The Mammoth Tribe

Introduction

The Mammoth Tribe were the original inhabitants of the cold plains that the Urdaggar now call home. They controlled a vast area and boasted a sprawling coalition of clans spread throughout the land.
These Clans were raiding the Kuzaarik Confederation long before it collapsed. They raided Urdaggar Tribes to the south as well. All peoples trembled at the resounding thump of their war drums.
The warriors of the Mammoth Tribe are known to be muscular people, built like the Mammoths that they emulate.
The entire earth shakes when they go to war as their Mammoth mounts trod forward to battle. Their war drums, mounted on Mammoths and pounded to scare the enemy, can be heard for miles.

Where they live

There was a time before the Krai Jan came to Isarshael when the Mammoth Tribe roamed all lands north of the Dorsang Danar. From the Kuz Danariss in the east, all the way to the Shovorath - The Tuskwood, a forest sacred to the Mammoth Tribe, in the west, the Mammoth Tribe was the undisputed ruler of the cold plains “Shedarn Baran” - Between the Mountains.
Changes came when the Krai Jan began their conquest of Isarshael. Where once the Tribes of the Urdaggar had spread over much of the continent between The Bar Mahn and the Florfachal, the Krai Jan forced the tribes north.
The migration of the Faeler people from their ancestral lands and into the areas north of the Moonshadow Mountains and the Dorsang Danar caused a compression of the Tribes. There used to be enough space for everyone to roam and hunt. Now, the Tribes of the Urdaggar were at war with the Krai Jan and each other as they vied for survival.
The migrating Tribes overran the lands of the Mammoth Tribe. The Mammoth Tribe gave up most of its grounds, abandoning its sacred sites to their retreating brothers and sisters who faced the might of the Krai Jan phalanx.
Now, the Mammoth Clans live in a small area between the Shovorath and the Gadvalsehl - The Blightwood - that borders the Vulture Tribe lands. The Mammoths have also altered their patterns, a sign that their Totem god cares for and oversees his people.

Religion

The Mammoth Tribes worship La’adat - The Thunderer. La’adat is an enormous Mammoth with long, gnarled tusks in their art and stories, and their Totem god is represented by the mighty Mammoths of the northern plains.
Just as the Mammoth is rightly feared wherever it roams, so is La’adat.  He is King, not because he is necessarily the most dangerous animal in its environment but because He is the largest and strongest.
Only the desperate will attack the Mammoth, and only the desperate or stupid will attack the Mammoth Tribe.
As a representation of La’adat, the Mammoth informs everything the Tribe does and believes. The clans believe the Mammoth provides everything they need to survive, which is almost true.
La’adat is a Totem god of war, conquest, eternal hunting, moving, and hard work. These are all ways of life for the Mammoth Tribes, who learn La'adat’s way from the Mammoth.
The Mammoth Mystics that guide the Clans have all communed with La’adat, having first accomplished a connection with him during their initiation, a process called the Thuv Ayalish - rebirth.
The would-be Mystic is saddled onto Shula’adat, the Little Thunderer - a Mammoth - during their initiation. The Clan mystics then put a mix of dried sacred herbs into a Mammoth Tusk horn and burn the herbs, inducing a trance in the initiate.
The Shula’adat is then prodded until it runs off into the cold plains. None are allowed to follow; if the Mystic is authentic, and La’adat accepts them, he will come to them, reveal himself, and guide Shula’adat back to the Clan.
When a Clan’s Mystic wants to invoke La’adat, they Thunder. Thundering is the practice of two of the Clan’s warriors and Chieftain beating sacred drums that mimic the footsteps of the Mammoth. As the Clan beats the drums, the Mystic invokes a sacred liturgy and goes into an ecstatic trance, where they will commune with La’adat.

Culture

Unlike most other Urdaggar Tribes, the Mammoth Tribe has spent much of its history in the shadow of the northern mountains, right on the borders of the Kuzaarik Confederation. They have traded with the Kuzaarik for many years and fought with them for just as long. The Mammoth Tribe was the subject of much attention from the Lightbringers while they were in their heyday, before the collapse of the Confederation and the institution of the Long Way.
The Mammoth Tribe learned many things from the Kuzaarik, including metalworking and the construction of buildings, which the Mammoth Tribe has put a strange twist on by using Mammoth bones and hide instead of rock and wood.
Relations between the Mammoth Tribe and the Kuzaarik fluctuate from week to week. At times they are avid trade partners, and at others, they are at war with one another, the Mammoth Tribe raiding into Kuzaarik territory to attack herders in the lower valleys and small farming communities scattered below Vinyabah Gohrahd.

The Mammoth Tribe is semi-nomadic. They follow the herds of Mammoths back and forth across the cold plains of their home. Mammoth meat feeds them, Mammoth leather clothes and shelters them, and the ivory from their tusks makes sacred items used by the Tribe and especially their Mystics.
There is little that is not provided by the Shula’adat. Near the sacred areas where Shula’adat goes to die, namely the Shovorath, the bones of the Mammoths are retrieved to build small villages where the Clans spend the winter. In the Spring, some of their calves will be harnessed by the Tribe and raised to carry the Clan to war.
Like the Mammoths they emulate, the Clans break into extended family groups, led by a Matriarch or Patriarch, based on age. These family units are more than just ways to organize the Clan; the family groups share a longhouse during the winter, hunt together as a group, and will go to war together.
The family groups are called Tirod - herds - just as they name the Mammoth family groups. Within the Clan, the Tirod try to outdo each other in all things, whether hunting or fighting. Each Tirod is expected to raise a Mammoth calf from birth to convey the family’s goods during wandering and its warriors during times of war. The family’s Shula’adat is not only part of the family but is sacred to them, seen as a gift from La’adat.
When not fighting or hunting, the Mammoth Tribespeople enjoy participating in games of brute strength. They are not sophisticated, nor are they meant to train the mind. Games include throwing large stones or tree trunks, wrestling, and tugging against Shula’adat, which they tie a rope to and try to pull across a given line scratched into the ground.
Tribespeople wear leather from the Mammoth, often with the long, shaggy hair of the beasts still attached. Though the Tribespeople themselves tend to shave their heads or most of their heads - a practice common among the Ruin Tribes - the shaggy Mammoth hair is often kept on many skins as a matter of pride and worship.
The Mammoth Tribe hates politics, grandstanding, and flowery language, and they do not trust it. To them, anyone who uses sneaky tactics or lofty speech doesn’t have the power to back up whatever they aim to achieve. For the Mammoth Tribe, power is everything and the only motivator. You can or can not take what you want, and it is never more complicated than that.
They are very blunt people, to the point, and brutally honest about their intentions. They will not deceive you, though neither will you like the truth you hear from them.
They are also blatantly violent. Disagreements are decided by personal combat, where even most of their weapons are blunt. Often though, squabbles between Tribespeople are settled in unarmed combat- the strength of one person pitted against the raw power of another.

Tattoos

Each Tirod adopts a tattoo that identifies them uniquely. These were adopted generations ago and don’t usually change unless circumstances prompt the Tirod to adopt a new one. Mighty victories, crushing defeats, grudges, or other catastrophes often change a Tirod tattoo.
Other than the Tirod’s unique tattoo, there are several tattoos and patterns that are found only among the Mammoth Tribespeople. Large curved tusks are often tattooed down the jawline of warriors, and trunk tattoos are often tattooed down a warrior’s chest and stomach.
Tusk armbands are often worn to show kills in battle. The tusks can also be tattooed around the torso, both front and back, to showcase the number of kills in combat.

Economy

The economy of the Mammoth Tribe is mostly barter and takes place within the Tribe. Because La’adat provides for them, they need very little and are proud enough of their traditions and faith that they seek little else.
What they do want or lack, they can barter with the Kuzaarik or with other Tribes. Mammoth Tribe leather goods and ivory from Mammoth Tusks are in high demand with the other tribes and fetch a high price in bartered goods.
Another essential part of the Mammoth Tribe’s economy is in captives, mostly from their raids into Kuzaarik territory. Perennial raiding in the Spring and summer usually produces captives from Kuzaarik lands. While in other Tribes, many prisoners are put to doing menial labor, the Mammoth Tribe does not enslave people in this way; they believe in doing menial work as part of their religious duty. It is said among them, “Toil produces hard people, and hard people please La’adat.”

War

The Mammoth Tribe go to war like they approach the rest of life. They are not sneaky, nor do they make great tacticians. They deploy before an enemy and charge them with everything they have. Great Mammoths smash through enemy lines, and young Tribespeople riding the beasts, barely out of their Shukal, will throw spears, shoot bows, and heave rocks down upon the enemy from howdahs.
Mammoth Tribe warriors, ferocious and screaming their wild battle cries, crash into their enemies in a nearly irresistible charge that sweeps all before it. Many carry blunt objects into battles, such as clubs and hammers, and they use these to crush their foes, armored or not.
Mammoth Tribe Raids are fast, spectacularly brutal, and over as fast as they start. Unlike some other Ruin Tribes, whose attacks come out of the blue and catch everyone by surprise, the Mammoth Tribe announces their presence and raids by drumming incessantly before an attack.
Part bravado and part holy ritual, the drums of the Mammoth Tribe are meant to invoke La’adat and his strength as they attack. It also lets their enemies know they are coming, ensuring a stand-up fight where the strongest will win, something the Mammoth Tribe relishes.