Skallgr
Skallgr is an ancient, ruined rylak village located in the sweltering Kalmansa Wilds on the jungle planet of Eryn. It is most notable in history for being the brutal pack that enslaved and tortured the elven mage Cariel (who later became known as Magona and Calarel) one hundred thousand years ago, an act that sparked a planetary genocide.
Geography and Environment
Before its complete destruction, Skallgr was a primitive but highly functional settlement built to withstand the harsh conditions of the Wilds. The village was laid out with dirt roads and rows of rickety wooden houses constructed from supple mangrove shafts, making them strong but porous to the jungle elements.
Key locations within the village included:
- The Central Kitchens: A bustling complex that fed the village's three hundred citizens. It was strictly off-limits to rylak unless they were dropping off fresh meat. Staffed entirely by elven slaves, it featured shelves of fresh-baked bread, a firepit for roasting massive cavek, and open stone basins where palm sap was fermented into skondul liquor.
- The Sauna Tent: A massive tent where the rylak warriors gathered before dinner to boast about their kills and engage in dominance displays.
- Hloldr's Hut: A typical rylak dwelling featuring a dirt floor and a large stone cistern for holding water.
Culture and Factions
Skallgr was home to a pack of about three hundred rylak, ruled through a brutal hierarchy of strength. Led by the female packleader Svalya, the village's society revolved entirely around the Hunt. The rylak regularly hunted tapir, boar, and birds, but the most important event was the dangerous Hunt for the massive, hundred-foot-tall cavek.
The pack sustained itself using enslaved ellr, whom they viewed as weak, subservient creatures. While Svalya nominally enforced rules against breeding with or unnecessarily maiming the slaves, rylak enforcers could not be everywhere, and horrific abuses were common—especially when the rylak were intoxicated on skondul during Huntfire celebrations.
Key Events
The Storeroom Assault
During a chaotic night celebrating a successful cavek Hunt, three intoxicated rylak slipped away to the kitchen storeroom, cornering and assaulting the elven slave Tilla. Cariel, another slave, attempted to rescue her friend by pulling down heavy wooden shelves onto the attackers. While she managed to momentarily escape, she was caught and brutally slashed across the face by rylak claws—the grievous injury that ultimately destroyed her eyes and left her permanently blind.
The Torture of Velatha
Believing that the elven slaves harbored secrets of magic, the rylak torturer Thrugin tied the kitchen master Velatha to a chair and interrogated her. When Velatha insisted she knew nothing, Thrugin lost control and slashed her chest open with his claws. Svalya arrived to reprimand Thrugin for ruining the slave, but Velatha succumbed to her wounds and died. Witnessing this senseless murder through the eyes of her soulbound birds, Cariel vowed to destroy the entire village.
The Massacre of Skallgr
Seeking absolute vengeance, Cariel assembled a terrifying, soulbound army of twenty-four cavek, six kabul wildcats, and hundreds of deadly sakul birds. She waited until the rylak warriors were gathered unarmed in the sauna tent before unleashing her beasts.
The attack was an utter massacre. The cavek trampled the huts and destroyed the kitchens, scattering the cookfire embers and setting the entire village ablaze. The sakul birds picked off rylak from the sky, while the kabul and cavek tore the pack apart. Despite the rylak's ferocious attempts to fight back, Skallgr was completely razed to the ground, and its inhabitants were wiped out. Though Svalya managed to locate Cariel in the jungle and slit her throat, the village of Skallgr was no more.