The Woodlanders

The Woodlanders are a group of people inhabiting the Winter Woods and Deepwoods of the northern continent, as well as the forested valleys of the Rain Peaks. Most Woodlanders have mottled or piebald skin of darker and lighter browns and sharp facial features with narrow, pointed noses and chins and single-lidded eyes. Their hair is usually wavy, and like their skin, streaked with at least two hues; commonly a very deep brown and a straw blonde, but nearly black and silvery white also exist the further you go up north. Not all Woodlanders have these features, since not all Woodlanders have ancestry with the same population, but these features are overwhelmingly common, and so the descendants of outsiders will adopt them within a few generations.

Foreign Relations:
Woodlanders are generally open and friendly to lone outsiders coming into their territory. It is in line with their beliefs that they should shelter those who come from outside, a world which they view as evil and smallminded. However, this openness and friendliness depends entirely on the outsider's willingness to become a Woodlander themselves; to learn of the ways of the Forest, and to abandon their previous identity.
Woodlanders are not that kind to groups of people attempting to settle the edges of the forests. They will attempt to chase out or even kill settlers. A significant number of Woodlanders living on the edges of the forest also believe it is their sacred duty to (sometimes aggressively) expand the forest, encroaching on other territories. To them, the Forest is a sacred ecosystem, and other ecosystems are inferior. Woodlanders do not consider the needs of others in this endeavour, which often leads to Arrenites or Midlanders planning excursions into the woods to repel guerilla Woodlander bands.

Trade:
Woodlanders trade with other peoples primarily for bronze and bronze tools, but exotic soaps will also peek their interest. They themselves sell objects made of hide, ivory, wood and bone. Woodlander bows are prized by archers around the world, and can fetch a good weight in bronze. The most prized possessions merchants are after are Ancestral Items, items ritually crafted from the bodies of the deceased, but Woodlander culture is dead-set against selling these items. They will sell replicas for collectors.

Naming Traditions

Feminine names

Female infants receive plant names, such as Lilly, Oak, Birch and Alder. If the family is in need of a daughter, but instead receives a son, they may give it a female name and raise the child as a woman.

Masculine names

Male infants receive animal names, such as Boar, Sparrow, Deer and Beetle. If the family is in need of a son, but instead receives a daughter, they may give the child a male name and raise it as a man.

Family names

Family names are village-based. When a Woodlander travels to a new village, they may create for themselves a new family name, which is often based on an attribute, nickname or exploit. Conversely, they may choose to take the name of the family they marry into. Whether children adopt the male or female family name depends on the season of birth; those born in winter and spring adopt the father's name, whereas those born in summer and autumn adopt the mother's name. In the case of adoption by a same-sex union, the Village Elder will decide which of the parties involved expresses more of the feminine, and which expresses more of the masculine. The family name is then decided based on the judgement of the Elder.

Culture

Major language groups and dialects

Woodlanders speak Arbor, a language they believe is spoken by the trees themselves, below the pitch of human hearing. There are many dialects, but all of them are variations on the same theme, and Arbor being the sacred tongue of the forest, it is resistant to change because of tradition. Like with any language, Vir words have snuck into the Arbor language, more notably in the southern regions than the northern ones because of exposure.

Culture and cultural heritage

The Song:
Woodlander villages operate under the Song. At dawn, the Song is started by the Elder, using her preferred instrument. Villagers pick up the Song, which is any song in the villages repertoire, and sing along to the beat. All songs sung are in four-count. These songs recount the deeds of heroes, love songs and Forest-worship songs. Every song has a male voice and a female voice, where either the one or the other serves an accompanying instrumental purpose. Singing along isn't an obligation; people are allowed to focus on work or have conversation. But the Song is the proverbial drum to a Woodlander village activity, and villagers fall out of and re-enter the Song as they please.

Food:
A Woodlander's diet consists in large part of nuts and seeds. Walnut, acorn, pine nut, hazelnut and chestnut are all common. These seeds are gathered in season, and processed so they keep throughout winter and spring. They are ground to a meal for baking, or eaten roasted or as-is. During spring and summer, diets include a lot of fresh leaves. Young edible foliage, such as from the birch tree, is popular. Herbs more so. Edible roots are gathered throughout the year, except for winter, when frost makes most of the soil inaccessible.
Woodlanders hunt all sorts of forest creatures. Deer, boar, fowl, fish and a multitude of insects are the primary sources of meat, but kob and molebear is also eaten in several regions.
Deer, boar, kob and molebear meats are preserved by rubbing them with Scourgemeal, a powdered fungus with a pungent smell which prevents decay by everything else that could spoil the meat. It is then hung to dry in hanging burrows. Offal meats are not preserved, but eaten as fresh as possible. Insects, worms and grubs are dried and ground, then added to flour and rolled into soup or stew dumplings. Grubmeal is also a core ingredient of trailbread.
From late summer to late autumn, more fruit finds its way into the Woodlander's diet. As many fruits as possible are dried or turned into potted preserve for use throughout the year.
Woodlanders usually do not turn valuable fruit into alcoholic drinks; the common alcoholic drink is a birch sap based wine.

Shared customary codes and values

Woodlanders feel a powerful bond with the forests they inhabit. Their entire lives are ruled by a shared interpretation of their ecosystem, and they see themselves both as part of it and responsible for it. This core view permeates the entire culture.

Average technological level

Woodlanders are of the opinion that the Forest provides. Though metal items can be found among Woodlanders, they are not the norm, and Woodlanders themselves do not work metal. Instead, they emphasize wood, bone, horn, leather and lacquer, as well as stone tools. Nevertheless, bronze carpentry tools are in high demand, and merchants bringing in those goods can trade them for expensive Woodlander products such as rare incense, prized cured meats, exotic jewelry, spices and rare alcoholic drinks and other intoxicants.
Woodlanders use water power to speed up crafting.

Firepots:
A notable technology in any Woodlander's life is the firepot. Firepots are clay pots with upturned bowl lids. The pots are filled with fuel, made of oil or wax mixed with scented resins, and several wicks protruding from lamp mouths. The pot-like lid is placed on top, leaving space for air flow. The flames heat up the ceramic top pot, and can fill up a large space with very little fuel, and very little smoke. Larger homes will have several firepots placed in strategic locations. The family dining table is round, and has a firepot placed in its center. This firepot's lid is flattened to support a cooking plate or cauldron, and is used to both heat the room as well as cook on.

Waste Pits:
Another common technology is that of the waste pit. This pit is specifically created to contain human feces. Since the Woodlander diet is very high in fat obtained through nuts, seeds and meats (the main part of the diet), Woodlander feces is also very high in fat. Woodlanders do not like to waste anything. Human feces are collected in waste pits, and left to ferment. When temperatures drop, congealed fat is scooped off of the pit and purified (and scented with resins) for use in firepots. The fermented manure is taken into the forest and buried as fertilizer, often in locations where planting is planned.

Common Dress code

Women wear more elaborate clothing than men, with more adornment. They also often wear long skirts, while men usually wear short skirts with leg hoses, or bare legs in the south. Women adorn their clothing and hair with items made of plants, whereas men adorn their clothing with items made of animals.

Art & Architecture

Woodlander art echos the natural materials it is made from. Villages are guarded by effigies made of braided branches, incorporating skeletons, and made in the image of woodland creatures (sometimes including humans). Homes are dug into the earth or made in artificial mounds. The walls are first daubed with clay, then fired, then covered in latticework and woven mats, and then daubed again. The front wall of a Woodlander home is a wattle and daub construction with a small opening for a doorway, and another for a window. Both can be closed off with a hatch. Most Woodlander homes have a dug-in baked clay ventilation shafts. It's not uncommon for such a home to be dug underneath a large tree, or for plants and even trees to be strategically planted on top of a Woodlander home.

Common Customs, traditions and rituals

The Planting:
The Planting is a yearly festive tradition which takes place in spring and autumn. In the spring, Woodlanders plant seeds they selected for propagation in clay pots and allow them to germinate, caring for the young plants throughout spring and summer. Then, in autumn, they find places where the forest has thinned and plant saplings and dig waterways. This ritual sometimes causes Woodlanders to clash with Arrenites and Midlanders, as they encroach upon the plains and attempt to slowly but surely transform it into forest. This is exacerbated by the fact that Woodlanders living in the border territories will excessively hunt down browsing animals that feed on young saplings and tree foliage to expedite the Forest's expansion and supplant the plains ecosystem. Woodlanders living in the valleys of the Rain Peaks sometimes go out to eradicate Molebear colonies for the same reason.

The Sacrifice:
Woodlanders do practice human sacrifice. Those who act and think strangely from birth are believed to be possessed of a special essence of the Forest. As young children, they are usually led into the forest blindfolded, drugged, and left behind. Woodlanders believe that the Forest will either absorb them, or plant within them the seed of the forest's sacred will and transform into a higher being. These beings, called 'Draya' (female) or 'Drayer' (male) are believed to be able to take the form of animals and plants, commune directly with the forest, and perform acts of magic. They are believed to be reclusive but largely benevolent, and an extension of the Forest's will.
"There may be truth to these stories. The complexity of the forest's ecosystem takes on such magnitude that, with the thin nature of Ardoon's reality, this complexity, which is often felt as the presence of a persona, can manifest itself as a Spirit in those most attuned to such things. Stargazers especially are vulnerable to merging their personalities with that of the Forest's presence, but it may also be possible for other psychologically compromised to be overtaken by this Spirit; this overtaking would perform a Breaking effect, allowing the host of this Spirit to perform feats of magic. If we assume that the Spirit carries within itself magical information, then these hosts would be able to manifest magic safely. I myself consider this plausible, since the description of Draya/Drayer as Shapeshifters matches techniques mentioned in Haugr's tome on Morphological Magics. We'll never know for sure, because the Woodlands are difficult to traverse, and Woodlanders are less than inviting to Custodians, but it would be an interesting subject for further investigation." - Gweon Hranid, Mystic, on Lore of the Woodlands.

Birth & Baptismal Rites

After birth, the parents name their child and wrap it in cloth or leather adorned with either wooden or horn/tooth/bone baubles, depending on the gender the parents assign to the child. The father then carries the child out into the woods, where he presents the child to the woods loudly proclaiming the infant's name. He then baptizes the child with forest soil, after which he takes the child back to the village, washes it, and lays it at its mother's breast. In cases where the father cannot be present, another person (assigned by the mother) carries out his role.

Funerary and Memorial customs

When a Woodlander dies, their body is skinned and defleshed by the Elder's apprentice. The skin is worked into leather, the sinew and gut are worked into tools (primarily shortbows and spears), and the fat is collected and rendered into a ritual firepot which is lit for remembrance ceremonies. Bones, too, are used as crafting material. An honoured warrior or matriarch's bones might be made into an effigy to stand guard over the village, but most of the bones are kept, and ground to be mixed with the daub used in home construction. The flesh and offal, save for the gut, is brought out as a sacrifice to the Forest, where it is eaten by scavengers.
It is very important to Woodlanders to feel that their ancestors, biological or adoptive, never truly leave them; that they remain part of their community and the forests themselves. Because Ancestral items are well looked-after, they do pile up over time. When an item becomes too old or damaged to function or be repaired, it may be buried in the forest.

Common Taboos

Trading away Ancestral items is a great taboo amongst Woodlanders. This is something Woodlanders may even kill over.

Common Myths and Legends

Woodlander myth tells that when the world was young, a boy was born to the Gods. They named him Snow, for he was as white as snow, with curly hairs as white as teeth. As the boy grew older, he grew wise in the use of the bow and spear, and strong of limb. But the godly people did not love Snow. They scorned him for his skin. They laughed at how the sun burned him. They chased him from their porches, and mocked him openly.
So Snow tried harder to win the hearts of the godly people. He brought them the head of a molebear he'd killed with his hands and teeth, and yet they did not warm to him. He brought them medicine from the bottom of the sea, and yet they did not love him.
When Snow was attacked by one of the godly people, He struck back and felled the attacker with a clenched fist, killing the assailant. But since the assailant was much loved, and Snow was not, the godly people drove him away and chased him, wishing to kill him.
So Snow ran. Though the sun scorched his back, he ran. Though the stone cut his feet, he ran.
At long last, Snow came upon the dark, forbidden forests. There, the branches sheltered him from the sun. The streams fed him with water, the trees fed him with seeds. The godly people still pursued him, but Snow disappeared among the leaves. And Snow found that the Forest was not merely a place; she was a woman, with a will and a heart. A woman alone. With her, he found safety. She turned away the spiteful wretches, and embraced him as hers. And he embraced her as his.
The Forest and Snow fell in love, and from their union came the beasts that roamed between the trees, the herbs that flowered on the ground, and the birds that flitted between the branches. And this is why Woodlanders have piebald skin; the brown of the Forest, and the white of Snow.
Snow died of old age a long time ago, back when the world was young. But their children are still here, evidence of that most ancient love.

Ideals

Beauty Ideals

Woodlanders prefer lithe, wiry muscular builds for men, and similar, with slightly more bodyfat, for women. They adorn themselves with wooden, bone, horn and tooth jewelry, often painted in bright colours.

Gender Ideals

Woodlanders celebrate gender role as a divine expression of their environment, with the feminine being associated with caretaking, and the masculine being associated with protection. Gender roles transcend sex; a Woodlander male is not necessarily a Man, and a Woodlander female is not necessarily a Woman. There is a tendency for Woodlander families and tradition to impose a gender on their child depending on the need of the family, which can lead to tensions later in life when the child's own tendencies and preferences chafe against the set expectations, and it is not uncommon for a young adult Woodlander to appeal to the Village Elder for a rebith ceremony, where the Woodlander reassigns their own gender.

Courtship Ideals

Courtship among the Woodlanders is a simple ritualized affair. During the spring, a young man goes hunting with the specific goal of presenting the woman he wishes to marry with prey. The woman, often having several suitors, picks the one she likes best (or none at all). This is a formality, the women have usually chosen a mate before the courtship hunts began, and may have even egged on a man to partake in the ritual. Sometimes, a woman will choose to court a man by presenting him with a loaf of bread baked from the flour of nuts and seeds she gathered and pounded herself. This form of courtship takes place in autumn, and becomes more common when there are fewer men to compete over. When two Woodlanders of the same gender role court, the formality becomes only slightly more complicated. Men will both participate in a ritual hunt, presenting one another with prey. Women will bake courtship loaves for one another.

Relationship Ideals

Woodlanders are strongly monogamous. They view marriage as divine, the ultimate expression of holy duality. Woodlanders are often betrothed for years before they perform a marriage ceremony, and most betrothals end before tying the knot. This long betrothal period is believed to guarantee a successful marriage. Sometimes, marriages do end. The Village Elder is bestowed with the authority to recognize a marriage as nullified. Cheating on one's spouse, and other forms of domestic abuse, are viewed not only as a crime against the partner, but as a betrayal of the Forest itself. Individuals found guilty of such things are shunned by the community, often bullied into leaving the village to fend for themselves in the forest.

Woodlanders as Player Characters:

Woodlanders are a very forest-oriented people. Carpentry is a skill possessed by many; not merely a few specialists. Survival is another common skill. Woodlanders' weapons of choice are the Shortbow and the Spear, though Machetes are also popular.
Woodlanders by and large favour the Nimbleness attribute.