Gyðjar

Pronunciation: /gIð: jɐr/

Nosklend juts away from mainland Beyrensia to the northeast, reaching into the icy fog of the arctic unknown. The terrain is offensive, consisting of vast plains of tundra, hills and stunted mountains made of sharp volcanic rock and glass, and strewn with evergreen forests shroud in a cold, white haze, too dangerous to traverse through and considered more so to speak of. It is of no wonder that the northern tribes, the Gyðjar, are maniacal and half-crazed; their very environment demands fear, and only the most hardened and the most demented live past puberty.

The Nosklanders are loosely divided into Gyðjar, small clans who operate more akin to survival units rather than actual socio-political human organizations. The singular form of gyðjar is gyt, which roughly equates to "get," a namesake that perhaps derives from a scavenging behavior known by northerners as gütter, to get, retrieve, rescue, pilfer. Gyðjar are wanderers, they have no ties with the land upon which they travel, no roots anywhere. They know not the science of agriculture, for the climate in which they live is too cold to cultivate a staple of crops, and the lands are far too dangerous to remain stationary. So they constantly move, hunting and foraging food. Gyðjar are small bands, seldom reaching more than a score in population—larger numbers not only slow the constant movement of the unit but stretch scavenged resources thin. Bones of Nosklanders have been studied in Atticosh, marks on them indicating the Gyðjar eat their own on occasion.

Children rescued from The Cruel North testify to a rampant fear of the Frostütten, giant sorcerers with the power to control ice, wind and frost. According to belief, these frost giants stand maliciously vigilant at the edge of the world, preventing the sun's warmth from reaching the Nosklanders, keeping them imprisoned with unbridled and ruthless cold. Most Nosklanders never grow up, many dying as children from fever, starvation or the Frozen Plague, a condition similar to frostbite but deadly and somehow transmittable. Gyðjar are piecemeal groups made up of wandering survivors. They work together only when group dynamics is beneficial to each member; but when the group becomes a burden chaos ensues, all fending for themselves in a bloody melee, which ultimately leads to feasting on the slain. When desperate or crazed enough, a Gyt may attack an Atticosian outpost in hopes of plundering food. In the past this was a problem, dairy and barley farms razed, the livestock stripped to the bones and sometimes the farmers and their families slaughtered and eaten. After a few decades of such raids, Atticosh drew back its farms and established palisades lining the perceived border. But starved and crazed Nosklanders still try to claw their way in, looking for food.