Borskap av Torden (bôr skăp äv tôr dĕn)

Known in the south as the Brotherhood of Thunder the Borskap av Torden is a secretive organization of manneskor who seek to drive the mangen from the Frontier Lands and remove their influence from amongst the manneskor. Seeing the “civilized” culture of the mangen as inherently soft and weak, the hold in disdain those who follow those ways. They seek to achieve their goals by raiding mangen settlements and slaying any manneskor who adopt mangen ways.

Structure

Kriger are the lowest rank of the borskap, these are warriors who have passed the initiation, but have not yet proven themselves on a raid. Above the kriger are the huscarl, these are warriors who have proven themselves in a raid and are considered veterans of the borskap. Next are the radningar, these are strong warriors who have proven their mettle in multiple raids and are trusted to lead raids. Above the radningar are the aesir these are considered elite warriors and are often chosen to train new members and initiate new members. The leader of each band is called the merkismathr they are responsible for organizing each band, sending out raiding parties, and awarding spoils. Leading the brotherhood as a whole is the jarl. The current jarl, is not widely known outside the brotherhood, as the last jarl was killed by assassins from the south.

Culture

The brotherhood believes that the ways of the manneskor are superior to the ways of “civilized” folk. They hold that “civilized” practices and ways of living render people soft and easy prey for the dangers of the world. They particularly hate manneskor people who adopt practices of the “civilized” folk and will kill them whenever they get the chance to weed out softness from the manneskor. They also wish to drive the “civilized” mangen from the Frontier Lands, believing that their influence will result in the destruction of manneskor culture and the death of the manneskor people. To them the “civilized” mangen are little better than cattle and should be treated as such.

Public Agenda

The agenda of the borskap av torden is to drive the mangen people from the Frontier Lands and eliminate all traces of their soft culture from the manneskor people. They do this by raiding mangen settlements and slaying any manneskor who adopt their ways. They hope to one day unite the disparate manneskor peoples into a vast army to permanently drive the mangen from the frontier lands.

Assets

Apart from their membership, they have a lot of supporters amongst the manneskor people, who will provide aid and shelter to members. They eschew gold and similar riches as desires of the soft mangen people, so they do not collect treasure in the traditional sense. To them a well-crafted battle axe is more valuable than some golden trinket. They need little in the way of treasure as the members of the brotherhood are, as a rule, skilled at living off the land.

History

Only a little over 40 years old, the seeds of the Borskap av Torden were planted long ago when the Iliosgy empire fell. Seeing the destruction that claimed the Iliosgy many manneskor people believed that their culture was to blame for their fall. Then the mangen people arrived with a similar culture and practices. Many manneskor looked askew at the newcomers seeing in them the same weakness that destroyed the Iliosgy. When more and more of the mangen started arriving, and worse some of the manneskor began adopting their practices small groups started forming to stop them. These groups would launch raids on mangen settlements in hopes of driving them away and would kill those manneskor who adopted mangen ways. In 683 a charismatic leader named Áki Valthjófrsønn began uniting the scattered groups under his banner, creating the Borskap av Torden. Two years ago in 725 assassins sent by an unknown mangen leader killed Áki in hopes of stopping the raids. Instead a new jarl rose, and the raiding continued.