Zalvenesh

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.

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

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Resources & Industry

• Whaling: whales, narwhals, seals, walruses.
• 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

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