|
Kith are often depicted as murderous savages naked or clad in animal skins, berserk and howling into battle, immune to weapons, and often appearing more like animals than men. Berserks are described as leaping about before battle, or pacing like a caged animal, or biting upon their shields. However, that concept reflects not ordinary Kith warriors, but a description of a special group of fighters known as berserkers or Kornunnos, the chosen of "Kornun, the Horned God".
"… his men went without mailcoats, and were as frantic as dogs or wolves; they bit their shields and were as strong as bears or boars; they slew men but neither fire nor iron could hurt them. This is known as running berserk."
Raised by Druids apart from other Kith and put through particularly rigorous Kles trials, these savages work themselves into furies of rage before they wade into battle, and continue to fight right even after death. Legends speak of Kith berserks who fought against impossible odds covering the battlefield with heaps of carcasses and mounds of severed heads. A wise commander does not try to control them, but simply lets them go...
Indeed, Kith who who have been touched by Kornun revel in sacred battle madness, disregarding their own safety and cleaving anything that stands before them. Once a Kith berserker gives in to his rage, he unleashes all of the glorious frenzy and anger of all his ancestors. The strength of the berserker is redoubled, and he becomes immune to pain, living only to smash and rend and kill. Berserkers are said to posses the strength of many men, and they are impervious to harm from iron. The burial ceremony of a true warrior is a huge pyre built of the bodies of his opponents, and Kornunnos are the elite Kith warriors.
Druids prepare and test their elite warriors often in rigorous Kles training and rites of passage. It is the Druids who name those warriors destined to become Kornunnos, for they can sense the favor of Kornun on a newborn child. They name children and cast them into the pits, leaving them to fend for themselves against wild beasts and the fury of the elements, and feed them a diet of blood and offal. Lean and hungry, the unfortunates are made to fight rabid dogs and beasts, so that they might be afflicted with that horrible madness. Those few who survive emerge from the pits more beasts than men, whose mouths froth when they fight, hideous warriors thirsty for blood and slaughter--the blessed of Kornun. These frightful warriors posses senses and reflexes keen as animals, and seem more beast than man.
All too often, the Kornunnos seem to be more at home among a pack of wild animals than men, and usually dwell apart from other Kith in warbands of up to a dozen berserk brothers. It is the role of the Hichana, or wise women, to teach the berserker to control his impulses, releasing them only in battle. The Hichana have ancient, secret rituals that tame the inner beast within the warrior. These ceremonies are acts of worship of Danu and Kornun, holy mysteries that only the Hichana fully understand.
|
Login
