I come from a land far to the south of that which most are familiar with. It is a harsh land, a hostile desert where survival is dependant upon one's tribe. The tribe feeds you, clothes you, lets you survive... and you do your part. Unfortunatly, multiple tribes often meet and battle over the few scant resources of that desert, and my story is, I am sure, similiar to many other souls eventually lost to the desert. My tribe was defending water, a rather substantially sized lake, and fell in the attempt. As hostile as the desert is, enemy tribes are even worse, and my tribe was slaughtered to the last child. I know not how I survived, or even why... perhaps the Gods smiled upon me, perhaps it was sheer dumb luck and the enemy mistook me for dead, but I remember only watching my fiancee slaughtered, and wanting to live no more. For the several months after that, I have no memory. I assume I survived alone in the desert, a feat which I have heard no other being accomplish. I also assume I roved, in the direction I now know must have been north, because I do remember, distinctly, seeing, for the first time in my young life, trees. It was the trees that drew me towards the city of Kugnae, and when the town first sprung out of the wilderness at me, I can't even begin to describe the feelings it evoked. After entering the forest, and enjoying a daily feast of rabbit and squirrel meat, I was starting to feel like my life was worth living again. My memory was scanty, only a few childhood precious moments, and the terror after the loss turned into slaughter, but I was learning to survive in the forest, and the more I survived, the more I remembered my previous skills. The talent to call the elements, ice to freeze, fire to burn, returned to me, and I was steadily living off the wilderness, a veritable paradise compared to the lean desert. Having avoided the few farmers and wanderers I had seen in the forest, coming up to the walls of Kugnae, hearing the low roar that is a city of people, I was completely unprepared. My first instinct was to flee, but I was compelled. I was originally a scholar, a student of lore, or as much of one as one could be, when one's only books were those bought off the occasional passing merchant. But here was a city, here was learning. I had no family, no tribe, nothing familiar, and while I was able to survive, life without a purpose is worthless. Thus, I ventured into Kugnae, the city in the forest, in hopes merely of finding a book or two, and then finding a way to earn it, if not to outright steal it. I had survived the desert, I had made peace with forest, and I lost throughly to the city. City dwellers do not make conversation with those clad only in rotting animal skins, and I was not welcome even in the meanest tavern, much less among the erudite. Fire cannot solve the problem, as killing humans would only get myself killed in return, and I had come so far. My skills were useless, and the set I needed, of how to interact with these strange people, completely beyond my ability to achieve. I would not quit, and I could not proceed. And, thus depressed, I slumped beneath a tree near the northern gate, in plain sight of the city watchman, so as not to be mugged (though I had nothing of value), and dozed off. I had a strange dream, sleeping beneath that tree. A dream of a war, and a great burning, and the fleeing of a people. The story seemed so familiar to mine own, yet mine lacked a quality that formed the entire substance of this one. The people in the dream stuck by each other, even as they watched their houses burned and way of life destroyed. They defended each other before themselves, as often as not at the cost of their own lives, and retreated en masse, leaving no living person behind.

At first I thought I was witnessing something very similar to my tribe back home (I say witnessing, for at some point in my subconcious, I had realized that this was a telling, of either past or future, and not merely an ordinary dream), but then I realized that this group did not act like a tribe at all.  In their fighting, their lifestyle, they moved as equals, never asking for glory, never too proud to retreat, always valuing the human life first.  My tribes of home operate on a distinct heiarchy, and one is expected to defer to the ones above him, and be obeyed by those below him.  No such order existed in this group.

The dream continued, and their numbers dwindled, until the rout became complete, and the survivors fled.  I awoke to find an impressive man standing over me, a man of massive frame, clad in full armor and wearing a brilliant blue blade at his hip.  I recognized him immediatly as one of the survivors from the dream, and then I knew it must have been the story of this man's group, this man's tribe.  He spoke not a word, simply offered me his hand, and helped me to stand.  A curt "follow" led me away from the tree, and to a small room filled with books, watched over by a kindly old man named Oda.  I remember the name quite clearly, for though the bookkeeper spoke seldomly, his was the first introduction I had since the desert.  The warrior questioned me first, in short phrases about my occupation and way of life, and as his curt manner descended into a rough friendliness, I found myself telling him the whole story, everything I remembered.

He interrupted me when I began describing the dream, with the following speech.
"When I found you sleeping beneath our family tree, I knew that we must somehow grow to know each other, but it seems I will need very little introduction.  My history, you know, it is that which you are describing.  My name is RCMP, and I am the head of that 'tribe' which you struggle to find a name for.  I will provide it for you, the word which you need much more than you need the books you merely desire, or the food which connotates mere survival.  The word is 'Family', and mine is known as the Can-Nuk family.  Come, you may meet my family."

I followed him then, and have since never stopped.  Perhaps it is more accurate to describe RC as "First among equals", or simply "A leader when people need led", or perhaps my view of him is simply skewed because he was the first I met, but I do know that loyalties lie, now and forever, with the Can-Nuk family.  They took me to live among them, and eventually counted me one among their number... and I have never been happier in my life.