Svelkbard

Flag of Svelkbard

**The Grand Nation of Svelkbard** or simply **Svelkbard** is a small nation in the east of the main continent of Grimur, north of the volcanic region. The Capital of Svelkbard is **Gullsafi**, which surrounds the hill where the Tree of the Ancestors sits. Svelkbard is culturally tribal, preferring their traditional hunter gatherer way of life over farming. The People of Svelkbard live off the land eating berries, mushrooms and more rarely wild meats. Svelkbard lies in the ancient darkoak forest of Tranen. Tranen's dense canopy and treacherous terrain make it difficult to navigate for outsiders and virtually impassible by horse. There is only one major River that runs through Svelkbard, which is the River Leben. It is controlled and entirely populated by the **Svelk Folk**, a race of half elk, half human, demi-humans. Their primary religion is **Svelkish Druidry￼￼**

## History

### Pre-Svelk era

Many years ago, long before the first Svelk, there lived a group of people in modern day Niestra known as the **Vermgur**. The Vermgur were a reclusive peaceful hunting gatherer society who kept to themselves. They did not live in settlements but were purely nomadic. The Vermgur society was split into clans, each clan had a chief, the primary care taker and a Sturdurad, the one who communicated with the ancestors.

The Vermgur people strongly believed in the balance of nature. This belief lead them to prioritize the environment over themselves. Their need to balance nature manifested some strange rituals, one of these practices was a blood ritual. A blood ritual would be done for many things such as; overpopulation, low Harvest, harsh winter, illness, or any other harm that would fall down on the Vermgur. A blood ritual would start by the Sturdurad choosing the one who they find the most burdensome, then they would be brought up to a small man made mound. The Sturdurad would then tie them to a post that would be stuck in the ground, the Sturdurad would then cut a slit in the neck of the chosen one, while chanting a prayer to the ancestors, and then drain the blood into a pot that has the volume of about 1 litre. The Sturdurad would then drink the sacrificial blood. Their skin and eyes would turn pale and they would then devour the chosen one. After a couple hours the Sturdurad would turn back to normal and they would give a sacrifice of dried dark oak leaves to the ancestors.

### The Death of the Vermgur

The Vermgur would continue living in this area until a great sickness came upon the plants and animals. The loss of these resources lead to many blood sacrifices, which weakened the falling population greatly. One clan noticed this crisis and started to migrate up north. On this journey they saw a vision of a massive blood sacrifice. They decided it was their job to do this act of genocide. The clan which name was **Gulrentestre**, went to every clans location and slaughtered all the men, women, and children. They collected all the blood in 30 jars which they carried up a large mountain. When they got to the top, they met the ancestor spirit Venol on top of the mountain. Her Hair was long and black, her skin was grey, and her eyes were a deep purple. She told the clan that they had too do this because the Vermgur was straying from the path of the ancestors.

The Clan started the ritual by pouring all the blood down the mountain. The Chief blew into a loud horn while the Sturdurad sharpened a long silver dagger. It started raining and thundering. The Sturdurad then began slaughtering His clan members. After slaughtering all but what he thought was himself and the chief, Venol commanded them to jump off the edge of the mountain, which they did. Venol gazed around at the members of Gulrentestre and saw that there are two young ones, around the age of 15, alive, still breathing but heavily wounded. Venol examined their hearts and knew they survived because they are the last of the pure hearted Vermgur. Venol felt empathy in her soul and took the young ones to a small hill and placed them down at the base of a tree. Venol then sacrificed the ichor in her physical body into the tree. The tree began to grow and absorb the power of both Venol and the surrounding nature. The two awoke to Venol saying to "drink the sap". They look up to the tree as they hear this and see two drops of golden sap starting to flow out of the tree. The two who cant move their legs crawl to the tap and start drinking the sap. After a moment the two start to change physically. Their legs started to change into those of a deer or elk and antlers started to grow out of their head. Their wounds were healed. Venol's soul appeared before them and told them that they have the souls of all of the 21 clans inside them and that they must restart society. Venol didnt want what happen last time to happen again so she told the two to start a new in this location, she told them to follow the laws of nature and treat their new land with good care. She removed the position of Sturdurad and replaced it with the position of Grand Druid. She gave the title of Grand Druid to the young boy whose name was Stergar she then gave the title of Chief to the young woman whose name was Motgreaten. Thus after all these events the Svelk society started and the race of the Svelk Folk began. These events would later be known as the Rebirth.

### First Tribes of the Svelk

The two founders of the Svelk had 40 kids, which each of them had the blood of 1 of the 20 tribes. There was 20 pairs of siblings who were all raised by the two founders, but non of them had the blood of the Gulrentestre (year 962). By the time all of the tribes folk were over the age of 14, the founders split the Svelk into four separate tribes, who had their own chief and druid. The four tribes would be named Gullsafi, Flachon, Sakson, and Mildrobard. All these tribes functioned equally except for the tribe of Gullsafi, who was ruled by the Grand Druid and the High Chief. If any of the tribes had internal issues they would go to the leadership of Gullsafi. Other than that the tribes were mostly independent.

The religious belief of the early Svelk tribes were all the sayings of the Grand Druid. He taught worship of the ancestors and nature, he also added worship of a pantheon of Grand Ancestor Spirits. The most important of these ancestors are Venol, the mother of the Svelk, Tiervatorad, father of the hunt said to teach man the bow, and Oltrualfi, the creator of the world. This belief also focused on the **Gytartré**, which was the tree that Venol drained her blood in to create the first Svelk. They believed that the tree needs to be protected as if it was to die, the Svelk race would also die. They also believe that the true descendants of Gulrentestre (The Founders) had special abilities to contact the ancestors,

After many years of ruling the Grand Druid and the High Chief began to get old, they saw that they wouldn't be able to rule forever and needed a way to pass on the blood of the Gulrentestre**.** The Grand Druid communicated with Venol and Venol showed him a ritual to pass on their bloodline. All the tribe gathered around the Gytartré as the Grand Druid was tied up by the High chief. The Grand Druid would then choose the most elidable member of Gullsafi to come up to the hill at the base of the tied up druid. The High Chief would then cut a slit in the throat of he Grand Druid and drain it into a bowl. The chosen one would then get another bowl of sap from the Gytartré**.** As the Grand Druid dies the High Chief would mix the two bowls of liquid and then give it to the chosen one. The chosen one would then drink this. In this process their eyes begin to change from a dark brown to a shinny light blue color. The High chief would then give them the clan name of Gulltré**.** This would mark them officially becoming a Grand Druid. The new Grand Druid would then choose a member of the opposite sex who they think is worthy of becoming the High chief to come up to the hill. They Then Cut a slit in there army and mix a small cup of blood with a small amount of Gytartré sap. They would mix this up and give it to the to be High chief to drink. They would also begin the same process as the Grand Druid and would be given the name of Gulltré as the Grand Druid did. The Old high Priest would stay around to advise the new rulers (year 993). This began the process of passing down the title of Grand Druid and High Chief that would last to modern day. This society would survive and thrive for many centuries afterwards.

### The Era of Change

Between the years 1200-1400, the Svelk Tribes started to settle in singular locations. Each tribe started to organize and create a system of government. Around this time, the Svelk Tribes started to develop a logographic writing system. This writing system laid the foundation to create laws and literature. The two biggest tribes who adopted this were Mildrobard and Gullsafi. Gullsafi still was the seat of religion and politics as it was in ancient times, but Mildrobard was the seat of the military power. The men of Mildrobard were trained from birth to be hardened hunters and warriors while women were trained in weapons crafting and herbal medicines. The separation of the genders led to Mildrobard having a strict gender structure while other tribes such as Gullsafi did not.

Around the year 1350 iron smiting was discovered in Mildrobard. This lead to Mildrobard being even more powerful. Around this time the Svelk started to trade with surrounding peoples. all this led to the power of the Svelk growing greatly, with this power being centralized in Mildrobard. The people of Mildrobard began to feel a sense of superiority to the other tribes, especially Gullsafi. The high folk of Mildrobard all gathered together with the Druid of Mildrobard, Svenol Mitrod, to remove the influence of Gullsafi from Mildrobard, as Gullsafi still did have a final say in overall political and religious decisions (year 1392). However, Druid Svenol was strictly loyal to Gullsafi as that was the tradition he was given to keep, the chief on the other hand was much more loyal to Mildrobard. The conflict between the two tribes all bubbled up when Mildrobard wanted to start the practice of agriculture (a practice they learned from trading). The chief of Mildrobard sent 6 representatives to the Grand Druid of Gullsafi to convince them to start farming. The Grand Druid of Gullsafi at the time was Sanvelm Gulltré, who was the one who rediscovered and wrote down the gruesome details of the founding of their nation, this caused him to be a very conservative ruler, even going as far as restricting the progress made by the new wave of technology, so when the 6 representatives offered this radical new technology he raged and sent a message to the Druid of Mildrobard that they should be punished.

When the 6 representatives returned the Druid of Mildrobard immediately called for their execution.