@part (clanhistory, root="/mit/abstract/Characters/sheet.format")

@section [A brief overview of the history of the Clans.]

@subsection [The Formation of the Clans]

When the Lord Mishael took leave of the World, he left it in the
keeping of the Human Beings, the men and women of the Four Clans,
those with eyes the color of the metals of the earth.  To confirm his
faith that you would hold the World in his name, he placed his Hand in
the hands of the Clansmen; the mark of his hand, a heavy, pronounced
@b[M], can still be found in the palm of anyone with the blood of the
People in his veins.

There were originally four Clans, each fulfilling a particular purpose
in Lord Mishael's plan for the Human Beings.  The People of these
Clans bore the names of the lands they inhabited: Bluemist,
Goldenfield, Greystone and Sweetwater.

@begin(itemize)

@b[Bluemist Valley] was for many years a forbidding area filled with
strange and mysterious beasts, and it took a very special breed of
Clansman to survive and thrive there.  Even today, the Bluemists are
great animal breeders and trainers and unparalleled physicians and
life scientists.  The Bluemists breed the zwoots, powerful beasts of
burden for farming and mining, as well as many other useful animals
for defense, seeding, food and so forth.  The stories say that the
Bluemists originally bred the hatchwings, the pegasi, and the
unicorns, as well as many other fantastic beasts.

The @b[Golden Fields], a rich and fertile region, was populated by
farmers who currently provide foodstuffs for the majority of the
Clanlands, since little else of it can profitably be farmed.  

@b[Greystone Cliffs], which overlook the Great Ocean, proved rich in
mineral and gem wealth.  The Greystones became miners and metalsmiths
beyond compare, producing not only tools and useful artifacts but also
weapons and armor.  It was the Greystones who discovered, and still
keep, the secret of the magic-resistant armor that has aided the Clans
immeasurably. 

@b[Sweetwater Bay] and the islands within it were long in settling,
for the fresh waters were home for many dangerous beasts.  However,
eventually the shores and the islands of Sweetwater Bay were populated
by a people who became mariners like no other, and who discovered the
islands full of unusual herbs of medicinal values, as well as the
oysterbays of valuable pearls, and the Bay itself, which proves a
source of livelihood for many settlers.
@end(itemize)

During the years of the Four Clans, there existed two other regions
that proved important:

@begin(itemize)

@b(Clearstone Mountain) was (and is) the highest point in the
Clanlands, and is the location of the Shrine of Mishael, the last
place he stood when he gave his gift to his children and took leave of
the World.  The Shrine was the holding place of the Orb of Mishael, a
relic of great power which was unearthed and abused by a band of
magicians and sorcerors from all four Clans four hundred years ago.
They declared themselves Clan Clearstone, and used the Orb of Mishael
to conquer the rest of the Clanlands, using the Lord's power to undo
the gift of free will he had given his People.  They ruled the
Clanlands for almost a hundred years with a cruel and tyrannical hand,
until the Clearstone Uprising destroyed them.

@b[Brightwind Plain] was completely unpopulated until used as a place
of exile for heretics, criminals, and dissidents during the Clearstone
Tyranny.  Few survived the harsh desert environment, but those that did
were the strongest, the smartest, the quickest, and so the Brightwinds
became a tribe of nomadic warriors.  But they were also, by nature,
individualists and creative folk, and so created a culture where art,
philosophy and music was as prevelant and important as military
tactics and physical strength.  

@end(itemize)

The Brightwinds eventually became the motivating force for the
Clearstone Uprising, at the end of which the Clearstones were all
declared OutClan and their Mountain became once more the property of
all the Clans.  The Brightwinds achieved full Clan status.

Out of the chaos that followed the overthrow of the Clearstones
emerged the Clansman's Clasp, a senatorial body made up of the Heads
of the Five Clans, and empowered among them to pass laws binding to
the entire Clanlands.  No longer, it was decided, could the human
beings be divided and thus easily conquered.

Clearstone Mountain, as declared neutral territory, became the
operating base of the Clasp, and Clearstone Castle, an almost
impenetrable fortress, its headquarters.  The Bazaar grew in the
region around the Castle; it has since become a center of trade and
commerce for all the Clans.

Also established after the Uprising was the Iron Gauntlet, a special
corps of fighters who owe their loyalties to the Clasp and the
Clanlands as a whole.  They were chosen from the best of the warriors
and taught the ancient techniques of the sworddancers.  Their motto is
Never Forget -- never forget how the use of magic nearly destroyed the
Clans, never forget that it can happen again.  These are the warriors
of the Iron Gauntlet.

@subsection [The Outsiders] 

Thirty-six years ago, the entire Clanlands were thrown into an uproar.
One of their guardians against the ever-present threat of the wielders
of magic had betrayed his trust and forged a blade of darkest magic.
The betrayal bit deeply indeed, for the perpetrator was Storm
Bluemist, the leader of the Iron Gauntlet, Sworddancer supreme.  His
blade, known as a @i[jivatmaya] or "blooding-blade", was reputed to
not only kill its victim, but destroy the very soul, and Storm was
trying to convince others to use such magic!  For that, and for the
crime of forging the blade to begin with, he was declared OutClan,
without home or family, with the hand of every Human Being turned
against him.  Storm was last seen in the western Clans, heading for
territory no one had explored.

Indeed, it was in that year that Mandrake Sweetwater was found guilty
of practicing witchcraft and exiled, along with his family.  And it
was the next year that havok broke out on the western frontier.
According to runners from the westernmost Clans, Goldenfield and
Sweetwater, "demon" soldiers wearing near-human form had come out of
the western mountains, destroying all in their path.  The "demons" had
come very close to looking human, save they had eyes the colors of the
rainbow, and didn't bear Mishael's mark.  In fact, their likeness bore
a disturbing similarity to the legendary being called the Necromancer;
he supposedly appeared mysteriously out of the West, leaving death in
his wake.  He was reputed to haunt graveyards, trafficking in the
souls of the recently buried, and legend claims that he was last seen
in the area about Mishael's Shrine, nearly five hundred years ago.

Despite the rather chilling connotations of the Western invasion, the
response to it was swift and strong; the entire Clanland raised itself
against these Western soldiers (it soon became clear that they weren't
demons; demons couldn't be so easy to kill.).  Three members of the
Army currently on the Castle distinguished themselves during that
Border War: Marshall Brightwind, Dirk Brightwind and Lance Bluemist,
who were part of a company known colloquially as the Fist of the
Clans. 

The war was hard and long, and made harder and longer because the
invaders continued to use magic.  Their spells were unable to affect
your homelands, but when your armies ventured past the Western borders
they were subject to all kinds of depridations.  However, the
indominable spirit of the Clan warrior -- and the Greystone secret of
mythril platemail, which makes the wearer resistant to magic -- served
to equalize the battle and indeed, it would have eventually assured
your victory.

However, as suddenly as the border war with the Realm (as the invaders
referred to themselves) had begun, it ended, when their King (who
seemed to act as the Head of their entire Land) formally apologized ,
admitting that traitors among his people were at fault.  He pulled his
soldiers out of Clan territory, and offered to help rebuild the
territory they had destroyed.  The Clasp, although wary of the offer,
was willing to accept it -- until it became clear that they wanted to
use magic to do it.  They even wanted to teach the use of magic to
your children!  Needless to say, they were expelled posthaste, and the
borders were closed.  They remained so until seven years ago.

@subsection [The Western War]

Once the border to the West was closed, it was assumed that the Clans
would never have to deal with the Realm.  You were promptly disabused
of this notion.

Ten years ago, the OutClan traitor Storm Bluemist was found dead in
Greystone territory, the Eastern-most of the Clans.  Found with him
was the body of Cliff Greystone, youngest brother of The Greystone, as
well as the badly mutilated bodies of a Clanswoman and one of the
Western invaders.

It was this incident that prompted the tentative open-door policy
instituted seven years ago; it was the common feeling among the many
Clansmen, especially the younger ones, that if the Westerners couldn't
be forcefully kept out of the Clans (as evidenced by one getting in as
far as Greystone), then the Clans should be able to exert some control
over who does enter.  Many of the younger Clansmen were also
distressed by the knowledge that there was a whole other culture
existing to the west of them, of which they had no knowledge.  Some of
their older, more cynical compatriots noted that there was a whole
other culture on the Clanland's western border, and the Clansmen had
no idea what they were up to ...

After a long political struggle, it was decided that the western
border would be opened on a provisional basis.  The Clasp, in order to
present a form of government that could be understood by the
Westerners, created a figurehead position of Senator Prime, one Clan
Head who could speak for all the Clans.  The position was patently
ridiculous -- how could one man @i[possibly] speak for the four other
Clans, in addition to his own?  Unfortuately, it was the system that
seemed to be used by the Realm, so the Clasp, as the initiators, were
trying to accomodate the Westerners.  

It came as a pleasant surprise that during the years the border had
remained closed, the Realm had seen fit to eliminate the impractical
position of "King", and were now ruled by council.  Although the
position of Senator Prime still exists, and is filled by The Bluemist,
Lance, the Clasp continues to function as a council.

For two years, the open door policy seemed to raise no insurmountable
problems; for the most part, the representatives of the Realm behaved
in a tolerable manner.  It seemed for a while as if the Clans and the
Realm might be able to overcome the hostility that separated them.

It was then that the Westerners did the unthinkable, and defiled the
Shrine of Mishael.  They mined great chunks of the mythril and shipped
them westward.  The guardians of the shrine executed these offenders,
and in the rush of anti-Realm sentiment, all Realm citizens were
escorted forcibly from Clan territory.  The Clan-Realm War began
shortly thereafter.

As before, the West used its ties to unnatural powers to fight its
battles for them, and you were once again at a disadvantage.  Indeed,
after a few years it seemed the West was going to overrun your
borders.  In response, the Clasp allowed the use of witchcraft as a
weapon to fight the Realm, and for the last two years the Clasp has
been fighting magic with witchcraft.  

This has been the source of a great deal of controversy within the
Clanlands -- shall the Clasp then allow what generations of their
predecessors forbade?  Shall they lower themselves to crimes their
constituents would rather die than allow?  And yet, when such forces
are being called upon in the defense of life and Clan, how can
fighting magic with magic be wrong?

Although it rubbed strongly against the grain for many, the tight
strictures surrounding the conditions upon which witchcraft could be
used satisfied most that the magic would not be abused.  And the
stigma of being one who used magic remained; the witches who worked as
agents of the Clasp did so clandestinely, so as not to be OutClanned.
No guarantee of continued Clasp lenience towards magicians was
guaranteed beyond the ending of the war.  This was satisfactory to the
majority, and now that the war may be ending, the point may become
moot.  

@subsection [The Peace Conference]

After five years of war, the Clasp and the leaders of the Realm have
agreed to meet to discuss the terms for peace.  This unlikely feat was
accomplished by an international organization of Realm-based political
activists known as COERCE (the Committee On East-Realm Cooperative
Endeavors), which arranged not only agreement amongst the many leaders
involved to meet, but also a neutral ground wherein they could meet.
While many were appalled at the notion of the Clansman's Clasp meeting
upon a flying Castle, borne aloft by magic, it was decided this
concession was necessary if any further deliberations were to be
possible.  So here you are.