Valgard

Valgard is a blend of Medieval Scandinavian Myth and History and Elves from LotR.

Valgard is a northern city that lies between Jarnfell and Rusavik, north of vastly profitable grass and farmland.

Valgard is spread out over miles of high rocky terrain where individual districts are separated by winding paths, extruding crags, sacred groves, and solidary keeps, inns, and academies. A public transportation system moves people and goods throughout the city. Lush stables for the Alfarian's pampered Nordsvensk horses can be found at every wayside stop. The entire city is protected by a wall that sits more than three stories below the lowest inhabited structure. The wall of Valgard runs around the mountainside, where the rock wall is to the outside and rockface of the interior. Guard towers are continually manned every few hundred yards. The architecture of the city is a blend of gold stone with dark slate and soaring wooden stave structures with wood shingle rooves. It is said that if one climbs to the highest point of the main castle that they might touch the very heart of the moon.

Valgard is the breadbasket of the northern people, and their rolling grasslands provide cereal crops such as barley, oats, and winter wheat. The average Alfarian eats meat only on festival days, but they have access to a wide selection of imported foods, as they are one of the few cereal crop regions. Alfarian's have a wide and varied diet and, like the Euresu and Dyrlings, are food snobs. Read More

Personality

The Alfarians as a people are highly skilled leaders, easily learning such skills as oration, mediation, tactics, mathematics, linguistics, management, economics, and deployment. They share a set of personality traits that include focus, confidence, integrity, inspiration, innovation, passion, and -very necessary- patience.

Outwardly the Alfarians project an aura of calm wisdom, practice lavish forms of hospitality, and follow the expectations of the Havamal diligently. Inwardly, it is only through intense concentration, physical/martial activity, and steely control that they keep their innate arrogance and violence quietly locked away. Strangely enough, the rest of the north seem to understand this element of Alfarian nature and are careful not to prick their tempers beyond what they can bear. The natural talents of the Alfarians make them a deadly and secretive enemy, able to develop plots within plots, and serve revenge upon a cold platter.

Any Alfarians who must interact with other kingdoms live two separate lives, the one they show the public and the one they keep in private. In public, they are tall proud warriors, who make an effort to become skilled in combat, act in all ways that are considered Drengr, sharpen their skills in flyting, and host lavish feasts. In private they prefer their studies and hobbies that include drafting, mechanics, calligraphy, alchemy, and all other medieval activities such as cooking, blacksmithing, and weaving that might be perfected through skill and practice.

The Alfarian moral and ethical line divides between those of the North and those not of the North. Honor, law, respect, kinship, these things are reserved for their own people, not those of other regions with different values. And while the Alfarin may have some martial respect for the Euresu, be fascinated by Zephrin sciences, and have no beef with the Sythians, it does not change that the other races are not of the North.

The Alfarians are traditionally ruled by a King and Queen, though there have been cases of two kings and two queens.

Appearance

• What is their physical appearance
• How do they dress

Alfarians are pale skinned with light blond hair and pale eyes. They are above average in height with a Slender-Average Body Type and high boned sharp facial features.

Alfarians prefer a style of clothing that creates an elongated look. Their clothing is chosen both for functionality and showmanship. The overall combination of their items is intended to emphasize their tall and lean frames. Men prefer long, form-fitting embroidered tunics below the knee, belted at the hips with cloaks that drape. Tunics may be as long as ankle length, but they are never closed up in the front or back like a robe would be. (Male fashion styles are a blend of LotR Rohan and LotR Elves).

Women utilize wide varieties of the styles from Earth's middle ages, 1100-1300, with long tunic shaped gowns, cotehardies, sideless surcoats, long braids, and sometimes veils. They prefer high-quality clothing with tasteful designs and decorations. There is a large market for Zuben fabrics and trim, especially trim shot with metals.

They are likely to use fur and knot-work, as well as gold and silver jewelry that display their wealth. Any fur they wear will be of the finest tanning and of the rarest creatures. Men prefer hard leather boots rather than soft leather or wrapped leggings. The women like hand tools slippers and delicate sandals when the weather is good.

Religion

The Alfarians spiritual beliefs center around two trees, a silver ash tree and a golden elm tree from whom the first people, Ask and Embla, were created. This duality of shadow and light is played out in the Alfarian personality, their cultural tendencies and in their goddess, Yrsa, who is traditionally depicted as half beautiful woman and half-blind and aging crone. She has a white raven known as Speki (wisdom) and a black raven known as Frœði (knowledge).

The Alfarians believe that an apocalyptic event known as Ragnorok has already happened and that the next afterlife will be found in Hodmimir's Holt, a sacred grove where the ash and elm will be, and a new first people, Lif and Lifthrasir will be reborn. Consequently, all Alfarians are burned on the funeral pyre and then their ashes are buried in the ground with a newly planted tree. Ancestor worship is a strong part of the people's belief and most farms and most villages include a Vårdträd, a sacred guardian tree.

The Valgarin Code includes the virtues of Courage, Truth, Honor, Fidelity, Hospitality, Discipline, Industriousness, Self-Reliance, and Perseverance.

Expanded Lore

Further reading and links for the culture obsessed.

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Phrases

Of the North

A catch all phrase that refers to those of Valgard, Rusavik, Jarnfell and occasionally Albion and Khonzhou.

East of the Sun, West of the Moon

Another way to refer to the northern border of Essealas.

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