Ruvenek (Ru-ven-ek)

Summary

Ancient tribes of the venek–their ancestral name–migrated during winters and extreme colds north toward Votyoger, Aerthen, then Nerzin and Lophern. These warmer climates seriously limited them to mountainous reaches, where pockets of these tribes linger today. The bulk of the people, however, live within Fauverngarz.
In times of old, the venek of Fauverngarz built mighty, quarrelsome nations. Time and again they fueded with each other as much as everyone else. However, a calamity arrived, sundering their proud peoples apart and decimating their number. What sort of calamity differs: murderous heatwaves, pest-induced famines, mighty goddesses smiting them, and more fill their legends. They took upon themselves the name of ruvenek, even as future generations forgot the reasons.
By the age of the Imperium, the ruvenek had lost much of their history, knowledge, and capabilities. Political infighting and strong, clan-based sentiments kept their broader society divided across Fauverngarz. Their native climate wasn't desirable to most of their dragon conquerors, relegating them to a distant proxy at best. While barely a footnote in the Imperium's broader history, it was a moment of stark awakening to the ruvenek.
Many fought and resisted the ice dragons who did stake out claims, creating long and slow insurrections year after year. When the World Gate exploded and cast darkness across the world, the ruvenek were prepared for hardship. Wars receeded as everyone struggled to survive, and a very different political landscape emerged when the skies cleared. A visceral desire to reclaim their homeland surged in the revenek clans, and they struck out.
The different clans reestablished contact with the other peoples, and history followed after. Some built more cooperative unions, others turning into conquerors themselves, and more in between the two. For them, land and home were fit only to those they 'accepted'. For everyone else, they were either 'on' the ruvenek's side, or against them. This extreme disposition became a polarizing force in the broader political landscape. If a powerful, invasive clan arose, quite often many more allied against them. In doing so, longer lasting bonds, and more acceptable norms, took root in Fauverngarz.
As the ruvenek carved out their own parts of the cold continent, they invariably rediscovered their lost legacies. Old fortresses, the barest remains of cities, and more called to their scholars and priestesses. For them, it became a clear sign of their greatness–perhaps far greater than it may actually have been. A feverish dream to reclaim that lofty ideal quickly became a powerful topic. Some ignored it, others dabbled, and more still obsessed with achieving it once again.
What can be said is that, whether the front runners or not, the ruvenek are vitalizing Fauverngarz. Hard odds are stacking up for everyone, including them, but little by little they are taming the lands.

Basic Information

Anatomy

A humanoid species on average with a medium to large height, and heavy, muscular bodies. As they're principally adapted toward living in cold, wintery, and alpine climates, being both capable survivalists and physically strong. Ruvenek have powerful frames, built to endure terrible colds and provide explosive bursts of strength. This sculpts their physiques by layering healthy fats alongside their muscles. Both sexes trend toward 'barrel chested', thick arms and legs, and being somewhat imposing as a result.
Their ears sit atop their heads, similar to the nebubis and muurun, being both wider and rounder than they are taller. Their head hair is largely the same as other monster species, with a norm of growing quick to a 'long' length. Four frontal, 'meat stripping' canines sit against larger, mashing-flat teeth, and their thicker necks give the jaw powerful muscles. There is a specific divide between 'head hair' and 'fur' on their neck, as the hair itself is a different fiber type from the fur.
Fur covers their bodies, starting from their faces and then traveling downward in equal measure between the sexes. How it appears on their face differs because of bloodlines–it may simply cover the cheek bones like tiger stripes, develop into simple patterns of swirls and circles, and so on. The facial fur, as a whole, does not cover their faces completely but ill-kept growth may let it run wild. In general, the fur covers the 'cold' parts of their body, leaving the 'hot' sections exposed.
A collar of fluffy fur grows out around the neck, spilling down the shoulders. The fur continues down the arms, but it only covers the 'top side' of the arm. It also goes down their backside, while leaving their front's skin exposed. The hands of a ruvenek are somewhere between 'human hand' and 'paw', veering toward larger with slight differences in structure. Short, stubby claws cap their fingers, harder points meant more to dig out things from rock or wood than 'cut prey open'.
Ruvenek have a short, stubby tail extending out of the buttocks, an entirely vestigial limb that remains functional enough to 'wiggle'. The fur running down their backside loops around their hips, encircling their thighs and continuing down to their wide-set, sturdy feet. Like the hands, stubby claws cap the toes, and the feet are built toward 'holding ground' and climbing more than running.
They are mildly sexually dimorphic, with the females being larger and sturdier, and the males smaller and nimbler. The females have enlarged breasts and wider hips. Both tend to have fluffy and comfortable fur, better suited for insulation and communal bonding. There is distinctive behavioral difference in the sexes, with females being more reserved, and males more extroverted. How this manifests culturally differs, but it is a common thread in the species.
Their fur and hair color ranges are generally in the whites, browns, blacks, grays, reds, and blues. Rare variants may appear in blondes, silvers, and dark golds. Their skin color is generally pale or snowy, but those living in (relatively) warmer regions will have darker peachy and brown colors. Eye colors settle in the blues, yellows, and greens, with rare variants having red, tourmaline, and turqoise colors.
Hybrids may end up with different skeletal and muscular structures, making them physically distinctive from purestrain ruvenek. They are also highly adoptive of foreign colors, and some may exhibit scales alongside their fur if their fathers had such.

Biological Traits

Winter Survivor – Adapted to freezing colds and more, the ruvenek can trudge through terrible snowstorms without much fuss. They can also devour most anything edible, storing it for long hauls without more food. However, their internal heat is a constant concern, and they can rapidly overheat if they do not balance out their thermals. As a result, warmer, equatorial climates are deadly to many of them without special training and aide.
Explosive Strength – Ruvenek are strong, and in a pinch they can dish out many times their metaphorical weight. However, that sort of exertion is terrible on their endurance if they're pushed for long periods. Managing their stamina crashes is an important detail for those who need this sort of strength.
Ice Resistance – They're uniquely resistant against ice magic.
Territorial – Ruvenek have a strong sense of individuality, perceiving themselves, others, and things on 'their team' or 'someone elses'. This lends to many social customs and manners built to navigate such an instinctual response.

Civilization and Culture

Relationship Ideals

Ruvenek relationships operate on opposed sensibilities, especially where the division in sexes are concerned. For the women, they are those who shoulder society: caring and raising young, building great works, studiously researching, and more. Responsibilities pass down the women's lineage from mother to daughter, and this bond is often a sacred one. It is of utmost import to them to find men who are agreeable to their duties, but also capable providers.
The problems traditionally start in that ruvenek men are bombastic. Being free spirited and 'outside of responsibility', they must earn recognition to be allowed into a woman's family. Some do so by appealing to their desired women directly. Most usually try to go out and accomplish great deeds, earning notoriety and thus attention. These deeds can be anything from finding great food to raiding, so they quickly become other peoples' problems.
For the most part, it is a constant struggle between the women's sense of responsibility and their men's wildness with fitting into that. Overtime, the more extreme differences mellowed out, especially as ritualistic traditions set in. Many ruvenek men, since then, try to follow 'trials' and 'challenges', arduous things that earn one prestige. What especially took off was when men 'took on responsibilities' within their own circles. That is, proved they could be trusted with women's work, and showed so with their deeds.
While initially scoffed at, the women largely loved it. As societies grew and comforts arose, those who could do artistic works came to be regarded more highly. An undercurrent of "you still have to survive" shapes them, but with more afforded toward the arts than their peers. So it is ruvenek romantic norms are largely on those who "have responsibility" and those who can "handle joining that responsibility". The hows and whys of the particulars are what change for the most part.

Culture and Cultural Heritage

At their heart, ruvenek are survivors and wholly capable, and so emphasize personal strength and aptitude the most. Fauverngarz throws no end of challenges, and to live in such a place requires someone who can meet those. Reliability became the number one defining trait all ruvenek respected, and so it is the bedrock of their cultural norms. To be thought of as unreliable, and thus untrustworthy, is both a great offense and a horrible undermining of one's place in society.
Many traditions arose around the idea of reliability, and especially ways to both prove and maintain it. Whether trials, challenges, or otherwise, they're important accomplishments any ruvenek works hard to earn. One such trial, and one of the oldest ones, is to claw the iron trees of the Wytche-Queen. If they can escape with the bark-shards (and their lives), it is indeed regarded as a great feat. Such regular disrespect has left their species, as a whole, with a verminous reputation in Moratahn's eyes.
In a way, cycles of "work time" and "rest time" arose, especially as some trials depended on seasons or times of the year. These often coincided with times of abundance and hardship, in ways more reliable than most calendars. So it is others took note of the ruvenek when they move about, as it means there is something afoot.
A gender-based division exists, largely in how societal responsibilities are divvied up. Women handle the bulk of everything, be it gathering the foods, building the homestead, researching, and more. Safeguarding their families, providing for their children, and easing the burdens all suffer from are their core motivators. By trusting in each other and working on common ground to these ends, they formed an insular cultural mind.
Men were predominantly pushed toward the 'carefree fringes'. They were left to their own devices, and if one wanted into the women's circles, they had to earn it. After all, the women also had the luxury of choosing men from other species, so the competition became intense in some clans. In a fundamental sense, it pushed men's cultural mind into a harder place to work from.
It largely created societies where the women would only accept the ones they wanted. The rest were left on the coattails, to either prove themselves eventually or migrate somewhere else instead. As technology improved, more ways of proving one's worth arose, and so men found more comforting acceptance. The staggering differences of old melted away somewhat, but traditional roles and ideas keep the ruvenek in a vice-grip.

Earth Origin

Eurasian Black/Brown Bears

Geographic Distribution

• Fauverngarz