The origins of the Yeti have been the subject of much debate among the Beasts for they kept no records. What we have come to learn of their history comes from the bits and pieces of various sources that includes Beast narratives passed down to us by the Longtails, the oral traditions of the Yeti themselves and other more questionable sources along with various fragments of ancient texts.
One possible, even likely, tale pieced together from these various accounts gives us what is probably the best and possibly most complete history of the Yeti, provided it is, indeed, the truth. Our friends the Anura have often opined that they and the Yeti may share a unique bond, though not in the way one thinks of bonds such as friendships or the like. While friendships have indeed been formed with the Beast Nations and the Yeti in the last few centuries, the Anura have come to believe they may share something more with these mighty warriors from the Alpine snows.
The pieced together history of the Yeti begins during the time of the Mystarchs. There have been many rumors over the millennia that claimed the Yeti had been one of an unknown number of ‘things’ created by the Mystarchs alongside the Anura once the full potential of the Mysterium Primordial was unlocked. Indeed, given what we have been able to piece together, it is quite likely, this ancient rumor might hold more than a hint of truth behind it.
When the Mystarch Al’Idrisi ventured east while searching for the Index to the Enigma Primal, he encountered a civilization known as Kathmand that was said to have been situated in the low mountains of the Pillars of Heaven a bit south and east of what was, even at that time, the Dragon Empire. The Kathmandi were said to be hardy and powerful Beast-like creatures with an affinity to arcane magic and they even claimed to possess an ancient legend hidden within a cave that dated to the Lost Ages.
Excited at the prospects that what lay in this cave might be the Index, Al’Idrisi departed Kathmand, later returning with two of his fellow Mystarchs to investigate the rumors. As is told in that section of the histories, the rumors regarding the cave were true and the ‘legend’ carved on a wall was indeed the Index to the Enigma. However, there is more to this tale than many Beasts know.
Unknown to the Beast Nations of that time who were being cowed by the other Mystarchs under the orders of Zahhak the Mad, Al’Idrisi and his fellows did not return to their mountain fortress, Ikro’Durohelm, alone. It is believed a number, possibly a dozen or more, of the Kathmandi had returned with them. Because the Kathmandi were used to the harsh mountain climates, it is possible a number of them volunteered to return with Al’Idrisi and his companions in the hopes of establishing some sort of friendly relationship with such powerful mages as the Mystarchs.
While we do not know precisely what happened, the fragments of what we have come to know indicates that these ‘guests’ were treated well at first. Eventually, though, with the Mysterium fully unlocked, the Mystarchs brought all the Beast Nations under their rule and Zahhak the Mad sent each of his fellows to lord over their own homelands while, he, himself remained at Ikro’Durohelm as the ruler of them all. This would not bode well for the Kathmandi that, even at this point, still remained as ‘guests’ to the Mystarchs.
When it happened and how it happened has been lost to history, but, it is believed that at some point the Kathmandi became homesick and decided to return home. Zahhak, though, had other plans for his ‘guests’ by this point in time and he had no intention of letting them leave. As the other Mystarchs were being controlled by the mind magic taught to Zahhak by the Dor’kana, any appeals to them, quite likely in a similar fashion to how the commons of the Beast Nations were treated when questioning new ‘rules’, were similarly ignored or casually dismissed.
Zahhak, you see, had found new creatures to experiment on in the Kathmandi, and with the Mysterium now fully unlocked, they would surely not wind up a bloody mess as had been the case with the many Beasts he had experimented on previously. So it was, that, either one by one or all at once, the Kathmandi were rounded up and led to a deeper area of the fortress. It may be that Zahhak used his mind magic to keep his new playthings cooperative or he may have decided to cow them with his power as a mage instead. Whatever the case, none of the Kathmandi visitors would ever return from whence they came.
What torments and tortures they endured at the hands of Zahhak the Mad, Gaia herself only knows. Eventually though, one by one, these Kathmandi were robbed of most faculties save their intelligence and their most base of instincts. The end result was likely a strong and powerful fighter possibly meant to eventually become some form of shock troops for Zahhak’s personal army. From these debased Kathmandi, Zahhak created and bred what might very well have been the first of what we know as the Yeti.
But, hold on dear readers, for another theory has made an even more startling claim. This claim holds that the Kathmandi themselves were, in fact, the true Yeti and the creatures Zahhak had created from some of their number deep within the Mystarchs’ fortress of Ikro’Durohelm, were in reality, merely a variant of Yeti rendered primitive and debased by the Mad Mystarch’s experimentations.
As with Tarchon’s act of creating the Anura, it would seem that Zahhak had managed to create his own ‘servants’ of sorts; though, there is also the possibility that Tarchon himself may have had a hand in Zahhak’s experiments as well in the creation of what would become the Alpine Yeti.
A fragmentary tale of a later account by what might have originally been from an Anura dating to the time of the Beast Empire, but, preserved by the Longtails, tells of various encounters with ‘huge white beasts’ by the, then still enslaved, Anura while serving their cruel master and creator Tarchon in the Mystarch Fortress. This fragmentary story claims that those Anura who were discovered to have learned of these ‘beasts’ were often the next to be selected as sacrifices to their ‘god’ soon after; but, a few Anura managed to keep the fact they knew of the Yeti a secret, full knowing what would happen to them should any of the Mystarchs or Zahhak’s personal army find out that they knew.
Time passed and eventually the Beast Nations rose up against the Mystarchs, overthrowing them one by one. Another fragmentary portion of the previous narrative makes the claim that as the Beasts swarmed the Mystarchs’ fortress, the Anura, who had already taken down Tarchon upon learning their liberation was at hand, warns the invading Beasts of huge creatures that Zahhak kept in the depths of the fortress. This narrative claims that just prior to catching Zahhak the Mad by surprise and capturing him before he could use his mind magic, a few of the Beasts sacking the fortress did indeed cross paths with at least one of these ‘white furred creatures’ but that for some reason it didn’t resist.
Having captured Zahhak and subdued him, the Beasts withdrew from Ikro’Durohelm soon after, taking both the Anura and the incapacitated Tarchon with them. The reasons may never be known, but, in the frenzy of wanting to bring the hated Zahhak the Mad to justice, along with the other Mystarchs, the Beasts never delved further into the fortress and thus, left the Yeti behind to fend for themselves.
Without the Mystarchs to keep a watch on them, the Yeti banded together and somehow found their way out of the fortress. The Yeti claim that their tribes have always been led by a matriarch so it is quite possible that it was one of the older females that led the rest out of Ikro’Durohelm and into the alpine snowdrifts. Rather than heading to the lower elevations from where the Beasts had come, the Yeti chose instead to flee higher into the mountains. It would be here, in the highest of the elevations, that the Yeti chose to settle.
The years plodded on and the Yeti increased in number, splitting into many tribes high up in the alpine mountains that had become their home. While the Beasts of the Covenant prospered under their Overkings, the Mystarch fortress of Ikro’Durohelm was slowly engulfed by rock, snow and ice, eventually being completely buried after a number of centuries and its location was slowly forgotten. Even the Yeti no longer remembered from where they had come and continued to increase in number high up in the mountains. The legendary rumors of ‘abominable snowcreatures’ supposedly living in the glacial alpine snows are said to have originated during the Beast Empire when intrepid Beasts would explore the mountains and thus encounter one or more of the Yeti.
By this time, the Yeti had grown quite territorial and very protective of their demesnes. Thus, anything that shouldn’t be there would be chased away or killed. Centuries more passed and eventually the Yeti encountered a foe unlike anything they had previously known. From beneath the Alps, the Undead hordes led by Shabaka swarmed to the surface from the UnderRealm ready to march to the Carpathians and confront the rebellious Vampires and their Palatine Vinga who had settled there. The Yeti, however, took this invasion of their lands poorly and attacked Shabaka’s forces. This proved a near fatal error as the Undead army almost completely annihilated the Yeti, reducing them to but a few remaining members. Had these failed to escape, the race of Alpine Yeti would have died out in that conflict.
As it was, those few survivors hid in the uppermost reaches of the mountains while the Undead army marched to what would be their doom in the Undead War. The Undead army’s fight with the Yeti, however, revealed to the Vampires the existence of the Yeti and, though the Vampires chose not to go too high into the mountains all that often, every now and then for the next several hundred years the Yeti found themselves facing a group or two of the Bloodkin.
Throughout what we call the Bleakness, the Yeti began to rebound as a race. This was allowed by the Vampires as they saw potential in this new creature of the Alps and did not want the Yeti to die out before they had a chance to capture a few and experiment with them in the hopes of creating yet another new type of bloodkin for their armies. Like the Beasts, the Yeti were viewed by the bloodsuckers as cattle to be bred and fed on. Unlike the Beasts or the Undead, though, the Yeti managed to repel the Vampires for the most part so long as they kept to the highest elevations with only the Vampire Mages giving them trouble.
Eventually, the Vampire predations ceased altogether after many centuries. This, of course, was due to the deeds of Atan and the White Shield driving back the Bloodkin to the Carpathians which ended the Bleakness, but, the Yeti knew nothing of this and were simply satisfied that they were being left alone once more.
For several centuries after, the Yeti kept largely to themselves as before, with only the occasional Beast or Vampire or Undead intruding in their territories from time to time. Unfortunately, a new enemy came on the scene that greatly changed things for the Yeti – Man. Seemingly almost as primitive as the Yeti but without their thick fur, the race of Man, borne from the cursed Dog Soldiers who broke Gaia’s Covenant with her Beasts, would prove to be far more than a match for the Yeti in spite of their appearance.
As the Age of Legend waned and Man increased in number, the Yeti found themselves numbered among those who would fight for territory with this creature who seemed to be able to live just about anywhere due to his striking ingenuity. Soon, the Bitter War was fought with nearly every creature on Earth and not even the Yeti escaped that conflict. At the end of that fight, as with every other opponent Man faced, the Yeti population had been decimated and only a few survived.
With the dawning of the Age of Man, what we know of the Yeti during this time comes from their own accounts. The Yeti, like every other creature be they Dragon, Vampire, Undead or Feral hid from the might of Man as he rose to his ascendancy and dominion of Earth, fleeing into the deepest caves in the highest elevations and only occasionally ventured out. Eventually, the Yeti became nothing but rumor and legend to Man, who called them “the abominable snowman” – likely a veiled or mostly forgotten memory of that earlier name given them by the Beasts many millennia past.
After Man destroyed himself and the Beasts were returned to Earth, the Yeti also re-emerged from their own hiding places in the Earth and began to resettle the upper elevations of the Alps in a region we know as the Winter Shelf, said to be near to their ancient home. For the next several centuries the Yeti increased in number once again and split into new tribes led by their matriarchs.
Then, several centuries ago, it happened.
On one of the slopes high in the alpine mountains, a massive avalanche cascaded down the mountainside as the ground gave way. This avalanche exposed a massive structure that had been buried for millennia upon millennia. It would be nothing less than Ikro’Durohelm, the long lost fortress of the Mystarchs.
Now, during that time, there were several Yeti tribes that lived in that area of the Alps. Among them were four tribes in particular: The Fen Murg, The Han Murg, The Tun Murg and the Thun Murg. These four tribes, collectively referred to as simply ‘The Murg’ tribes were among the first to investigate the strange new structure that seemed to appear out of nowhere. Being the first of the tribes on the scene, the Thun Murg began to explore the now-exposed fortress. Remarkably preserved and practically intact, Ikro’Durohelm once more loomed on the side of the mountain where the Mystarchs once held dominion over the Beasts, mainly of Europe.
Inside the fortress, the Thun Murg tribe of Yeti began to make unexpected discoveries, for the very walls of Ikro’Durohelm were steeped in powerful magics from long ago. Many believe these magics were among those used by the Mystarchs after they unlocked the Mysterium Primordial. Thus, they were truly powerful magics indeed. Seizing an opportunity, the Thun Murg decided to settle in the ancient keep and make it their home. The other Murg tribes soon followed the Thun Murg to Ikro’Durohelm, but, by this time the Thun Murg had already begun to discover many secrets held within the ancient fortress.
It wasn’t long before something new began to be noticed in the Thun Murg, for the powerful magic emanating from the frozen keep had caused the members of the Murg to… change. As if awakening from a many millennia slumber, the Thun Murg quickly figured out how to understand and tap into the magic that was practically flowing from the very walls of Ikro’Durohelm. This new knowledge and understanding in the Thun Murg tribe began to cause a rift to appear between them and the other three Murg tribes that had settled in the fortress.
Eventually, as more members of each Murg tribe delved deeper into Ikro’Durohelm and tapped into greater and more dangerous magic, the four Yeti tribes completely fractured. Competition over this magic or that magic proved that the Thun Murg were indeed evolving at a much more rapid pace in relation to the members of the other Murg tribes. Soon civil war brewed as the other Murg Yeti found themselves unable to reconcile their growing differences and adapt to the Thun Murg tribe’s rapid evolution. Those Yeti who tried to derail the inevitable conflict quickly found their efforts to be futile.
Finally, knowing that a future of conflict awaited them if they stayed, the splintered Murg Yeti tribes abandoned their ancient home of Winter Shelf and headed to the lower elevations of the Alpine mountains in the hopes of seeking out new lives among the Beasts of Europe. The Beasts were hesitant at first to accept the former Murg Yeti; however, upon being told of the growing threat from their kin high in the mountains and of the fortress Ikro’Durohelm, the Beasts decided to give these Yeti a chance. Later on, other Yeti tribes would follow the Murg tribes to the lower elevations of the Alps; however, not all of these would prove peaceful.
Now, several centuries later, the Yeti descendants of the Murg tribes have fully integrated into Beast society in Europe and many are the Beasts who are happy to count them as close friends and allies. From the high reaches of the mountains come the Yeti who split from their power-mad kin to join the Beasts. An angry Yeti is to be feared, for many employ both strength and magic to defeat their foes.
Original SPM version:
The Thun Murg, long ago, discovered and settled a lost alpine fortress of the ancient Mystarchs -- Ikro'Durohelm. Over a short time, powerful magic emanating from the icy keep caused the Murg to... change. As more Murg delved the depths of Ikro'Durohelm and tapped greater, more dangerous magic, the four Yeti tribes fractured. Civil war brewed as the Yeti found themselves unable to reconcile their differences and adapt to the Thun Murg's rapid evolution. Those who tried to derail the inevitable conflict found their efforts futile. So, knowing a future of conflict awaited them if they stayed, the splintered Yeti tribes abandoned their ancient home of Winter Shelf to seek out new lives among the Beasts.
From the high reaches of the mountains come the Yeti who split from their power-mad kin to join the Beasts. An angry Yeti is to be feared, for many employ both strength and magic to defeat their foes.
| The Ursine | Return To Races |