Velok Brokentusk
A simple fortuneteller
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: Star Wars desperately needs more curses.
- Image Credit: Path of Exile by Blake Rottinger, found at https://www.artstation.com/artwork/adOlL
- Canon: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Links: Velok the Youngest, Velok the Younger, the Toglannoq, Temorzhai Ridge, Whiphids. Heavily influenced by watching my wife get cursed with Bad Omen on Minecraft.
- Media Name: The Curse of Ultaht, also known as the Curse of Exile
- Format: Oral tradition; also recorded by Velok the Younger.
- Distribution: Oral tradition is Scattered throughout the Whiphid diaspora; informal written versions are Rare, particularly since written Whiphid is a relatively new invention.
- Length: Short (the story); Long (the full instructional tradition shared between elders)
- Description: This is a centuries-old Whiphid oral tradition shared over campfires. It tells the story of a cursed wanderer. The core tradition reveals that the curse is real and replicable, for use against the most dangerous exiles and enemies.
- Author: Unknown Whiphid elders, precursors of the Toglannoq ('We Who Walk the Ice'), the Whiphid Force tradition
- Publisher: Whiphid elders, particularly among the Toglannoq
- Reception: The core story is reasonably well-known among Whiphids and typically considered a folktale. The full instructional tradition is relatively private between elders and largely unknown outside those circles. Velok the Younger shared a written version with his old friend
Darth Empyrean
; to know what reception is like, you'd have to ask Maliphant.
It's an oral tradition in the Whiphid language, though many elders speak Basic well enough to tell the story that way. Hard copy versions are mostly just Velok the Younger's notebooks.
CONTENT INFORMATION
The core story tells of Skiragh, a talented Whiphid hunter who became a Spearmaster (hunting-band leader) at a young age. He and his followers pursued glory in hunting the most challenging mastmots and snow demons on Toola. But they grew obsessed and passed up lesser prey. They and the families they supported fell to malnutrition and ultimately starvation. On his grandmother's deathbed, she cursed Skiragh to never lead another warband or find another home. He wandered alone for years, becoming a mythic figure in a futile search for redemption.
So much for the core story. The broader and more private instructional tradition, spoken in the first-person voice of Skiragh's grandmother Ultaht, teaches Force-sensitive Whiphid elders how to invoke the curse when appropriate.
The curse draws its strength from a curious application of Force Drain: when the cursed being enters a village or other place with a decent number of people, the curse drains a little life from some or all of them. They may not notice apart from a headache or general fatigue. The siphoned energy is what powers the curse's primary effect: it draws violence down on the community the cursed one has entered. That might mean snow demon attacks, pirate raids, internecine conflict, bloody accidents, or even a serendipitous visit from the Nihil or the Brotherhood of the Maw (
The Messenger
). As an example, say the curse's victim spends the night in a village, or aboard a starship with more than a handful of passengers or crew, or even anywhere on a heavily-populated planet, enjoying the company of others. Without fail some apparently unconnected raid or threat will materialize. This will recur, even escalate, until the curse's victim leaves.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
Behind layers of storytelling, the tale is essentially accurate. Ultaht and her obsessed, arrogant grandson Skiragh were real. The Curse of Ultaht or Curse of Exile is a Dark Side technique practiced by the darker-leaning elders of the Toglannoq. The curse is very rarely invoked and can be revoked after an exile does due penance. It can also be eliminated through Force Light.
