Fomorians- Celtic RaceRace

From Under the Sea

The Fomorians were already there. While successive peoples took Ireland, the Fomorians never claimed it. They came from beyond the ocean, dwelt on islands off the coast, and retreated into the sea when defeated. In the earliest accounts they are monstrous: Cichol Gricenchos and his followers had single arms and single legs. But Elatha mac Delbáeth wore five gold torcs and was so handsome that Ériu lay with him the night he walked out of the sea onto her shore. Bres, their half-blood king, was the most beautiful man in Ireland. The Fomorians were not one thing.

The Settlers' Wars

Partholón's people fought the Fomorians first, defeating Cichol's deformed host at the Battle of Mag Ítha. The Fomorians survived.

Under Nemed, they grew bolder. Two kings, Conand and Morc, built a stronghold on Tory Island off the coast of Donegal and demanded two-thirds of the Nemedians' children, grain, and milk each year at Samhain. The Nemedians rose against the tower and killed Conand, but Morc brought reinforcements. The sea rose and overwhelmed both armies. Only thirty Nemedians survived, and they scattered to Britain, Greece, and the north of the world.

Blood Ties

The two races were bound by blood. Balor's daughter Ethniu bore Lugh to Cian of the Tuatha Dé Danann. Elatha fathered Bres on Ériu. The war that followed was a family quarrel: Lugh killed his own grandfather, and Bres betrayed the people who had crowned him.

Bres the Beautiful

After the Tuatha Dé Danann defeated the Fir Bolg in the First Battle of Mag Tuired, Nuada lost his arm and could not rule. The Tuatha Dé chose Bres, whose beauty was unmatched, as their new king. He proved a tyrant. He put the Dagda to digging trenches and Ogma to carrying firewood. He offered no hospitality to guests. When the poet Cairpre composed the first satire ever spoken in Ireland against him, Bres was forced to abdicate.

He fled to the Fomorians and raised a host for war. Balor and Indech mac Dé Domnann gathered the Fomorian champions to reclaim Ireland.

The Second Battle of Mag Tuired

The Tuatha Dé Danann and the Fomorians met on the Plain of Pillars. Goibniu forged spears that never missed. Dian Cécht kept a well that restored the dead to fighting strength. The Morrígán shrieked over the battlefield.

Nuada fell to Balor, whose enormous eye killed everything it saw. Four men raised the heavy lid with a polished handle. Lugh broke free from his kinsmen's protection and advanced across the field. As the attendants lifted the lid, Lugh cast a sling-stone that drove the eye through the back of Balor's skull, turning its gaze on the Fomorian ranks behind him. Balor collapsed. The Fomorians broke and were driven into the sea.

Bres was captured. He bargained for his life with the knowledge of when to plow, when to sow, when to reap.