Other pantheons think of the Tuatha Dé Danann — the People of the Goddess Danu — as simply the eldest of a host of whimsical fairy creatures. They’re not wholly wrong, but the Goddess’ children won their place with blades and words of power. The Irish pantheon stands atop a bloody heap of vanquished Gods and conquered monsters.
Since the time before reckoning, the titanspawn Fomhóraigh, or Fomorians, and their Titanic monarchs have claimed the Emerald Isle. Time and again, others came to drive them out and steal their wild land, but none succeeded permanently until the Tuatha Dé Danann.
The Tuatha and their cousins, the Fir Bolg, descended from a tribe the Fomorians had driven off centuries before. The exiles’ descendants returned to reclaim their ancestral homeland — first the Fir Bolg, then Danu’s children. The Tuatha rode not in ships as the Fir Bolg did but atop magical storms rolling with thunder across the sea. The two tribes spilled much blood between them until the Tuatha emerged victorious and claimed the land.
But Bres, their new half-Fomorian king, cruelly subjugated the Gods and usurped all their wealth for his titanspawn brethren. The Tuatha rebelled and won another war. They imprisoned the Fomorians beyond the edges of the World, but not before the land was soaked in divine blood on both sides. Finally, the Gaels invaded and defeated the Tuatha. The victors claimed the World while the People claimed the Otherworld. From the Gaels descended the Irish people, and the Tuatha Dé Danann became their Gods.