The Clan MacLear

In the days of The First Age, it is said that savagery was among us. For generations beyond measure did we fight and plot and toil in the earth until those who would not abide this time would take up the talent. They spake aloud and thus began the cinneadh. Among there count grew those who would recount their history-- the shamen. The best among them they would call "bard" for they did not speak our history; they put it to song. With this they could call sagas long forgotten and enigmas never unraveled and they were raised high, for chief among the people was their history.

And so it was that we would cast aside our old ways and take up the tilling of soil and the building of wood homes, that we may live in peace. Thus began The Second Age, as they sought the Gods to ask for bountiful food, and children aplenty. The First among them was Lear, who stood among his people as chief, thus our name that endures to this day. The Gods they gave names, and the names the shamen would call upon with the talent. The cinneadh grew and endured many moons and the shamen and bards kept the lineage. The Gods grew weary, though, and set upon the people an abomination. The Tome teaches us that in those times, the dead walked among the living.

...so that he brought a ruination upon the lands of the north, breathing into the dirt a black smoke from which rose an army of corpses who wrought fear, and disease and The Consumption. Many among them, once called kin in ages past, now stood as ghastly epitaths to their new enemy.

The Dark Ones did summon The Great Tyrant, Aintighearnas that he may again ply his malice. The cinneadh was nearly extinguished when...

...Lord Lear looked upon the hordes of The Daemon and was shaken by the carnage that the Dark Ones had wrought. And he knelt to his knee, touched his bloodied sword to his head and prayed to the Great God that he did not know, who was Chief of all the Gods, that he would answer his call for mercy and deliver them from the Time of Trials.

The Great God summoned a swirling pool of mist in the sea, that Lear may lead his clan through into unknown, but presumably safe lands, as he fought back The Daemon, keeping him at bay. Thus ended The Second Age and the Time of Trials. At this, our history fades and it's pages are blank.

It begins again with runes that have defied understanding until the High Shaman, Ravnanger, under Laird Lanandena of Norrath, comes to us. Pages upon pages of runes and drawings and enigma once thought dark among the people-- and seen only by the shamen-- laid before us. Such is the perview of the shamen and we will speak of it last.

The Tome is again silent until it starts again, in a tongue we understand, with Agonisty, who would lead the family in a new land, called Britannia. Some in this land wielded powers-- then called "arcane"-- and Agonisty was found to possess this. Agonisty, with his brothers Erath and Dolgan, founded The Hand of Virtue to maintain power. They built fortresses and routed the unseemly from the roads, but the tide was rising. For generations the land of Britannia was war-torn, and The Hand of Virtue staid the course. But the minions of The Destroyer came and again breathed his black smoke into the soil. The great tower Amun'ris was built that he may lay his dreadful eye upon the land and cast about a great darkness. The Hand of Virtue could not sustain under such weight. After decades of strife, Agonisty, Erath and Dolgan, like their fathers before them, stayed behind and ushered on their kin to other lands for refuge. The fate of the three sons of Lear-kin is lost to us.

The land they discovered would some day be called Norrath, and the territory of MacLear called Everfrost. Many generations lived on the shores of Norrath, adventuring for glory. The beasts were greater in that land, but the people banded together against the enemy, keeping safe. Such security did not last. Their ancient enemy, called by some The Consumption, found them again and best upon the cinneadh a new villany who's name we write only as The Twisted. A generation of the cinneadh was lost in bitter wars against the undead army. Their chief did then fell the foe and The Twisted One fled into the frozen steppe where upon the family discovered our greatest treasure. The pride and glory of the family was a book of immense power and knowledge. Called The Shaman's Mantra by those more learned and The Tome by the lay, this one item, alone, defines MacLear. Quoting The Chronicles of Tormod the Younger:

In hushed voices, those who will speak of it will say that in the time of our grandfathers' grandfathers there came through our lands an ancient and powerful user of terrible death magiks. Everything that he touched was drained of life and withered. Many of our clan were lost or withered in the terrible and strange battle with the Twisted One. After losing many of our kin, the Twisted One tired of our tireless pursuit of him and traveled deeper into the heart of the frozen wasteland that is Everfrost. Years after his passage an ancient and worn tome of writings was found near a cave, deep in the wastelands. The MacLear shamans determined that the book was not of our ken and understanding and must have come from beyond our lands. It is believed to have once belonged to the Twisted One.

It was Lanadena, the All-Seeing who catalogued the "auld tongue", the language of the family in more ancient times. It is that tongue, called Gaidhlig by the fluent, that we honor in our daily speech. The cinneadh languished in Norrath for many moons before this generation, but it was this time that some of the people set out for other shores, a'viking. So it is that hearts grew restless and some among us set out to explore other shores. Few have returned from the perilous journey with news of the new sept's victories, but such is journaled here of our exploits in the land of Mitgaard.

It was under the tuteledge of Lanadena, in Norrath, that The Tome's great secret was revealed while the expedition abroad was away. The shamen tell us only that the pages of runes once thought the incantations of a madman are, in fact, instructions from a Fifth Age. Much time had passed since the reign of Lear and much knowlege was lost. Three ages had passed between Lear and Agonisty and we were, in fact, still in The Sixth Age, until then dubbed The Third. Thus our timeline was rewritten. If the runes speak of our history, the shamen don't speak of it. They tell us the secret that it reveals gave us a chance-- if only once-- to send an expedition BACK in time, Gods forgive us, to The Fifth Age.

So it is that we find ourselves here in The Fifth Age. The honor is great, but do not overstay your welcome. Our purpose is singular. We must find The Tome and return it to the cinneadh in Norrath that it may be kept out of the hands of The Twisted One. We cannot know what all may result, but such risks are called for by the shamen and, thus, it is our charge. Our second goal, if the shamen do not lead us astray, is to find the source for The Tome. It is told to us that The Tome in our posession is not the original script, but an ancient copy from something we are told many not appear to be a book. Keep a watchful eye, bretheren, for chief among us is our history.

Also, the shamen tell us that we will not find many MacLear here of blood, but rather a cadre of mixed races that share our cause. We must join with their kind and bring them into the fold, for they truly are kin. Some among them may even be our ancestors.

Go and bring forth word, cinneadh, of our victories and we may write them down that those we call sister and brother in our homes may read of us in another age. Here we make our history.