Part I: The Search for Dagaal
Chapter 1.11: Greed is Good
With Verdical’s prophecy cramping my style, I need to think about how to move things forward. I needed take action on my plans. I needed to get busy using the Drokka people as my pawns yet again.
You’ll recall that the Drokka were descended from the man Drok, who was one of the three sons of Kane, who was himself one of the original sons of Adam and Eve. After Kane murdered his brother Abel, my made up god Yahway (the god of Adam’s people), cursed Kane with the Mark of Immortality and he was then shunned from his family.
But Kane’s story did not end – instead he fathered a new branch of mankind and his people flourished – under the watchful guidance of my other made up god Baal.
Kane had three sons – Drok, Derk, and Enoch. When their clans had grown enough, my Baal commanded Kane to take his sons Drok and Derk, and their families, and leave their homelands and journey east across the flat earth until they reached “The Promised Land” on a new continent called ‘TerrVerde” (modern day North America). Everyone set out with hope and optimism – not the least of which was Kane – for Baal promised Kane he would remove Kane’s infamous mark when his people reached their destination.
As it turned out, Kane’s clans did reach a land flowing with milk and honey which they called “Gor” – it was a harvest land situated to the west of a massive mountain range the split the continent of TerrVerde in two. Now I was stuck in Illusia while all this was going on and didn’t witness Kane’s success as it happened. This was unfortunate for Kane because he expected the praises of Baal for a job well done but instead all he got was silence.
Disillusioned, a forlorn Kane left his sons Drok and Derk in charge of the clans while he wandered off into the wastelands to die (which was of course impossible for Yahway’s curse had made him immortal).
After he left, Kane’s son Derk took Baal’s secret advice, set himself up as the King of Gor, murdered his brother Drok, and enslaved his brother’s people all in one fell swoop. Thus did the Drokka people become slaves – and they suffered for the next 400 years.
You’ll recall the story about how I raised up Ajax the Freemaker to be a Deliverer for The Drokka – impersonating the lumenarc Rhokki, I created a new ‘god’ for Ajax and the Drokka and empowered Ajax to help his people escape bondage by fleeing to the Rhokki Mountains.
Over the next centuries – when they weren’t fighting ‘holy wars’ to exterminate their bitter rivals, Drok’s people mapped out, expanded, and connected the natural tunnels within the mountains and turned them into useful thoroughfares that connected the eastern lands of TerrVered to the West.
Over time the Drokka people changes – living for centuries in the labyrinthine tunnels of the Rhokki Mountains they grew shorter and squatter. But they also developed a culture of technological ingenuity and communal resilience. Their underground cities became marvels of engineering, with intricate ventilation systems, vast mining operations, and elaborate fortifications. Their people master craftsmen, renowned for their metalwork and gem cutting, skills honed in the dim light of their subterranean world. And the products they produce became valued by the other peoples of TerrVerde – especially those who lived to the east of the mountains.
Over time, the Drokka became a rich and powerful nation – and much of this was the result of their opening up trade routes for the merchants on both sides of The Rhokki’s. [It definitely wasn’t ‘free’ trade but that was intentional. Free Trade – has there ever really been such a thing?]. Merchants from the east were allowed passage to the markets of Gor, and caravans from Gor (yes those led by the hated Derkka) were allowed secret routes (to shield them from the eyes of the Drokka public) so they could sell their wares to hungry buyers as well. The Drokka elites decided who was allowed to cross over and who was not. [Thus making the Drokka ruling families the inventors of ‘travel restrictions.’ Makes you wonder who the internal bankers that control the world today got their modern day playbook from, eh?]
The most popular crossover point became known as “Rhokki Pass” and it connected the main merchant caravan roads that moved East-West over the lands. Anyone that wanted to cross the mountains was subject to paying a toll [thus dramatically reducing the freedom of movement of the poorer members of society].
Controlling Rhokki Pass allowed the Drokka to build such a lucrative business that eventually they moved their primary kingdom from Oz to this nexus point – and grew wildly rich in the process.
Their former slavery at the hands of the Derkka was by now a distant memory. Wealthy beyond compare, the Drokka should have gone on to become the premier human society on the planet – but alas, like all humans, the Drokka were fatally flawed.
[No, I’m not talking about their appearance, although that was comical in it’s own right — I’m sure you’d laugh if you saw a Drokka because they didn’t look much like any human you’d recognized — after centuries underground they were short [most around four feet tall], squat [their shoulders twice that of a typical human of the time], and sun-shy [although they’d developed these self-glowing eyes that allowed them to see better in the dark and that was kind of cool]].
But the real flaw I’m referring to about the Drokka is the same flaw that all humans suffer from – GREED.
There’s one thing I’ve always loved about your kind — you don’t know how to be content, regardless of what you have. You have the basics, you want more. You get rich, you still want more. Humans never have enough.
And such was the case with the Drokka – they had more wealth than any other society in the world, but it wasn’t enough – they too wanted more…they wanted it ALL.
On top of that, they also wanted revenge – 400 years of slavery at the hands of their Derk brothers, and then hundreds more years of warring with them, had only served to intensify their hatred of their bitter rivals. In spite of the fact that the Drokka’s society had surpassed that of the Derkka, the Drokka didn’t buy into the adage that ‘living well’ was the best revenge – instead they wanted to exterminate their rivals off the face of Terra – for this was also the command levied upon them by my version of Rhokki, who demanded his people destroy their rivals.
The hatred between the Drokka and Derkka thus became fueled by centuries of conflict and betrayal. Key events, such as the Massacre of Gorath and the Siege of Ironclad, became etched in the collective memory of both societies. The Massacre of Gorath, where Derkka warriors slaughtered a defenseless Drokka village, was commemorated in Drokka songs and stories, symbolizing the treachery of their enemies – and even I found myself singing those ditties a time or two. As for The Siege of Ironclad, it a protracted and brutal battle where the Drokka ultimately prevailed – this became a source of pride and a rallying cry for their warriors – all according to my designs, for these events were not just historical footnotes but instead active elements of the Drokka’s cultural identity, continuously stoking the fires of revenge and perpetuating the cycle of violence. It was a beautiful thing!
As the years went by, the Drokka society became more and more structured around a rigid hierarchy – with power concentrated in the hands of influential families and the military leaders they appointed. The High Council, a group of elder statesmen from each of the ruling families made key decisions, balancing the demands of trade, defense, and internal governance. Meanwhile, the Drokka worship of Rhokki, as personified by yours truly, played a central role in their daily lives, with elaborate rituals and ceremonies reinforcing their loyalty.
Within this framework, various factions vied for power, with alliances and rivalries shaping the political landscape. The military was the backbone of Drokka society (at least from the public’s point of view) and those fools were led to believe that military service was both an honor and a duty for them – never realizing they were but fodder for a war machine that ground them into dust and made the rich richer. Yet [just like the sheep of today] the commoners never discovered the game, and instead were kept in a constant state of readiness for war against the accursed Derkka – this ensured that that martial prowess was highly valued, and the heroes of past battles were revered as almost divine figures – with Ajax himself at the head of the line.
As you can imagine, my ability to maintain my disguise as Rhokki required vigilance and cunning. Yes, it’s true that I did delegate a lot of this work to the Drokka priests of the powerful Nave family and I gave them the Well of Wyzdom as a helpful ruse they could use to ‘hear’ Rhokki’s commands. Meanwhile, to help incite the ongoing conflicts, when I had time, I enjoyed planting false evidence of Derkka incursions, staged attacks on Drokka caravans, and spread rumors of imminent invasions. These manipulations were subtle yet effective, pushing both sides towards ever-escalating confrontations while I remained the unseen puppet master – and it was incredibly fun.
All of this created more than enough of an opening I to further my plans to find Dagaal. The only potential pitfall I could see was that my roadmap to success relied on me being able to continue to impersonate Rhokki as the god of the Drokka. HOWEVER, I knew if the real Rhokki should get wind of my actions, that would have created certain…problems.
Therefore I needed to give some thought as to how I was going to deal with that one…
What would you have done?
The Apocrypha of Azazel 