Paksworld

In Sheepfarmer’s Daughter, the various wanderers in the woods sort of divided into Alured the Black’s people (well-armed, cohesive group under one commander, in the southern forest of Aarenis),  a group near Czardas (may or may not have been associated with any other group, and mention of “woods-wanderers” here and there.

I’m conceiving of them as a very old people, mostly displaced by the Aareans,  pushed to the margins, and mixed just a little with fugitives from cities, traveling “players” and the like.   They have horses and wagons, travel by very old, non-Guild-League roads, are generally considered to be smelly, dirty, dishonest,  hostile to outsiders, petty thieves, and speak a language most people don’t know.   Some of them also speak Common, but refuse to unless they know the other person.  They don’t accept Thieves’ Guild authority at all, don’t pay taxes, and are very, very good at evading anyone who tries to capture or hinder them.

Their weapons are mostly long knives and bows; blackwood doesn’t grow in the south, and they make a very recurved bow (sort of a Magyar looking bow.)   Like the old humans of the north, blue is a sacred color to them, and from the mountain streams they find blue stones they make into beads (they don’t dye cloth blue) for ornament.  They prefer spotted horses to plain colored ones;   the wild horses of the western mountains are at least half spotted and their horses probably descend from them–though they also have the reputation for being horse thieves, horse trainers, and horse dealers if you don’t care that you might be buying, for an inflated price, a stolen horse.   Their clothes are mostly leather and wool, but they do harvest some plant fibers for yarn and use vegetable dyes.  They weave on hip-looms.   Their winter outer garments are sheepskins; men on guard wear them fleece out for concealment in snow.

Like the horse nomads of the far north (to whom I don’t think they’re related) they worship the Windsteed and the Mare of Plenty, and they know about Torre…to them she is the Saving Maiden.   Once children are able to walk, they wear a horsehair bracelet; women have a belt of braided horsehair with one strand of colored wool for each child they’ve borne and weaned; men wear a curl of pared hoof on a thong around the neck.   Social organization is by hearth (those living/traveling together) within clan (which is more complicated that it might seem–everyone has both a “blood clan” (mother) and “seed clan” (father) with social status meaning attached to each, but differently in different situations.

I bring this up because I just found out (thank you, Dattur-the-kteknik kapristi) that gnomes and dwarves speak their language, although it isn’t gnomish or dwarvish.   And Dattur and Arvid are, at this moment, in a woods-folk camp where, having added their bit to the communal pot, they’re being tolerated if not welcomed.   The leader of this band is suspicious of Arvid, and Arvid–who’s got coinage concealed in his cloak pockets–is suspicious of the cute little urchins who want to get close to him.

Will Arvid get out of this with gold intact?   We shall see.

(19 days to Oath of Fealty release!)