On Mularos

This short discussion on Mularos was published by the bookseller Gloumerrick, then released once again with a significantly different binding style. Therefore, this version of "On Mularos" can be considered a Third Edition. Hopefully, the fourth incarnation will expound further on the ideas presented therein.

Mularos is among the more misunderstood and misrepresented Arkati in the Lornon Pantheon. His powers are derived partially from worship, as are those of most Arkati, but his true strength comes from the giving, receiving, and sufferance of pain. This is enough in the minds of most Liabo followers to brand Mularos as evil. Nowhere has this been more clearly represented than in the Temple of Icemule Trace, where after its reconstruction the Sorrower was represented as a muscular and terrifying presence bathed in blood. Only after intense efforts by local Mularosians was his statue razed and replaced.

Mularos is like neither V’Tull, who delights only in the screams and slaughter of the battlefield, nor Ivas, whose enjoyment comes only from the twisting of love to cause mental anguish. Rather, he exists somewhere between the two. He is the spirit of torture, of the mind, of the spirit, of the body.

There is nothing inherently evil about pain, or any of agony’s facets. Life is a study of hurt. Why, then, is it considered wrong for those who wish to enjoy that hurt, or even aid others in the experience of it? The simple answer is that society’s image of Mularos contrasts with his true being.

For centuries, ‘proper’ members of the social order have spread disease and infection about with the name of the Paingiver. It is true that many a sect—a cult, if you will—has grown about a charismatic yet self-serving leader and attracted its members into orgiastic rites of pain and gore-drenched perversion. These incidents do serve Mularos’s requirements for agony, but they do not serve Mularos.

As a brief segue, it should be noted that any assertions that Mularos is not the focus of any proper religion are patently false. At the time of this writing, his ordained High Priest, the Rose, is the Pain Lord Eryael Ladrynith. A number of members of his Order, including the Whip of Mularos, Harith Caerines, have made themselves present during this second struggle for the Griffin Sword. This battle currently rages across Elanthia’s face, and thus it would be imprudent, for safety’s purposes, to reveal the names of lesser Mularosians of the Order.

The service of Mularos is not, primarily, the service of self, but this is a lesson learned only in time. Many students of pain come to Mularos first because of personal need. Humility comes later, or does not. Those who do not grow to accept that the whims of the Sorrower supercede the wishes of his children cannot go far in his service. To follow an Arkati devoutly is to sacrifice, and we of Mularos accept the pains of sacrifice as a fitting reward for our devotion.

Another prevalent myth of Mularos that must be dispersed is that his followers relish and revel in all pain, and thus are immune to it, or wish it brought constantly upon their person. The giving and receiving of agony is an art that takes time and perseverance to fully comprehend. It has been said that one can never torture a Mularosian. Indeed, the result would seem at odds with the goal. The primary reason that few servants of the Sorrower easily give way under torture is that they have experienced wounds far greater, deftly planned to cause maximal anguish, during their training.

The gift of physical pain is only the most tangible of Mularosian arts. It is rarely practiced alone. Instead, the best of Mularosians rely upon a combination of tortures—physical, emotional, and spiritual—to accomplish our tasks.

What we do is neither evil nor depraved. It is in service to our Arkati. Although sometimes hurt is used to accomplish his worldly purposes, the primary goal of most Mularosians is to aid others: Every mortal being is a canvas, clean and deserving of paint. It is the job of the Sorrower’s children to limn that empty space with the artwork of agony, and thus to create beauty from plainness. For now, it is fated that persecution and prejudice come in hand with our duties.

They are merely forms of pain, and acceptable as such.

~ Tierus Morvaenus

Return now to the Lesser Scrolls.