Godking

The Godking is the supreme sovereign of the Kargad Empire, a realm of four great lands—Karego-At, Atuan, Hur-at-Hur, and Atnini—that lies between the Northern and Eastern Reaches. The Kargish people are described as a savage, white-skinned, yellow-haired race, fierce and fond of bloodshed and the burning of towns. The Godking rules from Awabath, the imperial capital, and is worshipped as a living god, the highest authority in a rigidly hierarchical theocracy. His power is absolute, and his will is enforced by a priesthood and a military that answer directly to him.

Role in the Kargad Empire and the Kargish Raids

The Godking's authority is exercised through his appointed High Priestesses and Temple guards. In the Place of the Tombs of Atuan, the High Priestess of the Godking, Kossil, wields considerable power, overseeing the discipline of the priestesses and reporting directly to the Godking's court. The Godking's soldiers, distinguished by their red helmets, escort the priestesses on their journeys to find the reborn Priestess of the Tombs. The Godking himself is a figure of immense, distant power; his name is invoked in oaths and rituals, and his temple at the Place of the Tombs is a showy, centuries-newer structure with a high portico and columns of cedar brought from Hur-at-Hur by slave labor. The Kargad Empire, under the Godking's rule, is expansionist and aggressive. In the time of Ged's youth, the Kargs launched a major invasion of the island of Gont, sacking East Port and advancing up the Northward Vale. Their war cry invoked the White Godbrothers of Atuan, Wuluah and Atwah, and their longships, with red sails, were a terror to the Archipelago. The Kargish warriors who attacked Ten Alders were armored with bronze helmets, greaves, and leather breastplates, and armed with swords and the long Kargish lance. This raid was ultimately repelled, but it established the Kargish as a persistent, violent threat to the peace of the Archipelago.

The Godking's Relationship with the Priestess of the Tombs

The Godking's power is not absolute within the sacred precincts of the Place of the Tombs. The Priestess of the Tombs, the Eaten One, serves the Nameless Ones, powers older than the Godking himself. The Godking, despite his divine status, cannot enter among the Tombstones, nor can he set foot on the inner ground of the Place. When the first Godking, a century and a half before the events of the book, came to enact the rites of his own temple, he was still required to eat and sleep outside the wall that encircles the Place. This establishes a clear limit to the Godking's temporal and spiritual authority: the ancient, chthonic powers of the Tombs are beyond even his reach. The selection of the Priestess of the Tombs is a state matter, however, requiring the Godking's formal acknowledgment. Once a child is identified as the reborn Priestess, she is "made known to the Godking in Awabath" before being brought to the Place of the Tombs. The Godking's soldiers also provide escort for the priestesses on their journeys, underscoring the symbiotic, if uneasy, relationship between the imperial cult and the older, darker religion of the Tombs.

The Godking as a Symbol of the Kargad Other

In the narrative of A Wizard of Earthsea, the Godking and his empire function primarily as a symbol of the alien and the hostile, a counterpoint to the Archipelago. The Kargs are the "other" against which the Archipelagan identity is defined. They are white-skinned in a world of copper and brown-skinned peoples, and their language is unintelligible to the Hardic-speaking peoples of the Archipelago. The Godking's realm is a place of rigid hierarchy, slavery, and blood sacrifice, in contrast to the more fluid, meritocratic society of the Archipelago, where wizards rise by their power and knowledge. The Godking himself is never seen directly in the main narrative; he is a distant, almost mythic figure of menace, whose power is felt through his armies and his priesthood. This portrayal, while serving the story's needs, also reflects the book's own engagement with racial and cultural stereotypes, a dimension the author later acknowledged and sought to complicate in subsequent Earthsea novels.