Jal'sa Settlements
The settlements of Jal'sa droga include not only the main clan residence and associated buildings (such as the Clan Museum), but also encampments closer to the Greater Pass which are almost exclusively utilized by religious experts.
These settlements are considered by wider Stenza society as one of the areas with the highest concentration of still-observed folk customs and traditions pertaining to incredibly ancient religious ideas (the other such region is the Low Pass, which is notorious for its large body of oral literature and customs about Migration). In addition to old stories and customs spawned from them, urban legends about the Snow Warrior crop up regularly, and people from the region consistently report encounters. Most of these reports are received and codified by local religious experts (or in children's mystery cults by the eldest members who are most likely to grow up to become religious experts), but some have seeped out into Stenza society at large, leading to a somewhat joking, derisive stereotype of Greater Pass Stenza as backwards and overly superstitious (although most, in the back of their minds, are keenly aware that these folks are on to something, and so by and large Greater Pass Stenza are left to their own devices and in some cases turned to for highly specific purposes; for example, see The Wind Fields).
Guilds and Factions
The settlements are under the control of Jal'sa droga, serving chiefly as their residential area. However, due to the machinations of T'zu-Crae, the clan is in fairly significant risk of being split in two, with one faction developing anti-Leader sentiments at least as regards this particular individual. (It should be noted that this sort of divide hadn't been seen since before the assassination of Raida in 2419.)
History
The Jal'sa settlements are among the oldest Stenza structures, and have had a long and rich history of engaging with the entities of the Frozen Wastes through the Greater Pass (leaving the mysterious stone containing five dots on one side and seven on the other, one of the strangest attestations of Jeshra, who would later become the Snow Warrior). Like 'Elokh in the Low Pass, Jal'sa has long been considered favored by the muhye, and therefore is one of the powers fostering a lot of the lore surrounding the Snow Warrior and Pups, including the childlore.
During the Battle with the Stone Menace, Jal'sa youths and hundreds of other children from all over the Greater Pass region congregated at the Greater Pass and ventured into the Wastes in a bid to ask the Snow Warrior for help fighting the strange abomination that had come upon the species. This act led to the clearest days on record in the area, allowing the Stone Menace to be seen for miles around, and has been commemorated roughly every four years ever since victory had been achieved. This incident is the only known Greater Pass childlore to voluntarily be released into the wider culture.
Additionally, Jal'sa religious experts, who have established their camps in the foothills of the Norther Mountains toward the Greater Pass, have become known for their skill and knowledge about the Snow Warrior and Pups, and are sometimes called upon to help in tricky situations involving them (sometimes these are Rebuilding Rites, but in one notable case, a team of them was established to bargain with the Snow Warrior for the establishment of The Wind Fields, and established the border line into the Wastes that Stenza constructions could not be established; this excluded mining operations that were also conducted with the guidance of holy people, mostly from the Greater Pass region).
Meanwhile, as society marched on in the sheltered regions of the mountains, and especially in the comparatively metropolitan Strares, there developed a disconnect between them and the members of Jal'sa. Jal'sa, and the Greater Pass people more broadly, were openly regarded as slightly superstitious (although secretly many Stenza still hold that they are among the best for spiritual matters especially related to the Snow Warrior and Pups, as well as still holding on to traditions and customs that used to be a lot more widespread).
Points of interest
The encampments in particular are almost completely nestled into the Greater Pass, the widest of the four passes allowing Stenza access to the world beyond the Ice Flats basin. The views may be scenic but the environment beyond is almost inhospitable, and is considered the domain of the Snow Warrior and Pups. The zone between the portion of the Pass closer to Stenza settlement and the portion closer to the wilderness has long been considered a sacred boundary, where offerings of drink or in rare cases carved stone have been left in order to gain passage for various purposes (chiefly a religious excursion, but this also includes funerary rites, mundane purposes such as a commute to work for some individuals, and hunting season, although the Wide Pass or Low Pass are considerably more common points of departure for the last).
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