Northern Realms

Overview

The Northern Realms are a vast area of barren fields with not much to grow, less sunshine and a lot of ice and snow. Death is a regular occurence here and the people are grim, stubborn and hard to kill. The people of the Northern Realms are mostly refered to as "the Norths" because there are various smaller and larger clans and most people don't take the time to tell them apart.

The Northern Clans have made a habit of ravaging the lands in the south to get coin, gold, crops, seeds and whatever they need; their own land can't provide them with everything.

The land itself spans from north of the University of Hulwar to a few kilometers away from the northern pole, in which proximity the story of Verti, the Siren & the Crystal Cave allegedly had happened.

History

The history of the Northern Realms and their people is a hard, bloody and desperate one. The first clans were the escaped slaves of the southern kingdoms and not native to the north, the ice and the cold. They adapted however and started the first fields and settlements.

But this caused the next problems, because more and more slaves were coming from Pisocenia, Hulwar the Seven Nations, the Garladans, and the city of Oldrir, close to five hundred years ago before the nations of Koria agreed to get rid of slavery. Not that it mattered to the Garladans, they were brewing their own soup then and they are doing it now.

The problems were manifold: space for settling, clean water and food were only the most urgent ones. During their first few centuries they slaughtered themselves until they were not enough people to sustain larger wars or even battles. Which resulted in an unstable truce between the clans, until the Amberkin dwarves landed and build their own city Brestængir. Legends state that the clans thought to attack the rich dwarves would be a good idea. Spoiler: it wasn't.

The clans were decimated during the one and only war with the Amberkin dwarves and it was during this time that they dreamt the Frost Queen and the Ember King into existence.

Which resulted in the creation of the first Frost Maiden and later on the Cold Maiden. As the Frost Queen and the Ember King were getting married, the Fire Lords emerged, basically the Ember Kings answer to the Frost Maiden.

War was on the horizon as the clans decided to move against the dwarves, elves and some of the southern lands with the help of their newfound heavy hitters. But even the relatively untrained Frost Maiden and Ember Lords were not match against trained magic users and battle-hardened armies.

This entire situation resulted in the near exctinction of the clans and now they are trying to rebuild their families and some settlements while maintaining the truce and the peace between them and the Orcs.

Beliefs

Frost Queen / Frost Maiden

The Frost Queen is the goddess of drowned women. Every drowned woman is considered to be a servant of the Frost Queen or a Frost Maiden and sent back to life. Every other woman is sorted into their respective afterlifes.

A Frost Maiden has a slightly degraded body temperature, a slightly blue-ish skin and frost/ice magic they can use without the need of the energy from behind the veil or runes.

Ember King / Fire Lord

The Ember King is the god of honourable fallen warriors. Technically he is the god of all warriors, even thiefs, but he decided that his grace only belongs o the honourable ones. It does sound a bit dwarvish, ay? Other fallen men are going into the afterlife or into one of his many volcanos.

The Fire Lords are the fallen ones who are worthy of the Ember Kings grace. That means that they come back to life with the power of fire, an increased body temperature and slightly red-ish skin and eyes.

Way of life

The way the northern clans live is a life full of deprivation. They mostly rely on goats, sheep, chicken, trade, and their occasionally raids, some are called pirates. They only have a few fields which they can use to grow crops and only a bit of grain. Most of the grain is raided traded for fur, wool, and meat.

Inside every clan there is the clan leader, hopefully a Frost Maiden or someone who is trained in the ways of the Frost Queen as a spiritual advisor. Most clans have around twenty to thirty families, depending on the size of said family. Men and women are trained in the way of the land and the weapon as well. Which means that a man can do the same things a woman and vice versa. This includes cooking, sewing, fighting, and tending to the flock, the field and the house. Every child is obliged to help around the house, farm, flock or field.

In the morning the people eat the leftovers from the day before, then start to work until the evening. Wife and husband occasionally switch their tasks like one day she cooks and tends to the flock while the man is tending to the field and the next day they switch so he can bring her drinks and snacks.

The only thing which differs from that are specialised crafts like smithing; there they don't switch, but they could help each other out if necessary.

During the Winter and Summer Solstice they praise their gods and give them time with each other. Those festivities are the only time during the year were the gods come down to Koria and can spend some time together. The northern folks are offering a lot of stolen or raided imported hot chocolate, a favourite of the Frost Queen. The Ember King is a bit easier, he just takes a good mug of goat milk.

In terms of fighting they are trained with the bow - as well for hunting - and in close quarter, because their raids are often in smaller settlements, houses and sometimes on their longships. They are also trained in fighting alone and in a shieldwall or with spears.

Most of the relationships inside the families, clans and larger settlements are monogamous, but if polyamory happens, it is often accepted as the way it is. This also includes non-hetero/non-cis people.

In terms of food and drinks they rely on turnips, grain, crops as they can grow them, and the animals they have like goats or sheep. Some settlements even have geese which are used as an alarm system and to the Solstice they are the main festive dish.

If I die...

If people die they are burned on a pyre and the ash is encased in a small box made out of clay and fur. During the burial rite there is typically a lot of mead, meat and musicians. It is more of a rememberance party than a sad goodbye bidding. And whatever happens at the funeral, stays at the funeral.

Two (or more) warriors unite

Weddings between people - hetero, cis, whatnot - are everywhere the same. It starts even way before the wedding at the moment the warrior buys or crafts their weapon, be it axe, spear or sword. Part of the weapons blade is reserved by design for a pattern way down the line of a persons life. Why? Because it has something to do with the wedding.

The place for the wedding is not relevant, the execution is the relevant part. Both participants meet during a specific time of day in front of the wedding party in their armour and with their weapons. Once the chief, the Frost Maiden or the spiritual advisor has spoken their words - those are freestyle based on the couple - the marrying couple exchanges weapons. Can be with or without kisses, doesn't matter.

They turn to the - hopefully - prepared workstations and engrave the blade of the partners weapon with their own pre-designed pattern. Once finished, they come back to the official and exchange the weapons again. If this is done, they can kiss if they want, because once they exchange and accepted their engraved weapon, they are officially married.