Schnai Tribe

The Schnai maintain a rich Suel heritage, claiming direct descent from the ancient Suel Imperium. This legacy is expressed through:

• Elaborate court customs, especially among their nobility.
• Preservation of High Suloise, the ancient tongue, in religious rites and royal decrees.
• Worship of traditional Suel deities like Kord (god of strength and storms), Lendor (time and order), and Wee Jas (death and magic), with local variations emphasizing endurance, clarity of purpose, and ancestral reverence.

The people of Schnai view themselves as the inheritors of Suel greatness, tempered by generations of survival in the unforgiving north. They are proud, clever, and cunning—never cowed by weather or empire.

At the heart of Schnai society lies a powerful and centralized monarchy:

• The King of Schnai, chosen by bloodline and acclaim, holds both sacred and temporal authority, advised by a council of high jarls, warrior-priests, and rune-lords.
• Beneath the king, the noble class governs regional strongholds and fjords, each with their own armed retinues and political ambitions. These nobles often compete for the king’s favor through feats of war, wealth, or wisdom.
• Commoners are respected for their labor and valor. Every Schnai freeholder is expected to bear arms, and martial training begins in youth.
• Skalds and rune-scribes occupy an honored caste, preserving lore and guiding through ancestral wisdom. Education is prized among the nobility, who often employ southern tutors to gain insight into enemy minds.

While more refined than the Fruztii or Cruskii, Schnai society remains fundamentally tribal and honor-driven, where duels, oaths, and blood-debts shape politics as often as diplomacy.

Schnai warriors are highly disciplined, and their raiding is both calculated and symbolic—a means of maintaining martial virtue and asserting dominance, rather than a necessity for survival.

• Raiding targets include northern Aerdy territories, the Bone March, and rival barbarian holdings.
• Fleet captains serve under the high king, leading longships marked by storm-colored sails and prow-spirits carved into likenesses of ancestral heroes.
• The elite Whitefang Guard, clad in heavy furs and wielding longaxes and ice-forged blades, serve as royal protectors and exemplars of Schnai might.

Schnai forces are more likely than their kin to coordinate with allies, and it is not unknown for their captains to forge temporary treaties with powers like Ratik, Furyondy, or even Tenh when it serves a strategic purpose.

Though more open to diplomacy than their neighbors, the Schnai remain proud and aloof:

• They tolerate Fruztii ambition and dismiss Cruskii isolationism, often manipulating disputes between them to maintain Schnai dominance.
• They regard southern nations—especially former Great Kingdom provinces—with a mix of disdain and watchfulness, seeing in them both opportunity and corruption.
• Among the three North Kingdoms, the Schnai are most likely to host emissaries, issue formal declarations, and engage in statecraft—though never at the expense of their independence.