Andalayan Tribes

The Andalayan Tribes are homogenous people group inhabiting the Andalayan Archipelago in the Estian Sea.

Culture

The Andalayans are essentially the "Vikings" of Nod. They are fair-complexioned nomads of formidable size and strength. Their constant proximity to the coast limited their diet mainly to seafood: cod, mackeral, tarpon, and crustaceans. Food is caught with nets or retrieved by women and children from the tide pools that dot the coasts of the cold archipelago. Octopus soup is a delicacy prepared by the housewives before a fishing expedition. Nets are made and mended by single women.

The Andalayans are a notoriously hardy people, not given to many words. They value loyalty above all other virtues, excpet perhaps bravery.

Religion

There are 4 main tribes in the Andalays: Hubberts, Cruscians, Deters, and Myters. The tribes all serve the same god: the chaos god of the sea, Tempest. Sacrifices of blood and hair are routinely made to Tempest in order to appease the god so that their fishing parties might pass through the waters safely.

An Andalayan man rarely cuts his hair unless it is to make sacrifice.

A Legacy of Shipcraft

The Andalayans are expert shipbuilders and sailors. They harvest bobbin trees from the interior of the islands to make their large Man o' Wars and smaller, swifter catamarans. However, in the year 422 it was noted by some of the foresters that the bobbin tree population was dwindling, purportedly due to an invasive species of beetle. Three years later, in 425, a treaty squad made up of the leaders of all 4 tribes and their repesctive skippers landed on the mainland of Nod to discuss the possibility of harvesting bobbin wood from the interior of the mainland.

An oath was sealed between King Hamish I and the Andalayan leader Telloc Deter that the forests north of _________ would be open to harvesting by any Andalayan, so long as the Andalayans would promise to build a ship for the Royal Navy. The date of payment would be in 435, ten years from the day of the oath. Now, in the year 490, the debt remains unpaid and the interest has grown to three full size dreadnought ships.

The current tribes leader of the Andalays is considering sending the next generation of young boys to grow up in the Royal House as a para-military naval organization. This decision has caused major political disruption in both the Andalayan Tribes and the Royal House.