Karkaroti'iqlat
The Karkaroti'iqlat are an ethnic group of kaatoq that live in the Everwinter Mountains in the northwest of Gilden. They mainly resemble northern species of hunting birds, the majority of them being ravens, owls, or falcons. While some other kaatoq ethnic groups are made up of distinct but related or allied kaatoq tribes, the Karkaroti'iqlat are one tribe, spread out in several villages across the mountain. These villages have regular contact with each other, but up in the remote Everwinters, they are very isolated from other peoples. Once, hundreds of years ago, that was not the case, and they enjoyed bountiful connection and trade with several of the human clans of the northern highlands which were their directly eastern neighbours, having particularly good relations with the kingdom of Tirosanioth. But since the rise of Dymin and its expansion across the highlands, the Karkaroti'iqlat have been essentially completely cut off from anyone other than themselves, especially since the Dymin started using blastpowder cannons, making even flight over their lands a potentially fatal risk. Because of this, most of the last many generations of Karkaroti'iqlat have never met any humans, or even seen one from a distance.
Culture and Way of Life
Being named as they are, one would expect the Everwinter mountains to be literally wintrous all year round. The seasons don't all look the same all year, there is a distinction between spring, summer, autumn, and winter, but the different seasonal states there could all be considered forms of winter compared to anywhere else, especially since there is heavy snow from early autumn through to late spring, and even in the height of summer, there is still always frost in the mornings. Due to climate restrictions and the mountain's geography, the Karkaroti'iqlat don't farm, rather being a hunter-gatherer society, though they do cultivate harvesting sites for things such as certain nuts, berries, and roots. Some might also tend to small gardens. Hunting is done using primarily bows and arrows, and setting traps. Some villages also fish if there is a nearby enough lake or river, or if they are nearer the coast.
Their villages are mostly on the smaller side and rather compact, lacking in much open space up on the mountain, especially higher up towards the peak, and it's not uncommon for a Karkaroti'iqlat village to be more vertically constructed than not. They live in roosts, wooden structures that are elevated a short ways off the ground on sturdy stilt-and-stone foundations. They are tall and round in shape, with pointed, thatched roofs. About a third of the walls all around the roost are left as open space in the upper middle and these gaps are usually left exposed during the daytime unless the weather is poor. At night, or when it precipitates and during the proper winter months, they are covered by insulating layers of woven tapestries and pelts. At the centre of the roost is a modest, stone-lined firepit, which is used to heat the space when it's cold and to cook food. Inside the roost is usually a single, open space, and the roosts typically house a single family, though there are some communities who build multi-levelled roosts in stacks and clusters which can accommodate more than one family, mostly closer to the mountain's peak.
Thanks to their layers of plumage, the Karkaroti'iqlat are naturally protected from the cold, and don't wear as many clothes as humans living in such climates would have to-- that, and their featherage also resolves any potential issues of modesty that tend to arise amongst non-feathered folk. Those who are younger or who have more active lifestyles tend to wear clothing with fewer layers, that is more form fitting yet not restricting, rather than anything very loose or billowing, so as to avoid being encumbered by cloth during flight. It is more common for elders and those who are more sedentary to wear thicker, more covering clothes, or even long cloaks and robes, especially during the deep winter.
Each Karkaroti'iqlat village is led by a chief, who is in charge of most of the day-to-day running of the village. The chief does not have exclusive authority, however, all important decisions must be approved by a majority of the village's elders, who gather in a monthly council with the chief to see to such matters. The role of village chief is an inherited one, and the chief appoints their successor, though that successor must have the approval of the council of elders. Traditionally, the line of succession is familial, and the eldest child of the chief will have been prepared their whole life to take on the role, however, there may be cases when either the chief has no children, or the would-be-heir is deemed unworthy by the elders, and the chief might choose to pass the mantle on to another who is not their direct relative.
Gender does affect most roles and expectations for members of the tribe, though the chief's traditional heir would be their eldest child regardless of if the child is male or female, and thus the village chief is as likely to be either. Hunting and foraging is done mostly by the males, or tercels (terms like 'men' and 'women' aren't generally used by kaatoq, instead using those words to refer to humans specifically). The females, or hens, usually spend more time seeing to various tasks within the village. This includes caring for young, building and maintaining their roosts, weaving, preparing food, and making clothing. These types of daily roles are not strictly divided by gender, however, and some hens hunt and some tercels perform domestic tasks, depending on one's natural affinity for one or the other. Few do both, mainly because the work of either role is quite time consuming. Overall, the structure is not rigid, nor is there a hierarchy of gender.
One of the few formal roles that is truly gender exlcusive is the learning and practise of traditional medicine, which is done only by hens. Each village has an elder healer who oversees and trains a handful of other medicine hens, passing on her knowledge and wisdom to the next generation, and will also have a chosen apprentice who is meant to eventually succeed her as the village's primary healer upon her passing. The elder healer and her apprentice are meant not to take a mate or have children, though the other medicine hens who assist them may.
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