Lore24 Jan 30: Goats

There is no animal more beloved by the gods than the humble goat. No one knows the reason for this, but it’s clear as day to those who are knowledgeable in the ways of the world. Almost a full third of goats are born with the ability to speak, and a more than half of such goats have other magical powers besides. This is unusually high for animals and even amongst humanoids, those blessed with powers are more rare. This cannot be the result of anything other than divine favoritism. Legend has it, that before Atar-Numash gifted cattle to mortals, goats were considered to be the best sacrificial animals and were offered to the gods by the hundreds. It was in fact the goats themselves who pleaded the Unconquerable Sky Father to deliver them from the sharp knives and sacrificial altars of men, and this was the reason Atar-Numash decided to bestow cattle upon the world to spare goats of such a grisly fate.

For this reason goat sacrifices are quite rare nowadays, as people loathe to offend the Sky Father. However some of the Underworld deities do not care much for Atar-Numash or his cattle, so they sometimes still require goats to be sacrificed.

Despite the large number of intelligent goats, they don’t seem to care much for the comforts of civilization, quite content roughing it out in the wilderness. They do, however have a very old, and complicated tradition of philosophy and oration. They hold rather long and excessively detail-oriented debates on the nature of the world, magic, and the divine. While these discussions usually go over the heads of most people, several prophets, mystics, and powerful sorcerers started their careers with spending years in the mountains, listening to the intense debates of the goats. Anyone trying to emulate their success has to be an expert tracker and a master of stealth though, for the debaters are hard to locate and even if found, if they notice someone listening in, they just start mercilessly mocking the listener, and refuse to do anything else until they leave.

 Image by Sergii Kovalov