The Frozen North

There is a land further to the north than even the domain of the Northmen. On the northern shore of the Tennurhaf, connected to the mainland by a chain of rocky islands, lies the Frozen North, or the Northern Wastes. Whatever one wishes to call them, the names this land has accrued describe it quite well. There is nothing that grows in these lands, even by the standards of the Tennurhaf. They are so far from the sun's path that its warmth scarcely touches them, and they are shrouded in darkness for half the year. Most land is buried beneath a thick glacier, but even what little is not is rough and unsuitable for growing anything - the barren soil and the frigid climes cannot sustain anything more than lichen.

The Frozen North was not settled by the Northmen until long after they charted the many islands of the Tennurhaf. It is unknown what led them to do so. Perhaps they were motivated by exile from more temperate lands, or merely driven by the challenge of taming such an inhospitable place. More likely, however, the Northmen established camps on the shores of the Northern Wastes on expeditions to hunt for seals and whales, and some of these camps, positioned at strategic locations and along important routes, proved to have staying power, growing into settlements of their own.

Those settlements are by no means great cities, of course. Even by the standards of the Tennurhaf, they are small. They have little in the way of chieftains - when each family must struggle to sustain themselves, they have no time for politics; instead, every homestead functions as an independent unit, with "villages" being more akin to several such homes clustered together due to families finding strength in numbers toward a common goal. Some feuds among those of the Frozen North run deep, but blood is not spilled - survival surpasses petty grudges. Even when a man hates his neighbor, he knows that he will not survive the winter without another spotter in his hunting party.

These buildings consist largely of sod houses or stone huts built to shield the inhabitants against the harsh winds; these are built around pits dug in the ground, as the people rely on the warmth of the earth itself to insulate them from the freezing cold. As there is nothing that grows in the Wastes, its inhabitants dine almost solely on meat - primarily that of fish, seals, and walruses, which can be found along the shores - and milk from the hardy sheep they raise. As resources are so scarce, the people must utilize every part of their kills, using hides and furs for clothing and bones and ivory to make tools. The only other source of goods they receive comes from trading furs, sealskins, and whale oil to the tribes to the south. Luckily, there is enough demand for such things to sustain their settlements. The most prized possession in the treeless Wastes is a longboat, which allows those who dwell there to venture forth to other islands and settlements for trade, or for raiding. Some tribes have a boat that they have bartered for; others have taken their ships by force. The raiders of the Frozen North are some of the most feared in all the Tennurhaf, for when their lives depend on the success of their raids, they will fight like demons to secure them.

Settlement in the Frozen North, as rudimentary as it is, is still limited to only a few small swathes of the southern coast. The interior of the Wastes are far too inhospitable, and remain uncharted by mortal men. Still, they must hold plenty of secrets waiting to be discovered. Some hunters have reported seeing gigantic white bears, big enough to tear a man in half with a single swipe of their paws, out in the glaciers. Other legends tell of stranger things yet - of castles of frost giants, of slumbering dragons, of pits in the earth that lead straight to Hell. And who knows what may be buried beneath the ice?