Clan creation in Six Ages determines your starting resources as well as your clan's mythic heritage—the skills your people are best at, the myths and blessings you know, and of course how many cows you have.

Your ancestors will expect you to carry on their traditions and their values; they'll bless you for doing so and curse you for doing the opposite. This applies mainly to how you treat your ancestral enemy and whether you have a tradition of adopting outsiders or not.

Your choices in Clan Creation are recorded in your Saga, before the first year of play. You can also check out your Story Tent (actually a text summary and translation of the emblems) in the Lore tab; it goes into a bit more detail.

And it's worth shaking things up in subsequent playthroughs—some of these choices get referenced surprisingly often, so it adds a bit of variety to the game.

In your clan's most ancient history, did they revere the regal sun or the nurturing earth?

• Emperor Yelm, shining above the Golden Empire.
  You start with a shrine to Yelm's son Elmal providing Protection (fewer wounds in battle)
  
  
• Nyalda, the great Earth Mother, whose
  bounty made sure no one was ever hungry.
  You start with a shrine to Nyalda providing Crafting (more trade goods)

The obvious result of this choice is the shrine/blessing you start with. Both are decent, though I prefer Nyalda's Crafting and would recommend her for a first run. (Both because I think it's marginally more useful—especially early in the game—and because while you'll be sacrificing to Elmal a lot no matter what, if you have Nyalda's most useful blessing right out the gate you don't necessarily have to sacrifice to her at all.)

(It also has an impact on the ritual you start with—see section 5 for details.)

But if you replay the game, I'd really recommend shaking things up here—this choice comes up enough that I do think it adds a bit of replay value to choose Yelm sometimes instead.

Which famous event of the gods did your ancestors support?

• The Milk Gift of Busenari, the Cow Mother.
  
  • Incidentally, this refers to the divine gift
    of lactose tolerance.
    
  • You know Busenari's Milk Blessing,
    which grants extra food.
    
  • The ritual Busenari Light Finder will be easier.
    
  • Your clan members' Food skill will
    increase faster.
  
  
• The Battle of Akashar, when shining Elmal saw through the stratagems of the Changer.
  • You know Elmal's Steadfast blessing,
    which aids you in defensive battle.
    
  • The ritual Elmal Path Guardian will be
    easier.
    
  • Your clan members' Combat skill will increase faster.
  
  
• Seventeen Banner Camp, when wise Relandar advised Khorlavus how to ally the bird riders.
  • Certain ritual paths are easier.
    
  • You know Relandar's Advice blessing, allowing your leaders to give better advice than their skills warrant.
    
  • Your clan members' Diplomacy skill will increase faster.
  
  
• When Buseryan engraved the first ledger tracking the planets in motion.
  • Certain ritual paths are easier.
    
  • You know Relandar's Clan Lore blessing, helping with Lore tests.
    
  • Your clan members' Lore skill will increase faster.
  
  
• When Erissa first sang the Bone Mending Ballad for Keskor Breng.
  • Dealings with Erissa's followers are easier.
    
  • You know Erissa's Healing blessing, allowing clan members to recover from wounds faster.
    
  • Your clan members' Magic skill will increase faster.
  
  
• The Grain Contest of Erkonus, where the barley goddess Pela prevailed over millet and beezil.
  • No, I don't know what beezil is and neither does anyone else.
    
  • Certain ventures (Clear Fields, Convert Pastures to Fields) are easier. (Note: These ventures can't fail per se, but they must be done and a poor showing dings clan mood. So choosing this gives you an indirect mood bonus, basically.)
    
  • You know Pela's Bless Barley, granting extra food
    
  • Your clan members' Food skill will increase faster.
  
  
• The Brass Bazaar, where Ekarna acted as broker between Nida Mountain and Genert's Garden.
  • The ritual Ekarna Four Trader will be easier.
    
  • You know Ekarna's Market blessing, granting extra goods.
    
  • Your clan members' Bargaining skill will increase faster.
  
  
• When the Werris Mur joined us as citizens.
  • Certain ritual paths will be easier.
    
  • You know Nyalda's Cooperation blessing, which aids in performing ventures.
    
  • Your clan members' Leadership skill will increase faster.

The stat boost associated with this choice is actually fairly subtle. Either Combat or Bargaining is a solid choice to make your entire clan better at, as those help with exploration. For the record, though, Magic is by far the hardest skill to level, so might be the best skill boost to take—but that's without taking the rest of this choice's ramifications into account!

Cooperation is another decently useful blessing from Nyalda; again, the benefit to knowing it to begin with is that you don't need to sacrifice to Nyalda. (I think that if you take the Werris Mur famous event, you should also pick Nyalda as your first god—that way you start with a shrine and two blessings, so you can switch to Cooperation before each venture, then switch back to Crafting after.)

Other useful blessings you can pick up here include Busenari's Milk Blessing, Elmal's Steadfast, and Erissa's Healing. Pela's Bless Barley is also nice, but since it's Pela's only blessing it's very easy to get through sacrificing—the others require some trial and error to learn.

The ventures Pela's event helps with are probably those that involve clearing new fields—you have to repeat these regularly and, while they can't be failed per se, a poor result results in a mood ding. So choosing Pela will sort of give you an indirect mood bonus.

Elmal Path Guardian, Busenari Light Finder, and Ekarna Four Trader are all relatively easy rituals. However, Elmal Path Guardian has several points where failure tends to kill your quester, while failure at the other two isn't usually as devastating.

Elmal Path Guardian is especially useful if you're playing at a high difficulty (with reduced relations and more raids against you) or intend to raid a lot. Busenari Light Finder is something you'll want to run regularly throughout the game to keep your pastures and thus your herds viable. Ekarna Four Trader is the least vital of the three.

What was the worst danger your ancestors faced?

• Trolls fled the Underworld to the surface darkness. Always hungry, they tried to devour the herds.
  Your ancestral enemies are the trolls.
  
  
• A great flood drowned the Empire. We
  helped Anaxial the Sailor build a great ship
  to save civilization.
  Your ancestral enemies are the forces of Water, represented by river gods, water spirits, and the relatively harmless Weeder people.
  You start knowing the ritual Taming the
  River.
  
  
• The War of Many Suns, when pretenders to the solar throne fought to assert control over our Golden City, Nivorah.
  Your ancestral enemies are the Dara Happans, most prominently the warlike Alkothi demon-men—fearsome foes, but ones who attack you very rarely.
  You start with an allied Wheel clan. (Wheels are a cousin-culture to your own; you share most of a pantheon but tend to find one another vexing).
  
  
• The Ram People marched on the Empire, razing the city of Elempur. We helped the Emperor avenge it.
  Your ancestral enemies are the Ram People, humans who worship different gods. Some live in your valley, while others have established kingdoms to the south.
  You know an extra combat ritual that will be helpful against Rams.
  Choosing the Ram People as your ancestral foe will make the game harder.
  
  
• When the City of Chimes wanted to surrender to the Scorpion Queen, we gave them heart.
  Your ancestral enemies are the forces of Chaos, the most straightforwardly evil faction you're likely to find in this setting.
  
  
• Our worst danger came later.
  Which of these proved to be your worst enemy?
  • The Plant Folk, also called elves.
    Your ancestral enemies are the elves.
    
    
  • The Stone Folk, also called dwarves.
    Your ancestral enemies are the dwarves.
    
    
  • The Ram People, followers of the demigod Vingkot, son of the storm god Orlanth.
    Same effect as choosing the Ram People above.
    
    
  • The Night Men, also called trolls.
    Same effect as choosing trolls above.

Since this is Glorantha, your ancestral spirits are an active, involved presence in your lives, and they're kind of judgmental. They expect you to act in accordance with their values.

Whichever foe you pick here, your ancestors will expect you to keep the grudge alive. They'll reward you with clan magic or other help if you strike against these foes, and if you're nice to them your ancestors will be angry with you. Choose carefully!

Of course, having ancestral enemies isn't all about obligations. You'll also be better at fighting the enemy you choose here—and they may also recognize you as an old enemy and attack you more often because of it.

The best choice depends on what you want out of the game. But this is a choice that arguably has as much to do with the difficulty of the game as the actual difficulty level you pick.

The easiest choice is the Forces of Water. The Weeders are weak but inoffensive; you can get clan magic by picking on them. Also, ritual! Taming the River is a relatively easy ritual, and performing it opens up new lands to explore and new clans to visit (whether peacefully or otherwise). Being able to do it early is definitely nice.

If you do not want to be mean to inoffensive pixels (I didn't for my first several playthroughs), there's never any benefit to being nice to the forces of Chaos, which is my personal default; they never appear in a non-hostile fashion anyway, and they don't field conventional armies either. (Water and Chaos are the only two enemies that don't raid you, though they're associated with various harmful events.)

Choosing the Ram People makes the game actively harder, and I personally wouldn't recommend that choice for a first playthrough. (The ancestors are slightly more lenient with this foe, though—while they'll be angry if you ally with Rams or go out of your way to help them, they don't care if you trade or send emissaries.) This choice does add drama to the game's story, though...

The other choices are in the middle—they do send raids sometimes (the Alkothi raid rarely, and the inhuman foes more often), and there are some otherwise-great opportunities you'll want to pass up on lest your ancestors be offended. And unlike with the Rams, your ancestors will punish you for trading with these beings if they are your foes. But none of them are an overwhelming presence like the Rams. (Choosing elves has the most complications after the Ram People, while choosing Dara Happans gives you an ally at the start of the game—since it's hard to persuade other clans to ally with you early on, this is quite nice.)

However, Hyalor's key principle still holds: there is no rule that can't be changed when survival is at stake. Under the right circumstances, this can even apply to your ancient enmities, and it's possible to make peace with the either the Ram People or the elves during the course of the game.

When the glacier devoured Nivorah, which minor god's secrets did you preserve?

• Buseryan, god of writing.
  You can worship Buseryan on the Magic screen. He has two blessings: Divination (reveals information about your land or dangers you face) and Recording (helps relations with other clans). You can build him a shrine to keep the latter up permanently.
  There's an event in which another clan wants you to translate a document.
  
  
• Tepekos, god of smiths.
  You can allocate an extra point of magic to Crafts at Sacred Time, which helps your crafters and traders.
  
  
• Narva, goddess of brewing.
  You can allocate an extra point of magic to Diplomacy at Sacred Time, helping your diplomats and traders.
  
  
• Perondeto, god of glassmaking.
  This grants the Glass exotic good, allowing an extra trade route.
  
  
• Nocheli, goddess of the red-dye insect.
  This grants the Red Dye exotic good, allowing an extra trade route.

Nocheli and Perondeto are probably the most mechanically useful choices here; in any case, they're my recommendation for a first playthrough.

Tepekos's Craft magic point is also nice, though fiddlier—you have to actually dedicate extra Crafts magic to get anything out of it.

Narva's extra point of Diplomacy magic is less mechanically useful—the maximum amount of magic you can ever allocate is three points, and since two mainstay gods give Diplomacy slots (Hyalor and Ekarna) her gift can be redundant. That said, you won't always have both those gods on the circle, and Diplomacy magic is useful...

Buseryan is the most developed choice—you can sacrifice to him and build a shrine! I don't find his blessings all that mechanically useful, but they're kind of fun, and sometimes that's more important.

Buseryan also has a full event that's fun; the others have functionally identical mini-events where some other clan seeks to buy the next several years' worth of [related resource] for less than it's actually worth, and you can try to bargain them up to a fairer price.

When the First Clan divided, which group was your ancestors?

• The most warlike.
  You start with 10 extra Swords (elite
  warriors, not weapons)
  You know the ritual Elmal Path Guardian.
  
  
• The best herders.
  You start with 50 extra herds.
  If you picked the Milk Gift as your Famous Event, you know the ritual Busenari Light Finder. Otherwise, you know the ritual Gamari Horse Mother.
  
  
• The wealthiest.
  You start with 50 extra goods.
  You start knowing the ritual Ekarna Four Trader.
  
  
• The best magicians.
  You start with an extra five points of clan magic as well as a random extra sworn spirit.
  If Nyalda was your first god you know the ritual Nyalda Marriage Maker, and if Yelm was your first god you know Hyalor Tablet Maker.
  
  
• The most dissatisfied.
  Your clan mood starts as Happy (rather than Reserved).
  If Nyalda was your first god you know the ritual Inilla Forage Finder, and if Yelm was you know Dostal Elk Hunter.
  
  
  My Recommendation
  This choice is complicated, because the best starting benefit and the best ritual to know early don't really line up.
  
  Among the rituals, Elmal Path Guardian is probably the most useful (it lets you build up a war leader ASAP before getting raided). The ten extra Swords you get from the Best Warriors choice aren't useless—it spares you a couple of turns and some goods—but the ritual is the real reason to make this choice.
  
  Either extra cows or extra goods can be stolen or lost. As for the rituals associated with those choices, Busenari Light Finder is an easy ritual, and knowing it early on lets you use it to gain a large number of cows or strengthen a female leader before you're locked into the endless cycle of using it to patch up your pastures; either of these is useful, but probably less so than Elmal's ritual. Ditto Ekarna's ritual; it's easy enough and there are some nice enough rewards, but it's not a gamechanger early on. Gamari Horse Mother is much harder, and the best reward it's got is something you have to unlock outside the ritual—i.e., you won't be able to get it right at the start of the game. (It can be used to strengthen a warleader, but Elmal Path Guardian lets you do the same more easily.)
  
  Hyalor's and Nyalda's rituals are both pretty finicky—they have awesome rewards that require taking a very specific path through the ritual, and there's no guarantee that you'll have someone capable of pulling it off, especially early in the game. (Of the two, Hyalor's ritual has more paths and a greater number of neat rewards.) However, five extra points of magic is pretty awesome, and can help you a lot in your first year. And the extra starting spirit can be useful or not depending on your luck.
  
  While I don't tend to find the mood bonus from the last choice all that useful, Inilla and Dostal's rituals are in between the others in terms of both difficulty and usefulness—either one can provide a nice early food boost, and Dostal's ritual can also be helpful for strengthening a male warleader, though not as much as Elmal's. Dostal's ritual might be easier just because Dostal worshippers are likelier to have high Combat than Inilla ones are to have high Lore (both skills that come in handy in those rituals).
  
  All told, "most warlike" is probably the most optimized choice, but there are several other reasonable ones.

This choice comes in two parts. The second part is arguably more important than the first.

Your ancestors crossed the mountains to the south.Who did they find on the other side?

• Farmers.
  
  
• Goat herders.
  
  
• Hunters and gatherers.
  
  Once, our ancestors might have taken outsiders as slaves. But those days were past. How did you treat the <foreigners>?
  
  • We chased them away.
    Your ancestors expect you to refuse to
    adopt outsiders.
    Your choices in the first section don't matter; you will not get any of the possible benefits.
    
    
  • We took them in as half-citizens.
    Your ancestors expect you to provisionally adopt outsiders. You will know a divine blessing depending on which outsiders you chose:
    • Farmers.
      You will know Pela's Bless Barley, which gives extra food.
      On most difficulties, this choice is redundant with choosing the Grain Contest as your Famous Event—both give the same blessing, so you end up knowing only two blessings as the game starts rather than the usual three.
      
      
    • Goat herders.
      You will know Uryarda's Milk Blessing, which gives extra food.
      On Easier, you will know this blessing even if you make another choice, so you should probably go for one of the others in that case.
      
      
    • Hunters and gatherers.
      You will know Dostal's Tracking, which aids in finding things, particularly during exploration.
    
    
  • We took them in as citizens.
    Your ancestors expect you to adopt outsiders when requested. You will also know a divine blessing depending on which foreigners you encountered (see above list).
  
  
  My Recommendation
  I recommend adopting outsiders here—it's a good precedent to set. (Provisional adoption is also a reasonable choice, but "let them stay as guests, to prove themselves" and similar options in the game add a layer of complications.) There are several chances to adopt outsiders in the game, and in addition to bolstering your numbers (which can be important, especially for a raiding clan!), they bring knowledge that can help your clan in various ways. Clans without a tradition of outsider adoption can't take advantage of these chances without losing the favor of their ancestors.
  
  (Clans that don't have a tradition of adoption do avoid the morale stress that can sometimes result from adopting unpopular outsiders.)
  
  Of the three options, I would personally go with either goat herders or farmers, because food blessings are very nice to have—especially when you're just starting out! (Personally, I think Dostal's Tracking is the least useful of the blessings you can get here.)
  
  However, adopting farmers is redundant if you also chose the Grain Contest for your Famous Event. Choosing both of these means you'll start the game knowing only two blessings rather than the usual three. (You do get a consolation point of magic if you choose a redundant blessing, though.)
  
  On Easier, you'll be given Uryarda's Milk Blessing for free no matter what, so you should adopt someone else on Easier.

Life here would start out:

• Easier than last time.
  In addition to the blessings you know based
  on your other choices in clan creation, you
  will know Hyalor's Horsefriend, Inilla's
  Rootle, and Uryarda's Milk Blessing.
  You will have a second shrine providing
  some food-related blessing out of the ones you've unlocked (or sometimes Busenari's
  Calf Blessing).
  You start with two treasures.
  There will be no random raids against you
  for the first two years of the game, though you may be raided in response to your actions.
  
  
• About the same as our last migration
  You start with two treasures.
  There will be no unprovoked raids against
  you for the first two years of the game.
  
  
• Harder, since we had fewer resources and fewer friends.
  You start with just one treasure, and 25 less goods and 100 fewer cows than on Normal.
  There will be no unprovoked raids against you for the first two years of the game.
  
  
• Much harsher, almost as if the entire world opposed us.
  You start with one treasure, and 25 less goods and 100 fewer cows than on Normal.
  There will be no unprovoked raids against you for the first year of the game.
  I believe there's also a relations penalty; other clans like you less to begin with. It might also be harder to earn positive relations with other clans.

While I'm sure of the starting resources for each difficulty level, I'm a lot fuzzier about any less obvious effects! I think that the devs have mentioned that various "bad" events happen more often at higher difficulties, and "good" events (wandering healers offering to cure all your sick and wounded, for example) less often. And it may be easier to get other clans to like you on lower difficulties. But I'm honestly not sure.

That said, I do recommend Easier for a first run; the additional shines and blessings boil down to a buffer against starving to death, which is nice to have—particularly when you're still learning the ropes.

(And if you want a challenge, choosing Ram People as enemies honestly works better than choosing a high difficulty—though you can do both!)

These values are either constant across games, or vary slightly at random.


These resources vary depending on two factors: difficulty level and your ancestors' specialty at the time of the First Division.

The first value in each cell is the default for that difficulty level. The second is the amount if you chose the relevant group during the First Division.

Note that Hard and Harsh start with the same resources.