Humble Beginnings

The origins of the League of Desmond can be traced to the times of Ancient Greece, in Mycenaean times. The League was originally founded as a competitive warrior's society. Members would test each-other in skill and strength, in such sports as wrestling, running, and the discus-throw. It was an elite society, only open to members of the warrior aristocracy that ruled Greece at that time. Membership was highly prestigious, and there was a grueling initiation process, including such challenges as maintaining a philosophical debate while being wrapped in brightly coloured streamers to the point of near-immobility. Some part of that tradition remains to the present day.

That incarnation of the League of Desmond, however, fared poorly as Mycenaean Golden Age faded. With a wave of invasions by the barbarous Dorians, the warrior class had no time for frivolities, and the League dwindled in importance accordingly. When the last of the Mycenaeans died or fled to remote islands, the League of Desmond was little more than a legend. Its legacy, however, would be recorded in Homer's great epics, and would eventually be revived.