Gorcorumbese Geddamin

A race of Geddamin descended from the ancient Titans and known for their contempt of humans, the Gorcorumbese Geddamin increased in numbers due to the Awakening of the Geddamin (2300's). Conquerors of Ambrinqua (Ebinóë), they have withdrawn from their imperial aims and fallen into cultural decadence. [Geddamin from Ithatian Gedda 'giant' + min 'people, tribe'].

Physical Description

A typical Gorcorumbese individual stands about eight to nine feet high (3m to 3.5m) 8'10" (2.70m). They are similar to humans in appearance. The Gorcorumbese have dark skin with strong bluish or violet undertones and dark hair which they historically dye white in personal combat against other Geddamin. Their eyes range in color from crystal blue to crystal violet. Geddamin live upwards to two hundred years. They speak a dialect of the Titanic Language.

Costume

The Noble Gorcorumbese prefer tanned dragonhides from the western hemisphere, quilted silks, metallic-colored silks, especially of silver, gold, and metallic blue, and high, stand-up collars. Noble Gorcorumbese were released from the Kumenontli.

Titancraft Knowledge

The Gorcorumbese possess many of the titancraft secrets of their ancient forebears and are widely held to be the most technologically advanced of all modern civilizations in this regard. But the Geddamin fall short of the innovation or ethos of the ancient titans. They transmit the knowledge of titancraft by rote and do not employ industrial-scale reproduction of ancient titancraft. They rather work with painstaking artistic effort to create a single titancraft vessel of utmost workmanship and excellence than to produce a fleet of warships.

Psychic Vulnerability

Gorcorumbese have no demonstrable psychic ability and are themselves vulnerable to psychic powers. There also have no known priesthood among their numbers and are particularly loath of the Isxinthion Gods as they served the Titans against whom the Isxinthion Gods fought thousands of years ago. However, their mages are exceptionally gifted and call upon millennia of lore and understanding.

Aristocratic Leadership

Nobles of the Gorcorumbese were preserved in Kumenontli buried in the earth or sunken in the sea where they lived in stasis for millennia until discovered and freed. The noble houses of the Gorcorumbese rest atop great towers of stone at the base of the Ephysgæe Mountains of Ambrinqua, south of Ebinóë. These great palaces, or domos, house the princes and mages of the Geddamin and their servitors and slaves. Together these houses and the adjoining city are called Shaprashilara Lum, the capital of the Geddamin Empire. The Geddamin society is strongly divided between noble rulers and commoners and the rites, observances, and customs focus upon the noble house and its ruler. There is also a lower city, called Telmuric beneath the ground where the Geddamin underclass dwell.

The Gorcorumbese share cultural and ethnic ties to the titanid tribes of the Adamantine Mountains and Juranica in eastern Anauria.

Gorcorumbese aristocrats prefer the hide of young dragons and great reptiles and wear robes and long-tailed coats of such hides.

Language of the Geddamin

The Gorcorumbese Geddamin language, Gorcorumbese, sometimes called Geddamish, is a dialect of the ancient Titanic Language. Their language is not directly related to any known human languages. Gorcorumbese requires greater study for human pupils to grasp its rich vocabulary and correctly employ its vast nuances and subtleties. For example, the Gorcorumbese use no less than twelve terms for war, distinguishing for example among war within a house, war between house, war amongst Gorcorumbese and war with non-Geddamin.

Warfare among the Gorcorumbese

The Geddamin see war as a means to bring honor, power, and prestige to one's house. Warfare against non-Geddamin, particularly humans, does not bring honor to Gorcorumbese warriors and they do not extend any traditional Gorcorumbese courtesies to humans and other non-titanids. Individual combat against another Gorcorumbese, similar to duels, is not uncommon. The winner of a combat, whether individual or numerous, is held accountable for burying his slain foe. It is considered a great dishonor not to bury the fallen Geddamin foe and even the family of the fallen will not bury him, placing the entire responsibility on the slayer.

Gorcorumbese Architecture

Gorcorumbese architecture features great domed-towers in which spacious arches and vaults lead from chamber to chamber. The Geddamin are master artificers in both stone and metallurgy and they employ both in their constructions. Wood is considered only suitable as a curious enrichment.

Gorcorumbese contempt for Short People

Geddamin hold dwarves, elves, and especially humans in great contempt. They disdain religion, particularly any belief which makes one dependent upon a higher power. They despise the Isxinthion Gods of the human races and abolished their worship throughout their empire. Geddamin houses employ slaves both of their own species and of other races, especially humans. The Geddamin regard the Jykki (desert orcs of Danona) with the same esteem that humans have for rodents. The Gorcorumbese Geddamin through political expediency made alliance with the Thracians in the Kalikán-Ephysgæes Pact.

Dragon Hunting

Dragon Hunting is the great, idealized past-time of the Geddamin noble. During the Kalikán-Ephysgæes alliance, the Gorcorumbese were given passage to the northern Jaggudorns to give chase to dragons. With the collapse of the treaty system between the Geddamin and the Kalikán, Geddamin poets can only dream of former ages and recite epic sagas of the dragon hunt that require a month or more of evenings to recount. Only warfare against the dragon brings a Geddamin warrior honor equal to fighting another Geddamin warrior.

Gorcorumbese Women

Geddamin women hold immense power over the household. They cannot be deprived of their rightful inheritance through divorce and cannot be removed by force from the ancestral house of their mother except under very specific and unusual circumstances.

History and Origins

The Gorcorumbese claim descent from the ancient Titans which is generally accepted by scholars, but Geddamin scholars do not agree about the time when they sprang from Titans. Many dwelt under a preservative stasis in vast caverns beneath the Ephysgæes which they have always claimed as their ancestral abode. Sometime during the late Middle Ages of Chaos, they stirred from their deep sleep during the Awakening of the Geddamin and emerged to the surface of the mountains. Thus, there are two groups of Geddamin, those who were born in relatively recent times and those who were are descended from the Geddamin awoken from stasis.

Kumenontli

Main article: Kumenontli

Sometime during the wars between the Titans and the Isxinthion Gods it is believed, the Titans placed their most trusted Geddamin servants into great vessels of metal and titancraft under a kind of deep and preservative stasis and buried them throughout the world, primarily under the mountains of the desert, savannah, and south mediterranean climes. The ancient Qamoha called these devices the kumenontli which was adopted by the Ithatians and the Kheshephites and thus spread throughout the Pallathantic world. Thousands of Kumenontli have been found and thousands are believed undiscovered. After the destruction of Strakkos Chaos Mage of Ebinóë, these Geddamin who were deemed nobles became the rulers of the Geddamin.

Geopolitics of Gorcorumb

Mountainous Gorcorumb straddles the Ephysgæe Mountains. It has some mineral riches, but is lacking in panox. Its allied Geddamin in the Adamantine Mountains only have some panox. Despite the immense knowledge of the noble Gorcorumbese, they were unable to put their knowledge into applied form and so allied with the Kalikán in the Kalikán-Ephysgæes Pact which secured for them access to minerals and resources in Thrace. In return, they gave one or two simple titancraft engines to their Thracian allies.

Religion and Worship of the Gorcorumbese Giants

The Gorcorumbese Giants are chiefly polytheist, worshiping the elements, ancestors, and gods traditionally associated with the ancient titans. Some Gorcorumbese Giants have converted to other religions, including Arathracianism, Incarnandism, Imzaha, and Chaos Gods. Some few are Antitheism. Ancestor worship is generally very important among most Gorcorumbese Giants, regardless of their main chosen religion.

See Also

• Adamantine Geddamin
• Attrition of the Gorcorumbese Empire
• Awakening of the Geddamin
• Ephysgæan Uprising
• Geddamin Wars
• Gorcorumbese Empire of the Ephysgæes
• Kumenontli
• Mugentiacus the Conqueror
• Overlordship of Gorcorumb