for your reading pleasure...
The Acorn Bearer’s Character History The Acorn Bearer was born to a woman of the Croatan Tribe in the Caodian Nation named Father’s Pride. The land she was born into was a quiet and peaceful land now known as the Arkansas River valley in what is now northeastern Oklahoma near a small town called Spiro. They lived in that time in a border area. To their west and north was the Great Plains, to their south the Owatchita Mountain Range and to their east, the rest of the Quawpaw and Mississippian Nation.
Academically the Caodian people were a peaceful mound building culture that were the traders between the rest of the Mississippian Nation and the people of the southwest. Though shorter in size than even the average people of the time, they were artisans, traders, warriors, and healers with a penchant for spreading the news and keeping the wealth. The Caodian people, before they were basically absorbed into the Quawpaw and Owatchita tribes sometime around the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were known for having lighter hair and blue eyes as a common facet. One way this is explained is in the nearby forest near Macalister Oklahoma is the Heavener Runes, a rock with Norse runes on it dated back to the same time as these people, around the 11-13th centuries ACD. It is theorized that a lone band of Vikings made it to this land by way of the Ohio, Mississippi, and Arkansas rivers, before finally settling and eventually becoming a part of the tribe. (This theory is the most scientific though there are several other theories out there and if ever in the local area you can usually find at least three books on the subject). On a similar academic note, acorns, once the tannin is boiled out of them, are edible and actually a good source of several vitamins and minerals one’s body needs.
In the World of Darkness this is almost true. They lived in a fertile land, traded with everyone equally, and indeed were the place to go if you were looking for something your people would never have. (In the real world, at the actual archeological site in Spiro Oklahoma, they have found artifacts ranging from shells of crustaceans only found on the east coast to bowls of the Hopi Nation). The Caodian in the World of Darkness however were also housed a large portion of the Croatan’s Kinfolk, and although they were a peaceful people, almost all the other tribes nearby warred equally amongst each other sometimes forcefully using the Caodian people and their supplies. The Caodian were a strong folk however, and thanks to their supernatural relatives, they were able to live through most of time peacefully.
If there ever were Vikings amongst the Caodian, by the time The Acorn Bearer was born they had all died and no Garou spoke of them, though their blood still ran through the veins of the people. Or maybe the love the Croatan had for Kannak-Sonnak made the sun’s rays less powerful, who could guess? The Acorn Bearer herself, while not attractive by normal standards, was still considered pretty for her mooneyes and lighter skin. Her blood was strong within the Croatan lineage however and she was to be like her mother’s fathers people, a wolf changer, one of Gaia’s warriors.
The girl recognized as The Acorn Bearer was not always called by that name; originally she was called Brown Corn Maiden in honor of the season she was born, late fall, when the corn stalks turn brown. The first fourteen years of her life were spent in quiet happiness; she learned the ways of her people and the trade of shell carving. While most first changes happen when a traumatic experience occurs, or during a hunt, Brown Corn Maiden’s wasn’t anything of the sort; one night under the half-moon in Brown Corn Maiden’s 14th summer, she and her family heard wolves howling outside in the woods. Brown Corn Maiden could not explain the pull she felt when she heard them, but she did know she needed to them. She looked at her mother and father to ask, and they both stared down at her as she realized that she was a wolf. Her mother smiled and simply held the door for her, and though her father looked very surprised that his daughter and not one of his many sons had been the one chosen by Gaia, so he let her go as well.
She did not remember much of that first night, save running in the wolves and feeling freer than she had ever felt in the past. The next day she awoke in a small cave in homid form with several wolves and another human sleeping near her. At first she panicked, she did not understand what had happened, and although her mother had spoken of some of their special relatives before, she did not think she would ever be one of them. The wolves did not attack her, nor did they seem to mind her near them at all. The man woke up as well, and smiled a kind smile, and though Brown Corn Maiden did not trust him immediately, she did instinctively know he did not harm her the night before, nor did he mean to harm her now. He explained that his name was Walks the Long Path and he, like her was a Croatan wolf changer. Walks the Long Path went on to explain what Garou were and their place within nature. He escorted her to the edge of the woods near her village and told her she had a day to say goodbye and gather her things, for she had much to learn, and only other Garou could teach her. Her people were still her people, and though she had a very easy change compared to most Garou, she still was a danger to her family till she had been through her Rite of Passage.
She was found to be a Philodox when her Rite of Passage came. She fit the role well, she had always been the mediator when her brothers fought, and now she did the same, simply with different brothers. Brown Corn Woman’s (for she was a woman by now) pack became renowned for their message carrying abilities; as a matter of fact she joined her pack for the specific reason that she got to visit all of the places she heard about from traders that visited her village. One late summer night they were traveling to the Uktena Sept of Cypress Heart and were in the Owatchita Mountain Range when a strange mist overtook them. In those days, everything meant something so they kept watch and stayed within eyesight of each other. They felt themselves go into the umbra, for some places just were more spirit than real, and they saw why Gaia had led them down this path. Nearby was an ancient oak tree spirit, its branches and roots reaching far out. The leaves of this ancient oak were a mottled yellow color and as the wind blew through them they could hear him cry out in pain. All around it was what used to be a glade, but was now filled with blight children. The Garou and the blight children fought each other, and two of Brown Corn Woman’s pack mates fell. They investigated the area and found the tracks of a Garou who had fallen to the wyrm and had been being hunted for sometime. He was angry that they destroyed the place he was going to revel in the wyrm’s power, and two more of her pack mates fell during that battle, leaving Brown Corn Maiden by herself and injured. In the end though, they were victorious.
Knowing the job for Gaia was not completed yet; she went back to the old oak and cleansed the area before the wyrm had a chance to sow his evil there again. For her help in cleansing the area, the oak thanked her, though he still had great pain in his voice. When she asked him why he still wept, he told her how though she had cleansed the blight; she and her pack mates had killed his eldest children in so doing. Brown Corn Maiden understood Oak’s sorrow for she had just lost her family as well.
She looked to the ground and picked up a handful of acorns that were on the ground, and spoke to Oak. “You still have children, Oak, though they need time to grow. I understand your pain, I know it is not much but to make up for the loss of your other children, I shall take some of your acorns with me, to ensure that you have children everywhere one goes, so that the wyrm could never take them all, even if he tried. I shall do this for all of my days, and maybe then, though I will not live as long as you, you can forgive me for what I have done.”
Oak smiled upon this for he knew she was trying with all her heart and soul to make up for his loss. “This will do child of Turtle.” He replied. “Do this and you will always be remembered and blessed by the earth, even more so than your tribe already is.” With that, the Brown Corn Maiden took her satchel and filled it with his acorns, as there were already many fallen and still many more to fall in the coming season. She made her way onto the Sept of Cypress Heart to give the message that her journey originally sent her on, and there she told the story of the Oak and the Blight. The Theurges and Galliards listened to her story with great interest and decided that she did the right thing, and with Cypress’s approval, took the first acorns she offered from her Geas.
A few joined her and made a new pack to catfish then, for they much like she when she was younger were interested in seeing the world, and so they left with another message to another sept. Eventually people began to call her the Acorn Bearer for this exact reason. She was known for her honor and for her strength of will. One night while at the Sept of Council Rock, she woke up from a dream in which she was traveling in the snow. She only remembered two things. One was that she had been traveling in the snow for a long time and was very tired. The other was that her pack mate was finally finished carving a hilt out of a large piece of mammoth tusk. The tusk was not complete yet and had small charcoal marks on it where he had scratched out the carvings he wanted on the klaive. When she awoke she felt that above and beyond all things, she must find this klaive.
She gathered with her packmates the next morning and spoke with them about it. They agreed and all traveled on a great journey into the deep north and umbra. When the Croatan got to Wendigo lands, they found the nearest tribe of the Little Brother and explained why they were there. The Wendigo of the area were not totally impressed but they agreed to allow the children of Turtle to look, do to the dream; and the goods and news they brought with them. They traveled far north, and searched with the spirits and a small amount of the Wendigo's help. One day, in the late winter, just before spring, Acorn Bearer and her pack were almost out of food, wolf favored or otherwise, and they could not make a fire to heat the snow up for water. She and her pack were clearing away fresh snow in from the ground so that they could sleep on the frozen earth without getting too wet.
She looked down though and instead saw a Grand Klaive half the size of her in homid, under the frozen ice. A man who had obviously been there for quite a while, perfectly preserved clutched it. She and the pack dug the man and his klaive out of the earth very carefully, and when they found were able to see his features, they recognised him as an honorable Windego who had been mentioned by his tribe as disappearing several winters ago, and the last holder of the klaive. The pack did Rite of the Departed for him, heard his ancestor spirit thank them, and bless them for thier quest, only asking that his children were kept well. When the pack came back and told the Wendigo the story they grudgingly accepted that Acorn Bearer was meant to have the klaive, other wise she never would have found it.
The Klaive bone white and glowed with an unearthly light. It was obvious that the thing was covered in carvings depicting the Great Walk. It was in extraordinary condition if it was indeed the as old as the dream hinted it was, so she immediately took it to the Eldest Theurge in the Sept. They went inside and she told him of the dream she had. The Theurge was a wise Wendigo who knew much of the oral history from the tribes, and recognized the grand klaive for what it was. He told her that it was the Honor’s Truth, and that one of the Elder Galliards of her tribe in the time when the brothers were coming over made it as a gift for his alpha, a Philodox named Never Lies. The Wendigo told her of the blades special qualities, and helped her meditate and remember more of the past life. In that life she was the Theurge who helped bind the spirits into the blade when they reached the homelands of the Croatan. That was the only experience with the blade she had had before, but it seemed that this life around it was her turn to carry the monumental thing. The Acorn Bearer did not think she was who should hold the blade, but the Wendigo warned her against giving it away or letting an Elder take it from her by force, for the Klaive had a mind of its own, and did not appreciate others second-guessing its judgment. The last person to have it died, otherwise it never would have come to her, and the only other way to loose it was being dishonorable.
Acorn Bearer kept living her life the way she always had and things seemed fine. She was on her farthest journey a trip to the Sept of Rippling Flames when she felt and heard the news of the other Croatan. The day the Croatan Tribe gave their souls to stop Eater of Souls she almost fell into harano and died of heartbreak. To feel every connection to your people break and snap at once was debilitating enough, but to then find out how and why it happened, and to know you were not with your people was almost too much for her to bear. Had she, a messenger of all things, heard the rumors before her journey west, she would have stayed and fallen with them. Her pack, all Uktena, understood the tragedy that had just happened to her but begged her to go on, for others must know what has happened as well. They made it to the sept and quickly gave their message over.
Every moment she was awake Acorn Bearer felt hallow. Every moment she was asleep she heard the cries of her people as the Wyrm slowly digested them. On the way back towards the Mississippi, she insisted as she always did to stop by Oak’s and pick up more acorns. She had a dream that she thought was from Turtle telling her to go there. Thinking she was at least trying to go on the Uktena agreed and went with her to the tree. The Oak knew what had happened and saw the pain of Acorn’s eyes. Oak remembered the young one who only wished to help and could not bear that pain. Turtle had given him a message before all had come to pass. Some were not at the battle for a reason; they would be needed when the Apocalypse came. Acorn Bearer was one of those chosen because she would be true to her people and do her duty for Gaia no matter what. When Oak saw them he greeted them as he always did and then pulled up his roots a small ways, even though it was painful for him, for he knew this small pain was nothing compared to what Acorn was feeling at that moment. He looked to them all and said simply, “Turtle wished you to be safe, and I have vowed to protect you as long as I can, if you wish to give your people strength and the future hope, you, Brown Corn Woman will sleep till the time has come for you to awaken.” Acorn Bearer simply nodded at this and went within the dark underneath Oak to sleep but her pack mates protested. Oak understood how close they were to one another and allowed them to sleep within him as well, till the time came for them to awaken to the Apocalypse.
I think this is under an lj cut, if it isn't someone tell me