History of the Flan - Darkness be The Burier of the Dead

Darkness be The Burier of the Dead


"Must we start our fight
Groaning over corpses?
Come what may
Let us enter the ford
To meet death before the hosts
With bloody spear-blade
Or the savage sword
If our time has come."
Cuchulainn - from "The Tain"

With the migration of the Oeridian people chaos spread among the Geoff lands and among all the Flan people as the struggle for who would inhabit the Flanaess raged on.  Srubdaire the ruler of Geoff and the surrounding lands was dead. Four tribal leaders contested to sit beneath the blessed tree where the ruler would be enthroned and crowned with leaves of oak. Scathach and Uathach and Aif and the man called Son of Daman.

Many times in the past had the division between Flan and Flan brought misery to the people and enemies down upon the Flanaess as they fought between each other. But the Old Faith had united clan to clan, tribe to tribe and the law of oak and stone prevailed over the foolishness of chiefs and leaders.

The fight for the Crown of Leaves, as the title of Over-King was called among the Flan, was formalized and the combatants met with only a small company of bodyguards and followers to engage in combat at sacred fords where the waters washed away the blood spilled by Flan fighting Flan. Pugnacious and always ready for a fight every village headman and chieftain of a minor tribe set forth to do battle much to the dismay of the druids and wise men among the clans.

It was on Bealltainn night that the witch-fire was firsts seen. The Druids had set the holy fire at Ur-Uisneach, the blessed hills, now called the Stark Mounds, and as the fire was lit an unholy blaze was seen far up the slopes of the mountains to the east. A chill wind was felt and a howl like the cry of lost souls was heard. An inauspicious omen, but one that proved itself too readily while the Flanaess reeled and their leaders struggled for power.

Like a swarm of beasts Orcs fell upon the eastern valleys. What power, what cursed magic they had used, none can say, but from the far north-west Flaneass they came to raid. The Son of Daman set aside his quest for the Crown of Leaves and struggled alone with only his own followers against the Orcs. His horsemen left a bloody furrow across their advancing line of raiders but he alone could not stop them.

The great battle of leaders at the ford had barely begun when a ghostly form of blood and mist arose from the water. The Son of Daman called upon all Flannae to arise, to set aside their lust for power, to defend the land, not only against the beasts come from mountains but the Oeridians and Suel carving out kingdoms and domains across the Flanaess.

And so, at least in Geoff and the surrounding lands, the Flan united and slew Orcs till few returned alive to their cavernous lairs, and drove off the Oeridians diverting them into what is now Sterich, and Keoland and the Hold of the Sea Princes.