Norr-Folk

In the age before memory, when the frost had no name and the mountains had not yet risen from the deep earth, there lived a being of immense stature and power, known only in surviving legend as the Colossal Matriarch. Whether she was a giant, a god, or something older still, none can say. What is known is that she carried within her a child, and that the shamans of her kin foresaw weakness in its bones. They spoke of a runt, small, soft, and unworthy of her legacy. Disgusted by the prophecy and unwilling to bear the shame of fragility, the Matriarch cast the unborn child into the cold wastes of the Mid-Realm, severing it from her blood and leaving it to die beneath the breath of the storm.

But the child did not die.

It clawed at the snow, drank from the melt, and howled against the wind. It grew not in warmth or love, but in hunger and defiance. Alone, it hunted, endured, and learned to survive without promise or kin. In time, it became something else, not giant, not beast, but a new kind of being: one born of rejection, shaped by hardship, and hardened by the cold. This first ancestor, nameless and unclaimed, became the progenitor of the Norr.

Seeking to forge a legacy that would never be cast aside, the defiant child sired three offspring. To each was gifted a name and a totem to guide their path. The first was Nanook, given the totem of the polar bear, symbol of power and leadership. Nanook became the shield and voice of the people, the one who stood tallest in battle and bore the weight of command. The second was Tekkeistertok, bearer of the caribou totem, guide and steward of the herds. She taught the Norr to move with the seasons, to track the migrations, and to lead without force. The third was Amarok, marked by the wolf totem, the silent hunter and culler of weakness. Amarok became the blade in the snow, the one who ensured that only the strong endured.

For a time, the three siblings were united, bound by blood, hardship, and the legacy of defiance. But as their tribes grew and their philosophies diverged, admiration turned to suspicion, and suspicion to contempt. Nanook saw Tekkeistertok’s patience as weakness. Tekkeistertok saw Amarok’s ruthlessness as cruelty. Amarok saw Nanook’s pride as vanity. Each came to believe that the others had betrayed the true spirit of their ancestor, and so they turned against one another.

From this fracture, the three great tribes of the Norr Folk were born, each shaped by the virtues and flaws of their progenitor. Nanook’s line values strength and command, Tekkeistertok’s honours guidance and endurance, and Amarok’s reveres cunning and the ruthless clarity of survival. Though they share blood and myth, they walk separate paths, each striving to prove that their way is the strongest, and that weakness, in any form, must be overcome.