The Axe and the Sealed Jar: the Babeester Gor Cult

Once, the earth was dying. The god of hatred, fire spilling from his third eye, raised his club for the final blow on Ernalda, the earth's queen. The club he carried was the weapon called Death, which had already taken so many gods, and would now take another. And then soon, the universe. The god of hatred, if he thought of such things, minded it not. He hated the universe as much as he did anything else.

The club did not fall. A woman sprung from Ernalda's dying body, and her hand closed on Zorak Zoran's wrist and broke it. Death fell from his hand as he howled, and the woman picked it up. The club shifted and writhed like a snake, and then it was an axe. Long-hafted, with a blade of black iron. She moved as if to raise it, and Zorak Zoran fled. He hated dying even more than anything.

The woman then turned to her mother, lying broken, and prepared to weep. No tears came. Her mother slept. She was not dead. The woman called out, and summoned those attendants of Ernalda who remained, cowering from the fury of Zorak Zoran, lying under the broken remains of Ernalda's Great Hall. They lifted Ernalda, and carried her to a place where she might sleep in safety. The woman guarded her mother as they proceeded, and then when Nontraya the Taker marched up and demanded Ernalda, she alone laughed at him.

"Who are you, that mocks me so?" Nontraya demanded, the ghouls and skeletons and zombies of his army mouthing his words in unison.

"I am Babeester Gor," she said. "I am the Axe. I am the Death of the Earth, and as you can see, my mother has been taken by me. I go to bury her. You shall have nothing of her, hungry one!"

Nontraya lifted Ernalda's shroud, stared underneath, then roared and howled and screamed and pounded the ground and grabbed the nearest vampire and squeezed them until they burst in a shower of blood. The attendants shuddered and took cover. Babeester Gor leaned on her axe and waited until it was over, then deliberately leaned over and spat. Nontraya slunk away in defeat, but he never forgot Babeester Gor.

Babeester Gor did not cry, even as they sealed Ernalda away for sleep. She would stand guard till the end, she thought, and then she looked upon the world, and saw that there were many things which could foil even the most foolproof system of watches and defenses. There was only one way to guard her mother. She made more axes then, these of copper and bronze, and handed them to those women who had not shed tears at Ernalda's funeral either. "Stay here," she said, and they understood.

Then she went out into the world. There was a lot of Death to bring.

Babeester Gor is the Earth's Avenger and the Earth's Guardian. Every Earth priestess and every Earth temple must have an Axe Maiden to guard them, just as they guarded Ernalda during her slumber, just as they avenged her against those who had despoiled her. In practice, the cult is only extant in Orlanthi regions. In Peloria and Kralorela, the Gorgorma cult performs similar vengeful roles and the guardian role is largely absent. In Malkioni regions, Earth temples are rare to begin with and having a silent killer stalking about the premises would make them nearly intolerable for devout Hrestoli, let alone Rokari. In places where people do not till the earth, it is rare to find Babeester the Axe.

Nevertheless, in those regions where it exists at all, the cult is endemic. Members spread far and wide. In Esrolia and Wenelia, which might be said to be the "centers" of the cult (with the holy sites of Axe Hall and Babston serving as centers of pilgrimage), entire battalions of axe-wielding women may be assembled for times of war. But even as far away as Jonatela and Umathela, the silent Axe Sister still treads the halls of the Earth's temples.

Axe Maidens are berserkers. That is, they enter a trance state of divine guidance on occasion, especially when in the heat of battle or when they need to avenge some despoiling of the Earth. Within this trance state, they are capable of incredible feats of violence and endurance and are very hard to kill. Not that they are typically much easier to kill when in a normal frame of mind.

Within everyday clan or House life, the Axe Maiden exists in the same mode of semi-outlawry as the "unsheathed" Humakti, the Uroxi, or several rarer cults. That is, they are outside the normal operations of the law- if they commit crimes, such as murders, they are legally outside of any clan bloodline and so cannot be punished except personally. It is also accepted that the Axe Maiden is sometimes driven to murder for reasons that cannot be understood except by the Axe Maidens and their goddess, and so it takes quite an act of criminality for any punishment to fall on the Axe Maiden herself.

While technically outside the law in other senses, in that in theory you could kill an Axe Maiden at any time, in practice this would bring retaliation from the Earth temple and you'd be risking your own death to do so.

Once, the earth was green. The people knew the Flax Dance and the Goose Dance and they were happy. Ernalda would lead them in the dances, and it seemed that every day she was introducing a new sister or cousin or daughter or niece to them. The sun would come down and dance sometimes, not yet adorned with ornaments of gold, and sometimes the sea would come up and dance, and every so often shadows crept in from the outskirts and they, too, would dance.

But then one day the people discovered that something was stalking among them. It wasn't from Ernalda, it wasn't from the sky or the sea or the dark. It was nameless and faceless, at first, and then eventually they gave it a name. The name was Hunger. Hunger stole something from everyone, something they had no idea they had, but something which they knew they needed to live when they had lost it.

The people wept and begged Ernalda for help. Ernalda was not there, though, and the people sat down and tried to think of what to do. Finally, the Grain Sisters stepped forward. "You have sacrificed to us often enough," they said. "Let us give back to you in turn."

But the people had no idea what to do with this gift. They yanked the plants up roots and all, they chewed on their leaves and stalks, and they tried to end their hunger by stuffing the plants up their noses. Finally, a woman strode forward into the middle of the people. 

"Stop, stop, stop," she said, and banged on the ground with the staff she was carrying. "I will show you how to fight Hunger."

"Who are you?" the people wanted to know. "I am Babeester. Ernalda sent me," she said, and made certain secret signs that the people recognized. 

She showed them how to harvest, then. Knives and sickles and scythes and axes, cutting stems and stalks but leaving roots, separating out the parts which were good to eat and the parts which were good for other purposes and those which only the earth needed. And she taught them the songs and the dances they needed to know for this. 

And for a while they were not hungry. But then eventually Hunger struck them again, and when they went to where they had left the food they hadn't been able to eat, they found it was fouled and inedible. They returned to Babeester and she said, "Hunger brought a friend named Rot with him this time. I will show you how to foil his plots."

She taught them the Song of Freshness, to sing when the people were harvesting, to separate the good food from the food about to be less good. She showed them that some food must be preserved, and taught them how to pickle with the sea and smoke with the air and freeze with the night and dry with the sun.  She taught them the Wax Dance, and used the wax they gathered with it from the bees to seal the food in Pella's pots and jars and amphorae. And whenever they needed food and fresh wasn't handy, they opened a pot and ate. 

Hunger had one more trick up his sleeve, however. He moved among the people and whispered in their ear, and they began to take more than they needed from the Plant Goddesses. So the Plant Goddesses came to Babeester and said, "If this continues, we shall all be plucked completely!"

Babeester went to the people and said, "From now on you must only harvest on the days when I say you may, and when I give you commands on harvest days, you must listen."

"But some of us will go hungry!" the people cried. 

"If the Plant Sisters wither, some will become all," Babeester said. 

"What if you give us bad orders?" the people asked, but quieter, as if only a few were talking. 

"Then tell Ernalda about it," Babeester said, with a smile.

"You can't tell me I've had enough," yelled one man, who stood apart from the rest of the people. 

"There you are, Hunger," Babeester said, and showed that her staff was an axe, too, and hit Hunger when he tried to run away, and then again to keep him from flailing. She dragged him to the Plant Sisters and before the Animal Mothers, and they cursed him, and the sun and the sea cursed him too. 

So it is the case today that Hunger's followers and children cannot eat good food or stand light and fire or swim across flowing water, and must live off of human flesh and blood. And it is the case today that we plant and harvest and eat.

Death is Separation. When you pull a plant from the Earth, you are killing it. When you cut the plant up into the fruit and the stem and the leaves and the roots, taking the parts that you need, you are separating it. Babeester Gor is Death and Earth together. She reigns over the moment when the plant has died and yet is no longer food. She is Ernalda's harvester and gardener, who goes forth to reap weeds and good plants alike as needed.

Whenever there is an Axe Maiden in a clan, and it is harvest time, it is the traditional responsibility of the Axe Maiden to serve as the overseer of the harvest, directing additional labor to whatever steads need it, going forth among the fields to bless the tools in advance, and directly overseeing the preservation of harvested food. Some delegate this responsibility to the priestess they are serving, as someone who may well know better. Others will take an active hand.

In addition, large-scale food preservation efforts in Orlanthi lands, such as the production of preserved foods for export or travel rations, will always have Axe Maidens serving as inspectors and overseers. Traditionally, foods produced under such an inspection regimen will have a wax seal with the impression of an axe added to signify that the quality has been checked. This tradition is of course rarer in the Modern Age, as urbanization has declined, but the magic used in previous ages means that entirely edible food may sometimes be found beneath an unbroken axe seal.

Once, the earth was washed by the sea, warmed by the sky, caressed by the wind, and cooled by the dark.

There was a wedding happening. There were many weddings, in those days. Ernalda married Orlanth and that kicked off the whole thing. Elmal married Reydalda, and then Esrola married Elmal, and then Heler married them both. Vingkot married two wives, one bright and one dark, one warm and one cold. It was a wedding season. And whenever she felt like it, Ernalda would marry Orlanth again.

Weddings meant quite a lot, but among the most important things was making the Eight Known Drinks. No one could have a wedding without all eight. Eurmal had tried having one with only seven and he had had to be driven out of the tribe again. Vadrus had then been inspired, and had weddings with only five or sometimes six, and so those of his children he married off in that fashion had monsters for children of their own.

Minlister was the brewer of the Storm Tribe. No one was quite sure where he'd come from originally. Some said he was from the Dark. Some said he was a child of Elmal and Esrola. Some said he was made by Ernalda. Everyone wanted him as their friend, and many were the enemies of the Storm Tribe who sought to steal him away. As Humakt said one day, sharpening his sword, there truly was never a dull moment.

Today, though, Minlister was a bit drowsy as he brewed the Eight Known Drinks. His wonderful cauldron could brew anything with just water and Minlister's special touch, but, alas, he didn't bother to change out the amphorae as he made his batches. So when he was done, the wine was mixed with the wheat ale, the mead with the barley beer, the rice wine with the cider, and everything was plain and simply a mess. It is at this moment that Babeester came into the brewery.

Babeester was not overly fond of weddings, for she found them totally uninteresting in and of themselves and she was usually standing guard during them. But she was always appreciative of a good drink, and so she never complained about weddings. But she spent the preparations as well out of the way as possible. So she wandered in, looking simply to look and breathe in the lovely smell of drink brewing and breathing and aging. But as she went to the first amphora and inhaled, her nose wrinkled.

"Ah," she said, looking up to see where Minlister had been gnawing on his cauldron in a fury, "That's what's going on."

"I'll have to brew them all fresh!" Minlister cried, not really paying attention to her.

"Perhaps I can help," Babeester said.

"You?" Minlister asked, noticing her for the first time.

"I swear," Babeester said, "on the Styx that I will need none of your pottery and will do what I can entirely without your aid."

Minlister shrugged. "Okay," he said. And he went to brew more batches, because he was unsure.

Babeester went and gathered some of her aunt's experiments with pottery, and then went and gathered odd bits of glasswork, and finally set to work. She poured in the mixed and muddled drinks, and swirled them about, and finally saw what was what within each, and then poured each into their own bowls. And then she threw out what was left. And in this way, she separated each, the essence of each of the Eight poured into its own container.

But when she was finished, she realized that what she had made was something new. There was far too little of the drinks to fill more than a single amphora, if that. She tasted one, the essence of rye beer, and ran shouting for Minlister.

The two of them tasted them all, and realized that they were good and strong, far too much so for anyone to drink like they would mead or wine. So they sealed them up, and only shared them out a little bit at a time, and diluted them strongly whenever they did. 

But Babeester continued to work with them, and discovered many secret drinks that she shared with no one, not even Minlister, which she used in her sacred work from that point on. 

The Babeester Gor cult preserves many secrets, many of which are entirely tedious and of no interest to anyone who is not part of the cult. However, one particular secret that they know is that of distillation. With the appropriate pottery, metal flasks, and/or glassware, any Axe Maiden can distill liquors. Generally, these are not available except in cities or in particularly wealthy temples, and the batches produced are small.

Liquors produced are fairly well divided between brandies, whiskies, cordials, and shochu/soju, though the last is relatively rare, as the Babeester Gor cult is almost absent in the rice-growing regions of Glorantha. These spirits are normally stored within the Earth temple itself and shared out for momentous occasions. Within the temple, they are more commonly used for temple orgies, high holy days, and to celebrate new priestesses.

In addition, the cult possesses the recipes necessary to distill special liquors with names like Fireball, Mad Dog, and Master Hunter. These potent drinks may be used to induce or enhance a berserk fury when drunk, and it is said that for an experienced Axe Sister even looking at a little flask of Master Hunter is enough to induce such a fury. It is said that these bear the same relationship to regular liquors as Widebrew does to beers and ales.

Once, the earth was, and a woman washed the blood from her hands and scraped the soil from her body, hid the bones back underneath her skin, set her axe down, and rested. She would be needed again, but for now, she would rest.