Svellbjargheim

On the southern edge of the world lays the continent of **Svellbjargheim**. Once a peninsula, it was separated from the continent of Sari-Ifa during the sundering. Svellbjargheim is a cold and mountainous realm where little grows besides the rough bushes and the occasional fir trees.

## Description

Most of central Svellbjargheim exists out of mountains, between which valleys lay in which forests, meadows, and lakes form depending on how easily water can flow away. Only the coasts and the meadows are suitable for construction, making every inch of land more valuable than gold. Those who are not interested in the bloodshed or simply do not see any chance to compete in the arms race have therefor instead chosen to be nomadic, and travel alongside the winding mountain paths in search of the tiniest piece of green pasture for their flock to grace on.

## Economy

The mountains of Svellbjargheim are rich in copper, iron, and zinc with which its people have been crafting powerful weapons for generations. However its lack of easily accessible fuel sources such as coal forced the Svellbjarg to sail up north and become traders and seafarers. Because while they did have wood it was usually too valuable to simply burn in the crafting of blades when it could be better used to make shelter against the winds, as boats to fish and trade, or as firewood to keep the winter's bite at bay.

## Culture

In the icy fjords of Svellbjargheim only the most foolhardy people survive. These people call themselves the Svellbjarg. The Svellbjarg are world renown traders and raiders, having sailed to almost every continent on the world. However they primarily interact with the people of Sari-Ifa, who see the Svellbjarg as barbarians.

### Funerary rights

The Svellbjarg honour their death with sky burials. The death are placed on a wooden plateau high in the mountains where scavenging birds feast on their flesh. Once the soft tissue has been completely removed a priest will climb up to the wooden plateau to collect the bones, which are used in by the local blacksmith to craft the weapons of the next generation, imbuing them with the steadfastness of the diseased. This has as by effect that the iron used in the forge obtains enough carbon to turn into steel.

### Beauty Ideals

Svellbjarg are attracted to any body mark that can tell a story, such as scars and tattoos. Almost every Svellbjarg who returns from his first battle will let themselves be marked with a tattoo that retells the tale. The tattoos are made with ash gathered from the fireplace at which the story was told to the tattoo artist.

### Coming of age rites

On the morning of their 16th birthday the child is violently woken up with the sound of bells ringing. The child, thinking that the village is being attacked will either reach for their weapon or cower under their bed. Their family will then either congratulate them on their warrior spirit or laugh at their cowardice.

The child is then taken to the hearth were the rest of their extended family and friends are already waiting for them. They receive all types of gifts: from a new drinking horn to spiced goat meats. However the most important gift they will receive on that day is a new weapon, imbued with the bones of a recently diseased family member. It is this weapon with which they will hopefully claim adulthood in the battles to come.

The raiders will leave at mid winter, when the coldest time of year has passed. On the ship all sailors share the work load equally, although adults will often take over the heavier tasks from their younger fellows in the name of good spirit. When the raiders finally make landfall the youth will be met with a most miraculous sight: verdant hills and snowless peaks. During their time up north the young raider will face many adventures and will have to show his true mettle if they want to survive the onslaught of hostility. Once the raiders have captured enough prisoners and booty they will return to their home in the south, making sure they arrive before the next Soulstice. If the child has survived this adventure he will be considered an adult. Upon arrival on the dock the local tattoo artist invites the youth to write down their first adventure in skin. These first tattoos are often payed for by the raid leader and are as such free of charge for the young adults.

This ceremony evolved from the tradition to take a child out sailing when they came of age. This was intended to learn them how to handle a ship for the purpose of fishing or trading. But as the people of Svellbjargheim became more warlike the tradition became more focused on the raiding.

## Technology

Across the globe the Svellbjarg ships are renown for their strength and agility. The most famous of Svellbjarg sailors was Loav Lostson, who's fleet managed to sail all the way up north to the Wabu Islands and return in one piece. In the old days the Svellbjarg were one of the first civilisations to adapt the usage of steel tools, using the bones of honoured warriors.

But the Svellbjarg have been slow to adapt firearms. For a long time any attempt by Svellbjarg raiders to bring a functioning firearm back home was ruined by the very shipdesign that makes them so effective at sea. Their low and open ships would catch a lot of water, soaking the gunpowder and making it unusable for demonstration back home. Only in the last few decades have the Svellbjarg managed to get a hold on the recipe of gunpowder. The kings inland have began to use firearms for inland combat, but raiders find the powder still to unreliable to bring on ships. Many alchemists dream of finding a way to waterproof gunpowder so the north will once again fear the might of Svellbjarg.

## History

Svellbjargheim used to lay a bit more north of where it sits nowadays and had a climate more suitable to agriculture. In these days the Svellbjarg were able to sustain great populations, and together they formed great kingdoms, each greater than the others according to themselves. But the land became crowded, and many young princelings began to go to mainland Sari-Ifa to either carve out a name for themselves or to obtain the fame and wealth required to become the next king. As the amount of raider-kings grew it became increasingly fashionable to be a raider and Svellbjargheim's culture began to revolve around this identity. Kings would fight over who had the right to call themselves the next true successor of Ulfhild the Conqueror and eventually people began to claim to have witnessed the Cave of Plunders.

As these attacks grew the people of Sari-Ifa became desperate and bonded together to stop the constant pillaging and raiding. They called for the masters of the mana to come together and to stop these barbarians once and for all. The seven magi, all masters of a single fractal of mana, came together and decided to performed a ritual on the land bridge that connected the two landmasses. Here they started what would be called the Sundering which violently tore Svellbjargheim from Sari-Ifa and banishing the Svellbjarg down into the frozen south. Creating the Shattered Strait in the process.