The Kingdoms of the Great North

History

Warfare is almost a way of life to them. They have fought between themselves a lot, but they also have a history of raids.

The Giants

The Great North's biggest problem is the frost giants living in the mountain range to the North. If a winter is particularly cold, then they can expect the giants to come raiding their home.

Raiding South

However, if the giants do not come knocking at their door, they are the ones raiding south. Ancestrally, they used to raid the Horse People, but after the growth of Karakos, the newly formed Federacy made a pact with their northern neighbors. They would let them pass and even supply them so they would raid into Karakos.

After the first few bands came back loaded with riches, it became an annual thing.

Raiding North

A war band of Northerners going north is a rare thing, but when the summers are hot, there's always a few brave groups willing to go hunting giants for their treasure, but also to repay them for their destruction.

Mounts

Northerners have special mounts highly adapted to the cold that they use for transportation and on raids.

These Garok are large bipedal herbivores with extremely thick white fur and a small head on top of a long strong neck.

During the summer, these beasts must be sheared and move further north or higher up in the mountains and cannot be ridden. Else, they could suffocate in the heat or suffer heat stroke.

The wool produced by the shearing is transformed in many ways, from ropes to clothing, and is one of the primary exports of the North.

Society

This land has seen its share of battles and conflicts. Many kingdoms have risen and fallen.

Languages

We find many kingdoms and queendoms there today each speaking a spattering of dialects and tongues.

For commerce, most use a bastard language, called Hakonian, that is derived from the kingdom of Hakon that left few traces but its language, but almost completely dominated the North in its glory days. By extension, it's often the name outsider give to Northerners.

Names

Their names sound like old Viking names. For some ideas, you can consult the following site: FNG.

Values

Northerners show respect for power (any type: intellectual, physical, magical...), overcoming adversity, tenacity and strong positive emotions.

They love nothing that a good tale of a reversal of fate like stories where somebody smart defeat someone strong with their wits or somebody with brawn breaking through the careful plans schemer.

For them, love and joy are primordial, hate and anger should be avoided. Sadness, however, is, for them, part of life and has to be lived with, but not dwelt on.