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Long ago, the land of Eyru was ruled
by two people: the vicious Giant-kin and the crafty Fomorians. The
giants were the original inhabitants of Eyru. It was their god,
the Manterlaug, who created it for them. The seven armed giant is
said to have spun the island upon a potter’s wheel deep within
the earth. The Fomorians came later. They rose from the sea and
began to inhabit the shores, fending off the dim-witted giants
with one-sided diplomacy and superior tactics.
The next people to
take a liking to the rich land of Eyru were the Tuatha De Danann. It is
not known where these invaders came from though rumors persist that
they hail from a land far to the west. They brought with them brave
heroes and heroines who were unmatched in combat. While the Giants were
brutal warriors, their weapons were of stone and their armor of hide.
The Fomorians were skilled magicians, but truly unversed in the art of
hand to hand combat. The Tuatha De Danaan were masters of both the
realms of magic and melee combat. They brought weapons forged of metal
and magic born of the earth itself.
With the Tuatha de Danaan traveled the Dagda, a mysterious being from the
Otherworld. The Dagda’s
triplet daughters, Brigit (all of the same name) carried the most
vital knowledge: the three skills of blacksmithing, poetry and
healing. To further aid in their efforts, the great heroine, Epona
brought her unsurpassed skill in horsemanship. Lugh, slayer of
beasts and master of the spear and sling also accompanied them.
Led by their warrior-king Nuada, these people were eager to rule
over the land which they came to call Eyru.
In a conflict that
spanned centuries, the giant-kin were forced into the North by the
Tuatha De Danaan. The Fomorians welcomed the lull in their own war with
the giants. They remained neutral to the conflict and stayed quietly
among their sea-side cities. The Tuatha De Danaan quickly took the
southern half of Eyru from the giant-kin.
As the size of the Tuatha De Danann empire grew, and the riches
of the new land were realized, the solidarity of the nation began
to fall apart. First only a few, then hundreds of competing clans
formed. Bickering between competing clans became as common as
skirmishes with Giants. Slowly, these clans began to lose ground
and the empire of the Tuatha De Danaan began to crumble. Thus
began the Time of Chaos which lingered until the coming of the
first High King.
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