Sanukinuiq

### **Culture**

They are snow elves. One of the first races of the Northedge, living on the icy coasts as simple fishers and hunters. Practicing magical druidism to survive in the far north. Amber skin, short and slim bodies, black-irises, upturned eyes. Their culture is deeply rooted in animist and spiritualist beliefs. These mostly involve worshiping the land, the powerful northern winds, and the animals of the Northedge.

The elves of Sanukinuiq have many different cultural practices and beliefs. The most obvious practice to an outsider is their instruments. Their instruments are made out of humanoid bones. These instruments are wind instruments, with many different variations of the design so no two instruments sound the same. The most common design is the Erke, which is made by taking the skulls of several humanoids and fusing them together. Most of these bone instruments are several hundred years old, and have been preserved and passed down through the ages. There are also a small number of instruments purely made out of human bone, which are considered to make the best sound. These bone instruments are used for spiritual and religious purposes. The most common uses are gazing and spirit divination, which can be read about in the religious section.  Gazing is the process of shaping ice and snow to interact with sunlight to create magical, hallucinatory images. These images are inert by themselves, but are activated when certain music is played on bone instruments. They cause the listener to fall into a hallucinatory trance and are used in daily sanukinuiq life for meditation, divination, and pleasure. Snow Elves cover anything that they can with these designs. They also have a secondary effect. When viewed by non-snow elves these patterns are dangerous causing nausea, headaches, and vivid hallucinations. Only those that have been accepted officially into the tribe as a guest or an honorary snow elf are given the cure to these effects. By listening and staring for hours into certain images, non-snow elves can become immunitased which removes the secondary effect either temporarily or permanently. Snow Elf elders claim that these images have magical properties from the power of spirits and their ancestors.These songs to activate the images have disseminated in the popular music of Grendarrym. The Jorden people are unaware of possible effects of the now popular strain of music. Because  they don't use the humanoid bone flutes that the snow elf spirits respond to.

There are many different age related cultural practices. Bare ass dancing in snow festivals as a rite of passage to adulthood is common. When elves turn 33, they go out to a private spot and brace the winter cold to prove they don’t need anybody's help to survive. Throughout their life, hard casts of their footprints are kept as a form of familial portraiture. These are stored safely, and the oldest elven families have prints dating back to the founding of Sanukinuiq. There is a children's game called crackers where young elves see how far they can get on thin ice before someone chickens out. The person that goes the farthest wins. The name is derived from the crack of the ice when two brave elves face off against one another. It is mostly forbidden by the elders of the tribe because it is dangerous and can be deadly. Snow elves also have created the largest cemetery in the world because they believe the remains of each and every creature which isn't good enough to be used deserves to be properly buried.

Living in a place with very few natural resources, snow elves have to get crafty with their limited supplies. Sanukinuiq elves use pykrete pots and jars to store most items. Items from harpoons to sweat lodges are made out of Akhlut bones. Abstract sculptures are carved out of driftwood as tokens for sailors. Their kayaks are made from the skin and bones of many creatures, but mainly the Akhlut. Artifacts and designs that mimic Troll tails are seen as status symbols among the Snow Elves.

Sanukinuiq elves have complex family and tribal relations. First off, they bond for life. Divorce is unheard of. Family lines follow the bloodline but that includes blood brothers and sisters. These blood bonds are created to be magically binding through an ancient ritual spell, and are considered to permanently intertwine the fate of those that are blood bonded. Lineages and matrilineal. While matrilineal bastards are kept in the family as a second class runt, fraternal bastards are banished. Actual Troll tails taken in combat are enough to find a legal matrilineal line even if you are a bastard or foreigner. They have to be amputated Troll tails, and you can't amputate your own. The Snow Elves learned their lesson after Zar'kal the Troll became a Snow Elf. Voluntarily taking a curse from the Snow Elf Spirits on behalf of the locals has a hereditary result on the taker. Results vary depending on the curse, but the usage of troll tail decorations as a sign of status among Snow Elves implies that some curses required regenerative powers to survive. The cursed lineages can gain an equivalent level favor, but only with the village that it took the curse from. Calling in the favor dispels the effect and signs of the curse and places it back on the village in reduced form. This is usually used for foreigners or maternarial basters to prove themselves to the tribe, but it has also been used in peace treaties and other uncommon ways.

### **Nation**

Sanukinuiq has been consistently stable. The native Nananuit tribes have had no interest in warring one another. These tribes have shared religious practices, and are too occupied with keeping themselves ahold in the harsh climes of the far north. The Nananuit elves have been long natives of Northedge, but their long cultural reign is currently threatened by Skrug and Ruskata pushing into their lands. Trolls sometimes, but very rarely, emigrate west from Skrug’s kingdom into Sanukinuiq to find new hunting grounds. Trolls are often warded off and kept away from the Nananuit villages. The Sanukinuiq have created a non-aggression pact with the Grendarrym in exchange for goods. Powerful as their drudism is, they are ill equipped and outmatched against Skrug and Ruskata. Further deals are being written, and there is talk among the two nations about an alliance.

### **Religion**

Instead of worshiping a god or pantheon, the Sanukinuiq elves instead believe that their ancestors watch over them and give them power from the realm of “Khin” (yin). Most religious practices involve honoring their ancestors and asking for their guidance. Most of these involve music played on their bone instruments. The most common religious ritual is spirit divination, where passing spirits on the Khin plane are called out to for guidance. By burning part of a land portrait and playing a summoning song on a human bone flute, a specific entity can be summoned for guidance. Another notable practice is the formation of complex ice sculptures and effigies. These are made by melting the ice block in fire, then shaping it with stone tools and by hand. There is a complex arrangement of shared ice statues which is said to keep an apocalyptic snowstorm from forming. The snow elf elders have carte blanche to move and take the effigies so the tribes can be safe from the apocalyptic snowstorm Icy White Hands of Death. Legend says that when this storm is unleashed the spirit world of “Khin” would empty into the world of the living, ending the world and turning it into a spirit realm. However, this may not be true and was invented by elders of the tribe long ago to unify the elves. Sanukinuiq elves also create totems and sites of Khin from the carved bones scavenged from the carcasses of groundwhales and north wyverns. Artifacts such as necklaces, handheld effigies, and other small tokens have started to become integrated from their Jorden neighbors.