[b]Nation/Clan/Kingdom/Tribe Name:[/b] Ard Tribe

[b]Represented Color:[/b] Kind of a bluish gray

[b]Race:[/b] Humans

[b]Breed:[/b] Humans extremely adapted to the cold and with somewhat superior strength and endurance, yet with very poor magical abilities.

[b]Capital:[/b] The coastal village of Njor.

[b]Ruler:[/b] Danr claims the title of Chieftain of Njor and Jarl of the Ards.

[b]Type of Government:[/b] Something of a democracy in electing chieftains for villages, yet if the chieft has a remotely competent son then that son is almost guaranteed to inherit his father's position. Titles of nobility are usually not hereditary and are granted by merit, and chieftains are despots with essentially total power at the end of the day.

[b]Religion:[/b] The Ards follow a largely unorganized religion consisting of countless fables and legends, many of which are unrecorded and passed down orally. Father Frost is probably their most notable god, the lord of winter who is revered for choosing the Ards as his favored tribe and granting them strength, yet feared for sending the blizzards and long winters that killed all the other tribes and made the Ards' homeland inhabitable. 

Another important god is the Hanged King, a god that is condemned to limply dangle off the edge of the world by a rope around his neck. When the Ards die and their spirits begin to drift down to the underworld, it is the Hanged King who judges them and decides whether to catch their souls and send them to the heavens above, or let them simply plummet into the darkness.

One notable part of their religion is that the Ards view most magic users with great contempt; thinking that magic is gifted from the gods and should only be used by holy men. Any other magic users are thieves and unholy blights upon the world, and associating with their ilk would surely bring about the gods' wrath!

Other notable gods will be added to this section if the Ards ever reform/record/start building temples for their religion.

[b]Geographical Location:[/b] The Ards live along the northwestern coast of the continent.

[b]History:[/b] The Ards once were one of many tribes of people living in a land far to the north. However, in the past few decades the clime grew ever colder and the winters ever longer, until it suddenly climaxed in a great blizzard that killed off nearly all the crops, livestock, and wildlife of the island. People died like flies and entire tribes crumbled, yet the Ards were strong and they survived, or at least a small fraction of them did. 

Faced with near certain death if they stayed, an opportunity for escape eventually arose. One of the sharper tribes had realized that to survive they would have to leave, and so this tribe began to construct several ships of colossal proportions and fill them with the last of the supplies that were to be found from the dying land. The Ards bided their time, lurking near the boat builders. When the day came and the ships were finished, the Ards struck. Though the boat builders had been wiser they had also been weaker, and the Ard warriors fell upon the boat builders' village and a massacre followed. After looting the other tribe's village and stealing their ships, the Ards set sail for new lands.

They were rather inexperienced sailors and as such several ships wrecked and many people succumbed to sea sickness, so the Ards' already shrinking numbers began to dwindle further. By the time that they arrived where they now are, battered and tested, they numbered only 250. Their chieftain Danr burned their mighty ships on the beach as an offering to the gods, and then the Ards began to build Njor.