Troika

Geography & Climate
Troika is a vast country bounded by the mountains of Cloudy Crown and the icefloes of the Pale Sea. For much of the year Troika is a land of frozen steppes, icy rivers and lakes, and misty vales. The snows fall 100 feet deep and during winter there is no clear distinction between night and day. Everything goes into deep hibernation, save for the Troikans themselves. Come summer the land melts and greens dramatically; there are still summer snows and brisk winds, but the days are clear and bright and there are mosquitos and wildflowers.

People
Troikans are tall and pale; albinism is strikingly common among them so it is not unusual for a Troikan to have white hair and red eyes. Men tend to be burly and women are slightly chubby (after all a healthy layer of fat is good insulation against the cold). In the warmer seasons, Thaw & Bloom, they wear silk and roughspun cotton, but in Frost and Brume they bundle up in fur, wool, and leather.

Men grow out elaborate mustaches over their whole lives and even women sport the same severe-looking haircuts. They keep surprisingly good hygiene; when camped they build huge sweat lodges, and use soap rendered from bear fat.

Trade & Foreign Relations
Historically Troika has never had any great treasures; no gold or silver, no silk, nor even good soil for crops. The only roads are the rivers and lakes that freeze over in winter and the country is huge beyond reckoning. What precious little trade there was has long since dried up; the tribes used to sell slaves, furs, and ivory to the Tiberians, and often sold themselves as mercenaries in Yavanna and Amaranth (Varangian Guard). They betrayed the Amaranthines during the War of the Long Thirst, turning on them when they met the Legions on the field.

Unsurprisingly the Tiberians regarded it as a flat and bitter wasteland not worth fighting over; in fact they had enough trouble keep the native tribes from invading them! Troikan warbands actually came close to sacking Numitor; they called off their attack after marrying into one of Tiberium's great political dynasties.

Culture
The plains are only thinly peopled, and the Troikans long ago forcibly assimilated all the other tribes. There are other men like the Tenneu (who live along the shores of the Pale Sea and came from Land's End) and the city of Vulgate, which straddles the southern border. But it is the Troikans who are the undisputed masters of this wasteland.

They are always on the move, tracking vast herds of Aurochs across the plains to good grazing lands. Here the Troikans have raised three "steddings", tent cities that spring up overnight and disappear when the Aurochs move on. They are called Mir, Domoy, and '''Neveshir. '''There are no permanent structures and when the tribes leave there is little evidence that they were ever there at all.

Beliefs & Practices
It's widely believed that a wolf chases the Sun across the sky and the Moon at night; when it catches the Sun in its jaws there is an eclipse, and when it swallows it there are the long months of half-light.

Troikans are a hard and unsentimental people; they bury their dead by the side of the road, or in cairns if the ground is too frozen for digging, and they rarely leave grave goods. Great men - skilled warriors, hunters, musicians, chiefs -, mothers, and prized bears and reindeer are put in earthen barrows with their favorite possessions.

They find scars (whether they're from fighting or childbirth) very attractive.

Domesticated Animals
Hunting the Aurochs is their way of life; these animals provide meat, hide for tents, horn and sinew for bows and tools, etc. They also raise herds of these animals for milk and to pull wagons. These hunts and migrations would not be possible had the Troikans never domesticated Reindeer, making them pack animals and mounts and tying bells to their antlers.

Troikans are also famous for raising bears from cubs, and women even feed them from their own breasts. The bear is a sacred animal for the tribes; it is considered ill luck to hurt a bear or steal a cub, but if hunters should slay a mother bear in self-defense or find one dead they are obligated to raise the cubs. Males are neutered at a young age while females are released back into the wild when they can fend for themselves. Bears are status symbols for nobles and chiefs; after all it takes a lot of meat to feed a bear! Often they're made to wrestle in pits for the tribes' amusement, and hoards of treasure (sometime the outcome of wars or the settling of feuds) is gambled on them. They also make good hunting partners and are useful for splitting up stampeding herds or taking down big animals, like Aurochs or Mammoths. Some are even guard animals who protect the tribe's cattle from wolves, or watch over their master's tent. When the tribe goes to war they dress their bears in spiked armor and replace lost teeth with steel fangs that can bite through solid plate.

Interestingly they never domesticated wolves into dogs; the wolves in their country are simply too wild and savage to be tamed. They hunt with snow owls and white ravens, which also carry messages and act as sentries (a skilled hunter can distinguish between the hoots and caws of their bird).

Diet
Troikans brew strong – and extremely flammable – gin from wild grain (described as tasting like a mix of vodka and Greek fire). They have no qualms about eating their own reindeer should they need to, but would sooner resort to just butchering their own cattle (who they raise for milk, rather than meat). Ice fishing is common when they travel over frozen lakes and rivers. Wild herbs, berries, roots, and grains are also gathered.

Slavery
Slave-taking is quite common among the tribes. Usually slaves are prisoners taken in battle; only men who willingly surrender can be made slaves (this is mostly practical; a man who has already given up is less likely to turn on you). When a rival tribe is defeated everyone - elders, women, children - become thralls. However, their lives are not as bad as they could be; they are not put to work on farms because there is no agriculture, and they're not made to fight as gladiators because Troikans already prefer sparring each other (even wrestling bears!). Usually they do menial work; gathering plants, slaughtering cattle and preserving meat, cooking meals, serving gin, etc. Craftsmen are put to work and can teach their sons (often they'll be made to take apprentices). Their children are considered free.

However, this was not always the case. Often whole tribes would be sold to slavers from Amaranth and Tiberium. The slave trade greatly enriched the Troikans and led to the establishment of Vulgate as a proper city; it also saw warbands migrate south to Amaranth and Yavanna, where they ended up as mercenaries for the Good Masters and the Suitor Princes.

Warfare
Fighting comes naturally to Troikans; their's is a harsh and unsentimental journey, and it is rare for a man to live past thirty winters because violence is simply a fact of life out on the plains. They wield their cleaver-likes swords with a dervish elegance, an art they call the "sword dance". Often warriors pride themselves as also being consummate musicians, poets, dancers, and lovers, and it is rare to meet a man who does not play harp or lute. The bravest men go into battle bare-chested and cut intricate, ritual scars into their flesh. Their bows are made of horn and sinew; their knives and spearheads from antler and bone. Thanks to the stirrup they can ride and shoot from the saddle. Only the nobles dress in steel plate, passed down over the centuries from when their forefathers fought in Amaranth and Tiberium. They also wear wings of metal feathers, whose clattering unnerves men and horses. The bolo, a weapon used to trip up fleeing aurochs, also works well at capturing prisoners.

Armor is fashioned for both reindeer and war-bears. The bears in particular are terrifying beasts of war, wrecking balls of muscle that smash ranks of men and can bite through solid steel plate.