Kolturrant

Sovereign of Desire and Darkness.

Lore pending

This page carries Kolturrant’s strictures and little else. The wider lore of his faith — his counting-houses, his rites, his clergy, his place among the Sovereigns — has not been written yet. What is here is complete and canon; it is simply not the whole page.

Kolturrant is the debt that is never forgiven, the closed fist around a coin purse, and the loan that outlives the borrower.

His followers know the signs chalked on every door in the low quarter and keep factors in trades no ruler can see, and know all the dark places where hidden trade occurs. He is not against a fair price — he is for it, loudly, and is always making the case that this is exactly what he is offering.

Everything Kolturrant lends, he lends at interest. What Kolturrant wants is eternal debt. He smiles at the man who will still be paying when his grandsons are old, and the market that cannot get free of his monopoly. Gold is merely how the debts are counted.

Traditions that teach him: the Dwarven Forgepriest.

His worship day is Sar (shared with Baaldra and Kaarak), the week’s end, when accounts close and interest accrues to the week ahead.

The Sairans do not name him. Where a dwarf says Kolturrant, a human says Kaarak, Sovereign of Death and Decay, and takes his payment in the dead where the dwarf takes his in coin. There are scholars who hold the two to be one Sovereign under two faces; the dwarves neither confirm it nor deny it, on the grounds that a secret is also a thing you can keep.

Strictures

Dwarven Forgepriest

• A follower of Kolturrant must be secure against misfortune. He must always keep wealth upon his person sufficient to pay his expenses for a month.
• A follower of Kolturrant must offer prayers at dusk after closing out his ledgers. Offering prayers requires one hour (6 turns).
• A follower of Kolturrant must not use his magic for charity. He may accept favors in lieu of coin, but he will be paid for his services.
• A follower of Kolturrant must never forgive a debt owed him, nor let one be forgiven in his name. A thing owed Kolturrant is owed until it is paid, and does not end with death — it passes to the heirs.
• A follower of Kolturrant must never strike a bargain that does not leave him the better for it.

The reckoning

Spoil is not a bargain. What is taken from an enemy in open fight, or lifted from the dead who left no one to collect, carries no terms. Kolturrant’s law binds the deal between dealers.

A debt outlives the debtor. This is the hard heart of the tradition and the thing that most divides a follower from Kolkorn, who forgives through his guild and squares his accounts clean. Kolturrant squares nothing. A debt owed him descends like an inheritance.