The Groke
Planar rilmani aurumach priest-sage of Grammmatology [they/them] / N
“The Groke? … yes … that’s a difficult subject … one has to be more specific, you see, in as much that might be possible. I remember meeting the Groke once, or maybe twice. One can never be quite sure …
“I suppose I had better start from earlier than now. I won’t say the beginning, because beginnings are just too difficult to pin down. Decades ago, well before you were born, gutter-scamp, there was a terrible scandal involving a fellow calling himself (herself?) the Groke. It seems that he (she?) was living a double life … fifteen lives, by the Lady, and each one in a different faction.
“It took the factioneers a while to uncover her (his?) ploy — (s)he didn’t try to hide his / her multiple personas … just didn’t seem to think it was that important. But it riled, the factioneers, gutter-scamp, it riled them good and proper.
“Some of these ‘identities’ were men, some women; some benign, some malignant; some orderly, some whirlwinds of chaos; each identity was fiercely devoted to its cause but each cause was completely different. Most significantly, perhaps, they all looked essentially alike—not identical, mind you, but enough so’s you’d have to look twice before you could tell them apart. It might have been just a hint of aggression in the eyebrow, or a sultry curl of the lip, but each one seemed to be ever so slightly and ever so completely different to the other.
“Eventually the sod – apparently a rilmani aurumach living in self-imposed exile in the Cage — was brought before Judge Gabberslug on fifteen counts of Conceptual Fraud. “Sly Nye” offered to defend the Groke — seems that the chaos of the situation appealed to him, but the Groke insisted on holding his own council. And you know what? — he won. The Groke spoke passionately for almost half an hour explaining why his (her?) commitment to each faction ideology was perfectly compatible with his commitment to every other faction ideology. (S)He argued that chaos had laws, and law was chaotic; that a meaningless existence could be filled with justice, sensation, entropy, subversion or self-preservation; that death was integral to life, and so are we not all unified? We are rising, falling and slowly transforming harmoniously and disparately.
“Needless to that the Groke was acquitted, but it didn’t shake the Kriegstanz, gutter-scamp … it only affirmed it. Each factotum believed (firmly) that this Groke was the epitome of their faction – to the exclusion of the others – and voted in his (her?) favour.
“Soon the whole matter drifted into the civic subconscious and all fifteen of the Groke’s identities faded from sight. Still, rumour is he hangs around the Weary Head some nights, tossing coins to the Fensir Twins and playing chess with old Jemorille. Other nights she can be found with the mysterious Traloc the Sharn, eating blood pudding and talking of old times and secret things. Most of all, though, I hear he likes to hold debates with Julius the Symmetrical — debates that can go on all night with each side refusing to yield until the barkeep closes shop. Of course, their arguments are simply for arguments sake, and entirely amicable, but it’s said that they will never take the same position two nights in a row.
“Of course there is also the other Groke — that fierce howling pit of apathy and disbelief that factotums tell their children about when it’s close to kip-time. They hope it’ll make them grow up fanatical to their causes — but we know it’s just a story.
“What’s that, gutter-scamp? Who am I? Oh I’m of no consequence. No consequence at all …”
— Overheard late one night at the Weary Head
See Also:
- Cage Rattlers: Julius the Symmetrical, Traloc the Sharn.
- Uncaged: Faces of Sigil: Judge Gabberslug (p38), Jemorille (p51) ,
- Morvun and Phineas (p68), “Sly” Nye (p72).
Source: Dave Bloustien