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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bob Aberton" data-source="post: 156821" data-attributes="member: 1518">Cultures & Locations, then...Alright...Cultures&Locations:  The Icy Wastes......are at the very northern tip of Avalon.  It consists mostly of pine forests and ice.  The summer is short, it only lasts 40 days or so.  There is a huge amount of amber scattered about the Icy Wastes, and, as amber is found nowhere else on Avalon, it is extremely valuable.    The people of the Icy Wastes are of Danish extraction (They moved to Avalon right before the Sundering from Danelaw in England.).  Some are Christian converts, but for the most part, they worship the gods of their ancestors; Odin, Thor, Freya, Tyr, and Hiemdall (Some also worship Loki, but those are considered sneaky and dishonorable by the others).  They live in small, isolated villages for the most part, although they did establish one big city, Imstunbyrk (City of the Sea-fire Stones), for the purposes of furthering the amber trade in that region.  They are a wild, somewhat uncouth race for the most part, and occasionally, very occasionally, they will go raiding.  They are ruled by a Jarl, a title roughly corresponding to "Baron."   They speak a form of Danish, but due to the extreme isolation of some communities, this can vary from place to place.They are renowned for their skill as sailors, and the longboats they produces are the envy of every shipwright in Avalon.  They frequently go on trading or raiding voyages that can last as long as a year, going as far south as Allamid.  They came under the rule of the Nherianthir Kings after a short two year war, in 57 ARD.  They judge a man by his strength, his valor, and how many drinking horns of mead he can down, and this has given them a reputation, not entirely undeserved, of tending toward thick-headed barbarianism.The people of the Icy Wastes also share their pine forests and tundra with frost giants.  These frost giants speak a mix of Giantish and Northern Avalonian, which is the languag of the people of the Icy Wastes.  They worship a god they call Ymir, Father of the Giants, who also appears in the mythology of the Men of the Icy Wastes, although in the mythology of the frost giants, Ymir was not killed by Odin.  The frost giants say that Ymir made them out of ice and snow, and, indeed, they are about as cold and deadly.  They do not trade, and they mainly keep themselves away from anyone who is not a giant, although they do go raiding often, and sometimes they participate in the amber trade to get diamonds, which they prize even above gold, because diamonds are like the ice they love, only they do not melt or shatter.  In frost giant mythology, diamonds are fragments of the Ice of Creation, from which they say the world was made.  They live in small clans in caves, each clan ruled by the eldest member of the family, although every decade or so they all meet together, in something like a family reunion attended by all the giants of Avalon, except fire giants, whom they cannot stand.  Most sensible people stay away from these giant reunions, as the mead flows freely, and a drunken giant is a very dangerous thing.Wandering Dwarves also live in the Icy Wastes.  These strange creatures are dwarves, the descendants of Galahir, brother of Fjalahir.  When these two aforementioned dwarves, regarded as the ancestors of all dwarves in Avalon, quarreled in time immemorable, they both decided to go underground.  They bet on a game of dice to see who would get the gloomy deeps of Avalon, and who would have to stay aboveground, and bear the terrible sunlight.  Fjalahir won, and took his clan, and went underground.  Galahir and his clans, were forced to stay aboveground.  Wandering Dwarves are Galahir's descendants.  They possess no great cities, nor even towns, nor do they mine or delve.  Instead, they wander about aboveground, in small family groups, with their possessions their backs.  They generally make a living through odd jobs and forge-work.  They worship Odin, Thor, Tyr, and Freya, as do the Deep Dwarves, as do the men of the Icy Wastes.  Wandering Dwarves bear a great hatred for the Deep Dwarves, for they are convinced that Fjalahir cheated at that fateful game of dice.Next up:  Cultures and Locations: the Tor, the Elfinwoods, and Middle Avalon.</blockquote>

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