Pronounced row-gim. The 'g' is a hard consonant.

The following text is an excerpt from the Annals of the Ring Wearers.

Definitions:

A: rogim (singular)-an animal, probably primate, that inhabits the forests of the know world. (plural) rogim-see singular. Forms:rogim, the rogim.

B: Rogim (singular)-A demon which has taken possession of a rogim, using it as a physical object in order to have direct physical consequence. (plural) Rogim-a group of demons who have taken possession of rogim.

Description:

A: The species of rogim inhabit nearly all the forests of the know world. They are built very similar to humanoids, except that they are entirely covered in fur, have fangs rather than teeth, diet on solely upon vegetation, and have short tails, which provide balance during tree climbing. These creature are not intelligent, neither are they humanoid. They are not evil themselves, but dwell like all brutes: beneath the curse of evil.

B: While Rogim appear little different that rogim, they do posses slight differences. Demons can inhabit rogim immediately after they reach adolescence. The color of the pupil become red upon possession, and the voice-box mutates, allowing the demon to project his voice through the creature. Rogim mostly speak the tongue of the Evil One, and rarely bother to learn other tongues.

History: Little is known about the rogim or the Rogim, except that they appeared after the great cleansing, perhaps as an increase of the curse of evil. It is known that a dwarf once captured a Rogim and interrogated it. It appears that demons are bound to the rogim once they posses them, for the demon did not leave the body until death, and after being inflicted with great pain, gave away secrets that the dwarves now keep. We know nothing of these secrets, except that the dwarves say they are to evil to be shared outside the race of dwarves. The dwarves believe the these secrets are a burden that the Great One asks them to bear for the sake of the humanoid peoples, and we offer no challenge to this teaching.

End excerpt.

Well, what do you all think? Is there anything you find a little hard to take in?

I really like your Rogim, it shows an evil(er) side of demons. Very interesting! Do they stand on two feet or four?

WOW! I am absolutely fascinated! It's very creative and really original. I hope you'll post some of your work!

What different races do you have in your world? I know you mentioned dwarves, but that made me wonder what others there are.

Oh, I totally forgot about their legs! Currently, I picture them standing on all fours. Rogim are also capable of the use of weaponry.

I will write about the other races soon. I will probably write about the dwarves next. I think I put a rather interesting twist on them.

Then do they have paws or hands?

They have hands on all four limbs. But, I think I may give them an extra finger.

Neil,

That is phenomenal! Your style of description, your allusion to depth, and your development all work together marvelously. Thank you for posting this, and I am eager to learn more. I especially liked the way you handled the sentient orc-beast that is traditional to fantasy.

A couple questions:

1) Is there a particular region that they tend to inhabit?

2) How organized are the Rogim? What culture characteristics do they have?

Thank you! I tend to write that way so that people are more eager to learn more. I wanted them to be sentient, so that they can fight strongly, but completely evil, so that there need by no remorse in killing them.

1) Original the rogim only inhabited the forests, but when the Rogim arose, they spread, and now can be found in any region of the world. If you know how to find them, that is.

2) The Rogim are very organized, being demonic, but I try not to delve too deeply in their behavior, since they are demonic. They tend to fight amongst themselves less that Tolkien's Orcs, since they have a specific Satanic goal in mind. I think that their culture is probably much like a huge bureaucracy, in which every deed is a bid to get a bigger job.

That makes sense. Thank you!

I guessed the answers would be something along those lines.

Another question:

As the spirits themselves cannot die (right?), there could possibly a sort of reincarnation among the Rogim. Is that part of your story, have you thought of that, or have you stopped that possibility in any way?

Sir Emeth: You are correct, the demons themselves cannot die. When a Rogim dies, the demon can immediately go inhabit another rogim, if there is another rogim. (The idea is very similar to Christopher Hopper's Daernieags, if you're familiar with them.)

Inesdar: The demons cannot posses any other animals. Extremely potent demons can physically manifest themselves in other ways, but it very rarely happens, and their physical forms are still under limitations of physical existence, to an extent.

Ah. That creates very interesting story possibilities.

I am not familiar with Christopher Hopper, what did he write?

Very interesting indeed.

Christopher Hopper is the author of The Rise of the Dibor and The Lion Vrie, books one and two in the unfinished White Lion Chronicals.

Ah, associated with Wayne Thomas Batson I see. Is he good? I have not read any of their works.

Batson and Hopper are both very good authors. Christopher Hopper is also quite the musician, which is a plus.

I love Wayne Thomas Batson's Door Within Trilogy, but I've never read anything by Christopher Hopper.

But I love your description, Neil of Erk! You were very detailed. I did have one question, though.

Are the Rogim (as in the demons) able to accomplish anything when they are not possessing a rogim?

Demons, when not inhabiting a rogim body, operate on a spiritual level as they do in this world. It just that, for the purposes of my plot, in the world of my story Satan's minions are attempting a physical conquest, rather than the spiritual conquest we experience in our world. They have, of course, still increased the level of corruption, its just that the philosophy behind this conquest is that the circumstance better provide for a immediate conquest, rather than the long preparation for Satan's attempt to set up a physical kingdom.

When the rogim are not inhabited by demons, do they still have to serve them, or if not are they good?

When rogim are not inhabited they are animals, so they don't really serve anyone.

Wow, they sound really interesting!

One thought:
Why do the animals and possesed animals have the same name? It seems that distinguishing the two during a spoken conversation would be difficult. Also, if the word rogim came at the beginning of a written sentence, the r would have to be capitalized and then the only way you would know which kind it was would be in the context of the sentence. (I noticed that you used a capital R for the possesed ones and a lower case for the ones that weren't. Am I correct?) Does your world have a lanuage? If so, I would suggest adding part of the native word for "demon" or "spirit" or something to the word rogim to make it clear which rogim are possesed and which are not.

Just my ideas.

The main reason they posses the same name is that, aside from the Dwarves, few people realize the difference between normal rogim and possessed Rogim. Since it is difficult to tell whether or not a rogim is possessed, only the Dwarves have words to demonstrate the distinction. I have not invented the Dwarvish languages yet, so I don't know what those words actually are.

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks for clarifying.