My name is Skeli Aslanderson, though for all the memories of my father that I have since he was foully slain by broos when I was but a mere infant I might as well go by my chosen epithet of Redbeard.  Skorri Manysons, chief of the Urlanging and Blunt Ashbjorn, chief of the new Amber Clan have both asked me to keep a record of the events that led to the creation of the new Amber clan.  This then is that record may Lhankor Mhy and Orlanth Lawspeaker blind and maim anyone who mistreats it.

The people our new clan come from are known as the Urlanging.  In the early ages when we mixed freely with the gods they got drunk with Orlanth on the Eight Known Drinks and had well earned hangovers during his marriage to Ernalda.  They fought beside Orlanth at The Battle of Extinguish Field when great Orlanth's forces defeated those of his worst enemy, Yelm the Bright Emperor.  During the Darkness the kin of a man named Gunnar came to them seeking aid and were adopted as family.   They fought many during the Darkness but their especial foe was Ukka Gra, King of the Basmoli Beastmen.

When the Darkness ended they followed King Heort's lead and set up a balanced clan like their ancestors.  The first deity they awoke was Orlanth the Father.  When the dragons came they were hostile to them and fought against them.   They were one of the clans to come out of the Darkness in the region now known as Hendrikiland.  Following the teachings of good King Heort they grew and prospered.  Many thing happened to them throughout their long history and they never disappointed their ancestors or their gods. These deeds are spoken of in great detail in the history of the Urlanging so I will not go into them here.

The current chief of the Urlanging is Skorri Manysons who is the son of Helgis Hrutson, the son of Hrut Hegelson who died infamously at the hands of the dragon lovers.  Skorri is a good leader who has led his people well in battle and peace. During Skorri's reign the Urlanging numbered almost 2500 people with the most famous Urlangings being Skorri himself, Una Oxen Lover, priestess of Uralda, Angorri Farnanson, trader of the Talking God, Randella Ernaldestadaughter, priestess of Ernalda, and Estak the Humaktsworn.  The Urlanging has a force of 30 weaponsthanes and a fyrd of 400 with both men and women led by Estak the Humaktsworn.  The clan is rich in cattle and horses and has many pigs and sheep.   The clan was made up of four bloodlines, one of which was made up of the descendants of Gunnar and operated by different rules than the other bloodlines.

News had long reached Skorri, who by this year 1344 had already ruled for 30 years, of the advent of the stranger known as Belintar.  Skorri being a wise ruler had long worried about this Belintar so finally in 1339 he sent three of his followers to spy on him.  A year after the followers had departed a force of Ingisi who had already allied themselves with Belintar attacked and wiped out a stead inhabited by the Bollini, one of the four bloodlines leaving all of its members dead.  Skorri was all set to attack the Ingisi and get vengeance when a delegation from another neighbouring clan, the Lonisi came bearing weregeld.  This weregeld was accepted and a grudging peace accepted.  This act was seen as a sign of weakness from Skorri and his ring and many people were not happy about it. 

After five long years only of Skorri's three spies, Cedric the Fox, returned.  He told Skorri what he feared he would hear that Belintar now calling himself the Pharaoh, brooked no independence.  You either followed him or died. Skorri called a meeting of the entire ring and all household heads.  After a marathon three days of debate some decisions were made.  Skorri himself and whoever wanted to join him would stay and fight Pharaoh.  Another group were urged by Skorri to follow in the steps of the Colymar and Malani and head north into Dragon's Pass.  Another group would have none of either choice and decided to go live with the Lonisi instead.   These traitors were allowed to take their share of the kine and leave.  A vocal band led by Ashart Bollison the newly returned sole survivor of the Bollini bloodline wanted to take up arms and pursue these ones and wreak vengeance on them.   This was not allowed. 

Two hundred and seventy-eight adults decided to go with Una Oxen Lover, priestess of Uralda, Angorri Farnanson, trader of the Talking God, Randella Ernaldestadaughter, priestess of Ernalda being among them.  All fifty of Skorri's son stayed to die with him and the remaining people did as well.  Many of the children who were too young to bear arms were put into fosterage with those who left.

Seven hundred and thirty people left the Urlanging to move to Dragon Pass.  Of this number 100 were fit to bear arms (sixty-seven men and thirty-three women) not including the nine weaponsthanes.  Ninety-eight elders went and seventy-seven non-combatants.  Four hundred and fifty-two children went along as well.

The weapons thanes were :

Ashart Bolison, Humakti
Blunt Ash-Bjorn, Orlanthi
Branbrig Slayer, Uroxi
Cedric the Fox, Orlanthi
Ferena Unasdaughter, Babeester Gor
Orlev Ice-Eyes, Humakti
Skerri Brightspear, Vingan
Jarang Hauberk, Orlanthi
Oski Urlikson, Orlanthi

Before the new clan could leave they had to undergo the Foundation Ritual.  The first stage of the ritual is to get the approval of the people for the formation of a new clan.  This had already been assured so the next step was to get the approval of the ancestors.  This too was obtained.  Then the laws were checked by the lawspeakers and we found that there was clear precedent for this.   Then came the last step getting the approval of the gods. 

Before this was done a contest was held to see who would be the new chieftain of the new clan.  Three candidates, Blunt Ash-Bjorn, Jarang Hauberk and Oski Urlikson, put themselves forward and they were closely questioned to determine whether they met the usual requirements which all did.  They then each went through the chief tests which all passed.  At this point a vote was held to see who the people chose.  The people spoke and Blunt Ashbjorn was chosen.  Rumour has it that most of the women voted for Blunt because of his charm.  I however hold no patience with rumour and merely report the facts.

After Blunt was chosen as our new chief he was required to go through the Making of the Storm Tribe hero quest.  The High Holy Day of Orlanth was chosen as the date and much preparations were engaged in.  Those Urlanging who were leaving provided extraordinary support for Blunt while the rest provided as much support as they could.  The people gathered at our temple on the appointed day and the old godspeaker Jarnadar Godspeaker recited the sacred myth from memory.  Then the windclad candidate appeared and The Ritual Arming of Orlanth was held.  Once he was armed and armoured he rode around the stead telling the people why he was doing this deed and finally he lit from the chariot and entered the temple.  What follows is dictated to me by Blunt Ashbjorn.

"My name is Blunt Ash-bjorn and I am the chosen chief of the new clan.  I dictate what follows to Skeli Redbeard, lawspeaker of the people as a record of what happened to me during my hero quest into the God's Plane.  I entered the temple and managed to pass through the barrier into the Gods Plane.  There I was in Orlanth's where I met Ernalda who told me that if I wanted to defeat the Evil Emperor I would have to create a tribe to battle his Fire Tribe. I left my palace and wandered thinking about what she had to say.  While wandering I met the Doubting Wheel which tried to persuade me not to form a tribe as I would lose my own freedom.  I captured the wheel in a large net and brought it back to Ernalda who cooked it down into a silver ring.  Taking this ring I went looking for clans to join my tribe.

First of those I met was Yinkin who said his Cat Clan would join if I could defeat his foes in the Plant Tribe.  I defeated them rather easily and Yinkin told me that he would join my tribe if we had someone to remember the good laws we made.   I wandered until I met the Knowing God who was imprisoned in a stone cube.   Using my ability to make witty remarks I confused the cube freeing the Knowing God.   He said that he would join the clan if we had fierce warriors to defend us.

I went looking for Vadrus my brother finally finding him.  He wanted to go off and fight the Blue Tribe and I tried to persuade him instead to join our tribe.  he refused saying that he wouldn't unless Yinkin was no part of it.  I offered to arm wrestle him in order to persuade him but I failed miserably and lost so he refused to even attend the moot.

I met many gods and got them to join the tribe, then I wandered some more and found a woman called Aranea the Weaver who agreed to join the new tribe when I promised her protection and traders to trade her goods.

At the moot all were angry at me for making promises to all and I decided to bide my time and hold my tongue and wait for Ernalda to bring her gifts.   She did so and many, but not all agreed to join the new tribe.  Then the Night Tribe attacked and I attempted to lead the attack against them.  Unfortunately without Vadrus we were not powerful enough so they defeated us.  Fortunately the survivors still saw the sense of joining the tribe as more of them would have died if they had stood alone and our tribe was formed.

I then made the returning crossing and found myself back in the temple in the possession of a holy relic that we later found out is called the Crown of Amber."

Despite Blunt's poor performance and the ambivalent omens it was decided that the gods approval had been given and it was decided that we would call the new clan, the Amber Clan in honour of the crown.

During Sacred Time instead of the usual requests for blessing the Urlanging asked for travel blessings for their new offshoot while they asked for war blessings for themselves as they took the serious measure of becoming a war clan instead of a balanced clan.

Blunt declared his inner ring : Blunt Ash-Bjorn, Orlanth the Chief; Rasmus Borngoldson, Odayla the Hunter; Orlaront Mosdorlson, Barntar; Orlev Ice-Eyes, Humakt/Lhankor Mhy; Randella Ernaldestadaughter, Ernalda; Una Oxen Lover, Uralda; and Skerri Brightspear, Vinga.

Blunt declared Ashart Bolison to be the clan warleader and Branbrig Slayer as clan champion.  Once sacred time was over much preparations were made for travel and an expedition led by Skerri Bright-Spear and made up of Cedric the Fox, Per Rasmussen, Snorri Horse-thief, Cat Boy, Bjarni Bare-skin, and Orlev Ice-eyes was sent out to negotiate passage to the new land.

This page last modified October 23, 2000

Email me at oliver_bernuetz@hotmail.com.