[Culture] The Skanarri

[Javert 5594]

 

The Skanarri

In the great frozen lands of the far north lies the people known as the Skanarri. A people that often lack numbers, yet make up for it in their ferocity and devotion to survival. Often preferring the lands of the frozen north, these people have resorted to raiding and pillaging villages they come across with no sympathy or remorse. While they may share similarities to their distant highlander kin in the Kingdom of Norland, the differences between the two are now too great for them to be considered the same. Unlike their other Highlander counterparts, the Skanarri establish no permanent cities. Most notably, they tend to wander from place to place within the Highlands and establish temporary tent cities as the winter months settle in and make travel impossible. Within these tent cities, you can often find hard working people who contribute greatly to the wellbeing of the Tribe. Many may refer to these people as a breeding ground of banditry and barbarism, however it is safe to say they have a unique culture established over a near 100 years of isolation.

 

 

 

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History

Much of the early Skanarri history is unknown, as the Skanarri do not write their history and have lost the ability to do so. Much of the Skanarri lifestyle prioritizes survival over learning to read or write and as such the practice has gradually faded amongst them. However, through listening to the dramatic and often exaggerated oral tales of the Elders, one may learn that the Skanarri began a near Hundred years ago in the realm of Arcas. 

At the time of the exodus from the previous realm of Atlas, the Skanarri were nothing more than the average Norlander who had yet to identify himself as anything else. While settlement at first went smoothly for them, the first push towards the Skanarr identity would begin when a Norlander named Fnod, later known by the Skanarri as Fnod the Founder, and a group of his followers were arrested for charges of murder and thievery.  Found guilty on both charges, Fnod and his followers were sentenced to death by hanging. Outraged, Fnod ordered his followers to fight and a bloody brawl ensued between the followers of Fnod and the Norlanders. Outnumbered and out armored, Fnod ordered his followers to flee from Norland and into the high mountains. Having felt mistreated by the Norlandic people, Fnod declared his people to be “Norlanders no longer,” and declared his followers to be known as the Clan of the Skanarri. After having his followers pray to their Gods, He and his newfound Clan began roaming the Highlands. When the winter months came to the North, the Skanarri established a temporary tent city which became known as “Fnod’s Paradise.”

The name of this tent city came to be due to the soon drastic increase of followers coming to join Fnod’s Clan. Many of these new followers were exiles from the lands of Norland and Haense, often for crimes such as murder and thievery. Fnod embraced every new follower into his Clan, no matter the crime they had committed in their homeland. Despite the harshness of the winter months during the establishment of Fnod’s Paradise, the Skanarri found great success when it came to raids in the south. When they could, their primary targets would be that of Norland, Haense, and sometimes even as far south as the Holy Orenian Empire. Regardless, the Skanarri would not discriminate in their raiding and often picked their targets based on convenience and whether the raid would supply the Clan or not. With the Clan being severely under-armed and under-armored, Fnod did not wish to enter battles with the well armed forces of their southern counterparts.

Winter soon passed and the Skanarri packed up their tent city and began to move. It would not be long until Fnod was killed while foraging food with a warband of his followers. The Warband had unknowingly approached the den of a Bear and her cubs. Unprepared for the encounter, Fnod was the first to be ambushed by the Bear and torn to pieces by its claws. Half of the Warband was killed by the Bear when it was finally defeated by a hunter by the name of Cnut the Boar, who successfully pierced the Bear’s heart with his spear.

Fnod the Founder prior to his demise

 

With Fnod dead, the vacancy of the leadership position caused two Skanarri to step forward to try and claim it for themselves. The first being the elder Thormead, one of Fnod’s original followers and who seemed to be the most likely to succeed him. The second was Cnut the Boar, the young man who had avenged Fnod’s death and slew the Bear that had dealt the killing blow. Due to Fnod’s preachings that hereditary succession caused corruption and that only the strong must lead, Thormead and Cnut engaged in the tradition that the Skanarr now refer to as the Bardagi Trial. Both men removed their armor so they were only wearing their regular warm clothing and armed with only one dagger each. The fight began when Cnut rushed Thormead and shoulder-tackled him with enough force that sent both men tumbling to the ground. Cnut then unleashed a flurry of punches and bites, all while attempting to stab Thormead anywhere he could. Thormead was able to successfully disarm Cnut, though this only caused Cnut to unleash a battle cry so mighty that the ground surrounding them seemed to shake. Punch after Punch was thrown into Thormead’s face until he lied motionless. Cnut went in for the kill, retrieving his dagger and shoving it into Thormead’s throat. He rose to his feet, the crowd slowly beginning to chant his name as he lifted his hands up and roared in victory. 

Following Cnut’s ascent to the Chieftainship, he ordered the complete isolation of the Skanarri from the rest of the descendant world. They no longer accepted anybody from the outside, and this is where the modern Skanarr identity truly formed. With their connections to the outside world severed, Cnut led his people deeper and deeper into the mountains and established yet another tent city. Over the next ten years, the Skanarr became more of a culture than a Clan, with multiple minor clans beginning to form within the Skanarri society. 

Many years began to pass with relative silence from the Skanarri, their raids decreased and communication thinned even further than before. When a southern expedition went north to try and reestablish communication with the Skanarr people, they found that Cnut had been killed by a jealous minor chieftain and the Skanarri people had plunged into chaos with multiple Clans vying for domination over the Skanarri since then. This internal conflict had ultimately thinned the Skanarri population even further than what it had been, with under five thousand remaining alive. The Skanarri people would find themselves even more thinned out after the event that became known as the “Battle of the Wildlings'' which was given the name by southern onlookers for the absolute barbarism shown during the battle.

 

A depiction of the Battle of the Wildlings drawn by Southern onlookers portraying Eiren Shieldbreaker leading his Clan to battle, 2nd of the Deep Cold 1770.

 

Only two Skanarri Clans had been left standing from all the internal conflict around 1770. These Clans were known as Clan Shieldbreaker led by Eiren Shieldbreaker and Clan Thorlaf led by Jerik Thorlaf. Eiren had led his forces down from the mountains in order to pursue Jerin, who had fled southwards towards Haense in order to escape Eiren. Not wanting to go into Haeseni territory, Jerik was left with no choice but to stand his ground and fight against Eeren despite being outnumbered three to one. Eiren, confident in his numbers, led his warriors to charge directly at Jerik’s line. Jerik positioned ranged warriors just behind his melee warriors, ordering them to fire at will on the Shieldbreaker’s charge. Eiren’s troops were pelted with arrows, causing massive casualties for his Clan Warriors. As the Shieldbreaker troops drew closer to Jerik’s line, he personally led his own clan warriors to counter-charge Eiren’s men. The two chieftains engaged in single combat, their weapons clanging against each other as the battle raged around them. The amount of brutality shown by both sides during the battle was so great that a Haeseni onlooker dubbed the battle as the Battle of the Wildlings.

As the two Chieftains clashed and the battle continued, Eiren seemed to be gaining the upper hand over Jerik and was slowly beginning to overpower the chieftain. Upon quick thinking, Jerik was able to knock Eiren’s sword out of his hand using his shield and impaled him through the heart. It quickly spread throughout the battlefield that Eiren had been slain, and fighting slowly came to a halt with the Skanarr surrounding Jerik as he stood over Eiren’s body. With a triumphant warcry, Jerik declared that he would be the new Chieftain of all Skanarri and that no longer shall their people fight among themselves. Jerik led his surviving people back into the mountains where he began organizing new raids into the south. By this time, the lands of the South had become embroiled in the Sutican War, which led to Jerik’s raids on the northernmost towns and cities to be increasingly successful. Jerik had decided not to involve himself in the War due to still holding the Isolationist ideals of his predecessors and Jerik holding the belief that the war was too far to worry with. 

Upon the conclusion of the Sutican War and the beginning of the Inferi War, Jerik began to reconsider Skanarri isolationism and began preparing to join the Inferi war on the side of the Alliance. His plans angered many of the traditionalist people of the tribe, leading to them revolting against Jerik’s rule. The Rebels led by a warrior only known as Argos were able to quickly capture Jerik and slew him and any Skanarri who had even considered deisolation. Argos was chosen as the new Chieftain and firmly stated to his tribe, “We will not involve ourselves in a Southern war unless we wish to betray the traditions of our past.”

After the successful Coup, the Skanarri watched from afar as the Inferi war raged on throughout Southern Arcas. When it became clear that the War was over, the Skanarri seemed to care little. However, the Skanarri soon fell victim to the fall of Arcas. Like much of Norland, Haense, and Oren, the Skanarri were also hit by a great storm of meteors that forced them to flee from their temporary camp prematurely. They left behind a majority of their Food, Weapons, and Equipment that would later become essential for the overseas voyage to Almaris. Fleeing to the Southwest, they quickly and hastily assembled a fleet of Longboats and sailed away from Arcas. The Skanarri were one of the last to leave Arcas, their makeshift fleet trailing behind the rest of the Descendant fleets. 

Soon after arriving in Almaris last after the Descendants had established their cities, the Skanarri immediately went North where they began travelling around as they did back in the lands of Arcas. Due to leaving most of their supplies back in the old continent, many of the Skanarri died of disease or starvation. This continued until Argos finally was able to begin planning for the creation of a new tent city where he plans to allow his people to recover from the devastating journey from Arcas. 

 

 

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Common Physical Traits

In the average Skanarri person you will find a very small variation of hair color, most often Brown or Black hair. Most men grow beards and are encouraged to do so, and teenagers often begin growing facial hair at around 15-17. Both men and women often keep long hair in order to keep as much heat as they can in the cold north. Their eye colors often consist of Brown and Black, with almost no Skanarri having Blue or Green eyes. Due to a lack of exposure to the Sun in the Highlands, the Skanarri are light skinned like their other Highlander counterparts. Because of constant combat and labor the Skanarri people are often lean and fairly capable when it comes to manual day-to-day activities.

 

 

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Society

Skanarri society is not overly complex. Much like their Norlandic ancestors, the Skanarri follow a Clan-based system with one chieftain unifying all the lesser chieftains. The Skanarri succession of Chieftainship is often a bloody one, as they do not believe in Hereditary Monarchs like much of their southern counterparts do. Instead, they follow whomever they see as the strongest warrior. This means that most Chieftains are warrior-leaders, leading from the front and caring little for the risk to their own lives. When one Chieftain is killed, there are usually two or more claimants who try and vy for the position. If there are no other contestants, the one who wished to be Chieftain ascends to the position. If there is more than one, then the contestants shall engage in a fight to the death known as the Bardagi trial. The last one standing is normally the one who becomes the new Chieftain. Individual Chieftains that rule over their own Clans are not often regarded as nobles, however Clan level succession differs from that of the unifying Chieftain. Clans are made up of a singular family and their bannermen, and therefore Clan Chieftains often choose a worthy successor from within it. Like the top Chieftain, Clan level Chieftains can be challenged by members of their own Clan whether they be Bloodborne or adopted so long as they carry the Clan name.

 

 

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Behavior

The Skanarri people often behave brashly, stubbornly, and bluntly. They do not have the average manners of the southern lands, and are not afraid to tell a person how they feel. From a young age, Skanarri children are taught that being assertive is key in a person’s life. Therefore a Skanarri will not be found kneeling to anybody, not even their own Chieftain. The Skanarri are a very isolationist folk. They have been known to even overthrow a Chieftain for suggesting open relations with the outside world and replacing him with a more isolationist one. Due to this isolationism, the Skanarri have refused to speak to outsiders. While this could be changed by force, it is more likely that the Skanarri will simply pack up and move somewhere else or decide to kill any envoys sent their way. All in all, they are often rather difficult to negotiate anything with.

 

 

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Military

Unsurprisingly, the Skanarri have no organized army and instead rely upon the willingness of their people to fend off foreign and internal threats. While this may not bode well for a number of reasons, it allows the Skanarri Chieftains a sense of validation. If a Chieftain can rally many men to their cause, it is clear to the Skanarri people that they are worthy to be followed.

 

 

Spoiler

OOC: Firstly, this took me a few days to make and I was tired through most of it so I apologize if it's a little lackluster. This is also my very first Culture post, so I hope you guys like it!

 

Secondly, if you'd like to join this culture be sure to msg Javert#3430 on Discord and I'll shoot you an invite to the discord I'm making for it, I hope I see you guys there soon!

 

[Gandhi 2719]

hella based bro <3

[makeitsoyoucandeleteaccounts 610]

Absolutely based, redpilled dare I say.

[youknowwhoiam 47]

this is perfect