Openarm Clan

"Everybody has something that someone else wants. Food, furs, tools, these are simple things to trade one for another.
The things I want, safety, warmth, and prosperity for every generation that is to come, these are not things that can be traded for. These are things that take all the lifetimes that came before me and all the ones that will come after.
These things take good ideas and big dreams. These things take the knowledge and skills of every clan united."

— Tradeleader Vol

All Are Welcome

While it is incredibly uncommon for people from the Boilbloods, Cavehands, Longtooths, or Nightwalkers to leave their clan and join another one of them, much more frequently people will join the Openarm Clan. This makes them a clan of diverse skills, beliefs, and traditions; some of their traditions are even based on those from other clans - brought by members that joined long ago - that have since abandoned them.
The territory of the Openarms is located in the central part of the Greatvalley and overlaps with that of all the other clans but heavily overlaps with that of the Nightwalkers. Despite this potential cause of conflict their relations remain good with most clans, save the Boilbloods.
Resources within the Openarm clan are never denied to those who need them but more than within the other clans they are exchanged between members instead of handed out based on need or divided as chosen by a specific individual. Trade is even more common within the Openarms as it is between them and the other clans.

Life in the Openarm Clan

"We appreciate your commitment to the ways that have kept you alive through the longcold but this is a new time and we need new ideas."

— Tradeleader Vol

Babies born in the Openarm Clan receive body paint markings from important members of the community each representing a hope for the child. Common markings include those to grow up strong, to be healthy, to be brave, and to live long, among others. After the marking ceremony, the mother and child are given quiet time to relax and recover while those close to them go out on a hunt.
The young are often taught by the older children except when some specialized training is given by an adult or elder. This builds bonds between the children of the community who may look different, sound different, and be from different clans.
The teens and adults perform the more difficult tasks such as hunting and going on trading trips. These trading missions take them all around the Greatvalley and while they may not take as many steps as the hunters of other clans who hunt the same grounds over and over again, they do travel much farther.
Elders are often involved in trading if the journey is not too long and are also responsible to teaching the stories of the clan to the young and with watching over children.

A Love Forbidden

The first members of the Openarm clan - before it even had a name - were a woman from the Boilblood Clan and a man from the Nightwalkers. She was shunned by her family for not following their traditions by following her feelings and joining with an outsider and he was hated for playing into a seer's prophecy of destruction that would be brought about when "the lovers from two become one".
The Boilbloods sent her three brothers to retrieve her and they searched for many days and many nights in the dead of winter before they were caught in a snowstorm. They found shelter in a lone longhorn-skin tent before they were lost forever; inside that tent they found their sister and the man who stole her from them. She achieved a miracle by stopping the fight and when the clouds parted two brothers remained wanting to be free of the strict rule of their family; only the oldest brother returned to his clan - perhaps only out of a sense of obligation.

"Our two favourite things are responsibility and liberty."

— Tradeleader Vol

Clan Relations

When the first members of the Boilblood Clan left to join the Openarms the relationship between the two was trapped on a long path of hatred and violence. The Openarms will pay tribute to the Boilbloods to secure the use of the outskirts of their territory but few will even speak to each other.
The Cavehands do not seem to want to spend any more time than necessary interacting with the Openarms and say no more than is required but neither clan is openly hostile to the other. This quiet relationship has resulted in a strong trading partnership and the permission to freely move through the territory of the other.
The Longtooth Clan and the Openarms have very different views of how to live and very different traditions but outbreaks of violence between the two have become increasingly uncommon. The two clans have settled into a tense trade relationship.
As the Openarms share much territory with the Nightwalker Clan, the two groups often interact with each other. This relationship - while not without some rough moments in the past - is the most peaceful and beneficial of any two clans.

Outside Views

Members of other clans see the Openarms are quite friendly as they are seemingly always willing to trade. The other way they are viewed is as a group of misfits, people from other clans who were forced to leave and banded together; people who did bad things or couldn't keep up.