Helmond and Breach Storms

Contrary to Scholarch Tilsen’s opinion, there does not seem to be some internal or secret method that the Ten Clans use to predict the coming of breach storms. Rather, their society is built around the expectation that they will come. Their famous “steppes” have been carved in ways that naturally defend them from the abrasive storms, protecting most of their structures. Their farming areas are built around channels and canals that encourage snowdrift to pile up away from crops. The northerners make use of high pillars tightly wrapped in long canvas that can be quickly unfurled and anchored above the plants for the sake of protection from the blizzard, assuming it is a quick one and it comes alone.

Tilsen also failed to treat of breach chains. Whether this was because he did not believe in them or it simply did not come up, I can not guess. They are a rare phenomena, usually only occurring once or twice in a generation, though there are a few instances in their oral histories where they say it happened with greater frequency. These are the deadliest natural disasters that the Ten Clans face, and result in loss of lives, livestock, and crops in damning numbers. There are known cases of families freezing to death within the comparative safety of their homes. Several important historical famines occurred as a result of these breach chains, usually with significant cultural and ethno-political changes. A famous example known even as far as Belmar and up to the current day would be the famine during the reign of King Yulian Elrin, about six hundred years before the Ordering. A series of breach storms set into motion the long chain of events that eventually led to Wolfsong and King Beilan Elrin meeting and fighting alongside one another, and to the formation of the famous “Sons of Winter” who so terrorized the darklanders during the war.