Galó

Archivist's Excerpt from: A Tale of Almost Two Cities: Orphan Heights & Related Histories, CVI 42:4

Entry 16:

“The Galó are a soiled lot of half-rabid reprobates with both violent and thievish tendencies when not otherwise engaged in sloth and rampant gluttony. Tribal, undisciplined, and prone to outbursts of foul language and even fouler odours, they seem fit for little more than eventual artillery testing, once we invent it.”

— *Calgotten Barclay, 1st Lieutenant, Orphan Survey Regimen*

The assessment made by 1st Lt. Barclay remains unfortunately accurate when describing early encounters with the Galó . Nevertheless, it is known that on first contact, Orphan’s scouting teams noted their likeness to portrayals of Viking clans, but most of those came from operas the scouts had attended in their youth. Still, the similarity was noted, if less impressive than their theatrical counterparts. Attempts to trade with the Galó resulted in gained furs and lost provisions, and the furs turned out to be poor quality and poorer stench.

At that time, The Expanse housed at least eight different clans in settlements from Istlund to Sordun Valley. Most were believed by Orphan’s Scholars to originate from a single group of settlers that later quarreled and succumbed to killing each other. This would prove to be correct, though the Orphaners would never know that. The Galó arrived on the land mass more than two centuries prior in three longboats.

In comparing accounts, the Galó seem to have regressed to a more superstitious and barbaric way(s) of life as time went on, becoming cult-like, dwindling in numbers, intellect, manners, dress, and, tragically, culinary skill. Hygiene remained unchanged. Curiously, the Jaloheim Clan splintered farthest, shifted religious practices, and became matriarchal in structure. No one knows why, and nobody has cared enough to ask.