Gwendannen: Initial Description

Gwendannen: Initial Description

Hey all!

First off, lemme just say I LOVE this thread! As the Holy Church and the Amazons and rthe Rangers have done before you, a new "sub community" is forming. Wahoo!

Second, I want to thank Errandir for the heads up about this thread - I might have missed it otherwise.

Okay - just about every idea I've seen here is VERY cool. As I've done for other factions, let me begin by describing what I had in mind when I first conceived of the Gwendannen. Look to the British Isles, especially the non-Roman, pre-Saxon cultures, and you can't go wrong. Ireland, Wales, even highland Scottland are all thick with the spirit of the Gwendannen. In places there's an odd synergy with the Arthur legends - look to the Mabinogion and the Tristan saga. There's room for a little Native American outlook, but very little - I expect their lore is thick with tales of personifed animal figures (Wolf, Bear, Eagle, Raven, you name it!) - a heritage of their close contact with the Beast Lords. The Ranger and Druid classes were born with them, and I imagine they make up most of them - theirs are the Old Ways that still endure, through war, cataclysm, and crusade. I expect duality appeals a LOT to their nature - the whole summer/winter, light/dark, man/woman division. The All-Father, to them, is Braialla's consort - without his intervention, the first spring would never have come. Braialla, however, is the mother of all. I envision that a chieftain rules the clan, but the opinion of the Wise Woman may well be the most important factor in many decisions. They love feast, fastival, and song as much as they love battle - true warrior/poets, another conjoined duality.

Their Titan parents taught them craft, wisdom, and herblore - and the Hillfolk have always been artisans. Either Kenaryn or Gorum the Hunter (or both!) taught them the ways of the hunt, and by extension the ways of war. The Hillmen have never produced heavy armor, built castles, or favored cavalry - they fight the Highland Way, with small bands of archers striking quickly then fading into the wild.

In terms of history, theirs has been a troubled one - I expect they began as one great clan/host, ruled by a High King, a Baranwyr (the title means 'head of the Dragon', just as our word Pendragon does), then split into separate distinct clans sometime just before the War of the Scourge. That was an epic event methinks - the tale is only just beginning to form, but I imagine two brothers, betrayal, witchcraft, and the love of a woman were all involved. Hmmm... a fine and tragic tale. I expect it will end up being SB's homage to Tristan and Isoud. A split between 'good folk' and 'Ulstermen' is totally in character. Who knows, maybe they blame the coming of the Demons in the War of the Scourge on the fall of their High King - no doubt he was wounded (or poisoned), and lies sleeping beneath a Hollow Hill, waiting for the time that he may rise up, healed.

Fate, and doom, and geas (pronounced 'gesh') are all VERY big deals. Sojourns into the realm of Dream or the Lands of the Fae probably also figure strongly in their culture. I imagine, like all things, they have a very dualistic view of the Elves (almost a seelie/unseelie thing), but all of them agree that dealing with Elves is dangerous - even their love can inadvertantly destroy you. Talking animals, walking trees, and heroes as clever and cunning as they are strong at arms should be the hallmarks of their stories.

There were only 218 years between the liberation from Elvish servitude and the War of the Scourge, hardly long enough for a Golden Age of Heroes. Hmmmm... It seems much more likely that the Gwendannen were the founders of the Hidden Kingdom, or else they split from the group that founded it (seems much more likely - they don't have the cultured 'booklearning' feel of a bunch who had been Centaur educated). Yes, that does work better.So - the first Gwendannen culture started forming sometime around 3670 NR, and took a while to congeal into the Baranwyr's kingdom. That kingdom fell sometime around 3999. Afterward, the Gwendannen suffered hideous losses during the War of the Scourge. Indeed, Beregund was Gwendannen born, and the Gorthini were one mighty clan.

I expect many clans or scattered survivors of clans sought refuge among other men, especially the Ethyrians, so that by the Age of Kings we have a situation where their Old Ways have been assimilated into Ethyrian culture - again, look to the folk traditions of Pagan England and the odd ways they inserted themselves into the Christian era. Two of the Ten Kingdoms, Ghand and Brethild, were pretty much an even hybrid of Gwendannen and Ethyrian ways. When Cambruin rose to power, some hailed him as the Baranwyr returned (it's a legend he might turn to his favor pretty easily), while others saw him as the lastest oppressor.

There were other clans that fled deeper into the wilds and never became part of "mainstream" culture. They live primarily as raiders, fighting feuds against each other, but banding together for great raids against the Ethyrians and Invorri. The clans live pretty mobile lives, moving between seasonal campsites, and coming together in great moots for sport, bragging contests, and, most importantly, the marrying of their children. Blood ties are essential to them, and they place a high premium on personal honor.

That's all that leaps immediately to mind. I hope all this helps!