StormborneLore

Tag: House of the Storm

  • The Houses of Caernath Part 6

    The Houses of Caernath Part 6

    The Path They Choose


    StormborneLore Original Story

    Draven watched his younger brother with the quiet reverence of a man who had walked through fire. To find a home on the other side. Though the aches in his ribs still tugged at his breath, he laughed a genuine, full-throated laugh. as he caught Rayne peeking from behind a weathered oak near the feast.

    Rayne’s cloak hung awkwardly over one shoulder, and though his hands were free. He held them stiffly as if still expecting chains.

    Draven looked back to Taranis, who stood tall and proud. The firelight glinting off the rings etched into his forearms marks of every clan he’d freed, every vow he’d kept.

    “You’re not the only one who can’t die, Taranis. The bards will call us the Eternal Lords. The Man of the Woods, the Warrior of the March… But what about you, brother? What will they say?”

    Taranis grinned, but his eyes stayed on Rayne.

    “The Lord with a Heart. The Flame that Walks. The Warlord who Wept.”

    He turned to Draven. “What ails him, truly?”

    Draven’s smile dimmed.

    “He survived,” he said softly. “And survival… isn’t as easy to wear as a legend.”

    Taranis nodded, the smile gone. “Then I’ll not offer him a title. Or a command. I’ll offer him what was once denied us all.”

    He walked from the firelight and toward the shadows where Rayne stood alone, arms folded and eyes like flint.

    “You Came Back.”
    Rayne didn’t speak as Taranis approached. His jaw twitched. He stepped backward out of habit until his heel hit a root and stopped him.

    Taranis said nothing at first. He simply sat on the fallen log nearby, stretching his legs and sighing into the evening air.

    “When I was your age,” he said, “I thought silence made me strong. That if I didn’t speak of the beatings, or the exile, or the hunger… then I had won.”

    He picked up a small stone and turned it over in his hand.

    “But silence doesn’t win. It buries. And buried things don’t stay buried, brother. Not forever.”

    Rayne looked down, fists clenched.

    “They said you were dead.”

    “So did I,” Taranis replied. “And then I woke up… and realized I wasn’t done.”

    Rayne’s voice cracked.

    “Why didn’t you come for me?”

    Taranis flinched not visibly, but somewhere behind the eyes.

    He finally looked up, tears bright in his eyes. “And I believed them.”

    Taranis didn’t speak. He rose slowly, walked the short distance, and pulled Rayne into his arms.

    Rayne stood stiff as iron pthen broke. His head fell against Taranis’s shoulder, and the boy who had been a slave sobbed like the child he never got to be.

    The Wolves Watched
    From the trees, Boldolph watched, crouched low, Morrigan beside him.

    “He’s not ready,” the black wolf growled.

    “He’s more ready than you were,” Morrigan said softly.

    Boldolph grunted. “He’s not like Taranis. Or Draven. The fire isn’t in him.”

    Morrigan smiled. “No. But the river is.”

    Boldolph glanced at her, confused.

    “Some of us are made for flame and rage. Others for healing and flow. Rayne… is the river that remembers every stone.”

    Morning Comes to Emberhelm
    By dawn, the fires had burned low and the children were asleep in bundles of wool and bracken.

    The warriors sat nursing sore heads and full bellies, and the dragons Pendragon and Tairneanach lay curled in silence, watching the horizon like guardians of an old dream.

    Taranis stood before the gathering. His cloak flapped in the morning wind, and behind him the stone cairns of Caernath glowed faintly as if the ancestors were listening.

    “Brothers. Sisters. Flamekeepers. Healers. Shadowwalkers and Stormborn alike. You have all walked through fire, through blood, through the turning of the old ways. Now it is time to choose.”

    “Today we name the Three Houses of Caernath not for power, but for purpose. No longer shall bloodlines dictate loyalty. From now on, you choose where you belong.”

    “Those who fight whose strength lies in blade and storm come to the House of the Storm.”

    “Those who heal, protect, and serve who hold flame and lore come to the House of the Flame.”

    “And those who walk between who guard the forgotten places, who speak to shadows, or carry wounds that cannot be seen come to the House of the Shadow.”

    Rayne Steps Ahead
    The crowd murmured. Solaris stood tall near the Flame. Draven took his place beneath the storm banner. Morrigan stood beneath the flame, Boldolph beside her though his stance was still more wolf than man.

    And then slowly, silently Rayne stepped forward.

    All eyes turned.

    He walked past the flame. Past the storm. And stood alone beneath the third banner, woven with deep purples and grey threads: the House of the Shadow.

    Gasps rippled.

    Rayne turned, voice calm but steady.

    “I am not whole. But I am not broken.”

    “I have walked in chains. I have worn silence like a second skin. I am no warlord, no healer, no dragon-slayer.”

    “But I remember. And I will not let the forgotten be lost again.”

    After the Choosing
    Later that night, Taranis found him by the cairnstones.

    “The House of the Shadow,” he said. “I never thought someone would choose it first.”

    Rayne smiled faintly. “Someone had to.”

    “You know… I think it might be the strongest house of all.”

    Rayne nodded. “We carry the weight.”

    [TO BE CONTINUED]

    Further Reading

  • The Houses of Caernath Part 3

    The Houses of Caernath Part 3

    The Feast of Blood and Bond.

    A colorful illustration depicting a stylized bird soaring over a vibrant landscape with a tree and a blue sky, framed by a decorative border.
    A colorful illustration of a bird soaring above a vibrant landscape, surrounded by a decorative border.
    A vibrant painting of a red wolf howling against a circular moon backdrop, surrounded by green vines, capturing a mystical and powerful essence.
    A striking illustration of a red wolf howling, symbolizing strength and kinship in the narrative of Emberhelm.
    A painting of a howling wolf against a vibrant blue background with a crescent moon, featuring bold colors and expressive brush strokes.
    A howling wolf painted against a vibrant blue background, embodying themes of kinship and wilderness.
    A stylized black wolf howling against a crescent moon, set on a purple background with intricate designs in the corners.
    A striking artwork of a wolf howling at the moon, set against a vibrant purple background, symbolizing strength and spirit in the context of kinship.
    A colorful painting featuring a dragon intertwined with leaves and flowers against a starry background, with celtic knot designs in the corners.
    A vibrant illustration depicting a dragon surrounded by nature, showcasing the essence of storytelling and fantasy.


    The great hall of Emberhelm pulsed with firelight. Smoke curled upward from the long hearth, rich with the scent of charred lamb fat, root vegetables, and sweet herbs.

    It was a scent that stirred memory of winter hunts. Harvest feasts, and nights when the storm howled but the fire held fast.

    Taranis stood at the head of the long stone table. His arms folded behind his back, a rare softness in his eyes. To his right sat Lore, robes still dusted with ash from the spell that broke the curse. To his left, Drax toyed with his carving knife, his appetite as fierce as ever.

    But it was the spaces beyond that caught the eye.

    Boldolph sat with his broad, wolfish shoulders hunched, a strip of roast meat gripped in one clawed hand. Morrigan.

    Once white wolf, now flame-haired woman, laughed as she stirred a pot near the hearth beside Solaris. Who sprinkled crushed nettle and wild garlic into the steaming soup.

    And near the fire, two boys sat on a bench Nyx and Rayne. The latter still bore the bruises of captivity, but his shoulders had relaxed, his collar gone. Nyx offered him a chunk of honeyed root and a crude wooden spoon. The boy’s smile was slow, cautious. But it came.

    Taranis raised a horn of wild berry wine.

    “Tonight, no war. No judgment. No weight of kingship or curse. Tonight, we eat.”

    A cheer rang through the hall.

    The first course was served hearth-brewed vegetable broth, thick with barley, wild leeks, and stinging nettle. Simple, earthy. Morrigan’s touch. The nettle had been boiled thrice, mellowing its sting but keeping its iron-rich heart.

    Then came the main feast braised lamb neck, rubbed with ash salt and roasted on iron spits. It fell from the bone into honeyed mash made of parsnip and turnip, flanked by fire-roasted carrots. leeks, and bruised apples wrapped in dock leaves.

    A vegetarian version of roasted nuts, wild mushrooms, and legumes. Bound with barley and wild garlic was passed to those who’d taken vows of gentleness.

    The hall grew louder with warmth and full bellies. Solaris poured ladle after ladle of broth. Boldolph, face still savage, offered a growled blessing in the tongue of old wolf-warriors. Even Lore smiled briefly.

    And then came dessert.

    Forest fruit compote slow-stewed blackberries, crab apples, and hazelnuts served over a rough cake of grain and honey. It wasn’t sweet in the way of sugar, but it hummed with the wild tang of the land.

    As the fire cracked lower, Taranis rose once more.

    “We have reclaimed brothers,” he said. “Rayne is free. Draven will return soon. Boldolph and Morrigan have chosen forms of their own. Solaris has cast down his chains. And you my kin you have chosen your Houses.”

    He turned, gesturing to three newly hung banners behind the head table.

    Tempestras storm-grey with blue lightning: the House of the Storm.

    Ignis flickering red and gold: the House of the Flame.

    Umbra shadowed silver moon eclipsing a burnt-orange sun: the House of the Shadow.

    “Caernath lives again,” Taranis said. “Not through conquest but through kinship. Through the storm we were broken. But by fire and shadow, we are reforged.”

    Rayne rose, slowly, holding up a crude carving the three brothers etched into a cairnstone, side by side.

    “Then let it be known,” he said, “that Stormborne is no longer just a name. It is a vow.”

    Lore pressed a hand to the stone, then nodded.

    “A vow… and a future.”

    And beneath the storm-beaten beams of Emberhelm, the wolves howled once more not from pain or exile, but from joy.

    Feast Notes (Modern Budget Version approx. £10 total):


    Starter:

    Wild Nettle & Leek Soup

    Nettle leaves (free if foraged)

    Leek or spring onion

    Pearl barley

    Garlic & herbs

    Main:

    Braised Lamb Neck or Shoulder (cheap cuts)

    Honey-roasted root veg (parsnip, carrot, turnip)

    Mashed turnip/potato

    Vegetarian choice: wild mushroom & nut loaf

    Dessert:

    Berries & Graincake

    Stewed blackberries/crab apples

    Honey/oats cake

    Optional: hazelnuts

    Further Reading

    The Prophecies and Tales of Taranis Unfolded

    The Chronicles of Drax

    Join the Adventure in Tales of Rayne’s Universe

    Ancient Magic and Myth of the Stormborne

    The Houses of Caernath – Act I: The Broken Howl

    The Houses of Caernath – Act II: The Forgotten Blood

    Solaris’s Kitchen:

    Rustic Bronze Age Lamb Recipe: A Diabetic-Friendly Delight

  • The Houses of Caernath Part 2

    The Houses of Caernath Part 2

    The Forgotten Blood

    Rayne collapsed before the cairnfire, the thick iron collar still tight around his neck. Etched with the jagged insignia of the Black Claw. Solaris had rushed to his side. Morrigan gathered water from the well, whispering healing words she barely remembered. Lore cast protective wards. Boldolph paced, fuming, red eyes narrowed beneath a heavy brow.

    “This is madness,” Boldolph snarled, watching the collar pulse faintly with some cursed sigil. “The boy’s half-starved, and that brand it reeks of shadow magic.”

    “He’s not a boy anymore,” Drax muttered. “He’s seen things. Same as the rest of us.”

    “No child should wear chains,” Solaris said, voice tight. “Not in Emberhelm.”

    Lore knelt by Rayne’s side, laying fingers over the rusted iron. “It’s not just a collar. It’s a seal. A blood-binding rune carved into bone. They meant for him to die wearing it.”

    “And yet he made it back,” Morrigan added, her hand resting gently on Rayne’s fevered brow. “That means something.”

    Taranis hadn’t spoken since Rayne collapsed. He stood just outside the circle of firelight. Eyes locked on the far horizon where Black Claw lands stretched like bruises across the night. Pendragon shifted restlessly behind him, wings tight to his sides.

    “They have Draven,” Rayne had rasped before falling unconscious. “They kept him… because of me.”

    That had been enough.

    Without another word, Taranis had mounted the black dragon and taken to the sky.

    The wind screamed around him, colder than it should have been for summer. Taranis kept low over the ridges, scanning the burned-out lands for signs of encampments. Black Claw banners once flew here clawed glyphs torn into hides, marked with bone. Now, they hid in the ruins, like maggots beneath ash.

    Pendragon dove suddenly, a cry bursting from his throat.

    There a ridge of slate carved into makeshift battlements. A fortress not meant to keep armies out, but prisoners in.

    Taranis landed hard, blade drawn before his boots touched the ground. He didn’t speak. He didn’t call out.

    He moved.

    Two guards fell before they could scream lightning dancing along the edges of his blade. A third tried to flee. Pendragon caught him mid-run and dropped him without effort.

    Taranis moved through the ruined keep like a storm incarnate silent, swift, merciless. These were slavers, torturers, the kind who’d once held him in chains. He knew every sound of their cruelty.

    He’d been trained in their darkness. Now he wielded it against them.

    In the lower chamber, he found Draven.

    Naked but for rags, wrists chained above his head, bruises blooming along his ribs. He lifted his face at the sound of boots.

    “Taranis?” he croaked.

    “I’m here,” his brother said.

    “You came back…”

    “I always come back.”

    Taranis cut the chains in two strokes, catching his brother as he fell.

    “Can you walk?”

    “No.”

    “Then I’ll carry you.”

    He slung Draven over his shoulder and stormed out as the keep burned behind him.

    Not once did he look back.

    By the time Taranis returned to Emberhelm, Rayne was awake.

    Solaris had removed the collar with Lore’s help shattering it against a carved cairnstone. It took three days of chanting, and a night of fire that refused to go out. Boldolph had offered to chew the thing apart. Morrigan declined the offer.

    Rayne sat in the healing hall, bandaged and trembling. When Taranis entered carrying Draven, the boy’s face crumpled.

    “You got him.”

    “I said I would.”

    Morrigan rushed forward. “Lay him here.”

    Taranis set Draven down gently. Lore began his work, murmuring ancient words. Solaris lit the fire with a whispered flame. Rayne crawled forward and took his brother’s hand.

    “I’m sorry,” Rayne whispered. “I told them everything. They used me. And I still couldn’t save him.”

    “You survived,” Taranis said. “That was enough.”

    Drax entered moments later, axe slung over his back.

    “You went alone.”

    “I didn’t need an army.”

    “You’re lucky I like you, brother.”

    Boldolph huffed from the doorway. “I told you not to go alone. Next time, I’m riding the dragon.”

    Pendragon let out a soft growl as if agreeing.

    “Next time,” Taranis said, “there won’t be a need.”

    That night, they gathered in the Hall of Storms. The Three Houses stood beneath banners newly hung. The thunder-mark of Tempestras, the flame glyph of Ignis, and the silver eclipse of Umbra.

    Rayne, still weak but standing, stepped forward.

    “I was taken when I followed a shadow beyond the border. They said my blood would buy silence. But my silence almost cost a life.”

    Taranis laid a hand on his brother’s shoulder.

    “It is not your shame to carry.”

    “No,” Rayne said, looking around, “but I want to stay. I want to fight. I want to belong.”

    Lore smiled. “Then choose your house.”

    Rayne hesitated.

    Then: “House of the Shadow.”

    Umbra’s banner unfurled behind him.

    Draven, barely upright, spoke next.

    “I never stopped believing we’d meet again. Even when they broke my ribs and chained my hands. I clung to the howl of a wolf I couldn’t see. I thought it was memory. Now I know it was Boldolph.”

    The great wolf-man stepped forward, placing a fist over his chest.

    “You’re one of us.”

    Draven smiled through broken teeth. “Then I choose House of the Storm.”

    The warriors roared their approval.

    Taranis turned to Solaris.

    “We’ve brought them back. But we’re not finished, are we?”

    “No,” Solaris replied. “Not until all chains are broken.”

    Boldolph grunted. “I say we raise a hunt. Take out the last Black Claw den.”

    Drax cracked his knuckles. “Been waiting for that.”

    Lore added quietly, “We’ll need more than swords. The blood magic they used—it’s older than the cairnstones.”

    Taranis nodded.

    “Then we rebuild. We teach. We prepare.”

    He turned to face the assembled tribes.

    “The era of exile is over. The age of the Stormborne rises.”

    And above them, Pendragon howled not in anger.

    But in unity.

    Later, as the fires dimmed, Boldolph stood outside the gates, leaning on his axe like a watchful father. Morrigan brought him stew.

    “You stayed.”

    “I always stay.”

    “Still think about eating Taranis?”

    “Not lately.”

    They laughed quietly.

    “Do you think they’ll ever stop fearing him?” Morrigan asked.

    “No,” Boldolph said. “But that’s not what matters.”

    He turned to her, eyes soft.

    “They follow him anyway.”

  • The Houses of Caernath Part 1

    The Houses of Caernath Part 1

    The Broken Howl.

    The screams echoed off the stone walls of Emberhelm like the wind of old gods mourning. They weren’t screams of pain, but of release centuries of silence and curse unraveling into the night.

    Morrigan collapsed first, the white fur shedding in great clouds that shimmered like frost. Her limbs twisted, reshaped. Bones cracked. Light laced through her as though fire ran in her veins.

    When it was over, she knelt there, naked and human once more. Tall, slim, freckled, her long red hair cascading down her shoulders like the sun had kissed her into being.

    Lore, standing nearby with his hands still outstretched from the spell, stumbled back, exhausted. His voice trembled.

    “It is done.”

    Boldolph did not scream.

    He roared.

    A roar that turned the blood of every warrior in Emberhelm cold. His black fur thickened, but did not fall away. His body bulged with new strength arms growing longer, spine broadening, but the wolf did not vanish. Instead, the man stepped ahead from the beast, and what remained was both.

    A wolf-man. A warrior unlike any other.

    Lore turned to his brothers. “Boldolph chose this. A warrior’s form. His path remains in the hunt, not the hearth.”

    Taranis watched, silent, hand resting on the hilt of his sword. Morrigan, now fully clothed in a borrowed shawl, stepped across the courtyard to a waiting man her husband. They embraced without fear.

    “She’s still loved,” Taranis muttered, half to himself.

    Lore heard him anyway. “And no one fears them now. Not like they did you.”

    Taranis smirked, eyes glinting. “If she wasn’t married, I’d have made her mine.”

    “Careful,” Drax chuckled from behind, sharpening his axe on the stone steps. “You’re a warlord, not a poet.”

    Taranis turned, expression softer now. “He screamed, you know. Our father. The night I was exiled.”

    Lore nodded. “He didn’t know what to do. But he regretted not letting you stay. Mother wept for months. Still wore your wolf bone pendant long after we buried it in the cairn.”

    “Did they know I was alive?”

    “They did.” Lore crouched, drawing a symbol in the dirt. “Boldolph kept them informed. Something about the tribe’s elder being the only one who can hear his thoughts. Said our ancestor lived in you.”

    Taranis gave a dry laugh. “Our ancestor, eh? Boldolph told me that too. Great-grandfather five times back, wasn’t it?”

    Drax’s voice cut in. “Father called to Boldolph when you were exiled. Said the storm had swallowed you whole. What happened out there?”

    Taranis exhaled, jaw tight.

    “Adventure. Hunger. Despair. I was nearly dead when Solaris’s father found me, just beyond Blackclaw territory. They took me in. His father made me a slave, heavy work for little return. I treated his son in exchange for scraps. But Solaris he remembered me. He saw more than a starving boy.”

    Lore rested a hand on his brother’s shoulder.

    “You survived.”

    “I endured,” Taranis corrected.

    He stepped ahead and raised his voice so all gathered hear.

    “Boldolph. Morrigan. Solaris. You are free now. The chains of old curses, of blood debts, and oaths not chosen gone. But I ask you this…”

    He paused, turning slowly.

    “Will you stay?”

    The fire pits roared to life, casting flickering gold over the three freed souls. Solaris stood tall, still bearing the ash-mark of Flamekeeper. Morrigan leaned into her husband’s side, eyes scanning the faces around her. Boldolph’s red eyes flared, unreadable.

    Taranis continued, “There are three houses in Caernath now. The House of the Storm — for warriors and defenders. The House of the Flame for healers, lorekeepers, and seers. And the House of the Shadow for scouts, spies, and those who walk the forgotten paths. Each of you has earned a place, should you wish it.”

    He looked to them, one by one.

    “If you leave, so be it. With my blessing. With food. With horses so the fair lady no longer walks barefoot through bramble. know this: your path and mine will cross again. Whether as friend or foe… that remains to

    A few chuckled.

    “But if you stay…” he added, softer now. “then the food is yours to share, we shall ride and fight together as brothers and sisters.”

    Lore stood beside him, arms folded. “Three houses. Three choices.”

    Drax, ever the blunt one, added, “But don’t take too long to decide. Winter’s hunting season comes fast.”

    Silence.

    Then Solaris stepped ahead.

    “I will stay.”

    His voice was calm, like embers beneath ash.

    “But not as a servant. As a Flamekeeper. As a free man.”

    Taranis nodded once. “Then take your place in the House of the Ignis”

    Boldolph came next, stepping ahead with thunder in his stride. His beast-form loomed, but he knelt low before Taranis.

    “I stay,” he growled. “But not as man. Not as beast. As both. I fight with you. For Stormborne.”

    Taranis placed a hand on the wolf-man’s brow. “House of the Tempestas then.”

    Morrigan stepped ahead last. The crowd held their breath.

    “I have known healing. And fury. And grief. But I choose to give life now, not chase vengeance. I will stay… as a healer.”

    Lore smiled.

    “House of Umbra welcomes you.”

    The wind picked up. Overhead, Pendragon flew a wide arc above the fort, and the sky shivered with promise.

    Taranis raised his voice once more.

    “The Houses are chosen. The bonds are made. The future begins now forged in flame, bound by oath, tempered by storm.”

    And far below, in the silent stones of Emberhelm, the echoes of curses past gave way to something new.

    A howl not of sorrow.

    But of belonging as a mysterious stranger approached.

    “I know to well how brothers can turn on each other ” a voice behind them said one they vafukey recognised

    Drax arched a brow “rayne? Little brother is that you? We thought you lost?”

    Rayne Nodded a thick iron coller around his neck with black claw marking in

    “Who did this ” Tanaris whistles for Pendragon as his brother collapsed through torture and starvation

    “Black Claw they still have Draven”

    “I going to wipe that clan out ” Tanaris said

    “NO YOUNG ONE NOT ALONE” boldolph said

    “Morrigan he’s doing it again can I eat him or Pendragon” Boldolph said seeing the young one Tanaris flying towards enemy land as if to rescue another brother

    Morrigan looked over “he will return now Rayne”. she ordered as Solaris prepared food and she gathered healing herbs.

    post script

    Which House Do You Belong To?
    In the lands of Caernath, every soul has a path.

    Do you crave thunder and battle like Boldolph? You belong to House Tempestras the warriors.

    Do you heal with fire and memory like Solaris and Morrigan? House Ignis calls you the keepers of lore and flame.

    Do you move in shadow, unseen yet ever watchful? Then step into House Umbra where secrets become power.

    🧭 Tell us in the comments: Which house would you choose and why?
    Feel free to share this post and invite others to find their stormbound path.