Giersmetter

"Say, where are you from?" Loke van Tundren asked me. 
I shrugged, "Giersmetter."
He slapped me on the back and I nearly fell of the cart. "Ah, Giersmetter!" He bellowed with a familiarity that made me shiver, "Not much to do, but it's home, eh?"
It was a common enough phrase, wasn't it? I tried in vain to ward off the sudden stomach-ache caused by my lie, only now realising it was a real village somewhere.

Giersmetter is a village that now resides in the Northern Beastwilds, though it was always on the outskirts of any maps - mental or physical. Marked as the middle of nowhere by most, it was seen as marking an ancient battleground between the human and divine, with the latter as the clear victor. As such, the village only grew as a result of people exiled for their misdeeds against the gods. 
To the modern mind, it matters little that Giersmetter has been rediscovered. It has been the monolith of the deserted northern reaches for centuries and thus become the settlement say they are from if they want to avoid revealing their true birth place. In short, it is considered the one village not worth coming from or going to, even if the reasons have long been forgotten.

Guilds and Factions

The main factions of Giersmetter revolve around spiritual matters. Their most important - the Couriers - catalogue and consult the spirits of the north on a variety of topics, mostly involving snow. 
Another, called the Ascension, seek to convince people that the spirits do not exist. They compete amongst themselves to decide what religion they should ask people to follow without realising that they would have to also convert for the village to truly "ascend" from their humble roots. 
The final main faction are called Labourers, who - as their name implies - find spiritual meaning through their work and its outcomes alone. These members are the most likely to leave Giersmetter and therefore are most subjected to the ridicule by the outside world. People ignorant of these factions assume that all Giersmer treat farming and other manual labour as a religion. Their denonym, "Giersmer", now means a country peasant or serf in Noravägen.

History

People who lived far in the north were thought to be strange spirits who were banished to the cold north for transgressions against an old God. Only a few were brought south into Noravägen and those to the east in Oksal thought they were malevolent ghosts of the damned.
As such, those who had broken oaths - whether they be disillusioned holy men or traitors to the local tribe - were exiled from Noravägen into the Beastwilds, where it was presumed they would be taken by these spirits. In truth, they worked alongside the native people to found Giersmetter and hoped the village would thrive in its seclusion.
A few decades later, the beast began moving southward and their attacks - now thought a rare case of bad luck - consumed the village of Giersmetter and all those surrounding it. This migration is still known as the Migration of the Edge, from when contemporaries thought that this shift meant that the world itself was beginning to shrink and therefore nearing to collapse.
It was assumed that this signalled a curse from the old spirits of the north and thus the area became off-limits to travellers. Only when other explorers sought to follow in Baudwin's footsteps in mapping the unexplorable did Giersmetter open to the world.

Tourism

The denizens of Giersmetter are not used to visitors and the ones that do come are more interested in its name than the local attractions or traditions. Most people simply show up at the sign, make jokes at the local inn about it and never return. 
Those who stay, however, tend to settle down in Giersmetter with no plans of leaving. The local, slow pace of living has a certain charm to those used to busy urban days. Some have clear plans to bring some resemblance of "civilisation" to the always sleeping town, but these efforts have gone unrewarded, ignored or are warmly abandoned by those who come up with them.

Architecture

"There lies menace in these trees. That, and an excess of dwellings. Some tall, some short, but none of them with real girth or comfort."

— Alfred Mainsbill, a Wizard specialising in Thirology

Giersmetter architecture has developed much over the years, especially because outcasts from other countries put their mark on the village. At first, the villagers hollowed out old trees to make their homes, going higher into the canopies when they needed more room. This later evolved into tall, thin buildings made from wood that would either rest between or become part of the trees around it. 
The holy buildings of the Acension faction stand independently from the trees and neither are they painted or carved to look like a tree. They stand firmly against nature, reaching to the heavens from which they claim all life's answers reside. As such, the wood they were made from is bare to see and unyielding.

Founding Date

219

Alternative Name(s)

Middle of Nowhere, Gierston

Type

Village

Population

277

Inhabitant Demonym

Giermer