VII Cults Tcho-Tcho Society The Tcho-Tcho are organized into tribes All TchoTcho in a given area belong to the same tribe, and each tribe controls an area that might be as large as a province or as small as a single valley These tribes are often separated by a considerable distance, though they send messengers back and forth to maintain communication The Tcho-Tcho view all their separate tribes in the world as part of the same group, and their people are interchangeable between tribes Tcho-Tcho not mix well with other peoples and they rarely live among them Some large cities have Tcho-Tcho “ghettos,” which are notoriously dangerous The alien nature of the Tcho-Tcho mind inverts expectations of their power structure Their leaders are not the most ambitious and selfish among them (as is often the case among other sentient beings), but instead are the most single-minded, dedicated, and unselfish of the Tcho-Tcho Leaders live to serve the tribe and the Great Old Ones (not necessarily in that order) The leaders are “touched” by the Great Old Ones and Outer Gods and behave accordingly Tcho-Tcho leaders, though granted amazing powers by biomagical science and the entities the Tcho-Tcho serve, often burn out quickly and live short lives, after which another leader must be selected In addition, the Tcho-Tcho can use their biomagical power to enhance their leaders For example, if they have a need for keen calculation, they may modify their chosen leader’s brain size to swell massively This would cause the leader’s brain to protrude, at the expense all other limbs, necessitating that the leader be kept in a tub (or on a throne) Or they may select a Tcho-Tcho to be modified to become astonishingly sexually attractive, intended to be used in seduction of a rival civilization’s leaders The Tcho-Tcho Okkator (Assassin-Enforcer) The fact that Tcho-Tcho don’t engage in warfare doesn’t mean they are incapable of fighting Quite the reverse, in fact: they have a whole system of unique martial arts Certain members of the tribe are selected, and trained to be their enforcers, called the Okkator (this word is both plural and singular) Tcho-Tcho biomagic and alchemy enable truly terrifying modification of the Okkator They can grow venomous fangs or extra limbs, or develop the ability to spit acidic webs out of their mouths The basic Tcho-Tcho “martial art” is primarily based on assassination rather than face-to-face fighting They are trained to hide for hours motionlessly, only to burst into explosive action when the time is right They are extraordinarily silent and skilled at climbing and other athletic feats A few of the Okkator are modified so that sharp bones protrude from their joints, giving them natural weapons they may enhance Their joints can all dislocate, enabling them to make amazing surprise attacks (kicking someone by moving their leg up over their shoulder, for instance) Naturally, the assassins feel pain when dislocation occurs, but their training and concentration allow them to overcome this Such Okkator usually stay inside the tribal lands rather than hiring their services out, as the exposed bone spurs cannot easily be concealed All Okkator have a technique of inserting small, razor sharp blades under their skin, then letting their flesh heal over the wounds Thus, when captured, they always have a hidden knife available somewhere on their body All that is required is to open the wound and slide out the weapon, which is primarily used 193