Annwfyn

Five Facts about the Annwfyn Peoples

• They are not Irish/Scots/Welsh stereotypes. Though the Annwfyn share a cultural history with the Celtic peoples of the British Isles, they are a distinct people and should never be portrayed as parodies of those root cultures; nor do they wear any form of similar cultural dress, with the exception of woad.

• They were first. It is verifiable from historic records that the Annwfyn (alongside the Ruwwad) represent the earliest human settlers of what is now called the Prosperitas Sector. While they are treated as an underclass by the Imperium they have a longer and more ancient understanding of the Sector, of which their space was once known as the 'Annwfyn Freeholds'.

• They have a distinct culture. The Annwfyn culture has had thousands of years, even prior to the rise of the Imperium, to evolve into a distinct branch of humanity with its own cultural traditions, spiritual beliefs and mythic history. Though the majority of Annwfyn also speak Low Gothic, their native languages are the neo-Celtic tongues known collectively as 'Gair'.

• They have a history of resistance against occupation. Under the Regency, and now the Imperium, the Annwfyn have been treated as underclasses in their own Sector for thousands of years. There is an Annwfyn stereotype of stubbornness that is drawn from the fact despite continual occupation, their people have never truly broken and 'accepted' their place.

• They are an oppressed people. Because of their history of resistance, the Annwfyn have experienced oppression from the Imperium, which has largely forbidden Annwfyn cultural practices and suppressed their ability to learn and converse in their native Gair languages.

The History of the Annwfyn People

The Annwfyn predate Imperial colonisation of the Prosperitas Sector by several millennia; they have been present since at least M25, according to the earliest records.

When Imperial forces under the Prosperitas Crusade first arrived in the Sector they drove back the Archenemy forces of the Regency from the worlds they slowly conquered. But on many worlds in what would become Subsectors Primus and Secundus, they found an ethnic underclass oppressed by the Regency elite. These were the Annwfyn, and they are the original inhabitants of much of the sector.

Historical records place the Annwfyn population as originally being spread across most of the spinward regions of the sector, even into the uncivilised reaches of the Rimward Marches and Nemean Gulf. But with the advent of colonisation of Subsector Primus by both the Archenemy, and, since M41, the Imperium, the Annwfyn people have been forced rimward and spinward out of Primus, with Annwfyn majority populations being largely found now in Subsector Secundus. They exist as minority populations on other worlds in the Prosperitas Sector, either where they have migrated or where the greater part of their population has been driven out and replaced by out-sector colonists.

Pre-History

What is recorded here are Annwfyn mythic traditions. This material is not "historical fact", though there may be some grain of truth to it all. Most Annwfyn groups have a version of this myth cycle but it is by no means universal and what is presented here is the most common version of that cycle.

According to the Annwfyn myth cycle the original colonists of the Sector arrived to a region of space, known to them as 'Annwn', in what scribes have suggested is likely to have been just prior to the 'Dark Age of Technology', where humanity's golden age of technological achievements turned upon it. The Annwfyn speak of Annwn as a distinct place, separate to where they now live. In Annwn, according to Annwfyn myth, the people who dwelled there lived forever, enjoying eternal life in the lap of luxury served by tireless servants with metal hearts. The exact cause of the 'expulsion' from Annwn that caused the Annwfyn's ancestors to spread to other worlds varies in different tellings of their myth cycle. Some describe a poisonous jealousy forming in the metal hearts of the servants, causing them to tear down civilisation on Annwn; others speak of a trespass upon the secrets of the rulers of the world, causing them to be cast out.

For whatever reason, the Annwfyn's ancestors spread to the regions of what is now known as the Prosperitas Sector. The worlds which the Annwfyn first colonised are known historically to them as the 'Freeholds' or, more formally, 'The Annwfyn Freeholds'. At this point most Annwfyn myth cycles become decidedly localised to the histories of their worlds, recounting various planetary and regional rulers, famous Kings [Gair: Rí] and Queens [Gair: Banríon] and the historical deeds of folk heroes.

Where most Annwfyn myth cycles re-converge is at the emergence of the High Queen [Gair: 'Ard-Rhiannon'] a fabled female figure who is 'tall as a young oak, towering above her peers', with flame-red hair. This figure, sometimes given the name Gwenhwyfar or Gwenhyfach, exists in most Annwfyn myth cycles as a uniter-figure who, with her 'Silver Host', travelled the worlds of the 'Freeholds' uniting them under her banner. The cause for her quest is at times uncertain; some refer to the sector falling into darkness under the rule of foul 'Haegtes' [translation unclear]. The myth cycles are a little confused about the Ard-Rhiannon's origin. Some refer to her, self-contradicting, as both an outsider to the Annwfyn and one raised amongst them; some say she arose on a world under the rule of 'Cruel Banríon' and one of these 'Haegtes' and rebelled against them, only to fail but escape with the promise to return to save her people.

The myth cycles of the Ard-Rhiannon are varied and immense: this ancient ruler is a popular enough figure for the bardic traditions of the Annwfyn to have thousands of stories about her deeds. Most peak with her uniting the Annwfyn people, and end with her either finding Annwn and retiring there with the promise to return, or being betrayed by an ally or a brother and being sent into exile. All promise her return at some time of immense need. Indeed, the Ordo Hereticus has worked particularly hard to try to exterminate myths of the Ard-Rhiannon, as they represent the most universal rallying points for disparate Annwfyn populations against Imperial occupation.

'Once-and-future' rulers are not uncommon themes found in cultures under Imperial rule; the same myths exist around the God-Emperor Themself on many worlds. It was indeed the initial approach of Imperial Missionaries attempting to convert Annwfyn populations to attempt to encourage them to equate the Ard-Rhiannon with the God-Emperor, and in many Annwfyn populations more successfully assimilated by the Imperium this was successful. Others have had far more trouble accepting this attempt to adjust their mythology to centralise the God-Emperor, not least because the traditional depictions of the Emperor (a benevolent dark-haired and olive-skinned figure in golden armour) clash significantly with the myth-cycles of the Ard-Rhiannon (invariably described as pale skinned, crimson haired, silver-armoured and of a fairly foul temperament even if this is fondly recounted in the myths about her).

How much of these myth cycles are true is not clearly understood. When Jacinta Durovera first found charts suggesting the existence of the Prosperitas Sector beyond the borders of the Gothic Sector, which implied that at some point during the Great Crusade the Sector's existence had been known to the Imperium, but for whatever reason, sometime in the years of the Heresy, contact with it, as well as records of its history, was lost, along with all charts. This means that the myth cycles are the only known historical source for the millenia between settlement and rediscovery.

To the Annwfyn, the departure of the Ard-Rhiannon and end of her myth cycles mark the beginning of the 'Cycles of Occupation', and the beginning of Regency rule over the Prosperitas Sector.

Regency occupation

The history of the Annwfyn during the ten thousand years that the Prosperitas Sector was ruled by the Regency, which venerated the Arch-Traitor Horus and worshipped foul gods, is a bit less intact and clear. This is largely due to the Annwfyn facing similar suppression to that which they face now from the Imperium, making it hard for disparate populations to communicate with each other and create a reliable, 'joined up' record of the occupation of the Prosperitas Sector.

The muddiness of the historical record is worsened by the fact by both the Regency in retreat, and the Ordo Hereticus seeking to suppress knowledge of the Sector's dark past, systematically destroyed records and narratives of this time, meaning that those Annwfyn who have maintained those particular cycles are either dead or too afraid to share their people's narratives.

What little is known is that the upper classes of the Regency were not Annwfyn, though they occupied what was, by then, known as the Prosperitas Sector. The language base used by the Archenemy forces of the Regency was very different to Gair and to the Ruwwad Niquash, suggesting that the Regency began life as traitor servants of the Archenemy from some distant blighted region that turned on the God-Emperor in the Heresy - and that they came to the Prosperitas Sector from outside. Though Annwfyn people and Regency colonists did mingle, these cases were treated with shame by the Annwfyn people as a whole - much as Imperial/Annwfyn pairings are in the modern era, with those Annwfyn who chose to cooperate with the occupiers shunned and no longer considered 'of their people'.

The historic nature of resistance against occupation and the Annwfyn stereotype of stubbornness both come from this era, as Annwfyn began to actively resist both the enforced worship imposed upon them by the heretic theocrats of the Regency and the treatment of their people as slaves by the occupying forces. The earliest roots of the Rising Flame as a movement date back to this era, and this is why many of the Rising Flame's number are of Annwfyn stock.

Imperial occupation

Initially, the arrival of the Imperium was treated with celebration by the Annwfyn. The Imperium, eager to recruit native assistance for their campaigns, was all to happy to present itself as a liberating force to the Annwfyn. It was not until later in the Prosperitas Crusade, when Crusade forces reneged on their promises to Annwfyn units who had fought alongside the Imperials against the Regency, and when the Rising Flame was actively attacked and targeted for extermination by the combined forces of the Ordo Hereticus, Adeptus Arbites and the Crusade that the Imperium began to be viewed as an occupying force.

After Annwfyn populations began to actively resist assimilation into the Imperium, the Imperium answered these attempts with increasing restrictions on Annwfyn freedoms of cultural expression. The first act was to outlaw their shared tongue of Gair, ostensibly to prevent seditious conversations in a language not spoken by their new Imperial superiors, but in truth to begin a process of cultural suppression and forced assimilation. But as these measures proved insufficient, more and more traditional Annwfyn cultural practices were restricted, communities were actively broken up, access to essential services cut off to those expressing Annwfyn culture openly, and perhaps most insultingly, Annwfyn-owned lands and businesses were transferred to newly-arrived colonists or taken over by the Imperial state.

Though as a human population the Annwfyn should have the same rights as Imperial citizens, the suppression of their cultural freedoms means that any Annwfyn wishing to express their ethnic identity is effectively a second-class citizen subject to active oppression by the Imperial state. Even those who are identifiably Annwfyn who choose to assimilate into the Imperium find themselves subject to discrimination thanks to the stereotyping of Annwfyn as 'rebellious', meaning they are often treated with extreme suspicion by their Imperial peers. This is far more insidious then it seems: by actively encouraging this stereotyping, the Imperium knows it actively fans internal tensions between individuals in Annwfyn communities willing to surrender their culture to be part of the Imperium, and those who resist cultural suppression. Such tactics have a proven success rate, as they increase the number of Annwfyn willing to inform on seditious activity within these communities.

Of course, official Imperial policy and how heavily it is implemented are two separate things. Where Annwfyn are in the majority, despite the fact their culture is supposed to be suppressed, it survives, largely because many Planetary, or especially Regional, Governors with Annwfyn populations don't want the frequent riots and civil disobedience that suppression brings. On most planets there is an uneasy pass given to native food, clothing and culture providing the Annwfyn are not 'loud' about it and thus do not draw the attention of Imperial institutions likely to mandate stricter policies. For this the Adeptus Arbites are especially despised by the Annwfyn as they have always been at the front of stricter implementations of cultural imperialism.

Even on worlds where these arrangements exist there will be occasional crackdowns to make a point, or if the natives get 'too loud' about it. This especially goes for speaking in their native tongues, which is actively banned from places of learning by the Imperial state, and has to be taught within the communities. People who do teach Gair often end up imprisoned or worse where they are found out.

Because of Imperial prejudice towards Annwfyn populations, the higher one rises in the Sector Hierarchy, the less likely one is to encounter an Annwfyn and the majority are considered Lowborn. There are some notable exceptions of powerful Annwfyn families and individuals that have assimilated into the Imperium in order to maintain their power, but these families are looked down on by most common Annwfyn who at best no longer consider them to be true Annwfyn, and at worse treat them as traitors to be targeted first when civil disobedience erupts into acts of murder and sabotage.

Recent History

Recent years have seen more and more violent conflicts between militant elements of the Annwfyn community and the Imperium. The Rising Flame has increasingly found a purchase in those communities that continue to resist assimilation and the Imperium in turn has become far stricter in response. There are those who argue against this - for example, members of the Arbites in favour of the Virellian Doctrine who believe stricter enforcement will lead to more civil disobedience - but Imperial policy remains to crack down on the Annwfyn harshly as they become more violent.

This has culminated in the eruption of a mass rebellion and civil war directed by the Rising Flame on Lerwick. This is particularly significant because the Lerwickian population are governed by House Dunkeld, who are one of the few Annwfyn planetary nobles who were permitted to hold their titles by the Imperium. For many more militant Annwfyn, Lerwick is considered to be the flame designed to ignite a rebellion following the failure of the Rising Flame uprising on Korimesta.

For those who have attempted to work with the Imperium, the failure of the Dunkelds to hold down the situation on Lerwick is worrying. Many Annwfyn know that their positions within the Imperium are tenuous at best and the trust they have earned is fragile. They fear that the events at Lerwick may be disastrous for their futures as suspicious Commissars start looking into the ethnic backgrounds of officers from regiments with Imperial populations, and Arbites start to take a closer look at their given names.

Those well-accustomed to the Imperium's paranoia know it only takes one group of rebels to stain an entire people with suspicion and they live in fear of what that will bring...

Annwfyn Appearance

The Annwfyn population is physically diverse, but stereotypes - often reflected in art and depictions of cultural heroes - include light or bright-coloured hair, musical talent (especially singing), and a temperament towards not allowing a challenge to go unanswered. As one might expect of a multi-planetary culture many Annwfyn do not reflect these stereotypes in the slightest - physically one is just as likely to encounter an Annwfyn of any skin tone and hair color. They are a diverse people united by a shared culture not a shared physical appearance.

Annwfyn do not have a traditional outfit; they have been known to favor 'earthy' colours due to their cultural fondness for nature. Where patterns do appear in artwork and clothing they tend to favor fluid knotwork patterns reminiscent of those found in Celtic art in the history of Ancient Terra.

Perhaps the most visible expression of Annwfyn culture is the use of body paint they refer to as woad, bearing no relation in content or use to the now-extinct woad plant of ancient Terra. It is believed that the Annwfyn inherited the word from their ancestors as a term for body paint based on an ancient myth of Terran barbarians who dyed their skin. Woad, to the Annwfyn, is a very different thing. Every family possesses its own mixture for creating woad by tradition, and wearing it is a simple act of pride in one's traditions as an Annwfyn but also in one's family. Though ultimately it is hard to produce a great variety of distinct colours, most Annwfyn will swear blind they can identify their family's pigment at a glance.

Woad comes in many colours; the Annwfyn are not a primitive people, and do know how to produce body paints in all pigments - be those synthesized or naturally occurring in nature. Woad is traditionally applied to the face in the morning in long curling lines and knotwork. Some go to more extensive efforts of painting their entire body, though usually this is when attempting to impress someone one is courting.

Annwfyn Culture

One of the key Annwfyn traditions is storytelling. Bards are the traditional storykeepers of the Annwfyn, responsible for preserving important Annwfyn stories like the Ard-Rhiannon myth cycles noted above. But they fill a vastly wider societal role in Annwfyn communities. With Annwfyn deeply suspicious of Imperial news sources, Bards are often relied on to transmit news as much as to retell ancient stories. They are also community historians, preserving the lives, deaths, births and deeds of community members so they might be preserved for eternity in oral traditions. This has often made Bards the target of the Imperium when cracking down on on Annwfyn culture, but they are not the only storytellers of the Annwfyn. Even if the Bards of a community are arrested or worse, until such a time that a member of the community becomes bold enough to begin gathering those stories again and becomes one of its Bards, generational storytelling, with the oldest present reciting myths and fairytales, and singing, particularly around hearths and campfires, keep the Annwfyn oral traditions alive

Where it comes to more physical expressions of culture among the Annwfyn, unarmed contests of strength and skill such as wrestling, competitive fording of streams and rivers; and a hundred variants of follis played with short sticks on turf pitches are favoured.

Annwfyn spiritual practices tend to be a bit more complex and represent perhaps the most divergent aspect they have had culturally with the Imperium. For this reason these practices have been targeted almost as heavily as their native tongue as they run very contrary to those of the Imperium. These practices, referred to collectively as the Derwydd are a series of traditions of worship that the Annwfyn have maintained for millennia. The Imperium considers Derwyddic practices actively morally hazardous and aggresively seek to stamp them out with severe repercussions for those who failure to comply.

Derwydd practices tend to focus heavily on the hearth and the home, but involves the invocation of several 'hearth spirits' not treated as if they were true deities, but more as aspects of life to be observed and understood - beats of the heart and flares of emotion. Though the Derwyddic Annwfyn have many hearth spirits, there are a few universal ones such as the nature-spirit Isharrah, the forge-spirit Vaule, the violent war-spirit Kaela Khurn, and the hunter-spirit Coernoth that are invoked during Derwyddic rituals. Little is really understood about the Derwyddic traditions as it is a near-extinct practice, but most Annwfyn might breath a blessing under their breath to a familiar hearth spirit for aid in a tough situation. Even those who have come to worship the God-Emperor do so, seeing such spirits as lesser beings to the God-Emperor.

Gair - The Languages of the Annwfyn

The language group of the Annwfyn, called Gair, is outlawed by the Imperium; Low and High Gothic are the official Imperial language on all colonised Annwfyn planets. Speaking any variant of Gair publicly, or teaching it to children, can attract heavy legal penalties. On some worlds, particularly those like Lerwick which suffer from perennial counter-colonial insurgencies, a few words or a line of graffiti is enough for a death sentence. Despite this risk, local populations on many planets have been reluctant to abandon their cultures and the language which goes with them, and view keeping Gair alive as a form of resistance against Imperial oppression.

Naturally, Gair must be taught within the community, the duty often falling to Bards. While Imperial education can be rare for many lowborn citizens it is more widely provided in Annwfyn regions, where Imperial-approved curricula exist to keep young Annwfyn from being educated in Gair within the community. As one can imagine the dangers of teaching Gair are immense, and the penalties more harsh than those for those caught speaking it. Still some risk it, producing teaching materials in order to preserve the language. Because of these restrictions, in many places, especially where Annwfyn populations have more heavily assimilated, Gair is an extinct language reflected only in the names for people and places.

Gair names draw from Celtic populations including Irish, Scots, Welsh, Cornish, Manx and Breton. Common surnames might refer to a clan or tribal federation (for example Mac Aibhne or O Ceallaigh), or may include matronyms or patronyms indicating the individual’s parentage (such as ‘ap Daffydd’); these are often Gothicised by local Imperial administrations, rendering variants (like McEviny, O'Kelly, and Davids) common.

Worlds associated with the Annwfyn

Almost every world in the Prosperitas Sector has some kind of Annwfyn presence, but there are several worlds where that presence is of note because of the part they play in the history of that world, or simply because it is a world with a particularly dense Annwfyn population.

• Kydos - The Annwfyn population of Kydos has all-but assimilated into the Imperium, but their influence on their worlds culture is apparent especially with the thickly accented Low Gothic spoken by the population.

• Midsummer - The Drughu people of Anadûnê, as they call Midsummer, are an isolated primitive offshoot of the Annwfyn who have been actively driven out of their lands by Imperial colonists. Considered hostile to the Imperium, they are not citizens.

• Everholt - Both the 'Gillies' who chose to become assimilated by the Imperium, and the local populace that revolted against it on Everholt, were Annwfyn, though few know what has happened to them in the aftermath of the blockade of the world.

• Helaerus III - Before the arrival of Imperial colonists, Helaerus was a barely-habited world occupied by a few scattered Annwfyn cultures existing in the neglected hive-arcologies now occupied by the Imperium. These populations have welcomed an influx of newly-arrived Annwfyn looking for work and willing to work the dangerous terrain of the death-world forest beyond the cities for the pay the logging guilds give them.

• Kirkcud III - Kirkcud has an extensive Annwfyn population, initially hostile to Imperial occupation until pacified by Warmaster Ulian. Many of the surviving population have been involved in more recent Rising Flame uprisings on the world.

• Lerwick - One of the only worlds with an Annwfyn Planetary Governor, Lerwick has had a tumultuous history of local Annwfyn rebellions that have culminated in its most-recent devolution into civil war.

• Shadowglow - The Raivan abhuman population of Shadowglow are an offshoot of the Annwfyn people, isolated for thousands of years under Regency rule.

Based especially on the primitive Annwfyn Drughu of Midsummer, many Imperial theorists suggest that it is likely that, were the Imperium to push deeper into the Nemean Gulf, further exploration would uncover more worlds occupied by the Annwfyn people - those Explorators curious enough to go in search of the mythical Annwn with all the promises of Dark Age technology abandoned there often assume that it must be somewhere in the Gulf, though none who have gone in search of it have returned as yet.