Editing Autia (section)

====Darhun Coast====

People:

Darhun is primarily home to the Darhun human culture and the Jhazai elf culture. Both are nomadic hunter gatherers with little interest in the outside world, though those interested in exploring the world sometimes do mercenary work for the nations of Lapus.

The Darhun are a Jinsan race, though no one remembers whether they came from Autia, Tismo, or some other region. They are a blunt, pragmatic people, who have no mercy for the weak, but also see no shame in retreating or hiding from those with superior numbers.

The Jhazai are a little known branch of the elf race. They are sometimes compared to the elves of Nicsenor, but it is generally believed they arrived from the fey worlds separately. Jhazai are seemingly impervious to the cold, and dress lightly all year round. Aside from their manner of dress, fondness for elaborate art, more extensive use of ritual, and greater skill at ambush, their culture is surprisingly similar to the Darhun. It is unknown if they have the same immortality as certain other elf races, thanks to their violent way of life, few have been known to live for more than a few centuries.

Aside from the Darhun and the Jhazai, the area is home to orcs, goblins, orgillon, frost giants, and a few minor arctic fey races.

Religion:

Religion in this region is mostly limited to folklore and origin myths, many of which are unique to a certain tribe. Scholars from more civilized regions have long ago given up on trying to catalogue all the different gods and god-like entities worshipped here. Worship by both the Darhun and Jhazai includes erecting stone circles, carving large spirals into the tundra moss (or snow, depending on the season), and brutal ritual dismemberment of both living animals and captives.

Magic:

Some Darhun and Jhazai use ice magic, weather magic, enchantments, or necromancy, but overall magic isn't really there forte. However, they are sometimes able to cast powerful magic via time consuming and unreliable rituals.

Military:

The Darhun, Jhazai, and other inhabitants of the Darhun Coast frequently raid each other, particularly when food is scarce. Racial loyalty is not seen as particularly important, and it is common for tribes of different races to form alliances with each other against their own race. Although few tribes have the ability to forge steel, steel weapons are surprisingly common as steel is rare and valuable and the same blade, arrowhead, axe head, or bludgeon may be used for decades, carefully scavenged and repaired anytime it is broken or lost in battle. Firearms are rare simply because procuring ammo is difficult, though many tribes will have a few fire arms lying around for the rare occasions when they can loot or procure gunpowder and shot. Tribes that are short on steel weapons will use sharpened bone instead.

Stronger tribes often tame powerful creatures like woolly rhinos, woolly mammoths, bears, giant wolves, and saber cats to ride into battle. Both stronger and weaker tribes also love ambushes and hit and run tactics. Although the open tundra has few ambush points and is mostly left to the orcs, ogrillons, and frost giants, the coastal areas are covered in rocky hills riddled with caves, small forests of unnaturally hardy pine, and often dense coastal fogs that obscure everything.

History:

The inhabitants of Darhun Coast have been there as far back as anyone cares to remember. Several attempts by nations from Lapus and the Nantic States have failed badly. There simply isn't anything worth exporting in this region that justifies the strong military presence it takes to keep the region from being overrun by hostile tribal races.

Economy:

The tribes in this region are mostly self-sufficient hunter gatherers, however, a few minor trading posts are maintained by free lancers and minor states who trade surplus and outdated weaponry for furs and carve-able bones. These outposts are also sometimes used by nations like Dright and Yr to recruit mercenaries.

Sources of food include caribou, arctic rodents, migratory birds, megafauna like mammoths and rhinos, fishing, seals, whales, as well as harvesting certain berries, tubers, lichen, and fungi during the summer months.