Born under the sign of the wintery moon
The Wintermoon Clan stems from a diversity of roots that go deep into time. The main root, however, is arguably the macGealach, the "sons of the Moon," who came from the ancient Irish kingdom of Dál Riata and who claim descent from the mythical Tuatha dé Danann.
From Ireland they moved to the Ebudae (or Hebrides) in Western Scotland, settling in a tiny island wrapped in mist, and there living alone for centuries, until they were found by a small Viking warrior band whose ranks counted with a Norse völva (or sorceress). She and the macGealach patriach fell in love with each other, and both Gaels and Norse started to live together, mingling their cultures and traditions and giving rise to a new clan: because of the völva's worship of Skadi, the winter goddess, the clan adopted the name Vintrmånen.
This new clan worshipped the Old Gods freely and was said to practice sorcery - a sorcery that stemmed from the Tuatha dé Danann themselves, but which was enriched with the lore of the Norse. After centuries of peaceful and reclusive existence, the outside world finally reached the small Vintrmånen island, as Anglo-Scottish ships sighted the mysterious place. When the British did try to access the island, the Vintrmånen repelled them - thus prompting the kingdom to send actual military expeditions against the clan. With the aid of magic and of the perennial mist that shrouded their island, the Vintrmånen were successful for a long time, but even their power could not make up for their crushing numerical inferiority. The island was invaded sometime around the 1700's, and its survivors were split into different groups. One moved to Ireland and then the USA, another to Scotland, and the third to England.
However, because they preserved their pagan traditions, they were viciously persecuted. The American and the English branches were hunted and ultimately destroyed under accusations of witchcraft; learning the fate of their English cousins, the Scottish branch - now known as "Starks" cleverly hid their traditions, lore and history in a single book, which was kept by the oldest female member of the family. This matriarch only shared their clan's history with those closest to her; this way, the family's secrets were protected, but, on the downside, only a precious few descendants became aware of their heritage, with more and more members becoming estranged.
By the 1800's, the Vintrmånen traditions were held as but quaint folk tales of the Stark family, often told as anecdotes when their household received important visitors. It was around that time that one of the matriarchs anglicized the clan's ancient name to Wintermoon. Treating the clan's traditions in such banalized way helped to protect them, but it also made even the Starks grow careless about them, forgetful of their importance to their own identity.
With the advent of the modern age, the once large Stark family became increasingly fractured as its members travelled and moved to other countries; the old Stark manor was sold to another family, and the Book of Wintermoon was forgotten in its crypts...
But then, in the first decades of the Popmundo era, a Stark woman who, as a child, had heard tales about her family's past from her grandmother, visited the old manor again as part of an archaeological dig. And there she found the book which preserved the ancestral lore of the Wintermoon. She deeply researched it, translating it to English in the hopes of teaching her daughter about it when she was older - but alas, she died when the daughter was still too young to even know how to read.
For many years, the girl kept the book in a chest at her great-grandmother's house, back in Edinburgh, but mostly as a memento of her mother. It wouldn't be until she was a mature woman that she would rediscover the book and finally learn and embrace the millenarian lore of her ancestors. This woman is Rhiannon Stark; as a successful musician and businesswoman in a world far more welcoming of different views and religions, and together with her wife Britany (who discovered herself as a distant descendant of the clan), she knows that she has the power not only to restore the Wintermoon family, but, also, to make its name more powerful and well-known than it ever was.
From Ireland they moved to the Ebudae (or Hebrides) in Western Scotland, settling in a tiny island wrapped in mist, and there living alone for centuries, until they were found by a small Viking warrior band whose ranks counted with a Norse völva (or sorceress). She and the macGealach patriach fell in love with each other, and both Gaels and Norse started to live together, mingling their cultures and traditions and giving rise to a new clan: because of the völva's worship of Skadi, the winter goddess, the clan adopted the name Vintrmånen.
This new clan worshipped the Old Gods freely and was said to practice sorcery - a sorcery that stemmed from the Tuatha dé Danann themselves, but which was enriched with the lore of the Norse. After centuries of peaceful and reclusive existence, the outside world finally reached the small Vintrmånen island, as Anglo-Scottish ships sighted the mysterious place. When the British did try to access the island, the Vintrmånen repelled them - thus prompting the kingdom to send actual military expeditions against the clan. With the aid of magic and of the perennial mist that shrouded their island, the Vintrmånen were successful for a long time, but even their power could not make up for their crushing numerical inferiority. The island was invaded sometime around the 1700's, and its survivors were split into different groups. One moved to Ireland and then the USA, another to Scotland, and the third to England.
However, because they preserved their pagan traditions, they were viciously persecuted. The American and the English branches were hunted and ultimately destroyed under accusations of witchcraft; learning the fate of their English cousins, the Scottish branch - now known as "Starks" cleverly hid their traditions, lore and history in a single book, which was kept by the oldest female member of the family. This matriarch only shared their clan's history with those closest to her; this way, the family's secrets were protected, but, on the downside, only a precious few descendants became aware of their heritage, with more and more members becoming estranged.
By the 1800's, the Vintrmånen traditions were held as but quaint folk tales of the Stark family, often told as anecdotes when their household received important visitors. It was around that time that one of the matriarchs anglicized the clan's ancient name to Wintermoon. Treating the clan's traditions in such banalized way helped to protect them, but it also made even the Starks grow careless about them, forgetful of their importance to their own identity.
With the advent of the modern age, the once large Stark family became increasingly fractured as its members travelled and moved to other countries; the old Stark manor was sold to another family, and the Book of Wintermoon was forgotten in its crypts...
But then, in the first decades of the Popmundo era, a Stark woman who, as a child, had heard tales about her family's past from her grandmother, visited the old manor again as part of an archaeological dig. And there she found the book which preserved the ancestral lore of the Wintermoon. She deeply researched it, translating it to English in the hopes of teaching her daughter about it when she was older - but alas, she died when the daughter was still too young to even know how to read.
For many years, the girl kept the book in a chest at her great-grandmother's house, back in Edinburgh, but mostly as a memento of her mother. It wouldn't be until she was a mature woman that she would rediscover the book and finally learn and embrace the millenarian lore of her ancestors. This woman is Rhiannon Stark; as a successful musician and businesswoman in a world far more welcoming of different views and religions, and together with her wife Britany (who discovered herself as a distant descendant of the clan), she knows that she has the power not only to restore the Wintermoon family, but, also, to make its name more powerful and well-known than it ever was.