Halberg

A blend of medieval German, Baratheon, Templar.

Halberg is settled in the central dark forests of the western side of the continent. Like Arcovia and Telrae'dor, Halberg is a city of Tudor buildings and dark stone. It climbs up the side of a broad hill which looks out over narrow farms.

Halberg is one of the other cereal crop regions and produces a large quantity of summer wheat, rye, and millet. Only the wealthy eat imported foods, the general population eats only what they produce themselves; dairy from cows and goats, meat from pigs and geese, and seasonal vegetables along with bread and grain.

Personality

Halsteins are a reserved people who take their duty to king and country very seriously. They can be stubborn and judgemental while being excellent gracious hosts, and kind loyal friends. They have little patience for frivolity in either appearance or manner. They appreciate a good feast and fine imported drink.

Each Halstein belongs to a family, which in turn is vassalled to another family, which is vassalled to a third family until eventually, the line is a vassal to a ducal family. There are twelve ducal families, which comprise the court and administration of the region. All Halseins have a first name, a family name, and the added name of the ducal seat they are allied to, which is identified with the term von, meaning of, such as Lennart Matthes von Laicher. A thirteenth royal family, which has only a few vassals, is the nominal ruler and tiebreaker of any democratic process in Halberg. Read More

Halsteins are by nature expansionists and by practice traditionalists, consequently, they are always seeking to expand their borders, and consider any land they once own, no matter how briefly, to be theirs by tradition. They have serious issues with the Scythians to the south and consider themselves a strong ally of the Arcovian citadel who are the only people possessing any moral fiber.

Appearance

Regardless of height, the Halsteins are particularly imposing. They possess strong bodies, confident gazes, thick hair, and dark eyes. However, Halsteins are not exceptionally tall, average in comparison to the Rus, but their powerful builds and deep curves present a picture of a healthy and wealthy race. Hair color is from shades of dark blonde to darkest brown, with occasional redheads popping up. Halsteins tend to have dark eyes, though light hazel is still common enough.

Clothing styles are modest, bare skin is never shown in public, and any woman of means has their hair covered with some form of head wrap, the style of which goes in and out of fashion. Common styles are multiple layers of long tunics, heavily beaded gowns, sleeveless jackets, and soft high boots. The Dyrlings would accuse the Halsteins of always being a season out of style, and being quite frumpy. The Halstein matrons would just sniff and claim it was better then dressing like a ... whoa there.

Traditions

Legend tells that Tuisto, the father of the Halsteins, once had a boar by the name of Sæhrímnir who was stolen by the Northmen and butchered for a feast. The next day Sæhrímnir was reformed and attacked the Einherjar who of course thought this was great fun and slaughtered, butchered, and ate him again. This went on for nine days until Tuisto made his way to the hall of these dead and drunken ruffians and fought them all and took back his damn boar home. This little story tells us much of how the Halsteins view the Northmen.

Tuisto is accounted as being the son of an ancient sky-god and an ancient earth goddess most assume to be Goddess Berta, also known as Old Mother Frost, from the Rus people. Who the ancient sky-god is, only guesses can be made, as his name has been lost to such diversity the real story is long gone. Tuisto is first and foremost a god of law and believed to have given the Halsteins their practice of wergild. Wergild is an ancient law that dictates, the amount of compensation paid by a person committing an offense to the injured party or, in case of death, to his family.

Halsteins are buried with all the goods they need for the afterlife, and enough coin to pay any wergild they still owned any who had passed so that they might start their new life with no debt.