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The Highlands of Scotland are part of the Cridhe, a region of Caledonia.

Overview[]

Although known for their treeless peaks and heather-clad sides, the Highlands are also the last refuge of the great Caledonian forests and numerous species of wildlife including: golden eagles, pine martins, grouse, ptarmigan, and red deer. The other characteristic of these mountains is water. The infamous Scottish weather lavishes the Highlands with rain, mist and cloud. As a result, the mountains are home to numerous rivers, rushing bums, and lochs hidden by folds of ancient stone.

The Highlands hide many mysteries. The informants of both King Ross and King Niall tell tales of dozens of hearty fae clanns. Since the beginning of the War of Ivy, the traditional rivalries of the clanns have abated. Arguments once settled with steel are now settled with bottles of scotch, or the fist and boot. Neighboring clanns hold Highland games to choose war leaders. A war leader, who is never a laird, commands all the lairds' forces when the clanns are summoned to battle.

No one, not even the lairds of the various clanns, knows all of the trods in Wallace's Walk. But when a clann learns of sidhe encroachments into the Highlands, word spreads from laird to laird, until a sizable force gathers. While the war leaders command the forces, the lairds maintain control over their trods and are responsible for conducting other clanns through them as the war leaders command. Before sidhe forces can respond, hordes of Highlander fae flood out of the shadows of the crags and annihilate the "flower" of fae chivalry.

The Highland fae's greatest ally is the Fianna tribe of Garou. Perhaps they, as much as the secret trods of Wallace's Walk, are responsible for the commoners' success against the sidhe. The Fianna are divided into two septs, which protect caerns of immense power on either side of the glen. The Fianna of the northwest Highlands have relations (if somewhat strained) with the Get of Fenris living on the Orkneys and Shetands. Those of the Grampians have ties with the mages of the Bardic College on the Isle of Skye.

The clefts and glens of the mountains also harbor ancient magick and its practitioners. Verbena are the most common Tradition mages, but Hermetics are known to take advantage of the sanctuaries that the Highlands offer. A few Ecstatic pipers also wander the roads and ruins in search of Romantic inspiration. But no Tradition controls the Highlands, even though the Highlands legendary stature draws many Awakened.

On the Highland Clearances[]

During the early Industrial Revolution (mid-1700s), coal mines proliferated the Central Belt, feeding the growing industries of Glasgow, not to mention the industrial plants of England. Manufacturers needed people to work in the mines, and later in the factories which consumed the mines' produce. The inefficient crofts (farming villages) of the Highlands were one of the human larders that the industrialists raided. They did so with the tacit consent of the Kirk (after all, a lot of the crofters, while Christian, clung to the old Celtic beliefs and Gaelic history). The Highlanders soon found themselves forced out of their homes and crowded into dark cities and even darker mines. The rich industrialists got the cheap labor they needed. Landowners got more land on which to graze their sheep, and shipped their wool to the cities for processing. The churches in the cities filled their pews and performed services in English. And the crofters exchanged a hard life with a unique culture for an even harder life, usually in the slums of overcrowded, polluted cities. Hence the term the Highland Clearances,

The Clearances marked more than a change in farming techniques. The destruction of numerous crofting villages in the Highlands marked the end of a way of life. Their language (Gaelic) and beliefs, over time, were forgotten to most, foreign to others.

The Awakened were perhaps affected worst of all: The Verbena and the fae were dependent on those people. The Verbena, for all their "tree hugging," needed people to believe in their paradigm. The people were companions, mates, and potential new members. Without the crofters to follow the old ways and to simply believe, Verbena magick became less coincidental.

The fae lost their craftsmen, artisans, and musicians. They lost dancing companions, lovers, and the occasional kidnap victim. The romantic Highlanders were their source of Glamour. It couldn't be taken from sheep and cattle.

The Clearances were started in part because some of the Choristers wished to rid the Verbena of their support. Perhaps they believed the Verbena were passe, or that the Verbena's religion was endangering the souls of the crofters who still went to them for advice and participated in rituals.

Groups & Gatherings[]

Sites & Such[]

The Conon River[]

The Conon River has many twisting stretches and deep, murky pools. During floods when its waters rise and straighten their course, their pull is murderous, as many a poor Highlander has discovered. Tales of kelpies and other evil water spirits along the river abound.

The most-famous tale concerns a section of the river which flows through some woods called Conon House. In the darkest section of the woods, the river forms two pools; though their surfaces are calm, they are deep and the river's eddies can still pull down a horse. The kelpie of this pool could call a man to his doom.

One fall day, a few men were working in the woods when a beautiful, dark woman rose out of the deepest pool and stood on its surface. She pointed at one of the men, who immediately began running toward the pool. The others grabbed him and dragged him to a ruined church, shutting him inside. They watched over him all night, but the next day found him drowned in the ruined church's stone baptismal font.

Glen Coe, Western Highlands[]

A lonely, deep glen, this is the site of the infamous and treacherous massacre of the MacDonalds by the Campbells. The massacre occurred because the MacDonalds' chief would not swear loyalty to William III of England. The king's Scottish factor sent the Campbells, the Macdonalds' rivals, to punish the clan. Claiming the ancient right of hospitality, the Campbells were welcomed onto the MacDonald's lands and given food and shelter for a week. At the end of that time, February 13, 1692, they betrayed the ancient right and murdered their hosts. When one looks upon the barren moorland and the steep sides of the glen, one can imagine how the MacDonalds had no chance to hide from their murderers. This site and its history are burned into the Scottish mind. Hard feelings for the English and the Scots who did their bidding are focused on the once-bloodstained sedge of this glen.

True to the paradox of the Scots, Glen Coe attracts both scoundrels and heroes. It is the place of pilgrimage for Scottish nationalists, and is one of the favorite meeting places of the Shadow Court, and the Unseelie in general.

Loch Ness[]

Loch Ness

The great beast of the lake has an ancient history. It is said that St. Columba frightened the creature away sometime around A.D. 560. It is reputed to have killed a few people, but its main function now seems to be posing for out-of-focus pictures.

There are several legends behind the source of the loch's name. One states that it comes from an Irish hero named Nysus, who was the first to sail the length of the lake. Others claim that a woman once went to a spring at the bottom of a huge glen. The spring began flowing so fast that she ran to the top of one of the glen's ridges and looked back, only to see the loch. Unbelieving she said, "Tha loch an a nis! "(There is a lake in it now!) Therefore, it was named Loch Ness.

See also the Loch Lads

References[]

  1. CTD. Isle of the Mighty, pp. 107-110
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