Skaltir

The Skaltir are itinerant singers, entertainers, traders, teachers and folk magicians that travel throughout Heimval in wagon caravans and convoys of ships. They have always occupied a strange role in Jolnir society. They are at the same time welcomed and shunned, loved and pitied, honored and persecuted. They began as groups of male Jolnir who refused use magic who stuck together out of protection from aggression.

In the territories of the Vandir, the kingdoms of the Thalkunir and in Ostland they are shunned, though feared. Male magicians are driven out or left for exposure by the Ostir and Thalkunir, and sacrificed to Ragna by the Vandir. The Jolnir of Brynheim and Jonagval tolerate them but they are seen as traveling rogues, not to be trusted. Only in the more open, cosmopolitan Rotskjoldland are they treated with equanimity.

Over the centuries, these disowned Jolnir began to find each other in their wanderings and joined together for protection against a harsh world. They founded their own clans and discovered that as storytellers, performers and hedge magicians, they could make themselves welcome among the clans with their services. Girls would run off with the charming travelers, seeking a life of freedom and so the Skaltir increased in number and became a true tribe, though nationless.

The Skaltir are followers of the gottun Kynaz, whose curious, rule breaking nature and wandering ways suits their own. They do not have priests, however small shrines to the gott can be found at crossroads throughout Heimval.

In earlier times, the Skaltir were largely untrained as magicians, they have on their own developed rough, rule of thumb semiotic theories in addition to picking up tricks from foreign magicians. Most of their magic comes through in songs and performances. As they have grown more numerous and organized and as they have gained in magical ability, the Daenir have begun to look upon the Skaltir with a measure of fear and discomfort.

In the Skaltir, they see a rival to their own place in society. The Skaltir, at the same time, have begun to become aware of their growing prosperity and strength. One Skaltir, Stigr Kvikhand, longtime theotan of the Skjultken clan, retired his position and founded a college on the island of Mors off the south-eastern coast of Rotskjoldland. There he has brought scholars of various disciplines as well as trained high semioticians as tutors from Solkar and Pranesh to educate promising Skaltir youth.