Urmar (Er-mar)
Ursan who dwell in the intense cold of Vatenrelm, the urmar resemble polar bears and are the fiercest and most aggressive of the ursan. The urmar are expert swimmers and navigators of the frozen tundra.
Culture
Major language groups and dialects
Most urmar view other languages as inferior to the powerful ursan, and thus rarely attempt to learn anything other than rudimentary Vlatya Common. When they must, they often prioritize Aquan, as it is spoken heavily in Vatenrelm.
Shared customary codes and values
All urmar follow some sort of warriors code, and few will ever retreat from a fight.
Average technological level
The urmar love to forge armor and weaponry, and have mastered crafting sets of large plate male to fit their heavy forms.
Common Etiquette rules
The urmar value strength, and have no time for weak pleasantries or attempts at false flattery. Nearly all disputes in urmal society are settled through physical duels.
Common Dress code
While their thick fur keeps them protected from most of the harsh weather of the wastes, the urmar are the only ursan that regularly wear clothes to help keep them protected from the elements. In addition, the urmar place heavy value on armor, viewing a warrior only as strong as the set that they wear. Thus, most ursan have a set of armor that they keep with them at all times, usually heavy armor, such as a set of full plate.
Art & Architecture
The urmar build large fortresses of mountain stone and enchanted ice for their fortifications and meeting spots, but individual families often carve underground burrows out of large snow banks.
Common Customs, traditions and rituals
Due to the ever present winter conditions of their area of the realm, the urmar do not hibernate, with the only exception being pregnant females, who will often enter a state of hibernation in the winter so that they can give birth in slightly better conditions in the spring. Despite this, the urmar still consume pre-hibernation levels of food in their diet, as food becomes extremely scarce in the winter, and many urmar go long periods without eating during such times.
Birth & Baptismal Rites
Pregnant mothers dig personal dens to birth her cubs in, and the den is watched over and guarded by the father for the entire process, even if the mother must enter a hibernation state.
Coming of Age Rites
Young urmars must constant prove their worth through training and combat, and when one comes of age they must travel on a hunting trip to slay a mighty beast with others of its age. Many travel south to fight slay large amounts of Wyerms in Víturdaun or north to Trollend or Risalend in an attempt to take down a troll or frost giant. Only the most brave travel to the nearby Mt. Bölvun in an attempt to slay a hag, as most who do so never return.
Funerary and Memorial customs
The urmal craft makeshift funeral barges out of large ice sheets for fallen warriors, and set them adrift on the sea with many of their trophies won in battle. The armor of a urmal is always passed down to its cubs, with a male cub receiving his fathers and a female receiving its mothers. In the case of an only child, the cub is expect to combine the armors of its parents into a new whole set. Only the firstborn receives the armor of its parents, any younger siblings must forge their own or inherit the armor upon their siblings death.
Common Taboos
Showing cowardice in battle is likely to have the urmar stripped of its armor, and murder through methods other than a duel to the death will result in the urmar being ritually scarred and forever banished.
Common Myths and Legends
A majority of urmar worship Mar, the Fierce Bear, the ursan god of Battle and Strength. They believe that those who don't die in combat are doomed to have their spirits wander the wastes of the Frost Hold forever.
Ideals
Beauty Ideals
The urmar value remaining unscarred, as they believe that all scars should be inflicted on your armor, to show that it is of fine make. While they keep their armor in pristine and polished condition, they rarely repair scratches and surface level damage, as a way to show off the many battles they have survived.
Gender Ideals
A majority of the warriors in urmar society are male, while females tend more towards childrearing and the magic arts, but there are no rules restricting the genders.
Courtship Ideals
Male urmar must fight for the right to mate, no female will ever mate with a male who has not secured victory in combat for her.
Relationship Ideals
The urmal are intensely loyal to each other, relying on one another to survive in the harsh wastes. They are not kind however, and they allow no weakness in their training. The urmal are dismissive of most other races as soft and weak, especially of the nearby Pengu and Cyko, due to their more duplicitous nature. Many have no qualms about eating non-ursan races, but have slowly gained a high respect for the strength of the Vatamen.
Major organizations
The urmar are the most social of the ursan, with most remaining in close proximity with one another and having more permanent settlements. Thier homeland of Björnlend is protected by an elite force of warriors all urmar hope to one day join that is known as the Kribjör.
Random Urmar Homelands
| % Rolled | Homeland | Trait Gained |
|---|---|---|
| 01-60 | Cave-City | Armor Expert |
| 61-80 | Tundra | Tundra Child |
| 81-90 | Coastline or Island | Mercenary |
| 91-96 | Ship-City | Veteran of the Seas |
| 97-00 | Unusual Homeland | (Roll Unusual Homeland table) |
An urmar replaces the standard ursan trait of Animal Minded and their normal armor proficiency with the following trait:
Arctic Ursan: Urmar have a swim speed of 30 feet (and gain the +8 racial bonus that a swim speed entails), and gain heavy armor proficiency.
Comments