Leaping Salmon Clan History

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Clan History

Before Time, the Emperor of the World sat atop the Spike at the center of the world. That Emperor was Yelm, the sun. He lit the entire world, so that all was plentiful and good. One day, the Great Storm came and struck down the Emperor, and destroyed the Spike. The Emperor was sent to Hel where the dead go, so that Darkness reigned over all the land.

The Great Darkness

In the Darkness, Chaos came into the world through the hole where the Spike had stood, invading and defiling the world. Out of Hel, demons came into the dark world, destroying and eating all who stood in their way. In the Great Darkness Hearth Mother gathered a group of humans whom she fed and preserved with her hope and magic which replenished her great cauldron with enough sustenance for them to survive. The warmth of her fire kept the cold and the demons at bay throughout the Great Darkness.

Hearth Mother found a young mewling godlet in the Great Darkness alone in the wilds and raised him to be a great warrior. That godlet is Foundchild the hunter. Hearth Mother and Foundchild had a child Votank the Ancestor whom all the Votanki throughout the region trace their lineage too. He taught us how to hunt for meat, like his father, and he taught us to hunt for wild berries, like his mother, so that we might survive and thrive in this region.

The Dawning

At the Dawning, the whole of the region was included as part of the Elder Wilds. The region was dotted with clumps of gaunt trees where lonely elves huddled in bitter defense. Human families skulked in the shadows, seeking stark fare to eke out their miserable lives. Dwarves were buttressed in Greatway, but their interests had been in Dragon Pass and they had sent few patrols to this region. Only troll war-parties stalked the land in strength, crossing the cold mountains from Dagori Inkarth to fulfill their pledge to fight and destroy chaos every place. The ascent of the sun and the passage of the Lightbringers quickly brought back the old life to the land, and the ancient scrub woods blossomed into lush forests nearly as rich as the virgin woods which had once been there. Elves even planted some Great Trees of Shanassee in their strongholds. Game returned too, and the human hunters grew stronger. The humans at this time were children of Votank, and his descendants were called Votanki. During that time there was no fight between ancient races, for they still remembered their mutual struggle against chaos. Their greatest alliance was the First Council, made up of elves, dwarves, dragonewts, trolls, humans, and the otherwise-unknown Gold Wheel Dancers. Ambassadors came from the First Council we quickly accepted some, while we were suspicious of others. Thus we have ever had some ancient races whom we do not trust, while others that we consider friends.

The First Council

For generations the region lived in peace and grew to health. The elves sailed their lake and rivers, carrying dwarf goods northward after being boated down to the Dwerrow River. Trolls continued their gustatory control of the dinosaurs, and dragonewts settled several colonies. Humans hunted to their bellies' delight as animal herds grew, engaging in a silent struggle with trees for the good of the plains. At least one human from the area, Votalik a great hunter, was famous enough to be accepted in the Contest for Kerofin's Necklace held in Dragon Pass in 178 S.T. We remember the elves sailing the Elf Sea and up the rivers, for they used to come to our hearths to visit and trade with us.

The Second Council

When the wars began, many residents from the area joined armies and fought their foes. The troll population was greatly reduced by war, but the area was not invaded by the enemy horsemen from the north. The Second Council was formed to rule the empire. When it moved to Dorastor, it was supported by many from Balazar who accompanied it, and Balazar seems to have drifted into drowsy peace lasting until the end of the age. Many of our clan traveled to distant lands seeking fame and glory in foreign wars.

The God Project

The Second Council unveiled a plan to construct a god through the use of their own powers and those of the land of Dorastor. The trolls objected heavily and withdrew, followed shortly by the dragonewts. After that the government was called the Broken Council. The new god named himself Nysalor. He was a strikingly handsome godling and sensitive enough to break anyone's heart. One of his first, childish, acts was to curse the trolls and dragonewts. The dragonewts sloughed off their curse, sending it into the maws of a hungry dragon. But the trolls were overcome, and tragically began birthing trollkin instead of healthy children. The struggle between council and troll also turned into a fight between all the Elder Races, opening many old sores closed since the Dawn. The elves were aided by the council, and the trolls were driven from the Elder Wilds.

Nysalor

The elves of the Elder Wilds, with their allies, settled into a period of peace under the benevolent reign of Nysalor, the Golden One, the God of Peloria, who united Dragon Pass Lightbringers with lowland Sunfolk and horsemen. There were raids and fights with the damnable trolls in their ancient stronghold of Dagori Inkarth, but the miserable wretches were easily contained. We sent warriors to the south to raid Dagori Inkarth when the trolls power had been reduced by the curse.

Wars of the Broken Council

Elf and human warriors from the region are known to have served with the armies of the Broken Council in their wars against the west, though no details are known. We did not fight in the far distant wars where our spirits might get lost and forgotten.

Arkat Invades

A foreign army landed in the Shadowlands, ruled by the trolls from south of Dragon Pass. The trolls joined the army of the invader, and they marched north against the armies of Nysalor. The foreigner was Arkat Humaktsson, a knight from the far west whose life had been spent hunting the Golden God. The forces of the region mustered to drive off the foe. We prepared to hide in the wilderness in the face of this powerful invader.

Traveling Stone

The Battle of Traveling Stone was met and the result was a victory for Arkat and his allies, while the elves from Balazar were slain to nearly a one. Afterwards Arkat became a troll and furthered their cause in the Elder Wilds. Terror and fear reigned. Tribes swarmed over the Wyrms High Pass and the Giants Pass to burn woods and kill elves. Some settled; the fighting went into the next age, after Arkat was long gone. As with many kingdoms of the Elder Races, the peoples of Balazar fought and troubled each other mercilessly through the Second Age. The dissension between elf, dwarf, troll, and dragonewt left the region badly weakened, and the Votanki humans were able to improve their own position by carefully playing one side against another to their own advantage. We helped the elves to push the dwaves back to their mountains, the trolls out of the Elder Wilds, and the Dragonewts back to Dragon Pass. We fought, but also used cunning to play those enemies off against each other.

Nomad Invasion

This made Humans half-enemies of all the non-human races and established a distrust that plagued relationships ever afterwards. After two centuries of such troubles, the lands were broached by outsiders. In 717, a large army from the Redlands passed southward through the plains occupied by the Votanki, stealing and killing wherever they went. They seriously disrupted the herds when they passed, and many of the Votanki knew hunger the next winter. We avoided the evil horse riders.

When the westernmost clans of Votanki sighted the nomads returning northward loaded with booty early the next summer, they hastened to their chiefs who determined to act together against the foe. We fought against this foe to preserve as much as possible. The humans were aided by a few trolls and dragonewts as well, who desired to recapture some of the ancestral treasures stolen by the nomads while plundering Dragon Pass. We accepted aid from the Dragonewts.

Eight hundred and fity years ago, the Redland nomads were ambushed at Highbridge. Their forces were divided by the bridge and they were destroyed half at a time by the frantic hunters. Although many nomads escaped the terrible slaughter, they did so without their plunder. The non-humans took their goods back, the rest was divided among the victors, and some items of great note were set aside to to be returned to their owners in Dragon Pass. We gave some to our allies in payment for their aid, while returning others to Dragon Pass.

The Votanki king Hargaard Silverfist was the envoy who returned the treasure to the Empire of the Wyrms Friends in Dragon Pass. His trip's profit surprised him, and he returned with tales of great wealth and splendour. Few were distressed when envoys from the empire came to their lands and solicited support. We were cautious about the tales of Hargaard and did not commit ourselves to these foreign people. We have never trusted foreigners overmuch.

Third Council

Hargaard consented, and so did the local elves. These two forces, with Imperial dragonewt aid, suppressed the dwarves and drove the trolls back over the mountains, then entered a period of relative peace. The trolls sacked the city and shallower tunnels of Greatway about this time, and also burned the forests covering the land now called Dangerground. Seven hundred and fifty years ago the rulers of the Empire of the Wyrms Friends altered their government to a magical theocracy bent upon reestablishing the magical powers of the Gods Age in their land through the manipulation of the unusual Dragon Magics. They called their new organization the Third Council. For some time this succeeded, but internal dissension began, when the rulers ordered their subjects to worship them as gods. This brought protests, and the Aldryami of the Elder Wilds were the first to protest militarily. They seceded, and then invaded with a strong raid which escaped unscathed. We traveled with the elves and raided with them, gaining spoils from the raid and losing very little.

Humans, less repulsed by the orders, fought the elves for some time, but the region was generally peaceful. The elves were hard pressed by their traditional foes, the trolls, for the elves had no imperial aid. Humans gained the southern forests as their realm by promising the elves that they would kill trolls, and by telling trolls they would kill elves. This was the first clear-cut agreement which delivered any of the region to humans directly. The elves probably planned to retake it at their convenience, but that has not come about yet. We promised the elves that we would kill trolls in return for the southern forests as our realm.

Dissatisfaction with the leaders of the Third Council grew until at last the Votanki peoples agreed to throw off their draconic yoke. Many other borderlands of the Third Council were also revolting. We hated the Third Council who abused their power and were among the first to agree to throw of the draconic yoke. At first the Votanki were overrun by a brilliant raid by Third Council mercenaries. The Votanki asked for outside help from bands of mercenary adventurers, who thought they might seize themselves a kingdom while aiding the hunters. Many failed. We asked for help from mercenary adventurers.

Balazar

The leader named Balazar came from the northwest lands with his cult of Tharkantus and made many friends with the Votanki, both through his military skills and through his wisdom in dealing with the simple hunters. We did not trust this newcomer, thinking he might be another adventurer in search of a kingdom. It took five years to prove himself a friend, and two more years before we agreed he should become King. We have always had a distant relationship with Balazar and the citadels since this time.

Within five years he was hailed as the leader of all those peoples, and two years later he was crowned as King Balazar. His lands became the Lands of Balazar, later called simply Balazar after him. Ever since then the clans have revered him as their greatest hero and taken his name as their own. Balazar built two citadels and tried to bring agriculture to the region. The soil was too poor for such work, though. Balazar did steal a magical idol of Entra, the Sow Goddess, for his people, and since that time pigs have been raised at the citadels. Balazar brought the worship of Entra the Sow Mother to the citadels. They eat pig which is raise domestically inside and outside the citadels. It is a good thing for those people, but not for us. We do not eat such things. They are filthy. Balazar brought the worship of Tharkantus through whom we worship Yelmalio the god of light. He provides protection against the Darkness Demons, the trolls, whom we loath and fear.

Dragonkill

In the year Gonn Orta strode through our land and settled in his Castle the Third Council was ended by dragonewt betrayal. The lizardmen launched a great offensive against the heart of the council as invaders battered the borderlands, destroying armies and liberating the lands. The Council fell, and the lands were left to the dragonewt natives. In the Elder Wilds old antagonisms broke out anew, and the humans were hard-pressed to keep their lands because of many successful troll and elf ambushes in the wilds. When peoples turned covetous eyes towards the dragon and lizard riches of Dragon Pass they often found, or made up, reasons to go raiding there. Soon all peoples turned upon their former dragonewt allies and began destroying their nests. The natives of Dragon Pass found allies and defended stoutly until their foes finally united in an attempt to destroy all bodies and eggs of the ancient race. The invaders massed and called themselves the True Golden Horde. They approached from several routes, thinking thereby to gain enough entry to suffer some defeats and some victories, but overwhelming the dragonewts by sheer numbers. They had not counted on the help which the dragonewts could muster from other realms. 11 generations ago the armies were met by hundreds of dragons of all types, returning to protect their ancestral home. Dragons fell, both dream and true, but no army could withstand them. Thousands of people were slain in the war later called the Dragonkill War. Less than a hundred people survived, and only one single ghost is reported to have returned to the Balazarings to report the disaster. Others went seeking fame and glory, but we wisely stayed home and practiced our old ways. Ghosts of the Dragonkill haunt many a place as they could not find their way home to their ancestral lands of the conflict.

Citadels

The hunter chiefs who tended the children of Balazar raised each according to their own tribal interests, so the three sons were quarrelsome rather than cooperative. The division of the citadels was mutually acceptable to Dykene and Trilus, but Elkoi did not recieve a citadel. Instead, he went into the wilderness and came back with three giants as slave, who built the citadel of Elkoi. We had little to do with the quarrelsome children of King Balazar. We had always maintained a distance form Balazar and his ways, and thus it continued with his children. As the closest citadel, we naturally spent more time at Dykene. We know that Dykene was actually the daughter of Balazar and Rigtaina, the hunter-nypmh, and was as fierce and aggressive as any man. She took that citadel by force and would not relinquish it. Many of our daughters follow Rigtaina as we have a tradition of hunter-women.

A trio of giants began ravaging travelers near the citadel of Dykene, and the queen was killed in combat with them. They tore the citadel down almost to the ground and scattered the survivors. They were seeking the one who had enslaved them, Elkoi, but got the wrong citadel. Elkoi has always caused trouble among the people of Balazar and the citadels. We did not trust him and do not trust his descendants. They not align themselves with the outlander god of the moon.

Dykene remained in ruin. Wanderers and refugees increasingly moved into Balazar from the west. These were mostly barbarians who worshiped Solar or Storm deities, and who were retreating before the encroaching Moon Empire. We avoided most of them with their peculiar ways and magics, though we did accept a few into our ranks.

Many Balazarings were among the allies or in the pay of the newly formed Tarshite army, which itself followed a pair of divine children. These children were the Twins, and they were the Founders of the Tarsh Kingdom. They defeated the Lunar host at the battle of Falling Hills and after that most refugees went to Tarsh rather than bleak Balazar. We preferred to keep our warriors at home where they could be used for important things like finding food and fighting off trolls.

During this period the royal dynasties of the citadels changed often. Sometimes the throne was taken by a foreign adventurer, sometimes by a conservative great old chief, sometimes by some vigorous thinking hunter with his grandfather’s set of mail. A brave hunter from our clan took the Citadel and made himself king.

Kings of the Citadel made an occasional name for themselves. Our King ruled peacefully, with wisdom. We were clever and lucky in war

The Lunars came with a column of soldiers and Moon Wizards, guided by a hunter named Bykotus. King Partobas was killed and the Lunars occupied Elkoi. Bykotus was a kinsman of ours, and his descendants still rule Elkoi and owe us a favor.

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