Western Village of the Wildlings

Yesterday, Loreley Renard, a curious and kind Wildling, led me to the place where her tribe lives. After a warm welcome, her tribesmen invited me to eat dinner with them. I agreed but asked them if I could eat it out of their sight. They didn't mind.
After eating, Loreley introduced me to everyone. They answered all of my questions while bombarding me with the ones they had. I'll stay here for a little longer to gather some info about them and their culture.

— Fragment of Professor Kostek's log on the Wildling Tribes.

In some sense, the village of the western tribe of Wildlings existed here for a long time. Even before the two worlds merged during the Extinction, they lived there for more than a century. What's interesting, for the most time, the village is almost completely abandoned. There might be four or five inhabitants caring for it or guarding it, but the other members of the tribe usually walk around the city, doing their own things or hunting.

Geography

The tribe is located in the western part of the city, where a few parks and a zoo were located. There are two large lakes nearby, which Wildlings use for fishing. Both the zoo and the residential areas surrounding the two parks have been really good sources of resources such as metals, textiles and everything else the people living there in the past had.
The tribe itself is hidden in the middle of the zoo, a mixture of a wild and urban world, a place perfect for Wildlings.
Nature took back over anything that was man-made, filling it with a bountiful variety of plants and animals, both those from the material and spiritual world. Walking there, one can often spot completely overgrown roads and buildings.

Buildings

Most of the buildings the tribe uses as their homes, warehouses, and pantries, were once the zoo buildings for staff and exotic animals. Looking at the buildings of the city, the tribe copied the things they encountered the most in the flats, such as beds, tables, and chairs. As Wildlings learn really fast once someone shows something to them, it would mean that this tribe has been shown how to operate the generators, how to use wells located in the area, and that they should boil their water. They even took some fridges and store the meat of the animals their hunt inside refrigerators.
All of the buildings they use are decorated with colorful pieces of cloth, with each color symbolizing the different use for the building. The red cloth on the northernmost (and closest to the generators) building signifies that the meat is stored there. Blue cloth on the building close to the center of the zoo that once was a terrarium marks the sleeping area. The old restaurant marked with yellow kept its old function and is now used as a place where Wildlings gather and eat together. And lastly, buildings marked with black, spread around the whole zoo, are the ones used as a place for traps and ambushes against hostile forces.

Defenses

The Wildlings are mostly pacifists, avoiding any unnecessary conflicts they can. They hunt for food, but they never attack any humans without a reason. And yet, if someone backs them into a corner, they turn ferocious. Western tribe possesses 4 rifles, and bows, bladed and blunt weapons, for every single one of its members. 4 of them like to fight using shields. A few still prefer their claws and teeth. Everyone here is trained in fighting with weapons since the first time they join the tribe.
The first line of defense of the tribe would be the numerous traps they have laid everywhere on the edges of their territory. Pits, ground snares, and tension traps, all serve two purposes, to gather food, and neutralize any hostile threats. The second would be the walls and the layout of the zoo, both used to slow down the enemies and lure them into an ambush. Depending on the numbers and the size of the hostile beings, Wildlings will bait them through different buildings.
A group consisting of small, numerous enemies? The tribesmen will run through the birdcages, where the enemies can be split into smaller and smaller groups and dealt with easily. In case of the bigger threats, they will be lured into bigger buildings, into the side where visitors walked, while the Wildlings will shoot them from the safety of the exhibit cages.
As Spirits, they are fully capable to hurt other Spirits. But thanks to their intelligence and their closeness to humans, they peeped on human protection circles and they partially copied them. And although their circles don't really stop the Spirits (it would be pretty counterproductive as they are also Spirits), they make unwanted intruders feel sick, which, in most cases, is enough to deter them from getting closer but it can also make it harder for them to focus, which in turn makes it easier for Wildlings to attack them.

My week-long stay in the village of the Wildlings has been very fruitful to my studies. Who would have thought that Spirits could form a society that resembles the early days of humanity so much? And the rate at which they progress is truly marvelous. Are there more species of Spirits like them?
When I was leaving them, the "kids" hugged me and wanted to play one more time. Loreley held my hand and kissed a side of my visor. I assured her and her people that I will come back for sure, but I still have so much to research.
Still, going there once in a while might be a good way to relax.

— The last fragment of Professor Kostek's log about the Wildlings and their tribes.
For now.

Type

Village

Population

22

Demographics:
Everyone here is a Wildling, but depending on their looks, they can be split into 3 groups.

• 5 of them are more animal-like than human-like
• 6 of the human-like ones look like children
• 11 are human adult-shaped

Culture

Even though two tribes of Wildlings could be very far away from each other, their culture is very similar.
Once they see what clothes are used for, they start to wear eye-catching colors or hundreds of necklaces, amulets, and other accessories.
If someone shows it to them, they adapt to using the technology really fast, otherwise, they will be stuck at the Stone Age level.
Because of that, their villages are a weird mix of modern and primitive technology and architecture.

Three elders

Even though the Wildlings normally all act on their own, all of the members of the tribe listen to three eldest Spirits, beings that were considered gods of nature before they became Wildlings and got outcasted by their kind. In case of an outside attack or a search for new resources, it is the elders that decide on what to do.

Hill Fox

The oldest of the Spirits, he remembers the times when the land was covered by the glacier. Once, a great fox with fur looking like the reflected night sky in the past, now looks more like a teenager mixed with parts of a fox and fragments of a city (part of his skin became cement, his hand is joined with the rest of the arm with rebar). His hair and part of his tail kept their old color.
He usually wields his Dane axe. Hill Fox likes to joke around and is an optimist at heart.

Boar of the Lake

Boar of the Lake is one of the Spirits that managed to keep their animal form. She is well over 2 m tall and almost 4 meters long. Her eyes, some of her teeth (she doesn't have one of her tusks), and various patches on her body are human. She rarely leaves the village and is the one who cares the most about her fellow tribesmen, to the point where they jokingly call her Mama Boar, Mama Pig or Mama Sow. She doesn't really show it, but she really likes to be called those names.

Aila Red

The spirit that was in the past foreign to these lands, Aila Red, was a nature Spirit that came here with the zoo animals after centuries spent in their old land. Once a red panda with fur moving like flames, she now looks like a short, young girl with most of her head still being that of the red panda. She is very spontaneous and energetic, first one to fight with the incoming threat.