Horns of Ennkanu

Some will tell you that Ennkanu's Horns are a myth. That they are simply a fable that jarls weave so that they may claim to have found them to solidify their claims of power. They put elk horns on their helms and prance about like they are the chosen king. Others will list for you those that have worn them and the great deeds those men and women accomplished with their blessed gift. Fights will break out over the names that should be on that list. Clans will draw blood and swear feuds if their hero is absent from it. But, everyone will end their discussion with one question . . . where are they? These horns from a murdered god?

-Osric Steelclaw, Metalsmith

The Dwellers of the Raatvalnyk Mountains, no matter their racial background, tend to follow the same religious teachings. The revere the Great Dreamer and her consort, the Horned God, Ennkanu, with one of their most widely told and epic stories centered around the seasonal celebration that holds these two as the central point. Within that story is an action most horrible, the murder of Ennkanu by those now known as the "Outcast Gods." And after this brutal murder, they cut Ennkanu's horns from his head and stole off with them in the night.

The tale continues, of course, to detail how the Dreamer took the corpse of her consort into the underworld, how the world turned cold and snow fell in great heaps without her love to protect her children. How her word cast out the murderers to take their chaos and discord from the sacred mountains. And how she was convinced by a Vendii Warrior named Vetle and his Vodi sister, Nati, to return her light to the world. And here, is where the Horns return - as the siblings present the items to the Dreamer to show her that they, too, loved Ennkanu - and they were willing to brave the same dangers as her to send him properly to the underworld. Of course, the Dreamer returns, the season cycle and our heroes are legends with more stories, tales and rhymes to be told of them. But the horns... Where did the horns go?

The Myth of the Horns relates that the siblings were gifted them by the returned Ennkanu as return of their love. That they, in turn, gifted them to the first Jarl of their Tribe (and which tribe? of course, another debate for another time). And the Horns became the reoccurring symbol of heroes from that time onward among the peoples of the Mountains.


They have appeared upon the heads of warriors in the thick of battle, causing tides to turn. They have been found by a child in the woods to herald that the girl would become a great war-leader. They have fallen from the beak of a Roc, to land in the soup of a weird-walker who was dreaming of peace. And, as they appear, so do they vanish. Disappearing from their place of reverence in the great hall of a jarl, vanishing from the head of a prince who has lied to his people. The tribes say they are stolen back by the siblings that gifted them - that they have served their purpose or perhaps the wearer is no longer worthy of their gifts. But they remain a foundation of the Tribes - and in every village children will be seen playing "Wearer of the Horns" as they race about pretending to be heroes of old, and striving to be heroes anew.

Item type

Unique Artifact

Raw materials & Components

Stories say that the helm is made of the darkest of steel, delicately etched with vines, trees and woodland scenes.  Affixed to them are two great black horns, much akin to the antlers of the great elk, shot with veins of bright silver.