Ka-prit-prit

**Ka-prit-prit** Hobgoblin walled encampment. Isolationist.

Ka-prit-prit is a mystery to most of the continent. Shaped like a literal thorn in the side of Ragnnloth, it pushes its borders with impressive and imposing spiked and tiered palisade. Ratified politically at the victory conference of Kalev with bendattan. As being a nation of exclusively goblinoids, mostly hobgoblins, this seemingly an indication of Kalev acknowledging the sovereignty of folk who were considered lesser in the age of the elves. They have yet to attend any of the conferences since, no summits and have tersely replied to any trade offers or similar diplomatic conversation. This is were knowledgable people end the discussion on Ka-prit-prit, and commentators predict starvation, civil war and chaos to be within the walls.

Of course, this is not the case. In the rare cases someone may visit Ka-prit-prit they find a relatively harmonious theocracy. Councils of governance are held with voices from a passionate military defence force and civilian ministers reporting to the ‘high priest of the five paths.’ The religion of the Ka-prit-prit venerates all five goddesses equally, preaching a moderation in all aspects of personality that reflect the balance of the primal forces. The goddesses have aspects that are entirely unique to within the walls of the settlement, and even a religious scholar may struggle to identify the iconography that has developed from this separate hobgoblin worship.

The current high priest of the five paths is green goblin named Gkranin, who is in his unprecedented 96th year of life. Gkranin or Teacher as he is often called, happily plays the role of a caring but distant grandfather to the settlement. While not many survive, some remember the young and fiery priest who walked with knights behind him, refused to give their enemies quarter and turned the tide of battles with his miraculous command of elements. The prit defence army is headed by a hobgoblin swordmaster named Vavraroz, famed for his adopted orc son Vavrog, who serves as his chief lieutenant. The current official of the secular ministry is Fetrithia Igzag, a goblin silk weaver, cloth saleswoman and popular pillar of the community. Gkranin has final say on all decisions but places a meditative quality on deliberation.

Ka-prit-prit believes the number five is divine, and as such many structures are built on pentagons and pentangles. The centre pentagon of the high ward has five temples on each tip, which the folk of the city celebrate parading between on holidays. Sixir is called the Hokékaso, gem mistress in common, as the material cost of spells and what they can produce is what is most prized in goblin culture. The common stories of Hokékaso show her great intelligence and magical bounty, but also her obsessions and the danger of her distance from the world around her. This negative view of the first goddess would be tantamount to heresy in most cathedrals of Sixir, but blossoms in Ka-prit-prit. Takamul’s name is unchaged, as she has origins in the older tongue. She is depicted as a bugbear, a keen huntress and also mother figure. In Ka-prit-prit, the goblins venerate her to never forget they are part of the cog, and dispite all their grand machinations, they remain animal under her protection. She also appeals to unity between the three goblinoid folk, and in visions priests that attend her churches have heard her spirits say that all peoples are united at a root. Kushinda-atop-the-skulls-drinking-the-blood-never-defeated is given her honorifics and much of her same imagery across the goblinoids. But she is not venerated the same way as in their closed goblinoid neighbour, Eautipet. Those who managed to sneak into the walled boarders have mistakenly thought all the idols of the settlement to be Kushinda, which would be true of lost of outsider goblins left in the wake of arghig’s march. Takamul and Kushinda are considered to be the raw passions that a Ka-prit-prit goblin must temper with the magic, society and memory of death that ground the impulsive nature of a spirit.

Given their short lives in comparison to the other peoples of the cog, memory and acceptance of death is an important motivation for the lives of the Goblinfolk. Jubunshi is the ka-prit-prit name for Etolik, and she lacks the connection with the moon she has in most cog temples. She is a simple skeleton in a shroud of fine worm silks, her cutting blade forever sheathed. Jubunshi looks like all things to all beings and she is said to stand in the doorway of every party, sweep the floor of every workshop and whisper in the ear of every child. Traditionally, the religon of the five ways has no afterlife, though stories of ascending the cog appear in their faith books. Leholimo is another deity whose veneration in Ka-prit-prit would be a blasphemy, especially in neighbouring Ragnnloth who worships her solely as a monotheistic cult. Hensoli, as she is called, is the masked woman. She wears a mask of beautiful designs, different in each depiction. She may be a goblin or a hobgoblin or a bugbear under her disguise, but she also looks remarkably like a human or a dwarf in some pieces. As allegory is so crucial to the religion of the five paths, all these imply the changing nature of our lives together as beings in a society. Her mask is the face she wishes to show, a way of remaining stoic in the face of her sister’s more explicit natures and domains.

Life in Ka-prit-prit is quiet, contemplative. Built on structures and around the calendar, the religion of the five paths tries to impart a love of existence despite the threats all around them. They have acquired and crafted much beauty, grown many rare and wonderful flora and created culture alien across the cog. All of these things are prised by those who hear whispers of them, thieves and rogues assault the palisades. This grows the myth of an angry camp of monstrous goblins. Only a tiny few know of the clandestine methods of imports that those who have the favour of the civilian ministers are permitted to offer. These business relationships are very personal, and incredibly lucrative given the gold prices a good from outside the walls can command.

The majority of the prized pets, cattle and wildlife of Ka-prit-prit are large bugs, insects and arachnids. Priests maintain trees of citrus fruits, leafy herbs and root vegetables in the temples of Takamul. Alcohol is not consumed here regularly, and tea houses serve the position of taverns in the social circles. A sweet but very strong plum liquor known as Grakamush is drunk maybe twice a cogyear.