Alltaf

The Alltaf are an offshoot tribe of Hyperboreans living in villages and small towns made out of conifer trees' wood, in northern Zemyland. They are known as a trusting and hospitable people, welcoming strangers into their village without any suspicion, unlike the desert Nerim to the south.
They believe in one God, the Creator of All Living Beings, and hate demon worshippers and anything that resembles the undead. They are suspicious of the librarian folk and the owl-men from Biblion, who have been trying to steal the secrets of the Alltaf shamans to add in their ever-expanding collection of knowledge, although with little success so far. Even though the Alltaf are split in many tribes with many shamans as their leaders, they are united against external threats.
== Report from Elanxa ==
Report written by Aspan Shavka to the Royal Justiciar of the Elanxan Emperor's court, Kuben Iagoneon:
"I've spent the last four months living with the natives of the Alltaf region, as your excellence has requested. I introduced myself as a Zemylander historian with the name of Kurshka, and they welcomed me with open arms. I spent each day and each night observing these people and their customs, hunting and fishing with them.
I was taken aback by their hospitality, as me and my companions were treated with warm beds and hearths upon reaching the town of Palisgaard, west of the Falhrim river. The town consists of small, sturdy wooden dwellings, arranged around a hill, where a castle made of cobblestone resides. There's no place in Elanxa that smells as good as Palisgaard. Every night, large fires were lit inside pits with wood in them, and the Alltaf would cook walrus and venison meat that their hunters and butchers prepared the day before."
=== Government ===
"I was surprised to learn that the Alltaf consist of many different tribes, with Palisgaard being the home of the Asgars, the second most important Alltaf tribe. The two most prominent people in Palisgaard are Numa, the tribe's chiefess, and Hooxen, their shaman. I learned that these positions are almost identical in every tribe and village around the Alltaf lands. Numa is responsible with governing the tribe's lands as well as organizing hunting parties. Hooxen is responsible with all religious duties, as well as with external affairs."
=== History ===
"The Shaman, a hereditary title that's traditionally held by males, is responsible for recording the history of each tribe. I am very grateful to Hooxen, who I came to call "the Old Turtle", for letting me peer into some of these written legends and stories of the past.
According to him, the Alltaf split from the people we know as the Hyperboreans less than three hundred years ago, around the time of Old Hyperborea's fall due to the wars waged with the various Zemylander kingdoms. Although the records of each tribe have various versions of this northern migration, it's generally accepted that the reason for its occurence was due to the subjugation of Hyperborea, and the abandoning of their old religion due to a treaty signed with the invaders. The northern trek was long and difficult, but the Alltaf managed to settle in the area that they now inhabit, building many villages, castles and towns by taking advantage of the few natural resources that they could find. After a few decades, a few Zemylander nations wanted to subjugate the Alltaf as they did with their Hyperborean cousins, but their wars of conquest were utter failures, with the Alltaf warriors earning great fame. For almost a hundred years, the Alltaf have known no external wars apart from a few border clashes with rogues and exile armies from the Zemylander nations, living in general harmony."
=== Religion and Culture ===
"Everyone in Palisgaard is all too well familiar with their people's history. The Alltaf are really proud of their heritage and their persistence against the many difficulties and enemies they've faced, and this is reflected in their customs and traditions. The Alltaf make pelts out of snow bears and wolves, of which they also decorate their homes. Every aspect of nature is considered sacred, and so it's considered a terrible crime to take more from nature than one has to in order to survive. As such, they view necromancy and most forms of magic as a mockery of life, and thus most magic users are heavily distrusted.
The Alltaf worship the All-Creator, a god that has a million forms and a million faces, who is the maker of all things in nature, from trees and animals to the sea and the wind.
They believe when something dies, be it an animal or a person, the spirit of the deceased is returned to the All-Creator, who then reforms it into a new being and returns it to their world, to live out a new life, in a new body. As such, death is not viewed as a curse, but as a new opportunity. Each tribe's Shaman is responsible for all religious rites, as well as preserving tradition and history. I've heard whispers of the Shamans practicing a strange form of magic that's derived straight from the earth, an abillity that not even the druids of the south are capable of. This would explain the reverence of the Shamans throughout the history of the Alltaf, even by the chieftain of each tribe. I was unable to deduct these magical secrets of the shamans, but I'm fairly certain that it's those secrets that the Owlmen of Biblion have so stubborningly tried to get a hold of the past decades.
Some Alltaf religious customs have been forgotten over the years, such as ritual sacrifices or the wolven burial. There are two tribes, however, that still practice them. The Thorsten and Nagels tribes see themselves as the only practicioners of the "old ways", as they describe them. They offer sacrifices of animals, as well as foreign prisoners, to the All-Creator, and also don't bury their dead, instead preferring to lay them on the taigas in order to be consumed as wolves, seeing this as a way of continuing the All-Creator's cycle of reincarnation.
After staying over a year in total in the Platinum Princedom, where many records of Zemyland's history are being kept, I can confirm that these religious beliefs and practices are very similar to the ones that were practiced in Old Hyperborea, confirming the theory that one of the reasons the Alltaf moved to the north was due to religious differences. This is further proved by the archaelogical evidence we were able to unearth."
=== Economy ===
"The Alltaf are self-sufficient, with the land providing all they require. As such, they rarely trade with outsiders, unless absolutely necessary. They hunt deer, bear, and walrus, only to the extent necessary for survival, never for enjoyment or practice, and gather their firewood from dead trees that have already fallen. Hunters, smithers, fishermen, lumberjacks and miners make up the majority of the professions of the Alltaf."
=== Geography ===
"My observations concide with what we previously knew about the geography of the Alltaf lands. The central tundra is known as the White Fox Tundra, while the border with the Crimson Queen Kingdom is covered by the Kjaerstaang taiga forest. Three rivers pass through this land, flowing from the Corteau Canyon towards the northern coast of Zemyland. The Alltaf lands are geologically rich; although they lack more common metals such as iron, they are still rich in gems and ebony. 
As for animals, one can find deer and boars with thick fur in the forest, as well as predators like white bears and wolves. Near the northern glacier, one can find walruses rich in fat, who the Alltaf hunt for their tusks. The taiga is populated by an extremely rare mammal, not too different from a large cat, whose kind I've only witnessed in the far southern lands during my travels in the Chakobsan jungles. Their name for this predator is "Amba". I wasn't able to spot this animal during my hunts, but the locals consider it as some kind of divine beast, and even the hunters from the Crimson Kingdom know better than to mess with it."
=== Warfare ===
"The Alltaf fight with javelins, as well as with axes, swords and bows. Their most prized weapons are made of ebony, and this variant of ebony that's found here is nowhere to be found elsewhere on Zemyland. Their children are trained at warfare from a young age, both girls and boys. Even nursemaids with babes suckling at their tits are able to hold their own in a fight, unlike in our Empire. What surprised me the most is that even though these lands are made up of many independent tribes that may even be hostile towards each other, they can put their differences aside in an instant in case of a foreign assault. We can learn much from these people in that regard".
=== Demographics ===
"During my stay at Palisgaard, as well as the other towns I managed to visit, me and my company were the only foreigners, apart from the occasional Zemylander or Snow Elven merchant or rogue. These people have learned to be independent and not to rely on outsiders, and because of that, foreigners have little reason to venture in these lands."
=== Foreign Relations ===
"Despite the religious and cultural schism that was experienced between the Alltaf and the New Hyperboreans, they mostly consider each other to be the same people. This is reflected in their language, with the Alltaf tongue being more resembling of Old Hyperborean, although both are nearly mutually intelligible. Despite that, in the few occasions that foreign people have tried to invade the Alltaf, the Hyperboreans weren't generally willing to help. The Alltaf consider themselves stronger and more enduring than their cousins, a sentiment that's been carried through history.
The Alltaf, especially the elders, see the Zemylanders as invaders, with their foreign gods and customs. Their relations are still sour even after all those years, especially since a few Zemylander Kingdoms have tried to invade the Alltaf in the past. Still, I have yet to hear a single Alltafer express interest in reclaiming their lost lands, which could be due to the Hyperborean's succesful independence war, which very few - if any - Alltafers participated in.
As for Kentogorod and the Nerim of the Corteau Canyon, they barely interact with the Alltaf. In all my months of stay here, I've only once visited Kentogorod, and I've yet to encounter a single Nerim, as they rarely venture outside their canyon apart from mercenaries, and the Alltaf have got little use for sellswords. Despite that, there is some sort of silent respect of the Alltaf towards these people, given that both are isolationist and self-reliant, like themselves."
Category:Society
Category:Zemyland