Siiddastallen

When people around here think magic, they usually think Hmong and there’s a good reason for that. With the exodus of most of the Native casters to the NAN after the Ghost Dance , the Hmong were the biggest magic-friendly culture left. However, the Twin Cities have always been a crossroads of cultures and nobody’s the only game in town. There’s a lot of immigrant communities here and a lot of magic styles that you only find here.

One of the oldest and smallest of these immigrant communities are the Saami or Lapps, a small dark-haired people related to Siberian tribes who lived beyond the arctic circle in Scandinavia. What’s not often known these days is that they were a shamanic culture that was infamous among their Scandinavian neighbors as wizards (to the old Vikings that wasn’t a compliment). While centuries of forced assimilation by the Scandinavians meant that most of the Sami that came over here were just as unaware of their ancestral ways as everyone else, there were a few who came straight from the old country and remembered enough of the old ways of the noaidi (Saami shamans) to take advantage when the magic returned.

*It’s worth noting that not all noaidi are Awakaned and not all Awakened Sami are noaidi. The term just means a wise person or healer. A noaidi might just be a wise or respected person who practices the Saami way, with no actual ‘casting abilities’ to their name. To the Saami, there’s no difference in status. So, sure, there’s a lot of overlaps, and Awakened Saami are often considered noaidi because of their powers. But on the flip side, Scandinavian-assimilated Saami tend to follow Laestadianism  (“The Firstborn”), a form of fundamentalist Lutheranism and interpret their powers as ‘Signs of Grace’.*
-PracticalJoik

These few were ready when the Awakening occurred and sided with the city during the Ghost Dance and did damage . Since then, there has been a regular presence in the city. The Siidastallen is a meeting place for the noaidi, although there always is one, it’s location changes on a regular basis, although it’s usually near a park or outdoors area. The noaidi, like the Hmong txiv neeb, focus heavily on spirit conjuration and like to have a variety of different nature spirits at hand to work with.

*Rumors have it that the current Siiddastallen is somewhere around the Lilydale Camps.*
-RobinG

*Wait, I thought they were up by Shakopee still…?*
-Tsov Tom

*’Fraid not, friend.*
-Shock-o-pi

The noaidi are independent operators and while they keep in contact and meet to discuss serious matters and suggest courses of action, there is no actual central authority and no power to enforce any of their decisions, there’s even a couple working the shadows. Mostly, though, they work on looking after their own and helping the city clean up the magical pollution around town. When they come together, either to work together or help one of their own, they tend to form groups called ‘Lavvu’, named after the movable tents their nomadic ancestors in Scandinavia used.

*Not the only thing that they work together on. The Siiddastallen also serves as a clearing house for raw telesma  from the northern part of the state. The Saami have a long-standing arrangement with the elves of the Lake Council of the Woods. It’s not a big piece of the talesma pie in the Cities, but it is their own little slice.*
-RainyRiverFox

*Damn Lapps have been losing fights so long that wouldn’t know a winning side if it bit them. Case in point: a lot of the Awakened shamans among them migrated to Siberia when it went independent and the Lapps here have maintained pretty friendly ties to their relatives over in Yakut, right? And ever since moving their headquarters, Evo’s  kept pretty friendly ties with all the awakened groups there. Lapp transplants included. So, when they moved into the Cities here, they figured the Saami would be natural allies. Instead, the runty little roundteeth threw their offer right back in their faces. Stone stupid, you ask me.*
-Jotun

*What’s wrong, the post above tl;dr, big guy? Noaidi are independent operators. We love our adopted home and all, and there are a couple of guys who take that pretty seriously, but there’s no ‘them’ here, just a bunch of ’me’s’. For the record, as far as I’m concerned Evo’s nuyen spends just as easy as anyone else’s.*
-Practical Joik

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