Kanucks

**Kanucks** were a group of warlike and barbarian peoples who inhabited the densely forested lands of Kanadia. They lived in various tribes who frequently warred with each other as well as their neighbors, surviving in their harsh and dark homeland by herding cattle, fishing, hunting, and plundering surrounding areas for their wealth. Their culture was based around honor and bravery, and every member of their tribes was raised to be a warrior above all else. Their adventurous spirit and thirst for battle brought them in conflict with any unfortunate enough people to come in contact with them, and their blood lust led them to frequently invade and eventually contribute in bringing about the collapse of the Khagoan Empire itself.

## History

The early history of the tribes is largely unknown, but around the time of the Khagoan Republic they began to migrate westward across the northern shores of the Great Laeks from their original homeland on the eastern shore of Kanadia known as Kuebek. During their initial expansion they conquered and assimilated the less warlike Anglo inhabitants of Kanadia known as the Old Kanucks, who would come to adopt their Frensch derived language. They originally lived in small tribes and bands which were each led by a war chieftain, who were normally elected by a council of tribal nobles known as Mountees. Once the Kanucks spread across the northern Great Laeks, their populations began to rapidly grow and their social structure grew more and more sophisticated. Before the Khagoan presence in the Northeast, the Kanucks often warred with the Yenkee tribes native to these regions. The early Khagoans initially thought little of the barbarian tribes living in the inhospitable lands north of them, and simply labeled them as savages with little to no real culture or military power.

As the tribes grew larger and more organized, they began to form alliances with other neighboring Kanuck tribes to counter the increasing power of the Khagoan Empire to the south, as well as other neighboring tribal groups such as the Buckskyn and Hellryder nomads of the Great plains to their west. The growing tribal confederacies would often organize large naval raids across the Laeks against the Empire, to enrich themselves with the spoils of war, and bring glory to their names. The Kanucks infamously defeated the first Emperor of Khago, Don Wabbash, at the Battle of Subdry Forest during his attempt to conquer Kanadia near the end of his reign. The Emperor was to make a humiliating retreat southward, forced to settle with conquering only a small portion of Kanadia, the Untarrio peninsula, which he cut off from the rest of the country with his construction of the Wall of Wabbash, a fortified barrier between the subjugated Untarriene tribe to the south and the many free Kanuck tribes to the north.

Following this crushing defeat which resulted in the destruction of five entire Legions and nearly took the life of their first Emperor, the Khagoans began to take their northern neighbors much more seriously. The Imperial Legions began a massive construction program of defensive lines of forts and watchtowers across their northern frontiers to control movement between their civilized lands and the wild homeland of the Kanucks. Despite this, the Kanucks still managed to break through the frontiers from time to time, learning more of the immense wealth of the Empire and growing more and more organized and ambitious with their raids to the south. The Kanuck tribes would learn much from their Khagoan enemies through their constant interactions with them over the frontier, both peaceful and violent. They began to copy Khagoan methods of warfare, and began trading their homelands valuable and abundant furs and metals to their southern neighbors in exchange for their more durable arms and armor.

Following the end of the Imperial Golden Age of Pax-Khagoa frequent civil wars and social strife engulfed the late Empire, and the Legions and Auxiliaries which once stood guard at the frontiers were now fighting one another in the armies of usurpers or warlords, allowing the Kanucks to push deeper and deeper into the provinces. The Kanucks advantage only increased following the division of the Empire following the War of the Schism, and their raids were now even able to penetrate the core provinces of the Empire, including Khagoan homeland of Laeklund itself. Their raids eventually transformed into migrations of entire tribes into Khagoan territory, where they first came as mercenaries fighting for feudal warlords of the increasingly decentralized and declining Eastern Empire. The Barbarian Chieftains soon began to style themselves as kings and carved large realms from the provinces of the east which became the successors of the fallen power of Khago.

The Kanuck tribes established themselves as the warrior aristocracies of these new feudal kingdoms and eventually came to adopt the cultures and languages of the provinces they conquered.

## Culture

Kanuck culture revolves around the great importance they place upon warfare and honor. They live in hundreds of small tribes of no more than a few hundred to a few thousand people led by chieftains that practice great autonomy and are given their positions through prowess on the battlefield and their skill as warriors, usually elected by the warrior nobility of the tribe known as the Mountees. Chieftains resided in a great hall located in the central longhouse or hill-fort of the tribes turf, where he would meet with his Mountee retainers to discuss tribal matters and preside over the court of the tribe and settle disputes, often through trial by combat.

These smaller tribes often joined larger tribal confederacies which are led by the leader of the most militarily powerful tribe of the confederacy, known as the High Chieftain. When a war or large scale raid is planned, the High Chieftain would call upon their subordinate tribes to join in exchange for a share of the plunder and slaves attained during the campaign. These confederacies frequently rose and fell when not united by a common cause such as warfare or trade, and formerly subordinate chieftains would often overthrow the High Chieftain and take the position for themselves.

When not at war Kanucks sustained themselves through herding cattle, fishing, and hunting the vast woods of their homeland. Tribes located in more fertile lands close to rivers or the Great Laeks also practiced slash-and-burn agriculture, which made them much more populous than smaller tribes deeper in the forests. Some of the western Kanuck peoples who had migrated to the fringes of the Great Plains such as the Kavaliers adopted some of the ways of their nomadic Buckskyn and Hellryder neighbors, and mounted much of their tribes on horseback where they practiced semi-nomadic pastoral herding, as well as the more traditional ways of Kanuck tribe to the east. Closer to the frontiers of the Khagoan Empire sometimes there were fortified trade posts along the coast or major rivers where merchants from outside Kanadia could conduct their business with the surrounding tribes.

The typical Kanuck household was an isolated homestead where animals and people slept under the same roof, and the homes of Kanucks were often separated from each other by large stretches of forest. The poorest members of the tribe lived in simple wooden huts or log cabins, while wealthier warriors and Mountees lived in longhouses. A tribes meeting place was the Chieftains Great hall, which was usually a large longhouse or in the case of larger and more powerful tribes a hill-fort with numerous houses, blacksmiths, storage buildings, and barns. All members of the tribe were free besides slaves captured during wars and raids, and they lived in the homes with their masters. Mountees and Chieftains often had several to dozens of slaves serving them in a multitude of roles. Despite performing household duties Kanuck women had great say in tribal matters, and were charged with defending villages when their husbands were off on raids, they would often accompany their husbands on the battlefield when their presence was needed. When chieftains decided to migrate their tribes to new lands the elderly, women, and children all helped support the warriors and all were expected to arm themselves and partake in combat.

Later on when many of the Kanucks migrated into the Khagoan Empire and established kingdoms across the collapsed eastern half of the Empire, the tribes established themselves as the feudal aristocracies of their new realms, retaining their system of fealty to more powerful chieftains who were now manorial lords with many serfs comprising of the former provincial populations.