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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Water Bob" data-source="post: 5410305" data-attributes="member: 92305">BRANOC Remember that your brother is Branoc. He's the older twin of Caelis. He's got a sense of humor. He's quiet. And, he's typically slow to answer because he chooses his words carefully. When he speaks, he uses a strange speech pattern where the end of a sentence is spoken before the beginning of it. Instead of saying, "I will try," Branoc will pause, think hard, and then say, "Try, I will." Some might criticize Branoc as being too cautious because he takes the time to think things through completely before making a decision. He listens, and solicits, advice from others. Nevertheless, he won the Ras Croi (ross-croy, the race of the heart), and he is the Ar Grais (are-grye), who is the chief of the current "class" of warriors-in-training, that includes both player characters. Branoc is a competent leader, though, and there is no doubt that he loves his brothers. He would die for either of them. And, he considers Thrallan just as much of his own blood as is his twin, Caelis. GRAIIS The graiis (grye-is) is the current "class" of early teens training to become adult warriors for the clan. The current graiis includes five young members of the clan: Thrallan (age 14) and Caelis (age 14), Dahkus (age 13) and Brial (age 13) all under the leadership of Branoc (age 14), who is the Ar Grais. As Ar Grais, Branoc wears a necklace made from the bones of the Cimmerian Blue Fox. This necklace is called the grai madda ra (grye-modda-raw), which is the symbol of leadership for the Ar Grais. THREE YEARS The graiis spends three years (or there abouts) training to become (accepted as) warriors for the Blue Fox clan. The process starts off in a general fashion as the young boys develop the muscles to become warriors. In the second year, the training gradually becomes more specialized--several important skills are developed (hunting, weaponsmithing, leatherworking, etc), and it is here where the graiis are set upon a path for a profession, some becoming apprentices to other clansmen. The third year builds upon the other two but with a strong focus on battle. The graiis must acquire their own weapons as one of the tests (that teaches the ability to overcome problems) in becoming an adult, and once they settle on one, they train night and day to be invincible with it. The third year ends when the graiis go through the final rite, called the deasghnath (dee-as-nath), where the young warrior, now aged about 15, must make a kill on his own, without help from a single other soul. The type of kill is up to the warrior, and typically results in a feared animal being taken down and returned to the villiage. But sometimes, Clan enemies or targets of a Blood Fued are used to fulfill the deasghnath. A warrior has some input into the esteem he will recieve after undergoing the deasghnath by the target he chooses to kill. It is not unusual to see a warrior return with the heads of three wolves, but this warrior does not find his place beside that of the warrior who returns to the villiage with the head of a member from an enemy clan. THE MANTLE Once a warrior completes the deasghnath and is recognized as an adult by the clan, the warrior is presented with a mantle. This is a large, warm, cloak, big enough to protect the warrior in winter and when sleeping in the wild. It can be made into a hammock or a wilderness shelter. Every person in the Clan contributes to the creation of the warrior's Mantle, from those hunters who provide the fur, to those who clean and skin the dead animals, to those who actually stitch the cloak into one piece. Young and old, every clansmen's hand touches the mantle and contributes to its creation, after which, it is presented to the warrior in a ceremony in front of the entire clan. It is not unusual for a warrior to keep his mantle for his entire life. The cloaks are stitched in such a way that it is quite easy to invisibly lengthen or widen the garment as the warrior grows. The length of the mantle tells others the warrior's place in the social structure of the clan. A clan elder may have a quite large, long and wide mantle, where as a young warrior fresh from his deasghnath may have a mantle that only stretches to the top of his legs or the bottom of his knees. What the warrior does on his deasghnath determines the length of his mantle presented to him by the clan.</blockquote>

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