Blue Bear Tribe

The Blue Bear tribe is a tribe of the Uthgardt barbarians that secretly holds territory throughout the Delimbiyr Vale. Though they were believed to have been completely eradicated, they have persevered through many years of hardship and survived the hardships of the North.

They claim the cairn of Stone Stand as their ancestral mound.

Relationships
As of the late 15th century DR, some of the Blue Bear barbarians have allied themselves with the stone giants of Deadstone Cleft. Among them is Hydia Moonmusk, daughter of the tribe's Great Chief.

History
In 343 DR, a horde of orcs from High Moor overwhelmed the kingdom of Athalantar and drove many of its citizens northward. These refugees would come to be assimilated into the Blue Bear tribe.

In the Year of the Burning Tree, 890 DR, during one of their annual Runemeets the Grandfather Tree tree inexplicably burst into flames. However, it and the forest were somehow left unharmed. Noticing the strangeness of this phenomenon, the tribe's then-shaman began to cut the sole low-hanging branch untouched by flame. As he did so a shadowy male figure garbed in green was said to have emerged from the branch and fled into the forest, with a trail of bear prints left in his wake. The tribesmen followed the trail of this figure and eventually came to an ancient ring of standing stones. It was here that the shaman planted the cut branch of Grandfather Tree and established the ancestral mound of Stone Stand.

Around 1311 DR, an annis hag by the name of Tanta Hagara approached the tribe as their new shaman, coveting the magic artifacts that laid beneath Grandfather Tree. With her bearing the shapechanged form of a beautiful, 8 ft (2.4 m) tall barbaric hunter goddess with deep blue skin and capable of transforming into a blue-furred bear, many believed her to be an avatar of their totem.

Eventually the tribe was banished by the Grandfather Tree's guardian spirits for having grown corrupted by the hag's influence. A significant number of tribesmen would grow to reject the annis and in 1313 DR splintered off into their own tribe, the Tree Ghost Tribe. Thereafter, both tribes devoted themselves to searching for their lost and abandoned ancestral mound.

In 1366 DR, unbeknownst to the tribe, a cambion from Hellgate Keep by the name of Kaanyr Vhok met with Hagara in the High Forest to discuss overthrowing his mother Mulvassyss as ruler of the Keep. Two years later she and the tribe were led by Kaanyr into Hellgate and he slew his mother. In the confusion that followed the tribe's chieftain, Hlutwig Long-throw, who was no more than a puppet to Hagara's whims at that point, was trampled to death in the confusion that followed. With the death of their chieftain, the Blue Bear tribe turned to Hagara as their new leader and Kaanyr wed her to cement their alliance.

During their time allied with the demonic keep the tribe's totem grew weak and was killed by the evil lesser deity Malar. They were also known to conduct raids on the settlement of Jalanthar during this time.

A year later in 1369 DR, two Harpers infiltrated Hellgate under the guise of Blue Bear tribesmen and exposed Hagara's existence as an annis hag, believing this would cause a riot among the tribesmen. But this did nothing to destroy their respect for her, since they viewed the hag's transformation as a gift from Uthgar meant to cement their alliance with Hellgate. They would retaliate by attacking caravans en route to Sundabar and attempting to raid Silverymoon.

Later that year she would lead 400 members of the tribe and over 100 demon allies in an attack on the Citadel of the Mists. An alliance of Everlund, High Forest, and Harpers drove them back and destroyed Hellgate Keep, killing nearly all of the Blue Bear tribe's people. While Hagara herself was slain by the treant Turlang the Great. Some members of the tribe who survived Hellgate's destruction became trapped beneath the keep, doomed to become revenants and zombies whose soul thought was exacting revenge.

Some time after the War of the Silver Marches, a few Blue Bear barbarians emerged from hiding within the High Forest and migrated east. Amidst claiming any territory left ignored by the other tribes, they did all they could to ensure their secrecy. Occasionally they would risk this secrecy to visit their old ancestral mound of Stone Stand, but only under the cover of night.

Around the late 15th-century DR, under the leadership of their chieftain's daughter Hydia Moonmusk, some members the tribe allied themselves with the stone giant Kayalithica and her forces under a shared distaste for civilization. Together they destroyed the settlements of Orlbar and Llorkh.