The Clans

{Wolf Clan}The Wolf Clan is a Clan. The Wolf Clan is a nomadic Open Forest Clan, and moves camp every few days. All members of the clan have shaved temples stained with earthblood (ochre), which they started when they realised their mage.

Members of the Wolf Clan have a tattoo which looks like two dotted lines on either cheek.Wolf Clan members also have yellow eyes, like those of a wolf. These are achieved with something the Wolf Clan Mage puts in their drinking wate

{Raven Clan}The Raven Clan is an Open Forest Clan. They are one of the main Clans in the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness, often featuring in the books and with many of their members often deeply involved in the storyline. Members of the Raven Clan have. Members of the Raven Clan have tattoos which look like three straight blueish-black lines on either cheek

{Viper Clan}The Viper Clan is a Clan which migrates through the southern part of the Open Forest. They belong to the Open Forest Clans. Their Clan Tattoo exists out of three vertical lines

{Willow Clan}The Willow Clan is a Clan which migrates through the Open Forest. They belong to the Open Forest Clans and are friendly towards the Raven Clan. Their Clan Tattoo exists out of three leaves, making it look as if they are always frowning

{Otter Clan}The Otter Clan is a Clan that lives a bit past the south shore of Lake Axehead. They are described as normally being laid back and cheerful people, although in Outcast they are withdrawn and hostile. They leave many offerings to the Lake, and are very respectful toward it.


Their clan tattoos are wavy vertical green-blue lines on their throats. They are described as small and lithe, with "fierce green faces". They use small boats made of reeds to hunt fish.


In Outcast, the first Otter Clan hunters described have faces painted with green clay. Typically, the sacred clay, which comes from a healing spring normally forbidden to outsiders, is only used to "protect the sick and dying". During the summer, they wear sleeveless tunics made of woven grass or fish skin. The leader wears a bracelet of otter fur, although the rest of the clan wears their clan-creature fur hanging from their ears. Often they wear a mantle of beaver fur to keep dry.



Their camp is a series of platforms built above the water, connected by narrow walkways, including one that leads to the lake's shore. There are shelters in the form of huts built on the platforms. To reach the platforms from a boat, one must climb a ladder

{Seal Clan}The Seal Clan is a Sea Clan. Their clan guardian is the ringed seal. The clan resides on an island in the sea called Seal Island. North of it lies Cormorant Island and Kelp Island, both of which have clans living on them, Cormorant Clan and Kelp Clan respectively, both are Sea Clans as well. The Seal Clan features prominently throughout the book Spirit Walker, after Torak is captured by its members - Bale (who turns out to be Torak's kin), Asrif, and Detlan, in their skinboats. The Seal Clan also appears at the start of Oath Breaker, and in Outcast.

{White Fox Clan} The White Fox Clan are one of the Ice Clans from the Far North. They assist Torak and Renn, to help them find the Soul Eaters. The clan are reluctant at first, and want to take them back to the forest where they belong. However, Inuktiluk realises how important it is to them, and helps them get away to the Eye of the Viper . The Clan also turned out to have known Fin-Kedinn in the past, on his travels to the Far North. People there are nice and friendly, they provide Torak and Renn with food and shelter, despite seeing them as outsiders. Inuktiluk helps Torak and Renn against a white bear, just after the white fox appears, which is fed and seen as a warning.


Because they live in the Far North with no forest to break or slow the wind, they have fear and respect for the wind. They build figures made of stones out in the open tundra with hide tied to the arms, to honor the wind. To survive they use many of the tactics that the Far North animals use: they dig snow shelters when needed, they line their sleeping sacks with eider duck feathers (as the eider duck lines their nest with their feathers) and like the Ice Bear they eat their meat raw. They (Inuktiluk) insist that to survive the harsh conditions in the Far North, they must be fat like the animals that live there.

When traveling they rub blubber onto their faces, presumably to keep warm or prevent ice from blowing onto and cutting their faces. They live on the shore ice during the winter and hunt seals, from which they obtain meat for themselves and their sled dogs, blubber and clothing.


They use harpoons to kill them quickly and stitch the dead animals' wounds shut so as not to waste the blood, which would be breaking the Pact with the World Spirit. After a kill is made, the carcass's muzzle is dipped into the water to allow the seal's souls back into the Sea, where it is believed they will be given a new body by the Sea Mother.


The White Fox camp and shelter consist of one large domed shelter made of blocks of snow, with three smaller shelters connected to it by tunnels. The entrance tunnel is not high enough to stand in, and is built in a slight zig-zag shape to keep the wind out. The clan members' possessions are hung on racks made of whale bone.

Rather than making wood fires (they can't, as there are no trees on the ice), the White Fox Clan uses lamps made of seal blubber for light. Instead of being governed by a single leader, the clan has four elders that make decisions. They store food in niches which are cut into the walls. They sleep on platforms too, obviously to keep them from freezing. When out in the open, they wear visors made of bone with slits cut for the eyes, to protect against snow-blindness.

In the winter months, instead of carrying their newly dead far from camp like the Forest clans, the White Foxes keep the corpses in the shelter until spring, so the foxes don't eat them and to prevent them from being left out, as Tanugeak says; she adds that their dead enjoy chatting just as much as they themselves do. 

{Boar Clan}The Boar Clan is an Open Forest Clan. They wear boar-tooth necklaces and plain buckskin clothing with rawhide boots. They move camp less often than other clans.

{Salmon Clan}The Salmon Clan is an Open Forest Clan. They have a "sinuous" tattoo on one cheek. They have fish bones braided into their hair, and often their clothes are made of fish skin 

{Bat Clan}The Bat Clan are a Deep Forest Clan. They take a minor part in Oath Breaker, and the most well known member is Nef. She was a Soul-Eater who featured only once in the series, in the book Soul Eater.
 In the end of Soul Eater, Nef sacrifices her life to shatter part of the fire opal in order to 'repay a debt' to Torak's father. She seemed a little hesitant to harm others and ended up helping Torak. In the end, Torak's opinion of her changes slightly. Their tattoo consists of   black thorns  on the chin.