Nûkland
Beyond the Northlands, indeed at the edge of the world, lies the vast evergreen forests and open tundra of Nûkland. How far it stretches north of its beginnings along a line running from the conifer forest of the Frozen Taiga just north of the Wyrm Fang Mountains to the far ice of the Endless Glacier, no one knows. Nûkland is at least several thousand square miles in extent, and likely more.
The taiga is home to a variety of large fauna such as saber-toothed tigers, giant beavers, cave bears, and huge palmate-racked deer. The trees of the taiga slowly give way from towering pines and spruces to stunted versions of these evergreens and eventually to clumps of dwarf trees sheltering in any nook or cranny the land provides. The terrain changes from soft pine needle-covered forests to boggy tundra, frozen throughout most of the year and providing fodder only in the short summer.
On the tundra itself, only the hardiest animals such as arctic wolves, musk oxen, reindeer, giant bears, and the legendary woolly mammoth thrive. Other megafauna have been reported, but many in the Northlands dismiss tales of tigers the size of horses, woolly rhinoceroses, and even giant sloths as just stories. What is known is that strange beasts unlike those found in more southerly climes can be found here, and returning with The Claws, fangs, or pelts of such a great beast would put a hero well on the way to having his own saga sung in the mead halls of the Northlands.
In these lands roam tribes of folk known to the Northlanders as Nûklanders, despite their claims that this name is a mistranslation (a more correct translation would be “People of the Reindeer”). The Nûklanders are a different race than the human Northlanders, a race that foreigners would describe as elven.
The Nûklanders are hunters and herders of reindeer, and supplement their diet by gathering wild plants. They are nomadic, traveling as far south as Three Rivers in the winter and heading to the edge of the Endless Glacier in the summer. In addition to providing food and hides, their reindeer are also used as mounts and beasts of burden. Many of the tribes follow a migration route that takes them along the coast, where they prey on seals, walruses, and other sea life that spends its summer on land.
Although famed basket weavers and leatherworkers, the Nûklanders do not work metal, make pottery, or build permanent structures. Their tools are made from bone, wood, and stone, though trade with the Estenfirders and other Northlanders has introduced metal tools and ceramics into the Nûklander culture. Their homes are conical lodges made of hide with wooden supports, and a whole family from the youngest child to the most respected elder shares one dwelling.
It would be easy to say that the Nûklanders lack governments of any kind, and for the most part this is true. The idea that one person can command the obedience of many is foreign to them, as it is largely foreign to the Northlanders as well. There is no Nûklander equivalent of a jarl, much less a køenig. Decisions are made in councils that include all adult members of a tribe, and once a decision is made, it is up to the individual if they are going to follow it or not. Beyond the tribe, there is no higher authority, and no one speaks for the Nûklanders as a whole.
The Nûklanders turn to the spirits of the land for divine aid and spiritual comfort. To a Nûk, the gods turned their backs on them, but the simple spirits of the natural world will never forsake them. Animism is very strong in this faith, and every type of animal or plant, as well as natural features and events, have their guardian spirits. These spirits generally keep to their own spheres; a wolf spirit is concerned with wolf things, not bird things. The tribes’ shamans are tasked with interceding with these spirits in order to placate them or request their aid, though every Nûklander knows some simple prayers (these are not spells, just minor forms of worship).
Region
Nûkland
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