Year 0: The Earth Gathering (Dar, Uman, Pagh, Kufu, Brun)

Welcome to the Paleolithic Era.  As you can see, we're in the middle of an Ice Age; some of the continents are being encroached upon by massive sheets of polar ice.  The map above is an elevation map; it doesn't depict forests, deserts, plains, or other environmental features, because after all, a hundred thousand years is quite a long time.  I didn't feel up to the task of redrawing the map, re-coursing every river, or rearranging every landform feature throughout the Paleolithic, so we'll just use this single elevation map as a shorthand.  I'll describe the features of the environment as we go, if they're essential to the plot.

When we begin the game, the tribes of proto-humans aren't very numerous yet, nor have they spread very far (see the red shaded area on the western edge of the central ocean.  They're all in one convenient place so they can all share distant elements of a common mythology, however fragmented it might be.

The hominid tribes are having their Earth Gathering.  All the tribes are gathered together to share lore and medicine.  The Players are present as four wandering tribeless hunters, who have been invited into the Gathering to participate and share in the hunts and feasts and stories.  As yet, the Players are not yet Great Spirits or demigods.

During the festivities, there is a massive earthquake and the cave of the host tribe collapses.  They have nowhere to live, and both their leader and medicine man has died.  Now the tribes are lost and confused.  What caused the earth to shake?  What have the tribes done?  How can they atone?  There is some understandable concern among the primitive people.

The mood is worsened after only a day of mourning, for there is a terrible omen:  the moon is swallowed up in darkness.  It is a partial lunar eclipse.

The Dar Tribe.  Formerly led by Dar (M), who is now dead, and Shan the Medicine Man (M), who is also dead.  The Dar tribe once was the largest, with about 48 members, and now they are third at about 37.  The Clan of the Serpent believes firmly that the earthquake and moon are bad omens.  As the host tribe, they were punished for the misdeeds of one of the visitors, and they demand to know which tribe caused it.  Mala (F), the tribal midwife (and the late Shan’s widow) thinks it was because of the deformed child of the Uman, who came from the mountains to the northwest.  She wants to see the Uman clan punished.

The Uman Tribe.  Led by Uman the Hunter and Nib the Medicine Woman.  The Uman were and are the smallest tribe at 20 people.  The Clan of the Fox has seen the earth move before in the mountains, which causes avalanches of rocks and snow.  They do not believe this earthquake is because of Uman’s deformed son (who has six fingers and toes).  The reassurance of the Uman does not allay the fears of the Dar, who see it as a sign that the Uman brought the earthquake with them.  But the Uman respond that the earthquake was sent to punish Dar and Shan:  everyone saw that Shan did not follow the Old Ways in the Earth Ceremony, and Shan has paid!  They also see this as a warning to the Kufu tribe, who have no medicine man to guide them.  Uman and Nib strongly believe somebody should punish the Kufu for having no medicine man, but they are not large enough to do it, and the Pagh, who are, will not.

The Pagh Tribe.  Led by Pagh the Warrior (M), who has both Zifa the Medicine Woman (F) and Tor the Sage (M, wizard).  They were the second-largest tribe at 44 people, and now they are the largest.  The Clan of the Eagle believe there is no sign.  The Pagh come from the southeast, and have watched the rivers and the tides.  Sometimes the rivers go up, and sometimes the tides go out, but they always come back.  Perhaps the Earth rises and falls, too.  The Pagh see this instead as a quest, which the tribes must take up:  we must go to the mountains to see why the Earth shakes.  The Uman and Brun say this is foolish, because there isn’t enough food for everyone in the mountains.

The Kufu Tribe.  Led by Kufu the Toolmaker (M), who has at his side Gom the Skinner (M).  They were the third-largest tribe, with 39 people, and now they are second, but they have many who are sick and injured, with scars from hunting.  The Clan of the Tiger comes from the south.  They believe the earthquake is a sign that the People can no longer meet here, and must go their ways to atone.  They are all equally to blame.

The Brun Tribe.  Led by Brun the Shaman (M), who is backed up by Hon the Strong (M).  They are the second-smallest tribe, with only 28 members.  The Clan of the Mammoth come from the north, and they watch the stars and the moon.  They dismiss the earthquake but they are troubled by the eclipse of the moon, which tells them that there will be a terrible winter.  The Kufu object because they don’t really know seasons, as they come from tropical lands.

Usually, at a time like this, all the medicine men would gather and discuss it, but because Shan is dead, and the Kufu have none, they have not enough shamen to perform their rituals.  Instead, they turn instead to the Players to solve their problems.

"Why did the earthquake destroy the cave of Dar, mighty Spirits?" they ask.  "Are the Uman to blame, for bringing the deformed child here to this place?  Shall they be punished for their offense?"

Others say, "Mighty Spirits, should we punish the clan of Kufu for not having a medicine man?  They are not following the old rituals."

The Pagh tribe says, "We are going on a quest into the mountains to see why the earth moves.  What shall we tell the Earth Spirit that it will appease her?"

And the Brun, of course, are worried about the upcoming winter, which they fear will be terrible.  How will they survive?

What The Players Decided

Unsurprisingly, they first decided that the six-fingered child of Uman should survive.  Their twenty-first century knowledge told them that six fingers on a child is a harmless birth defect.  Convincing a bunch of 100th-millennium-BC tribesmen of this took some doing, however.  Connor the Mystic (who was in charge of religion, philosophy, medicine, and so on) invented a phony-baloney ceremony for the purpose of "driving away evil spirits," he told them, and assured the medicine men of the clans that the Old Ways were nothing special.  Go ahead, use your power, improvise! he exhorted them.  At the end of his make-up ritual, he pretended to read the fortune of the six-fingered child, and pronounced that the boy would become a mighty leader and a wizard, to seal his survival.

They also pooh-poohed any mystical significance to the collapse of the cave and the earthquake.  Even when pressed they refused to concede there was any Sign to be read.  Dave the Artisan (our Mr Spock hard-sciences character) simply advised the toolmakers of the tribes how to reinforce the insides of caves with some stout trees.  He then crafted toys for the children.  ("Putting trees indoors, and giving toys to children.  What are you, Santa Claus?" asked the Joe the Leader.)

Last, Joe the Leader arranged a bridal exchange between the tribes of Uman and Dar — Dar's clan would send the six-fingered child a woman to be his bride, when he was of age.  This, Joe the Leader hoped, would smooth over any animosity between the clans about the strange child they had saved.

Results 
I decided that since the players had saved the child and emphasized the importance of saving lives, it would show the Kufu clan the importance of medicine.

Also, the players had terribly snubbed the clan of Dar:  first, they did not avenge the death of Dar or his shaman Shan; second, they had had the affront to declare that the Old Ways were nonsense; third, they had forced the bridal exchange upon them.  Because of all this, and the outright dismissal of the mystic significance of the earthquake, Mala the Dar midwife snapped and attacked Nib of the Uman.  Uman was forced to kill Mala, leaving Dar without any medicine woman.

Since Connor the Mystic had suggested that the Old Ways weren't important, I ruled that Brun would step down and hand the clan's leadership over to his warrior Hon the Strong.  But they'd also strongly recommended that the Kufu have a medicine man, which influences Pagh to turn control of his tribe over to Zifa, his second.

Not that it would much matter whether one individual or another would lead the clan in the short term.  I wanted to see which direction each clan might be pushed, which developments would be emphasized for the foreseeable future, because this would be the last time all five tribes would be in the same place for a while.

After the Earth Meeting, the clans all went their separate ways.