Maker of Fire

The Revelation of Erhonsay to Melk

Children of the Great Owl, no more may you slay and eat others, no, not even to assume the spirits of any of the six races that speak. Defeat in combat is not dishonor. To kill yourself because you were defeated is a sin that the wolf god will punish after death.

For those who turn their back and bar their hearth from defeated warriors, the gods will turn their back on them, and the wolf god will bar their entry to the lodges of the honored dead because they did not treat those who suffered defeat with kindness.

Warriors of all tribes and nations, slay not the mother nor the child in their home, nor the farmer in the field, nor the traveler on the path. If those who are not warriors refrain from taking up arms to fight against you, they have nothing to do with your wars. But if you enter a dwelling to assault those who reside inside or to take their goods or provisions, then you are nothing more than thieves and malefactors, and your lives are forfeit when those who are not warriors defend themselves.

Reparations for war damages may be as much as half the income of all holders and laborers minus austerity costs. Reparations may not impoverish those paying damages. Those responsible for war must pay the most, and non-combatants and involuntary combatants will pay the least. Those who have the most must pay first, and those with the least will pay last.

Kill not those who surrender to you. Do not force them to fight for you against their kindred, tribe, or nation. Tend to the wounded regardless for whom they fight, just as you would want them to do for you if you were wounded. Healers, their patients, and their places of healing are holy unto the god of healing and cannot be attacked. Enslaving captive warriors and conquered peoples is forbidden. Return your captives when your wars are done.

The little people are loved by the keeper of the hearth. Your enslavement of the little people is bird droppings on her head. Roc eagles are loved by the war god. Your enslavement of them is bird droppings on the Great Owl's head. Griffins are loved by the storm god. Hunting, slaying, and eating griffins are bird droppings on his head. You will free the little people and the flying mounts. You must respect them as members of the tribes. As the two-footed race gifted by the gods with magic, it is your geas to protect them, employ them, and pay them fairly for the labor they sell you.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

The totems for the little people of the greater and lesser tribes will be the clever raccoon, the mole of the tilled field, the building beaver, and the fishing otter.

The Great Owl has never told you that she values the greater and lesser tribes before all others, nor has she told you that only the two-footed race of magic users is blessed. Know now that the gods value the six races equally. You only need to read the runes to know my words are true.

You have mistaken power for goodness and strength for righteousness. The gods do not value power if it is not used contrary to their will, nor do they value strength if it is used to oppress the weak. The gods value all lives equally. To teach you this lesson, the gods have sent a godspeaker who is a small, weak, little person with no magic from the weakest race. Yet, the god of laws showed you yesterday how much the gods value the little people. Forget this lesson at your peril, for the god of laws is also the god of wrath and punishment.

The ways of the greater and lesser tribes have displeased the gods. The Great Owl has given you many omens of disapproval, and you, in your arrogance, have dismissed those divine messages. You have dared to use your own words in place of the will of the eleven. You have mistaken strength for righteousness and lost the ways of kindness to the weak and humility before the gods. The first must take the place of the last, and the last must stand with the first.

Every tribe must send a shaman in a cape of shells to the Crystal Shrine of the Sky God. The one who speaks for the Sky God will teach the shamans of shells what the gods expect of you, for you have strayed and must be taught.

The godspeaker will relight the hearth fire today, but know this doom: if you, the children of the Great Owl do not mend your wrongdoings, the keeper of the hearth will return and will take your fire from you, disperse the tribes, break your lodges, scatter your herds, dry up your rivers and springs, and empty your lands of game.