The Stormborn
We was all hunkered down from the storm and thought it was thunder at first, but then the beat got louder and we realized it was drums. We went out to look and saw the ships appear out of the drivin' rain, thought they was great big monsters at first... then the men came pouring over the sides and we realized that we was right.
The scourge of northen coasts, The Stormborn are vicious sea raiders hailing from The Stormwracked Isles in the far north-west, a land that they call 'Vedrheim' or 'Stormhome'. Worshippers of a primegal god of storms, they raid under cover of violent storms, regarding it as their religious duty to make unbelievers fear the storm.
History
While the stormborn have few written records, their oral tradition is extensive and the rare few scholars who have gotten access to Stormborn Skalds have found them more than willing to regale all onlookers with the tales and sagas of their people.
Finding their god
The earliest human inhabitants of The Stormwracked Isles practiced a form of ancestor worship similar to Alhamish Ancestor Worship, and some of those traditions are still part of Stormborn culture, but it was the discovery of Torvedr which would reshape their culture forever. High in the mountains of Vedrheim they discovered ancient sites of worship, circles of standing stones and bas reliefs dedicated to an unnamed storm god. The carvings depicted warriors wielding lightning coated weapons under stormy skies and driving their enemies before them in fear, and the locals named this god Torvedr and made him their own.
Under the influence of their new god, their sea raiding increased drastically, their priests and druids allowing their longships to navigate through storms and use them as cover for their raids. Quickly becoming the scourge of coastal towns across the northern half of The Shattered Continent, the residents of these towns learned to view approaching storms with an almost primal fear, not knowing if vicious raiders would accompany the coming gale.
Kadal the Conquerer
The Stormborn love their sagas, and the tale of Kadal The Conquerer is one of their favorites. Arriving on the shores of The Stormwracked Isles seeking vengeance for his sacked village, he was captured and enslaved before winning his freedom through trial by combat and joining the ranks of that tribes warriors. Eventually gaining the support to challenge his tribes leader, his first action upon taking over the tribe was to announce his ambitions to return to Alhamland with the Stormborn at his back and eventually conquer not just Alhamland but the verdant lands to the south as well.
At the head of his force of Stormborn, Kadal would conquer Alhamland not once but twice. He may have been defeated twice in battle, but the Stormborn are happy to put the blame for that on the fact that the bulk of his forces were Alhamish rather than Stormborn. The tale of his confrontations and eventual ascension in battle with Iker are the things that the greatest sagas are made of, making this tale one of the most popular sagas among The Stormborn.
Modern Day
Today while the nations of The Shattered Continent are stronger and more able to defend against sea raids, smaller outlying coastal settlements still eye approaching storms with fear and The Stormborn raid in much greater numbers to make up for stronger garrisons and more powerful navies opposing them. Reprisal attacks by the naval forces of Ahlamland, Alboria, and Fruchtbarland have lead to The Stormborn's own coastal cities becoming increasingly fortified and the connections between the Alhamish and Stormborn that were created by Kadal the Conquerer have all but disappeared. While they may not be the universally feared boogeymen that they were in past centuries, they are still feared and respected for both their martial and magical prowess, and their reputation follows them across the entirety of The Shattered Continent.
Society
Stormborn culture is largely centered around the idea that the strong should rule and might makes right, a philosophy which is reflected in everything from their raiding culture to their class system. Foreign scholars have historically had difficulty working with The Stormborn due to the fact that few of them have had the martial prowess needed to gain their respect, although startling few of them have realized the source of their problems.
Classes
The social classes that make up Stormborn society both a reflection of their might makes right philosophy and something that sets them apart from most of the other human societies on The Shattered Continent. The Stormborn have three social classes, jarl, karl, and thrall, and every member of the tribe falls into one of these.
Jarls
The leaders of the Stormborn tribes, the Jarl is not just a powerful warrior but also one who has the respect of a large amount of their tribe. The position of Jarl is decided via combat but in a somewhat surprisingly democratic twist, the support of at least a third of the tribes karls is needed in order to issue such a challenge.
Karls
The free members of a Stormborn tribe, karls are generally divided into warriors and craftsmen, each with their own social strata and with warriors generally holding a slightly higher position within the tribe. All stormborn are required to undergo trial by exposure in order to be considered an adult, although this trial is much easier and shorter in duration than the one required to become a warrior.
Thralls
The element which makes Stormborn culture stand out from most of the human cultures of The Shattered Continent are the thralls. While the vast majority of human cultures have an extreme dislike for slavery courtesy of their experience under the serpentfolk, The Stormborn's belief that the strong should rule the weak seems to have overcome this. A true slave class, most thralls were captured in the Stormborn's many raids, although some were born into servitude or reduced to thralldom due to criminal behaviour.
Thralls have the ability to earn their freedom through trial by combat, with trial by exposure being denied to them due to the idea that allowing a slave to undergo it would be an insult to Torvedr. Those who earn their freedom in this way are typically relatively captured warriors as born thralls seldom have the opportunity to learn martial skills. The most famous thrall who earned their freedom through combat is certainly Kadal The Conquerer, who proceeded to rise through the ranks and eventually become Jarl.
Raiding
Sea Raiding is a common tradition across the north, but for The Stormborn it has special significance. The Stormborn regard raiding as a way to venerate their god, holding their raids during fierce storms in order to spread fear of The Stormbringer among non-believers. When bad weather approaches, people in coastal settlements across the northern half of The Shattered Continent hunker down and pray that the storm won't be accompanied by longboats full of vicious raiders here to destroy everything they have worked to build.
Religion
The Stormborn take their name, philosophy, and traditions from their worship of the god Torvedr, a primeval god of storms. Trials by exposure are a core part of their traditions, required to prove adulthood, become a warrior, and as tests of faith. They prefer to conduct their sea raiding during storms in order to spread fear of the storm among non-believers, and the thought of longships appearing out of the driving rain haunts the nightmares of many residents of coastal villages.
Skalds
The stormborn's history is an oral one, and the ones responsible for maintaining it are the Skalds of each tribe, a position which is a combination of bard and historian. In a culture which reveres martial prowess, Skalds are one of the few positions which allow someone to reach the upper echelons of society without swinging a sword. Of course, many Skalds do demonstrate considerable martial prowess and accompany the warriors of their tribe into battle, playing songs to raise their spirits and encourage them in combat.
The Tribes
The Stormborn are composed of many tribes scattered across both the coasts and inland region of The Stormwracked Isles, each with their own traditions, histories, and sagas. A few of them are more notable than the others.
The Conquering Storm
Their Original name of this tribe has been lost to history, discarded by the skalds as unimportant given their tremendous accomplishments after adopting their modern name. This is the tribe that raided the home village of Kadal The Conquerer enslaved him, and which he eventually became Jarl of. Under his leadership they were instrumental in his conquering all of Alhamland twice, raiding Alboria, and ascending to divinity. Even after Kadal's ascension The Conquering Storm remain one of the strongest tribes in all of Vedrheim, with a dozen settlements across the eastern end of the isles.
The Blizzard Walkers
The Blizzard Walkers are a nomadic tribe which follows the herds across the open tundra, trading hides, meat, antlers, and the other fruits of their hunting with any villages they come across for goods that they cannot make themselves. They view blizzards as a gift from Torvedr as they bog down the animals which they hunt, allowing the Blizzard Walkers to use the showshoes from which they derive their name to move across the top of the fresh snow in persuit of their prey.
Foreign Relations
Given that they don't generally engage in diplomacy and the overwhelming majority of their interactions with the outside world are at the point of a sword or edge of an axe, the Stormborn's relations with the outside world can be summarized as 'not great', but there are exceptions.
The Alhamish Union
While Alhamland has traditionally been one of the main raiding targets of The Stormborn simply due to proximity, some Alhamish settlements have maintained relations with tribes of Stormborn, particularly since the exploits of Kadal The Conquerer. In particular, the modern ban on sea raiding among the Alhamish has driven some of these tribes closer to their Stormborn allies, some are even rumored to join the Stormborn on their raids.
The Alborian Empire
The Stormborn's second favorite target, the Alborian Empire has launched many retaliatory raids against stormborn settlements, burning longships at the dock, shattering forges, and doing everything they can to hinder future raids. The Stormborn don't make these raids easy, and more than one as returned to Alboria savaged and much reduced.
The Kingdom of Fruchtbarland
Its location on the southern edge of The Crater Sea has lead to it being a regular target of Stormborn raids, although the Fruchtbarlanders don't make it easy. Their proximity to the pirate infested waters of The Shattered Sea has lead to larger than normal garrisons and vigilant naval patrols across their coast.
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