{"id":586,"date":"2018-12-27T09:00:25","date_gmt":"2018-12-27T14:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.torchbearerrpg.com\/?p=586"},"modified":"2019-01-01T13:25:06","modified_gmt":"2019-01-01T18:25:06","slug":"of-family-and-spirits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.torchbearerrpg.com\/?p=586","title":{"rendered":"Of Family and Spirits"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A part of The Viking’s Bride frieze<\/a> by Walter Crane, 1883<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hello friends! Happy holidays!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was probably ambitious on my part to try to do an interactive project over the holidays. Since I haven\u2019t heard from anyone regarding the Robber\u2019s Bridge submissions I posted last week<\/a>, I\u2019m going to hold off one more week before moving forward with work on the adventure.
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If you\u2019re interested in the project, click on the link above and tell me which options you like and which you don\u2019t! Feel free to riff on the ones you like! If you want to see more interactive projects like this in the future, please contribute. Otherwise I\u2019ll assume the interest isn\u2019t there.
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Spiritual Matters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime, let\u2019s delve a little bit into the \u00c6ttir, a type of spirit described in the Of Trolls and Men<\/strong> chapter in Middarmark<\/em>1<\/a><\/sup>Page 91<\/span>. An \u00e6ttir is a clan\u2019s ancestral spirit. For all intents and purposes, it is<\/em> the clan. As it fares, so does the clan, and as the clan fares, so does its \u00e6ttir. Think of the \u00e6ttir as a minor deity with her family serving as her worshippers. She serves as the conduit between the living members of the clan and the deceased ancestors.
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Great! What does that mean and how can you use it in play? Let\u2019s take a look at one clan\u2019s \u00e6ttir to get a better grasp of it.
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Those of you familiar with the Middarmark know that the power of the Jarls of Sudstrond was smashed by Scefings in the disastrous Battle of S\u00f8lvfjord nine years ago2<\/a><\/sup>See Sudstrond<\/strong>, Middarmark<\/em>, page 22<\/span>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The jarl\u2019s 10-year-old son Stigand, left in his family\u2019s hall with a handful of loyal retainers during the battle, was one of the clan\u2019s only survivors that terrible day. At 19, Jarl Stigand has established himself at Valborg, a castle at the western mouth of the Gull Pass3<\/a><\/sup>See Stigand, Jarl of Sudstrond<\/strong>, Middarmark<\/em>, page 22<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stigand is the last scion of the once-powerful Ageiring clan, founded by Ageir the Raven, companion to Sigrun Shieldbreaker and first Jarl of Sudstrond.
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Ageir may have won the jarldom for deeds of valor at Sigrun\u2019s side, but it was his wife, Ran Deepmind, who shouldered the burden of administering the vast holding and its wealth. She, too, was responsible for maneuvering to keep the conquered Gr\u00e6ling peoples of Sudstrond in check, forging alliances with some powerful clans while carefully setting the rest against each other.
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In life, her leadership made the Ageirings one of the wealthiest and most powerful clans in the Middarmark. In death, she apotheosized as the \u00e6ttir of the Ageirings. In the two-and-a-half centuries since, she has continued to protect and guide her descendants as the clan\u2019s ancestral mother.
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Ran is much diminished since the disastrous Battle of S\u00f8lvfjord 10 years ago: The entire clan, save only Stigand and his great aunt, Solveig, were lost. Most of the clan\u2019s regalia sank or burned with the Ageiring fleet, and Ran\u2019s shrine was despoiled when Ravnhallen, the Ageiring seat in Stortmarke, was overrun and given to the flames.
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Half mad with grief and rage, she plots to guide her clan back to greatness.
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Ran Deepmind, \u00c6ttir of the Ageirings<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The Ageiring Regalia<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Once the Ageiring clan regalia was expansive: Ageir\u2019s bow and cloak of raven feathers, the Raven Banner, a corselet of bright mail gifted by Sigrun herself, and more. Most of it was seized by the Scefings or was lost to the deeps of the S\u00f8lvfjord. Only a few pieces remain, a pewter-sheathed drinking horn, a fine bone comb and Ran\u2019s samite shawl. They adorn Ran\u2019s shrine in Valborg and are the clan\u2019s last surviving connection to its ancestral spirit.
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Any member of the Ageiring clan\u2014whether by birth, marriage or adoption\u2014may use a piece of regalia in a ritual (Ritualist, Ob 3) to connect with Ran. When so connected, Ran can speak through that character\u2019s mouth in furtherance of her belief or instinct. Likewise, she can provide help to characters that have performed the ritual, so long as they remain in contact with the regalia. She can only help within the context of her nature descriptors and if her belief or instinct apply.
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This, by the way, is one of the reasons family is so important in the Middarmark. Having a family means having an \u00e6ttir, and having an \u00e6ttir means having Otherworldly protection and guidance. Without family, you are at the mercy of any malicious spirit that chances upon you.
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With her nature reduced to 3, Ran isn\u2019t that powerful currently, but she\u2019s canny and driven. You can bring her into play with Stigand\u2019s aunt Solveig acting as her priestess. If the players want to take up Stigand\u2019s cause, their characters must prove themselves to her. Their characters might swear to serve Stigand and join the clan that way. A character might marry Stigand or convince him to adopt them. If the characters join the clan, Ran becomes their \u00e6ttir. One of them might even be entrusted with a piece of clan regalia.
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Of course, Ran has an agenda. She plans to make the Ageirings the most powerful clan in the Middarmark. But first the clan needs to grow in numbers, wealth and influence, and she will see the characters as useful tools to that end. Ran\u2019s first order of business is to move against the Tualing clan and its \u00e6ttir, Tua the Unruly. We might explore the Tualings and their \u00e6ttir in a future post.
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Hello friends! Happy holidays! It was probably ambitious on my part to try to do an interactive project over the holidays. Since I haven\u2019t heard from anyone regarding the Robber\u2019s Bridge submissions I posted last week, I\u2019m going to hold … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"publish_to_discourse":"","publish_post_category":"","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,26],"tags":[46,44,45],"class_list":["post-586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-middarmark","category-monsters","tag-ageirings","tag-spirits","tag-tualingsaga"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.torchbearerrpg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.torchbearerrpg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.torchbearerrpg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.torchbearerrpg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.torchbearerrpg.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=586"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.torchbearerrpg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":597,"href":"https:\/\/www.torchbearerrpg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586\/revisions\/597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.torchbearerrpg.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.torchbearerrpg.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.torchbearerrpg.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}