Family Relations {Gathering Thunder SPOILER ALERT}

From: Gerald Bosch <gbosch_at_...>
Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2004 16:19:51 -0400

Since my gaming group has been more or less suspended for the last couple of months, I've only recently gotten around to a thorough reading of Gathering Thunder. Something from "Final Days at Skullpoint" struck me as odd. I put the "spoiler" tag on in case anyone reading this is a player who is going to be run through the adventure- this is a big secret and you'll ruin the game for yourself if you read further: Be Warned!

The ill-fated marriage from the past which lies at the core of one of the storylines in "Final Days at Skullpoint" left me confused. If I'm getting this right, the woman Freawaru and the two brothers Holt and Saeferth were two from different bloodlines in the same clan. Isn't that considered incest? I though clans were strictly exogamous. Given that Freawaru had to marry the brother she didn't love, this match must have been made at the urging of the clan and/or family leaders. If so, they must not have seen the marriage as irregular. Am I misunderstanding this, or do they just do things differently "up amongst them hillfolk?" (as some might put it around here in North Carolina)

Gerald