Solvenger

**Solvenger** was a notable settlement in Gildegra (western Rakkimar) on North Anticosti Island.

## Modern Names

* In Modern Standard Rakki, the regional lingua franca, it was known as *Solvenger* /sul.'vɛŋ.ŋɐ/. The name persisted from Old Rakki despite the fact that some sounds in the town's modern name, and the way it's written, don't really exist much in modern Rakki. (In modern Rakki, it'd probably be called *Sulvenga* or something)
* In local modern Essu, the town was called Solvenqł /ˈsol.vɛ̃qɬ/
* In Euluska, it was transliterated as *Sölven* /sœl.vɛn/ (Euluska lacks a velar nasal).

## Location

The town was located in a large rocky fjord, with beautiful open water, steep slopes covered in pines. A large glacier sat to the north, which calved often, and the noise could be heard like thunder.

## Early History

### Stone Age and Earlier

In pre-recorded history, the area around the village was inhabited by various groups from the **Essuit** tribes. They spoke Essu. They were likely the ones who founded the settlement on Solvenger's site, but no one really knows what their village was called.

### Early Iron Age

In the early Iron Age, the flourishing Rakki people spread far and wide across Rakkimar, including to here. Admixture (interbreeding) between the Rakki and some of the Essuit people formed the future local population. This process was quite common elsewhere, so there eventually came a name across Rakkimar for people who were mixed Rakki and local tribe - Kintirakki.

The Rakki founded a port on the site, which they named in Old Rakki **Sólkvaengr** /sɯʷːl.ˈkʋɛiŋ.ŋə/ - which means "the gap in the glacier". The port was made to help fuel the Rakki timber industry - there were lots of good pine trees here, which were shipped back to help build boats for the explorers and raiders. Metal ores were later found, which helped the population grow.

Interestingly, the name Sólkvengr preserves some lost history - because the glacier in the valley got larger since (Indratera is slowly entering its next ice age) and so the glacier further up the fjord has joined again, meaning it's no longer got a gap. The name became Sólvenger in Middle Rakki, and Solvenger in modern Rakki.

The Kintirakki (mixed) peoples who inhabited the port came to be known as the *Sol* tribe or clan.

### The Dragon Attack

In -1416 TE, Sólvenger was a fairly large town for the late Iron Age, with a few thousand inhabitants. It had developed its own culture and identity by now, when its important event occurred. The last day before the new calendar year was known as Skald Night, where the people gathered to share stories of the previous year and have a huge feast together. There was a yearly tradition where several people were voted as 'Heralds of the Feast' and before the feast, tasked to climb the glacier to the top of the mountain. The Heralds would then reach the land at the top of the mountain, and take a branch from an ancient Blackthorn tree that had stood there for thousands of years, a very sacred tree indeed. This year's heralds were *Hrist Ice-Flame, Rieka Wolf-Skin, Magnus Grey-Nose, Yuri Drake-Charmer, Hamm Golden-Beard, and Järvinen, Poem-Maker*.

But when they went to the Blackthorn tree, it burst into flame, and withered, causing the Heralds to weep. When they returned home to the feast having begun, they were about to tell people what happened, when a black dragon descended on the town. It breathed swathes of fire, burning the buildings, smashing the shops with the beat of its terrible wings, and causing the earth to shake. The dragon attack was furious and fast, and most of the town perished in flames and debris. The Heralds, as some of the possible only survivors, fled through the flaming woods. They forged a path through ancient dungeons full of undead skeletons of the extinct Ossor tribe, and made it out of the valley to the nearest tribe, the *Hrafnfrost Essu*, where they sought refuge. These heroes' names were remembered and memorialised when, a few years later, the *Hrafnfrost Essuit* helped rebuild the town.

## In Modern Times

In the Collapse (post-god-wars era), Solvenger was one of the largest towns on Anticosti Island save for the capital. It was a successful and cosy walled port on a rocky spar in the fjord, which was once covered by ice but had become exposed thousands of years ago. It made its industry from fishing, logging, and metal mining just outside of town, which contributed to the economy of West Rakkimar. The town was ruled by a council of merchants who represented the main industries (manufacture, fishing, mining, trade, etc)

## Notable Locations

* The King Caribou, largest inn in town, on Dragon Square near the top side of town
* Marrow's Tinkerers, a blacksmith and artifice shop near the middle of town
* The Solvenger Port, at the base of town
* Solvenger Garrison, near the 'turn' where the path wound 180° from the port to the city.
* The Solvenger Market, near the lower half of town
	+ Home to Ataqaruat’s whale oil stall, Tovvikiruna’s butchers, Yannaq's milk shop, and Vetti's tool shop amongst others
* Qanoyaq Sound, a bay west of the fjord
* Dragon Glacier, a huge glacier which calved every few weeks
* Mount Sol, the mountain that overlooked town
* Solvenger Barracks, a guard post by the wall

## Traditions - *qainia* and *essuqsuit*

Local tradition was that a visitor's first drink in town was free. This hospitality, known generally as *kasi* in Rakki or *qasinia* in Essu, reflected a time when the land was harsh and refuge was far and few between, so people would help travellers in any way they could.

People in the surrounding area built inuksuit (Essu: *essuqsuq*, plural *essuqsuit* - literally 'Facsimile of a person'). In real life, inuksuit are people-shaped cairns made to mark important locations or routes, and same here!

A large inuksuk stood on Solvenger Point, the western shore where, sailing around it, one would reach Qanoyaq sound, good whaling grounds. Another inuksuk stood on the eastern entrance to the fjord, marking good caribou ranching grounds.

## Local Flora and Fauna

### Quick Run-Down

* The native *Essu* people relied on **reindeer herding** and **harpoon** **whaling** to provide them with almost all of their livelihood. These animals provided food, material, and fuel.
* The *Rakki* people who soon integrated then brought their own traditions of **domesticated wolf-dogs** and **general hunting** of most local animals.
* And the largest local animals by size are
	+ blue whales, firstly
	+ Vulcan roc birds, very solitary noble huge birds of prey
	+ Dracoyetis, flightless dinosaur-like birds
	+ Gildegran moose, which stood 8ft tall at the shoulder with giant antlers beyond that
	+ Rakki polar bears, standing about 7ft tall at the shoulder and weighing at most 2 tons (1800kg)
	+ Gildegran water buffalo, weighing up to 3 tons, but more squat than polar bears

### Plants

* bunchberries, gooseberries, blackberries, lingonberries
* wild strawberries (special to the Rakki people, a plant 'stained with the blood of brave warriors')
* many many types of lichens
* tubers, roots, carrots, ginger
* rubber trees (special to the Essu people for use in waterproof boots and sealing gaps in boat planks)
* blackthorn trees (quite sacred to the Rakki people - trees 'where the spirits of the ancestors rested')
* pines, firs, and conifer trees which made up 95% of all trees
* kelps, seagrasses
* liverworts, hornworts and mosses
* willow trees
* purple lupin fields
* rosemary, fireweed,
* poisonous milkweed, wolfsbane, and belladonna - all used in Essu poisons

### Domesticated Animals

* reindeer / caribou (called *Gildegran Caribou*, Essu people had herded them for generations, getting most their meat and material from keeping them. They were incredibly important).
	+ subspecies and breeds include large-antlered Anticosti caribou, sturdy Rangifer caribou, short-legged and squat Kaserini caribou, lean nimble Mountain Goat Caribou, and more.
* husky dogs
* wolf-dogs
* samoyed dogs (non-native; called *Setfall dogs*, they were native to a large island about 1000 miles eastwards.
* greyhounds (non-native: called *Xantic hounds*, native to the Xantic Isles, brought over as a gift when the two nations traded).
* Forest cats (non-native, some were released and bred feral populations, but most were kept to keep pest populations low in towns)

### Wild Land Animals

* white-tailed deer, red deer, fallow deer, roe deer
* Pronghorns
* Mountain elks
* Gildegran Moose, the second largest local land animal behind the:
* Gildegran Dracoyetis, large bipedal flightless carnivorous jumping birds covered in thick white down feathers, descendant from theropod dinosaurs (which many birds share ancestry with).
* arctic hares
* arctic coyotes
* timber wolves
* grey wolves
* otters
* beavers
* wild Rakkifarthing horses, with very thick coats, short legs, and squat bodies
* Black bears, small and easily startled
* Grizzly bears
* Polar bears, indomitable powerhouses
* Musk Bison, larger musk oxen
* Gildegran Water Buffalo, the largest bovids in the continent
* Gildegran Lynxes
* Manuls (short thick-furred squad cats, like Pallas Cats)
* Stoats (Arctic ermines) and weasels, and other mustelids
* Giant carnivorous ferrets

### Flighted Birds

* Several types of large albatross, the largest flighted birds around
* Lusken Roc-Hawk birds - huge birds in the *Accipitridae* family (same as hawks and eagles), the largest flighted birds in the **world**. Larger than dracoyetis. Mated for life. Very noble,
* Puffins, which were very gregarious and nested in large rocky intertidal colonies
* Pelicans
* Humboldt penguins (locally called *Tiger penguins* due to their stripes - a small species of black and white penguin
* Arctic and Gildegran tern birds, which famously migrated to Lakay and back each summer, the furthest of any migratory animal
* Petrels
* Great Auk birds, smaller than albatrosses
* Snowy owls
* Tawny owls
* Luskan Hawks, one of the few gregarious birds of prey
* Red-tailed hawks
* Golden eagles

### Whales and Sharks

Whaling was a huge part of Essu culture too, providing them with meat for communities, oil for lamps and fires, leather for clothes, and blubber for insulation and cooking.

* great blue whales, the largest local marine animal and largest of all local animals by body weight
* right whales
* pilot whales
* bowhead whales
* humpback whales
* narwhals (toothed whales), known in Essu as *tuungaq* (plural *tuungait*)
* pilot whales
* whale sharks
* great white sharks
* tiger sharks
* dogfish sharks
* greenland sharks (locally called Stinking Sharks because of their ammonia-rich flesh)
* basking sharks

### Other Sea and Shore Creatures

##### Fish

* northern pikes
* rocky sturgeon
* perch fish
* arctic char
* swordfish
* black marlin
* longboat sailfish, the fastest fish alive

##### Pinnipeds

* walruses
* sea lions
* leopard seals
* fur seals

### Invertebrates

Small terrestrial invertebrates did not thrive in Gildegra because of the cold; most native invertebrates were aquatic or marine.

##### Intertidal and Shallow Aquatic

* blue estuary crabs
* horseshoe crabs
* cuttlefish
* prawns
* barnacles
* Argonaut octopus
* limpets
* sea snails
* Bliss cone snails, an incredibly venomous species of cone snail. Their name came from the Rakki gallows humour that one would feel true blss for a split second before a painful death.

##### Deep-Sea

* common octopus
* Xantic octopus
* Datrian cuttlefish
* Nautilus
* giant isopod
* giant squid
* bigfin squid
* colossal squid, almost mythologically rare
* cone snails, lethally venomous in tiny amounts
* sea sponges of many varieties
* lobsters
* deep sea spider crabs