A Tribe Called Broken Rock - Chapter 00 - An Introduction.
Story by ATribeCalledBrokenRock on SoFurry
Prologue for "The Tribe of Broken Rock"
For the first time in history the lands belonging to the great minotaur tribes were open, and the great Capital College has eagerly dispatched it's scholars to learn of these bull-men and their mysterious, unseen culture.
In charge of keeping records on the tribe known only as Broken Rock is the young scholar Alfied "Alfie" Brandt, a mousy, bookish boy scholar who's about to see just how much he can learn about himself, and his fragile heterosexuality, from these hulking, dominant beast-men.
Allow me to explain and contextualise what you are about to read.
I am 20 years old, and I am a protégé scholar at the Great Capital College, under-classing in the department of non-human anthropology, where I am majoring in cultural studies under my instructor Lady Matilda Bernheart.
My name is Alfied Brandt, but Lady Matilda, calls me “Alfie." I like that nickname, it's cute, I am glad she gave it to me; so as you read these many papers please think of me by that name. It's easier this way anyway, people always spell it wrong or misunderstand me and think my name is “Alfred" or some such, so to save everybody the headache I just call myself Alfie.
What you are reading is my graduate thesis, my grand record and journal of my time studying here. A raw stream of consciousness as a first hand source sent back to the Capital College so it can be used as a record of the culture and customs of the Grand Tribe of Broken Rock: the second largest of the three great Minotaur tribes.
First of all I must give my gratitude and thanks to my instructor, Lady Matilda who gave me this opportunity, few students, if any, get the chance to be sent by their instructor to a study such as this. Fewer still are allowed by their instructor to publish their findings as their own thesis! So thank you so much Lady Matilda for not only giving me this opportunity, but for using your own gold to pay for my trip, and organising this all on my behalf.
Even if I had the resources and time to go to this tribe I couldn't have even organised it. My knowledge of the Bovinian language is better than most but it's no doubt lacking the nuance I am sure it took to convince the Chieftain of Broken Rock to allow me to stay and research. Her weeks of scroll sending are the only reason I am in this carriage headed North at all, so thank you!
To give some context for this trip, the lands to the North East of this great continent of Narvaron have always been the domain of the Minotaur. As far as we knew it never had any concrete ruler like a king or emperor, if we are correct in our assumptions it's likely because they never had a tribe or clan strong enough to conquer the whole region. If one clan grew too strong the others would simply team up to take them down.
The Minotaur were always distrustful of outsiders, but they allowed humans and elves into their lands to visit and sell. We have much evidence of their culture from centuries ago when trade was known to have occurred. Trade made up the bulk of the interactions with the Minotaur.
But alas, this changed when the White Plague came. All of Narvaron was effected by the plague of course, you don't need me to tell you that. But the plague was particularly catastrophic for the Minotaur. It decimated their numbers to such a degree that for the first time their tribes stopped fighting and united for the first time. Forming what we call the “Tribunal." Their first Grand Chieftain: Herrenval Ironmuscle was allowed the prestige to guide all his kin by a tournament of course, where he proved himself the strongest. His first and most infamous order as their new leader was to slam the borders to the Minotaur realms shut, for good. To patrol the borders to their homes with fierce warbands and execute any trespassers and outsiders on sight. A brutal regime for a desperate time. It did work though, as far as we know, which explains why the borders have stayed shut for so long. What is important is that this has been the state of their lands for almost a hundred years straight. Locked borders, and sudden violent raids into nearby towns to kidnap women and elves. The message was clear to us as outsiders, we weren't welcome in their home.
But the century passed and here we are, this auspicious year. We aren't entirely sure the circumstances just yet, but there appears to have been some kind of civil war and the Clan Ironmuscle has been deposed. We don't know the details, all we know is that the patrols and raids ended almost a year and a half ago, and last month scroll was sent by a Minotaur by the name of Dalmuth Stonegut who appears to be the new Grand Chieftain, saying that the era of isolation is over and his kin are willing to trade again. The kingdoms of man and elves even got gifts of goodwill which were apparently to act as apologies.
The effectiveness of silver coins and gemstones to soothe the wounds of decades of violent patrols and raids to kidnap human and elf women remains to be seen of course.
But here we are, the third day of spring. I have been on the road for a day, riding by carriage North East to their lands under the instruction of Lady Matilda. The roads are not so...existent the closer one gets to their land. So this carriage will only get me so far, once I get closer I will have to travel by foot for three days to reach Broken Rock. It will be gruelling but I have prepared for this for weeks, and it is spring so the dangers of crossing will be limited, I have plenty of rations and I will be following a river most of the way, I don't foresee any particular danger, as far as journeys go honestly this is quite the cake walk. I will try to keep my records updated each day of travel, as to make sure there is no gaps in my journal.
I regret to say that these entries as I travel will be sparse on details of the Minotaur as I will mostly be journal keeping to keep my mind sharp as I travel. Please forgive me for this, Lady Matilda says the key to a good journal and record is to keep it honest, as tempting as it is to lie to the reader, use the page as a gateway, allow the reader to see your mind and thoughts as if they were their own. She says it's because it's better to show your biases and emotions in your journal than not, so that way if your irrationalities obscure reality, the reader can determine that themselves, and of course your experiences can be cross referenced with any past or future journals.
Plus Lady Matilda says that a journal with personality and opinion, internal monologue and thought just makes for a more interesting and entertaining read, which I agree with. The Gods know how many hours I have spent reading and digesting journals that read as dryly as hard-tack.
Regardless, I hope this journey is as enlightening for you as it will be for me, dear reader. I don't know how, but something tells me this trip will teach me more about myself than I could imagine. Maybe that's just magical thinking but...I have a hunch it might just be truer than I can imagine.
~Alfied “Alfie" Brandt.
(Chapter art by the lovely and talented LokiKaze!)
Hi everybody! Thank you so much for reading the prologue for A Tribe Called Broken Rock! I hope you enjoyed and are excited to embark on this big gay romp with Alfie!
This story was actually uploaded already to Hentaifoundry and Fur-affinity last night but I was pointed to this site as a superior place to upload material and I absolutely agree with that one, uploading to Furaffinity's clunky and archaic formatting is a real pain in the butt, having a real rich text editor is a breath of fresh air indeed!
Anyway I hope you stick with us on the journey, if you enjoy the story please make sure to follow me and fav me here and follow me on twitter for updates on the chapters as they come along!
Thank you so much again for the read!
_ ~"Broke" _