Hogbat

Hogbat is a popular ball game in the Natorn Archipelago.

It was originally played with farmyard implements in courtyards or orchards with any number of improvised obstacles, such as posts or tree trunks. Players are split into two teams, and using a pole or mallet to strike a ball along the ground, avoiding obstacles along the way. Teams score points by knocking the ball against a target pole at either end of the field. Teams lose points by hitting one of the obstacles. In most versions, players must hit the ball ahead of them, they are not allowed to simply push the ball along with their bat.

There are various legends about the origin of the game, the first being that children originally used the heads of hogs or other butchered animals instead of a ball. A more grisly version tells of children playing in the corpse-strewn battlefields of the Long War, knocking around the severed heads of the fallen.

In fact the game is older than memory, most likely named due to the ball being made from hog leather.