Bjorn Thunderwolf (ACs)

Bjorn Thunderwolf (ACs)
	Sovereign:	Maddie Bjorn Fang (madee.revere)
	Co-Sovereign:	Not Assigned
	Ambassador:	Benji Krach (Benji Krach)
	Proxy:	Shelly Bjorn (shelly.hugo)
	Political Faction:	Arch Cabalists

History: When the last snow cracked and slid from the spruce boughs, Maddie Bjorn walked the ridge in a cloak of bear hide and smoke. The scar on her brow caught the low sun like a struck flint. Behind her moved her people—fishers and tanners, mothers with knives at their belts, boys and girls learning to hold a shield the way you hold a promise. They called her Bear Princess not for silk or crown, but because when the drum called low, a bear’s breath seemed to rise with hers.

They were not many, and the sea-wolves came early that year—oars biting the fjord, dragon-prows grinning for cattle and daughters. Maddie met them on the stones with twenty shields and the old songs in her throat. She chewed the bitter root her mother had left, smeared her chest with fat, and let the heat climb her bones. When the first spear flew, she stepped forward, and the raiders learned the measure of her name.

They left two ships lighter and the shore red. But the cost bit deep—smoke in the rafters, three graves on the ridge, a winter’s grain blackened. That night, while the wounded slept, Maddie climbed to the standing stone and spoke to the dark as if it were a council fire.

“If bear alone makes our wall, the sea will wear it down,” she said. “We need thunder.”

On the third day, the answer came out of the north: a column in gray furs, wolves trotting silent at their heels, spears feathered with white. Their chief, her son, Benji Bjorn Thunderwolf set his palm to Maddie’s, and the sky chose its moment to growl—one long drum-roll from cloud to cliff.

“We are the Thunderwolves,” Benji said. “We run fast and strike once. We have meat but no haven. You have a hearth but too few hands. Will you share your fire?”

Maddie looked at the wolves—yellow eyes like coals in snow. She looked back at her ridge, the graves, the children practicing the bind-and-turn in the yard. She raised her staff. “Fire shared is fire doubled,” she said. “Hunt with us. Winter with us. Bleed with us, and we will bind your names into our stone.”

They braided customs like ropes. Wolf-scouts learned to move in the green-dark under spruce; bear-kin learned to run light on ice, to listen for the split-second silence before a storm-break. They set a law-stake in the yard: justice first, fury last, and both together if the world asked hard.

Word spread. The next raiders found a shore lined not with twenty shields but with forty, wolf to left of bear, thunder to drum. Maddie stood at the center, bare-headed, eyes steady. At her right, Benji rolled his shoulders and smiled without showing teeth.

The horn blew. Wolves loped wide to cut the flanks. Bear-kin held the stones. When the ships grounded, lightning stitched the sky to the water and the first line broke before steel kissed skin. Those who leapt anyway met a wall that moved: shields locking and unlocking in time with the sky’s growl. Maddie went where the line bent, her staff ringing helm and wrist, her knife finding the place between plates. Benji was everywhere the eye could not be, teeth at tendons, laughter like hail.

It was quick and it was certain. When the last hull scraped free, a single oar beat retreat. On the tide line, Maddie lifted her staff, and the bay threw her voice back across the water.

“This is Bjorn Thunderwolf shore,” she called. “Speak gently, trade fairly, or turn your prow.”

They counted their living with both hands, their dead on a single palm. The wolves padded among the wounded and lay beside those whose breath hitched until it smoothed. Children wove new runes into the standing stone with charcoal and spit: a paw and a fang, a storm-mark, a circle unbroken.

In the seasons that followed, travelers learned the way of that coast. In spring, smoke rose blue and thin; in summer, salmon hung silver from racks; in winter, drums spoke to storms and storms answered soft. The clan kept a hall large enough for two herds to shelter, and a yard where bear-cubs of the tribe learned to wrestle while wolf-cubs learned to vanish and return with a ribbon stolen from a warrior’s belt.

When strangers came hungry, the Bjorn Thunderwolf split bread. When they came with blades, the ridge growled as one throat.

On the day Benji's first child ran the yard with a wolf pup snapping at his heels, Maddie set her palm to the law-stake and carved a final line under the others:

Bear keeps the hearth. Thunder keeps the road. Together, we keep the world between.

Greater Houses of Bjorn Thunderwolf Clan

Berserker

Berserker
	Princeps:	Maddie Bjorn Fang (madee.revere)
	Delegate:	Shelly Bjorn (Shelly Hugo)
	Liaison:	Not Assigned
	History:	Berserkers were among the most feared Norse warriors of their age, ingesting hallucinogens to induce a trance-like fury that carried them through battle. Viking berserkers existed as mercenaries for hundreds of years during the Scandinavian Middle Ages, traveling in bands to fight wherever they could get paid. But they also worshiped Odin and were associated with mythological shapeshifters. The word “berserker” itself is derived from the Old Norse serkr, meaning “shirt,” and ber, the word for “bear,” suggesting that a Viking berserker would have worn the hide of a bear, or possibly wolves and wild boars, to battle. The mother bear protects her cubs with ferocity. She is also cunning and knowledgeable about the plants of the forest. Like the mother bear, the Bear Clan is responsible for protecting their people. It is said that people of the Bear Clan are short tempered and live on the outside of the village to ensure the safety of the gentler clans inside the village. The bear clan is also the medicine people for they know the healing ways of the plants available to them. Bear clansmen are often called upon to be guards or sergeants-at-arms. They not only guarded the village as a whole, but also supplied security for trials, councils, and feasts. The guards, who are appointed by the Bear Clan leader, would place their nąmaxinixini sticks in the ground as stanchions to bar entry to those who were not invited to the event. At murder trials in particular, it was the duty of Bear clansmen to guard not only the accused, but his lodge, in the event that one of his family might abet his escape. If a murderer was turned over directly to the Bear Clan, they would take him to a member of the victim's family who could then kill him. Otherwise, all capital sentences were carried out by the Bear Clan. If a criminal did not win clemency after the intercession of the Thunderbird Chief, he was remanded to the Bear Clan lodge for punishment. The Bear Clan would also regulate the tribal hunt. When clans split up, the Bear Clan went with the chief and acted as a guards to kept things in proper order. They made rules respecting, among other things, when shooting might take place, and the order in which animals might be butchered. Those who disregarded these rules had their bow and arrows confiscated. They would be returned only if violator consented to his punishment. Any repetition of such an offense would result in a Bear clansman breaking his bow and arrow in two. If something like a field of wild rice was found, or any other thing that should be shared out among everyone, the Bear Clan would supply soldiers to guard it. Anyone who tried to take advantage of the situation for selfish ends would be punished on the spot. The designation of a mą́ną́pe as a "Soldier" is not entirely an inappropriate translation. This clan had a regulatory role to play in the creation of war parties. The Bear Clan alone possessed a single battle standard, a crook called a hokere’ų. In large engagements the soldiers were formed into lines of battle. The hokere’ų, when the line advances, is carried into battle like a banner. When the line must be held at all cost, the hokere’ų is stuck upright into the ground. This is what hokere-’ų means, "(that which is) made to be placed upright." The fixing of the hokere’ų into the ground is a warning to the enemy that they can advance no farther. Once the flag was planted, the men would fight all the harder. The planting of the flag meant to the Bear Clan that they must fight to the death. Such a determined line of battle is called a wačųnák. When the Warbundle is placed into position, the Bear Clan places nąmaxinixini sticks in a line in front of it, called a hikixaro line, and only Soldiers may pass these sticks. Certain members of the Bear Clan also performed another function. When sickness spread sufficiently through a village, the Thunderbird Chief would be notified, who in turn would say to the chief in the Bear Clan, "My Soldier, I am offering you tobacco, for our people have been stricken with disease." Then certain clansmen, both male and female, were selected to perform a dance under their chief's direction. They went around the village four times, and if a dog crossed their path, they were required to kill it. After the fourth circuit, they reentered the village from where the sun rises. They would visit each sick person in turn, dancing the Soldiers' Dance and laying their hands upon them. When all this had been accomplished, they went to the village chief's lodge where members of his clan had prepared a feast for them. The next day, it was expected that those who fell sick will have been made well. For more on this, see Soldier Dance Songs. A particular individual could be blessed by a Black Bear Spirit with the power to perform cures, which proved useful in war. During the Bear Clan Feast, which is held when the First Bear Moon becomes visible and again in the spring, the participants must eat everything left handed and in complete silence, not making a sound even while eating soup. No laughter or noise of any kind was tolerated. When the feast begins, all fires are extinguished so that the rite is conducted in pitch darkness. No meat would be eaten, but only the produce of the earth. The feasters would also eat the favorite foods of the Chief of the Bear Spirits, which is maple sugar and blueberries. Also in March, when new vegetation comes out, the Bear and Thunderbird Clans together give a feast, the Creation Myth Ceremony (Wąkšígo’į Wokárakihą). During this feast, which is given by the whole membership of these bands, everybody offered tobacco to Earthmaker. This was also a favorite time for giving names to young children. Shamans would use hallucinogens as part of the ritual to call to the spirit animals and take on the animal form.

Thunderwolf

Thunderwolf
	Princeps:	Benji Bjorn Thunderwolf Krach (Benji Krach)
	Delegate:	AFY Bjorn Thunderwolf (Afiladordenoobs)
	Liaison:	Yurimaximmof
	History:	La devise de la house est : « Noctis Tonitrus, Praedatoris Gressus. » (Le tonnerre de la nuit, le pas du prédateur) (The thunder of the night, the predator's step) History : The Pact of the Frozen Veins On the northern planet of Asgard-Secundus, the Thunderwolves were no mere beasts. They were colossal beings of muscle and fur, bound by blood to the noble House Knutson. One night of an electromagnetic storm, an abomination from the stars—a master vampire of a long-extinct bloodline—descended upon the pack. The monster infected the pack's alpha, hoping to break the Knutson power by transforming their mounts into bloodthirsty demons. The plan failed. The vampiric virus altered the Thunderwolves' metabolism, but it could not break their loyalty. The Mutation of Shadows The Thunderwolf bloodline underwent a terrifying physical transformation: Appearance: Their white fur turned jet black. Their eyes took on a luminous scarlet hue. Attributes: Their fangs lengthened, capable of piercing the densest armor to feed on the life force of their enemies. Energy: The blue lightning that once crackled around their necks changed into arcs of dark, purple static electricity. Despite the insatiable bloodlust that burned within them, their pack spirit and bond with their human masters remained intact. They became the Lupus Noctis, the Vampire Thunderwolves. The Blood Oath Instead of turning against the Knutson dynasty, the wolves learned to channel their curse. In a solemn ritual, the lord of the house mingled his own blood with that of the cursed alpha. This pact sealed their fate: the pack would feed only on the enemies of the bloodline. In exchange, the Knutson riders agreed to ride exclusively at night or under storm-darkened skies, protecting their mounts' hides from the sun's scorching rays. The Charge of the Damned Centuries later, the Knutson fortress was besieged by an army of rival raiders. Believing victory assured as night fell, the invaders watched the citadel gates swing open in deathly silence. Suddenly, a rumble of crimson thunder ripped across the snowy plain. The Vampire Thunderwolves charged. They did not howl; they pounced on their prey with supernatural speed, instantly regenerating their wounds with each bite. Crimson lightning paralyzed the enemy lines as the human riders guided their beasts with fierce pride. That night, the world understood that the curse had not weakened the pack. It had simply made the Thunderwolves' loyalty eternal.