Lore:Seamount Clan

The Seamount Clan was a clan of Orcs active in the Second Era that lived in the island that they called Betnikh, which is a location better known for the name of Betony, with their main city being Stonetooth Fortress which had a lodge, bank, market and other facilities. They were a proud and self-reliant people who fiercely defended their home from invasions made by outsiders.  

History
Seafaring
Before the time of their conquest of Betony, the clan had a time of seafaring, with their stories claiming that their ancestors tamed killer whales in the Abecean Sea and trained them for war. Riders of those whales were said to be capable of harpooning ships and steer them by using the strength of the animal, with evidence of this long-lost tradition surviving in siege gear that was later recovered in the Second Era.   They were also described as the fiercest raiders of the sea before they settled on Betony. 

Second Era
Nine generations before  , after the reign of Emperor Reman II, the Seamount Clan launched an invasion into Betony.   They used siege engines to destroy the wood defenses of the Bretons and were said to have slaughtered many of the locals in their invasion.   At some point of their conquest, they had to deal with a threat of the Bretons who were preparing a spell that could have been able to kill their entire army, with the clan capturing some who were said to aid their king by not telling about the plan. 

thumb|Stonetooth Fortress

Thanks to the interrogation of some of the prisoners and the use of necromancy thanks to a Reachwitch's charm that the clan obtained, the Seamount Orcs were able to obtain the information on how to breach the defenses of King Remwic who was preparing the dangerous spell, with the clan stopping the King who was killed by their War Chief. The War Chief then proclaimed that the survivors that did not accept exile would be killed, which possibly included the exile of the Queen and the Princess of Betony, although it is not clear if they were killed during the interrogation. 

Despite the final efforts of the defenders, which included the attempt of using an ancient Ayleid relic in the hope of raising an undead army to defeat the orcs,  the Seamount were still successful and took the island for themselves, likely building their Stonetooth Fortress in the bones of old Breton defenses.  After the victory, they still held respect for the dead of the enemy and never desecrated their graveyards even after hundreds of years. 

Around the time of the Alliance War, they were considered hard to deal with by an outsider who reported to have been treated poorly and wrote that no one from the Kingdom of Daggerfall had been able to establish a viable trading contract with them.  At least one of their members, Lambur, had previously left the island by that period and joined a group of pirates under Captain Kaleen, showing that they were not completely isolated. 

By the year 2E 582, the clan remained strong in Betnikh but was now dealing with the threat of the Bloodthorn Cult on its lands.  The Cult went as far as attacking their Fortress, but the Orcs were able to defend the position, killing most while the rest fled, an action which caused the clan to be even more unwelcoming to outsiders, although they did not protest the arrival of the Vestige since they had sailed to the isle with Captain Kaleen. 

In order to help the Clan against the Bloodthorn, the Vestige was asked to investigate several locations.  The hero was then able to discover, after witnessing several visions with the help of a Seamount Shaman, that the Bloodthorns were desperate to enter the spirit realm and were able to access it which made the dangers to the Orcs much clearer.  Another investigation in the Ayleid ruin of Moriseli in Betnikh revealed that the cultists were violating and tormenting Orc spirits in order to bind them to their side, the Vestige was able to defeat the cultists but it is unclear if they freed the warriors that were dragged back into the mortal realm or not.  

The Vestige was also able to stop a threat of the Bloodthorn in the form of their necromancers who were trying to raise the dead of Grimfield, an old Breton graveyard, they were even able to experience the old invasion of the Seamount Clan and played the role of Warcaller Targoth in a vision of the past where they learned the dangers of the Ayleid relic the cult planned to use.  Thanks to the investigations, the Vestige and the Clan were able to determine that the relic was located in the ruin known as Carzog's Demise and that they needed to stop the Cult before they could use it. 

With the investigations done and sightings of cultists around Carzog's Demise increasing, Chief Tazgol raised an army to attack them.  The combined might of the Clan, aided by Captain Kaleen's pirates alongside her allies and the Vestige, was able to deactivate the wards of the ruin, kill several cultists and their leader and even capture the Ayleid relic, but it is not known if the Ayleid relic was destroyed or not, although the Clan preferred its destruction. 

Regardless of the relic's outcome, the Clan decided to join the Daggerfall Covenant, justifying the action by saying that the attack of the Bloodthorn Cult proved that Betnikh was not as well defended as previously thought.  The petition to join was taken by the Vestige and given to one of the Knights of the Dragon, Sir Lanis Shaldon, who then took it to High King Emeric.  

Third Era
Around two hundred years before the fifth century of the Third Era, Betony itself had a debated contract that made it a traditional holding of the Kingdom of Sentinel and it is not clear if this contract was made by the Orcs.  By  , the territory was retaken by the Bretons and at that time the Orc race as a whole was popularly believed to be nothing more than savages and mindless barbarians.  

Although the fate of the Seamount Clan is unknown, their Stonetooth Bash chicken recipe was still considered a popular New Life Festival dish circa  .  

Society
Like most other Orcs, they worshipped Mauloch and even had heavy wrought-iron statues that depicted him in battle, with the statues being heavy enough to suggest that they had very sturdy tables to be able to not break under the weight.  Another tradition that they shared with other clans is that their chief-daughters are supposed to be wed to another clan in order to forge an alliance although some seek to escape this tradition which is considered an honor and avoiding it is considered a mistake. Rarely a clan permit a daughter to leave and never without a cause, with those that just leave without permission being considered clanless and those that remain can be seen as assets. 

The Stonetooth Bash was one of their celebrations and involved a constant party with good food, good drinks and generally good times, it was considered their version of the New Life Festival.  Food consumed in the Bash had ingredients such as honeycomb collected from wasps and fresh meat obtained from rabbits, rats, mudcrabs and wolves. After the food was prepared, they ate and showed appreciation for it by using a napkin, with possible meals including Honeyed Wolf Pie and Bitter Goat Cheese, with Spiked Betnikh Ale as a drink to be had during the meal.  

At least one of their members was familiar with enchanting and practiced it, being familiar with the use of soul gems for the practice and believing that it was useful, mentioning that those that use it should be capable of arm-wrestling trolls.  Another one was familiar with alchemy, saying that she started as a brewer which worked well until her beer started turning people into mudcrabs, a result that eventually caused her to change her profession. 

The Seamount Clan had a very weak musical tradition, to the point that jaw-harps that went missing were very unlikely to be noticed to have disappeared.  

To take care of themselves, they used mighty toothpicks, with larger whale-bone ones being likely used by their chiefs, with others also decorating their faces with thick and smooth dark green paint described to be perfect for them.  

Some of them were able to read and write, with their laws being previously engraved in law-stones that included all of the laws of the clan, with use and age turning some of them illegible. 

For drinking, some of their pewter flasks featured motifs of the clan etched on them. 

Gallery
 

Notes
One of their members mentioned the sacking of Orsinium and said that he could repay it in battle after being approached by an outsider, suggesting that at least some of them knew about the old stories of the city or that the clan was a part of it at some point. 

See Also
For game-specific information, see the ESO article.

References