The Snowlands

The Snowlands
Snowlanders, this is what the people of Karimas call those of the glacial tribes in the North. Collectively, they call themselves (INSERT WORD HERE), meaning "those who endure." Individually, they identify themselves by clan and tribe.

Clans
Clans are close knit family groups. Sometimes as small as one or two loosely related families; though sometimes, especially in the southern regions, as large as eight to ten interrelated families. Clans are often led by the eldest able-bodied male, but if a shaman is born to the clan, he/she will often lead from the rite of adulthood forward. The elderly, the sick, and the frail are not cared for, as one may expect. If you cannot work, hunt or fish, then clan will let nature take it's natural course

Tribes
Tribes are units of clans. Tribes are often interchangable, negotiable, and intermarriageable. Tribal councils are held once every summer, where the leaders of each clan meet at neutral ground to share news, arrange marriages, and, in these most recent years, trade with Kariman's brave enough to come up the Lift. To most Kariman's, the Snowlanders seem a backwards people.

General Life in the Tribes
Women are highly revered and respected, as they are the giver's of Life. It is said that a Snowlander will do anything to protect a woman with child. The truth behind the practice is the fact that, due to the harsh conditions, the birth rate is very low among the tribes, and infant mortality is very high. The Snowlanders know their people are dwindling. Some parents go so far as to hide, or cover up any visible defects in a child, in hopes of it's survival. News of a pregnancy, is, of course, cause for major celebration.

Despite the role women as lifegivers, they do not lead a luxurious life. Both men and women share an equal role in hunting and gathering. Only during the later stages of pregnancy are women excused from daily chores. Children ages 4 and up are expected to help out around camp. Those 10 and older are taught to hunt and fish. At the age of 16, all Snowlanders, regardless of gender, are expected to participate in a Great Rite that leads them to adulthood. Each clan has variations of this Rite. For example: the Wintersbite clan expects a youth to hunt and kill a great cavebear in the mountains and return with proof before passing on to adulthood.

Many of the clans are expert hide and leatherworkers. Their furs are some of the most sought after. The People hunt in the summer and spring when the snow recedes to the Glacial North. All their prey (except for the great mountainous cavebears) tend to be small, rodents or hares and the like. Foxes and wolves are commong in the summer, but in the winter they leave for the Stormlands.

Beliefs
Above all others, the Snowlanders revere Mother Earth. Though there are no shortages of the other Four in the northlands, Earth is seen as the Lifegiver and shamans who shows an affinity for Earth are often sequestered. They are hidden from the other tribes and kept in protected caves to grow crops with their gifts.

Mages are rare in the Snowlands. Perhaps one one or two are born every generation in a single tribe, while fewer still survive to adulthood. Fairly, but not completely, unique to the Snowlands are what are known as Wild Mages. Many scholars believe these conceptual mages to have risen in response to the Snowlanders animistic practices. They ascribe almost godlike values to the beasts of the world. A common saying among Snowlanders regarding the animals is "The Mother gives rise to all that walks and crawls." (Avians, according to a Snowlander, are children of Father Sky.)

Appearance
As a people, Snowlanders are small and compact. Dark of hair, their eye color does have a wide variety of ranges. Man rarely are taller than 5'9", and the tallest of women is usually 5'5". Stocky and powerful, they typically showcase higher than average Endurance, while sometimes sacrificing Dexterity. (It is better to go long distances, than to go quickly.)

Snowlands Climate
Near the Cliffs, the Snowlands actually have arable land. Granted any growing season is only four months long, due to the onset of early winters. Warm Southern winds often don't make it over the Cliffs, leaving even their summer temperatures seem like a chilly springtime to most.

The further north one goes, the more tundra-like the climate becomes, until eventually you reach the massive glacial planes. The glaciers are another solid cliff face rising in the north, yet oddly, the glaciers themselves do not move in a North-South direction. They instead push forever westward, calving into a western sea, the path to which the Snowlanders have been searching for over generations. Impassible cliffs and a wall of mountains to the west block most overland routes to this uncharted northwestern sea.