What no Scholar knows

Spears of the Telmori

Have you ever faced a lone Telmori with his spear ? No ? Perhaps that is why you still live. Learn why to us Telmori the only useful thing is our spear and how it is made.

When a young Telmori has lived over seven winters his uncle and a Tergavi take him to the sacred grove where the wolfspirits howl all day and night. They spend the night in this grove and the Tergavi tells the story of Deathbringer the first Telmori who used Death.

In those days Death was a long and pointed stick that could not be broken. Later Deathbringer was acclaimed King Peace because his weapon had brought peace to all Telmori. It was him who taught all Telmori the Grav-hrug-rihr, the Blood-Spear-Ritual.

In its process the spear gains a special bond with its owner and its brother. Thus it becomes part of the owner and is filled with his life force. And this is how the ritual is done :

When the Tergavi, the young and his uncle awake they all begin to search for the right wood for the shaft. It must be hard and it must be thick and it must suit the young Telmori as it should suit him when he has grown up. The first to search for the wood is the uncle. The young Telmori stays with the Tergavi who tells stories of many brave Telmori who had nothing but their spears to survive. The most prominent is the story of King Seven-spears and his wolfbrother who were caught by seven bandits.

The bandits wanted to mock of the King and told him he should live if he could throw three of his spears towards three different directions at the same time and hit three of the bandits who were standing 100 steps away. They laughed a lot until he took all his seven javelins in his hands and threw them. Everyone hit a bandit's heart and King Seven-spears and his wolfbrother were free.

While the Tergavi tells the stories the uncle returns with wood for a spear. Then the youth departs to search for himself. He has time until next day. Then he must present the wood to the Tergavi who decides which one is better, the one of his uncle or his own. If the youth fails to present better wood than his uncle he must wait another winter to try joining the warriors. But if he succeeds he is admitted to join the warriors of Telmor and the ritual goes on.

The next step is the search of a good tip. The tip can be made of either stone or bone. Bones are preferred because stone breaks more easily and is harder to form to the right shape. So usually the youth and his wolfbrother are forced to hunt a beast of a recognisable size, a boar or a bear would be perfect. This hunt is done on a wildday which is the traditional day for hunting. Anything the youth and his wolfbrother bring to the Tergavi that day will be made to the spear's tip. The meat is used for a celebration of the successful youth.

After this night the Tergavi meditates a full night over the spear to make it a good and a blessed weapon. On the next ruthrr the youth is supposed to train with his spear as much as he can. His final test is to be victorious over a warrior. Not before he has done it is he accepted as a warrior himself.

Now you might ask what is so special about this spears we Telmori use. It seems that they are like those you use. Perhaps it seems like they are the same but they are not. If you use your spears do you feel them as parts of you, do you feel pain if they are hit ? A Telmori spear is only useful to its owner even a relative can not use it. But the best thing about Telmori spears is that they are nearly unbreakable on wilddays. Only damage done to them by poison metal and magic can break them. Before any magic takes effect on such a spear it first must overcome the owner's soulpower.

This is why we Telmori love our spears, because they are parts of our self and of our brothers.