Gakoruna

Gakoruna
Status:	Historical Figure
Aliases:	the Planter
Race:	Gor'Tog
Gender:	Female
Relatives:	Kronag (father)

Pagtump says, "It's not as well known a story, and it's about as likely to be factual as any of Kronag's are, but it speaks just as strong to who we Togs are, and that's why it has been passed down."

Pagtump says, "Her name was Gakoruna the Planter. Nobody knows who her mother was, and some stories say she wasn't Kronag's daughter by blood, but a toggler without parents that he adopted when we were turned out into the Long Winter."

Pagtump says, "That wasn't an uncommon thing, mind you. Slave families, as you might imagine, weren't always kept together, and when the S'Kra turned us out, it left a lot of orphaned togglers needing to be looked after."

Pagtump says, "It's a tradition that's come down to this day, in a lot of older Tog communities in particular. An old Tog saying is, "bakai aida para lui hani li-da."

Pagtump says, "That means, "children cry so all will be able to hear," which is to say that all Togs shoulder the responsibility to look after all togglers. We don't tend to get so caught up in who's blood is in who, as most other races do."

Pagtump says, "Even togglers from other clans fall under this rule. Our children are sacred. At least for those who hold with tradition."

Pagtump says, "But I'm getting off track here.."

Pagtump says, "Gakoruna then, being the child of Kronag, was what you might call a free spirit as well. She grew up wandering with her father all across the lands."

Pagtump says, "But where Kronag's love was logging, Gakoruna found her passion was planting."

Pagtump says, "They say wherever they went she would collect seeds and saplings and spread them along the way."

Pagtump says, "When she was no longer a toggler and went her own way, the stories say she would revisit those fields and groves she'd planted before and gather anew. Always choosing the biggest and heartiest of what had grown."

Pagtump says, "In this way, she's often credited by tradition, as having developed many of the crops we Togs hold dear."

Pagtump says, "What the Common tongue calls the green Tog fist apple, for instance, is often known simply as the gakoruna, or gakoruna mansam, to many Togs. Mansam being our word for apple, of course."

Pagtump says, "This story isn't about all that though, either. This is one of the earliest stories relating to Gakoruna, back when she was still just a growing toggler traveling with Kronag."

Pagtump says, "Times were lean during the Long Winter. We had been turned out, you may recall, because of the lack of food stores the S'Kra had left."

Pagtump says, "Starvation and hunger ran rampant among the newly turned out Togs. Many had worked in fields, but few were skilled in understanding the why behind the what of the work they had done."

Pagtump says, "It was then, during that early period, as Kronag her father was working to clear a forest for one of the very first Tog villages, that Gakoruna made a great discovery."

Pagtump says, "She went wandering through the outer woods, trying to help forage the few winter plants the Togs knew they could eat."

Pagtump says, "After a while she came to the edge of the forest, where she found a curious sight."

Pagtump says, "On that rocky plain she saw a herd of strange, shaggy creatures milling around, using their muzzles to turn over the soil and dig out the roots of what looked like short, spindly weeds."

Pagtump says, "With more curiosity than caution, little Gakoruna approached the creatures, trying to see just what those large roots were."

Pagtump says, "Now the herd had never seen a Gor'Tog any more than a Gor'Tog had ever seen a tarupamki. That's what they were, by the way, and more on that later."

Pagtump says, "By nature the tarupamki are a bit gruff, even a little belligerent, and so many in the small herd started to circle the toggler."