Faction overview: Sami
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Administration and politics
Sami tribal system
Sami never has a de facto central government; rather, it is a confederation of hundreds of Sami tribes (ᛊᛁᛃᛞᚨᚾ, sijdan) that share a common cultural value. The leaders of a Sami is a kinship of chieftains in a tribe, and among them, the Snowpriest is the most well-respected chieftain who also plays an important role in religious affairs as shamans and medicine men such as divination and caring for their sacred trees. Daily matters handed to the Snowpriests are settled by their assistants and disciples.
Usually, each Sami tribe takes care of civil affairs by their own tribesmen. The only moment the chieftains and Snowpriests gather up is during an important assembly held in an undisclosed location after many Snowpriests receive the same oracle spontaneously. This is seen as the only event when chieftains of Sami could voice out their opinions to a body resembling a central government.[1]
Snowpriests
- Main article: Snowpriest
Military
Because Sami is a tribal confederation, there is no one single military entity. Each tribe has its own warriors who are skilled in physical combat and pole weapons and caster who masters freezing ice Originium Arts. When facing foreign invaders, it is the tribes' responsibility to defend their homeland. Internal conflicts within the tribe usually do not escalate into a wide-scale war, so these warriors serve more as law enforcers.[2]
The Stuoraveahka[note 1] (ᛊᛏᛟᚱᚨᚹᛖᚺᚲᚨ), on the other hand, is an assembly of elite warriors from different Sami tribes who are stationed at the mountainous northern frontiers, and they are the vanguards facing the very threat of the Andskotarnir's corruption. When evacuating civilians to the south, the warriors of the Stuoraveahka will follow a similar pathway while heading northward as if the migration routes are in fact military mobilization tactics. The further north one heads on, the higher the number of warriors in a tribe.[2]
Despite their primitive weapons, Samifjod warriors often use nature to assist in the battle. These included armed hornbeats and Arts creations born from trees, vines and boulders such the Weaving Vinecreeps. Some of these giant puppets born from Arts are even augmented with runes to increase their durability.[2]
Geography
The expedition teams currently pinpoint the known border of Sami located on the crossing between the northern part of the Kolossal Prime Vein and Lake Kolossal on northwestern Ursus while facing adjacent to the Infy Icefield. Regarding its biomes, Sami can be divided into three regions: the swamps in the south, the forests in the central heartland, and the mountains and tundra in the north, and all these biomes occupy the very body of Sami the All-Father, the Feranmut where the tribes of Sami settle upon.[3] Each region has a unique climate and tribal customs.
The northern region of Sami is demarcated by the Fjal Vetrtonn[note 2], a mountain range forming its northernmost border of Sami at the Infy Icefield. Due to its tundra climate, very few populations live in the north. Some of the known inhabitants are the local Cyclops communities who live in seclusion. Other tribes dwelling in the region are mainly warrior tribes forming the Stuoraveahka who are stationed at the northern barracks for generations to face the corrupting force of the Andskotarnir. Because of their immense duty, the northern warrior tribes harbor distrust towards outsiders and act hostility towards them.[4] This makes expeditioners' passage to the Infy Icefield through the northern mountains very difficult as they have to persuade them for access.
The Sami central forest is the Mrykwood[note 3], a huge forest with some of its part being the "First Forest" in Sami folklore, the place where the heart of Sami the All-Father rests. There are some strict customs to follow for safe passage towards these "First Forest" such as offering a sacrifice for the forest spirits guided by Amma. Because of its sacredness, some apprentice shamans undergo a trial here to try and receive revelations from the Samivilinn.[5] The Dezhnev expedition team once noticed that these forests appear to be "alive" as if the trees move on their own and the rivers change their current quietly; they started from Hádja in southern Sami to survey the forest's border, but by the time they reached the Yevmenov Outpost at the Ursine border, they did not find any trace of the forests. Nevertheless, many presume the geographical complexity of the Sami heartland caused Dezhnev's expedition team despite the equipment of modern survey tools.[3]
The forest tribe of the central heartland has the custom of worshiping a sacred tree called the "clan tree." A forest tribe without a clan tree is usually a newly-risen clan or that they might lose the tree due to circumstances which is seen as great humiliation. The clan tree is treated as their oldest, most respected figure, and usually foreigners are even forbidden to live in its tree house. The life of a forest tribe centers on the clan tree from childbirth, religious affairs to tribal migration, and each tribe keeps a written record about their migration in their clan tree.[6]
Southern Sami is a wetland biome or muskeg that is mainly made up of bogs and peatlands. The region is the most densely populated region where most of the Sami tribes and Columbian outposts are located. The wetland tribes have a tradition of holding ship burials to their deceased by sending off the boat to their final resting place at night and sinking it upon reaching the destination.[7] Due to the increasing threat of the Collapsals, more and more tribes are forced to migrate and settle in the southern region in recent years.[1]
Due to its proxy at the Terran Arctic, Sami has a longer night than other regions. This allows the observation of the northern lights or aurora borealis in the region. In Sami folklore, the aurora is formed by the tears of Valrhvíta as its regret for starting the Strīth.[8]
Economy
Traditionally, the Sami tribes live a self-sustainable hunter-gatherer lifestyle. They usually do not have the desire to trade with foreigners; trading among tribesmen is usually done by bartering. But with the establishment of Columbian outposts, modern lifestyle slowly influences the Samifjod of the south. By the present days, tourism is the main economic source in Sami. Many Columbian hotels and resort owners hire locals as their employees, and these Samifjod are willing to earn Columbian dollars to purchase foreign goods. This can been seen as both a win-win situation to both parties to modernize the nation and hidden exploitation upon the Samifjod by hiring uneducated masses as cheap labor forces.[9]
Tourism in Sami is established upon two traditional routes. One is from the Ursine side by traveling westward towards Lake Kolossal, but it is usually unrecommended to foreigners due to the ongoing border skirmishes and the complicated process to apply for travel applications from the Ursine government. The other route is the Columbian route by passing through the northern barrenlands. Border control between the two nations is relatively relaxed since Sami never demarcates a formal border, though travel documents are still required if one travels in a caravan of cars from a nomadic city. In recent years, there have been proposals from the Columbian Federal Government to set up border checkpoints and establish a modern expressway between the two nations.[9]
As of Terran year 1099, there are three major caravans traveling to Sami resorts. The first one begins from Trimounts, Columbia, which is the shortest and the cheapest. The second one starts from County Merseyside, Victoria, which passes through the mountains of Kjerag, and it is the most luxurious of them all that provides first-class services. The third route starts from Montelupe, Siracusa, and while it is the newest and the furthest one, it provides access for Leithanians and Laterans to directly travel to Sami.[9]
Demographics
The predominant race of Sami are the Elafians. In fact, anthropologists believe that Sami is the original homeland of the Elafians before spreading across Terra.[10] The Elafian Samfijod have a culture of treating their antlers as a sacred body part to communicate with nature. As a result, elder Elafian Samfijod keeps their antlers growing without trimming them.[11]
Sami is also the habitat for some of the surviving endangered races on Terra such as Cyclopes and Elves. The former originated from Kazdel and, in the legend of Ammatalus, split into two branches, one heading towards the north to heal "the wound of the land" and the other dwelling in the Fjal Vetrtonn in seclusion. The latter can be found in the central forests who, as created beings of a Feranmut, continuously fulfill their duty to heal the injured Sami the All-Father.[12]
Samifjod refers to people outside Sami as "Southerners" because most of the people outside of the region came from the southern part of Terra, though in some way it unintentionally becomes a derogatory term by the northern tribes of the mountains to refer to their ignorance regarding Sami's true secret.
Culture
Sami animism
The Samifjod practice animism in which they see every being in nature possessing a spirit. They respect natural phenomena and refrain from interrupting the harmony or excessive extraction of natural resources. Their simple harmony with nature, on the other hand, has been often depicted as a stereotype by foreigners as some sort of "noble savages" or backward-minded people blindly worshiping idols; literary works depicting a Samifjod rejecting civilization or love stories between a Samifjod and a Southerners are wide-spread across other parts of the Terran countries consequently.[13]
A core belief of the Sami animism is the "Eternal Hunt" or called in their native languages as Agálašbivdit (ᚨᚷᚨᛚᚨᛉᛒᛁᚹᛞᛁᛏ, in Northern Sámi) or Eilífligr Veiðr (ᛖᛁᛚᛁᚠᛚᛁᚷᚱ ᚢᛖᛁᛞᚱ, in Old Norse). They believe that every being is part of the hunt or the hunted; by consuming the prey, spirits could communicate with each other and incarnate into a new being. Hence, the "hunt" must not be interfered with by mercy or moral standards. This best explains the Samifjod's warrior culture and their hunting tradition contrary to the stereotype of them being ardent animal or plant lovers.[13]
Divination plays a major role in their animism in which they directly communicate with Sami the All-Father through Foldartals carved from tree barks. Careful observation of nature is encouraged as they believe Amma will provide her blessings to those who are watchful such as her unmelting snowball dubbed "Amma's affection" that could ward off "wicked spirits."
Samivilinn
- Main article: Sami (Feranmut)
Amma
- Main article: Amma
Languages
Surprisingly, the Sami language can be divided into two types, Type-A and Type-B, which possesses distinctive grammars and vocabularies. The Type-A Sami language is believed to be the indigenous language that is close to Ursine or some extinct languages in Ursus in a similar fashion between the Finno-Ugric and Paleo-Siberian languages and East Slavic languages in Russia in our world. Type-B Sami language is a foreign language but shares similarity with the Victorian language as in its writing system, which is an analogue to the common origin between Old Norse and Old English (Anglo-Saxon) in our world.[14]
In present days, Type-B Sami is the most widely spoken language in Sami. This is because this language is believed to be introduced by the immigrating Cyclopes as sacred runes for their divination and casting of Originium Arts. Type-B Sami uses a set of special runes that were originally used to be carved on Originium crystals. As of Type-A, much of its knowledge has long been forgotten, yet many Samifjod are learnt to interchange both types when speaking.[14]
While the Samifjod are legible in reading their written runes, spoken language is the most widely used way of communication and literary works, and most Samifjod tribes rarely communicate with each other.[14]
Tribal migration
Sami tribes do not have a permanent settlement, and each tribe has a different time span for migration. They usually make divination once in a month to determine the necessity of migration. If the oracle provides bad omen, they have to immediately migrate to the next location that has been planned beforehand.[15]
In the forest tribes of the central heartland, there is a custom of migration with the clan trees. The shaman and Snowpriests will first hold a ceremony to directly talk to the clan tree and read its oracle from their tree barks; some will only last in a short span of time while others will last for days and nights. After finishing the divination, they will wave their ritual tools and summon their clan tree to literally move on its own with their roots.[6] During the ceremony, the tribesmen have to be careful in following the shamans' instructions. They have to read their written records from their ancestors to determine their next destination If the Snowpriests do not see a vision of migration, the tree will not move on its own. Similarly, the tribesmen will angrily chase away any outsider unless the Snowpriests sees them in the vision and welcome them to join the festival.[15]
Because foreigners are being forbidden to observe the festival, many have a wild guess in interpreting how their clan tree moves. Some falsely presume that these trees are just mere giant puppets that are controlled by the Snowpriests through their Arts.[15]
Taboos
Many foreigners are curious about exploring the land of Sami and observing the Samifjod's customs first-hand, but there are some taboos which they have to be careful with. These taboos not only serve as warnings to respect the locals but also to prevent themselves from the deadly corruption of the Andskotarnir.
| The eight taboos in Sami[16] |
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Notes
- ↑ "Great Army" in Northern Sami
- ↑ "Mount Wintertooth" in Icelandic
- ↑ From the Anglicized version of Myrkviðr, meaning "dark wood" or "black forest" in old Germanic languages, which is probably referring to a dark forest in Germanic folklore
References
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