Use the
Goídil faction.
Take my clan for example:
Fir Áraig then further taking my character/
Víkingr-alter-ego, Ualraig in Dúr. But, by example I mean by a historical example, in that the clan and character are as historically accurate as possible.
First things first, the history of northern Scotland, infact Scotland North of the Central Belt, is really very complicated and not all the facts are known or agreed upon. What I should start is telling you about the Gaelicization of Scotland. Many people, wrongly, think Scotland, or Pictland at that time was invaded and conquered by Gaels - this is incorrect. Pictland, or the Kingdom of Alba was never Gaelified (for want of a better word) by means of warfare. How this actually came about was that when Áed mac Cináeda (son of Kenneth mac Alpin) was (assumed) assassinated by a Gaelic nobleman called Giric. his son Constantín was sent to Ireland at a young age and was thus Gaelified. Upon returning to Scotland to claim back his throne, he was fully Irish in fashion, custom and language and so when he took the throne back he surrounded himself with Irish nobles and swapped Pictish/Brythonic Bishops/Churchmen for Irish ones.
This was soon followed by a mass Gaelicization of the Pictish/people of Alba/Scotland. This gave rise to the idea, or myth, that the Picts simpley disapeared, when in fact they stayed exactly where they were, but just spoke a different language now - Gaelic.
Now back to
Fir Áraig, which is a wandering warband, travelling the Northern Isles, Western Isles, Ireland and around the Irish Sea, it's member are very diverse as a result. it's member are then Irish (using Irish, as to not confuse people about Irish Gaelic and Scots Gaelic) speaking men of Alba, Norse from the Northern Isles, Norse-Gaels from the Western Isles and native Irish from Ireland.
Now for Ualraig in Dúr. He is a man from the modern area of Easter Ross-Shire (my real life home), outside the modern Dingwall. Dingwall was founded by the Vikings and was called
Tingvall (Meeting Place). Now this area (modern Cromarty Firth) is never actually fully clear weather it was fully under the King of Scotland's control or not, and I don't believe it's known when Vikings first arrived in this area, nor how much importance the place had. (Note that many, many places in the Highlands were founded by the Vikings: Dingwall, Wick (
Vík), Tounge (
Tunga(?)) and pretty much all of Orkney and Shetland. As well as many important Clans, such as MacDonald and MacLeod - which means Son of the Ugly One, Léod coming from Ljotr in O.N). So, in my portrayal of this Ualraig character he fully speaks Gaelic and Old Norse, while his ethnicity is a mix of Norse and Pictish/Brythonic/Ablannach - take your pick.
Discalimer: I know not all of the above should be put in a thread called "Historical Discussion" but alot of it was historical discussion and it furthers the conversation to help Aethel out.