Ancestries of the Frozen Steppes

Eyr's Frigid North

The northern steppes, taigas and boreal forests of Svyr and Eyr are a harsh terrain.  Resources are less accessible despite a great wealth of it under the permafrost and granite.  The seas are frozen for much of the year, only opening in the brief heat of summer.  The cold and drear broadly breeds two types of cultures here- clannish isolationists and the commune-oriented.  Universally, the frigid north forces its people to form a thick callous, a survivalist mentality and a stalwart grit.  

The Frigid North of Eyr is not thoroughly peopled.  It is a sparsely-populated and rural land with only pockets of civilization, usually around vital resources.  It is days between even the most rudimentary of settlements.  This realm feels like one of untamed wilderness, dangerous and dark between the torchlight of habitation.   

Northern Humans

Humans exist in the North, but they form only a sizeable minority.  To say they have tamed the North is laughable.  The North forces their submission with wild animals and harsh weather.  Humans very much live at the whims of the North and thus they tend to be a hardy but also austere people.  

Krasznya

Svyrlunder

Northern Cousinfolk

The Nearfolk- other Mortal beings native to Arhun- exist to round out the majority of denizens in the Frozen North.  Each deal with the Humanfolk and each other differently.  The first to have claimed this unforgiving realm were probably the Orcs- the "Kazarn Horde."  Next came the Humans, first from the south and then from the islands of Svyr.  And with the Humans were as always their stalwart but diminutive allies, the Smallfolk. 

   

Vault Dwarves

The Vault Dwarves appeared in these parts only a century ago.  They claim they are returning to their ancestral birthright and retaking these mountains for Dwarfkind.  But they are being very tight-lipped about where they came from (but that is nothing new).  These Dwarves feel they owe no one answers or explanations- fairly typical of Dwarves worldwide.  While they are cautiously open to trade with Humans and Smallfolk, any suggestion that they are usurping the mountains or invading territory is met with an aggressive (though not usually violent) response. 

Kazarn Orcs

The Orcs of the migratory Kazarn hordes have earned the begrudging respect of the Humans and Dwarves of northern Eyr.  The relationship has been fraught with peril and a lot of blood has been spilled on all sides.  When the proto-Krasznya first came to these icy lands, the Kazarn killed and subjugated many of them.  As numbers, birth rate and technology began to favor the Humans, they started hunting and clearing out the Kazarn villages and trading posts.    

"Malenkya" Smallfolk

The Smallfolk of the North- called affectionately Malenkya by their Human cousins- are of the Hearthwise branch of their kin. 

Northern Wyldfolk

Though they may resemble Mortal Ancestries in action and appearance, the Wyldfolk come from the Wyldlands- either the Beastlands or the many pockets and halfways-between of the Fairewyld.  Some have lived generations in the material plane, but remain distinctly "Fey" in origin.  The Wyldfolk are quite rare, accounting for less than ten percent of the already sparse population.    

Winterwise Gnomes

Kneazles

Snowstrider Elves

Beast Wyldfolk

Boarfolk

Ravenfolk

Bearfolk

The Bearfolk of northern Eyr are exceptionally isolationist and very rare.  Bearfolk are solitary: they care neither for outsiders or truthfully their own kind much of the time.  There may be as few as a hundred Bearfolk on all the ice fields of the Eyrish north and they only form a community in the summer months to trade and find mates.