[align=center]The Shipwrecked Sailors, by Uhr-Kulmbizharr[/align]
Once upon a time, there was a lonely island in the middle of the sea where shipwrecked sailors used to wash up. One day, a Chaos Dwarf and a Dark Elf were washed up on its beach. Both were unconscious and bloodied, yet the Chaos Dwarf was the first to wake up. He grabbed a sharp stone and bowed over the Dark Elf, stone raised to crush his enemy’s head. At that moment the Dark Elf awoke.
“Please, spare my life! The flesh of my feeble frame won’t sate your hunger. This island is large enough for the two of us. Here we can both forget our strife,” pleaded the Dark Elf.
“Very well, you may live,” said the Chaos Dwarf, and let the Dark Elf escape.
They both toiled to survive on the hostile island, yet one night the Chaos Dwarf awoke and stared at the fire-hardened sharp end of a wooden spear. It was held by the Dark Elf, and it was but an inch away from the Chaos Dwarf’s eye.
“May Daemons eat your soul!” cursed the Chaos Dwarf, for he knew he was about to die.
“Do not curse me. The blame is not mine. It was not I who spared the life of your bane. Curse yourself for your weakness,” said the Dark Elf, and speared the Chaos Dwarf to death during the dark of night. For such is the fate of the merciful.
- The Shipwrecked Sailors, by Daemonsmith Uhr-Kulmbizharr the Blind, the renowned Chaos Dwarf author of fable stories during the foundation of Zharr-Naggrund*
____________________________________________
* The moral of the story is not only ‘mercy is for the weak’; it is also ‘never trust an Elf’ and ‘always enslave’.
I thought about for a while. My thought about it is - "Would the Chaos Dwarf really spare the life of the Elf?" - Probably not I guess. He would rather kill and eat him.
Herby
No he wouldn't spare him and yes he would eat him - that's the point.
All these nice texts (except the Lamassu and Fox...) are great sagas not set in time. They are pre-historic tales.
So when some annoying little zharrling keeps asking "why?" and doesn't accept "that's how the world is and has always been". Then a story like this is told.
Same thing with all those Eskimo and Indian sagas and stories. The world and life is what it is and can't be changed - and the stories can tell us why.
@Bloodbeard: I don’t really get why the Lammasu and Fox fable would be notably different from any of the others. I’m just as content with it as the rest, especially since it has got that mix of subtlety and brutality in its point that probably is characteristic of my writings. Oh well, you can’t please everyone with everything.
@Herby: Yep, that’s the plan. There will be many more stories, myths, fables, songs, religious nonsense, monument inscriptions and the like to come. The plan is to let Scribe’s Contest run its course over several years, to amass a true wealth of material, and then compile it in a PDF document with nifty layout and lots of illustrations (if enough artist-people can contribute with something).
However, that is several years into the future, and I know Bloodbeard asked for a compilation already half a year ago. My patience can last for decades if need be, but do you want smaller compilations along the way, just to have it printed and ready to read in the sofa?
In that case I could more or less copy-paste my Chaos Dwarf fluff document, some background tidbits from the forum, organize it a little and “release” an as-of-now collection of fables etc.
@Admiral: I have it in my head - the explanation to the difference. I also have a plan (means work for you). … just havn’t gotten around to writing it yet.
I would imagine that Chaos Dwarfs have a special sort of rivalry with the Dark Elves, being told of a kinsman being bested in this manner was probably written to be especially vexing to the listener. This moral must be one of the most important for the Dawi Zharr or else it would have simply been a tale of getting killed by slaves instead of actual rivals.
