certainly not very handsome as demigods go; he is usually depicted as a stunted, brown skinned hill giant. Kalin was ambitious and curious about the new ‘creations’ of the Gods, and was especially jealous of the beings called ‘Dwarves’, whom Grond was spending so much of his time creating. So in a fit of pique and jealousy, Kalin slunk away to a quiet corner with a good sized lump of Grond’s magic clay, which his master had used to create those annoying Dwarf-things and began to fashion his own creations.

Kalin was astounded by the little things he had made, which wriggled and kicked as he held them in his fingers. He called them ‘ORKS’ and played with them for a while. But they were stupid creatures and very ugly and Kalin soon became bored with them. He took his Orks and pushed them out of Bifrost for he felt embarrassed at having made such ugly things. He let them fall down to the world, where they scurried away and hid in the mountains where no one would see them. Unfortunately Kalin missed his creations and resolved to make some more the next day. This time he took more care and created a smaller, more finely detailed set of models, this time he paid more attention to the mind of these creatures. Now his new things apart from scurrying around and bundling with each other a few of the more gifted individuals began to make noises with their mouths and talk a little. The words the little creatures said most of all were Ko and Bold which as Kalin walked rather clumsily around them they repeated continuously. In glee Kalin began to dance in amongst his creations and decided that this would be their name and thus named them Kobolds. Today scholars working on Dark Speech translations have ascertained that ‘Ko’ in Orcish means ‘No’ and ‘Bold’ loosely translates to ‘Squash/flatten’.

But that day Grond came back early and found Kalin in the corner dancing and playing around his tiny creations. He was livid and ordered him to destroy them at once! Kalin wailed and cried but it was no use, he had taken Grond’s magical clay and made some nasty little creatures out of it, and now he must pay the consequences. Kalin looked at the marble floor and asked sheepishly if he could take his creations outside and say goodbye on his own, before scrunching them up in a ball again. Looking down upon Kalin’s squeaking things all now shouting in unison Ko Bold! Ko Bold! Grond had a slight change of heart for he was an honourable deity and master, and granted Kalin his wish.

Crafty Kalin had a plan. Scooping up his ‘Kobolds’ he went outside and stood above the great World Tree, but rather than saying goodbye to his creations he hid most of them in a dark corner and only squashed a few of the uglier ones that had to many limbs or oversized heads.

Before returning the ball of clay, he reached down into Eä and mixed in some ordinary soil, so that Grond would not notice. That night Kalin crept out and taking up his Kobolds he hid them away in the dark corners of the world alongside his Orks, before sneaking back to bed.

Kalin did not know that he had been observed by Pharastus the Dark Lord of evil and chaos who was up late this night working on a potent love potion and planning his seduction of Tanarsa. Pharastus followed Kalin and saw where he hid his Kobolds. After Kalin had left Pharastus took up a few of the wiggling creatures and breathed his foetid evil over them. Unfortunately for Pharastus this did not quite have the effect that he had hoped. Pharastus had been using faerie dust in his love potion concoction and instead of expelling a corrupting breath that twisted their hearts his powers were offset by the dust. What he in fact created was a strange orc-like creature that was influenced solely by the faerie realm, the Cro or Nilbog and along with it the bizarre effect known as Nilbogisum.

SYMBOL

The Clawed Eye

WORSHIP

Worship to Kalin is two-fold to the general cult members it is a haphazard affair occurring whenever the priest can be bothered. Worship usually taking the form of offerings of pretty things or valuable things, which have usually been stolen or gained from conquest and which they use to give thanks to Kalin.

To the Cro or Nilbog the worship of Kalin is a more intricate part of life. The Nilbogisum effect they employ can be eventually mastered. This happens when the Nilbog becomes strong enough to control the Nilbogisum effect (the priests believing that this will be sooner if they follow Kalin’s teachings) it will become known as a Cro and is able to nullify the Nilbogisum effect when he strikes and injures another. Due to their dedication Nilbog’s and Cro’s are more likely to be in charge of a particular cult and eventually become the cult leaders. To this end Kalin grants a few extra miracles for these creatures marked with an Asterix within the descriptions below.

TEMPLES

Temples are rare and even when encountered are sparse affairs usually within a disused cave or old run down building and has little or no furnishings, although there is always a well-guarded safe or strong room where the guilds ‘trinkets’ are kept.

When not actually working at the temple the Cro or Nilbog employ their own shrine within their own private quarters and personal taste is apparent.

HOLY DAYS

There are no specific holy days.

FRIENDS AND ENEMIES

The priests of Kalin suffer an animosity towards the priests of Pharastus and of Grond. They treat all others with neutrality.

CULT REQUIREMENTS

The guild is open to all Kobold folk and to creatures who can employ the Nilbogisum effect. Also, some Orcs are allowed worship, though this is rare, Kalin is not a bloodletting deity and most Orcs will worship a more bloodthirsty God.

STRICTURES

• Never leave anything curious ‘un-fiddled’ with and, where possible, add it to Kalin’s trinket collection.
• When it comes to work, ‘don’t do, delegate!’
• Always attempt to find out how something new works (see first stricture).
• Never tolerate anyone bad mouthing the cult or Kalin’s teachings.

NILBOGISUM

Nilbogisum is a faerie effect that Cro’s and Nilbog’s are able to employ to protect themselves. Any creature using the Nilbogisum effect has the ability through the warping magic of Pharastus and the Faerie realm to transfer any physical and mental damage/attack it receives straight back at the aggressor who employed it. The attack must cause pain or damage so a telepathy spell will not be rebounded but a gut fire spell would. Thus if you were to strike a Cro or Nilbog or drop a rock on its head the aggressor would have the damage occur to themselves and the Cro or Nilbog would remain totally unharmed.

This Curse has the strange effect upon the Nilbog in so much that if a Nilbog was to strike and injure another the damage the Nilbog causes is transferred back onto himself. This effect can eventually be mastered when the Nilbog becomes strong enough to control the Nilbogisum effects it will then become known as a Cro and is able to nullify the Nilbogisum effect when he strikes and injures another. It is this maturing aspect of the Nilbog that has lead to the foundation and strength of the Kalin cult within the Orcish society, despite it being considered wimpy and non-violent. What Orc regardless of its size would dare pick a fight with a creature that was immune to his attacks (hurting the aggressor when he hits him) and is able to smack him back, oh and as a by product utalise Kalin’s miracles.

The only true way the Nilbogisum effect can be countered is to utalise the evil in Pharastus’ curse and turn the magic’s employed around and back onto the Cro or Nilbog. Therefore in order to harm a Cro or Nilbog you would have to heal it death! It should be noted that if the creature takes damage from the healing the healer would not gain any benefit from the healing he has applied. I.e. the healing effect is not transferred back.

It should also be noted that once a Nilbogisum effected creature has died the Nilbogisum effect is lost, as the creature now has no life force left to generate it (the effect remains with the creature’s soul). This means that a steal soul spell or miracle can remove the Nilbogisum effect, and that Dwagar can never utalise this effect.

A last point on Nilbogisum, any creature employing the Nilbogisum effect can fight as normal any other creature employing the Nilbogisum effect. Both Nilbogisum effects are cancelled. This, however, applies only to the creatures employing the Nilbogisum effect, if another were to strike a Nilbog while two of them were fighting they would still have their damage returned as normal.