Baggil and Tekagol
Where is Tekagol?
West of Raul and Zyrine across a bay and on a great grassland, Tekagol is around the curve of Theoma from Zyrine yet provides much of the farmland enjoyed by that great clifftop city.
How is Tekagol classified?
Benevolent, but barely. Tekagoli luck is famously bad. Almost nothing life-ruining ever happens to anyone in Tekagol, but bad things happen to people in Tekagol almost constantly. It's an unlucky theome that just doesn't ruin lives. It protects people like a benevolent theome, while hurting them. Some geomancers insist that it should be classified as a Negotiable theome, and it stays an unpopulous rurality despite protecting people.
That said, death is basically unknown here. Nobody dies in Tekagol. They just aren't lucky until they leave again.
What kind of population and economy does Tekagol have?
Tekagol is known as "the Hermit Farmer Kingdom," a phrase that says it all. The rural lands here are almost totally without entertainment for most visitors, though some storm-fans move in as they discover that the unlucky weather here isn't ever unlucky enough to kill anyone. Windstorms shatter poorly built buildings on the regular here, but dragons dance in these windstorms without fear.
In general, being fearless is advantageous in Tekagol, because people who fearlessly persist through minor crisis after minor crisis discover the deeper secret of Tekagol: that persistence pays off and the bad luck of the theome never breaks anyone. There are merchants from Tekagol who learned patient asceticism which serves them well anywhere in minimizing risk and expense while getting them through setbacks with an optimistic attitude.
That said, living in Tekagol is devastatingly boring for people who aren't made anxious by the parade of dubious luck. It's a rural region. There are farms and forestry. Not much happens, and nothing devastating. There is the sense that nothing changes here long-term, especially since ambitious plans fall apart.
The biggest 'city' in Tekagol is the market town of Torless, where farmers throughout Tekagol bring their produce and merchants from other theomes visit to ship food away from Tekagol.
What is Baggil like?
Some people think that Baggil is sadistic for constantly inflicting bad luck on people, but the truth is that Baggil is very egalitarian and hostile to ambition. People in Tekagol are supposed to be introverts minding their own business while being cautious yet stubborn in developing their affairs. Charitable plans get farther than greedy plans, too. Persistence pays off more than depending on luck. By constant slight misfortune, people here are taught the lesson that what can go wrong will, and they eventually develop resilience in their planning.
Baggil is not known to incarnate or communicate directly with anyone, and it is historically unclear how exactly people came to believe in a particular land god named Baggil. Geomancers generally believe that Baggil used Fate to manipulate people into believing that Baggil exists. In the imagination of artists depicting them, Baggil may take any form, but usually resembles a great red orb made of little abstract eye symbols. Those who intend to describe the land god of Tekagol are drawn into certain patterns, especially if they do this work directly within Tekagol itself. Strengthening this conjecture, the greatest adherence to the pattern comes from those who perform such scribework while wearing a Blindfold of True Faith.
What is the Fate Beacon that Baggil maintains over Tekagol?
Tekagol is constantly exporting its luck everywhere in Theoma. Baggil studies lives to discover how mild to moderate bad luck can affect people without destroying them, and the Beacon over Tekagol (known as a Tekagoli Luck Beacon) provides a small, stubborn influence pulling back on the luck of people all across Theomes. Other land gods implement Baggil's suggestions as a way to modify prosperity in their theomes. Without this beacon and others like it, "Tekagoli Luck Curses" would not work everywhere in Theoma.
Whether Tekagoli Luck is any good is a subject of substantial question and as such the beacon is a subject of substantial opposition. Fatebreaker shrines are more common on Theoma because travelling here specifically to break the connection with an unwanted beacon is so particularly resented.
Continent
Tachamund
Local Jewel
Raul and Zyrine
Beacon
Tegakoli Luck Beacon
Fate Pressure
4/5 (Mildly Sadistic)
Local Region:
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