Not So Different (Short story by shadow-kiki)

[Jubal]

Not So Different
By shadow-kiki, via DeviantArt

Prompt: A young priest is in the catacombs under the Papal city of Qualnar, when they come across a troglodyte - a creature of the caves...


What are we mere peasants to do for money or even for survival? Our lives are forever being controlled by our faith. We are the less loved children lost in the shadow of our god, Jupiter. So in the end our answer lies in our faith, become loved; however, the idea seems simple, but it truly is not. We fight hunger, poverty, sickness, and so how do we join the ranks of the good, rich, and strong? For every one of us Jupiter has a path marked for us, some for greatness and for others: failure. I cannot say what path lies ahead of me but I do know I will never be a child of light, but a child that hides in the shadows.

Our lives in the city are dreadful to say the least, feces are strewn across our roads and the dead pile up in the alleys for we cannot afford a proper burial. The faith in which we swear by is engrained in us not because we believe in it, but because we are forced to live by it. Jupiter is not the deity that I believe in, but it is better than a humiliatingly public death. Yet some days it is nice to think of the sweet release from this pitiful place. Perhaps maybe the embarrassment and pain would be worthwhile in the end, but for now I have promises to keep. My promise is to end this reign of terror that is held above all of us for Jupiter is not the 'god' that sees us as his own, no, he is for the rich. I personally believe in a god that is unnamed and fair to us all; a god that does not choose favorites!

Where I stand today is where the rich, holy, and divine are buried down under the busy streets of Qualnar. Here we pray for protection of the souls for the deceased and swear by Jupiter's wrath if any harm is to come to them. In reality most of the other priests chat and rake in the money that they receive for 'praying'. I at least have enough respect for my donors to pray to the very god that I do not have faith in. Really I am unsure if it is out of pity or out of kindness that I act for these blind fools, but perhaps one day they will see the light of the church. Most of my benefactors are middle-class and their lines tend to be deeper in the ground where the smooth stones become rough and ragged. The torches become far and few between, but for those of us whom have walked these pathways for years, our eyes adjust and we trudge on. Ever so rarely I pass another person walking back from their prayers and oddly enough I prefer not to have to deal with speaking to them.

On my days of peace I spend hours praying for the safety of even those that I am not paid to do so for. I like to feel the ease of mind that at least they are happy, while I kneel on sharp rocks spending my time doing nothing else with my life. Yet, who am I to complain? I have nothing to lose in this world unlike so many others for I am married to my god and to my faith. Who am I to ridicule those that follow the laws that I too abide by?

Suddenly the torches flicker as a cool breeze sweeps by and whips years of dust in my eyes. I furiously rub at my eyes with the rough fabric of my rope scraping at my skin. Then I hear it as clear as day; a gurgled grunt from a humanoid troglodyte. My mind screams at me to run, but my body is frozen in a faint hope that perhaps it would not see me and hopefully not eat me.

"Little girl," the scratchy voice had a slightly higher pitch on the 'ir' of girl. Even as I remain kneeling I can almost sense that this is my end, a simple flick of its wrist would surely be the death of me. Yet the longer I sat the more aware I was of the steady breathing of the trog, which may I remind you was just standing there! "Little girl, do not fear me."

Finally I stood and looked to the hideously pale and hunched beast. "I am not a girl." A smile crept upon the cracked lips of the trog. I still had the chance to run, but my legs felt like lead as the beast stared at me and took in every little detail.

"There are too many curves to be even a feminine male of you city dwellers. You are a female dressed as a priest, are you not?" It was creeping towards me as if I was nothing for it to worry about. "You should not fear me little one." My back pressed against the wall and my fingers rubbed against the rough tombs in search of anything to defend myself with, alas my actions were futile. "I will cover the entrance I have made so that our paths shall not cross again, but tell me little one, why are you here?"

Finally my legs felt lighter and my body responded to my brain's flight mode. If I had been more aware of my situation I would have noticed that the trog did not follow me, it did not wish to. If my mind would have worked I would have noticed that it was not interested in harming me. Only if I would have stopped to think I would have had a friend in this world that simply had crossed my path by accident. Perhaps that day would have ended differently if I was not frightened by the mere fact that it knew all of my secrets where in areas humans were blind. We both live dangerous lives, he searches for caves and is banished from society, and I, I am a female playing a man's part.


Notes by Jubal:

Spoiler

I was really excited by this story, which gives an excellent basis for a character - and also an interesting point about the careers system. Whilst GS&S rules are based on players having careers, they don't actually need to like them.

Shadow was brilliant to work with as well, mostly because she asked really pertinent and interesting questions, which I'm going to note down here so I don't forget the answers! Most of these are her question wording but I've changed a couple so they make sense out of their original context.

ON TROGLODYTES
Q. Do troglodytes tend to be more male or female?
A. Same sex ratio as humans, they'd look relatively androgynous to our eyes.

Q. What is their diet? (Do they hunt or do they do something else for food?)
A. They are capable of hunting, foraging and scavenging; some tribes may "farm" certain sorts of edible fungi but, living mostly underground, they won't generally grow any other sorts of food.

Q. Do they have a religious belief or do they just worry about scraping by?
A. They worship rock-spirits and earth-spirits mainly, and occasionally other elemental spirits. There is no priestly class/caste, in most troglodyte tribes everyone has an equal connection to the spirit world.

Q. Are troglodytes as intelligent as the people in the cities?
A. Yes, they're as intelligent as humans.

Q. Are troglodytes more active at night because they are so pale?
A. Troglodytes are so pale because they are more active at night, it's the other way round. But yes, they live in extended cave systems and are more likely to be on the surface at night. They can see in the dark more or less perfectly.

Q. Do troglodytes 'speak' another language?
A. There are some Troglodyte languages, though a lot of troglodytes also learn to speak the language of nearby humans in case they get captured or attacked. Some human merchants will trade with troglodyte tribes, but the Temples of Jupiter tend to be rather disapproving of this practice. And they tend to express their disapproval through the medium of fire, stakes, and drownings.

ON PRIESTS
Q. How well off are the priests?
A. Very, very variable. A lowly acolyte might be more or less on the poverty line or needing to beg to get by, a beneficed priest would be comfortably off and one of the richer members of a community.

Q. You said Qualnar was like the Vatican - in what ways?
A. Vatican in the sense that the Patriarch of the Temples of Jupiter, more or less the most important priest in the world, lives there and rules the city as a city-state.

Q. Are the duties of priests and priestesses similar to Catholic or Roman beliefs (or am I over thinking it)?
A. About halfway between Catholic and Roman; the dress style would be fairly catholic as would the buildings, but the ceremonies would have a lot in common with Greco-Roman religion (animal sacrifice for example).

Q. What is the title of the person 'closest to Jupiter'?
A. The Patriarch.

Q. What are the beliefs of the Church of Jupiter with regards to death and the underworld?
A. My answer would be, I think, that Pluto still gets the afterlife in theological theory but that he isn't worshipped; burial rituals etc would dedicate the body to Jupiter, who is assumed to be pretty much all-powerful. So it would be technically theologically correct to say "the underworld is governed by Pluto" - but actually cremation rituals etc have tended to develop such that they're aligned to the worship of Jupiter and traditions like paying the ferryman (putting a coin in a dead person's mouth to pay Charon, the boatman on the Styx) would be considered idle rural superstitions.

Certainly that would be the case in Qualnar, where everything is for obvious reasons exceptionally Jupiter-centric; there are other areas where different cults/gods hold a bit more sway, but in general for about the last two centuries the Patriarchs have been trying to squeeze out and demolish any rival priesthoods (and each god can only be tended to by their own priests, so by this point in many areas if you want rites for the dead your only option is to get a Jupiter priest to ask for the protection of Jupiter for their soul).