After the Ice

Britain and Ireland in the ancient days...

Long ago, when the ice-seas finally retreated, their great work of scouring away the leavings of the Sea-kings, nomadic tribes moved north to claim the unpeopled lands. There were many tribes of both the diminutive Swift Folk and the tall Strong Folk, as well as the mighty but reclusive Hairy Folk and the giants who dwelled in the loneliest places.

Their names, their languages, their ways... all forgotten now, but once the folk of the Twilight Land (Britain and Ireland were only a single, vast peninsula in those days) were valiant and well-loved by the Shadow People.

(map by Robert Altbauer: https://www.fantasy-map.net/)

Shadow Walkers

This tribe, peerless hunters even in that violent age, crossed the Great River to come upon a stark, stony land full of tin, copper and silver. They made some use of all three, when it could easily be gathered, but stone and wood were the bones of their lifestyle. The other tribes feared the Shadow Walkers, who were rarely seen on their forest paths unless they so willed it. The Shadow Walkers were the first ones to follow the twilight rivers west and behold the ocean — they turned away from it, for the memory of the Sea-kings still lived in their tales and songs. The stony moors called to them, and they answered with joyous songs.

Stone Knives

The Stone Knives were eager to take part in the Great Migration. They quickly pushed north past their unfriends the Shadow Walkers into a cool, hilly land and laid claim to the peaks and valleys. They turned aside from hunting, for the most part, and became herdsmen. But they were not allowed to lay down their spears and slings for long — the hills were home to ancient things, spirits-made-flesh that had awoken from their long slumber. The Stone Knives were lucky to have the favor of the Shadow People, for their foes were numerous and terrible — it was the work of centuries to defeat them.

Snow-and-Sky

(art by Romy Jones: https://linktr.ee/RomyJones)

Snow-and-Sky was one of the larger tribes of Swift Folk, and most eager to be at the forefront of the Migration. After crossing the Great River, they settled along a broad forested lowland just north of the middle reaches of the mighty waterway. They became a river people, building crude boats to go up and down the course of the Great River and her thousand daughters. There were many warriors and mystics of renown among their number, but none were remembered longer, and with more awe, than Swiftfoot, First Champion of the Raven Queen who protected the Twilight Land from its many unnatural foes.

White Wolves

A small tribe and one that kept to itself more than any other, the White Wolves made their home in the fertile valleys where the Great River split into two mighty branches that ran east and west. They laid down marker-stones, life sized statues of wolves, around the edges of their domain and forbid any outsiders to pass the line. Those that did were rarely seen again. After several centuries, the White Wolves simply vanished. Some tales said they journeyed to the Shadowlands, others that they slew each other in vicious vendettas until none were left, others still that they made and broke pacts with dark spirits, and were all dragged down into the fires.

Storm-and-Fire

This Swift Folk tribe came up into the east over the Broad River, Daughter of the Great, and settled into a land of marshes, mud and scattered islands. They soon drifted out of touch with their western kindred, but their fate was not as grim as that of the White Wolves who dwelled near them. Instead, as the centuries went on, they moved away into the east, crossing many rivers and forests until reaching a broad plain that seemed to go on and on to the land where the sun awoke. The last tales of the Twilight Lands say they kept following the sun's backtrail until they finally found a distant island where she lived.

Sunchasers

This tribe of Strong Folk, little less eager than Snow-and-Sky, pushed past the lands of the Great River and the hill country of the Stone Knives until they came to the very edge of the Twilight Land, a country of gentle hills and green fields in the midst of which was a great patch of Old Ice. The Shadow People warned them against traveling across it, and this was wise, because beneath it was a warren of tunnels delved by the Sea-kings in their days of power. When the ice finally melted, the Sunchasers were hard put to face the beasts that came up out of the dark dreams of the past..

Fang-and-Fist

The westernmost tribe of the Swift Folk crossed the mouth of the Great River and found rich grassy plains and strings of islands marching to the sunset. They had no dread of the sea, unlike their friends the Shadow Walkers — more's the pity, because as the Old Ice retreated, many beasts that had slumbered in the black depths of the sea stirred. And many of them were of the kind that could walk on land, too. Beasts the size of hills came up and burnt the land in their witless wrath, and only the greatest heroes of Fang-and-Fist could stand against them. In time, they won, but the cost was dear.