Clan Arthfael
Stone does not flinch, nor do we
Among the sweeping granite ridges and storm-blasted highlands of the north lies the domain of Clan Arthfael — the Bear Clan in the speech of outsiders, but known to their kin as the Line of Earthbound Kings.
Between the shadowy woods of Clan Sgàthach to the east, the frost-bent spines of the Draconis Combine beyond, and the keen-edged packs of Clan Faolán to the west, Clan Arthfael endures as the heart of the northern Clans — not because they are the most numerous or the most cunning, but because they are the most unbreakable. Their land is harsh, shaped by wind and time. Bald hills split by ancient stone barrows, towering cliffs that open onto blackwater lochs, and high valleys rich in iron and salt define the region. Winters are long and brutal, but Arthfael villages stand firm — built from dark stone, roofed with slate and moss, their hearth-fires fed by deep coal seams and old ways. This is not a land that yields easily, and neither do its people.
To be Arthfael is to carry the weight of one’s forebears. The clan’s warriors wear tokens of ancestry — bits of bone, etched stones, rings forged from the blades of fallen kin. Their warriors do not shout in battle. They move like glaciers — deliberate, immense, and devastating once in motion. Where Clan Sgàthach strikes from the shadows, Clan Arthfael meets the enemy face-to-face, shield and hammer in hand, calling no name but their own. Their High Druid, Cennedig the Stoneborn is both lawgiver and lorekeeper, interpreting omens from the tremors in the earth and the shape of ice patterns on still water. Sacred rites are held in massive dolmens sunk into the sides of mountains — places where stone echoes speak of the old gods, and bears still come to sleep beneath the roots of the world.
Though not expansionist by nature, Clan Arthfael maintains fortified border holds and stone cairns that mark their claims with iron certainty. Skirmishes with the Draconis Combine and Clan Faolán are not uncommon, but the clan rarely starts a war—unless provoked by dishonor, betrayal, or the desecration of ancestral sites. When war comes, it comes like a thunderhead on the horizon: slow to rise, impossible to stop. Their greatest virtue is not agility or cunning, but resilience. In legend, the Arthfael have withstood everything from plague to sorcery to fire from the sky. In every tale, they bend — but they do not break.
To many among the Clans, they are the mountain, ancient, grave, and immovable. To the Great Houses, they are a sleeping colossus best left undisturbed.
“You don’t hear the bear until your ribs are breaking.” — Sgàthach proverb
Type
Druidic Circle
Leader Title
Location
Controlled Territories
Notable Members
