The Thunder Clan

**The Thunder Clan**

“We are as old as the world and at one with its essence. We built the first cities, and then tore them down. We domesticated the first herds, then returned their freedom. We planted the first forests and watched them spread, then burned much to the ground so that we might see the sky.

But that is the past now, we are sundered and lost, the earth remembers us, the animals remember us, the trees remember us….. but we do not remember ourselves”

Whatever the truth in the above, the Thunder Clan are generally accepted to have been the major power in the area around what is now Far Haven. They took a major role in the initial resistance to Elven incursions, taking upon themselves leadership of all the clans. The clan Knight, a seasoned warrior called Soratan, became obsessed with driving the Elves off the Island at any cost. He gathered under his banner not just the clans but many intelligent monsters and researched ways in which the most powerful of the beast – the great Elder Dragons – might be bound to his service.

To many clans, Soratan was going too far, his solution to the Elven invasion was seen as being as bad as the problem itself. The religion of Wildwood itself fractured into two factions, one trying to retain adherence to the old ways, the other focussing on using any means necessary to stop the Elves. Whilst Soratan and his followers grew in power and began to drive back the Elves, slaughtering anything that opposed them the majority of the clans began to waver in their support.

Firstly, the Lizardfolk, the vast majority of which renounced all ties with Soratan and Wildwood and made their peace with the Elves. Gradually the other clans also broke their ties, but retained their adherence to Wildwood – which they now termed Wyldwood. Even Giant clans began to desert Soratan, and finally at the last the Thunder Clan itself divided.

In his fury at what he saw as betrayal, Soratan declared Wildwood to be a dead religion, and henceforth he and his followers would adhere to a faith that he termed “The Wild”. He shattered his famed Dragonscale sword and took up a miscellaneous set of weapons as his tools of war, claiming that when he returned he would “Mine to the depths of the earth, build walls up to the skies, harvest all the plants of the world. I will control nature and never again be its pawn.”.

…..when Soratan took the Wild into exile, most of the Thunder Clan went with him, some faithfully following him in his new beliefs – but the majority purely because of clan ties and loyalty.

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During the time of Chaos, the remnants of the clan remained around Far Haven, but disquiet grew in the clan as the city grew. Eventually they demanded that Saratak tear down the walls of the city and return to the land, when he refused the clan departed Eastwards, to become the lost clan.

Now, with the return of the Wild, most of the self-imposed exiles have returned and the clan, whilst not as strong as it once was is back to being a formidable force.

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The clan is very much a closed community, insular and secretive, they will interact with other nomads and Wildwood priests but beyond that will be reticent and somewhat aloof.