Background stuff for my hyrkanian

[Etepete]

I have currently the privilegie of actually playing (woohoo! - not GM:ing!!! ) in a conan campaign, set up in the north. I play a hyrkanian Nomad hailing from a fair and honourable tribe up in the north, by the border to Hyperborea. My character follows the Barbarian Code, and the laws of hopsitality and all religious taboos. So I'm thinking he might not be a big fan of Erlik, rather favoring some other hyrkanian god.

Now as far as I know there's not much on hyrkanian religion. I'm considering stealing the mongolic supreme god of the sky: Tengri (as a "Father of the Four Winds" or something like that. His tribe might also have a local hero-god, and some holy places (the mountain were the dead live (inhabited by Erlik?), holy rocks and hollow trees. Maybe the tribe even sports a shaman.

This is all backdrop stuff, but Im running him as pretty superstitious, and I enjoy fleshing out stuff like this. Any comments or suggestions would be excellent

 

[Aholibamah]

It strikes me that most of the barbarian gods and pantheons of Hyboria are elemental, tough and distant, rather like the elements that they live in. For a Hyrkanian sky gods, gods of horses or of natural elements seem to make sense. Perhaps he is more animistic and is more of a believer in a multitude of totems and spirits.

 

[Etepete]

Yeah, I think elemental and spiritistic are keywords. Tengri IS the skies, and Erilk is the chief of the ancestors, a rather heretical v. of the main hyrkanian beliefs in him.

 

[Krushnak]

birds are the totem animals of the sky god iirc and so adopting a bird especially a bird of prey as your nomads totem animal would be well within character. something like the hawk or falcon.

 

[Etepete]

birds are the totem animals of the sky god iirc and so adopting a bird especially a bird of prey as your nomads totem animal would be well within character. something like the hawk or falcon.

Hmm... I don't think Tengri is associated with birds, but that's a moot point, since the connection is obvious and I hope to vary at least a bit from historical mythology. So birds + skygod seems like a really good idea

I'm not sure whether I'll want totem animals (the picts already have those, + it's nice to break up the shamanistic "package") but I'm sure that say the Steppe Buzzard (cool bird) might play a symbolic rule in the Rites of these nomads.

 

[Etepete]

Background stuff in bullet points:

* The chief divinty of his tribe is Tengri: the four winds, or The Sky. Winds feature in daily speech, tribesmen hoping that their arrows be carried on the wind of victory, or speaking of the gentle breeze of patience, that serves the hunter waiting on his prey.

* They also worship ancestors, who might live in a mountain or a kurgan, and Erlik the god of death.

* All birds have a slight taboo, the Steppe Buzzard is under severe taboo, and is regarded as a noble bird, full of warrior and hunter virtues.

* The Carrion Bear is a diminutive bear species of the tundra, it eats animal and human corpses, and refuse. It carries the yellow death of Erlik, and is reviled animal of madness and death.

* The wolf is a noble animal to all hyrkanians: it symbolises strength, virtue and kinghood. The hunting eagle and the hunting dog are animals of discipline, virtue, justice and dominion.

 

[Majestic7]

How about adding some mythology justifying the penalty on will saves versus hypnotism?

 

[Etepete]

How about adding some mythology justifying the penalty on will saves versus hypnotism?

I've given that some thought. Now I think that letting hyrkanian superstition (which makes them susceptible to hypnotism) reflect _into_ the mythology is the way to go (Still thinking about concrete ways to do this), but I dont think myt/a single myth/a few myth should _explain_ the penalty. That would be reducing their mindset to just the effect of a handful of myths. But I'm definetly for introducing big and scary themes into their myths. Man eating Ogre servants of Erlik, wraiths, murdering ghosts and things that eat your soul etc.

A notion of utter taboo, of being able to lose one soul which would be worse than losing ones life etc. At least these are themes that have popped up as I have been playing.