Tribes of the Iron Spines

The Tribes of the Iron Spines are a very loose confederation of peoples that live in the mountains on the north coast of the Shimmering Sea, the Iron Spines. Though they lack a central figure to unite them, culturally they share many similarities, enough to make them stand out from the Imperials that live along the coast and dig into the mountains in search of iron. The Tribes of the Iron Spines are semi-nomadic, in that entire tribes will travel throughout the year, coming to the foothills and lowlands during the cold winter months before returning to the colder reaches of the mountain when summer comes, following their game. It is difficult for the legates of the Iron Empire along this coast to have any strict policy regarding treatment of the Tribes, for some seek to trade peacefully with the Imperials, while others seek to raid, and what one tribe did one season, they may switch the next. Thus the Legates often deal with individual bands and tribes on a case by case basis.

Naming Traditions

Other names

The names of the Iron Spine Tribesmen are inspired by Ancient Gothic and Ancient Germanic names.

Culture

Major language groups and dialects

The Tribes of the Iron Spine speak Mountainspeak.

Culture and cultural heritage

During the summer months, the Tribes of the Iron Spines often head into the mountains, as the ice melts and the water begins to flow freely, following their herds. During the cold winter, they return to the lowlands and to their villages, some built in the abandoned imperial forts from the Age of Storms, others simply massive villages with many houses that stand empty half the year. All but the youngest and oldest go north in the summer, with parents of infants staying in their villages along with their elders. They will tend to the fields, storing throughout the year to help support the village through the winters when the herds return, along with the rest of their people.
The tribes accept Lotusmasters and Sorcerers into their society, though they call them by different names.
Sorcerers are the shamans of the tribesmen, many of whom are able to call the Wyrdwinds through their rituals with music, like the Dancing Witches of the Ivory Savanna Tribes. The Tribesmen of the Iron Spines are animistic in their beliefs, worshipping the Spirits of the Mountain. It is said that their shamans are able to commune with these spirits to glimpse into the future. However, they must always be wary of the False Speakers, their name for undead, demons, and the rare Mistwalker that communes with mortals. Shamans are seen as the bridge between the Tribesmen and the Wyrdwinds and spiritual world.
Lotusmasters are called Wise Folk or Healers. They are the medicine men and witch doctors of the Tribes of the Iron Spines. Lotus does grow, even in the rocky landscape of the Iron Spines. These Wise Folk will use it to create medicines and spirits during the winter months, providing them to the bands before they travel north with the herds in the spring and summer. In turn, the bands will gather lotus through the year to trade with the Wise Folk.

Shared customary codes and values

Blood answers Blood. Strength breeds Strength. All start equal in the eyes of the Spirits of the Mountain. These are the tenants of the Iron Spine Tribes. They care less about who your parent was or what sex you were born with than what you can do for your band and your tribe. Be strong, and you will get further, but it is your choice and your actions and your determination that will impress the tribes. Strong men and strong women breed strong children, and weakness is something that can and should be hammered out, like the impurities in metal. Blood answers blood means that violence is met with more violence. An act of violence against a Band is likely to be answered with blood, until one side admits they are defeated...or until they are dead. A tribe can recover from defeat. It is weakness, but they will need only prove themselves strong again. Those who win these conflicts gain a reputation of Strength.

Common Dress code

There is not much good land for farming in the Iron Spines, nor its foothills, so cotton and flax are not common materials in this rocky and uneven earth. Most of the clothes of the clothes of the Iron Spine tribesmen is made from either wool, hide, fur, or leather. They do have herds of cattle and flocks of sheep in their lowland villages, so these materials are fairly common for their purposes. The colors of the Iron Spine are brown, white, black, and grey, and the colors of the tribesmen's clothing matches this. They do not have much access to the colorful dyes, beyond what they can make from wildflowers or the hardy bushes and trees that survive the cold winters and strong winds. Often, they will wear hoods or capes that are recognizable as the animal it came from, especially if they had killed it themselves.
They do have metallurgy, but the Iron Spines are rich in iron and they mostly use that for their tools and weapons. Still, they do like to adorn themselves with gold and silver, which they can get through trade or raiding the Roselands, Imperials, or Cairnlanders. They often incorporate elements of bone, petrified wood, animal trophies, and polished rocks into these accessories when making them themselves, or just wearing them as they are if they were acquired on a raid.

Art & Architecture

The architecture of the Tribesmen of the Iron Spines is designed to be practical and require little upkeep. Even their largest villages are usually composed primarily of single room houses, built around a central hearth. Their walls are wood and they use almost no stone in their architecture. What stone there is is reclaimed from Imperial ruins.
Throughout the Iron Spines, one can find wooden totems and carvings of the Tribesmen. These are ornately carved from wood and polished and painted (on the oldest ones, the paint has been stripped by weathering). The Tribesmen erect these totems in areas they believe to be spiritually powerful or where they want to commemorate a great deed such as the hunt of a powerful beast, the defeat of another band or enemy, and much more. These carvings are usually of the animals that can be found in the Iron Spines.
As for the rest of their art, outside of these statues, they do not create art that does not have a function. Tools to them are pieces of art and to be decorated and cared for to be passed down through a band. They will carve plates and cups from wood with etchings on the outside to tell their stories. They will carve pieces of bones and wood into instruments to make music. They will adorn their weapons and armor with the trophies of their kills.

Common Customs, traditions and rituals

Much of the culture of the Tribes of the Iron Spines is based around the idea of hunts and herds. They follow the herds of deer and wild boars, as well as the larger Iron Spine Ox and Twisthorn Sheep as they travel through the mountains. Though they have domesticated the oxen and sheep, the animals still will move from the highlands to the colder reaches of the mountains in the summer, and so when the herds move north, the tribesmen hunt.
During the winter months, the Tribesmen celebrate the week long festival that is called the "The Dance of Spirits". Every village celebrates this, with all the bands that have wintered there that year. This is a week where the Wise Folk make available the lotus-touched beer, wine, and spirits that they have prepared all year to the entire village. All consume them for a week to see and commune with the Spirits of the Mountain that reside in the area around the village (This is the detect arcana Power). During this festival, many weddings occur. The Dance of Spirits occurs at the end of the Fall season, about a month after the Bands have started to arrive and winter down, but with plenty of time to learn who might have conceived during this week long festival and must remain in the village for the following spring and summer.

Coming of Age Rites

When a child of the Iron Spines comes of age, he is expected to bring down a quarry. Typically, this is the deer that they hunt and follow through the year. However, sometimes, a young hunter brings down something more dangerous, like a snow lion or a crystal bear. These are seen as good omens, not just for the year to come, but for the new hunter. They are often considered to be favored by the spirits and are given great honors when they return to the village in the winter.

Funerary and Memorial customs

Those who die in the villages are buried in the graveyards outside the wooden walls. They are often the young, the sick, or the old. Those who die in the mountains tend to be burned. The Tribesmen believe that those who are left unburied on the ice become 'the Betrayed', a type of spirit that cannot find its way to the afterlife, trapped within his flesh, until he has been driven mad and forgotten who he was. The Betrayed, the Tribesmen believe, will kill the living so they may follow it to the afterlife, as they do not know the way.

Ideals

Beauty Ideals

The rugged mountains does not lead to an easy life for anyone, and thus the ideal man and woman for the tribes of the Iron Spine tend to be tall and strong, with broad shoulders and strong legs. Long hair is a sign of skill in battle, so both men and women keep their hair long and braided. This is because if one is a subpar warrior, they are likely to have their hair cut hewn and hacked. Often, a braid taken in battle is considered a trophy. Fair skin and lighter hair are seen as ideal in the mountains.

Gender Ideals

Both men and women are expected to be able to hunt or fight. However, women with child or rearing children are forbidden from taking parts in hunts or raids until the child can be trusted with others, like a family member. During the summer seasons, when they dwell in the mountains, the tribes often move in smaller bands of immediate families, and so everyone is expected to do their part, regardless of if they are man or woman. A man who cannot mend his coat or cook for the family is likely to see his whole band suffer should his wife fall ill.

Courtship Ideals

Strong breeds strong. That is the thought behind most of the courtships of the Iron Spines. A proper courtship is one between members of different bands who admire and respect one another for their deeds and triumphs. If they are comparable in stature (as deemed by both their bands) then there is no objection to the pairing and they may marry. They are expected to remain in the village come the summer to try for children, before they will eventually rejoin the mother's original band, unless there is some reason that the band cannot accept them (if they are too large of a band already, for instance), in which case they will join the father's.  Eventually, as their elders retire to the village, they will either inherit leadership of the band or break away with their own close kin to form a new band.
If the two people are not comparable in stature (one is far more renowned among the bands or has more deeds under their belt), then the one who has less accomplishments to boast must prove themselves in the eyes of the other Band. This is usually done through a trial, either by combat or a hunt or achieving a great victory over that band's rivals. The exact trial is less material than proving that they will not bring weakness to the band. Should the contestant be successful, then the rest of the Band will give their consent.
Arranged marriages are unusual among the Tribesmen, for during the winter months, there is little to do besides boast and meet the other bands. It is simply expected that the younger generation will meet and find matches. Arranged marriages occur if several winters go by between when a Tribesman becomes an adult and they still have found few prospects. It is first done by the band members pushing them to meet, but eventually, parents may step in to negotiate a marriage with other parents in a similar state. However, this is seen as a 'weak pairing', and bands that are formed this way usually must prove themselves more to the others.

Relationship Ideals

The ideal relationship for the Tribesmen is more egalitarian than most, as a result of their need for everyone to contribute throughout the year. A husband and wife are equal in the eyes of the band, only judged by how much they can contribute. They raise their children with the help of their elders and are expected to provide for the young and the old who remain in the villages, tending what farms they have.

Related Locations

• Iron Spine Mountains