Brother Dog
When Votank had gained the Leather Bag and began to feed his people, he saw a new animal that was a competitor to him. Knowing that he would have to fight this new growling creature, Votank hailed it and asked it to come closer. He said that he had to feed his people and that he had a Leather Bag full of figurines which he could kill and eat for food and that the New Creature's visage was already in the bag. The New Creature whined and cowered in front of Votank, begging him not to kill and eat him and offering to help serve him in return for the scraps from his meals. Votank agreed and whistled for Brother Dog to follow him. Thus was found the first of Votank's Companions.
Brother Dog is the deity involved in the training and control of the Votanki Hunting Dogs found in Balazar. He is worshipped in two ways, as a subcult of Votank and as a deity in his own right. The subcult teaches dog training and spells allowing communication with dogs.
The ceremonies are usually performed during Fire Season, which is also known as the Dog-month, and is attended by young people and young animals. During the ceremony the spirit of Brother Dog appears and after worshipers sing a magical song everyone can speak one language for a while, whether it is dog-speech or people-speech. This song can be led by any council elder or holy person and so there are actually many smaller Brother Dogs which appear on this holy day. Even within a clan there are often more than one Brother Dog. To belong to the cult one must only promise to treat his own dogs as brothers, to never willfully harm a domestic dog, and to attend the ceremonies once every two years. At the ceremony the worshipers must sacrifice all but one of their magic points, and also bring some meat to feed the spirit visiting them. After the ceremony is over the participants eat the reminder of the sacrifice.
Members of the Brother Dog subcult will learn Canine Speech at 5% after the initiation into the cult. This is a Knowledge skill, but is does not get a Knowledge bonus. It goes up only by experience.
