THE TOKARG

Outsiders call them man-apes, which is the sort of name explorers invent when they wish to turn ignorance into taxonomy. They call themselves Tokarg: tok, meaning person, and karg, meaning all or many. The common translation is “all the people.” Everything else must prove its usefulness.

​

They are immense, long-armed people with dark hides beneath coats of copper, russet, brown, and black. Those who mistake their appearance for stupidity seldom have time to revise the opinion. The Tokarg speak their own language, smelt bronze, work tin, maintain permanent settlements, and organize armies.

​

Their citadels stand upon foundations far older than the Tokarg. Precisely fitted ancient stone supports generations of halls, furnaces, terraces, and fighting platforms. A place beginning with Dur rests upon these inherited ruins. The Tokarg see little difference between possessing a thing and having made it.

Tokarg society is governed by strength. A warlord rules because he can hold the hall; his champions remain loyal because none has yet decided to kill him. Yet the most dangerous figure may be the old Tin-Keeper who controls the ingots and remembers what every ambitious warrior owes him.

​

A Tokarg receives a personal name at birth but earns a by-name through deeds, wounds, possessions, or memorable insults. Thus one encounters Eats-Bronze, Grey-Back, The Iron Knife, and Would-Not. Reputation is their only lasting currency, and a sufficiently bold Tokarg may take another’s name after defeating him.

​

Steel, tools, rope, mirrors, and bells are prized above coins or jewels. Trade is possible, although one should never confuse a successful exchange with friendship. The Tokarg possess the same word for give and take, which summarizes their diplomacy more efficiently than several unfortunate expeditions have managed.

​

They fear deep water, raid their neighbors and one another, and take captives to work their mines. Calling them beasts excuses them too easily. Beasts do not build kingdoms, calculate the value of prisoners, or arrange a succession before the former warlord’s blood has dried. The Tokarg are people. That is precisely what makes them dangerous.

Address a Tokarg by his by-name. Bring metal. Keep deep water behind you. Should he call you Good Meat, conclude the conversation immediately.

​

—Lantern of the Thirteenth Word