Major and minor clans
by Simone NeriInteresting list! I already use X10-M3's clans as colorful additions to the Atruaghin area - even if the region has never featured prominently in my campaigns, and this is a pity. I've never delved deeptly into it since my knowledge of Native North American cultures is sparse at best, but it's be useful to trace some parallel between these clans and RW Native American cultures and start working from there to flesh them out. Any Native American experts out there?
Using macro-classifications found on wikipedia and just to start with what's already available. These would be the major clans:
- Bear Clan (GAZ14, X10): Southwest culture (a Pueblo culture: Hopi, Zuni, Ancestral Puebloans/Anasazi).
- Elk Clan (GAZ14, X10): Northeastern Woodlands culture (Algonquin, Iroquois).
- Horse Clan (GAZ14, X10): Great Plains culture (Cheyenne, Comanche).
- Tiger/Viper Clan (GAZ14, X10): Mesoamerica culture (a Maya-like one, maybe); by the way, the clan name issue (Tiger/Viper) could descend from the dual religious leadership of the clan (Atzanteotl/Danel) - maybe a group of cities consider themselves the Tiger Clan, while others consider themselves the Viper Clan, and depending on which city or group of cities is currently the leading one, the clan adjusts its name.
- (Sea) Turtle Clan (GAZ14, X10): Pacific Northwest Coast culture (Nuu-chah-nulth, Chinook).
While these would be the minor clans (RW cultural references are somewhat random since as I said I know very little about the American Natives):
- Boar Clan (X10): Southeast Woodlands culture (Atakapa, Caddo, Creek/Muscogee, Powhatan); I have them in the coastal and interior woodlands between Cape Narwhal and the Turtle Clan's lands, south of the Tiger Clan's land (and currently dominated by the Tiger Clan as well).
- Ferret Clan (M3): California culture (Ohlone); I put them in the strip of steppe and hill country down the plateau, separating the Horse Clan's lands from Sind.
- Wolf Clan (M3, X10): Great Basin culture (Shoshone, Washoe); I have them in the woods and forests south of the plateau, between the escarpment itself and the coastal lands of the Turtle Clan.
IMO there's room for a couple of other minor clans as well - one in the forests and woods of the Wolf Clan (see avove), another in the broken lands and hills north of the Horse Clan and west of the Bear Clans, down the plateu.