Please see the follow-up post for exposition.
Origin StoryThe Vherokior are a desert people. They are a race and culture borne by wandering the bleakest climes of Matar in search of elusive resources and scattered opportunities to trade. Ancient nomads, in their exile they were forced to exist in harmony with the unforgiving environment, and due to what is perhaps an innate yearning for purpose amidst the wastes, they sought to associate the physical phenomena they experienced with some form of mystic origin. These associations extended also to their living co-inhabitants in the desert, the flora and fauna of the Sobaki Sands and outlands northward.
Furthermore, their wanderings forced them to develop means of communicating across space and time that would not require extensive written language or the expenditure of ungainly materials. What evolved over generations of roaming the dunes and badlands were a litany of markings used to convey a wide variety of messages to others who traversed the wastes
1.
Among these are those pathmarks based on the desert totems of the Vherokior, visual indications of the totemic portfolios presiding over a place, condition, or time. They can issue warnings, provide directions, or convey concepts of cultural significance
2 to those who can recognize them.
Ancient GuidesSpending generations observing the movements and behaviors of plants and animals endemic to the harshness of the Greater Sobaki Desert, the Vherokior learned much of what they needed in order to survive exile. Over time, these survival tactics became folk wisdom, from which grew a deeper mysticism about the interconnectedness of living beings in the material world, and the spirits which guide such beings. The animal movements and behaviors they observed amidst the shifting sands and fickle winds soon became the templates upon which they could weave their own survival story. As the bloodline expanded, the experiences of emerging Clan and Familial branches colored the perception of these marks, and eventually meanings became quite diverse.
Scorpion
In old days, the “Hermit of the Wastes” was a sign of patience and perseverance in the face of severity, as its namesake is known for surviving for many years in punishing environs while subsisting only on prey unfortunate enough to cross its path. A desert dweller who was to be admired and granted a respectful distance, this concept formed the heart of the pathmarks’ ancient interpretations, ‘move with caution’ or ‘hazard here’.
Shrike
“Death on the Wing” has historically been less open to interpretation than many other pathmarks. A brutal and undiscriminating predator, the shrike was said guide the spirits of the dead to the otherworld
3. Shamans in particular view the sign as beneficent, as they view the shrike as one who bears the messages from the ancestors across the void to the living, and so have historically employed it in relation to sacred funerary rites. To the less spiritually inclined, the marking has been utilized to warn of mortal danger or threat of violence, but also to denote justice.
Mouse
An unassuming and yet remarkable desert survivor, “the Prudent” mouse will claw and chew into the barren earth to make its home in its own way. Its ability to thrive in desolation, collecting the necessities of subsistence into its hidden abodes, have made it a symbol of resourcefulness, planning, and shelter. To the ancient wanderers, the pathmark would frequently be used to indicate nearby caches of medicinal herbs or foodstuffs, as well as potential shelters in which to escape the elements.
Beetle
Those who were unable to escape exposure to those same elements, or who were forced to contend with particularly catastrophic circumstances might employ “the Blasted” as a warning to others to seek another path or prepare for unpropitious happenstance. It was also often used to show where food stores were empty or spoiled, resources were unusable, shelters were compromised, or to signal the need to move on. It was in ancient days considered a particularly inauspicious sign to encounter on one’s journey.
Serpent4
In the desert, water is life. The scarcity of water, from what can be found in scattered plant life, animal blood, or carried on the wind, lends the command of water a great power. To the early nomads of the Greater Sobaki desert, “the Keeper of Secrets” embodied this power, for what better creature to guard the life-sustaining water than one which never drinks? In this way, the serpent became a powerful symbol for life, and the pathmark was customarily placed when water was nearby in order to protect the source.
Modern ParlanceOf course, these origins inhabit the distant past, and though the Minmatar take pride in preserving what traditions survived the conquest of the Amarr, the had long before evolved a sophisticated and technologically advanced civilization. Through ages of industrialization, technical innovation, and social revolution, many of the Vherokior’s old symbols were forgotten, fell out of use, or were transformed into a more representative form given the changes of the age and the influence of other Minmatar.
Revisiting the above examples, we can explore some of the possible shifts in definition over time as the Vherokior inhabited a somewhat fluid position in the development of the Minmatar civilization as a whole.
The mouse, for example, for a time became associated with successful traders, later being more closely related with shrewd female merchants, and gained further specificity (in light of the Minmatar tribal expansion into space) vie relation to the matriarchs of mercantile families with a significant network of contacts and assets. Being associated with the totem became a marque of respect, and those employing the pathmark in their business set a very high bar for themselves. Since enslavement, and after the rebellion and foundation of the Republic, there have been numerous ideogrammatical tweaks by the various clans that have filled the power vacuum over the last few centuries. For instance, the mouse drawn with no tail is emblematic of one who breaks agreements or makes false claims, and has been used with some regularity to mark assets of the Nefantar, should an enterprising Vherokior happen to come upon them.
There are numerous other examples of variations among clans: those of a more shamanic bent may use the mark of the shrike to indicate a burial site, place for prayer, or a locus of special significance to the clan’s ancestors; some modify the old mark of the scorpion with an arrangement of motes (as the young riding the mother’s back) signifying a powerful family, while others use it as a symbol for potent medicines; the mark of the beetle became widespread after the slave revolts as a signal of conveyance to safety, escape from harm, and later of the great exodus back to the Minmatar homeworlds
5; altered versions of the serpent mark, some showing hashmarks on the tail for instance, have been used by some clans to indicate extraordinary security or strong show of physical force.
These are but some of many possible examples, covering only a handful of marks relating to ancient desert totems. There may yet be innumerable others with more nuanced interpretations based on more complex and modern concepts, but the Vherokior are slow to reveal the workings of their argot.
~
[1] It is likely that the extensive vocabulary of symbolic visual elements and radicals developed on that account forms the basis of the complex cultural messages tattooed upon Vherokior faces. Data about territories, family histories and genealogical connections, clan allegiances, personal deeds of bravery, and so forth, are delivered clearly with little more than a glance through their inclusion, arrangement, size, and positioning relative to one another.
[2] It seems plausible that this type of symbolism could have fed into the melange of concepts concocted from the exposure to the shamanism of the other Minmatar Tribes in the development of the Voluval.
[3] PF suggests that, while interpretations vary, there is a sentiment among many tribals of an existence beyond death, a sentiment which persists in present-era New Eden ‘Otherworld’ here is used as a catch-all surrogate.
[4] We know from the in-game assets that the Vherokior attached some spiritual significance to the serpent, and that it was implied to carry both positive and negative connotations.
[5] It has been suggested that the symbol currently used by the Republic Fleet, resembling a flying scarab, may be related to a modified version of this mark, when ships smuggling the newly freed slaves from Amarr space had to be designated surreptitiously.
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Topic: Vherokior Pathmarks (Read 1184 times)