Table
of Contents:
1). A Guide to Gor’Togs
– By Cervanntes
________________________________________________
A
Guide to Gor’Togs – By Cervanntes
Gor'Togs:
Platinum Gor'togs are
a very special race. Thanks to the influence of Togmun,
they have taken on a character and life uniquely their own. While Togmun himself has recently left us, his legacy lives on,
as does memory of his amazing Togs. Rather than
try to describe them myself, I'll quote the Master of Plat Togs himself.
For more information on the Togs, see Tog History Timeline and the Sent-Tog Program
There's no question that togs in their natural state are much more
violent than sent-togs, who are sort of dwarven-trained
diplomats for the Gor'tog race sent to remind the
other races that togs exist, and so that the dwarves can escape
accusations of maintaining the togs as a private army for use against
the other races (not that the dwarves would be above that, though). The togs
were occasionally used as a cats' paw in dwarven intraclan feuding, but the dwarves got scared of what this
populous and fast-proliferating race might be capable of, and declared use of
tog auxiliaries off limits in the settling of dwarf vs. dwarf disputes. And
they established the sent-tog system to ensure that there would always be some
togs properly trained to interact with other races, and especially with
dwarves.
I think of sent-togs as trained Rottweilers,
only bigger. And normal togs are just wolves who can't agree on anything, who
fortunately live in a land where there is little to argue over, and no
difficulty in sustaining life. The dwarves had to give them something to do
(they're moving a mountain range, block by block, for no real reason), and they
have ritualized violence (togball) to settle who the
Alpha males are. When they have something to argue about, it isn't pretty,
though: Rurik and Witold
had a couple of brothers killed in fights that began with the taunt 'you-tog is
with brother is not tog is talk all furry'. Which is
why Rurik's family eventually had to agree, tell him
he isn't a tog, and send him off for togball umpire
training (togball umpires, remember, are in charge of
making sure no one has too much fun, a necessary evil like a wet-blanket
chaperone at a party). Witold still gets in
fights over Rurik whenever he goes home, so he gets
sent back to the Crossing frequently when he's won them too easily due to all
that neat barb training ;) Witold would have killed Seetog rather early on in that argument, by the way: all
the togs know that Rurik isn't a tog, but Witold doesn't let people say it, at least not togs. Smart
sent-togs would have warned you to shut up lest Witold
overhear you, but you were talking to Vysochajshchee,
who's not the brighest apple in the peck. He also doesn't
get to work off his adrenaline too well with the rather non-competitive trading
systems now in place. Imagine Seetog as a grumpy wolf
intruding on the space of a trained guard dog, and refusing to wear his collar
(or, in the case of Seetog, pants) in an area where
the dog knows you're supposed to.
________________________________________________
1. 873 BL - 866
BL Grasana the Builder
871 BL Gragna
begins building roads to connect Imperial cities
868 BL Massive effort goes
underway to complete Throne City
1) 'Gragna
rock' - literally a reference to any of the various building stones used in the
building of Throne City, figuratively anything immutable, unassailable, or
enduring. Toggish use would be equivalent to 'just
deal with it', 'dammit', or 'tanjit'.
Fans of Norse mythology (where 'Ragnarok' was the
battle at the end of the world) will look forward to using this oath at the
approach of a horde of, perhaps, S'lai heavy cavalry
in the sense of 'we are sooooo screwed'.
2. 832 BL - 825 BL Govutku
832 BL --Riini
(Halfling Emperor) is assassinated
--Reign of Govutku, a GorTog, begins
--Emperor Govutku begins battling the western invaders.
830 BL M'Riss
is conquered by the Seven Star Empire
829 BL The
stalemate is broken in the Battle of Straskeg. The
Seven Star Empire begins reexpanding
2) Govutku
at Straskeg - the second Tog emperor won a great
victory over the 'western invaders' (Prydaens and Rakash, or what?) at Straskeg in
829 B.L., allowing the Empire to resume expanding. References to this by modern
togs will be mostly ironic, such as 'so you killed a goblin, doesn't make you Govutku at Straskeg'.
3. 789 BL - 786 BL Rublam the Bold
788 BL Rublam
attempts to further expand the Seven Star Empire
westward, sparking new
fights with the savages
786 BL --Rublam
dies in battle
--Reign of Micholo, a SKra Mur, begins
3) Rublam's
helm - the third Tog emperor, Rublam the Bold, was
killed in battle in 786 B.L. (the only Tog emperor to die in office, by the
way, perhaps we should preen a bit over toggish
reliability, all the frail races' emperors needed replacing more frequently).
According to an ancient rumor that I just made up and which all togs believe,
he was killed by a single sling stone to the forehead when he had omitted to
wear his helmet. This could be the basis for cries of 'Rublam-helm!'
when one sees a tog doing something really dumb, and for a traditional slap to
one's headgear before going into battle, to ensure that it is firmly attached.
4. 749 BL - 742 BL Ochanka the Wise
4) Ochanka
- if all we know of Ochanka is that his sobriquet was
'the Wise', we can go with that. Use his name as an expression of despair, in
the sense of 'I'm stumped, it'd take Ochanka to figure this out'.
5. 701 BL - 693 BL Vithwok the Old
6. 656 BL - 649 BL Bundrim
655 BL Adamantia
falls completely, except for HighHold. Diplomatic
envoys are dispatched.
654 BL HighHold
is placed under siege
7. 607 BL
- 600 BL Nishnak
8. 561 BL - 554 BL Ulthere
9. 512 BL - 505 BL Gragna
II
10. 465 BL - 458 BL Vithwok
II
11. 416 BL - 409 BL Vithwok III the Happy
(from the Albarian timeline:
415 Emperor Vithwok of Kermoria leads an
assault to retake Darkstone;
the Gorbesh
are victorious
411 --Gnomic prophets decree
that the Bloodworm Comet will soon fill
the skies again
--Admiral Xireshi is ordered to return to Albaria
will all haste,
withdrawing from Darkstone)
414 BL After determining
that a massive celebration must be held to
honor the 500th year, Vithwok starts making preparations.
410 BL The entire year is
proclaimed a festival year as a prelude to
the 500th. Singers, poets,
storytellers, dancers, and other
entertainers come to
5) Vithwok's
Party - Vithwok, actually the third Tog emperor of
that name, held a year-long celebration in honor of the 500th anniversary of
the founding of the Seven Star Empire. Reference to this celebration could be
openly used for any good-time-was-had-by-all, with an off-color alternate
meaning analogous to 'wanna come see some etchings?',
or as the mating call of the green prostitute, instead of just 'me love you
long time'.
12. 369 BL - 362 BL Olga
13. 323 BL
- 316 BL Vridash
14. 279 BL - 274 BL Grudish
15. 246 BL - 243 BL Vithwok IV
246 BL --Fearing to select
anyone else, the Gor'Tog Delegation sends
a young boy to the throne
--Reign of Vithwok IV, known as Vithwok the
Young, begins. A
Regent, Selyan,
is appointed.
243 BL Vithwok
IV is deposed by his Regent
240 BL Lacking funds to
maintain the city and hearing rumors of
approaching armies, Throne
City is abandoned by all save
Regent Selyan
6) Vithwok
in his dotage - the fourth Tog emperor named Vithwok
was the last emperor of the Seven Star Empire. His death isn't in the timeline.
Crowned very young, say six or eight, he could well have still been alive, in
his late sixties, when Therenborough was captured by
the Dragon Priests and P5, the toggish/dwarven
Homeland, became the last holdout not under their control (he might have
literally been YOUNGER than Uthmor!). Here's rich
soil for all sorts of lies and speculation about his deeds in organizing the
resistance, cementing the alliance with the dwarves which resulted in us togs
getting a grand total of one mention, as 'some Gor'tog
scouts', if I remember right, in the dwarves' ultimately successful war against
the DPs. Ah, the things Vithwok
must have lived through. Any suggestions? Anyone see
'The Last Emperor'?
7) Vithwok's
ducks - (From 'The Empire of the Seven-Pointed Star' by Palantiri:
The last known Emperor, a Gor'Tog not yet of adult
years, is said by legend to have once been asked by his regent what he would
really rather do than be Emperor. The child replied he
would prefer to be outside playing with his pet ducks. He was dismissed to do
so and the Regent assumed the title of King..but of a powerless and toothless corpse.) Thus, 'go
play with Vithwok's ducks' is equivalent to 'you-tog
is not-hard-worky-tog'.
237 BL --Lanival
gains the support of a S'Kra
Mur tribe, greatly increasing his strength --> Uthmor (the Giant) is rescued and begins his training under
Benjor
234 BL --Teiro
suffers a defeat in the
________________________________________________
Here's what you should know about established Dwarf-Gor'tog RP in Plat: most Dwarves and Gor'togs
come from the Homeland, a mountainous region which is in P5 and therefore not
presently accessible to us. Gor'togs were borderline
sentient when Dwarves welcomed them into Dwarven
lands during the Long Winter. (There is no conflict over Lebensraum, as Gor'togs prefer hunting and
gathering, and only tunnel when someone asks them to, pats 'em
on the head and says 'good tog!') Gor'togs are
omnivores and can live forever off eating dirt if need be, so they lived in the
state of nature Rousseau attributed to Amazonian natives: naked and idle in
family groups; any taint of civilization and higher brain functions they owe to
outside stimuli (meaning dwarves, in the Homeland at least). Gor'togs are prolific breeders and
the average litter is five togglers. Gor'togs are very susceptible to
suggestion, indefatigable in trying to please (think canine brains), and large
and sturdy... Can you say 'perfect soldier'? *evil grin*
Less scrupulous dwarven clans soon began
various experiments in the use of Gor'tog auxiliary
troops in the settling of interclan disputes.
The results were
about what sensible Frenchmen should have thought during the French and Indian
war in
Then came the Empire, and (probably with dwarven
sponsorship) the Gor'togs were recognized as a
sentient race. This was very confusing for Gor'togs,
as they know they just aren't as smart as furries,
but so long as someone is around to tell them how to be intelligent (and,
again, pat them on the head and say 'good tog!') they're willing to give it a
go. It was about this time that some inspired dwarf (probably one who had a
nagging wife of his own) came up with the idea of enlisting the aid of the Gor'tog females in giving some direction to the work of
their mates, and 'bossy-togess' became a sobriquet of
praise second only to 'good tog!' Many of the Gor'tog
clans, especially in the Dwarven Second and Third
Districts (fairly far north) began moving a mountain range about five miles
east, block by block, upon the casual suggestion of a dwarven
mining supervisor who thought the good ores were mostly on the bottom of the
range, it might help a little if the Gor'togs would
turn it upside down. (Gor'togs in these areas
therefore call their villages 'piles' as they encamp
at the foot of piles of blocks they're transporting in stages across the plain
to the new mountain site).
By the time the Empire began its decline, Gor'togs
were getting used to the idea of having the same rights but not the same
intelligence as their dwarven neighbors, and weren't handling
it well. Disputes which amounted to 'You togs don't HAVE to move THIS mountain,
we've already tunneled to the good bits and besides, we LIVE here!' had to be
settled with stern words: 'you-silly-tog is people but if is
SMART people is should go move that-mountain instead!' When the Empire
collapsed and the Gor'togs found themselves with no
external confirmation of their sentience, the situation went to hell in a handbasket. Now it didn't take a whole clan of dwarves to
raise a regiment of Gor'togs, but just one
ne'er-do-well of any furry race could walk into any Gor'tog
pile proclaiming 'I am Lanival, and I've come to
restore the Empire' and set off a crusade. The dwarven
clans were quickly roused from their post-Imperial isolationism and formed the
new Dwarven High Council principally in order to set
new rules for Gor'tog Policy. The rules got
increasingly complex: 'you have to get a dwarf to say that someone is Lanival before you believe it' became 'you have to get an
OLD dwarf WITH his assembled family IN his OWN mine's meeting hall to say that
someone is Lanival before you believe it' and later
'you have to get THREE old dwarves WITH large entourages AND no knives at their
throats IN a meeting hall to say that someone is Lanival
before you believe it and NO, you can't run up and yank up the beard of the Dwarven High Councillor to see if
there's a knife at his throat' (this latter after a very sad incident with some
bodyguards who just didn't understand Gor'togs).
Eventually, the Dwarven High Council
decided they'd just have to find a way to teach at least some Gor'togs how to live sensibly with furries,
respectable Gor'togs with some experience in the
world who could at least filter some of the wild rumors and plans, and keep
every little argument from ending up in their laps. Thus they instituted the Gor'tog Ambassador ('sent-tog') Program, a cooperative
effort of all the dwarven clans, supervision of which
is still a primary duty of the Dwarven Embassies and
Missions in various parts of Elanthia. The Program
consists of a long apprenticeship and formal training regimen encompassing all
a Gor'tog's adolescence, dispatch to a populated area
outside the Homeland, monitoring and advice throughout the sent-tog's career,
and eventual return to the Homeland once the sent-tog is about as sensible as
they figure he's gonna get. It is expected (but not
required) that the sent-tog will join a guild and get some training that will
be of eventual use in a Gor'tog militia if such is
ever required again (the Dwarves are still preparing for the last war, i.e.,
the one against the Dragon Priests, when the dwarves were caught flat-footed
after Theren fell and didn't manage to train the Gor'togs from scratch, in a hurry, as well as they could
have). The watchwords of the sent-tog program are 'tog is people' (meaning 'be
sensible, you silly tog') and 'tog is ready' (meaning, to the dwarves, 'yes,
this-tog is working hard' and to the Gor'togs 'yes,
this-tog is ready for fight for new Empire and go in Homeland and get lots moretog for fight too!'). Maybe the dwarves believe Lanival really will want an army of togs to help found a
new Empire, who knows, the Gor'togs need something to
do anyway, might as well be girding themselves for a fight that may never come.
The formal educational part of the sent-tog's preparation is
divided into three branches: the Common language, Politeness, and Ethics. Most
of the Politeness branch is about how to behave towards others, principally furries, and most of the Ethics branch concerns how a Gor'tog is to value himself, his work, his motivations...
Fundamental to all Ethics training is the lesson that a Gor'tog
is valuable to himself, his pile, the Dwarven High
Council, the Dwarven Mission, Lanival,
etc. This is the reason that the 'Ethics' branch of his training is often
called the 'Toothbrushing' branch. Due to their diet,
Gor'togs are prone to bad
teeth, and so basic self-maintenance is drilled into the sent-togs from day
one. Poor dental hygiene is the principal cause of premature aging and early
death in Gor'togs, so it is the first thing the Dwarven Missions check for when monitoring sent-togs, and
'poor dental hygiene' ranks right next to 'idleness' as the harshest notation a
Dwarven Ambass!
ador can enter in a sent-tog's file. Many sent-togs show their
toothbrushes to ANY dwarf they see; all of them are required to show it to any
dwarf who asks (just on the off chance that the dwarf might be properly
accredited to the local
The Dwarven Mission to the Crossings is
currently headed by Osvald Holdgraben,
scion of a fairly minor clan. He is very junior in the dwarven
foreign service, on his first assignment. He hasn't managed to arrange for a
dentist's visit in over two (Elanthian) years'
trying, so the local sent-togs haven't been examined by a professional (their
teeth, that is, they all passed the 'hard-workiness'
portion of the examinations Osvald held, though Demenya and especially Terp got
stern pep-talks to go with what they hear from their guild leaders) in at least
that long. He's also one of my characters, if anyone would like to revitalize
the local Dwarven Mission, I'll gladly step aside ;)
If you are certified in the treatment of Gor'togs
(or even if you aren't, any professional dentist is a big step up from what Osvald has managed to attract so far) just let it be known,
he'll find you and he has the authority to tax turnips from the sent-togs or
even deputize you to do so, and they won't even notice that the turnips you
give them after treatments today are the same turnips you got from them
yesterday.
________________________________________________
This guide is a creation of mine, as an extension of my
interest in the sent tog program, and the interaction of sent togs with other
people in the town of
In general, Togs understand a lot more words than they
actually use, meaning, they have a much larger passive vocabulary than active
vocabulary. This is due to laziness, and
when they get exasperated, they can spit out quite specific words, although
they'll usually just be babbling along and letting people guess from
context. The same goes for their
grammar. When they want to be didactic, they sort of can.
General word use:
Compound words are frequently broken into two, which tends
to give the togs their characteristic slow and lumbering speech. “Be come”,
“all so”, “be cause”.
Words ending in TH are frequently mangled to end in FTH
instead, like toofth and toofths
instead of tooth and teeth.
Many already simple words are further simplified, like “Ony” instead of only, “unnerstand”
instead of understand. Not every tog
slips on the same words, I suspect it is a personal sort of laziness in
individual speech.
Togs are capable of learning phrases and sentences
precisely, provided they practice long enough and have a dedicated
teacher. Rules are often quoted
verbatim, such as “Tog is should beed wifth Pants On. Is Rule.”
Togs tend to use oddball conjugations of “To be”, with an
additional “Is” thrown in. Examples
include “Is was” “Is can be” “Is should be”.
Some verbs have irregular conjugations. For instance “beed”
for be, “goed” for go, “wented”
for went, “seed”
for see or saw.
Personal names of Togs:
Many togs don’t know their own names, although some do. Those who do not remember or use their
personal name go by a guild or personal descriptor. IE Bear tog, Fixer tog, Holy tog.
Also, the -tog/-togette/-togess
suffix is an honorific. A tog takes it
as somewhat impolite to be referred to by just his name. So a tog would refer to Fixer-tog, or Mallie-togette, or “Is you-tog is knowed
where is shiny furry?”
Likewise, togs would use Furry as an honorific for
non-togs. Song-furry, Tin-scaley-furry, “Is you-furry is with turnip?”
The Toggish Habit of Naming other people:
Togs aren’t generally great at remembering strange “furry”
names, so they tend to name people according to some notable trait. Siluna, as a Prydaen would default to Kitty-Furry. For those togs that know she’s a bard, it
might be Kitty-Song-Furry.
Ardythius, a human paladin, became
known as “No Pants Tin Furry” after showing up to a costume party in drag, and
no amount of clothing on his lower body will change that name now. Unless of course he does something even more
noticeable, which might displace “No Pants” or the new descriptor might simply
be added.
Names are basically agglutinative for togs. Furry becomes Holy furry, becomes (After a
pillow fight) Holy Pillow Furry. If she
were to catch on fire where a tog saw her she might become “On Fire Holy Pillow
Furry”
Rules of the Sent Tog Program:
The best explanation of the Sent Tog program has already
been written. Serious researchers should
be competent enough to find the book.
((See Togmun’s essay on “Sent
togs” at http://members.tripod.com/cervanntes/DragonRealms/id94.htm ))
On Togs and Turnips:
Turnips are in essence an opiate for togs. They are intoxicating as well as delicious,
and even an otherwise generous tog will likely be greedy about turnips. If they eat several at a time, they are
liable to become a large snoring lump in the middle of the room until they
recover, or are dragged over to a quiet corner to sleep off the effects of the
potent roots. Turnips can be used as
currency with togs, but togs themselves rarely want items enough to trade a
turnip for them.
On Toggish Manners:
If togs lose their tempers and resort to violence, it can be
very bad for the togs, the scenery, and any passing dwarves. Because of this, togs will often hedge things
they say, especially if they might be taken in a negative fashion, leaving room
for contradiction without offence.
If Witold said to Lavrentij 'you-tog is not can make harness goodly?' he
might get attacked. But he can freely
say 'you-tog is lazy probly and usual crazy rite?'
and that still allows a verbal response.
This is not exclusively a sent-tog thing, it is equally necessary for
any tog to get along with other togs in the 'wild'. It is the sort of courtesy they add into
their speech whether they really mean to be nice or not, unless they are TRYING
to intimidate or challenge. The sent-tog
part of it is mostly to teach togs not to overreact when furries
don't know this sort of rule.
In a society where duels can be fought, courtesy becomes
very elaborate so as to avoid those duels.
In a society where someone can go into a berserk rage and tear other peoples limbs off, courtesy is even more necessary.
Sent-togs have been specifically trained to be less likely
to take offence at statements made without the polite hedging. However, if for example Actias
hadn't been properly trained, for instance, it could actually be dangerous to
ask him directly 'can't you see where the corpse is?'
Certainly all the experienced sent-togs would talk first and
fight later even with other experienced sent-togs being very 'impolite' in the toggy sense, because they realize they've all been getting
crazy ideas from furries lately.
When Actias tells Arkadij 'you-tog is dum', Arkadij will ask what-furry is sayed
that and ask 'is good thing for say, sometog is dum?' If Actias says 'you-tog is dum probly for not know is can make furries
breathe now', Arkadij will argue about it and they'll
communicate.
On Toggish Confusion with
Numbers:
Togs frequently have difficulty expressing numbers, for
example a tog might say “Tog is need ony three” (Trathtup holds up two fingers). One common pattern for togs to count to five
is “One, Three, Four, Two, All Hand”.
Togs describe guild affiliations by descriptive terms that
could generally be applied to all members of that guild.
|
Barbarian |
Bear- |
|
Bards |
Song- |
|
Cleric |
Holy- |
|
Empath |
Fixer- |
|
Moon mages |
Moon- |
|
Paladin |
Tin- |
|
Ranger |
Weed - or Weedfinder- |
|
Thief |
Sneaky- (Also to be used on people just sneaking around.) |
|
Trader |
Shiny- |
|
War mages |
Majik- |
Like with guilds, the words they use for the various races
are descriptive, if not exactly flattering.
|
Dwarves |
Dwarf/ dwarfs/ dwarf-furry |
|
Elothians |
Big-head-furries, or simply Furries |
|
Elves |
Pointy-ear-furries |
|
Gnomes |
Tiny-furries |
|
Humans |
Furries |
|
Kaldar |
Big-furries |
|
Olvi |
Small-furries |
|
Prydaen |
Kitty-furries |
|
Rakash |
Doggy-furries |
|
S’Kra |
Scaly-furries |
Togs and Creatures:
Generally the name is some descriptor of a characteristic of
the race or species, plus Mans. As in mouse-mans for rats, yak-mans for a yak,
and so on. Or, in
doubt, “Bad-Mans.” A tog would
not refer to a sentient creature as a “mans”, sentient people are always Furries or Togs.
|
Blood Wolves |
Leaky-doggies |
|
Crocodiles |
Log-mans |
|
Cyclops |
One-eye-mans |
|
Death Spirits |
Dead-mans |
|
Dryads/Nyads |
Cryey-mans |
|
Gargoyles |
Stone-mans |
|
Goblins |
Smelly mans |
|
Grendels |
Pink mans |
|
Guinea Pigs |
Tiny-pig-mans |
|
Hafwa |
Misty mans |
|
Kobolds |
Ugly-mans |
|
Moss Meys |
Kissy-mans |
|
Ogres |
Mean-mans |
|
Rams |
Bumpy mans |
|
Reavers |
Giggle mans |
|
Rock Guardians |
Big-rock-mans |
|
Rock Trolls |
Rock-mans |
|
Scavenger Trolls |
Takey-mans |
|
Skeletons |
Bony-mans |
|
Skunks |
Stripey-mans |
|
Small Peccaries |
Little-Pig-mans |
|
Swamp Trolls |
Soggy-mans |
|
Wood Trolls |
Wood-mans |
On Togs and their view of the Gods:
As with the guilds or creatures, the Toggish
names for the Gods are generally descriptive.
Only a few are listed here, but one should be able to decipher the deity
from the descriptive terms attached to the name.
|
Berengaria |
Cow-god-furry |
|
Chadatru |
Big-sword-god-furry |
|
Eluned |
Soggy-god-furry |
|
Everild |
Yelly-god-furry |
|
Meraud |
Majik-god-furry |
|
Tamsine |
Kitty-god-furry |