Ancient Lore During the marriage of Orlanth and Ernalda, our men and women stood guard with

E lmal, making Elmal our main deity. Our clan s earliest famous event was the Battle of Extinguish Field, when Orlanth s forces defeated those of his worst enemy, Yelm the Bright Emperor. During the Storm Age, we adopted strangers into our clan. Our worst enemies in t hose days were the elves. We were originally a Balanced Clan. At the Dawn, we first awakened Orlanth, the Father. Our attitude toward dragons and their ilk was neutral; we did not go along with them nor actively make war on them. 1329 When we arrived in Dragon Pass, we claimed more land than we needed, to grow int o. We built a clan hall, some steads, and a shrine to Elmal. But when we left He ortland, we lost much of our connection with the gods. 1330 Trickster magic might be more reliable this year. Humakti warriors sought our help in a war party against walking corpses. The Hum akti refused our offer to sacrifice to their god, demanding that we lend them wa rriors. We sent warriors to fight alongside them. They said we were honorable, a nd then departed with our warriors in tow. Enjossi, mad chief of the Anmangarn clan, came to our tula and told us that a to ken offering would end the feud between our two clans. We gave them five old cow s and waited to see what it really meant. Vandarl, a rebellious thrall belonging to the Eagle clan, came to beg for our ai d. He wanted us to protect escaped thralls from outraged Eagle thanes. We set ou t to convince the Eagle thanes to abandon their pursuit. Korlmhy said to them, It is illegal to mistreat thralls. Their chief, Borngold, agreed with Korlmhy s citat ion of the legal precedents, and ordered an end to pursuit of the escaped thrall s. During our absence, Vandarl slipped away and rejoined his group. He and the o ther thralls soon melted into the landscape. We later heard that they were so ex cited by this first success that they attacked a troll caravan and were eaten, e very one. We found a cave full of dangerous, armored rodents on our tula. Tarkalor said he would lure them away with trickster magic. He pranced about the cave mouth, sin ging a song which he said was an irresistibly salacious tune in the language of the killer rodents. It seemed absurd, but the rodents formed a line and followed Tarkalor as he danced away from the borders of our tula and towards those of th e Greydog clan. While exploring our tula, we found traces of an ancient battle. We went to other clans and bragged about this find. Our neighbors were much impressed. Rostakos, a thane of the Greydog clan, complained that Tarkalor insulted him, an d said there would be a feud if we did not punish our trickster. We said that Ro stakos should duel Tarkalor. Rostakos unsheathed his sword and said he would fig ht the one who had offended him. Tarkalor leapt upon him, butting his head. The air rippled as if there were a fire under it, and Tarkalor could not properly be seen. Rostakos slashed the air with his sword as Tarkalor danced around him. Un

seen forces tore Rostakos s clothing, exposing his private parts. A bucket appeare d as if from nowhere, and landed on Rostakos s head. He fled from our tula, howlin g that the fight had not been fair, and promising revenge. The harvest was plentiful. Refugees come seeking aid. They said they had escaped from cruel horse nomads. W e adopted them as family. The haughty horse nomads who called themselves Grazers came to reclaim the refug ees we had adopted. We attacked them. Even these few horse-riders proved to be f erocious enemies. They fought with fiery arrows and lances. Their peculiar horse s leapt through our tula like giant grasshoppers, falling among us where we leas t expected them. Many of our warriors were slain or wounded. The Grazers snatche d up some of our leaders, taking Hend, Gordangar, and Markalor away with them. 1331 Our cows were expected to give abundant milk. We learned that the Greydogs had started a feud with us. Dunorl, a warrior of the Anzarni clan, returned the young girl Ernaldinni, who h ad run away from us, claiming to be an orphan, and seeking adoption into their c lan. We told Dunorl that we owed his clan a favor. Slights make war, but favors m ake peace, he responded. Your words are generous, and I am honored to accept them. Yinkin cultists offered to perform a ritual which would make better hunters out of our alynxes. They would be better able to kill disease-bearing forest rats, o r so the Yinkini said. We asked what their price was. It was satisfactory, and w e came to an agreement. They gathered our alynxes together, and successfully per formed their Yinkin ritual. We were raided by the Arnorings. Jarolor ended up unseen among the enemy s warrior s. He could not fight free of the Arnorings who surrounded him. They gave him no chance to summon his god s magics, but at least he was not wounded. We drove the Arnorings from the battlefield, striking them down as they fled. We were raided by the Horse-Spawn. Varsens led a flanking maneuver against the r iders, throwing them into disarray. We drove the Horse-Spawn from the battlefiel d, striking them down as they fled. We were able to attract 32 new cottars to the clan. They brought with them 30 ch ildren. Spirit-talkers showed up and asked if we needed anything from them. We asked the m to heal our wounded. They did so. Our scouts found a strange clan of beast folk who were like ducks. We raided the Thunder Ducks and eluded their patrols. We could do no ight on the land we wished to claim, and eventually had to withdraw. o drive the impertinent ducks off land far more suited to us than to ed to discover that they were determined foes, we watched several of t warriors fall among their slings and daggers. The Vostangi raided us for 12 cows while we were raiding. People from the Anmangarn clan came and said we should raid them, and they would contrive things so that we would kill their mad chieftain. We agreed to help th em. more than f We sought t them. Shock our proudes

We raided the Anmangarni. We drove the Anmangarni from the field with a witherin g hail of stones and arrows. Their contrivance did not work. Their chieftain lea rned of their scheme, and submitted several members of his own ring to torture. 1332 Trickster magic might be more reliable this year. The dangerous rodents came back and bit children and horses. We ordered our weap onthanes to exterminate them. They said the carls should have been ordered to bl ock the cave entrance. Many of them were wounded, but they said that they killed them all. Eonistaran, of the Narri clan, asked us to give him grain, because we owed him a favor. We did as he asked. Our carls were glad to see that we gave Eonistaran o nly what custom demanded no less, and certainly no more. Korlmhy could not persuade the Tanaharts to create a new trading route. We were raided by the Praxians. We drove the Praxians off, and were happy to hav e survived the battle. Prominent weaponthanes from the Tanahart and Orladnast clans came to urge our we aponthanes to help them kill Harran, King of the Colymar tribe. Rastoron said to Enothea that she should reconsider her plans. Enothea was impressed by Rastoron s words, and said that she would not pursue her plan. She praised Rastoron s wisdom , and gave him a gift of silver. A plague of snakes came upon us, upsetting the cattle and frightening the childr en. We sacrificed to Orlanth. The snakes went away. The harvest was poor. Foul weather turned back our diplomatic mission to the Apples. A . m s band of very strange musicians asked for permission to play at our clan market We accepted the offer. Bundalini s All-Skeleton Band played, and people came fro all over. We decided to forge new trade arrangements. We did not make the deal we wanted to make.

Acting as our emissary, Korlmhy asked the Apples to make good on the obligation they owed us, and provide us with food. Korlmhy asked for a bit more food than c ustom demanded. The Apple carls seemed much affronted by this request. Their chi ef, Elmalandti, said he would give us no more than the customary amount. Korlmhy asked for no more and no less than the usual amount. The Apples provided us wit h the food without further complaint. 1333 The omens foretold good fortune this year. We were raided by the Horse-Spawn. Arene caused great damage in a group of Horse -Spawn who were attempting to circle behind us. We took 17 captives from the Hor se-Spawn. We were able to ransom the prisoners. Valensta, daughter of Brangbane and Onelisin, went missing. Her parents thought she was at Clan Apple, in the company of a former suitor, Orlkensor. We demanded that they return Valensta to us, and consider the marriage annulled. Valensta w as returned to us.

Korlmhy convinced the Tanaharts to create a new trading route. A delegation from the Holy Country came to give us gifts and ask us to commit a treasure of theirs for safe-keeping. We agreed to keep the treasure, which they called the Iron Spike. Humakti warriors said we should give them permission to enter our tula and fight the undead. We granted it. They found spectres and ghouls everywhere, and put t hem to the sword. We knew that our lands were haunted, but had no idea just how much danger our people were in. We were overjoyed. Korlmhy could not persuade the Thunder Ducks to create a new trading route. Frithorf came to ask us for a gift of luck and divine favor, reminding us that w e owed his clan, the Lysangs, a favor. We gave more than the customary amount. F rithorf said that the Dacias were good friends, and that his people would not fo rget this. While plowing the fields, the carls found something strange. It was the enormous skull of some kind of dragon creature. We used it to decorate our clan hall. Yinkin cultists came and asked for our help against the Eagles, who they had fou nd out were raising dogs. We refused them. They departed, disappointed. We soon heard that they had launched a failed raid against the Eagles, and that many of them were killed by their dog-breeding foes. 1334 All of the omens were unlucky. Many of our sheep became sick. We sent for Nevala priestesses from other clans. They came and said they would heal the sheep if we gave them ten healthy sheep f or sacrifice to their goddess. We accepted the arrangement. They performed their healing rituals, and most of the sheep were cured. They destroyed the others, s o that the disease spirits would be driven away. We stole 19 cows from the Greydogs. Starvation hit our clan. We were raided by the Anmangarni. The Anmangarn clan burned 2 steads. We drove t he Anmangarni from the battlefield, striking them down as they fled. We took 8 A nmangarn auxiliaries captive. We kept the prisoners as thralls. Uraldesta, Ernalda priestess of the Lysang clan, told us that they had freed the ir thralls, and that we should do the same. We politely refused her. She said th at we would eventually come around to the right way of thinking. She departed, s aying that she would talk to our thralls and advise them to press us on this iss ue. The carls were most perturbed; they said that the thralls were difficult eno ugh to handle as it was, without her meddling.