Barbarian village

[LordBlades]

I'm looking to draw some inspiration for fleshing out the home village of a Hathran in a 3.5 game I'm currently in.

I know a few 3.5 books have some sample settlements (Races of X mainly), so I'm hoping there might be something out there (not necesarily 3.5 or even D&D) that I can draw some ideas or use as a base for a small rural Rashemi community.

[Nanshork]

Talk to ksbsnowowl, he's run a long running campaign in that area and should be able to provide you with something.

[phaedrusxy]

Here is a thread of his about customizing "monsters" for his Norse/Rashemi campaign: http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=215.0

He also has a campaign diary of his RL game in this setting: http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=1969.0

and he runs a PbP (Mythic Sagas) version of it on here.

[ksbsnowowl]

So what kind of information are you looking for, specifically?

Fluff: What their houses look like; community customs, how the Hathran do or don't mingle in society. Something else?

Crunch: Example town stats, like this:

(click to show/hide)

Tinnir  (Village): Conventional; AL NG; 200 gp limit; Assets 5,400 gp; Population 540; Isolated (humans 99%). Authority Figure: Urphong Vazsil Breshk, NG male human Ftr6 (lord of the town). Important Characters: Vrulla the White (NG female human Clr2 of Chauntea).
The Urphong's Guard: Bbn4, Ftr3, War3 (2), Bbn2 (2), War2 (8), Bbn1 (2), Ftr1 (2), War1 (23).
Other Characters: Bbn5, Bbn2; Brd6, Brd3 (2), Brd1; Clr5, Clr2 (2), Clr1 (3); Drd5, Drd4, Drd3, Drd2 (2), Drd1 (2); Ftr5, Ftr3, Ftr1 (2); Mnk2, Mnk1 (2); Rgr6, Rgr2, Rgr1 (4); Rog3, Rog1 (2); Sor4, Sor1 (2); Wiz5, Wiz1 (2); Adp6, Adp4, Adp1  (4); Ari4, Ari3, Ari2, Ari1 (2); Exp6, Exp5, Exp4, Exp3, Exp2 (2), Exp1 (14); War7, War3, War2 (4), War1(11); Com7, Com6, Com5, Com4 (2), Com3 (5), Com2 (19), Com1 (381).

Something else?

[LordBlades]

So what kind of information are you looking for, specifically?

Fluff: What their houses look like; community customs, how the Hathran do or don't mingle in society. Something else?

Fluff mainly:

-How do witches interact with society on a day-to-day basis
-How do berserker lodges fit in the communities they occupy? Like are most berserker locals/part of the community/outside it, does the leader of a lodge have any say in the business of the local community etc.

[ksbsnowowl]

The best sources of information of this type are Unapproachable East and the novel Windwalker by Elaine Cunningham.

I'll need to go look back through the novel a bit later this week to firm up some of the examples, but:

Hathran do have "witches' towers" scattered throughout Rashemen.
A large number of Hathran live in Urling.
The Hathran do socialize and have private lives.  In the novel, the main male character is a Rashemi berserker; he has an aunt who is a Hathran.  Due to the way Hathran are taken from their families as children, this implies (and the book might state outright) that she is his aunt by marriage.  So, they do marry and (presumably) have children of their own.

UE has this to say about Ethran (who would range anywhere from first level to 6th level):
"There are thousands of ethrans, although most are little more than village healers or spirit-talkers."  So that gives you a bit of an idea of the function they fill.  They likely live in town, or just outside it, and are someone that others go to for advice.

In my world (homebrew, but dropping the culture of Rashemen into it) there is usually at least one Hathran or 5th-6th level Ethran in any community of Village size and larger.  They do serve as the religious leaders, after all, so a town of any size will have its "preacher."

The lodges are part of the community.  They are a social gathering place, and serve as a dormitory or barracks for the berserkers.  It is one of the steps of passing into manhood when a young man is allowed to leave his parents' home and live at the berserker lodge. (Keep in mind that there can be female members, too.)

I'll get you some better answers in the next day or two, but those will hopefully tide you over until them.

[LordBlades]

Been a bit busy so didn't have time to look over it until today, so thank you 

I have Unapproachable East and went through it, but anything useful from Windwalker is great, because I can't really get the book in the foreseeable future.

[ksbsnowowl]

One other source I forgot to mention earlier is the 2nd edition Spellbound boxed set.  Much of the information it has is duplicated in UE, but I thought these entries might be useful to you:

Immilmar
...
5. Owlbear Berserker Lodge
The hot-blooded Owlbear berserkers maintain this long house, decorated with ancient shields, totemic carvings, and the skulls of various creatures defeated by lodge members. Nonberserkers (especially foreigners) should be careful in the vicinity of the lodge, lest grandmaster berserker Ythar Wolfmaster (CN hm F15) and his fol- lowers appear, bellowing insults and invitations to fight. Those outsiders who acquit themselves well against the Owlbears (winning a wrestling match, showing skill with spear or bow, drinking huge quantities of ale or firewine) are invited to a feast with the berserkers—an invitation which they may regret when they awaken the next morning, victimized by a splitting headache and the desire to crawl somewhere out of the light.

6. Communal Longhouse
The elders responsible for the daily running of Immilmar meet in this large, if plain, longhouse every 10 days and when important crises confront them. All citizens of Im- milmar are free to attend these meetings, which can be- come noisy and occasionally violent. When the elders are not meeting, the longhouse functions as a commu- nity center for meetings of various guilds, parties, feasts, and religious festivals.
...
11. Goblin Berserker Lodge
The Goblin berserkers, one of the smaller lodges in Rashemen, maintains a longhouse here for its members. Like the Owlbear lodge nearby, it is often the scene of raucous celebration and much mock fighting and loud boasting. Owlbears and Goblins have been known to engage in violent brawls on occasion, and lodge master Yuthrim (CG hm F8) is currently nursing a headache from being pounded against a lodge-pole by a drunken Owlbear berserker.
...
15. Witches’ Hall
This whitewashed longhouse, with crossbeams carved in the shape of dragons, hounds, and unicorns, is the exclu- sive domain of the witches. Non-witches caught tres- passing here are either slain immediately (if the viola- tion was blatant) or exiled from Rashemen with their memories of the land magically removed (if the viola- tion was inadvertent or minor). In either case, the witches are quite merciless and neither discuss nor re- voke their decisions once made. Othlor Fydra Night-
Tree (CN hf M16) leads the contingent of witches in Immilmar and acts as supervisor to the trio of Hathran who advise the Iron Lord.

[ksbsnowowl]

Looking through Windwalker right now.  The Othlor Zofia has a son named Mahryon. His son is Fyodor (main character of the book).

Slain witches bodies are teleported back to the nearest fastness (ie - wizard tower).

A Hathran tower that the characters enter has a stout wooden door with an iron bolt.  There is an iron chandelier trap just inside the door that crashes down just after the door is latched.  There is a Hathran who is "posted" in the tower as its keeper/watcher.  The interior walls are covered with vines, which the Hathran uses (via Entangle?) to bind intruders.

The main characters travel via witchboat to a neighboring town with two Hathran.  At the dock the Hathran are met by locals who usher them to the village tavern, where they were served a midday feast (all free).  They were given riding ponies without them needing to ask for any.

Fyodor's village of Dernovia has a high stone wall.  The homes are partially subterranean*, much like Bag End in the Shire, ala LotR's.  A butcher who had been found to be weighting his scales was forced to live in a home outside the wall.
The Hathran of Dernovia have a longhouse in the village; no outlanders can enter it, not even those with a wychlaran's training.  It is implied that only the berserkers who are not 'guardians' (the male Rashemi barbarian follower that a Hathran gains) sleep in the barracks; a guardian stays with his Hathran.  The witches' longhouse is an unpainted longhouse at the top of a hill within the village.  It has a steeply-slanting roof.  The barracks is a long, low building next door.  The local fyrra does not live in the barracks, but has a cottage in town.

In addition to jhuild, the Rashemi drink a fermented cider called scrump.  They also drink acidic tea.

Rashemi berserkers used to change shape into animal forms.  Fyodor has rediscovered how to do this, and can change into a bear.  Rashemi call this chesnitznia, but the Ruathym name it hamfarrig or shapestrong.

Berserkers take off their boots when entering the barracks.

There is a refuse hill outside the village.

The witches' lodge is extensive, covering the top of the highest hill in the village, and stretching down the back slope.  Nearby are a great hall ("city hall?"), the berserker lodge, a temple to the Three, and a steamy bathhouse.  The bathhouse (and most bathhouses) has a spirit called a Bannik; it often takes the form of a familiar person who should not be there at the time.  Another presence was felt leaving when they opened the door; the Bannik sometimes invites other spirits into the bathhouse (forest spirits, water spirits, demons).  It is thought that the Bannik is powerful because it has such friends.

The homes have domovoi, which must be befriended with small food gifts.  They like when you hang old shoes in the yard. Another kind of house (or yard?) spirit exists, called a dvorovoi. It might be more malevolent.

Grain fields have spirits called polevik; they are only dangerous if you fall asleep in the field or follow it into the grain.  They are usually only active around noon.

Breakfast consisted of boiled grains with dried berries.

Hathran oracles cast runes carved from bones "left by creatures no living eye has seen." They believe trying to divine one's own future is courting ill fortune.

*The only homes described as such are outside the wall.  Those inside the village wall are merely referred to as cottages.