History and Culture

• • • The Gael and the Tuatha never had a strong relationship. The humans of Ireland defeated and slew many of the Gods in their conquest of the land, and the Tuatha do not tend to let things like that go. Though, for now they are content to sit under the hills and ignore the world above. It would be a red day if the two peoples were to meet again.

    • The Tuatha de Danann tend to be their own worst enemies at times. Internal feuds claimed the lives of many of the Gods before The Gael ever came to Ireland. Cain, Lugh’s father, is slain by The Sons of Tuireann, who Lugh tricks into taking up a suicide mission. Lugh himself is slain by Mac Cuill, son of The Dagda. Aengus is drowned by a brother. These conflicts have scarred the Pantheon, leaving most of them dead.

• • Allies:

    • The Sidhe are a strange people. Often called fairies in modernity, the Sidhe are not tiny tinkerbell-like beings, but instead are a people much like the Tuatha de Danann. In fact, many have wondered if The Sidhe are the shattered remnants of the Pantheon, both groups living under the hills. No matter if they are the servants of the broken Pantheon, or an entirely different people, the Sidhe are varied in power. Some, as minor as the leprechauns of Ireland, while others are powerful, such as Niamh of the Golden Hair, ruler of Tir na nOg, daughter of Manannan mac Lir.

    • Manannan is not actually a member of the Tuatha de Danann, and neither are his family. However, Manannan is exceptionally involved within the Pantheon itself, and his wife and children have fought, laughed, and lived with both The Sons of Dea and The Gael. Whenever times are bad for the Tuatha de Danann, Manannan is not far away, bringing magical tools and Sidhe Knights to his close allies.

Cultural Notes

Ancient Ireland is somewhat of a strange place in the context of Europe, as one would have likely noticed reading this far. To better understand this world, The Book of Invasions, and The Cattle Raid of Cooley are a strong place to start. However, the original texts are somewhat impenetrable, translated poetry reads as easily as pulling teeth to some. For more accessible renditions of these stories, Early Irish Myths and Sagas by Jeffery Gantz, and Lady Gregory's Gods and Fighting Men and Cuchulain of Muirthemne are invaluable. But, for the Storyteller who doesn't have all the time in the world, here are several quick notes on topics which may arise in your game.

The Role of Women: Ancient Ireland is somewhat of a strange place for women. While women were married off for political reasons, and Kings did practice polygamy to some degree, and were targets for kidnapping, women held a very different position in society compared to much of contemporary Europe. We have records of women druids, bards, champions, and kings, with their gender being only a vague mention gleaned by pronouns. While they may be represented somewhat more rarely than men in these positions (especially kingship), they are still present and seem to be equally important and powerful in the Mythic Histories as their male counterparts. Furthermore, one should note that the Tuatha de Danann trace their descent from Danu, rather than a God, such as Zeus or Odin which makes the Pantheon somewhat interesting. Danu's (presumably existing) husband plays zero role. Lastly, as a simple interesting aside, menstrual cramps and birth pains are both wielded militarily in Irish Myth, showing that these issues were taken seriously rather than dismissed. The Men of Ulster being cursed with menstrual pains, a crippling debilitation that leads to CuChulain's single handed defence of the kingdom, and Manannan having a shield created from a tree Balor bled on which causes all who look upon its face to be struck low with birth pains.

Social Roles: As mentioned above, Ireland boated four different obvious subjects of the population, ignoring farmers and those who work the land as their deeds tend not to be the sort that show up in Scion games. Firstly, there are the warriors, who are a rather simple concept. Then, there are the bards, who were an amalgam of magician, poet, and historian. Bards were trained in organised collages with there being several internal ranks, with the most powerful, the Chief Ollam of Ireland, being able to politically combat the High King of Ireland. Next are the druids, who we know pretty much nothing about and all knowledge of them tends to come from their enemies (Rome, Christian monks), so feel free to make up what they were doing, probably something 'priest-y'. Then there were the kings, or chieftains, who entered into a symbolic (though in Mythic Ireland, a very physical) relationship with the land from whom they drew their sovereignty. If they began to fail as a king (such as Bres), the land would then reject them, and to show this, crops would fail, and other such images of infertility. It should also be noted that none of these are mutally exclusive, there were warrior-bards, warrior-kings, bard-druids, and the like.

Homosexuality: Goes absolutely unmentioned which is somewhat weird. Keeping within the nature of the Tuatha de Danann however, they likely wouldn't care as long as you were still awesome and willing to fight people about it, by words or just punching those who disagreed. They wouldn't much care who you were on top of, or who was on top of you if you were doing it while steering a chariot over a stormy sea and fighting fomori ships at the same time. One would likely get roars of applause either way.

Headhunting: We have no idea why headhunting was going on in ancient Ireland, but it appears to be there in their myths. While the reasons may have been scrubbed from the pages by overly eager monks, the amount of head taking, coupled with earlier mentions of the Gauls and Britons taking heads to put on their saddles suggests that it was likely going on. But, unfortunately, we have no idea why it was done short of claiming a trophy. It is an interesting little tidbit however to include in games involving the Tuatha.

Brehon Law: While one would think that the kings were the lawgivers of the land, it was actually wandering judges called the Brehons who kept the laws. These were called the Brehon Laws, and we thankfully have a rather substantial amount of them left when they were transferred from oral tradition to text. Much of it pretains to the exact nature of hospitality laws, and the very interesting system of marriage.

Marriage: Marriage in ancient Ireland is rather interesting. There were ten different classes of marriage. These are one where both partners were of equal rank, one where the woman is supported by the man, where the man is supported by the woman, between a mistress and a man, between a couple who live together but neither supports the other, between an abducted woman and her captor, a union of deception such as by lies or sleep, the relationship between a soldier and their woman, a forced union (one would feel as if this has come up several times before at this point), and a union between fools.

Ogham: You might ask, "Watcher, why did the Irish use oral tradition rather than use the writing system they bothered to develop?" and I will tell you we have no idea and it really is a bit damn weird, isn't it? Ogham is an alphabet which is written vertically, often on standing stones detailing the deeds that took place there (like the historic plaques you find in cities). We have mention of it being also written on sticks, but unfortunately none of these have survived. No matter, Ogham didn't seem to catch on, or possibly was an intentionally kept secret by some class or another. The bards at least had a vested interest in preventing the spread of written language, as it would have rendered a large part of their existence null.