Kovrokov

in: Races

## Introduction

Beginning as a sea-faring and wandering nation, the people of Kovrokov overall can be very insular and defensive, but they respect strong authority and that often includes when they travel abroad. Societies that operate without some level of strong authority are foreign and confusing to them at best, and subjects of derision and laughter at worst, while they continue their simpler lives of farming and trapping in the North and more lively city life and fishing in the South.

## The Basics

* **Appearance:** Physically, the people of Kovrokov are known for their hardiness and their often robust and burly bodies.
* **Lifespan:** 75 Years
* **Height:** 170 cm (5'7") - 190 cm (6'3")
* **Regions Found:** Northern plains and steppes, interrupted often by forests and rivers and a fjordian coastline with heavy mountain to the east.
* **Culture:** The people of Kovrokov believe in the necessity of strong central authority, believing it was the presence of a central leader that allows them to rally and defeat their foes in their heroic age. At the family level, decisions are made strictly by the patriarch.
* **Common Character Roles:** Hunter, Lumberjack, Shaman/Priest, Mercenary
* **Common Allies:** High Elves, White Thorns, Nords
* **Common Enemies:** Dark Elves, Wood Elves, Snow Elves
* **Architecture:** Cabins and small farms in more rural areas, larger fortified walls around cities near the neighboring dark elves and along the coast.
* **Religion:** Worship of Suvobog or Gat Yagar.
* **Views on Magic:** Kovrokovians’ have two often competing main traditions of magic. Their traditional magics were more shamanistic and based in the natural world and more refined practices of magic after prolonged contact with the snow elves.
* **Quirks:** Despite being a simpler people, the Kovrokov adapt far quicker than most, making what they can of anything handed to them. These person are hardy and unafraid of change, having gone through a great deal in a short frame of time.

## Appearance

Physically, the people of Kovrokov are known for their hardiness and their often robust and burly bodies. They have anywhere from pale to ruddy skin. Their hair ranges widely from light blonde all the way to black, though it is usually straight, and their eyes are usually either blue or brown. The everyday people of Kovrokov are not particularly wealthy by the average of many of the great empires of the world, but they do take pride in grooming. Only the most rural of peoples would be caught without splashes of color in their clothing. Typically the common people wear trousers and tunics with most considerations being made for warmth and comfort rather than style, though more well-to-do people will add fine furs and occasionally even jewelry as they become able to afford it.

## History & Culture

The people of Kovrokov trace their origins back to a time when they were a wandering and sea-faring people, migrating from region to region and fighting barbaric skirmishes with the more early settled peoples of the world, gathering from the Nords and Caledonii and even some of the High Elves. Upon continuing their trek east, they came upon the icy lands of the Dark Elves, finding them too harsh a populace to drive out of the tundra. Just South of the Dark Elves lay a band of those who were more akin with nature and sharing the bounty it harboured. Here the Kovrokov would settle, but their numbers soon grew. From the Kovrokov historians comes the tale of a war started by jealous elves, finding the barbaric near northmen to adapt quicker to the land and to have more children. Their penchant for learning their environment and what was offered was soon met with jealousy and anger and bitterness that turned swiftly to violence. The elves were said to have even enlisted the assistance of the dark elf brethren, who could only be bothered to send their slaves. These slaves were all too willing to turn on their masters and the allies of their masters, sharing the more advanced elven knowledge with the Kovrokov, which would lead to a victory for the humans as they drove back the selfish and vile snow elves, over the mountain and into the bitter colds of the deep North. Of course, victors often write the histories. The ‘Rebellion’ of Grigoryev: The influx of knowledge gained from escaped captives was not alone enough to free the great tribe from their time of troubles. According to legend, a chieftain known as Grigoryev rose from among the ranks of the tribes, uniting them under one banner in the name of defeating the hated Snow Elves once and for all. The war was one between a united and more primitive barbaric people and the more sophisticated elves, but the lack of cohesion between the elven settlements, the superior numbers, and growing technological adaptation of the barbarians, proved pivotal. By the end of the decades-long conflict, the people of what would become Kovrokov had at least rudimentary versions of all of the Elves’ means of war and used them to staggering effect. The more specific details of this war are largely lost to history, but what is clear is that the snow elves were driven over time into the very peripheries of the icy north. On the remains of the old lodges and monuments of the dark elves in the fertile green, the towns and eventual cities of what would become the nation of Kovrokov rose, first under Grigoryev, and then under ensuing families of varying dynasties.

## Culture

The people of Kovrokov believe in the necessity of strong central authority, believing it was the presence of a central leader that allowed them to rally and defeat their foes in their heroic age.

This has led to the formation of powerful families within the history of the nation, with the most powerful of an era typically consolidating political power around itself and wielding absolute authority. When another family becomes powerful enough to challenge them, they are either crushed, or become the new ruling family. The sort of power sharing practiced by the sovereigns of other nations between themselves and their nobles is nearly unheard of in Kovrokov, and the ability to enforce the law of the land is seen as strictly the purview of the ruling family and their appointed agents. Typically, the most common challenges to this rule come from powerful merchant families looking to trade commercial power for political power, or from military leaders who gain too much of the personal loyalty of their men. The most common form of contact from government that everyday people experience though is through a local Hetman, who owes his own fealty to a line of authority figures stretching directly back up to the sovereign themselves, the Tsar. Even below the government, at every level of society behavior is dictated by empowered figures who exercise their authority over their respective domains. Governors control regions, mayors control cities, and at the village and small town level respect is paid to the rule of the Hetman, who is expected to protect, organize, and rule over anything from just a few families in a village to perhaps a small town or even a neighborhood within a larger settlement.

At the family level, decisions are made strictly by the patriarch. He, and it is almost always a he with few exceptions, makes all of the most important decisions for the family such as what crops will be grown, what familial alliances they will make, and where they will live. Women and men with less authority are not relegated to anything approaching slavery, but they are expected to obey the patriarch.

## Religion

In the northern lands of Kovrokov, the people worship many minor and local gods responsible for even things as small as a particular mountain, a creek, or the patron spirit of a town. However, culturally, their most important god is Suvobog, a god of pain and suffering and known otherwise as The Lingering One. Strangely though, the people of Kovrokov do not see this god as an evil to be sated, but rather as a great teacher who has made them stronger. Suvobog is not said to be an inflicter of pain himself, but rather a god who shows the people how to become stronger through suffering it. This resonates culturally with the people of Kovrokov, as they have never had an easy history and even now live in a cruel and unforgiving land where hardiness is not only prized, but necessary. His priests and most devout worshippers often inflict pain on themselves to learn his lessons, and may offer this service to others as well. Missionary work by the followers of Solanarium has also met with some limited success, offering a more organized and optimistic approach to religiosity than the worship of the old local gods and Suvobog.This is another tension between the old ways and the new amongst the people of Kovrokov, as the worship of this new god has its enclaves within the more cosmopolitan cities. There is also the belief in the powerful demon known as Gat Yagar, sometimes seen as in league with Suvobog as his assistant in teaching the people how to endure suffering and pain, and other times seen as merely a cruel tormentor with no higher purpose at all. It is seen as a weakness to leave her offerings, but many households still do in secret.

## Perception of Magic

Kovrokovians’ have two often competing main traditions of magic. Their traditional magics were more shamanistic and based in the natural world, and these might go back millenia in their practice. Prolonged contact with the snow elves has opened them to much more refined practices of magic however, and these traditions are slowly overtaking the old ways in their society. Therefore in rural settings within Kovrokov shamans and wise women were likely encounters, but in the towns and cities, a more sophisticated understanding of magic has taken root. There is some tension between these different traditions, as some people cling fast to the old ways even as the new ones prove their usefulness.

## Settlements

Neyask is a Northern notable village often plagued by attacks from elves. Many trappers and hunters gather here on their way through the forests and the wild harsher lands that border the Dark Elves and the mountains leading to the snow elves. This settlement is said to hold the historical significance of being the lands in which Grigoryev had fought the last battle in the woods beyond. This is considered a sacred place and there is even rumor that Gat Yagar has taken residence in a portion of the woods here. The primary economy falls under the summer and spring pilgrimages up to the village from the people and the pelt and fur economy. Bavayri is the capital of Kovrokov, sitting along the coastline. This is the primary trade city, harboring many ships. City is a loose term used here, as it is more of a stone-built fisherman’s village than anything resembling much of a city. Here is where the lumberjacks often process much of the trees cut down and vast nets go out to comb the waters for the large fishing enterprises. Many mercenaries are hired out of here for wars beyond Kovrokov as well. More often than not, whatever reigning tsar remains within the territory, often resides in the large village.

*Credit for Lore: Rattenkrieg & Solace*