Ancestries of the Frozen Steppes
Eyr's Frigid North
The northern steppes, taigas and boreal forests of Svyr and the Eyr region of Krasz 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. The land has formed cultures that use religion and superstition to bulwark against their fear.
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
A dour and unsmiling people, the Krasznya call themselves such for their ancestry's tendency to have red hair (Kraszn means "red" but also "beautiful"). The Krasznya have a penchant for authoritarian leadership and a preference for superstition and draconian interpretations of faith. The Krasznya have endured centuries of hardship- from nature, from invasion, and from each other. The Krasznya say that everything is their enemy- even themselves. If they can't understand it, they build a superstition around it so it can be quantified and then removed or avoided.
As a people, the Krasznya view life as a thing to be endured. The joy of life is getting up and smirking at a foe to show them you are still standing. The Krasznya also have a particular love for revenge. They have a ruthless pragmatism, self-reliance and collective ennui. When one can't trust your own lawmakers and princes, you can't trust your neighbors, you can't trust nature and you can't trust even your family, one might be forged as a person who is shrewd with their words and cautious with their actions.
Game Mechanics
Typical Alignment: Krasznya are usually a flavor of neutral. The Krasznya are a people who build their society using superstition with a tendency for authoritarian rule, rigid traditions and draconian faith. But the average Krasznya is more focused on survival than strict adherence to law or ethics.
Krasznya religious figures may be neutral good if they are the rare kindly priest or priestess. But they are more likely to be lawful neutral with strict interpretations of the faith. Meanwhile those Krasznya closer to power and money are at best lawful neutral who enforce traditions, old ways and the tested truths. Many are the venal neutral evil types who will use or cheat anyone to secure more for themselves.
Chaotic alignments are fairly rare- while begrudgingly tolerated, no one admires their maverick tendencies. While evil is frowned upon on paper and among the faithful, lawfully evil tyrants do well in Krasznya settlements- at least until they are usurped or killed for going too far. Their ruthless adherence to law or tradition, though it benefits them, is seen as justifiable in a harsh land. Good alignments are sometimes seen as peculiar, and somewhat rare. It is not that they are unappreciated, but charity and ideals of generosity to strangers and outsiders perplex many.
Attribute Bonus: +1 Constitution. The Krasznya are quite hardy. It is unusual for the Krasznya to have high charisma, but many are quite wise. The Krasznya don't value formal education and finding a highly educated among them is quite rare. Most aristocratic courts in Krasz import such intellectuals from Svyr or other parts of Eyr.
"I Will Endure:" Once per long rest when a Krasznya fails a constitution saving throw, they may choose to succeed instead.
Svyrlunder
The communally-minded Svyrlunders are a seafaring and mercantile people. Though they have their Ealdors and Jarls who are the ancestral landowners, their culture is centered on the power of the guilds and merchant houses.
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 others 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.
But today the Kazarn and the frontier mountain villages of the Krasz face a common foe- the Khazai. They are allies of grim convenience and necessity, but this new detente has also facilitated trade and interaction between Human and Orc.
These Orc-folk range across the frigid steppes of Kazhan, and the southern slopes of the Taiga that lead to Krasz. They seasonally war with the Skeegol Hobgoblins to the southwest but their traditional enemy is found in the eastern steppes- the Jaq'hanates of the Khazai.
"Malenkya" Smallfolk
The Smallfolk of the North- affectionately called Malenkya by their Human cousins- are of the Hearthwise branch of their kin. This part of the world doesn't have native Wanderwise; it is too dangerous. If there is native sense of charity and a veneration of a knitted together community among the northerners, the Malenkya are usually at the heart if it.
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
The manic creative energies and chaotic nature of Gnomes is turned inversely in the Winterwise. Rather than boisterously explaining their current fascinations, Winterwise grumble and mutter with the air of a cranky artist or a moody eccentric scholar. They have an edge to them, like someone who one is unsure they want to cross.
The Winterwise are not anti-social, but they are quite introverted for Gnomes. They are so turned inwardly that they tend to have disturbing countenances- fixed stares, a vague scowl, as if they gave forgotten they are in company.
Snowstrider Elves
Kneazles
Covered in a thick, velvety mange of cement-colored fur, the Kneazles are the northern brand of Goblinoid. They are a nocturnal ancestry that prefer to live in caverns and abandoned mines; they are not comfortable in cities or sewers. The strangest aspect of the Kneazle is they bring an ambient chill with them. Even on a warm summer day or near a hearth, a Kneazle's presence adds a stiff wintry chill.
Kneazles are schizoid and solitary- they don't like others unless they can somehow benefit from another's presence. Most are opportunistic scavengers who on their own are little threat to anyone but a solitary miner or wanderer. They can eat almost literally anything. Frozen flesh, leathers and furs are their favorites but they are neither foolish nor careless nor choosy. A Kneazle would sooner eat a frozen corpse of some unfortunate who succumbed to the cold than fight. But a mean-spirited one might tail a lone traveler or pair and steal or sabotage their means of survival so they do freeze to death.
Trolls of the North
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.
Northern Undead
Vampires
Upyri
The self-styled "noble undead" of these frozen lands are similar to the Strikja of the Tzimyska-sphere.Lake Kingdoms. Similar to those undead, the Upyri are masters of their form, the weather and the minds of animals. The Upyri do not skulk through urban cityscapes; they are uncomfortable in such banal surroundings. They dominate an area of isolated rural terrain like the tyrants of old, connected to the land and peasants like a dragon holds their hoard.
Vudylaku
