Sa-ar People

The Sa-ar (Sa'are) are a group of people who live on barren ice sheets and sparse tundra on the northern edge of Scandar and the World Crown. They are comprised mainly of humans with a few gnomes, elves, half-elves, and white tieflings making up some of the tribal groups they live in. Half-orcs and orcs are occasionally born to a tribe after failing to defend against a Scandar raiding party; these children are considered either cursed or a curse, depending on the tribe, and are often not treated well by the tribe. This, mixed with the increased calorific intake that a young orc needs and the limited food supply of the Sa-ar people's habitat, means that few Orc/Half-Orc children survive to adulthood.

### Towns

The towns of the Sa-ar are often built with thick tall ice walls in a horseshoe shape with the opening facing away from the predominant wind direction. All of the houses are built facing the entrance with a large open space in the centre of the camp which acts as a gathering place, worship centre, festival ground, butchery, marketplace, and training yard. Large magical flames are kept lit in this area which don’t keep the place warm but do at least help ward off the chill. The houses are crafted from ice as well, utilising an odd technique, not recorded anywhere else, where blocks of ice are carved out and built into domes then strengthened with water and ice magic. Even the tribes that are further south use this method and ship in their ice from more northern plains in the winter. Most tribes are quite small, around no more than twenty families, but they are often quite well-connected with the nearby tribes, making regular social visits with one another.

### Customs

Unsurprisingly, the Sa-ar wear a lot of thick cloths, gloves, boots, and hats. To the east, along the coast, these are mainly made of leathers crafted from seal skin. To the south you see more pelts of moose, wolf, and mountain lion, while to the northeast the tribesmen are most commonly seen wearing the silvery white fur of Hindersfell or Geadersfell. Irrespective of where they live, all tribes will decorate their hats with bones, antlers, and claws from the creatures they have hunted, butchered, or cooked, crafting large and odd displays above their heads. Some displays appear to be attempts at the shape an animal head or something similar, but like almost all other Sa-ar creations, these decorations are not meant to be deliberate displays of craftsmanship.

All Sa-ar males over the age of 5, and all married females, carry with them at all times an ornate, but still very functional, short blade, known as a Kam-sai. The sheaths are decorated to the best of the wielder's ability and may be decorated with small gemstones, gold, or silver, though these substances are hard to come by in the frozen north, and its more common to find bone, stone, or wood used in the decoration. The blades themselves are covered with runic script, sometimes simply naming the owner of the blade or inscribing a poem about the owner or some feat or great deed they have accomplished. The use of longer inscriptions requires more delicate carving skill and is seen as a display of the owner's superior craftsmanship. Often the daggers are carved from animal bone and edged with a thin piece of metal that, when cared for properly, allows the knife to be quite usable, while more prominent members of the tribe or their more successful hunters/fighters have full metal blades. When a boy turns 5, he and his father will craft his first Kam-Sai, which he will replace when he has gained the ability to craft a better one by himself, often in his early twenties. The girls receive theirs after they have come of age and received a marriage proposition.

When a man wishes to woo a young lady, he crafts a brand new Kam-Sai and presents it to her. The more ornate and intricately crafted the blade, the more affection he is showing towards her. While it is necessary for the suitor to craft the blade himself, he is not obligated to gather the resources, though doing so is still considered preferable. When presented with the Kam-Sai, a lady is obligated to accept the blade but not to begin wearing it. Instead, she will begin wearing a thick and noticeable leather belt on the outside of their clothes to indicate to the tribe that she is considering a proposal and may soon be "off the market" if other boys don’t act now. This time period lasts for at least one month but often for around 3 months. After this time, if the woman is happy with accepting the proposal of at least one of the men who have presented her with a Kam-Sai, she attaches to her belt all of the blade sheaths she has been given but will carry and display only the dagger of the man whose proposal she has chosen to accept. A woman who has been presented multiple sheaths can thus display them all to show off her desirability, increasing not only her own status but also the status of the man whom she ultimately chose. This has lead to a custom of single men giving poor quality blades to a number of women, even those they have no intention of marrying, so that the woman will have a greater number of empty sheaths. However, only single men may present a Kam-Sai, so there is always the risk that a woman will accept a man who was just being kind. If the woman doesn't wish to accept any of the men who proposed to her, she may either simply continue to wear the belt in the hopes of attracting further suitors, or she may craft a Kam-Sai herself and begin wielding that along with all other Kam-Sais she has been given, including the blades.

### Religions

The two main deities worshiped by the Sa-ar people are Torag and Uri Sowsun. They learned of Torag through the rare peaceful encounters with Orcs from Scandar, which meant that for many generations their style of worship to him was skewed towards the more aggressive side of Torag’s religion, and even more twisted by their isolation from other followers and the hearsay method of gathering information. In 6301, a devout follower of Torag received a vision and was called to go north where he found the Sa-ar people and taught them a more full understanding of The Father of Creation's teachings. This lead to a revival of the faith amongst the people and the old ways were quickly replaced with the truer form of the faith.

The other god, who is not known to be worshipped anywhere else in Trayst, is Uri Sowsun, known as the Queen of the White Plain and Mother of the Sfell (Sar-Fell). She appears as a regal-looking woman dressed in an elegant silver ballgown with icicles woven into her long blond hair and upon the tips of each of her fingers. The tribes believe she is the one who taught the first Sa-ar tribe to live off the barren frozen landscape they call home. It is also believed that she may bless certain people with The Sight, an ability granted to those who correctly and devotedly worship Uri which allows them to see Hindersfell and Geadersfell, two species of animal known only to live at the World Crown, which spend their entire lives under the effect of a greater invisibility spell which they seem to be able to to cast at will multiple times a day.