Skandrheim

Long since lost in the crimson mists of the Tide, the nation of Skandrheim is the rocky land which brought forth the pirates and settlers that now make their home in Nordheim. The culture and heritage of Skandrheim is perhaps the surest in the Sunset Isles, as it existed as a colony-city long before the coming of the Tide. Skalds dwelled in Nordheim and custom and the traditions of home remained strong across the western waves.

Those traditions were hard and bloody ones. The rocky soil of Skandrheim was poorly suited to farming or herding, and the grim seamen were notorious for their piratical raiding all along the coast of the Ninefold Celestial Empire. Their longships and their axe-wielding warriors were dreaded across the seas, for they took few prisoners and much gold. Punitive expeditions were a long-standing custom from the more civilized lands, but the Skandr had learned much of stonecraft from their dwarven neighbors, and assaulting one of their rocky cliffside cities was an enterprise of little benefit. Yet not all Skandr were red-handed pirates, and their longships went almost as often in trade as in war. The gold and plunder they took from softer lands had to be sold somewhere for more practical goods, and Skandr trade-ships had at least the surety that they would not be assaulted by their brethren- unless the sails tokened some feuding rival clan. Their gods were few and are little-worshipped now, with Sifr the lord of the waves, Anghad the mistress of the mountains, and Hjal the god of battle remembered chiefly in story and song.

The Skandr themselves were tall and black-haired, with pale eyes and skin. Menfolk took but a single wife at a time, though pretty house-thralls could expect attention whenever their master felt so inclined. Wives were responsible for running homesteads and farms in the absence of the menfolk, and were ever bit as hard as their men- pretty house-thralls who were a little too favored had a habit of unfortunate accidents. Their blood runs strong in the Sunset Isles, with only Imperial stock being more common.

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License