Qeodhar and Yannivey
by Marco Dalmonte English translation by Gary DaviesWotan (Odin) - Authority, guile, knowledge, wisdom, sky, storms, winds
Nooga (Protius) - Oceans and marine creatures, water, capriciousness, travel
Tyr (Ixion) - War, heroism, strength
Notes:
1. The islands near to the artic polar circle, to the extreme north of Alphatia, are known with the name of the Yannivey Chain. They are populated by the descendents of the original inhabitants of the Alphatian continent, the Yannifey (people of Neathar stock parents of the Antalians), which were driven from their motherland by the arrival of the Alphatians. The majority of the Yannifey were returned as slaves, but some managed to escape by taking to the sea and arrived in the northern islands, where they were left in peace for centuries (given the little utility of these territories). The largest island is Qeodhar, a true kingdom that allied with Alphatia in the VI century AC in the hope of enriching and improving its position, but that has always been considered an Alphatian dominion of little importance. Qeodhar is governed by the Kjavik (“Scourge”) Norlan, and is populated for the most by poor farmers and fishermen, pirates and mercenaries. The rest of the Yannivey Chain is made up of small barren islands in which have, for centuries, been refuges for the outcasts and the criminals of the Alphatian Empire that wish to disappear without leaving a trace. The few inhabitants of Yannivey are for the most fishermen that live a life of hardships in pure anarchy, subject to the inclement climate and to the chicanery of the more powerful criminals who they must obey in order to not make it a worse end. There are few fugitives that have stayed at length in Yannivey, and usually we’re talking about individuals without scruples and without other means, which seek to impose their will with their strength. Yannivey is a brutal and barren land, nominally under Alphatian control but in practice without any interest for the Empire, which has abandoned to it to itself. Because of the tough lifestyle led by the Yannifey and Qeodharians, two populations that now hold themselves to keep distinct (in particular the Qeodharians are the purest descendents of the Yannifey), there isn’t therefore much room for the cultivation of the spirit and of the religious questions among them.
2. The Qeodharians have a extremely limited pantheon of Immortals worshipped: Nooga (lord of the oceans and travel), Wotan (patron of storms, authority and knowledge) and finally Tyr (patron of strength and war). The religion is based on an extremely primitive version of what would later become the Antalian cult, and the three Immortals honoured constitute for the Qeodharians the most important forces that govern their world: sun, sky and water. The fact that they are all male also shows the clear machismo of the Qeodharian society.
3. For the Qeodharians the Immortal who embodies death, cold, and darkness (the three most frightening adversaries for the inhabitants of these latitudes) is Hel, who in this case isn’t a female Immortal. The women of the Qeodharian society are therefore viewed with suspicion, especially when they aren’t married and advanced in years (who are considered Daughters of Hel, witches from the dried up womb who reject the established order), and must be dominated and submissive to a man in order to give them a sense of security and control of the community.
4. The majority of the criminals of Yannivey are amoral individuals that are only preoccupied with survival and don’t have time to think about their own spirit or to a supernatural life. Some fishermen pray to the Immortals in order to gain protection and help proper against these criminals, while diverse pirates have their own beliefs (usually in dark and entropic Immortals) that they have kept to themselves or that seeks to impose on the others with their strength. Only a pair of clerics is present on the island, and they are followers of the Shaper, indomitable evangelists who have chose to live in this inhospitable region by a sense of charity. Their work is recent (the cult has arrived only in the last century), but they were able with their actions to gain the support of some inhabitants that they now try to protect against the abuses of power.