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The Bear-kin within the mountains near the Devil Forest had been thriving within such place for many years. Even after the great war between the tribes that brought upon the extermination of most of the tribes, due to the resiliency, adaptability, and strength of the powerful Beat-kin, they had thrived and slowly grown back to a healthy number of tribes members.
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The small tribe lived near the middle of the mountains, where many cave sections formed within creating small labyrinths, the bear-kin lived inside and around such place, their homes were simple and rustic, made mostly out of wood, bones, and the leather of the monsters they hunted. Although they had lived for many years, they preferred a life of simplistic and rustic nature, although they were an intelligent race, the chiefs of the tribe had always shared the mindset of being more connected with nature by living simple lives while sharpening their strength and hunting proficiency.
Due to the nature of the tribe, magicians were incredibly rare, as Bear-kin specialized in pure and raw animalistic strength and furious wild fighting techniques using their enormous paws and claws. Some also had a good affinity with large two-handed axes, clubs, and spears but many of the tribe members preferred their bare paws, and it was often seen that those that used advanced weapons as weak.
In terms of hierarchy, the tribe had an overly simplistic chief hierarchy, where the strongest of the tribe would become the new chief. This might sometimes be inherited if the children of the chief were to be raised properly and one day beat their father, something that any chief aspired to.
The greatest desire of the bear-kin father and mothers is to see their children one day grow even stronger than them and to surpass them, as it meant that their survival would be secured by their strength, passing down the chief title to the strongest, who would be capable of protecting everyone.
In term of gender differences, there were not many due to both male and female bear-kin being just as strong, there were no big differences between genders unlike the ghouls, whose males and females had clear physical differences, to the point where the females would often have a greater magic affinity than physical strength.
However, the bear-kin were always strong, both females and males, this perhaps mirrored how actual bears were, as often females and males would be just as strong. Sometimes females would be even stronger than the male, while some other times the males might overpower the females. It was an almost equal strength distribution where females and males were treated 'equally'.
Equally, in the sense of their strength, that is. Everything in the tribe was judged by how strong one was compared to others, they did not care about genders because they only cared about strength, if a female were the strongest of the tribe, both males and females would gladly follow her orders, and vice versa.
It was instilled within the minds of the young bear-kin that strength was it all in life, without it, they would not simply be allowed to do anything that they pleased. Because of such harsh rules put into the young kids, they had to begin training their bodies and skills as soon as they were able to walk, or even crawl, as they were bear-kin, walking in four feet was something possible for them, and the younglings who could not balance themselves well would often do so to hunt in packs with their families.
The creation of tools wasn't that advanced due to such harsh rules, aside from the bare minimum to thrive and cook meat, the tribe would often never let any talented crafter or alchemist grow enough, forcing them to develop their fighting capabilities over anything else… this is why Gaius, who had a passion for cooking food and making it tastier while improving in such non-fighting Skills was looked down upon his kin, to the point that his father himself, the current chief of the tribe, had challenged him to fight against him if he wanted to keep developing his cooking skills.
And because Gaius did not care about fighting and already saw that his father did not want him to continue doing his passion, he simply left the tribe and went to do as he pleased, surprising his tribe and even his father… they really thought that he would fight to the end, but instead, he simply decided to escape, saving himself a beating, knowing that he stood no chance against his father.
And as Gaius went to explore the rest of the world, starting from the Devil Forest while looking for delicious ingredients to cook, experiment, and improve his skills, the whole Oggoth ordeal happened, until Ervas and Veronica, alongside their many allies came to his rescue alongside the many people that were captive with him…
Meanwhile, as Gaius recovered, trained, and become someone even stronger than ever before, his father, Ragdaz found himself in a predicament. After having lost his elder son, he had now lost his youngest one by the hands of a figure within the shadows that had begun to terrorize and lurk within the mountains. An entity that led a horde of undead and tempted the young with power that they had never imagined possible, a power that the bear-kin barely had, magic, and even more.
Magic was a powerful tool, within such a rudimentary tribe as the bear-kin, a strong magic user could easily overpower a whole squadron of bear-kin, and because strength is what anyone striver forward in the tribe, some of the young bear-kin were tempted by the sweet words and promises of this entity within the shadows, abandoning their tribe after having made up their minds, although, most of the people that left were often those neglected due to their weak physical abilities and lack of talent.
Their parents could not have imagined that treating their children like this would end up in them resenting their own brethren as despicable people, and after being allowed to leave such a place while becoming stronger, they grasped into it without thinking twice.
Ragdaz lamented his foolishness just after having lost both of his sons to his bad parenthood… His eldest son, Gaius, had escaped from his challenge to do as he pleased outside of the tribe, while his youngest son, Azra, left the tribe after he had neglected him due to wanting to find different ways to grow stronger, as the young boy had grown with a weaker physique than others.
Ragdaz was truly a foolish man, but it was not as if he knew any better, he was never taught any other better way of teaching his children, this is how his father and mother taught him how to be, and that's how his grandparents did to his parents, and the parents of his grandparents did to his grandparents… it was a tribe tradition, beliefs instilled into their minds as the correct way of doing things.
He realized very later on that doing such a thing made his children escape from him, they didn't love him nor admired him like he once did with his father. He finally realized that his children might not have to simply be the strongest in the tribe, perhaps they could be fine as long as they could survive, as long as they were alive and with him, as long as he could be… with his family.
"Sigh… Gaius… Azra… My own children neglected me… What have I done? My wife has passed away, and now, my two children, the offspring of our love are gone, nowhere where I would see them grow and blossom… Just how foolish have I been? Just how… Are the teachings of our tribe, truly what is right? It is frustrating to realize how wrong I was when I had finally committed all the mistakes…" muttered Ragdaz as he sat down with his legs crossed on his tent, his once bursting house was now empty.
He still remembers the hopeful and bright Gaius preparing a myriad of delicious preparations that always made the harsh lives of the tribe members happier, his eyes filled with happiness, charisma, and inspiration…
"I can't believe that at that time I saw such happiness on my dear son as something disgusting… Just… how much of a bastard am I? Now, the thing that I miss the most is my dear son's smile… Gaius…" cried Ragdaz, the strongest bear-kin was now crying in sadness and frustration over his own mistakes, if any bear-kin were to see him in such a pathetic state, his reputation would quickly hit rock bottom.
And then, he remembered his dear young son Azra, the little bear-kin who was always trying to craft new weapons, equipment, and even tried alchemy by himself, he was truly a genius with incredible talent, to manage to do such things on his own without anyone teaching him to begin with… But Ragdaz never saw such a thing is admirable, but as a sign of his terrible weakness… up until these last months, where Azra had left and his father was left alone at last.
"Azra… you're such a talented kid… What I said to you… I am… I am such an idiot! I cannot simply follow the traditions of my tribe if it will mean that everything that I love will strive away from me…! Oh, my dear wife, have I strived too far from what you once taught to me?" sighed the old bear-kin man, tears dripping from his eyes.
This was Ragdaz every day, he was often seen gloomy and silent in the tribe, but whenever he went back to his tent, he would break down into tears like a little child.
However, interrupting his cries of hopelessness, a bear-kin warrior ran towards Ragdaz's tent as the man quickly whipped out the tears of his face and forced a serious expression on his face.
"Chief, the graves! They appeared again!" said the young bear-kin man.
"What?! Again?! But we just moved from our previous position a week ago, is that wicked necromancer following our steps?! Quickly, gather the warriors, we have to defend the tribe while we pack things to escape again!" said Ragdaz, quickly changing his attitude and baring his claws.
From within the outside of the tribe, the ground began to turn purple, as dozens of graves began to surge from within this purple dirt, and whenever such graves appeared, it meant the impending doom of the tribe people…
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