Welserine

*For the background, see Welserine Wilder*.

The **Welserine**, also known as **Welserine Wilders** to outsiders, are a cluster of human tribes dating back to the Dark Ages.

## History

The Welserine, a wide variety of many fractious tribes, some reasonably peaceful, others savage and hostile, originate as a singular tribe of the Drahanim, which crossed the White Spine in **-2415D** to escape what legend says was a "shadow goddess", but scholars believe was a natural disaster. They split away in **-1415D**, and moved into the Welserine Wilds, a harsh environment of forests and swamps in the far north.

Following the destruction caused by the First Scourge, the Adamantium's influence had greatly receded in northern Morgaea by **-184D**, as they instead worked to rebuild the City of Adamantium. The Welserine took this opportunity to claim the fortress of Genedara, an ancient outpost built to watch out for Welserine incursions. The fortress was eventually abandoned by the Welserine, however.

In **1A50**, after Heford's efforts to drive the fiendish hordes out of Drahanim lands during the Second Scourge had decimated the Drahanim's numbers, the Cleve and Welserine conbined their forces and invade the lands held by the Drahanim, hoping to take advantage of the chaos. Under Heford's leadership, the Drahanim prevailed against the other clans, howevr, forcing them to flee to the wilds and the highlands and cementing the Drahanim as the dominant clan in the Nordish Valley.

Allegedly, in the Third Age, the legendary witch Maevith rose as a terrible power amidst the Welserine. Her daughters, the Witches of the Wilds, led an army of wilders and other, more terrible things, against the south. They were all but unopposed until the hero Kodlak led an army of Drahanim fighters and Ondrathum dwarves. After a long series of dreadful battles, the Welserine were all but destroyed, and the witches burned. To this day the Nordishfolk fear the day a charismatic figure will unite them once again.

## Culture

From an outsider's perspective, a Wilder's life is primitive and barbaric compared to that of a village or city-dweller of Nordain. Their works of art seem crude at best, being pendants and charms carved from the fangs, bones or claws of animals. And their clothing is of questionable quality, often being pieced together from ragged strips of leather, and smelling strongly of tanned hides and sweat. But what truly sets the Wilders apart is their continued bloody history with the inhabitants of Nordain.

While most Wilders in the modern age try their best to live out peaceful, if misunderstood, lives, painting their faces and banding together in small communities led by shamans, some Wilder tribes have become so hardened by the harsh conditions of the Wilds that they are inclined to take by force or stealth anything they cannot grow or build for themselves; which is to say, almost everything worth having. This has even led some to favor bloodshed, as there are those who deliberately inflict slow and painful deaths on easy targets, seemingly out of cruelty, when slipping out of the wilds to perform raids. Indeed, some Wilders are reputedly so barbaric that they even consume the flesh of the dead. This has led many Nordishfolk to eye the north warily, regarding all Wilders with suspicion, hatred, and fear.

### Living Conditions

The majority of Wilders live out their lives in small villages made up of houses and strange-looking huts built on stilts, or even into great treetops, above the swampy marshes of the Wilds. While winters are harsh, they've been able to eke out an existence using their unrivaled herbalism skills to create ice salves to protect themselves from the cold. In fact, Wilders are not ignorant when it comes to crafting. For example, the Welserine have found ways to induce hallucinations through extracts of the leaves of Necroot.

Survival skills are also highly respected amongst Wilders. They are famed (and cursed about) for their stealth and hunting skills, which are often employed when performing raids against the south. Some scholars have suggested that they've also designed a language for leaving hidden messages among piles of stone and rubble. In this way, they are able to mark trails, note places of interest, and even give warning in a way outsiders cannot understand.

## Beliefs

The Welserine have a complex pantheon, which includes both nature spirits and legendary mortals who have ascended to the heavens. This is further complicated by the fact that the pantheon varies somewhat from tribe to tribe, as every tribe has its own sacred tales and heroes; however, like their Cleve cousins, all Wilders worship the Old Gods of the Drahanim, and agree on the three greatest gods; Andaar the Mountain-Father, Frostad Wintersbreath, and Thora of the Skies.

The Welserine believe in a hazily defined afterlife governed by Thora of the Skies called Twilight, where the dead are reunited with their kin.

Over the thousands of years which they have dwelt in the swamps and wilds, the Wilders have developed an extended pantheon beyond the original Drahanim gods and goddesses. These deities represent what is the core of Welserine life and beliefs.

### Courne the Guardian

Ages ago, at the heart of the Wilds, Andaar the Mountain-Father once disturbed a faun from his eternal slumber. As the two conversed, Andaar discovered that he had been cursed with immortality by Drode the Clever. The Mountain-Father named him Courne, and appointed him watch over the Wilds and it's people, now as a god.

### Unake the Healer

Unake the Healer is the daughter of Thora of the Skies, and a mortal wilder. Though she was born blessed with immortality, her father was still human, who aged and eventually grew ill. Believing that the waters of Lake Lontan would heal her father, Unake took him to its shores, and prayed to her mother to heal him. Instead of her mother, the lake's serpent Ourobolth appeared, offering to give Unake the power to heal. All she had to do was tell him how to get onto Korthas, the mountain which stood at the center of the world. Unake, in her grief, told the serpent how to climb the sacred mountain and in return he bit her, his venom seeping into her veins. "Drink of the lake, and you will be the goddess of Healing, with the power to keep your Mother from taking souls to the Skies and to Twilight. However, when Unake drank from the Lake her father had already passed and was beyond her powers. Unake fled into the Welserine Wilds and entered the protection of Courne, vowing to teach others her skills so she might extend the lives of other Wilders.

### Aumuni the Mother

Aumuni is the lover of Andaar and the Mother goddess, having birthed the Welserine. She is known for giving the gift of rebirth or reincarnation to the Welserine people. Shamans teach that when a Wilder dies they must be immolated by magical fire, so that Aumuni can breath new life into them in Twilight and send them back in another form. Shapeshifters are believed to be former Wilders reborn and given a new human form.

### Kolaarn the Gatekeeper

Kolaarn is the twin sister of Aumuni, and the goddess of Twilight. She is feared and revered, often depicted at the top of the totem, just below Thora and Andaar, for she is the gatekeeper who ferries souls to Thora. As such, she is believed to take the form of carrion birds, which drives the Wilders to pray to Kolaarn whenever they see such avians. Shapeshifters who turn into crows or ravens are so feared and revered they are almost treated as demi-gods; the chosen of Kolaarn and blessed by her.

#### Nature Spirits and Animals

The Welserine pantheon includes nature spirits and animal gods. Most clans revere the same animals but the names may vary clan to clan.

## Wilder Magic

The magic of the Welserine is nature based, and often used to aid them in their struggles with their environment and to honor their gods in rituals. As such, different tribes will have spells that suit where they live and whom or what they worship. For instance, a more exposed village on the edges of the Wilds may have mages who are adept in control the four elements and have elemental masters, and shifters who mastered bird forms. Whereas a village deep in the swamps are more likely to be geomancers, mastering magic connected to the earth, the trees, vines and plants, while their shifters take the form of wolves, snakes and otters.

Nevertheless, Wilder mages do not learn magic the same way mages of the Institute of Magic do; often being referred to as hedge mages, as much of what they know has been passed down through shamans for thousands of years. Shapeshifting, and spirit healing are the most common types of magic used by the Wilders, though there are rumors of some who use blood magic, leading to many raids from templars.

## Politics

The chieftains of Wilder tribes are referred to as Shamans; avatars of the gods, and the sole sources of knowledge and guidance on complex spiritual matters. There are many tales of shamans having learned their magic from the "Witches of the Wild", a sisterhood that inspires as much terror as they do awe and gratitude, even if there is no definitive proof the sisterhood exists. In particular, the tale of Maevith, the greatest witch of the wilds, is celebrated amongst all tribes.

Shamans are the law makers, lore keepers, and only scribes of a tribe. They are also the only ones who shift into the form of their tribe's animal god. Shamans interpret the dreams the gods grant them, using them to predict when the rains will come, or when danger is upon the tribe. They also arrange and make marriages, heal the wounded, deliver newborns, and teach the other mages of the tribe the secrets of Wilder magic. They oversee the rites of passage and paint the faces and bodies of the young men and women who come of age. A shaman is everything to their tribe.