This is some additional information about Mountain Folk culture for the Adult League players. If you have additional topics you’d like covered, let me know and I’ll add them to the list below when I’ve got time.
Art
Mountain Folk art tends to be abstract tending towards minimalist, with clean lines and shapes. Most of their art tends to be physical objects; statues, carvings, and functional objects such as cookware or furniture tends to be made into works of art rather than flat, two-dimensional paintings or drawings. Nature is a common theme in all Mountain Folk art; whether in the form of local creatures, landscape elements such as rivers or storms or the mountains themselves, or natural elements such as a leaf or a feather.
Art here tends to be less about color and more about texture and shine. Precious metals and gemstones are particularly popular for use in art; and jewelry is one of the places this comes out most. Jewelry is used to decorate dwellings and objects as well as used for wearing – for more on worn jewelry, see clothing.
Clothing
Clothing is generally many-layered and made of cold weather materials out of necessity. Furs and wool are both common textiles; and everyday wear is usually plainly-colored and meant to blend in with the surrounding terrain. This clothing is built to be practical, often with many outer and inner pockets that can be sealed and strings that can be tied so that hats and gloves don’t get lost if pulled off. Nicer, indoor-oriented or formal clothing is less bulky and more streamlined, though still worn in layers; this clothing tends to be dyed richly with a solid color, but minimal in terms of patterning. Particularly nice clothing may have precious metals or stones embroidered into a subtle natural pattern around the cuffs or collar, but even this is relatively plain.
As an intersection between art and clothing, jewelry is a common form of decoration. It is rarely worn while out and about since it can pose a safety hazard, but is popular amongst all genders and ages indoors. Pins, brooches, amulets, rings, circlets, and so on are all popular, but piercing jewelry is less so.
Cuisine
Due to the poor growing conditions for crops, Mountain Folk cuisine is heavily reliant on meat and dairy. Yaks and goats bred specifically for the mountain conditions are the primary source of these; cliff pigeons are also often kept as well as a source of eggs and meat. Mushrooms and other edible funguses that can grow in caves are also common, as are high-altitude berry-bearing plants. Almost all of the Mountain Folk’s produce and grain is grown in the Halhar foothills and shipped up the mountain. This mostly consists of root vegetables such as potatoes, parsnips, and turnips; hearty greens such as kale and chard; apples, cold weather berries, onions, broccoli and other brassicas, peas, and so on. Grain often takes the form of oats and barley, though some cold-hardy wheat is grown as well. Pigs, chickens, and horses can also be farmed in the foothills. Flavoring in this region tends to be derived mostly from fermentation; salt is readily available, and maple syrup or beet sugar is the main sweetener.
Dishes tend to fall into one of two categories. The first category is soups, stews, and other one-pot meals; the second category is noodles and dumplings, sometimes in combination with the first category. Breads and pastries are also common – particularly flatbreads, since yeast doesn’t do so well in such a cold climate.
Currency
The Mountain Folk still use a barter system and have no formal system of currency. However, gemstones of many kinds are often used as a portable means by which to barter, at least for larger or higher-value purposes.
History
The Halhars are full of ruins, haunts, and history of all kinds. It’s not uncommon to come across all kinds of old dwellings, villages, outposts, and artifacts while out exploring; most of these date to the 1st Era of Falnorian, and a civilization thought to have been associated with the ancient city of Afinilimin. The city itself has never been found, but there is plenty of evidence that large populations of people used to dwell in the Halhars long before the Mountain Folk came along.
Mountain Folk history itself is rather short. Most of the Mountain Folk were either stranded up in the mountains when the Fall came and destroyed the mountain passes, or fled from Minton Town and other nearby settlements as the town collapsed. Many of these folks were miners, stonemasons, and other resource-gatherers. A much smaller contingent of folk already lived in the Halhars even before the Fall, and continued to dwell there through and after it; these people are often known as the Old Ones, and tend to keep to themselves and stay out of most other Mountain Folk affairs.
The Mountain Folk have never been especially organized. There was a short period during which they were organized across a number of warlords who feuded with one another; these were deposed through warring, which continued for some time as people clustered into factions each vying for a certain kind of future. For a while a council representing the many factions amongst the Mountain Folk was put into place, but the tension between these factions became too great and the Mountain Folk once again turned to warring as these ideologies clashed. This resulted in the splintering of the Mountain Folk into several sub-regions, of which Winterhearth is one.
Leisure
Most leisure activities take place indoors in refuge from the cold. Art and crafting is the most common form of leisure by far; storytelling and games are also not uncommon. Outdoor leisure generally takes the form of thrill sports such as rock and ice climbing, cliff diving, and particularly dangerous variants of skiing.
Music
Mountain Folk music is generally a complement to particular occasions rather than a form of leisure in and of itself. Because of the scarcity of wood, musical instruments are of the types that can be made of other materials: drums, flutes, chimes, and so on. Metal mana-powered instruments are also popular, although these must be enchanted so they aren’t as often found in the hands of common folk. Mountain Folk music tends to be meandering with little repetition or chorus, and focuses more on interweaving harmonies and rhythm than on structure.
Religion
The Halhars see a high amount of divine and celestial activity, and as such religion is common element of daily life. It is not uncommon for a person to have made an agreement with a particular deity or pantheon to provide a type of worship for a year at a time; nor is it uncommon to have a few deities one has developed good relationships and can call upon in times of dire need. These relationships are seen as transactional and not unlike those relationships the Mountain Folk often have with other powerful beings such as demons and elementals; religion is often a matter of practicality and making good to your neighbors than it is about belief. Common pantheons are any and all – and people often pull from several. Variants of animism are also common in the Mountain Folk region, since you never know when something will spontaneously develop sentience or reveal that it had a conscious mind all along.
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