Folklore and Customs of the Land
It would be difficult to speak of the people of the North without mentioning their greatest cultural staple: the sea. No other culture takes more from and has more respect for the sacred waters that feed and even cloth its people. Most of the Northern diet consists of creatures and plants from the sea. Northerns think of their waters as the pillar of their society and take great care not to pollute or foul the waters they drink from or fish in. All waste is burned and buried, Fishing areas are rotated yearly. Young sea creatures are returned to the ocean if accidentally caught.
Anyone found violating these laws is banished from going on the ocean and commanded to never eat from it again. Boats and the body of fishermen are left to the ocean to feed it and for them to be reclaimed by it. The North has no centralized government, each town has a council of elders and each town keeps volunteer groups of warriors to hunt monsters harassing inhabitants or to fight off incursions to the peace. There is also no currency, trade of goods and services allows Northerners to access all they need. It is advisable to bring crafts or trade skills when visiting to acquire lodging and meals, if you are short on things to trade many people will have tasks they need doing but these may take some time but often reap great reward.
Festival of Renewing Fire
The Festival of Renewing Fire is one of four festivals in the North but is unarguably the most important to the people of the land. Taking place in the middle of the dark winter season the connection of the people to the element of fire is at its strongest, as so the Northerns honour that connection by giving life to large fires which they sing to, give offerings, and tend for 3 days.
The fire also provides a chance to release the land blood of any staves that are no longer needed or have rotten, feeding them to the fire of renewal and giving back to the land. There are 1 to 3 fires per town depending on the size and the fires are set in a central location for all to see and honour.
Sometimes a wayward spark hits a roof and sets it ablaze, the fire is let to burn till it produces flame but then is contained, it is seen as being chosen to have one’s adobe burned by the chance of spark and wind, but understood that fire is wild and will take greedily if not tended to. Once the fires start to decline on the third day, a member of every family and group takes a burning branch from the bonfire and returns home with it, reviving their hearth fire from the shared flame.
Staves and Folk Magic
The practice of inscribing symbols into branches and pieces of floated wood goes back to the time before the gods, when people were sailing on the fabled glimmering sea. Wood is seen by people from the North as holding the life-blood of the land, once a piece is severed from a tree (with the appropriate ritual) it holds part of what makes the land alive until it has rotten or is burned. By carving carefully selected symbols into a piece of wood, someone can direct the power of this land-blood towards a purpose like protecting oneself, keeping cattle and crops unharmed, or revealing something that is hidden - like a bank of fish in a dark sea, or even grant visions of the future or the past.
Stave carving, the making of fahtotems, the concoction and preparation of healing salves and much more folk magic has been preserved and shared by the common Northerners. It is a form of magic that does not drain nor corrupts the land like the soul magic of the gods.
Common symbols
Northerners don’t preserve much in writing, preferring to commit the most important stories, songs and trade agreements to memory. They do use a good quantity of symbols still, both in folk magic and to identify goods and places. Some symbols take the form of crafter’s seal and are unique to an individual, some are shared across the different towns of the North with regional variations. It is not unusual to see a tool handle marked with a crafter’s symbol, a stave inscription to assist the user with precision and subsequent owner’s marks as the tool got passed down.