Icewind Reavers
The Icewind Reavers are roving small clans of raiders of the northern Ivinian (Viking) kingdoms. They are considered a combination of a criminal syndicate and animistic tribal cultists who do not hold any lands and only operate out of their longships except over winter, when they occupy small temporary mobile settlements or in the shells of devastated raided villages. They are infamous for their brutality and slave trading.
Each clan consists of one to three longships ruled by a Herzog, a shaman, and a runemaster specializing in ice magic. His word is the law with a clan. There are rumors that after intense rituals and painful ordeals, the tribe's best warriors, the berzerkers, can take the shape of a wolf. The clan's men and women are known for painting their skin white or light blue, wearing wolf skins, and having wolf head pendants.
The reavers are greatly feared, not as a potent military force but more as a parasite of small isolated settlements or merchant vessels. Their longships have a wolf head on their prow, specializing in hit-and-run tactics, preferring to avoid anything resembling a fair fight.
They adhere to all of Sarajinianism's most violent and negative aspects combined with pagan shamanism. They revere Jarlak, the Carrion Lord and consider him their patron sometimes sacrificing trasure and human lives. In return, the reaver's shaman is said to have access to cold and summoning spells, which it is said can be used to call winter wolves to aid them in battle.
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