Ensiki was the creation of the Fearing Ones. When Kajaboor came, the Fearing Ones gathered together and made rituals from their old ways to summon forth a demon from the Void to deal with the Entropy. Thus was Ensiki brought into the world. He dealt with the Chaos Hordes and made dark promises, which turned out badly for the Fearing Ones in the end, as do all promises that Ensiki forges.
He knew all the chaos gods, and all those who tried to placate them with sacrifice, he could deal with everyone for he knew the language of terror, he knew the language of corruption, he could talk to anyone who had touched chaos, and anyone who had even heard mention of it. Eventually, Ensiki could talk to everyone in the Cosmos. In all myths where chaos joins in any fashion, Ensiki was there. He was the one who persuaded Tien to travel with the Globular Army and devour the fleeing forces of the destroyed World Mountain, he was also the one who kept chaos together in some loose form, not that this is widely recognised.
His acts in Godtime were numerous. He convinced Ragatal the Swirl and the Second Festering Pool to join together and fight the Heaven Masters from the Sky. He had the Souless Meldeks make an alliance with the Souled Meldeks so that they warred no longer. Once he reconciled Ragnaglar and Urox so that they could beat back Kajaboor when he came to eat them. In all cases, though, it worked out badly. Ragatal and the Pool killed each other trying to loot the Heaven Masters' corpses, Ragnaglar kicked Urox when he wasn't looking and snapped his ankle in two, and the Meldeks forever got confused over who had souls and who didn't and were driven into factions and sects that warred and squabbled with one another. In the end all of Ensiki's alliances were tainted with decay and entropy, with the taint of chaos. The only person who ever benefited was Ensiki himself, empowered by every bond made, empowered by veery bond broken.
He ruled a might Empire, and spread his tendrils across the entire Cosmos, wherever Chaos could be found. He lived atop an unholy mountain and ruled from there. But eventually, like all things Ensiki touches, the Empire fell apart. Entar Tenilson, a fragment of Humakt, came to slay him. The battle was long and fierce, as Entar fought to retain his will and not befriend the charismatic chaos beast. As Ensiki's forces came to his aid, Entar managed to capture him and cursed him with iron bonds that trapped him far away in a very hidden place. Entar himself, however, succumbed to Ensiki's darkest pledges and had promised to let himself die. He was torn apart by Ensiki's guards, and was never heard of again.
In the First Age, when Nysalor had his Bright Empire, Ralzakark personally released Ensiki from the very hidden place, and gave him a home in the Gravelled Pit which lies beneath Demon Plateau. He was the Demon of Demon Plateau. Ralzakark and Ensiki made pledges, later renewed upon Ralzakarks return in the Second Age, to oath to defend one another. However, like all alliances made with Ensiki, Ralzakark knows it will eventually sour and turn out badly for everyone involved.
To those who worship Ensiki there is no life after death promised, unless personal agreement is made with the diety himself. Lucky worshippers who live in Dorastor are tossed into the Gravelled Pit itself, but Ensiki has never been known to be particularly keen on this idea.
He is connected with the runes of Chaos and Communication.
Ensiki has no particular connections. He is associated directly only with the Primal Chaos from which he came, but as a deity he knew all chaos gods in the Godtim (and more besides) and his cult has dealings with most other chaos cults. Other communication gods, and gods connected to diplomacy, would shun Ensiki if they knew of him, but Ensiki himself sees everyone as a potential ally. If only for a short time.
There are three cult holy days. The first is Fate Day of Disorder Week in Fire Season. This was the day when Ensiki was brought into the Cosmos. The second day is Dark Day of Death Week in Storm Season when he was slain and cast into the very hidden place. The last day is the very last day of Sacred Time for this was when Ralzakark went to Hell, retrieved Ensiki and made his pledges to him.
Ensiki is rarely worshipped, and not very well known outside of Dorastor and other chaos pits inhabited by powerful and knowledgable followers of chaos. He is sometimes contacted by shamans and priests from elsewhere from time to time, usually in his mask as the Chaos Bonder, the Lord of Chaotic Allegiances. Within Dorastor he is also worshipped as the monstrous Demon of Demon Plateau, and has a small cult following organised by the Mouth of Ensiki (a face of Ralzakark). Only in Dorastor is there any real organised cult, and even then the size of it makes it quite simplistic. Temples are normally transient, although there are some known in and around Krjalki Bog and the Tunnelled Hills, and the Gravelled Pit itself acts as a major temple to Ensiki. Outside of Dorastor, as with most chaos cults, there is little or none official organisation between Ensiki worshippers. Because of his relative obscurity if two worshippers met they'd be hard pressed to figure out that they actually worshipped the same entity.
Shrines teach Tendril.
In Dorastor initiates of the cult must be handpicked by Ralzakark himself, and are then sent to the Mouth of Ensiki to learn the cult ways. Ralzakark initiates those he uses as diplomats, as well as a handful of other individuals that are particularly suited to it. His small unit of Blood Hurlers, who patrol the Plateau, are all worshippers of Ensiki.
Outside of Dorastor one would be lucky to find a cult organised in this fashion, normally they will be spirit cults teaching only the spell of Corrupt Alliances. When worshipped as a spirit cult, use the appropriate rules and not the ones described here which are specific to his organised cult.
All initiates of Ensiki must pass a test in two of fast talk, orate and any chaotic-based ceremony skill. They must then sacrifice 1 POW. All Ensiki initiates must immediately learn Mindspeech 1, and must never intentionally forget it. If they should ever forget it they are immediately inactive initiates until the spell is relearned.
Spirit Magic: Ironhand, Mindspeech.
Passions: Lust Alliances 5, Loyalty Whoever One is Currently Aligned To 5.
Runes: Chaos 3, Communication 3.
A Priest of Ensiki must have four of the following skills at 50%+; Orate, Fast Talk, Ceremony/Ensiki, Chaos Lore, Tendril Attack or Speak Chaospeech. There must also be a need for a priest, which normally is never a problem, but in Fort Wrath it is strictly regimented by Ralzakark (probably not to allow the Demon of Demon Plateau to have too much power and influence).
A Priest of Ensiki has access to no reusable rune magic, no allied spirit and limited divine intervention (usually one point of rune magic for every 3 POW taken). Ensiki priests must dedicate 50% of their time to the cult. In Fort Wrath Priests are also provided with access to the catacombs, access to the Gravelled Pit and in return must give the Mouth of Ensiki their fealty. They must dedicate 90% of their time and 100% of their income to the cult.
Common Rune Magic: Dismiss Magic, Divination, Initiation, Mindlink, Sanctify, Spellteaching, Worship Ensiki.
Special Rune Magic: Command [chaos creature], Corrupt Alliances, Dark Association, Tendril.
Corrupt Alliances
1 point
ritual ceremony, stackable, one-use
This is the source of Ensiki's power. It forges an alliance that is literally impossible to be broken (except via Divine Intervention, but no non-chaotic god would grant such aid to one who willingly engaged in dealings with a worshipper of Ensiki!) between two participants. The nature of the alliance must be determined at the start of the spell and is much the same as an Oath spell in that respect. They must both be willing (but neither needs to know that their alliance will end so badly). The duration of the spell is determined by the amount of points stacked in the spell. One point gives a duration of one hour, two points gives one day, three points one week, four points one season, five points one year, six points is a decade and seven points is one generation. Only on a HeroQuest to Ensiki can more than seven points be used. At the expiration of the duration the spell no longer has any effect, and both parties can now act freely. However, the alliance always turns out badly. Either the participants will turn on each other, or their actions will cause bad results etc... Even death does not protect a victim, and the results of the spell can be passed onto one's community. So if two tribal leaders made a Corrupt Alliance that gave them prosperous wealth for some decades, just because they died won't save their tribes from the hideous results of the spell.
The only way to avoid the effects of a Corrupt Alliance is to personally slay the other participant before the duration ends. Anyone who knows this will most likely make it a stipulation of the Corrupt Alliance that the other participant cannot harm them in any way (thus making such an escape route impossible, and the bad effects of the Corrupt Alliance inevitable).
Dark Association
1 point
ritual ceremony, stackable, one-use
This allows a priest to make use of Ensiki's role as the chaos bonder. The priest can travel to any temple of any other chaos deity (that is any god with the chaos rune) and learn their magic. It requires a priest of the deity in question to participate in the ritual and agree to the exchange (which often requires gifts to be given, but this is not a prerequisite of the spell). The caster can then learn one rune spell from that can be taught at that temple with a maximum pointage equal to the points stacked in the spell. The spell must be reusable, never one-use. The priest can now cast that spell once, at which point all knowledge is lost.
Tendril
1 point
ranged, temporal, stackable, reusable
This spell gives the target additional tendrils, just like Ensiki has. They sprout from the abdomen and so wearing armour on that location could be problematic. The tendrils themselves have a base attack skill of 25%, which can be increased by experience (and presumably research and training if the spell could be extended that long), base damage of 1d8 plus damage bonus and are a base SR 3 natural weapon. They have a short range, equal to the caster's SIZ/3 in metres. They do not give extra attacks, the caster must choose to forfeit one other action that round (either attack, parry or dodge) in order to use the tendrils. If the caster stacks the spell, more tendrils appear. Using an action to attack with tendrils allows the caster to attack with any tendrils they have - so a character with Tendril 4 cast could choose to attack with all four tendrils (not neccessarily all on the same target) and dodge that round.
Spirit of Reprisal
Any who offend the cult are struck by Ensiki's curse. All Corrupt Alliances they currently partake in turn remain in effect, but instantly whatever bad occurence is meant to happen occurs immediately, and is usually more severe than normal. No Ensiki renegade can learn associated magic from chaos cults. Around Fort Wrath the Mouth will organise the death of any heretics.
Primal Chaos
Grants Blessing of Chaos to Priests.
Ensiki and Ralzakark
Ralzakark cannot control Ensiki, he is not Ralzakark's servant. Whilst they are bound by the Corrupt Alliance they made this did not include servitude on either side. However, they do do things for one another. Ralzakark ensures that Ensiki always has some cult following in and around Fort Wrath and sometimes performs favours and HeroQuests when asked.In return Ralzakark has access to some of Ensiki's powers. Ensiki, from the Gravelled Pit underneath Demon Plateau, has stretched his tendrils throughout the plateau, and slightly further. He can use them to change the plateau itself, moving clefts, make tremors occur, causing landslides etc... and sometimes even expanding Ralzakark's catacombs under the Plateau itself (although Ensiki only does the later when it suits his needs). This does take some time, Ensiki's tendrils are slow to mvoe about under the earth beneath the Plateau, so he does not play a major role in defence unless given a large amount of prior warning (a few hours is required to get in position to cause tremors, and it can take Ensiki weeks to make larger changes to the Plateau). From his Gravelled Pit Ensiki also knows a lot of what goes on in and around the Plateau (including inside Fort Wrath). Sometimes he shares this knowledge with Ralzakark, and if he detects intruders he would alert the Unicorn Emperor through the Mouth.
Ensiki also has knowledge of alliances and friendships in and around Dorastor. He often givea advice concerning relations between Ralzakark and the Hellwood elves for instance. His knowledge of relations between chaotic communities is better than non-chaotic communities, but he does have some feeling of what goes on even between non-chaotic communities such as the Orlanthi. He doesn't know specific information about specific people's feelings, unless those feelings are very, very strong. It is this information that has allowed Ralzakark to so expertly play the political arena of Dorastor, and to ensure that the Appeasers in Bilini are kept happy. Ensiki does have tendrils elsewhere where he is worshipped, and gains knowledge there as well, but it is vague, and usually fleeting as his tendrils retract as soon as his worship ends. The scant information he gleams from the farther reaches of Glorantha he normally keeps to himself.
As to the exact nature of the Alliance, one has to wonder whether Ensiki and Ralzakark intend to see out the end of the Alliance and take the consequences, or seek to kill one another (a frightening idea!). Whatever the answer, it wuld be foolish to assume that either side hasn't made plans.
The Gravelled Pit
Deep in the catacombs underneath Demon Plateau is the Gravelled Pit itself. It is a pit of loose rocks and dust some 400m wide, and in it lives Ensiki, stretching his tendrils deep into the earth and the higher reaches of the underworld. Anyone who enters is normally slain by one of his enormous tendrils that will explode from the Pit, although sometimes he toleates the company of his priests. Only Ralzakark himself and the Mouth of Ensiki can enter fearlessly, and only these two have ever seen Ensiki himself raise out of the Gravelled Pit for a personal audience.
The mouth of Ensiki is a portion of Ralzakark, one of his more minor manifestations. It acts as a high priest of the cult of Ensiki in Fort Wrath, and also as a diplomat for Fort Wrath between chaotic factions around the area. The temple to Ensiki is underneath Fort Wrath nearby the tunnels that lead to the Gravelled Pit.
The Mouth is a large creature, with a huge, prehensile tail rather than legs to give locomotion, a host of tendrils shrouding it's chest and arms (which it rarely uses except to read the holy texts) and rather than a head, it has an enormous eye covered in grayish skin, and if one looks carefully they can see the tiny, shrunken mouth on the underside which is uses when it must speak and eat.
If encountered by characters it is most likely by characters who wander across it and a small following (and usually a few castrati) as it tries to complete one of Ralzakark's diplomatic missions.
The Mouth of Ensiki
| STR 16 | Move 2 | Location | d20 | pts |
| CON 24 | HP 24+24 (Str.enc.)=48 | Tail | 01-06 | 23/16 |
| SIZ 23 | FP 40 | Chest | 07-08 | 23/20 |
| INT 17 | MP 46 | Tendrils(x8) | 09-16 | 23/12 |
| POW 23 | Dodge 80 | L Arm | 17 | 23/12 |
| DEX 14 | R Arm | 18 | 23/12 | |
| APP 1 | DEX SR 3 | Head | 19-20 | 23/16 |
| Weapon | SR | att | dmg |
| Tendrils(x8) | 5 | 85 | 1d8+1d6+spcl |
| (Tendrils | 4 | 145 | 1d8+10+1d6+spcl) |
Spells Cast: Ironhand 10. Normally has double POW in magic points from his Power Draining tendril.
Spirit Magic (137%): Heal 7, Ironhand 10.
Rune Magic (122%): Command Bagogi, Command Broo x2, Command Dragonsnail, Command Gorp, Command Jack O'Bearx3, Command Waltakpus, Corrupt Alliances 20, Dark Associations 7, Dismiss Magic 14, Divination (Ensiki)x3, Initiation (Ensiki), Sanctify (Ensiki)x2, Spellteaching (Ensiki) x3, Tendrils 2, Worship Ensikix2.
(spells from Dark Assoications, all one-use): Cause Creeping Chills, Corruption, Curse of Thed, Devour Book, Impede Law x2, Strike x2.
Chaos Features:
HeroQuesting Geas: Suffers double damage after armour is penetrated from any blow from a worshipper of a god with a Communication rune (such as Issaries). Any priest of a god with a communication rune will find that the Mouth's armour only protects for half it's normal rating.
Notable Skills: Ceremony 100, Chaos Lore 100, Dorastor Lore 60, Fast Talk 80, Hide 00, Listen 100, Orate 100, Read/Write Chaospeech 50, Read/Write Tradetalk 40, Read/Write Firespeech 25, Scan 100, Search 70, Sneak 60, Speak Chaospeech 100, Speak Tradetalk 100, Speak Bilini 50, Speak Aldryami 100, Speak Darktongue 70, Speak Firespeech 40, Speak Dara Happan 90, Speak Spiritspeech 25, World lore 45.