Humakt Divides Life from Death

Humakt learns how to fight, and gains and loses Death. Recovering it, he carves a chasm between the dead and the living.

## Complete Myth

Humakt was once Orlanth’s older brother. Both were sons of Umath, the Biggest Storm.

Even in his youth Humakt loved to fight. Back then you could win or lose a fight, but you couldn’t die from it, because death didn’t exist yet. Humakt fought everyone he could, and lost as often as he won. Oftener, perhaps.

So he gathered together his determination and decided to be the best at fighting. Back then the best fighter was the war god Kargan Tor. Humakt went to the Cosmic Mountain to seek his tutelage.

Kargan Tor said, “Fight me a hundred times. By the end you might learn something.”

Orlanth Rattle-Shaker and Vadrus Sharpwind and Urox Big Bull, brothers all, showed up to muscle in on Humakt’s training.

“I am the most splendid, so I will fight Kargan Tor more times than anyone,” Orlanth said.

“I am the most vicious, so I will hurt Kargan Tor so badly he will relent,” Vadrus said.

“Uhhhrraooaraaoorah,” Urox said. That is how he spoke in those days.

Humakt said nothing. He fought the first fight against Kargan Tor, who dropped him to the ground with a single blow.

It took one blow to knock Orlanth down, too.

Vadrus didn’t get hit because he didn’t try. He meant to sneak up on Kargan Tor and hit him from behind. But the Cosmic Mountain always gave the older god the higher ground. So Vadrus howled away.

One blow knocked Urox out cold, but he did not notice that this had happened, and endured two more blows before he finally fell.

Seeing that Vadrus had given up, Urox and Orlanth considered doing so also. But Humakt got back up to go another round. Ashamed, they stayed to join him.

None of the brothers fared well.

After being knocked down nine times, Orlanth’s hair was askew and his dignity in tatters. “If I am to take on a mightier foe, let me fight the sun, who has insulted me and has married the woman I like,” he said.

After being knocked down forty times, Urox staggered off and did not return. “Uhrrrh,” he said, meaning that the foe worth getting smacked about for did not exist yet. He had nothing against Kargan Tor and thus could not arouse his fury.

But Humakt fought Kargan Tor a hundred times, and in his final fight knocked him down. “That is the lesson,” Humakt and Kargan Tor said, speaking the same thought at the same time.

“I have great power now,” Humakt said, “but how shall I wield it?”

“That you will learn at the Gate of Introspection,” said Kargan Tor, imparting his final lesson.

So Humakt went to that Deep Place and spent a timeless time there, more timeless than all the other periods in which gods do things, for they are not limited by time. Partway through his meditation at the gate Humakt accepted his power as a god. Though what he was a god of, was not yet determined.

When Humakt returned to the fort where he had lived with his brothers, he saw that everything was about to change. The stickpicker Eurmal, who was a raven and a caterpillar and many other things besides, had discovered the sword called Death. He lifted it up to slay his friend, an even lowlier individual known as Grandfather Mortal. Humakt took the sword from this irresponsible sot, but it was too late. The sword, in his hand, had not finished its business. It swung to slay Grandfather Mortal. He was not only the first person, but also the first person to die.

Humakt resolved to control this power, as only he could wield it with dispassion and honor.

Immediately Orlanth wanted it, to use against the sun. Humakt refused him, so Orlanth stole it—a reprehensible crime against a kinsman. He used it to slay the sun, blanketing the world with the dark clouds the storm folk loved. When he gave it back to Humakt it was only a sliver. By striking the mightiest object in the heavens, he had shattered the sword into countless pieces.

“I can be your kinsman no more,” Humakt said. Orlanth begged and pleaded, for though he was already a god of storm and daring, he had not undergone the trials to become god of kingship. Humakt used what was left of the sword to sever his ties with the Orlanth family, and was no longer his brother.

With the sword broken, many of those killed by it had come back into the world as cruel shades, to haunt, harry and vex the living. Grandfather Mortal howled back as Grandfather Deadflesh. The part of the Emperor that was red came back as Shargash, the Demon Sun. A wolf that attacked Humakt came back as Vivamort.

Humakt fought them all, and their minions too, as he sought the pieces of the Sword. Slivers eluded him, falling into the hands of outlander gods, like War Troll and Black Bat and even a wandering dog. Still, when he had most of the fragments he found a smith to make it anew.

He tested it a few times to be sure it was whole. Then he used it to carve the chasm between life and death. Some call this a wall, or a veil. Of course it is those things too, but you can’t make a wall or a veil with a sword, so an abyss it surely was.

The dead all fell into the abyss. Some landed in the underworld. Others, some but sadly not all of the good dead, made it to Orlanth’s hall. So Humakt had to go back there to ensure they would be honorably treated and not let back out again.

When Orlanth saw him, he was angry and called him a Stranger. Though this was true, it was no reason to fight. Orlanth was a king now and demanded obedience. “We have no ties,” Humakt answered. Orlanth realized too late that Humakt had the sword again. In rushing his former brother, he ran into the blade, impaling himself. He fell also into the abyss, where he remains to this day.

Elmal, a good piece of the sun that had traveled to Humakt’s hall along with the dead, said that he would take the blame for this, and say that Orlanth had asked him to do it. Humakt did not insist on this, as it would have been dishonorable. Elmal’s flame turned Orlanth’s lifeless body to ashes.

Humakt went back to patrol the edges of the abyss, for a new force had crept into the world, one aligned with Vivamort. This was Wakboth the Chaos. It started to break down the wall, tear at the veil, and pile corpse upon corpse to use as ladders to turn the abyss into a staircase.

Humakt stands ready to fight. The story is not yet over.