Tribal Dynamics

Gore society is composed of various **Clans** that each follow their own respective
God. Gores are assigned their Clan upon birth, and are raised with the trade and customs that their Clan desires. While each Clan may have their own leadership through strong bloodlines, true warbands are always created through **Tribes**. Tribes can consist of many Gores from many Clans, each with their own specialties to fulfill their duty to their chieftan. Unlike the Clans however, Tribes are generally short lived as they often disband after heavy casualties, or merge with larger tribes in war time. When the time comes that a tribe is strong enough to sustain itself, the Clan leaders can come together to vote to elect a new King of the Bark Throne, in the hopes of bringing back a more unified past. Until then, the current tribal system demands a seemingly endless competition of blood to bring forth the strongest of them all.

## The Clans

* **Clan Gore** *Followers of the Father - Warriors and Hunters*
* **Clan Shagalax** *Followers of the Young Son - Builders and Mechanics*
* **Clan Harald** *Followers of the Old Son - Sailors and Explorers*
* **Clan Reaver** *Followers of the Sister - Slavers and Merchants*
* **Clan Crast** *Followers of the Mother - Shamans and Mystics*
* **Clan Grock** *Old Ways - Nomads*

**Clan Gore**

Clan Gore is currently known as the Crown Clan, a title given to the most powerful of all the Clans. Following the Father, Clan Gore was born by bloodshed and conquest. The previous Crown Clan and followers of the Father, Clan Ghorst, had a war chief who made the mistake of fathering a bastard child and leaving it to the wolves to be devoured. The boy was instead raised by these wolves and took on the name Reaper King Kalkaslash. With an army of skinwalkers and werewolves, Kalkaslash butchered his way into his father's long hall, and shred him into a bloody mess with his claws. From then on he seized his throne, and forced the other Clans to kneel with his newly gained army of warrior boys. For the next hundred years to follow, Clan Gore would capture slave women by the thousands and rape into them warrior seed, for they would birth thousands more ruthless killers to continue the process. The Father is harsh and unforgiving, but with his strength empires will fall.

**Clan Shagalax**

It is said that a Shagalaxian is born with steel skin and molten iron flowing in their blood. Without their metal, the bloodthirsty Gores would be throwing sticks and stones instead of their mighty steel. There was a time long ago when the Shagalaxians were considered the mightiest of all Clans, when their steam belching tanks threw flames across valleys, turning armies and forests into ash. Pathetic arrows plinked off their many plates of steel as their legions of tanks rolled over fields of terrified tribes. It was only when the other tribes discovered their Clan's allegiance to a Mechanical God, an ancient being that dishonored the values of The Family, that their title of Crown Clan was in need of defiance. So it was that the Shagalaxians were conquered by the followers of The Father, and it was deemed that only The Father may lord over the other Clans. Many Shagalaxians claim they are loyal to The Young Son, a deity of charity and ingenuity. Though in secret, it is said that there are those who follow a mechanical titan, and wait patiently for the time when their legions of tanks are rebuilt, to turn this world into ash once more.

**Clan Harald**

Clan Harald is the second oldest Clan belonging to the Goreic peoples, the oldest being Clan Grock. The salt of the sea runs through the blood of these men, and their home is whatever lies beyond. For the past several hundred years Clan Harald has had no true chieftain, ever since it was cursed by the trickster god of The Sister. Any man who calls themselves the chieftain of the sea, and therefor head of Clan Harald, shall die by drowning. While there is never a head of Clan Harald, there always exists a council of the most experienced (and stubborn) sailors who oversee business. In these current dark times, the Haralders seek to end their curse and become the new Crown Clan, as they feel they were always meant to be. The Haralder sailors will always be at odds with the followers of The Sister, horrible tricksters who create storms that turn their longships into the burning sea. Unknown to all the other Clans, the followers of the Old Son see their deity as a massive beast who lives in the deepest darkest depths of the ocean, and soon they will wake it, and watch their entire world submerge underneath the waters while they thrive with their mighty sails.

**Clan Reaver**

The single richest Clan yet the smallest in number. The Reavers are the upholders of Goreic society and economy, but are often overlooked by the other Clans. Seen as weak and as tricksters, they are never trusted by the others, and for good reason. The Goreic people are cursed to live in infertile lands, and for that reason they must survive by the raiding of weaker peoples. Yet the Reavers follow The Sister, and they see it as their right to cause misery to others, even when they have no practical reason for it. Their seat is that of the Hall of Tears, a terrifying place somewhere hidden in the woods where people are suspended on the brink of death for as long as they provide amusement. Instead of meeting their enemies on an open field like their brutish brothers, the Reavers will cast curses upon their foes or even puppeteer entire factions to do their bidding. Some in the South presume that the followers of The Sister may actually be doing the work of the Dark Prince, though the Reavers might even suggest that both gods are one and the same.

**Clan Crast**

While all followers of The Family respect The Mother's role and contribution to the rough but fair cycle of nature and death, those actually born under her are looked down upon as weak and pathetic. In those days the followers of The Mother would be thrown off high cliffs to splatter on the rocks below, as they would never grow to be great warriors like the followers of The Father would. Then it was decided by a more benevolent King of the Bark Throne that one in every tenth child born under the sign of The Mother would be permitted to live. As always these lucky children grew up to be queer and disfigured little things, but they did have gifts that made them useful. Some became bards, entertainers: a juggling dwarf or a two headed giant. Others had The Vision, a way to see into the dark void of fate itself. With a new generation of mystic beings, a new Clan was formed, the first ever to follow The Mother. To this day Clan Crast thrives without bloodshed, as their great blinded seers look into the darkness to warn the others of their perils ahead. When a seer foresaw the killing of the Great Tree at the hands of the Holy Hierarchy's fire breathing dragons, and no one believed him, the Gores learned to never mistrust the warnings of their Crasters again. The current line of Clan Crast are most in touch with the Blade Druids of old, and seek to use their ancient weapons forged by the Earth itself. A great ritual awaits Clan Crast, to restore their Great Tree, and the other Clans stand by to see this through.

**Clan Grock**

The first Gore tribe to come settle near the Great Tree. The oldest Clan of all Gores, and those who refused to follow the gods of The Family. While many followers of the Old Ways acknowledge the existence of The Family, they choose to instead go their own way and entrust in themselves to see their own path in life. All Gores believe they are fated to die and whatever they do cannot change that, and so those of the Old Ways agree that they will continue to struggle to survive until that day comes. Clan Grock will never hold any power as their beliefs encourage a nomadic lifestyle, one free of society, laws and the reliance of other men. The only time they will ever be called in by the others is if their Great Tree is under attack, and then and only then will they charge forth to defend their home lands. Clan Grock is considered a joke to the other Clans, men who would rather lay with beasts than a good woman. Still, when their great gods fail them, those of the Old Ways will always endure.