Guluar

To the Guluar tribe, the hunt is everything. In the taiga and permafrost plains of the Great Northern Wilds and the eternal winter of the high mountains, warmth is life and blood carries warmth. Guluar pride themselves on not only strength, but cunning. It takes wits to survive in places no other Dragon Tribe is hardy enough to endure, and that is their great pride. To leave behind the harsh environment where they live would be to admit defeat, to heed the call to a life of farming or the decadent cities of Megaeni, Hamure or Orn would be shameful. No, life on the move, life in the face of the everlasting blizzard, THAT is proof that Guluar's people are made from sterner stuff.
The Tribe is divided into clans, those clans are divided into families. Usually an entire clan lives together, nomadically or sedentary (see below). However, it's possible for individual families to travel by themselves or dwell in far-off corners of the world. This is a rarity and seen as almost suspicious by other tribesfolk
There are three broad subcultures of the Guluar tribes. The vast majority are nomadic hunter gatherers, the harroci. Then there's a semi-sedentary population that establishes villages, typically in wooded areas or near abundant sources of water and food (ice-fishing villages, woodland slopes, etc), called the ingellarar or dwellers. Finally, a small subset of elite families builds strongholds. These are typically very powerful sorcerer families who settle near sources of arcane magic to conduct studies and religious rites, and even commune with dragons. These mage-chiefs, or Rimem-Hewi, are extraordinarily few in number.
Guluar tilabili (elders) gather tribute and taxes from the clans operating under the protection of a Rimem-Hewi, who is obliged to use their magic to protect the tribe, and to function as intercessors between the Guluar and the White Dragons. Much of this tribute gets passed from the Chief-Mage to the White Dragon of their area, and in regions without a Chief-Mage tribes pay tribute to the White Dragons directly, with great ceremony and no small amount of trepidation.

Suggested Parentages

• Draconic (White)
• Elemental (Frost)
• Goliath
• Human
• Kobold

Naming Traditions

Family names

Onkmetgix (Winterclaw), Kepeskharroc (Stormhunter), Houpetorner (Hidden Spear), Guljesk (Coldfang), Jennuharroc (Greathunter), Suaconer (Windspear), Xarzithniarhaanin (Ice River)

Culture

Major language groups and dialects

Draconic, Common

Culture and cultural heritage

Inspired by the white dragons of the frozen north, Guluar culture emphasizes survival not only as a necessity but as a virtue. Being able to hold your own, provide for your family and clan, endure greater hardships and outwit your foes are all highly virtuous. Multiple sub-cultures make up Guluar society, being an amalgamation of northern dwelling peoples who came to worship dragons.
The Guluar tribe does not necessarily praise valor in combat, focusing more on victory and practicality. Don't take a fight you're guaranteed to lose, don't provoke an enemy unnecessarily, don't betray or harm your own family or kin.

Shared customary codes and values

Strength Cunning Survival Endurance

Common Dress code

Most dress in Guluar is practical. Furs and heavy winter clothing are key to survival. Beads and bones are used for ornamentation, along with bells and tassels for ceremonial/fine clothing.
Deerskin is a favored material, though the hides of more supernatural beasts are even more prized. Loose, knee-length deerskin robes are fastened at the throat and open in the front. Leather aprons provide warmth for the front of the body, combined with loincloths and leggings. Fur trim helps keep in heat. Winder boots made from animal hide and decorated with beads or fur strips. A close-fitting animal hide cap that covers the ears wraps up the outfit. The clothing of hunters and warriors is far less elaborate than homemakers and craftspeople, who adorn their outfits with elaborate beadwork.

Art & Architecture

Engraved wood, bone, metal, horn and leather are worked into saddles and saddle horns, pipes, knives, tool handles and other items of everyday use. Geometric patterns symbolizing strength, cunning, dragons, ancestors, good fortune, protection, and defiance are popular for beadwork, fur applications and embroidery. 
Musically, Guluar peoples play a mouth organ, drums, and flutes. They have a rich tradition of music and dance, especially large circle dancing that can go on for hours. 
The Harroci use deerskin or fish-skin tents (woodland clans use birch tree bark to cover their dents) with central hearthfires for warmth, cooking, and illumination. Ingellarar clans build their villages from hardpacked snow in deep north environments, or dugouts covered with turf, or even log cabins in certain regions. The Rimem-Hewi build strongholds of stone and wood, or even palaces of ice, helped by their powerful magic.

Common Customs, traditions and rituals

Guluar tribesfolk share the products of herding, fishing, or hunting with clan members, hunting partners and neighbors. This is vital to their survival. Willful failure to contribute to the survival of the tribe by refusing to share the results of your hunting and plundering is a serious crime.
Guluar are required to marry members of other clans, strengthening ties within the tribe.

Birth & Baptismal Rites

The birth of a new Guluar child is marked by special cleansing rites, to ensure the mother's safety & protection and to give the child the ideal circumstances under which to enter the world. A blood offering (of a hunted animal) is made and the child is anointed with the blood (the animal is then cooked and eaten by the tribe as part of a feast), with a prayer that the child may be given strength and cunning of the White Dragon. Each child also receives a special toy carved with their name to mark their entrance into the world. It is customary for Guluar tribesfolk to keep these until their deaths.

Funerary and Memorial customs

Guluar are buried in wooden coffins decorated with white dragons and placed atop elevated platforms where possible. The Guluar freeze their dead, either thanks to the blowing wind, or burying them in special funerary snow drifts. They are buried with their tools and weapons, which are broken to "kill" them as well, making them usable by the fallen tribemember in the afterlife. The dead are celebrated with a feast--just as with birth, an animal is sacrificed, the dead is anointed with their blood, and the community eats the animal.

Common Taboos

Blizzards are seen as holy tests, the ferocity of a white dragon's breath testing the tribe. You cannot quarrel during a blizzard or spit into a blizzard. This leads to relative peace among the Guluar depending on where they live, as those who dwell in the northernmost climates are frequently in blizzards and therefore forbidden to fight.

Common Myths and Legends

The White Dragon, Guluar, is the patron of the entire tribe and an object of near worshipful reverence. Before the time of Guluar, the people of the north warred with each other and with the mighty Frost Giants who dwelled in the Great Northern Wild. But a beast came from the Wilds, a great monster with a burning red belly and a cavernous maw. It devoured entire villages and melted tunnels through the snow, vanishing. The Frost Giants could not capture it and the mortal people could not withstand it.
But Guluar flew down upon the wilds and the blizzards came with her, and she hunted the Skaerenklvi for sixteen days and sixteen nights and outwitted it, feasting upon its innards. The heat of its red-hot guts melted the ice and warmed the forest, making a place for the people to live. They swore loyalty to Guluar, who showed them strength, cunning and how to survive in the harsh wilderness.
There are many stories of great heroes encountering Guluar, who is a force of nature and a test of your will to survive. Guluar does not instruct, Guluar tests. Some are slain and become examples, others survive and become great heroes or sorcerers. Many of the Chief-Mages are descended from those who endured Guluar's trials and were found worthy.