The Wild Clans
The Wild Clans. Honor, tradition, wilderness. Sixty-seven kin-groups; one understanding.
Survivalists and monster hunters.
Philosophy
Harmony through patience. Survival through wisdom. Loyalty to the trail.
The Long Story
The Wild Clans are not a nation. They are sixty-seven extended kin-groups who share a border, a calendar, and a profound mutual irritation. They have not been at war with each other in eleven generations, which is the longest peace any of them can remember. Their tracking is exemplary. Their hunting is patient. Their dealings with city-folk are correct, brief, and resented on both sides.
History
The Long Walk of 612 -- the same winter that founded the Iron Kingdoms in the south -- drove the Clans into the upland forests they hold today. The Iron Kingdoms have, to their credit, never pursued. The Clans have, to their credit, never raided. The two realms maintain twelve treaty-markers along the border; the Clans repaint them every spring; the Iron Kingdoms repair them every autumn. Nobody has signed anything in ninety years and nobody seems to mind.
How They Fight
Skirmish, ambush, attrition. The Clans do not field armies; they field territories that have become hostile to the wrong people. A dragon that flies above a Clan forest will arrive at its destination tired. A dragon that lands in one will arrive nowhere.
How They Live
Patrilineal in three clans, matrilineal in fifty-two, gender-irrelevant in the rest. Songs are sung in the round, mostly at midwinter and after a long hunt. Funerals are held above ground. Tattoos are diagnostic of clan, not status. The Clans share food more often than they share words.
Known Figures
Lyra Swiftwind
Scout, retired field
Of the Threadlands Clan. Writes letters home every twelfth day and does not send them.
Mother Tey
Tracker-elder
Sixty-four years old. Has counted dragons by their flight-shadow since she was nine. Records on birchbark.
Doral of the Fens
Marsh guide
Two missing fingers. Eats with the other hand. Knows the bog roads Murex's shamans use.
Bonuses
- ++2 Tracking
- ++2 Endurance
- ++1 wilderness survival
- +Companion animal at start
Weaknesses
- –-2 Charisma in walled cities
- –Locked out of many city shops
Starting Reputation: Unknown
Likely beginnings: Threadwall · Three Springs (Clan-side) · Briarquay · the high lodges