Bearfolk
Imposing Defenders of the Southern Ice
This race of enormous bipedal bears from Scytharia call themselves the Urskan, but most other people just call them the Bearfolk.
A typical Urskan stands between 7 and 9 feet tall, and weighs between 600 and 900 pounds. Their fur is usually snow white, but a few shades of brown have been known to pop up. Their arms end in enormous hands that resemble bear paws with opposable thumbs.
The Bearfolk form the patrician warrior caste of Scytharia, a frozen peninsula in the far southwest of Rhyduania. They feel they have a moral obligation to protect their human vassals from the constant predation by worgs, winter wolves, yetis and the other monsters that roam their icy lands, as well as near constant hunting of seals, walruses and other things to provide food.
Most of the Urskan are rarely seen outside of their elaborate armor, each suit being a unique expression of the wearer's preferences and experience. Common styles seen, worn in their entirety or as mixed sets with other kinds, include brigandine, chain mail, scale mail, plate mail, hides and full plate. If an individual is encountered outside their home without their armor on, it's most likely either one of the rare bears to take to scholarly or administrative pursuits, or one of the equally rare few who find themselves drawn to the simplicity of manual labor, finding satisfaction in using their immense strength to help groups of humans with their day to day tasks.
Culture
Average technological level
Toolcraft is almost unheard of in bearfolk, their hands lacking the fine dexterity required to do much more than hold a weapon or shovel food. They do benefit from the presence of craftspeople among the humans of their villages, who've mastered steel, pottery, netmaking and tailoring to the same degree as most other humanoid cultures on Rhyduania. Purely decorative or luxury goods are usually a product of trade with far away lands, though.
Birth & Baptismal Rites
Shortly after the birth of an Urskan cub, the father seeks out a tree branch to serve as the cub's first chew toy. The kind of tree the branch comes from is a carefully considered symbolic choice, chosen from the five sacred woods, to impart the associated virtue to the cub. Birch is linked to passion, pine to swiftness, oak to steadfastness, maple to generosity, basswood to empathy.
When the cub is weaned, the mother hunts for the cub's final meal before being sent to a sibko. Much like the father's branch, the mother's meat is selected as a symbolic blessing. Seal is meant to enhance the cub's agility, moose to bolster the cub's strength, and shark to fortify the cub's charisma.
Opinions on the effectiveness of these rites among adult bearfolk seem to range from complete faith to a skeptical respect for tradition.
Coming of Age Rites
At age 15, Scytharian children graduate from their sibkos into apprenticeships. Most Urskan children are given leather armor and apprenticed to another Urskan hunter to begin patrolling. The first time an apprentice defeats a threat to their village without direct intervention from their mentor, the town's blacksmith makes the apprentice their personal suit of plate armor. During the crafting of the armor, the blacksmith decorates the armor with a hereditary motif passed down from mentor to apprentice, tailoring the style with which the motif is presented in a way the smith feels suits the apprentice. Next, a mark is added to commemorate the specific event that earned the apprentice their armor, hopefully the first of many. The armor is then presented to the apprentice by a gathering of the village's senior warriors, in a ceremony marking them as a true Urskan warrior.
Funerary and Memorial customs
When an Urskan warrior dies, they are ritually butchered by the town's priest. First the fat is collected, and the process is begun to render it into a flammable oil known as the Blood of Heroes. Then, the meat is gathered and consumed by the community. Humans are allowed by custom to cook the meat before consumption, but bearfolk are expected to consume their fallen brethren raw. This meat is considered a sacrament, and to waste any is considered very offensive. Preparation customs vary regionally, with some villages studiously consuming unadorned, seared steak, and other villages encouraging using the meat in the most delicious way possible to be high tribute to the fallen warrior. The warrior's bones are ground to fertilize crops, and their offal diced for feeding to livestock and guard animals.
For the uncommon Urskan who did not participate in the warrior tradition, their remains are usually disposed of in accordance with the traditions of the other people in the village who shared the deceased's profession.
Common Taboos
For an Urskan to do lasting harm to a "softskin" is the greatest crime of their culture. Depending on the circumstances, it can lead to a warrior being stripped of their armor, or in the worst cases, stripped and then banished. However, the bearfolk are traditional, not suicidal. Armed outsiders and foreigners who pose a threat to an Urskan or its charges will still be faced with the full martial might of the bearfolk.
Eating meat that walks with two legs, including birds, is a nearly religious dietary restriction. The nature of the offense scales with the intelligence of the food, with chicken being uncouth and culturally distasteful, to the consumption of humanoid meat being horrifyingly aberrant beyond the imagination of the typical Urskan. An Urskan known to have willingly consumed humanoid meat will most likely be killed on sight by other Urskan.
Common Myths and Legends
The Urskan generally believe their race to have begun with the legendary hero-god, Bjirrin, The First Bear. Different villages tell the story different ways. Some shamans say Bjirrin is an aspect of Asta, who created the bearfolk as an act of love for humanity. Others say Bjirrin is a demigod born from the snow after a drop of the Toothed God's blood was spilled. Others tell the story of a very brief affair between The Stag God and Motya, with the Stag feeding the divine cub with his own flesh, and Motya suckling the cub on snowmelt from her breast.
All the legends agree that Bjirrin shaped the snows of Scytharia into the Urskan people to protect the people of the land from Garmr, the Night Wolf, and all his spawn.
Historical figures
Some scholars believe the hero-god nature of Bjirrin's worship implies Bjirrin was once a mortal Urskan.
A legendary folk hero is Koda, a chieftan who died of her wounds after single handedly defeating a white dragon that was attacking her village.
Torben is a tragic figure, an Urskan warrior who left Scytharia to serve as an advisor to a Lon'res politician. His attempts to improve the lives of elves with the wisdom of his people and the Scytharian way of life were not well received, and his efforts proved fruitless. He died far from his people, and his flesh was allowed to rot in the ground.
Ideals
Beauty Ideals
Urskan ideals of beauty focus on mostly large, imposing builds and healthy coats of fur. The few luxury trades the bearfolk commonly participate in are products that they believe to enhance the quality of their coats, and meticulous grooming services purchased from humanoids.
Gender Ideals
The bearfolk don't really have gender to the same degree as humanoids. Other than the reproductive realities of male vs. female, there are no personality traits or work roles that are treated as more masculine or more feminine. All bearfolk share the same duties: the protection and nurturing of their human wards. Fashion doesn't really exist beyond the elaborate decoration of armor. Children are raised communally, usually in tandem with human children, in groups known as sibkos.
Courtship Ideals
So much of Scytharian life is lived in close quarters with the community at large, that Urskan courtship usually involves couples taking long walks alone, into the woods. On these private ventures, activities often involve things like playful wrestling and foraging for unusual foods, like mushrooms, tree nuts and the occasional small mammal. The play wrestling of two sexually inflamed bearfolk has a tendency to knock the occasional tree or two over, which is often dragged back to the community on the way home to be used as timber.
Relationship Ideals
Urskan relationships are usually monogamous, but relatively short. Homosexuality and bisexuality are openly accepted. Regardless of sexuality, most relationships tend to end with two or three years, which happens to be the amount of time it takes to ween a cub off mother's milk and place them into the same communal childrearing groups as humans. Cubs orphaned before this age are usually cared for by childless couples and teams of human wetnurses, but survival of the cub in these conditions is not certain.
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