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of rotten blood and burned flesh makes Angarak temples stink like
charnel houses. They are avoided by the people.
They are large buildings of black stone and totally deserted
except during the ceremonies.
RANK
The High Priest (Pope) is the Vicar of Torak. He is a dark sorcerer
on a par with Belgarath, Zedar and the others, and is also immortal.
His name is Ctuchik. He was selected by Torak after the Orb
burned him. Taken as his servant and his pupil. Knows the secret of
the Will and the Word, but uses more mumbo-jumbo. Calls up
demons and monsters to do his bidding. Has found ways to circumvent
the restriction on the power of the Word. (He can destroy by
creating fire in the body of the victim or creating a spear in his chest,
etc.
* This was greatly modified in the writing.
The Chosen Ones: The 12 (cardinals) are also sorcerers, though not as
powerful. They can alter themselves. A good trick is to expand:
move their molecules apart until they're ten times larger. They live
for about 1000 years.
The Grolims all dabble in some degree of sorcery. Most are limited to
simple tricks but some of the higher ranks have fearful powers.
The Grolims have gained control of many of the monsters
though not all. Use monsters as required.
The Grolims are Torak's Gestapo, agents, police, servants, etc. Use
as required.
PHYSICAL
The Grolim tribe is tall, lean, swarthy with piercing eyes. Voices
behind the masks are hollow, chilling.
Rank is probably indicated by tattoos in some inconspicuous
place - no rank on the robes.
POPULATION
All told, there are probably 3-4 million Grolims, widely scattered.
Excerpted from the prose epic, The Latter Days of the House of Mimbre
By the Arendish bard, Davoul the Lame*
* This section is pastiche romance, intended to establish Arendish psychology.
NOTEWhile some aspects of this work are obviously ludicrous, and the
author has taken a great deal of poetic license with facts, the piece has a
certain rude charm. The spells, enchantments, sorcery and other
magical clap-trap, are minimal when compared to other works in which
everyone is a sorcerer, and the gods themselves strode the battlefield.
All Imperial diplomats, emissaries, ambassadors, trade negotiators and
such functionaries assigned to the court at Vo Mimbre should be
thoroughly familiar with this work - and most particularly with the portion
excerpted here - before undertaking any official mission to Arendia.
Further, it is considered mannerly and a sign of good breeding to
sprinkle one's speech with quotations from this epic. The Arends are
convinced that this rather pedestrian work is the world's greatest
titerary masterpiece, and there is even a cult among the nobility which