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Northmarch
The kingdom of Northmarch is widely reputed to be the most barbaric of the Twelve Kingdoms. This is, perhaps, an unfair assessment; but one does not have to look hard to see how it began. The traditions of the Uskalim still govern Northmarch's culture. Centuries of history as a "civilized" kingdom have not taken them far from those roots. Pugnacity, pride, and violence as an answer to injustice are celebrated as virtues among the Northmarchain. They are not an easily governed people.
The kingdoms of the north also exert a heavy influence upon them: despite generations of intermarriage with the Uskalim and other peoples from further south, the Northmarchain still show the blood of the Northmen in their lines. They are taller and fairer than the people of the southern kingdoms, and they are known for their brooding, fatalistic tempers.
The laws of Northmarch hew close to the old Uskal traditions. Northmarch still observes the weregild, by which a man may make penance for a non-malicious murder by paying a sum to the victim's family or liege, and no further punishment is dealt. Many a Northmarchain has been baffled to find such offerings viewed as bribery or worse in the southlands, and many a southron has been outraged to find that in Northmarch, a killer can walk free with dignity for the price of a few hundred crowns.
Another Northmarchain custom is known as the "widow's wreath." The custom holds that a man who kills another in battle or by accident is obligated to care for the dead man's wife, so that she need not be reduced to penury as a widow. In the old tradition, the killer could marry his victim's wife if he wished; her own thoughts on the matter were irrelevant. The laws of Northmarch still permit this -- if the woman does not object -- and so pretty girls are known colloquially as "gravemakers," for they might be won by the murders of their husbands. If the killer does not wish to marry the woman, or she refuses him, he must instead pay her a sum usually equal to the dead man's weregild.
Numerous other old customs survive in Northmarch, and are often the cause of misunderstanding and anger between the Northmarchain and their neighbors. Nevertheless, they cling stubbornly to the old ways, and even Northmarchain who have traveled widely across Meditra display a perverse pride in their people's intransigence in the face of change.
Homes in Northmarch are traditionally sturdy structures of timber caulked with clay or mud. The national diet is heavy on fish, milk, and cheese; the Northmarchain import a great deal of smoked and salted fish from Breidhel and Mirhain. Cattle are less common in Northmarch than in the southern Twelve Kingdoms, and those that are kept are usually a shaggy, short-horned local breed tending toward red and white coats. Sheep and goats are preferred, as they eat less and can be grazed on rougher terrain.
The Northmarchain are also great lovers of epic poems and songs in the tradition of the Northmen, from whom they learned these arts. An instrument known as the ardvele, or "high fiddle," is particularly popular in Northmarch. The ardvele resembles a violin, but with a second row of strings beneath the first. The player's bow does not directly touch the second set, but causes them to vibrate in sympathy with the first set. Ardvele in Northmarch are often decorated with elaborate patterns in a special ink made from the burnt and crushed bark of the hero's-spear tree, a species brought to Northmarch from the far reaches of the Northmen's ancestral lands.
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