The origin of the Grand Tribes of the North
A young tribesman called Abal was once apprenticed to the oldest, greatest and wisest of all warriors to the north, a figure of renowned prowess across worlds beyond the stars, known only as the Grandmother. Abal quickly learned to best even the strongest and fastest of all the warriors of the land. But despite being relatively frail and old, the Grandmother always anticipated his moves and defeated him without even drawing her weapon.
“There is a truth that yet eludes you,” the Grandmother told him, “and it holds you from true greatness. It is your pride that blinds you, and that pride can only be tempered by a warrior beyond all peer. You must seek out the greatest and most terrible foes of the mountains. Only when you have met the most terrible foe you will ever face will you see how I continue to defeat you.”
Abal journeyed down into the depths of the world, where rats walked upright, giant lizards feasted on molten stone, and walrus pirates sailed impossible ships in underground seas. He hunted The Corpse Worm and stabbed it so many times with his ritual spear it was forced to retreat to the core of the world and not surface for hundreds of years.
“Good,” the Grandmother said. “Your power is proven beyond measure.” And in one move she disarmed him of his spear and spanked his backside with it.
Abal traveled east, to where insane dwarves hunted gemstones like they were wolves, where dragons grew to the size of cities and where plagues of tiny elves formed swarms and devoured people down to their skeletons while they still lived. He danced around his foes and pursued them with a speed that made the lightning jealous. He met a great dragon of the mountains that existed in three places at once, and could only be defeated by stabbing all three of its hearts at the same time, and defeated it by moving so fast he also was in three places at once.
“Excellent,” the Grandmother nodded, as she sidestepped Abal’s lunge and sent him stumbling out of their arena and into the tents of the women who were preparing supper. “One last foe you must face.”
Abal travelled south, to rich lands protected by the tribes from the horrors of the north. Few tribesmen ever went there, for there is no honor in the raiding of towns too weak to defend themselves. He came across a mountain range, below where soft folk spent their lives cutting down trees, and odd mushroom people rolled about in the forests. He descended into the valley, and turned a corner.
There he met a camp of children of the mushroom people. His spear was almost through one of their necks before he pulled himself short, realizing what he faced.
He returned to the Grandmother in fury. “What is the meaning of this? Do you seek to make a monster of me? Or a mockery? You promised my greatest foe would be found there!”
“Oh?” the Grandmother replied. “Was your foe not strong enough for your liking? Tell me, how many did you manage to kill before you were forced to retreat?”
And so Abal learned of the greatest enemy any warrior will face – their own selves. For there are things a warrior is capable of doing, that they must not do, lest their honor be shattered. And yet there is always a part of every warrior that will do such impossible, dishonorable things. And it is through the warrior’s rage, bloodlust, and focus, the sources of our power, that such acts come to pass, for such things blinker and narrow our sight and blind us to the greater world around us.
Such is the difference between Strength and Power - for true strength exists without rage, but endures always. Until that moment, Abal had been the most powerful of us all. But only after facing his own limits did he learn to be the strongest.
His eyes finally opened and his soul prepared, Abal knew that he must leave the tribes, for not even the Grandmother could now restrain him if he ever lost control of his battle instincts. He journeyed into the north, where all minds are shattered, and into the Nightmare Gate. We are the descendants of his tribe that journeyed behind him on the path he made through the mountains, the great Helgin Glacier. We hunt the great foes of old as he did, preventing the Nightmare from storming south into the soft lands. And we ask nothing in return other than they stay out of our way. For this is both our duty, and our eternal honor – to seek the greatest foe, to be the world's strength against the mindless powers, and to learn to open our own eyes, as Abal did before us.
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