Part the First

Many years ago, the Sea God, Mananuan, crossed the barrier home to Erin and fell in love with a woman and made a home, for a time near the shores of the Western Sea. The God, fickle as he was, left soon after, but the woman had a miraculous birth of triplets, who grew to become the maternal and magical Siobhan, the cronish warrior Saoirse, and the childlike druid Suibhne; and they were born in that order.

After the woman’s death, Siobhan would keep the house, inviting many a weary guest, and if the menfolk needed company, they might lay with her for a time—and Siobhan would bear much fruit, including the ever-serious Mai and the wandering, lovelorn Urian. The children of the house, however, were not limited to Siobhan’s own young, but those cast by the warrior womb of her sister, like the brooding Brandubh and the charismatic Dubhglas, and lone seed of her brother loins, the tiny, timid farmer Siofra.

Saoirse did not always drop her young at Siobhan’s home, however—she remained flighty and traveled with a mercenary lot. Well before the birth of her sons, Saoirse dallied for a time with the Black Oak, Dubhdara, in a soldier’s marriage. The Black Oak and the Golden Warrior parted ways before Saoirse knew she had his child. ‘Twas a time of bitterness between the sisters, and the young woman was too prideful to return to the Brugh to bear the child, so she left Arwen in the hands of a foster family. Arwen would not know her mother until much later.

Dubhdara would never know of this daughter Arwen before he died, although he another child he loved dearly, the healer known as Moss.

Gods are fickle, and give no regards to they unleash when they join with mankind. Mananuan had once been a man, and thought himself an exception, but the curse he left would haunt his progeny for generations…