Selkie Skin Trade
"Everybody knows that those ijiqqat don't care if it is seal or Selkie skins they are selling." - overheard in a Tuniit community
There has long been conflict between the Tuniit Selkies and the Eyjamaður populations. They fish and hunt in many of the same areas along the border of the Northern and Northeastern Regions, and have had more than one bloody interaction, especially in the fishing grounds of Sivernak (known as Hafsvegur in Eyjamannaræða). Both groups also hunt seals for their fur and meat, and there is a longstanding rumor that the Eyjamaður will also skin any fallen Selkies and use them as if they were sealskins.
While no Eyjamaður has ever admitted to skinning a Selkie, nearly every Tuniit has grown up hearing stories of skinned corpses and stolen furs. The story has also spread to the Dòbhran Selkies further south, who also have a violent history with the Eyjamaður, and find it no great leap to imagine them skinning their fallen foes. Over time, the rumor has grown and been elaborated on, and the idea that there is a trade in Selkie skins has taken hold.
According to the stories, the Eyjamaður have found a number of horrifying uses for Selkie skins. In some, there is a god of the Eyjamaður who rewards their followers for each skin delivered to their temple. In other tales, they use the skins as clothing, or make them into magical belts which protect the Eyjamaður from drowning. In some of the most lurid stories, they bind the spirits of the slain Selkies into the skins and use them as kind of undead slave. There are even legends of forcing these ghosts to manifest as Human women, who they then use as concubines.
Most often, the Eyjamaður are accused of selling the skins as if they were from seals. Many stories speak of a Selkie who has travelled to the south finding a garment or skin of a long-lost relation, somehow rendered recognizable by a tell-tale mark. Even those who dismiss the more fantastical stories will give credit to the idea that the Eyjamaður will desecrate the dead for profit, and can offer numerous tales as evidence. Furthermore, there is at least one case of a Eyjamaður hermit who did murder and skin Selkies who visited his island, although that story specifies that he also gave humans the same treatment.
Despite all these stories, there is no hard evidence of a wide-spread trade in Selkie skins, or that any Eyjamaður deliberately hunt Selkies to acquire them. Items that have been offered as proof are usually determined to be made of sealskin or a similar material, and it is rare that anyone offers personal eye-witness of a skinned Selkie corpse. But the stories are still told, and have rooted themselves in the mythology of both the Tuniit and Dòbhran Selkies, further feeding the conflicts between these groups and the Eyjamaður. Those who study the transformative power of the Egregoric Force have noted that in the Great Ring, stories can come true, and it is possible that the pressure of the belief could sway some people to enact the myth in real life.
I like that this could be a real story about the dangers of selkie sellers or a false rumor that got spread through fear of the other. Except the egregoric force sure does complcate it.
Thanks! I wanted to it be ambiguous, so I'm glad it came through that way. And yeah, the Egregoric Force is a twist I have a lot of fun with. Happy Summer Camp!