Athrukar

The Athrukar speak a dialectal offshoot of the Siar clan languages, marked by archaisms and spirtually flavoured phrases that are absent among the Clansmen. Few among them speak the Common Imperial Tongue, which has contributed to their greater seperation from wider Siarland.

  The Athrukar broadly believe in ancient Siar Animism, still practicing rituals and beliefs that have long since been forgotten by their Clansmen kin. They venerate the spirtis of river, tree and stone, conducting elaborate seasonal rites in sacred groves and at waystones dotted across the hills of Northern Siarland. Shamans serve as both spiritual and practical leaders of Athrukar tribes, often marked in ritualistic scars and tattoos.   Athrukar settlements are usually well concealed redoubts built into natural features, often leveraging off the numerous cave systems of the Khelreach Range. Their economies are generally built on hunting, foraging, goat-husbandry and raiding. Agriculture is limited.

Clothing is fashioned from goat-hide, deer skin, and woven wool, often un-dyed or coloured with natural pigments. Warriors often cloak themselves in wolf, bear, or stag pelts, believing they take on the spirit of the beast in battle. Armour is scarce, but warriors adorn themselves with bone plates, antler helms, or tusk charms, more symbolic than practical. However, to wear the pelt of a beast one has not slain personally is considered dishonourable.   Shamans typically wear antlered or horned headpieces, cloaks hung with feathers, bones, and charms. Their skin is heavily covered in ritual scars and tattoos.

The Athrukar's food reflects their harsh environment. Meat, goat-dairy, roots, and coarse grains, sustained by hunting, foraging, and raiding. Meals are simple but communal, bound with ritual significance. Every feast honours the spirits, every offering feeds the ancestors, and every hearth fire carries the memory of those who ate before.

A newborn is carried to a sacred stone, tree, or waystone near the village within the first seven days. The shaman marks the child’s brow with paint, whispering the names of ancestors so they may recognize the child. Children are given a name at this presentation, often descriptive of omens at the time of birth.

If a youth is marked by unusual visions, markings or birth omens, they may be set apart as a future shaman.

No blood may be spilled within a sacred grove, cave, or shrine. To kill in such a place is to drive away the spirits, leaving the land barren and cursed.

To lie before your clan is taboo. Speech before the tribe is believed to echo into the spirit world, and falsehood poisons both the living and the dead. Liars may be scarred across the mouth or tongue to mark their dishonor.

To kill a shaman, even of another clan, is believed to anger the spirits. Rival shamans are often captured, ransomed, or banished rather than slain.

Both genders are expected to fight when the clan is threatened. Women are revered as voices of the ancestors, believed to carry their strength and memory more strongly than men, leading to them being largely represented among shamans and the magic practicing druids of the wildmen. Men are measured in hunting and raiding prowess, storm-song, and their ability to protect kin.   Together, storm (male) and soil (female) are valued as two parts of a whole to maintain balance in clan life.   Some wildmen walk the Athruna or Two-Spirited Path. Two-spirited people are known to mix traditionally masculine and feminine attire, speech and ritualistic practices. Among the wildmen they are not viewed as crossing or breaking gender roles but rather embodying wholeness in order to represent their breadth of their tribe's interests when they commune with the spirits.