Clan Chattan
Clan Aleron figures prominently throughout the Rootstock saga. The Hawks of Aleron are content to keep to their mountains until the storms of kings and causes threaten their way of life.
Ancient tales foretell the coming of the Storm Hawks. To their own chagrin, Sethlyan Callan, Aengus Gruder, and Gaven Buchanan seem to fit the prophecy. Isobel and Rosalee Iverach marry into the clan and their children join the struggle to defy the Watchers.
Clan Aleron was inspired by Clan Chattan.
The confederacy known as Clan Aleron was as unique as it was influential. Centuries ago, after the Surdisi conquered Innis, the clans in the mountainous northeast recognized that by banding together they created a whole stronger than its parts. Extending their loyalty beyond their blood kin brought them considerably more power and security than going it alone.
They took the Aleron name from an ancient Aurel god of wind and storm, and chose the hawk for their heraldry. Aleron surnames of Tavish, Callan, Buchanan, Gruder, Dunbar, and Shaw commanded respect throughout Innis. The confederacy numbered over a hundred thousand families, all sworn to their chosen Chief of Chiefs, Adan Tavish, the Rhi’Aleron. Even marriages to second sons of the Callan and Buchanan chieftains would mean subtle shifts in allegiances as far away as Jorendon.
Legend of the Storm Hawks
Clan Chattan, a Scottish clan, is unique in many of the same ways. Back in the Middle Ages, a community of twelve clans, each with their own chief, banded together and chose one of their own to lead the confederacy “for mutual solidarity, sustenance and protection.”
My interest in Georgia history led me to Clan Chattan. The similarities in their history and ours kept me reading.
The Eastern Woodland tribes also understood the sum of the whole is greater than its parts. Wolf Clan and Wind Clan and many others banded together in a confederacy as strong and vibrant as Clan Chattan. In the Muskogee Nation, each town had its own mico (chief) but together they chose a Mico of Micos.
It is one of several cultural similarities historians often note between the Scots and Native American Woodland tribes. Scots also suffered disposition from their homeland.
After the Battle of Culloden and the Highland Clearances decimated Scotland, Clan Chattan surnames such as MacGillivray and MacKintosh began resurfacing in Georgia as settlers and traders. They intermarried with the indigenous tribes and some of their children became leaders in Creek (Muskogee) towns.
These parallels inspired Rootstock Saga’s “what if“ of a Muskogee Nation immune from smallpox and too mighty to be moved off their homeland. They became the Este Nation introduced in Legend of the Storm Hawks.