Hellion
"Cultural descendants of the giants, the Hellions are raiders with nowhere to return their loot to. They're the most prevalent in the wilderness of the Northrealm but they can be found anywhere that hasn't exterminated them yet. On the Great Grass Ocean, they live in a kind of peace; it's simply more effort than it's really worth to hunt them down, and they often find trading more profitable than raiding. In Wupan, they operate along the shore as pirates and brigands, and in Eldermeare they're viewed as a resource of sorts; bodies are always needed in the salt mines."
~Abide Baht Mig, of Abide and Seak's Bizarre Bazaar
Naming Traditions
Feminine names
Wilgefortis
Gailesvintha
Attala
Mira
Dörthe-Julia
Matasvintha
Matasuntha
Amalafrida
Amalaswinth
Amalfrieda
Adosinda
Alwina
Brunhilda
Oonagh
Gailavira
Emalia
Melisenda
Elja
Elianor
Masculine names
Livila
Theoderic
Baza
Ansila
Thorismud
Vitigis
Lagariman
Hunumund
Colias
Gutthikas
Wella
Gouththas
Arius
Fastida
Odovacar
Ardabur
Babai
Unigild
Osuin
Chindasuinth
Hildebrand
Amalaric
Crocus
Hunumund
Patza
Osuin
Nidada
Sidimund
Remismund
Sunericus
Family names
Families of Hellions are loose alliances within their clans. They give themselves spooky names but rarely if ever actually announce their allegiances to their family openly. Slaughterhounds, Firefoxes, Cruel Demons, Warpigs, and Eagleblades are all notable families that have persisted, though there are hundreds of minor ones. These families practice dynastic politics within themselves, and these marriages, alliances, adoptions and assassinations can get insanely complex.
Other names
Typically, Hellion surnames are earned before they're inherited. Names like Bloodaxe and Murderbeard accompany notable victories, Cunningfox and Loyalhound would denote long and well earned reputations. Pejorative names like Backstabber and Addercop would denote shame, but if enough of a tribe take up the name the unfortunate Hellion would wear the name. Such names rarely last more than a few generations, with the children of the earned name using nepotist titles such as Bloodaxeson, Murderdottar, and Cunningkit.
Culture
Major language groups and dialects
Many Hellions speak Giant, and they carry the old accents in the Northrealm
Culture and cultural heritage
Hellions initially were the human slaves of the Giants, along with the goliaths. Some joined the Maecodians in fighting the giants throughout the Northern Acquisition and even occasionally before that. They maintain the giants' emphasis on physical strength and a raider economy.
Shared customary codes and values
Hellions are raiders and warriors first. They are wild, untamed, and value their personal freedom beyond anything else. The strong lead, the wise advise, and the weak fall in line or die.
Average technological level
Of all humans, Hellions are most likely to use stone, bone, and simple copper weapons and tools. Their relative lack of forges limits their options.
Common Etiquette rules
Hellions proffer threats as if they're friendly greetings. In fact, they are less likely to issue such threats if they actually intend to do violence. Merchants trading with Hellions will get nervous if they haven't been threatened with a good gutting before haggling.
Hellions will typically refuse any request or compromise initially, even if they ultimately agree with it.
Bribery accompanies polite requests or discussions as a matter of course.
Common Dress code
Hellions wear furs and skins, though it is fashionable among them to wear very little when they can get away with it. For armor, they wear leather or hardened hide strapskirts with accompanying boiled leather girdles and pauldrons. Some enjoy showing their bravery in battle by wearing nothing but body paint. Sometimes this is pejoratively referred to by outsiders as "Loincloth Fashion" or "Buttflappery." Rarely to the Hellions' faces, though.
Art & Architecture
Hellions are vandals. They leave their marks on edifices, carve totems out of trees and signposts, and build shrines to their gods. They build their homes by building up earthworks and then digging down into them, making half-buried wooden homes that fit each family in a clan. These homes are designed to be abandoned easily, and last until possible resettlement. In places where these are in an advantageous position, they sometimes become more normal hamlets as people settle there from outside the clans and join the Maecodian Confederation. This is rare, and more often immigrants move into the locations when the Hellions have moved on and before they return. These motte-and-bailey villages are highly defensible, though light on municipal buildings.
Common Customs, traditions and rituals
Hellions practice a form of the Ordning as a political structure, they call it the Jumble. On no particular schedule, when the nominal leader of a clan has lost enough support, the families will declare a Jumbling and they will compete in various ways to prove their strength through games, trophy hunting, daring raids, and duels. The strongest among them will become (or retain) the leader.
Birth & Baptismal Rites
Hellions celebrate births with fistfights. It's considered good luck for a child's life if their father can defeat more than one challenger before being beaten unconscious. After the child's first feeding, the mother will dip the child in a bucket of cold water mixed with luric pedals.
Coming of Age Rites
Hellions are 'adults' when they can hunt large game by themselves. pestletails and stags are the most common attempts, though some of the more vicious clans regard humans as valid game for this.
Funerary and Memorial customs
Hellions practice cremation. When the flesh has been burned away, they break the bones with mauls and bury them. They take the skulls and mount them on top of carved poles in the wilderness.
Common Taboos
Hellions despise cowards and deserters.
Ideals
Beauty Ideals
Hellions favor physical traits more than any other human ethnic group. Strength, musculature, and heartiness are synonymous with beauty and everything else is secondary.
Gender Ideals
Men and women are remarkably equal in Hellion societies. All men venture out to hunt and sometimes raid, and most women do the same although likely with less frequency and usually taking fewer risks. Staying home is for mothers, children, elderly, and the wounded. Throughout adulthood, Hellions strive for physical fitness and a warrior ethos.
Courtship Ideals
Voluntary courtship between Hellions is usually marked by gift giving and furtive meetings alone in the wilderness. Otherwise, families will marry younger members to secure alliances or to implant spies.
More often, marriages are less actual marriages and more like kidnappings. This practice is not isolated to men kidnapping women, either, as a woman may just as well decide to carry off a beautiful youth for themselves. Many Hellion women regard being successfully kidnapped by a sufficiently muscular and daring man (or woman) to be highly romantic.
Relationship Ideals
Pure monogamy is rare among Hellions, though polygamy is also very rare. The standard marriage involves both partners participating in occasional outside flings.
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