Aelwrin was born in 1592 amongst the Pentan nomads in the Redlands, and enslaved as a child when his tribe revolted against the Lunar Empire. He was made a kitchen slave, showing little talent for anything else. In 7/42 (1613), Beat-Pot organized and led a successful slave revolt, earning his name by using only the tools of his trade as weapons. Jar-eel repressed the slave revolt, but took it on herself to teach the Lunar Way to Beat-Pot. Now the high priest of the Moonsword cult, he is inseparable from the cult goddess: Jar-eel.Beat-Pot is a strange one. A warrior, former slave, and bad man (a little of that Danfive Xaron role – and in truth, DX is based on Beat-Pot and not the other way around), he is also an agricultural-fertility figure (and one heck of a cook) in the Lunar Empire. One way of thinking about Aelwrin is that he is Dumuzi to Jar-eel’s Inanna. He is Jar-eel’s lover, priest, and servant – and is the advance man for his Goddess. As the right-hand of Jar-eel the Razoress, even the mightiest of satraps and generals are wary around Aelwrin.
However, Beat-Pot is also Jar-eel’s head chef, a noted gourmand, and thus the Lunar Empire’s version of Marcus Apicius or Lynceus of Samos or Taillevent. We know his diaries from his time as a kitchen slave for the Imperial Bodyguard – they are the height of popularity among the highly literate Lunar ruling class. It is compliment to the Empire that they allowed the famous “Aelwrin’s Complaint: the Slave Spitting on his Master” to be published in a cookbook. Beat-pot’s popular recipes included the ever-popular spicy liver-loaf, kidneys in fermented milk, and broiled walktapus tentacle fillet in a brown sugar glaze. He is recorded for having a great deal of bitterness towards how he was treated as a kitchen slave, and although he is completely devoted to the Red Goddess (through Jar-eel), he has notable contempt and righteous disdain for much of the Lunar elite and nobility. As the right-hand of Jar-eel the Razoress, much of that Lunar elite and nobility tries to curry favor with Beat-Pot, which just reinforces his contempt and disdain for them.
I imagine him to be the Anthony Bourdain of Glorantha.
Aelwrin has as much charisma as Bourdain had. But Beat-Pot can access the Hero Plane and wander the Spirit World, so he has little need for lesser experiences.
Beat-Pot is DX without the punishment, purity, or self-repression. His way is arguably even more extreme, but it is also definitely more fun.
If we imagine Anthony Bourdain as the private chef for the Woman seated upon a Scarlet Beast, we have something beyond tantric!
Remember that Beat-Pot has been active in Lunar affairs for some dozen years. He is admired by the peasantry and the common folk (if feared by them), and his recipes and diaries are collected by the literati. He is more a gourmet than a gourmand – he is said to eat sparingly, but very knowingly.That being said he cares not about the status of a particular meal – merely its taste and skill in preparation. I once heard that he proclaimed the maize bread from a Furthest food stall better than that prepared by Hon-eel’s priests in Glamour.
Why is Beat Pot a bad man? Prior to accepting the Lunar Way and devoting himself to Jar-eel, he led a violent slave rebellion against the Lunar Empire. He committed many a crime in the process – and not just the crime of rebellion.
Beat-Pot was a bad man; he is now a good man. He is at peace with himself and the cosmos. He has forgiven himself for the crimes of his past, and now he works to further the community of gods and men. I don’t pity him – I envy him!
Beat-Pot holds out hope for all of us that have done things which we regret that it is possible to be forgiven for those things – and to return to community of people and gods in good faith and conscience.
Ironically, I am not sure that Jar-eel or the Red Goddess had the same blessing.
Beat-Pot Aelwrin is often identified with Danfive Xaron although he is not a member of that cult. Beat-Pot exemplifies the ability of the Red Goddess to purify even the most desperate criminal and bring them back into the community of gods and men. As a result, Beat-Pot is widely believe to be an incarnation Danfive Xaron and he is known to favor members of the cult. Once a year, Beat-Pot prepares an exquisite communal meal for members of the cult, to remind them of the beauty that exists even within the stringent strictures of Danfive Xaron.
