Worldbuilding article (the whole project may be viewed here).
Quote:
The Norvolk are the most phyiscally massive of Mundia's human races. They are generally broad-shouldered and stocky with robust bones and copious body fat. Their skin is naturally white and cannot tan, so they are suspectible to sunburn in more southerly latitudes. Norvolk hair may be red or blonde but is always straight, and their eyes are blue. Although the Norvolk's heavy builds give them greater physical strength than other races, they have less endurance. Norvolk cut their clothes from animal hides and are fond of blue face paint in battle or religious ceremonies.
There is some evidence that the Norvolk once had a sedentary, agricultural proto-civilization many centuries ago, for the ruins of megalithic shrines are scattered all around Norlund; these continue to hold special spiritual significance for the Norvolk. However, this culture has since collapsed possibly due to a hostile climate change, so the Norvolk have reverted to a nomadic lifestyle of hunting and gathering. They construct their mobile shelters out of wood, bone, and hides, with the former being more important in forests and the latter two on grassy steppes. Despite their generally "primitive" technology, the Norvolk have retained the knowledge to make iron tools and they hold blacksmiths in high regard. Those Norvolk living on grasslands keep horses as mounts for hunting and war.
The many different Norvolk tribes share a common democratic system of government in which chieftains and other leaders are popularly elected and can be quickly recalled if they disappoint their compatriots. Norvolk societies have a mostly egalitarian social structure in line with these democratic tendencies. Although there are distinct gender roles, with men hunting and fighting and women gathering and managing domestic chores, neither sex is really held in higher regard and both sexes participate in child-rearing. Norvolk men and women tend towards monogamous pair bonds but are relatively lax towards "adultery".
Norvolk religion is animistic, teaching that spiritual energy permeates the natural world. Souls may inhabit not only humans and other lifeforms but even "non-living" things such rocks, bodies of water, and the sky. Some tribes believe that all these souls are connected to a larger deity who may be conceived as a "Great Soul". The Norvolk believe it is important to appease the souls in nature as much as possible, so they vest great respect and prestige upon their druids (spiritual leaders). Druids may be either men or women but are more often than not among the tribe's elders. The Norvolk believe that when people die, their souls move on to inhabit other things in nature. The better people behave in their current lives, the more likely their souls will move into things more highly regarded by their respective tribes.
War breaks out regularly between the Norvolk tribes, mainly to settle intertribal vendettas, compete over foraging grounds, or raid each other's stockpiles. Norvolk warriors are famously ferocious and destructive in battle. Nonetheless, they do abide to a primitive honor code that forbids killing those who can't defend themselves (e.g. small children and the elderly). Courage is perhaps the mostly highly esteemed virtue among the Norvolk; those judged to be cowards are ostracized and may even be exiled. Norvolk traditionally prefer hand-to-hand combat and eschew ranged weapons such as javelins and bows as cowards' tools.
The Norvolk's physical strength and fierceness has made them popular mercenaries for more technologically advanced nations, but otherwise they are widely considered to be dimwitted, volatile barbarians. In turn the Norvolk spurn the other races' autocratic oppressiveness and what they perceive to be greed and a callous disrespect for the natural world.
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