Sacrifice is, in Vala, the principle that blood moves the cosmos: whoever wants something to keep working (the temple, the order, a friend’s life) pays with flesh. It operates in three circles: cosmos, temple and hero.
| World | Vala |
| Spanish entry | Sacrificio |
Principle
Ancient tombs in the region hold painted frescoes of sacrifices, seen by a company that went down to them. In the major myth, the ancient gods “hanged themselves from the tree to save the runes.” Sacrifice keeps the order running; when it fails, grows dearer or stops, the temple, its peoples and even the possibility of killing certain creatures change.
The supply chain
The Temple consumes a steady “supply of sacrifices”. Slavers provide the victims and can cut the supply, and did. At its door the dragon’s heart is sacrificed, one heart per ritual. The kobolds sacrifice to their “great lord”, buy victims, complain (“they charge us so much, it can’t be”) and conclude, “we have to pay them to bring more”; they judge by eye: “you saw they bled”, “the sacrifice worked.” “A little less than 5 or 6” victims were sacrificed to the dragon, “a little at a time.” In the city there are signs of children in rituals; in the children’s rite thirteen arms are counted.
One’s own flesh
A limb can buy another’s return from death: “he gave his arm so his friend would return”; Foggimer was resurrected by that arm. To kill the Creature, one companion must sacrifice himself; the rest are saved, and he is trapped or condemned, permanently marked. A queen dances while the Golden Guard executes the dragon, “as long as she chooses to keep dancing.”
Open questions
- Whether the three circles share clergy, theology or only an economy; no officiants, altars or instruments are described.
- Whether the kobolds’ “great lord” is the temple’s power.
- Whether the queen is Rantar Alfa, and whether she dances by choice.
- Thirteen children, or thirteen arms of fewer.
- What happens when the supply dries up; no price is given.
- Whether the frescoes show these rites, and whether the dragon’s heart at the door and the Golden Guard’s execution are one rite or two.