HUMAN TRIBES
Humans maintain a delicate balance with the other creatures of the Unholy Lands. Their number is not very high and they must group in clans, tribes or caravans to obtain the protection of the group. Their technology is rudimentary and many of them have not even discovered iron forging, limiting themselves to a transhumant life in which there is no room for anything that cannot be transported.
They do not seem to have a common language, although they all get by with very similar words or mimicry if two very disparate groups meet. Some of the more permanent settlements have even developed a written language that facilitates exchanges, especially when it comes to keeping records of food, inventories, and basic quartermastering. These rudimentary runes are also used to mark trails or mark dangers in the wilderness, left there on rocks and trees by explorers as a warning to those who follow them.
There are many tribes, power groups and clans of humans in the Unholy Lands, mostly separate, splintered or isolated from the rest. The main ones in the power play of this region are introduced below.
EATERS OF THE DEAD
The Eaters of the Dead live primarily in the caverns of the Blood Range, though their members range anywhere underground, for it is not uncommon for any clan to be cut off underground from the others by the changing landscape.
They seek neither expansion nor glory, like the Black Face, nor do they treat the Witches with any more devotion than a healthy respect for their powers. They are content to procreate underground and satiate their eternal hunger with human flesh that also feeds their queen-goddess, the Queen of Hate. Their cannibalistic diet and the sulfurous water of the subway springs has undoubtedly tainted their brains beyond any possible recovery.
The cults they perform in the caves are a nauseating thing to behold, always related to some ritual sacrifice or fertility ceremonies, in which the tribe’s birthing women (dull, fattened women in the likeness of their Queen of Hate, who can barely walk) are used as mere objects to be impregnated.
Their flesh is marked by scarification rituals that give their sinewy bodies a cruel appearance, while their teeth are sharpened as part of their coming-of-age rites. They also paint themselves with earthy pigments and are masters of ambush.
OUTCAST
As their name suggests, the Outcast are pariahs who have no place to call home and no clan to call family. They have been driven from their places of origin by some evil, superstition or punishment, and have only the company of others like themselves. No one stands up for them, nor are they willing to give their trust lightly.
Their bands form and break up according to their need, but if they survive long enough they come to create stable groups that protect all their members equally. In that sense they are a rara avis in the Unholy Lands, as their communities are quite egalitarian and tolerant of their members. Even in their funeral rites a certain empathy is noticeable, as their burials tend to be the most careful. They do not limit themselves to throwing the corpses into a chasm, but prepare trousseaus and utensils to accompany them on their journey.
Their life is usually ephemeral, brutal and spartan. They trade to obtain mainly food, but also objects of daily use and especially weapons of better quality than those that they can make themselves in their nomadic camps. They tattoo their members with runes that they adopt as name and that highlight their best aptitude: Huntress, Swift or Trader are common names.
SJEVERNI
The Sjeverni are a remote people from beyond the Marshes of Madness. They are tall, pale-skinned and long-haired in both men and women. They dress in furs, for they say that their land abounds with an element known as “snow,” which falls from the sky and ices plants, men and animals alike, covering the ground with a white shroud.
In the rest of the Unholy Lands anything that falls from the sky is seen as evil, so those who live in a place with such “snow” can be no better than demons. The Sjeverni are thus considered either liars or dangerous. Or perhaps both in equal parts.
They are a closed, isolated people, who only leave their homelands for a good reason. They feed all the legends that circulate about them and secretly enjoy the looks of strangeness or fear that they arouse with their cloaks, beards and hair, as well as having difficulty communicating with other tribes because their dialect is very different from any other.
They are not overly concerned about any of the above, as they value their privacy and wish to have as little contact with outsiders as possible.
BLACK FACE TRIBE
The most warlike of all the known tribes of the Unholy Lands is the Black Face, violent humans who know nothing but war and who only respect the power and authority of the witches of the Coven. They often fight to fulfill their will, transmitted to one of their chieftains who obeys without question, but they also often fight with their neighbors for territory, resources or prisoners.
The teachings of the Witches have imbued them with a fear of the sky, the place from which the fire that exterminated their entire race in the past fell, so they worship the earth and all the creatures that spring from it, be they undead or demons of the underworld. They know Bal, though in reality they fear rather than worship him. Their few prayers are to the Coven and their curses are directed at the heavens that betrayed them.
They are named for the strange dark mask that hides their faces, a coming-of-age ritual known only to members of the tribe that results in covering the warriors’ features to make them anonymous beings (beyond their obvious sex). Only the elders and children seem free of this trait, and whoever refuses to overcome the ritual of the mask when the time comes will be punished or even expelled to join the Outcasts.
They are degenerate, wrathful and attach no value to human life: they are pawns resigned to lead a brief and bloody existence, with the only hope of a glimpse of power and glory in this passing world. The Bleeder, their current chieftain, aspires to leave a violent mark before his time comes.