Zalvenesh

The Kunlun Tundra

The Land

• Rough coastal land; a mixture of rocky hills, tundra and small copses of stunted spruce, larch and willow.
• Up against the White Sea
  • Filled with ice floes and pack ice in winter
• This area of the White Sea used to be a valley during the First Age protected by a dam, but the dam was destroyed and the Great Western Ocean flooded in, destroying cities, manses and citadels.

Culture

• Maritime culture
  • Known for their whalebone and sealskin hide longboats.
• Zelvenesh clothing is tightly-stitched, waterproof sealskin.
• Polygamous: The Zalvenesh women often group themselves into families, all based in the same longhouse, dedicated to sharing the chores of child-rearing and other work. These wives also often share their husbands among themselves.
  • Sexual interaction outside of the longhouse (i.e. with men not married to one's longhouse-mates) is still considered inappropriate, and grounds for divorce.
  • Zalvenesh divorce happens not between husbands and wives, but between the women of the longhouses, who can divorce a woman out of the longhouse. That woman's husband may choose to stay or go with her. If he stays, the wives of the longhouse will find him a new wife to marry.
• The Elder's Trek: Because of the difficulty of Zalvenesh life, there is no room for those who cannot pull their own weight.
  • Because of this, many elders who become too sick or weak to work undertake the Elder's Trek, wherein they venture out onto the tundra until they weaken and die. By tradition, if an elder can reach the White Hills, he or she remains there until their natural death, tending to those who have died.

Settlements

• Live in villages of less than 1000 people.
• Villages are surrounded by dry-stone walls to protect the Zalvenesh from the local Varajtul barbarians.
• Houses are constructed long-house style, using whalebone tightly bound with leather thongs. There is no available wood for use in building.
  • Common other buildings include tanning huts, smokehouses, smithies and the like.
• Larger towns may have a temple of ornately carved whalebone and narwhal ivory.

Notable Settlements

Zalvenesh, on the Kunlun Tundra

• Liriel-Anneth (ruins): The now-abandoned city of the Zalveneshi, fallen victim to a long-ago catastrophe, thanks to some unknown Artifact dredged up from the ocean bottom.
• Frostlight (pop 250): A small settlement of typical Zalveneshi. They are known for their possession of a village Artifact that causes all ice to give off a dim radiance, like that of the full moon, at night, leaving them with a strange, surreal settlement lit by witchlight.
• Pale Bear Harbor (pop 500): Masters of ice fishing thanks to the mentorship of their patron god Icecracking Roar, Pale Bear Harbor is home to some of the best polar bear hunters among the Zalveneshi.
• The Serpent-Watch (pop 200): The most recent of the Zalvenesh settlements, Serpent-Watch was originally founded to make sure that the threats of Liriel-Anneth did not escape to threaten the other settlements. They have since settled into the life of the typical Zalveneshi.
• The White Hills (pop 150): A funereal settlement, the men and women of White Hills are often the old and aged of the Zalveneshi, who choose to work tending to the ice-tombs of the dead rather than take the Elder's Trek. The sight of funereal sleds bearing the dead to the White Hills is not uncommon across the Zalveneshi Tundra.
• Sealhome (pop 500): The traditional breeding ground of great thousands upon thousands of seals, it is forbidden to kill any seals by the village's patron god Sorrowful Seal Maiden. In return, the seals of the area assist in a great annual "fish herd" in which they drive schools of great fish into the waiting nets of the Sealhomesmen, to be salted and preserved.
• Icehorn (pop 650): The northernmost Zalveneshi settlement, Icehornsmen are well-known for their love of hunting the narwhals of the northern White Sea.
• Tunilalak Village (pop 450): A fairly typical village of the Zalvenesh, Tunilalak has arguably the largest smoking and curing operation, and are well-known for the quality of their tanning. It is not uncommon for hunters to make a trip through to Tunilalak to tend to their catches before returning home laden with furs, leather and meat.
• Salt & Ice (pop 700): A mid-sized settlement of some 700 or so Zalveneshi, Salt & Ice is a fairly typical village, except for one thing: they are also the main providers of salt to the Kunlun Tundra's people. Using a strange multi-lensed device crafted of adamant and moonsilver dredged up from the bottom of their harbor, Salt-Icers (as its citizens are known) quickly refract the sun's light into a nearly-heatless display of light that nevertheless boils away water into steam. Vats of seawater are constantly undergoing this treatment, the caked crystals of salt that remain harvested from within the huge leather vats. The patron of Salt & Ice is Crystalline Pride Triumphant.
• Evergreen Harbor (pop 1000): The largest of the settlements, Evergreen Harbor is called that because of the proliferation of harbor-floor vents of natural hot springs which keep the harbor free of ice year-round. As such, it's the only harbor to the Zalvenesh that can easily be accessed by traders no matter the season.
• Four Dogs (pop 300): Famous for their sled-dog teams, Four Dogs is named that for the four strange statues of hounds placed around the perimeter of the village. It is said that they somehow enhance the training of the dogs and other domesticated animals of the village, who are noted as being better tempered, faster-learning and generally stronger and healthier than elsewhere.

Resources & Industry

• Fishing, Whaling & Hunting: whales, narwhals, seals, walruses at sea, and caribou, reindeer and other herd animals of the tundra.
• Scavenging: Diving in order to bring up artifacts from the Old Realm along the ocean floor.
  • Aided by Endowments from village gods that allow them to breath underwater (or just hold their breaths extremely long times) and survive the deep cold.
  • These are most often mundane items or shattered pieces of the five magical materials, but occasionally they discover an actual Artifact (which is sometimes non-functional).
  • Guild, Haslanti and other merchants often come to the Zalvenesh villages, who hold auctions once a season to auction off the goods found.
  • Village patrons get first choice of the Artifacts, but many of them are inclined to sell them when a merchant with fine goods comes along.
• Dolphin Helpers: There are many tame dolphins in the sea nearby, who often act as helpers to the Zalvenesh.
  • In fact, when many Zalvenesh who have spent their lives in or near the sea are about to die, there is a thaumaturgical Procedure that will transmigrate their souls to a young dolphin's body.

Politics

• Council of retired longboat captains rule each village.
  • They deal with civil matters, basing decisions on custom and arguments within the council.
  • Place on the council is based entirely on social respect.
  • Most real conflicts for power are between captains and priests.

Religion

• Ruled by a small pantheon known as the Zal-Kelementi.
  • Small gods of sea and ice.
• Entire pantheon worshipped by all the Zalvenesh, but each village has one god it favors.
• Every village is visited by one of the gods each season.
  • Villagers are warned of the god's imminent arrival by priests beforehand.
  • Each such visitation is celebrated with a great feast and festival.
  • Such festivals may often involve a "sacred marriage" between a god and a mortal they find attractive. Those marriages are of festival-duration only.
• Zel-Kelementi frequently interbreed with the Zalvenesh, resulting in the birth of plenty of god-blooded.
  • Village priests are always god-bloods.
  • They are also always taught Charms by their parents, and are the foremost defenders of the villages.

Notable Gods of the Zal-Kelementi

• Icefoam Glory: Goddess of the White Sea. The goddess of the White Sea was once worshipped by the Zalvenesh people in the great temple of Liriel-Anneth, but none of the settlements have taken up her worship in anything but name since the fall of the Zalvenesh capital.
• Kind Fin Mother: Goddess of the Zalvenesh. Once a baiji goddess (little dolphin-gods who regard mankind as friends), Kind Fin Mother is now considered the mother-goddess figure of the Zalvenesh peoples.
• Borean Scintillance: Goddess of Light-on-Snow. One of the goddesses of the northern lights, Borean Scintillance is the patron goddess of the village of Frostlight, having guided them to the location of the strange Artifact their village is known for.
• Icecracking Roar: Polar Bear God of Breathing Holes in Ice. A mighty polar bear clad in moonsilver armor, Icecracking Roar is the patron god of Pale Bear Harbor. His sons are among some of the mightiest Zalvenesh hunters.
• Winter Whitesong: God of Winter-Deaths. One of the wintery death gods of the North, Winter Whitesong is associated with the Elder's Trek, and is the patron god of the White Hills.
• Gold-Tooth: Ice Weasel God of Fishing. One of the many fishing gods revered by the Zalvenesh, Gold-Tooth takes the form of a massive ice weasel with brilliant orichalcum teeth. He has more than once defended his people against the terrors of Liriel-Anneth.
• Veil of Frost: Goddess of Frozen Seas. One of the daughters of Icefoam Glory, Veil of Frost is the patron goddess of Icehorn. Her god-blooded children are known for their frost-blue eyes and the thin narwhal-horn piercing blades she gives them to wield in her name.
• Little Frost Thief: Fox-God of Food Spoiled by Frost. Taking the form of a large arctic fox, Little Frost Thief is the patron god of Tunilalak Village, who prevents accidental spoilage of the village's curing and smoking operations as long as they leave a tithe out at the stone altars at the edge of the village for the arctic foxes.
• Crystalline Pride Triumphant: Salt God of Mercantilism. A salt god that has adopted the village of Salt & Ice as its City Father, Crystalline Pride Triumphant is a canny mercantile spirit who seeks to prove his superiority to the rest of the Zal-Kelementi through trade.
• Fire in the Ice: God of Warm Steam-Vents on the Ocean Floor. A bald humanoid form wearing ocean-green robes and constantly surrounded by steam, Fire in the Ice is the patron of Evergreen Harbor.
• Thunderous Tundra: God of Sled Dog Teams. Something of a powerful Northern god, the mighty sled-master who is always accompanied by his two ox-sized sled dogs and a sled of brilliant ice and moonsilver, Thunderous Tundra is the patron of Four Dogs.