Morogyad

In the religious tradition of the Eleven Cities, Morogyad was a pseudo-historical thaumaturge from the city of Ramoros. Generally believed to be a son of the god Zargyod, he was credited with performing a variety of feats of magic and authoring several books on the subject. In the pre-Wesmodian era this made him the focus of a significant cult of devotion and study within the broader cult of his divine father. This cult withered in the immediate aftermath of the Wesmodian Reformation, but has been subject to localised and episodic but repeated study by thaumaturges and thaumatologists in the centuries since.

Etymology

In Old Zolian the name Morogyad means, literally, "left-haver." Morogyad is depicted as conducting all of his miracles with his left hand and was widely believed to have written his books in the same way. The precise reason for this tradition - and its significance - is debated by thaumatologists, but the intellectual tradition surrounding Morogyad and his purported writings is known as left-handed magic.

Narrative

Conception, birth and education

Morogyad's mother was Remyalan, a princess of the royal family of Ramoros. Since girlhood Remyalan felt strong and powerful at high tide and weak and listless at low tide and one day visited the beach and waded into the ocean to feel at one with the waters she saw as her source of strength. Zargyod came to her in the form of a great wave and swept her away; she was restored to her family on an unusually high tide three moons later. She claimed to have been turned into an octopus and to have mated with Zargyod in that form before being turned back, and to be carrying his child. True to form, she became pregnant and gave birth to twins, one a robust young boy and the other a writhing amorphous mass of tentacles. The latter strangled the midwife, crawled down to the sea and submerged itself, never to be seen by human eyes again, while Remyalan named the boy Moroqyad and raised him as a mother normally would.
When Moroqyad was thirteen, Zargyod came to his mother's manse in the form of a lammergeier. He took the boy's collar in his beak and flew him to the island of Kobolon where he kept him for seven years, feeding him fish and teaching him magic. As a young man Morogyad returned to his mother by flying across the sea seated cross-legged on a disc of stone inscribed with magical symbols. When he arrived home, on the advice of his mother, he struck the stone with the spine of his left hand, breaking it into eleven pieces, six of which he threw into the sea; the other five are still visible embedded in a cliff-face on a headland just to the north of Ramoros.

Threats to his mother

The king of Ramoros (again, accounts differ as to exactly who) felt threatened by the appearance of the young wizard, but also wary of directly challenging his power. He therefore summoned Morogyad to his court and informed him that unless he left the city his mother would suffer. Morogyad did not reply, but simply waved his left hand at the king and left his presence. He used his left hand to inscribe secret symbols on a scallop shell and gave it to Ramyalan to wear as a pendant.
When word reached him that Morogyad was still resident in Ramoros, the king sent soldiers with orders to beat and defile Ramyalan. They found her shift impervious to their swords, and when they laid hands upon her their hands were struck with a cold that burned like fire, causing horrendous pain. Fleeing, they intended to show their king the terrible grey scars left by this enchantment, but these had disappeared by the time they reached the palace. More soldiers were sent and ended up suffering a variety of often gruesome injuries and afflictions; the mythopoeic tradition surrounding the episode is varied and inventive in this regard. Among the more common injuries are blindness, impotence and the loss of their tongues. Mythopoeic tradition is divided over which of these issues are permanent; in some sources the soldiers never recover, while in others the condition lasts until the turn of the next moon or year.
Eventually the king died and his successor pledged that no harm will come to Ramyalan. Morogyad was suspicious of this but was satisfied of his sincerity when the two men shook hands and, by smelling the king's breath, the magician could tell he was a more even-tempered and sensible man than his father. He left the city to seek his fortune. Before doing so he informed his mother that the scallop shell was an amulet against all harm, including the ravages of age. She commended her son for his ingenuity and filial piety, but was wary of the notion of immortality and visited a shrine to Krezzan, where she communed with the god and received a warning from him that such an amulet would frustrate him. She thus visited the headland where Morogyad landed in Ramoros and tossed the amulet into the sea. Sinking, it caught on a branch of red coral, rendering the reefs to the northeast of the city inexhaustible. Krezzan was irritated by this but appreciated Ramyalan was not responsible and took no action against her.

Encounter with Pholdons

On his journey south from Ramoros Morogyad found himself at a river ford scattered with the bones of women. The ford was haunted by the ogre Pholdons, who posed travellers a challenge - make him laugh or he would drown the men and eat the women in the party. Faced with this challenge Morogyad replied that his fellowship did not extend to abominations and would not bestir himself to answer. Pholdons responded by seizing Morogyad by the arm and dragging him under the waters of the river.
The ogre made the mistake of seizing Morogyad by his right arm, thinking that this would neutralise his ability to fight back. As they disappeared below the surface of the river Morogyad made a series of cryptic gestures with his left hand and turned himself into brass. Thus weighed down, Pholdons himself drowned. In due course the brass effigy of Morogyad changed to water, and flowed down the river and out into the Sea of Jars.

Thaumaturgy and family in Tyros

In the sea Morogyad turned into an octopus and swam to the city of Tyros. As he arrived in the harbour one of Dogen's Seven Daughters was pushed from a boat during a raucous party, and nobody heard her cries as she sank into the harbour. Still in his octopus form, Morogyad rescued the girl and bore her back to her boat, transforming back into a man as he did so. In this manner he gained the attention and favour of the nobility of the city, who rushed to support his residency there.
During his time in Tyros Morogyad busied himself composing most of the large collection of books and essays collectively referred to as the Esoterica of Morogyad. Copies of these books, in editions and translations from both before and after the Wesmodian Reformation, occasionally circulate in the Eleven Cities, though finding authoritative copies of any of them is difficult. Different books with the same title often feature widely heterogeneous contents, and unattributed fragments abound. Many are assumed to be forgeries or speculative reconstructions and it is unclear how much of the Morogist tradition has any basis in anything Morogyad himself wrote, if indeed he existed at all. This tradition is, nevertheless, something of a cornerstone of contemporary thaumatology in the Eleven Cities.
Morogyad was repeatedly approached by citizens of Tyros asking for magical favours, though he granted very few of them, being mostly preoccupied with exploring his gift. He is said to have levitated over the city's harbour on full moons and to have created powders which, when mixed with wine and drunk, granted invulnerability to poisons and greatly slowed the ageing process. He was also said to have been able to produce exquisite work in gold, silver and brass, moulding the metal like clay with his hands and changing its colour to blue, black, green or purple via the application of more magical powders. A handful of such Morogyad pieces exist in the treasuries of wealthy families in Tyros, Dyqamay and Dypholyos.
Morogyad is also said to have fathered several children in Tyros, although the exact number differs in the telling. It is generally agreed that he took a wife named Abeyan, with whom he had three children, sons Torolod and Pholadros and daughter Qesarayas, and that he also fathered an illegitimate daughter name Jezarayn with a courtesan named Yzarayas. Several wealthy and noble families in Tyros claim these individuals as ancestors, though no conclusive proof has been found for any of these attributions.
In time Morogyad felt he had accomplished all he could in Tyros. He smelted a brass disc, etched blue symbols into it with his left hand, and used it to fly away from the city to the north.

Oluz and Kotophay

During his journey north Morogyad is said to have spent some considerable time in The Empty Quarter, though accounts of what he did there remain folkloric, with no credible written accounts of his activities in the area. Even the length of his expedition there is not canonically quantified. The man who flew his brass disc into the marketplace of Oluz, however, is an altogether more choleric and combative personality than the one who left Tyros some time earlier. This leads some scholars to argue that the Morogyad "of the North" is in fact a different individual, syncretised with the Morogyad "of the sea" at some early stage in pre-Wesmodian history, although solid evidence for this, and an explanation of how and why it may have happened, is as yet unforthcoming.
The Oluz Guildhouse allegedly still possesses the Discus of Morogyad, which is said to be locked away in the most secure part of its treasury; the officers of the Guildhouse, uncharacteristically, refuse to confirm or deny this.
Morogyad arrived in Oluz at a time of crisis. The king Kepheran had become so wealthy as a result of the sea trade that he had claimed the sea worked for him. The serpent Kotqophay had arisen to answer this impertinence, and was destroying shipping to and from the city. To let up on these attacks, the serpent demand a tribute of three virgins be left tied to the rocks in the Straits of Oluz for him to eat on the night of every full moon. Kepheran at first refused, but the monster's blockade began to starve the city, and Kotophay's scaled hide was immune to all the weapons available in Oluz (in some versions of the story this point is demonstrated by a series of would-be heroes, all of whom the serpent kills) so the king was forced to acquiesce to the tribute. Morogyad offered to solve the problem in exchange for the ongoing patronage of the city, to which Kepharan quickly agreed.
Morogyad communed with his uncle Ajqyod and gained from him a special white fire which he used to smelt a brass of surpassing strength and beauty. He forged that metal into a barbed trident and, for reasons never made entirely clear, made the weapon turn sky-blue. He then turned himself into a crab, submerged himself in the Straits of Oluz, and emerged the following day with a large handful of kelp. Changing back into a man he cured this seaweed with mineral salts of his own devising and then carried it and the trident to the rocks where Kotophay was to receive his tribute. He ate the seaweed, then as Kotqophay rushed towards him he gripped the trident in his left hand and leapt into the water to meet the monster. In the resulting battle in the sea Morogyad, able to breathe water like a fish thanks to his consumption of the seaweed, repeatedly stabbed Kotqophay repeatedly with his trident, which was far stronger and sharper than any mundane weapon, and was thus able to kill the serpent. As the dead monster sank, however, he the barbs on the weapon caught in his flesh and pulled it from the wizard's grasp, and thus The Blue Trident passed beyond human hands.

Retirement

Morogyad retired from public life after his battle with Morogyad, having secured himself the permanent patronage he coveted. He lived to a great age thanks to his brewing and consumption of special mineral tinctures of his own devising. He is said to have recorded the composition of these concoctions, along with further magical secrets, in a second round of Esoterica composed in the language of his adopted home, though these notes are rather less well-attested - and purported copies rather rarer - than those he composed in Tyros.
Morgyad was more forthcoming with magical favours in Oluz than he was in Tyros (another point that leads some to suggest these stories may refer to a separate individual from those detailing his adventures in the south). A body of folklore refers to him presenting powders and tinctures to cure the sick and using magic to alter people's (especially women's) appearances for the better. Some further Morogyad pieces also exist in Oluz, of a discernibly different style to those found in the south, which may be further evidence that the recorded figure of Morogyad has absorbed a different thaumaturge or that his artistic inspiration moved in different directions in the north.
The Sepulchre of Morogyad exists in Oluz and has been maintained for centuries by the officers of the Oluz Customhouse, but tradition dictates that he was not in fact buried there. Rather he left instructions that when he died his should be cast adrift on the Straits of Oluz, on a door. This was done, and his body was carried away by the current, disappearing out of the north-eastern mouth of the Straits, never to be seen again.

Literary/artistic tradition

Depictions of Morogyad's battles with monsters, and of him flying across seas on his discus, are commonly found in pre-Wesmodian nautical art, especially scrimshaw. Some of these pieces are of considerable antiquity, emphasising that Morogyad's connection to the sea, though not especially central to the plot of his life story, is a fundamental aspect of his character. Brass and bronze effigies of Morogyad - recognisable as such either by him carrying the Blue Trident or simply standing with his left hand raised in a waving motion - have also been dated to the pre-Wesmodian era. Some of these pieces represent considerable investment of artistic effort.
Much of the basic shape of Morogyad's life - the notion that he is a son of Zargyod, a powerful wizard who fought and killed Pholdons and Kotophay, and that he possessed a supernatural ability to craft metals - is general knowledge in the Eleven Cities, although popular opinion tends towards scepticism as to whether any of this is actually true. The general populace are mostly of the opinion that Morogyad is a colourful pre-Wesmodian tale; not all people are aware that these stories are even based on a historical individual.
Scholarly opinion tends to look more charitably on Morogyad, though opinions vary as to exactly what sort of weight should be placed on various aspects of the story. A total of nine noteworthy biographies of Morogyad exist. Five of these pre-date the Wesmodian Reformation and demonstrate that he was a focus of cultic awe and devotion, regarded as an earthly representative of his divine father and a thaumaturge of grand skill. These are:
* Godanqs the Younger's Life of Morogyad goes into great detail on his birth, adolescence and early career in Ramoros.
* Hephryan of Tyros's Worthies of Tyros includes a substantial chapter on Morogyad, emphasising the middle movements of his career in Tyros.
* The Ramoros Libram is an anonymous manuscript recording the history of Ramoros. Morogyad is one of several inhabitants of the city to feature in an extensive, digressive chapter on their career.
* Orredelph's Lives of the Wizards describes Morogyad's career in considerable detail in the course of a long chapter explaining the functioning of his cult within the broader worship of Zargyod.
* Typhan of Ramoros's History of Morogyad belabours Morogyad's skill as a metalworker and slayer of monsters.
The other four biographies of Morogyad have been written in the time since the Reformation. He is still generally perceived as a great wizard, though this opinion is not universal and those who hold it tend to take a more measured, analytical approach to his work. These works include:
* Kaydre Ysparo produced a pamphlet-length biographical essay on Morogyad, focusing primarily on his capacity as a figure connected with marine life and the sea.
* A substantial fraction of Tormo Hedryllo's Hedryllian Reflections is given over to biographical explanations of Morogyad's skill as an apothecary and metalworker.
* Ryl Rayan Kol and Selph Taldume collaborated on Footsteps of Morogyad, in which they advance the notion that Morogyad is a combination of multiple historical wizards.
* Ezynon Moronyad's Book of Morogyad grew out of the author's research on the seaborne cult of Zargyod and focuses closely on whether and how his feats might be replicated.
In addition to writings about Moronyad, the thaumaturge himself left a considerable body of his own writings, the Esoterica of Morogyad, which form the basis of a considerable proportion of the thaumatology practised in the Eleven Cities.
Songs and instrumental compositions about Moronyad are also popular entertainment in the customhouses of the Commercial Guilds, especially those of Chogyos and Ramoros, though not, oddly, Oluz or Tyros.

Commentary

Scattered evidence exists to suggest that Morogyad was revered as an intercessory deity between humanity and his divine father. The metal statuettes of the god, it has been noted, bear a considerable resemblance to those of Zargyod used on shipboard altars to the god in pre-Wesmodian times. Their similarity to statues of Zargyod found in a handful of dockyard shrines to the god in Pholyos, Chogyos and Ramoros have even given rise to the possibility that Morogyad was something of a god in his own right, perhaps a local sea deity of the southern and eastern cities who later became entwined with the ascendant cult of the Zargyod in the last few centuries BWR. As the more cosmopolitan Zargyod came to prominence, the identity of the retiring god would naturally be called into question, and the obvious solution to this would be to re-imagine him as the son of the more powerful entity. This school of thought has considerable support, though how to reconcile it with the evident fact that the historical Morogyad appears to have post-dated the emergence of the cult of Zargyod is a point of ticklish controversy.
As a well-documented historical wizard, Morogyad occupies a prominent place in the imaginations and writings of many past and present thaumatologists. 'Morogism' constitutes one of the main strands of thaumatological orthodoxy in the Eleven Cities, insofar as such a small field of study can be divided into orthodoxies and heterodoxies. Morogist thought is divided into two broad schools, the northern and the southern, based on Morogyad's writings from his periods in Oluz and Tyros respectively. Morogists claim considerable expertise in transmuting substances, shaping materials - particularly metal - and brewing potions with effects on the body such as healing and rejuvenation. Northern Morogists tend to make bolder claims than southerners, Though this may be a matter of disciplinary culture rather than actual experimental progress; the northern branch of the school, based on writings in the Oluz dialect, tends to focus on the pursuit of practical effects, while southerners, reading and writing mostly in Insular dialect are more preoccupied with the unification of a set of theoretical precepts.
Considerable antipathy exists between the two schools, both of whom see themselves as the with the southerners dismissing the northerners as reckless fools and the northerners deriding the southerns as plodding collectors of trivia. Overall, however, it must be said that the two schools ultimately share a similar core methodology, which involves the careful translation of mathematical notation in the various books Morogyad wrote into a long series of precise ritualistic gestures (made with the left hand, of course) and incantations to be performed in precise relation to the material objects being manipulated. The practise of these precise and convoluted techniques hinges on the location of genuine, accurate and complete copies of the Esoterica, which is often difficult.