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Contents |
About Kinship
Contact Info: Braldr: braldr@hotmail.com
Website: http://bywicket.com/groups/thefrosthammerclan/
Description
The Frosthammer Clan - A Dwarf Roleplay Kinship on the Landroval Server
The Frosthammer Clan is a roleplaying guild for Dwarves in Lord of the Rings Online. The Frosthammer Clan follows these principles:
- Fun - The Frosthammer Clan is about having fun, and about creating fun for others.
- Roleplay - Frosthammer Dwarves play in character. While you're playing your Frosthammer Dwarf, you *are* your Frosthammer Dwarf.
- Openness - Anyone who follows our guidelines can join the Clan.
- Home - Once a Frosthammer, always a Frosthammer. If you leave the Clan in good standing, you are welcome back at any time.
- Story - The Frosthammer Clan lives its own unique story within the world of Lord of the Rings Online. Our story is our own, but we carefully construct it to work well within the framework of Tolkien's Middle Earth.
- The Clan - All for one, and one for all. The Clan supports you, and you support the Clan. Attack one Frosthammer, and you attack them all.
- Honor - The Frosthammer Clan are Dwarves! We are Oathkeepers! We do not lie, cheat, or steal. We don't allow cheats, hacks, exploits, or any violations of Lord of the Rings Online's terms of service. Every member is expected to show respect for other players at all times.
- Sportsmanship - We're in the game to have fun, and to help others have fun. The Frosthammer Clan does not tolerate unsportsmanlike conduct.
- Excellence - We're the best Dwarves we know how to be. If we see a way to be better, we're committed to learning it and adopting it. We train Dwarves in the ways of the Clan, and we enforce the Clan's standards. *We are not drunken, unwashed Scottsmen! If that is your form of Dwarf RP more power to you, but do not look to the Frosthammer Clan as a possible Kinship. We are the Dwarrow of Middle-Earth!
How to Join
1. AGREE to the following rules:
- You will obey the chain of command and rules of play established by the Clan.
- You will focus your efforts on making LOTRO more fun for yourself and others, and on enriching the story of the Frosthammers through roleplay.
2. CREATE a Dwarf character with a suitable name. Like other Dwarves, Frosthammers keep their true Khuzdul names secret, and use Mannish names publicly. Suitable names are similar to Finnish, Scandinavian, or Teutonic names; Finnish names are preferred, because of their resemblance to the names of Forochel. If you are concerned about the aptness of your name, contact Braldr in-game, or send email to braldr@hotmail.com with the subject line "Frosthammers" to ask about it.
3. CONTACT a Frosthammer Dwarf and request an invitation. Any Frosthammer Dwarf should be able to identify for you an officer who can invite you.
4. ACCEPT the invitation. At first you will have the rank of Recruit. Before long, an officer will examine you, which simply means a discussion about the rules and goals of the Clan. If you and the officer agree that the Frosthammers are for you, you will be promoted and your probationary period as a recruit is over. Welcome home, Kinsman; you are a Frosthammer!
5. CHOOSE a family. The Frosthammer Clan consists of five families: Brynar, During, Donner, Ragnasson, and Peake. Each has its own distinct personality and look. Read the How to Roleplay section below for more about the five families.
Rules
1. All members are obliged to obey Turbine's Terms of Service for LOTRO, and to refrain from any cheats, hacks, exploits, griefing, or unsportsmanlike conduct.
2. All members are obliged to obey the chain of command:
- The Frosthammer is leader of the Clan. His orders must be obeyed by all members, unless overruled unanimously by the Council of Theigns.
- The Council of Theigns is a small group of senior officers who act as advisor to the Frosthammer, and as a tribunal in cases where that function is needed. All members are obliged to obey the commands of a Theign, unless overruled unanimously by the remaining Theigns, or by the Frosthammer.
- Chieftains are officers granted authority to oversee specific practical functions of the Clan, such as recruitment, care, and training of new members, or crafting. Members are obliged to obey a Chieftain in matters over which the Chieftain has been given authority by the Clan.
- A Chief is a member chosen to lead a Frosthammer war party. All members of the party are obliged to obey the instructions of the Chief during the party's excursion.
4. Frosthammer Dwarves are self-sufficient and often solitary, but should be prepared at any time to come to the aid of other Frosthammers. You should generally prefer to group with Frosthammers over non-Frosthammers, and to group with Dwarves over non-Dwarves (but you should be polite to characters of all Free Peoples).
5. The Frosthammer colors are specific to each House. See the section on the Five Houses to find your colors. The blazon of the clan are two hammers, crossed.
How to Roleplay a Frosthammer
The simplest way to roleplay a character well is to decide three things:
1. What is one thing your character really loves? 2. What is one thing your character really hates? 3. What is one thing your character really wants, but can never get?
If you keep these three things in mind, and act in accordance with them, you will play a distinct, memorable character.
Beyond that, keep the following guidelines in mind:
1. Act like a Dwarf
Dwarves are tactiturn. Be gruff but polite. Don't speak when you don't have to. Dwarves are known to be stubborn, and Frosthammers are more stubborn than most. Dwarves are brave, and they retreat or give ground only reluctantly. Dwarves are faithful; always keep your word. Die before breaking a promise. There is no worse insult or curse than "oathbreaker". Dwarves are practical. Value skill and practicality in yourself and others. Dwarves are frugal. Hoard your wealth and spend it carefully and wisely. Dwarves are vengeful. Never forget an insult or a betrayal. Above all, Dwarves value honor. Do nothing to tarnish the honor of your self or the Clan, and you will go far with the Frosthammers.
2. Sound like a Dwarf
Use simple words and short sentences. Never use two words when one will do.
3. Act like a Frosthammer
The Frosthammers are Dwarves, but they are also a tight-knit communities of close relatives who have had their own customs for thousands of years.
The Frosthammers are clannish; they automatically prefer anyone or anything that belongs to the Clan over anyone or anything that doesn't.
They are conservative. They keep ancient books with stories of the lives and customs of their ancestors, and they believe that whatever their ancestors did is probably superior to whatever people of the present day do.
Frosthammers are so stubborn that even other Dwarves call them hardheaded. An apocryphal story tells of a Longbeard who, hearing that the Frosthammers were descended from Stiffbeard Dwarves, muttered that they should have been called "Stiffnecks" instead.
The Clan has ancient friendships with the House of Feanor and with Galadriel. They owe an ancient debt of gratitude to the Men of Forochel. They will lay down their lives for the sake of any of these people, or those who are their friends. But Frosthammers are wary and suspicious of others among Elves and Men, and they don't quite know what to make of Hobbits.
Frosthammers will always be courteous, except to an out-and-out enemy, but they will be cool and reserved with those not of their sworn friends or kin.
4. Sound like a Frosthammer
Frosthammers are back-country Dwarves who have dwelt for millennia in icy mountain passes. Their speech has a tendancy to sound archaic. They say "Aye" and "Nay" even "Thee" and "Thou." They do not speek with a Scottish accent.
5. Special vocabulary
The Clan means the Frosthammer Clan.
Clanwise means the way the Clan would do it. It also means the best way, or the right way.
Kin means Dwarves. Kinsman technically means a member of the Clan, but can also be used to mean any Dwarf who is a trusted friend.
Northmen or Northern Friends are the Men of Forochel, whom the Frosthammers owe a great debt of gratitude. Men are all other Men. Frosthammers tend to assume that most Talls are more prone than Dwarves to being seduced by the dark powers.
Good Elves or Blessed Folk are Elves of Lorien or the House of Feanor, to whom the Frosthammers long ago swore an oath of friendship. Their attitude toward Galadriel is almost worhipful--not worshipping Galadriel herself, but rather the sacredness of Ragni's personal oath of friendship to her.
Grey-Folk are all other Elves. Frosthammers tend to assume any Elf not of the Blessed Folk is more than likely to eventually fall prey to prejudices against the Dwarves for the Fall of Moria.
Little folk are Hobbits. The Frosthammers know little about them.
For the Frosthammer! For the Lost Father! Frosthammers Forth! These are the warcries and cheers of the Frosthammers.
The Five Houses
The Frosthammer Clan consists of five families: Brynar, During, Donner, Ragnasson, and Peake. These are the five families that traditionally trace their lines back to Ragni Frosthammer himself. Each member of the Frosthammer Clan belongs to one House, and may take the family name as his surname.
When you are promoted from Recruit to Kinsman, you will be asked to choose a family. You may choose any of the five families. Each family has its own distinct personality and appearance. We suggest that you choose a family based mainly on the personality you feel most comfortable playing. You can also pick a family based on appearance, if it fits your goals.
These are the five families:
House Brynar - Hot-tempered but quick to forgive. Courageous and fiercely loyal. Ruddy or bronzed complexion. Brown, hazel, or green eyes. Brown, red, or blonde hair. Colors: red and gold
House During - Quiet, patient, and slow of speech. Deadpan. A wry sense of humor, but they almost never smile. Pale complexion. Black, dark brown, or gray hair. Blue or green eyes. Colors: blue and gold
House Donner - Boisterous, friendly, and outgoing. Curious. Friendliest to outsiders, and often the Clan's diplomats. Patient and slow to anger, but even slower to forgive once roused. Ruddy or bronzed complexion. Brown, blonde, or red hair. Brown, hazel, or green eyes. Colors: green and gold
House Ragnasson - Dour, pessismistic, and taciturn. Given to grumbling. Often sarcastic. Loves the Clan fiercely, but would never say it. Pale complexion. Dark brown or black hair. Blue or green eyes. Colors: black and gold
House Peake - Intelligent, quick-witted, sharp-tongued. Irritable by nature, but basically friendly. Fair-skinned. Blue or green eyes. Light brown or blonde hair that goes gray early. Colors: white and gold
Clan Lore
The Frosthammers are an ancient house of Dwarves from high in the peaks of the Ered Luin. Their oral tradition traces their origin to one of the original seven Fathers of the Dwarves, who woke in the First Days on the slopes of the Misty Mountains, near the present day site of the Delving of Fror. These ancestors were of the lineage named Stiffbeards.
In time, a small band of these Dwarves journeyed west and were welcomed as kin by the Broadbeam Dwarves of the Ered Luin. There they settled, and in time, as the Dwarves of that region built the great city of Belegost, the descendants of the Stiffbeard travelers came to be accounted kin to the Broadbeams.
The descendants of those Stiffbeard travelers were first called The Frosthammer Clan in the years after the Battle of Unnumbered Tears. In that time, a leader of those Dwarves named Ragni fought in that battle by the side of the great war leader Azaghal, and was one of those who bore his body from the field. In the wake of that great battle, many lesser skirmishes were fought before the forces of the Enemy were finally crushed, and it was in one such skirmish, high in the Ered Luin, that Ragni gained the name "Frosthammer".
As he and a small band of his kin made their way home, swarms of goblins fell upon them. Retreating through high mountain passes that they knew well, the Dwarves made for the holds of friends and neighbors that they knew would lend aid, but it seemed that the numbers of the goblins were too great, and they would never make it. Their leader Ragni took his stand in a narrow mountain pass and ordered his kin to go on. There he stood wielding his great battle hammer, holding that pass alone against a horde, until the last of the goblins gave up in fear and wonder and turned back.
His kin returned with reinforcements to find Ragni battered and bloody, and suffering from the cold, but unbeaten. He lost a hand and a foot that day, but gained the name of Frosthammer, which name has been passed down to his sons and theirs.
In time, five families who can trace their lineage back to Ragni Frosthammer, and who have over the generations clung to a close alliance, have come to be known as The Frosthammer Clan.
The Fall of Ragni
During their time in Belegost during the First Age, like others of that city the Frosthammers aligned themselves with Maedhros of the Noldor House of Feanor. There had been an exchange of blood vows between Maedhros and Azaghal and the Frosthammers honored these even after the death of Azaghal. The dwarves of Belegost did not join in the sack of Nargothrond and although relations with Elves worsened, they were never broken.
At the end of the First Age came the War of Wrath. Belegost and all the Dwarven realms of Beleriand were broken and lost in the tumult. Under the leadership of Ragni, the Frosthammers trekked east to survive. Although records from that time are murky and incomplete, their tales hold that the Frosthammers eventually settled back where they traced their founding line: on the western slopes of the Misty Mountains in the present-day Ettenmoors.
Doom befell Ragni during this trek; while searching for the place where legend said that the Lost Father had awakened, he was surprised with few companions by a great wolf, a misbegotten spawn of Draugluin that had somehow escaped the wrack of Beleriand and followed the dwarves east, intent upon revenge. It was the eldest son of Ragni who found his corpse, hammer broken and with the great fang of the warg clutched in his lifeless grip; from that time onward the Frosthammers have carried a burning hatred of all wargs, and an oath of vengeance upon them. To this day a Frosthammer Dwarf will go miles out of his way to slay a warg, and every Frosthammer dreams of finding a warg with a missing fang.
The Delving of Fror
The sons of Ragni and their kin made many delvings in those years, but the greatest of these was the Delving of Fror. Although the pernicious tales of Men and some Elves hold that the Delving of Fror was abandoned when it was mined out, in fact its abandonment was for another reason; Frosthammer tradition holds that in fact they discovered what they believed to be the ancient Tomb of The Lost Father - one of the original seven awakened dwarven ancestors, and the first forefather of all the Frosthammers. All mining was halted and plans were made to turn the Delving into an enormous mausoleum and shrine.
They began the great work, but before much progress was made, outside events brought disaster. For in this time Noldor Elves had come to settle in Eregion. The Frosthammers, mindful of their ancient bond with the House of Feanor, formed an alliance with the Elven Smiths of Eregion and exchanged much knowledge with them. But when Sauron came and corrupted them into forging the Rings of Power, the Frosthammers were caught up in the resulting war that devastated the region. Eregion was leveled and the Dwarves were driven west, losing almost everything they owned. The Delving of Fror became a haunt of goblins for many years, until the coming of Angmar, when the Men of Rhudaur set off the series of events that led to the rise of the Gaunt-men. Before the Frosthammers left, the last of them turned as the great stone was rolled over the entrance to the Delving of Fror, and swore a sacred oath that the clan would return to reclaim its own.
The Axes of the Dwarves
Thus began an epoch of wandering. The Frosthammer Clan, dispossessed of its heritage, returned to the West and wandered the Blue Mountains for generations. They built up their numbers, and they adapted themselves to their surroundings, once again being counted kin and neighbors of the Dwarves of Ered Luin. But the sons of Ragni had sworn that their line must never forget the great deeds and the treacherous murder of their father, and the oath was renewed when the Frosthammers were driven from the Delving of Fror. Generation after generation of Frosthammers have been guided by clan leaders who are also Rune Keepers, craftsmen, and Scholars. The greatest of the Clan's treasures are great, ancient books of lore, inscribed with runes, that tell the tales of Ragni and his sons, of the finding of the Lost Father, and of the goblin horde that robbed the Clan of hearth and home.
Now events are upon the Clan. Ancient Khazad-dum has been opened. The folk of Dain and their allies even now push into those ancient halls, driving goblins before them, bent on reclaiming the great city for Dwarf-kind.
Can a generation of Frosthammers who have grown strong and prosperous do any less? Can oath-bound descendants of Ragni Frosthammer stand idle, while vile things tramp and scrabble at the very crypt of the Lost Father?
The Frosthammer travels the lands of the West now, calling to all Dwarves of the five Houses of Clan Frosthammer to join in a great mission: to drive the Enemy from the Ettenmoors and reclaim the Delving of Fror, and the Tomb of the Lost Father. In service of their oath, the Frosthammers are also duty bound to aid the Iron Garrison Dwarves of Moria, and indeed any of the Free Peoples who stand against the wargs and goblins of the Enemy. But after every victory for the Free Peoples in which Frosthammer axes count, the Sons of Ragni will be heard to cry, "For the Frosthammer! For the Lost Father! Onward to the Delving of Fror! FROSTHAMMERS FORTH!"
Relations with Other Kindreds
The Frosthammers are clannish and wary of strangers, but ancient tradition requires them to be courteous and to show hospitality, in gratitude for all those peoples who in ancient times welcomed the Frosthammers as they wandered from one land to another.
The Frosthammers remember all their ancient friendships as well as their hatreds, for they are written down in treasured books of lore.
Frosthammers may seem cool toward strange elves, though always courteous. This wariness arises from their long memory. They remember how Sauron corrupted the Elven smiths of Eregion and so detroyed all that the Frosthammers held dear. They remember how Thranduil's people of Mirkwood nearly came to blows with Thorin Oakenshield's people over the treasure of the Lonely Mountain.
Still, the Frosthammers also remember and honor their most ancient friendship with the House of Feanor, and the ancient books of runic lore tell how Ragni himself swore everlasting friendship with Galadriel. An Elf who holds lineage from the Noldor or The Golden Wood will find the Frosthammers warm and generous.
The Frosthammers are likewise wary of Men, who seem to them fragile and easily corrupted. They remember well how the Men of Rhudaur swept into the Ettenmoors and paved the way for the rise of the restless dead things that now haunt the Delving of Fror. The Fall of Numenor is a lesson not lost on the Rune Keepers of the Clan. Yet when the Clan was dispossessed and forced to wander the northern lands east to west, they were welcomed and comforted by the folk of Forochel, and so conceived a fierce loyalty to those folk. A friend of Forochel is a friend of the Frosthammers, and, just as a fond mention of Galadriel will gain an Elf welcome, a Man who counts the folk of Forochel as friends will find himself welcome among the Frosthammers.
Of Hobbits, the Frosthammers know little. The small folk seem frivolous and therefore of little worth to the serious-minded Frosthammers. Yet some few of the Frosthammers, upon coming to know Hobbits better, report that they are practical, steady, and reliable--all cardinal virtues among the Frosthammers. Perhaps we will see great friendships between these kindreds yet.
