Who are we?
We are the Haraborn Clan of Black Stag Vale. We stand with the proud Colymar Tribe, and are true to the line of Sartar. In ancient times these were our lands, when we followed Orgorvale the Summer Daughter and her outlander husband, Ulainn the Rider. We were here before the Atheist Necromancer made his marsh, before the people betrayed us to Dragons, before the Wyrms killed them all. We fled the Dragons into the South for a time, but followed Sartar out of exile to reclaim what has always been rightfully ours. We came back and retook our lands. Now the Men of the Reaching Moon have come to enslave us, but we will not be broken by them. These lands are ours!
Are we a great people?
The greatest! Before Time we were chosen by Kargan Tor and taught the riddles of War. Asrelia the Great Grandmother taught us the Sacrifice Dance, the source of great magic. Then came Umath the Storm, to free the world from the Bright Emperor, whose stagnant laws enslaved us all. We pledged ourselves to him and his son, Orlanth, and fought alongside the Storm Tribe against the aloof gods of the Sky. One of your ancestors was there beside Orlanth when he discovered the blade called Death, and when he used it to send the Emperor to Hell at the Battle of Extinguish Field. Orlanth liberated the cosmos, and we were there.
When Orlanth Victorious then married Ernalda, Asrelia's daughter, we made the Sacred Circle and stood watch so that their wedding would not be distrubed. This was during the Great Darkness, when the Darkness Tribe walked the surface world. Sent by Orlanth into the Underworld, the Bright Emperor tried to enforce his laws there and forced the People of Darkness out. Homeless, they wandered the world. We accepted some of them, the Jars Antanggi, as brothers and equals because our Clan has never taken slaves. We know all men must be free! They taught us their darkness magics, and ever since some of our boys and girls are born with black eyes and hair. Also, the Uz recognize us as distant kin and our relations with them have always been good.
In the Great Darkness everyone suffered, because the Unholy Trio broke the world and let the Devil inside. The legions of Chaos came with him and many gods died. We fought the Children of Thed, one of the Unholy Trio, and the Atheist sorcerers who came from the West blaming Orlanth for killing the sun. When Orlanth led the Seven Lightbringers into Hell to bring back the Sun and make the cosmos right again, we stayed behind and fought beside his brother, Humakt, Lord of Death. We fought and won. Chaos was defeated and the world changed.
And for the rest? This I have told you. We settled these lands and kept them even when the False God Gbaji came, and Arkat arrived to destroy him. We held them until the Evil Empire of Dragons was made, when people gave themselves to Wyrms and forgot the Old Ways. Then we went south, and the Dragons ate all the fools. We waited and dreamed of taking back our ancient home.
What are the differences between Men and Women?
Of course you know the obvious differences, and have been told about the Sheath and the Sword. And you know that men are like Orlanth; passionate, temperamental, rash, driven by emotion. Women are more like Ernalda; cool, calculating, patient, planning. Orlanth taught us that “No one can make you do anything” and that “violence is always an option.” Ernalda taught us “there is always another way.”
But soon you will take the adulthood rites and the differences will become more clear. Boys have in them the Breath of Men that must be awoken, and girls must give birth to their True Selves. Men exist to kill, to break, to bring change. Women exist to mend, to heal, and to make new life.
Of course, we also know that some Men are called by Ernalda and the Earth Tribe, and some Women by Vinga the Warrior Daughter and the Air Tribe. This is natural and right and accepted. So long as they love the Clan, we have no right to interfere in a person's true nature.
Why am I here?
You were brought here by your mother and father, clothed in flesh by Ernalda and given breath by Orlanth. You are here to support and love your Clan, to make certain that it continues as it always has, to help it survive. This may mean fighting for it, or it may mean giving it another generation of children.
But understand, the Clan is here to do the same for you. We will all support you, and help you to survive. And this is right and proper, for the world is full of enemies.
Who are my enemies?
Of course we hate Chaos, for it is Unholy and Unnatural. And we hate the Broo, the Children of Thed who breed in rape. Also we hate Delecti the Atheist, who turned the fertile lowlands we once lived in into a poisonous swamp, filled with his walking dead.
But our great enemy is the Evil Emperor, who comes time and time again in different forms and guises. First, before Time, he came as Yelm the Sun, the Bright Emperor who tried to make us obey his silly laws. Orlanth slew him and made us free. Then after Time began, and the sun was tamed, the First Council made the false God Gbaji, and the Evil Emperor lived again. So we allied with Arkat, even though he was an outsider and an Atheist, and joined his armies. We helped slay the Evil Emperor again.
In the Second Age that followed the foolish lowland peoples bowed down to a new Evil Emperor, the Inhuman King of the Dragonewts. And since no one can kill dragons—they just come back again!--we were forced to leave our ancestral lands and go south in exile. But soon they were given what they deserved for betraying Orlanth, and the dragons ate them all. Good riddance! We were in the southlands then, and yet another Evil Emperor came, calling himself the God-King. And when all the crazy southlanders bowed down to him we wisely decided to come home to Dragon Pass and the lands that are ours.
So we followed Sartar, who united the Tribes and made a new Kingdom. Things were right and good and the Old Ways were restored. But then, again, the Evil Emperor came, this time as the Son of the Red Moon. Our kingdom fell, but we are not broken. And the Lunars will know someday soon our wrath.
I have heard some Clans have embraced the Lunars, why do we not?
Because we are not craven dogs that roll on their bellies with their tales between their legs! We hate the Lunars, yes, but we hate the Wahote, the Yestina, the Sidask, and the Hyal Jalasor even more! These four Clans are our neighbors and kin, but they have betrayed all that we stand for, and for what? To be rewarded by their new masters with better farmland, milder taxes, and other favors? They are whores who have allowed themselves to be bought, and now we must make war upon them as we shall do upon the Lunars.
Then who are our friends?
Above all you may always rely on your Clan. But we are not without allies! You know that the Blackrock Clan is kin to us, and that many of our sons and daughters marry from them. Our blood runs together in life and battle. And the Rokarth and the Kalintor are pledged to us, and we to them, as we have all kept the Old Ways and hate the Lunars. And though many people fear the Trolls, we have a great secret, an ancient pact with them from the Days Before Days. In great need, the Trolls will come.
Who are my gods?
Of course we are the people of Orlanth, the King of the Gods, Patron of Men, and God of the Storm. We follow him and his Tribe, his sons, the Thunder Brothers, his allies, and his kin. His wife Ernalda is the Earth, and she knows the secrets of women. She sends spirits into the world and takes them back when we die. She sends us grain and vegetables and fruit, and makes our livestock thrive.
We have, you know, a special bond with dread Humakt. He was Orlanth's brother until Eurmal the Trickster fooled him into killing Grandfather Mortal. Thus he became the God of Death. But Humakt is honorable and just, and though he severed all ties with the Storm Tribe to be the One Who Stands Alone, he loves those who love Orlanth still. And in the Great Darkness we followed him while Orlanth was performing the Lightbringer's Quest.
There are many other gods in the Storm Tribe. There is Barntar, who teaches us the secrets of farming, and the Lightbringers who followed Orlanth into Hell...Chalana Arroy the Healer, Lhankor Mhy the Lawspeaker, Issaries the Traveller, Eurmal the Trickster, Flesh Man, and mysterious Ginna Jar. We honor them too.
