MYTHOLOGY: Shamlock developed in the swamps, it is not so much a religion as a set of magical beliefs and folklore with little formal structure. The word Shamlock translates approximately to ‘the living world’. They worship nature and the force they conceive as animating nature, known as Rona-Byhi. The Rona-Byhi is neither good nor evil expressing itself as the savage bite of the giant swamp lizards and the milk the starving long horned cow gives her calf. Although the forces and ideas that are key to Shamlock are abstract, animals play a major role in Shamlock folklore and the stories Shamlock warlocks tell the younglings of the clans. Most of these stories show how nature is clever but untrustworthy, how understanding her may bring great benefit but that it does not guarantee a happy life. Warlocks are expected to isolate themselves in nature and contemplate the Rona-Byhi. They believe that the Rona-Byhi will one day reclaim the cities. In fact, the warlocks say that long ago the goblins turned away from the Rona-Byhi once before, that they delighted in the things they had built, and tried to isolate themselves from the natural world. This led to their destruction. It was all taken away from them so they could rediscover the Rona-Byhi and that there is no escaping it. This original abandoning of the faith is known as ‘the turning away’ and those who leave the swamps for the city today are sometimes still accused by goblin radicals of turning away.
MAGIC: Today, all Shamlock magic is banned by the state of Albasa. While it is not illegal to believe and practice Shalock, all magical rites associated with it are illegal and goblin warlocks are looked on with great suspicion. Of course in the deep swamp there are no police. Even in the start of the swamp, Greenville (officially one of the twenty neighborhoods of the city), there are fewer cops and magical bans are less easily enforced. Shamlock magic requires that some living thing ‘pays’ for the ‘cost’ of the spell. This might be a warlock cutting his own palm or slitting the throat of a small frog for small magical acts, to losing a finger, or killing a goat for a major magical act. Shamlock warlocks often carry staffs that have animals, animal parts or plants hanging from them.
In the Genesys system Shamlock corresponds to the Primal Magic skill.
SOCIAL CONTEXT: For all anyone knows, Shamlock is the oldest religion in Albasa. It is hard to say as the native goblins who practiced it kept no written records. As the religion of the goblins and of the swamps, the followers of Shamlock are often looked down on by those of the Modella and Tee-hi faiths. When the humans first arrived on this coast they made a concerted effort to convert the native goblins to the Modella faith, but while there are still a handful of goblin families descended from those converts in the city, most goblins kept to their secretive Shamlock beliefs. While there are temples in the swamps where the shamlock faithful gather, they are separated by clans and clans also have holy hermits who are regarded as having greater religious authority than those who run the temples. Only the Shaul Clan accepts conscious species other than goblins.