Geit

There are many winds on Jotun, but only one with a name.
Though the Shrikevind is quick to scold any Geit foolish enough to mount a sail on his ship or build his mead hall above the ice, it is this same howling torrent that once carved the cracks from Jotun’s glaciers which now protect the Clans from the sphere’s blizzards and fire giants.
The Geit clans are an assembly of horned warriors and antlered druids. They hearken from the inhospitable sphere called Jotun with a frozen surface and a boiling core. The Geit live inside glaciers hollowed out by artifacts called Embermuurs, which are essentially giant nectar-powered heaters that can make even the coldest climates hospitable.
Living in the ice shields the Geit from the Sphere’s howling winds, which can rip the sail from a man’s ship just as easily as they’ll rip the skin from his bones. Even though the Geit have never held Source, they’ve conquered it more times than any other race in the Fractured Histories.
Since the Geit forefathers first gazed upon Source passing over Jotun, the Clans have engaged in perpetual conflict for nectar and the heat it brings to their cities’ embermuurs. In the days before the Alliance, this meant sending warships across the sphere’s glacial canals to rival city-states and pillaging nectar to provide warmer nights for their homes.

Physical Characteristics

Geit are human-like creatures ranging from 5’-8’ tall and 130-300 pounds. The Geit “race” is actually an amalgam of different subspecies distinguished by the appendages attached to their heads. Most Geit have the spiraled horns of mountain goats, but many (particularly females) sport the antlers of a buck. Rarer specimens have been seen to feature horns or antlers from more exotic species such as elk, rhinoceroses, or narwhals.

Racial Edges:
Infrared Vision.Grants a +1 bonus to spot checks made against living creatures with a heat signature that are obscured by darkness or physical obstructions. This becomes a +2 bonus in climates below zero degrees.

Shrike-Bellied. Living on Jotun has blessed Geit with the uncanny ability to digest anything. This has led to a cuisine that is as expansive as it is strange. A Geit can alleviate hunger by digesting any item that is or was once alive and are immune to ingested poisons or other stomach irritants like spicy food.

Blood of Ember. Geit are naturally resistant to cold climates and gain a +2 bonus to checks made to resist damage from cold temperatures or ice based attacks.

Charge (Sprinting Edge). Stubborn and headstrong (literally)—Geit permit no enemy to stand between them and where they want to go. Geit sprint with their chins tucked in and charge horns-first. Geit may sprint through squares occupied by enemies. Enemies hit by a charge are moved 1” to the left or right.

Backgrounds

Thrall

While most outsiders’ contact with Jotun is through the Clans, membership is often limited to the strong or politically powerful. The vast majority of Geit live in villages along the canyons only partially shielded from the elements. The Thrall are seafarers who chart their course by the narrow skies of Jotun’s high-walled glacial canals. They are multi-disciplined warriors who use their ships to perform mercenary work for the Clans or explore unknown regions of the sphere in hopes to one day join a Clan or, perhaps, to find an undiscovered Embermuur and start one of their own.

Background Skills: 1d6 Survival, 1d6 Navigation, 1d6 Helmsman
Background Edge: Shrikevind Drill Training. When you are the victim of a surprise attack, you remain flat-footed for only the first enemy’s attack (whether it is made against you or a party member) rather than the enemy’s entire first turn.

Clan Warden

Charged with solemn duties of managing the Clan’s ships and mercenary forces as well as keeping the Embermuur fueled, Clan Wardens functions are more akin to a general than an aristocrat. In the past, the competence of its Wardens determined whether the Clan survived the cycle. In the days of the Alliance, however, most Wardens are more concerned with ensuring that their city has warmer nights than its neighbors and making the often overblown boasts and promises of their proud Clan Chiefs a reality.

Background Skills: Diplomacy 1d6, Assess Person 1d4.
Background Edge: Scarcity Logistics. Gain an extra use out of all rations consumed by the party.

White Druid

The high walls of the glaciers protect most Geit communities, but the druids live above the ice to commune with the natural forces of the planet. Some say that ancient pacts with Jotun itself forbid the Shrikevind from passing through druid enclaves; others say that the druid elders possess secret maps of the winds’ course that dictate their enclave’s movements. Regardless it is no secret that all Geit Druids have a certain power over the winds. The Fractured Histories cite several instances where druids have managed to calm the Shrikevind for brief periods, and one account even describes a druid single handedly destroying two warring Clans by commanding the Shrikevind against them.

Background Skills: Astral Combat 1d4, Survival 1d4, Animal Handling 1d4.
Background Edge: Wind Affinity. Add +1 to any wind or lightning based attack from enchantments, imbibification, or figments.

Politics

The clan is the primary political institution that shapes Geit politics. Each clan derives is political power from possession of an artifact called an “embermuur”; a large, nectar-powered heat-generator capable of melting a temperate city-sized hole in Jotun’s glacial walls. Each embermuur carries with it the promise of shelter from the druids and fire giants that roam the narrow glacial canals that pass for an ocean on Jotun, and the deadly Shrikevind, which blows down anything standing above Jotun’s mountainous glaciers. Citizens align themselves with a clan, and agree to follow their chieftain’s laws in exchange for citizenship in an embermuur sheltered dwelling for their family.
While any embermuur has the potential to become the cornerstone of a great Geit city, not all Clans are equal in the power they wield. An embermuur can only produce as much warmth as the nectar that fuels it. Therefore, Clans who are able to secure more nectar are able to power warmer and larger cities for their people. In the old times, Geit Clans warred with one another for nectar to power their cities, but the Alliance has since put a stop to most inter-clan warfare by providing each Clan a livable stipend of nectar in exchange for their continued membership in the Alliance. Extra nectar for more luxurious, balmy cities, is rationed out to each clans in accordance with heroic deeds by Corsairs sponsored by that Clan, making Corsairs an honored and integral component of Geit culture.
Another important facet of Geit politics is the tradition of The Clansmoot. Each Geit clan fields its own navy, and many times navies from one clan will clash with those of rival clans in competition for resources and honor. The Clansmoot, however, is a tool used for inter-clan cooperation to face threats common to the Geit as a whole. Any Clan chieftain may call a Clansmoot by raising a navy and sending it out into the spheres to rally the other clans. Like a snowball rolling down a mountain, a Clansmoot becomes more and more powerful the longer it lasts and the more clans join its cause. The leader of a Clansmoot is determined by the vote of participating clans as well as contests of strength and pitched battles held throughout the campaign’s duration. Therefore, calling a Clansmoot can often be a risky affair, since a Clan Chieftain may soon find his armies committed to a more qualified rival clan member. This is why Clansmoots are fairly rare in Geit history, and only arise in times of true crisis.

Culture

While each Geit Clan is host to many cultural quirks, several events have shaped the history of all Geit clans. The earliest of such events is the legendary conquest of Olaf against the fire giants of Jotun. It is said that in this legendary battle, Olaf was able to put the fire giants in submission and imprison their king. This victory gave the wandering Geit clans access to embermuurs for the first time and a lasting peace with the fearsome fire giants. Olaf and his followers became deified in Geit culture, and many old Geit traditions come from rituals and sacrifices meant to venerate the victors of this early battle. Sacrifices and rituals often involved tributes to one of five of Olaf’s followers; Tyre, saint of war and civilization; Raina, saint of the seas and shipbuilding; Lundy, saint of death, alcohol, and debauchery; Tormund, saint of fertility and the harvest; and Shrike, saint of chaos and the wind. It is said that those who followed these traditions could ward off Fire Giant attacks, by invoking the spirits of their conquerors.
This collection of old rituals and folkways are now often referred to as the Old Ways or the Old peace, largely because virtually all of the clans abandoned them around the time that Jotun became a part of the Koan Empire. Nevertheless, they are still practiced by many druids and villages on the periphery of Geit civilization who claim that the old saints protect them from Fire Giant attacks. Most Clan Geit, on the other hand, view the Old Ways as barbaric and uncivilized, and prefer to honor their culture in less literal ways, while defending their clan with modern weaponry.
Nevertheless, all Geit remain fiercely proud of their heritage. Machismo and stubborn adherence to traditional ways of doing things are common among all Geit. Many Clans snub users of alchemy or The Dream World as “consorting with pixies” rather than dealing with a problem yourself. Other forms of culture also take a similar no-frills approach to things, with Geit cuisine being a spice-less array of roasted meats and Geit artwork remaining virtually nonexistent unless attached as an engraving to a functional item like an axe or boat.

Economics

Geit Society is divided between two major castes. At the top of the economic ladder are those who have membership in a Clan. Below clan members are the “thrall”, a collection of mercenaries, sailors, and villagers who live outside the warmth of an embermuur. Many, but not all, members carry out their days hoping to one day gain admission to a Clan. For this reason, many thrall find themselves employed as merchants or soldiers for the various Clans, hoping to prove their worthiness of citizenship in the eyes of Clan leaders.
Within clans, the day-to-day affairs are often controlled by a Clan Warden, while the Clan Chieftain has the authority to make large decisions and serves as the figurehead of the Clan. Together, the Warden and Chieftain are in charge of choosing who may become a citizen of a clan. The family members of each citizen also gain admission into a Clan, meaning that polygamy is often practiced among Geit families with the citizen taking many spouses to maximize the benefits of citizenship.
Most of the major economic forces on Jotun are the clans themselves, and the enterprises that operate out of them. Clan Chieftains are decided through lineage, but due to the staggering number of children most clan chieftain have, Clan leadership resembles more of a meritocracy than a dynasty. Clan Wardens may be selected from any clan citizen, or by taking a competent member of the Thrall as a citizen. Wardens help right any Clan that may be lead astray if a Clan leader has few children or an incompetent brood of heirs.