The Great Mawpots

Most prized of any Mawtribe’s possessions is its Great Mawpot. This immense iron cauldron serves as both a cooking tool and a shrine to the Gulping God, and it is always filled with a bubbling stew of blood, marrow and boiled flesh known as battlebroth. Whilst it is utterly inedible to any other species, battlebroth acts as a healing draught when consumed by the children of the Gulping God. Fashioned from the melted-down heraldry, armaments and treasures of those foes the tribe has eaten, Great Mawpots are built and blessed by the meatmasters of Gorkamorka and function as a magical focal point for the Butchers’ strange gastromantic powers. Great Mawpots are usually placed at the centre of a Mawtribe’s nomadic camp, surrounded by campfires. It is here that the entire tribe will gather in the aftermath of a raid for a great feast – or ‘gutbash’ – in Gorkamorka’s honour. Butchers and Slaughtermasters carve up hunks of meat and captured prey-things, paring slices of flesh and cracking open bones to scoop out the delicious marrow within. Every scrap of matter is then hurled into the Mawpot along with a few special ingredients – perhaps a sprinkling of dried salamander glands for an extra fiery kick or some handfuls of gargant blubber to thicken and enrich the blend. Such is the magical power of a Mawpot that even the incorporeal or daemonic can be trapped within its iron skin; to some tribes who dwell within Shyish, such esoteric ingredients are quite a treat. Once the meat is nice and tender, and the waiting ogors are almost drowning in their own drool, the Butcher pours the first bowl, which always goes to the highest-ranked ogor present. Gnoblar attendants then rush and scamper about, handing out servings according to prestige, refilling bowls the moment they are emptied. To take advantage of their great power, ogor armies often drag their Mawpots into battle. They are positioned at the centre of the ogor line and anchored in place by bones or tusks driven deep into the earth. Next to the cauldron is a slab of bloodstained rock where the Butcher can carry out their gory work in the heat of battle. Defeated foes are gathered up and hurled into the cauldron; the lucky ones are already dead at this point, but, unfortunately for their captives, some Butchers and Slaughtermasters prefer the taste of freshly boiled meat.