Nolǐur
No one expected the exiled people of Unno-Ǐara to survive when the Witch Queen both revered and reviled led her people to the frozen north. Winter held a tight grip over the entire region even as the days slowly grew warmer, making the region little more than frozen wasteland.
The Nolǐur adapted well to the hostile environment, and found ways to survive beyond those practiced by the rest of their kin back south. The magic tradition of their ancestors which sought balance between man and nature through song and spell was turned into an instrument of domination over the land itself. Through these new practices were the Nolǐur able to not only survive, but thrive in the lands of night.
Hunting, gathering and fishing remained an important part of the Nolǐur lifestyle, however seasonal raiding of the southern regions became a new custom as demands for thralls, food and other resources grew. Every year after the worst of winter had passed, clans would gather as raiding parties and leave south. Whatever treasures and people they found were then given to the miznar as tribute in return for gifts of health and strength, among others.
While vast majority of the Nolǐur remained fully nomadic out of necessity, the miznar—with the aid of their leader Unno-Ǐara—were able to settle down in sheltered corners of Udzar and found covens. Here the miznar ruled the people as well as land, their strength thus heightening into new realms unknown to most other descendants of the Eltiri.
Strength—both physical and magical—became almost an obsession to the Nolǐur. Among them the strongest led the rest, and once that strength began to fade due to some injury or mere age, a new leader took over the position. While the weak and frail were rarely left behind—particularly if they were kin—they had no power to make or weigh in on decisions and were mostly left to do what they could.
Exodus of the Second Age
Tremors shook over Udzar at the end of the First Age, heralding changes to come. Within the next decade weather turned cold and dark, more so than it had ever managed before with sun melting away the icy claws of winter. The Nolǐur, for all their strength and prowess, were powerless to stop or even slow down the changes brought on by shifting of the cosmic forces beyond their own reality.
Most of the Nolǐur chose to stay, refusing to simply abandon the homeland they had known for generations. As years went by, however, both flora and fauna began to die and the edges of Tenwän wilds retreated ever further away, and eventually most clans surrendered to a realization that to stay was to die.
The only ones to stay in Udzar after the tremors were those blindly loyal to Unno-Ǐara, who instead of escaping wished to seal herself and her most faithful followers within the depths of her home in Hagfell. Enshrined in ice, they would wait until the return of life and warmth before waking once more to rule the land.
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