Winter Shelter

The Tale

Ours are your lives

Ours is your words

Ours are the children you will bear

Ours are the animals you will kill

Everything you will be is ours

When we leave, we will gift you

strength, wit and skill

What you need to keep your life

when the sun in the sky is your friend

But when white covers your eyes

you must run to the mountains

There you will find our final gift

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The Tradition

This tale is told the night before the ceremony in honor of the Winter god Feni. In this ritual, the Guvian celebrate their god's generosity and kindness for building them a home to live when the snow falls and threatens their lives. Usually, two or three of the older members of the group play the part of Feni and his first guvian to recreate the story for the rest of the group. The details have changed over the course of countless generations, but the shelters under the mountains where guvian take refuge when summer ends are real. Their logic is simple: if the shelters are real, the gods are real. Therefore, their lives belong to them. Feni's word is the law and must be followed no matter what.

This is one of the reasons the Guvian are so strict in their traditions and their way of life hasn't been altered that much, although a lot of time has passed. They don't know how much, maybe because most of them don't care about time. Everything they need to live the gods have provided in the form of nature: animals to eat and to clothe their bodies, elements to protect from the sun and rain in the summer, and the most important of all the winter shelters. What else could they need?

What they know is how to behave when they occupy the shelters: men and women must remain in different shelters. The only times they are allowed to see each other is when they go hunting, if they wish to hunt together.

No one knows when the shelters were built. It's the gift that keeps them alive. That's all they need to know.

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The Shelters

Although every shelter was built with the same characteristics, each group has claimed one for themselves and go to the same one every winter. This tradition has added different decoration in the walls. Some Guvian are inclined to paint when they are bored. The smooth walls are a good canvas: thousands of layers of drawings and history are hidden behind a new layer of paint each year.

These underground homes have all the things necessary to fulfil people's needs:

• One chamber to build fires
• Several rooms to sleep
• Three chambers to dispose of bodily's waste
• Two rooms to preserve the food
• Light ignites with the snap of their fingers
• A system of tubes to keep the air clean

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When darkness rises

When the cold tangles our steps

We have a home to return to

When wind attacks us

When the sun leaves us alone

We have a home to return to

When summer vanishes

When the colors turn white

We have a home to return to

When the time to rest begins

We have a home to return to

Old Guvian song

Type

Cave System

by Unsplash

The Winter Shelters are located along the mountain range in the south. The people living there have never needed to build more. The numbers of members of every nomad group remains almost the same when summer comes to an end. They have perfect balance between what they need and what they have.