Piney
Many villages scattered through the Margreave are home to an elusive ethnicity of humans known as the Pineys. These strange people are followers of a superstitious code known to outsiders as “the old ways,” though the pineys themselves do not refer to it as such. For them, the rules of the Margreave are as natural as the leaves growing on the boughs above.
On occasion, and likely caused by banishment arising from actions contrary to the old ways, a piney could leaves the limits of the Margreve. These cast-outs soon lose the extreme features told by travelers about them, like large eyes and ears or skin the color of wood, reverting to a more average human form. However, the magic of the great forest still courses through their blood, manifesting in strange and sometimes dreadful ways.
Culture
Shared customary codes and values
Most deeply ingrained in the Piney traditions is the Old Ways, a group of strange saying, rituals, and traditions that seem superstitious and backward. The inhabitants of the Margreave Forest believe in countless superstitions and traditions, all representative of the Old Ways they have lived for what must be over a thousand years. The details vary wildly based on where in the Margreave you are, but usually;
- Margrevians open the eyes of their dead, lest they wander lost through the woods forever, never finding the afterlife.
- Sinners confess their sins by cutting themselves, and letting the blood drip on the thirsty forest floor.
- A bloodless person cannot pass into the afterlife. Consequently, the dead are never buried, as the Piney believe the roots of the earth will drink them before their souls can leave their bodies.
- The greatest punishment is to be buried dead or alive. Revenants of buried people haunt the Margreave itself. Every dawn they return to their graves and every night they wander for a way out of the woods.
- Any structure built without sacrificing blood to the forest will shake itself down on its owner.
- There are places in the forests that can give or take youth itself, but only the unborn and the dead know where they are.
- Margrevians extinguish torches before midnight. This practice is the oldest in the Old Ways, as Pineys see moths and other light-attracted insects to be omens of death.
- If you see a group of butterflies, and it is less than the number in your traveling group, one of you will die.
- Whenever a "civilized" person enters the Margreave, an evil creature is born.
- Margreave beasts must NEVER leave the forest tamed by outsiders, lest the beasts become in touch with civilization, doomed to become half-men or skinwalkers.
- If you nail the skin or hair of a sick person to a tree, the tree will absorb a part of the illness and aid the persons recovery.
- Every plant has a theme, a purpose, and a power. For example, flowers are usually liars and beguilers, and that is obviously why outsiders are so fond of them. True power lies in leaves, stems, and roots.
- Salt is incapable of existing with magic, and makes excellent material for wards against creatures and curses. Salt is one of the few reasons Pineys leave their woods to find merchants along the Great Northern Road.
Encompassed species
