>
>> > If anyone has campaigned in the Locaem tribe or just feels he is
>an
>> > expert in that subject, I'd be interested in having conversation
>with
>> > him.
>>
>> Please tell us the question(s). I am sure some knowledgeable semi-
>god will
>> try to answer them for you.
>
>Thank you for replying. I am not seeking answers to any particular
>questions about the tribe at the moment. I am trying to seek out if
>someone has done any additional material of the tribe. I know that at
>least Jon Draper is running a campaign in Locaemi tribe and I was
>trying to see if there are more of those.
>
>But basically the matter behind this is to lure someone to write a
>general article of the tribe. If that sounds interesting to anyone,
>just contact me.
>
>Otto
I was running a game about the twinned Bearclaw and Threespear clans of the Locaem, but it didn't really gell and I stopped it. Some of the history came from a PenDragonPass game I'd run ten years ago.
The Threespears and the Bearclaws lived in adjacent valleys and tended to have feuds with each other, but made some kind of peace in the 1600's when a Bearclaw warrior won the Threespear chief's daughter's hand, despite her brother plotting against it. The bride gift involved a winged horse, obtained from the Pegasus Plateau.
In 1610, the King of the Locaem's eldest son became an initiate of Yelmalio [while this was before Elmal came about it would still be Yelmalio] and was trying to lead his tribe to follow him until Prince Argrath, The King's youngest son, locked the doors of the newly constructed temple and fired the roof. Outlawed, Prince Argrath fled to the wastes of Prax.
In 1613, Kallyr Starbrow called for true warriors to free Sartar. The Bearclaw clan sent all their forces, the Threespears sent the bare minimum, and betrayed Starbrow to the Lunars. The Bearclaw fyrd was destroyed by the Granite Phalanx. The Bearclaw chief's wife fled with her children to the south. Few warriors returned whole to the Bearclaw valley, and within two years the Bearclaw clan petitioned the Threespears to let them shelter at their hearth. The Bearclaw clan was no more.
One of the few returning Bearclaws was a Kolating who dreamed of rebuilding his lost clan.
The Threespears, deprived of the Bearclaws to feud with, came to pick fights with the perfidious Greydog clan. The feud was, at least in first, almost entirely in the head of one of the Threespear weaponthanes - an account follows:
"The Chief announces that he's going to make a pilgrimage to Kero Fin, the mountain where Orlanth was born, and will leave his trusted warrior Ecfrith in charge while he's away. As acting chief Ecfrith [PC, Urox initiate] decides that a feast to honour Urox should be held, and the place of honour should be given to the man that brings the most impressive animal to the table.
So off goes Ecfrith, with his henchman Almaro, to scout out the Boskovi herds and see if the can steal a cow from them. Because a Threespear cow wouldn't be very glorious, but a stolen Boskovi cow? That would honour Urox, no doubt about it. So off they go, into the Boskovi land, find where the Boskovi herd is grazing, spot that the Boskovi guards and go off to get help from Klamath.
Klamath [PC, Odaylan, contrary] isn't interested. He doesn't see why he should risk his neck stealing cows from the Boskovi, who've never done him any harm. instead he tells Ecfrith about the White Stag, and leads him to where the great beast was seen. Ecfrith spends most of a day crashing about in the forest seeing neither hide nor hair of the stag, gives up and sneaks back with Almaro in search of a Boskovi cow.
Finding a Boskovi cow is fairly easy. Getting the damn thing to move is harder. Almaro goes back to his horse to get his spare bridle while Ecfrith gets a cow moving. It moves, but moos as well. Almaro comes back and tears the bridle apart trying to get it over the cow's horns. Both warriors can hear the herders getting closer so Ecfrith decides to hack the cow's head off. Makes a bit of a botch job of it really, but just gets the head off, leaps onto his horse and gallops away as the herders come up the hill to find the carcass of their cow.
After that it gets a bit confusing. The next day Ecfrith singles out a cow from the Threespear herds and takes it round to his father-in-law's stead where he hacks the head off that cow as well. Come the night he hides the Threespear cow's carcass and the Boskovi cow's head and rides off with the Threespear cow's head towards the Boskovi lands. Klamath, who's been hidden in the woods watching all this pops out and moves the Boskovi cow's head, and then sets out after Ecfrith. Ecfrith stops by the Boskovi boundary marker and hurls the cow's head into the Boskovi lands, and rides back home to wash the blood off. Klamath arrives in just time to witness the Boskovi guards discovering the head.
Back in Threespear village Ecfrith staggers through the stockade with the headless Threespear cow over his shoulders and announces to the assembled clan that Raiders, probably Boskovi have been butchering the clan's cows. Ecfrith discovered them as they cut this cows head off and chased them away. He hurt one of them quite badly, a mighty left handed warrior. Ah, says the clan, that would be Irondar Boskovi, because everyone knows there is only one left handed warrior in the Boskovi. Oops, thinks Ecfrith, realising that claiming to have fought anonymous raiders is one thing, claiming to have defeated the Boskovi clan champion is another. It wasn't the Boskovi at all. Certainly wasn't Irondar Boskovi. It must have been the villainous Greydog clan, who live south of the Boskovi. Obviously. Better roast that cow now and prepare to raid the damned Greydogs.
Come the next morning Ecfrith leaves the clan sharpening spears and rides out towards the Boskovi lands. Irondar Boskovi himself is with the guards, and he's amazed to hear that the Greydogs have been stirring up trouble - he thought that the Threespears were behind it all, and killed one of their own cows to appease the Boskovi. But if Ecfrith fought Greydog raiders, then they must be just trying create a feud between the two clans. Of course the Greydogs must be raided, why not have both clans assemble their warriors at the boundary stone tomorrow and smash those dogs.
So they do. The next morning the Threespear fyrd musters, a pretty small fyrd given that most of the weaponthanes are with Ragnar Ironspike half way up Kero Fin, and joins with the much larger Boskovi army. Battle tactics are discussed and agreed. The old favourite - charge straight at them and stick them with your spear - is favoured by all. So down the hills into the Greydog lands charge the warriors. The Greydog guards do try to defend their herds, but without much success. Ecfrith, while failing to manifest Urox' fury wades through the herders as though they were children while the Threespear farmers drive several dozen Greydog cows back home. Irondar Boskovi and Ecfrith swear oaths of friendship and agree to hold feasts in each other's honour - eating Greydog cattle of course. "
On the edge of Threespear territory, a great fortified villa is being built for a former Lunar general, who these days is always seen wearing a trophy necklace taken from a dead barbarian chieftain in the rebellion. The necklace is strung with the claws of an enormous bear and recognizable to those in the know (ie the Kloating, the children of the Bearclaw chieftain) and the housing of the Bearclaw wyter.
Normal rules of "just cos it was like this in my game says nothing at all about what it's like in 'real' Glorantha/Greg's game/your game" apply.
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