Tenneu

The Tenneu, or "seal folk", are native to the coasts of Land's End along the Pale Sea, and have spread as far as Troika and the isles of the Broken Teeth. They are not properly regard as one of the Painted Kingdoms and never had any contact with the Kindred Elves.

Habitat
Their traditional homelands have been muddy tidepools, marshes, headlands, and icefloes along the Pale Sea. Each year they move between summer and winter camps, packing up whole villages and paddling along the coast.

Culture
Even among the Painted Kingdoms the Tenneu are considered a people unto themselves; savage men who raid up and down the Pale Sea, stealing women, children, and harvests. The harsh north has bred a tough, often cruel people, but they are still human. Their nomadic way of life revolves around subsistence hunting and fishing; seals, sharks, walrus, and (rarely) whales are all game, but the seal is their mainstay throughout the year. Their language is described as raspy and guttural, and they are generally softspoken people with a rich oral tradition. Although it is rare for Tenneu to live past forty they revere their elders; in old age they become shamans and storytellers, passing down their knowledge and traditions. They play on sealskin drums and are known for their eerie, rasping throat singing (an art they also taught to the Troikans).

Myths & Beliefs
Tenneu believe the Northern Lights are the fires of the dead and that staring into them can give one visions, or drive a man insane. They often carry a flask of saltwater taken from the Pale Sea on a cord around their necks wherever they go and in death are "baptized" with it. They also believe that all living things have souls like humans do - appropriate respects must be paid before a hunt, battle, or feast. Blackfin (orcas) in particular are especially sacred animals, known to cooperate with the Tenneu by shepherding fish and seals towards them. In exchange the Tenneu present them with offerings (usually dead seals). A vigorous life (and a violent death) purifies the soul for the afterlife - elders often go "hunting" in their last winters, seeking out dangerous game or other clans, and are dressed like a corpse (their clothes are turned inside out, their faces are covered in mud and clay).

Diet
Tenneu hunt a variety of sealife; crabs, eels, fish, seals, walrus, and whales. Seaweed is boiled or chewed raw. Much of their diet is either lean protein or fat. Meat is stored and deep-freezed in snow.

Fashion
Seal-folk pride function over form. Their clothes are usually sealskins and furs, oiled with fat so that they shed water but retain warmth, and are sewn with sinew and bone needles. Ivory is fashioned into jewelry - tribal piercings and gauges and eerie masks worn by chieftains. Their fur coats are strikingly lavish and highly prized by merchants. Men often wear animal musk as an aphrodisiac.

Tools
Fat and blubber are rendered into oil for cooking, light, and heat, rubbed onto clothing to make it waterproof, or onto skin as a salve. The Tenneu manage to find ingenious uses for bone, driftwood, sinew, hide, and fur; tools, thread, cord, toys, boats, and tents are just a few of the things they can make with such limited materials. Even snow is packed into low walls around their tents as insulation from the wind. They are especially famed for their elaborately carved canoes (framed with bone or driftwood and covered in cured sealskin).

Warfare
Tenneu prefer to raid along the coasts, preying on other clans and Landsmen. Surprise is paramount; they attack under cover of darkness and with muffled oars. Warriors cover their skin in mud and clay, scraping away intricate designs, and shave/pluck away all their hair with seashells (this is also how corpses are dressed). They never fight in the open, instead packing up their whole village and melting away before their enemies can reach them. Tenneu fight with their traditional hunting weapons - cudgels, hakapiks, fish spears, nets, and skinning knives, all carved from bone and ivory (in dire circumstances they've been known to fashion shivs out of shards of ice!). Conch shells are blown as horns, and sound eerily like whale calls.

Trade
There was a roaring trade in fur and ivory with the Tiberians, traded for wine, pottery, weapons, and other luxuries. When the Tiberians muscled in on their hunting grounds it sparked a number of grisly raids and decimations; some of the seal-folk were even enslaved and sold through Vulgate. The string of trading posts left behind by the Tiberians were later occupied by whalers from Seawall and trade was rekindled; unfortunately relations soured when the whalers killed an entire pod of Blackfin, enraging the Tenneu. The seal-folk banded together and murdered the whalers, stealing their ships, and - in one of history's unlikeliest moments - infamously used them to raid Seawall itself!