[Enginseer-42]

Foreword

I've finally decided to get off my proverbial butt and post the details of the impromptu lore I made up for Urist and his dwarfy people last time-skip. Enjoy and have fun with it.




The Onolartum

The hidden folk of the Tarian Mountains.

Overview

The Onolartum are a tribal remnant of the original pre-Astyan arrival culture of Esshar. While spiritual pacts and pagan superstition were common in the time before the Kingdom and the church of Celestialism united into one ruling authority, these practices became associated with witchcraft in the early days of the Churches reign, and their practitioners were persecuted, with the precursors to the modern Onolartum being driven deep into the Tarian mountains where they effectively dissapeared from Essharan politics for centuries.

Rather than meeting their end however, these precursors to the Onolartum dug deep into the depths of the mountains, founding hidden enclaves in deep tunnels and caverns all the while growing clannish, insular, and secretive. In the modern day contact with the Onolartum is as rare as the hidden folk are themselves. The Onolartum do not as a rule concern themselves with anything outside their stony redoubts, both content to leave their neighbors in peace and possessed of a deep cultural distaste for the so called 'lowlands'.

While not easy to rile to violence, the hidden folk are not forgiving by nature and will frequently record accounts of any slights, real or perceived, for posterity. Rights and wrongs legered with a bizarre mixture of a clerks dispassionate recordkeeping and the burning hate of a lifelong feud. Stubborn to the point of fault, the Onolartum are difficult to dissuade from any course they believe to be right. Likewise, this same stubbornness lends them a cultural knack for craftsmanship, the long tedious years of practice to earn the skills of a master are nothing to one of the hidden folk.

Physically they resemble humans of Essharan stock, though with a notable tendency towards short stature, thick and well muscled limbs that give them a disproportionately stocky look, and in men pronounced beardedness. Their eyes are typically either Gray or Brown.

Faith

   The faith of the Onolartum is a theological oddity. Though it is a spiritual religion, much like the Aschean faith, or the Gehennan faith of Tocathianism, it is unique in that it does not embrace any form of cycle of nature. Instead it is based upon their fealty to the spirit beings known as the Onolsedil, the lords of the mountains. This fealty leads the priests of the hidden folk to hold other elements in disdain, as they pursue deliberate imbalance to grow closer to their spiritual masters the Stone-Singers of the Onolartum seek to eliminate the malign or inconvenient influences of the other elements, and other realms and their spirits from their mind and soul.

Whether it is the practice of Oath Stones as a means of binding them to their words and deeds from the windblown freedom of birth, Or the stone-hearted rationality their greatest priests pursue in order to douse the fires of passion in their soul, to the Onolartum to be stone is to be sacred, and the closer to the perfect examples of the mountains they can be, the better.  Likewise, there can be no compromise with evil, no accord reached with corruption, for like the mountain, to crumble once is to be forever broken.

Consequently, no element is held in greater disdain than water. With the Onolartum finding those associated with water deeply suspicious, their prejudice against water mages, Sailors, and Sirenians nearly as deep as their prejudice against Occultists and demons. And anyone who makes a habit of breaking oaths or contracts witnessed by the hidden folk will likely hear themselves described as having 'Watery words'

Burial practices among the Onolartum draw upon a combination of their stony environment, faith, and cultural pre-occupation with craftsmanship. The body of the fallen will be entombed within a stone statue of the departed. The statue sealed with earth magic in most cases to present a single solid piece that is then carefully merged with the bare stone of the mountain, thereby allowing the deceased's soul to travel through the stone to the court of the Onolsedil, where they can join their ancestors once more.

Common Sayings/Prayers

The War Chant

This I made up as a common chant/prayer for success in battle. Particularly if the battle is taking place in the mountains.


Onolsedil, Etas Mes Alnis,

Ïggal Tustzal-Num,

Rem Tustzal-Kashan,

Ôm Tustzal-Arel,

Okab Tustzal-Zagash,

Unâl Tarmid Lish,

Usur Ottan Lish,

Sobr Akith Onolsedil, Nerrid Lish Vesh, Egen Lushôn.

(Or Translated if you don't like dorfish)

Mountain-Gods, Join me in war.

Trap the Wind,

Douse the flame,

Crush the sea,

Break the Darkness,

Blunt the blades of the wicked,

Spoil their plans.

Release your wrath gods of the mountain, grind the wicked to dust, and gift them an end.

Roads of Stone

The phrase 'May you always walk on roads of stone' is a blessing, sort of like 'live long and prosper' in star trek. Conversely the words 'May you never again walk on roads of stone' is frequently used as a curse, for those who break oaths. In particular it's often used addressed to the self as part of the act of raising an oath stone. This has it's origins in the Stone-Singers discomfort for walking soil, as opposed to the good solid stone of a mountain, though paved roads are considered slightly more civilized than dirt roads, it's still not as good as a mountainside.