Tribal Lands

The tribes live all over frontier except the Sauron lands east of the Salt flats. They don’t really claim land and certainly don’t enclose it. But they do claim hunting and foraging rights for their people over a territory. This area might change with seasons as they live in easily dismantled teepees or just sleep in trees where they weather is suitable. The Tribes are at one with the land, taught from birth how to survive without destruction. They never take too much and, until the settlers arrived, the land change little. No tribe ever cultivated a crop or kept a herd of cattle. In their eyes that would be foolish, the savage plants and creature would destroy them and there is food all around for those with the wit to look.

Tribal Chiefs are usually the strongest warriors, but they are not what make tribes tick or who make most of the decisions. The true force behind any tribe are elders and Shaman. The elders are any tribal member who lived longer than most, respected because of the years of wisdom they have accumulated. The Shaman are magic users that travel into the dream realm and thus can commune with the ancestors and the totem spirits. They also form what is the only crosstribal group: the Council of Shaman.

The Tribes follow no consistent gods, occasional tribes may venerate a local animal or weather god, but most of them have a mix of ancestor worship and the guidance of the Dreaming Totems. These are the spiritual representations of the land and creatures within it. Many Frontier folk have bonded with a personal totem and they see the Totems as a way of communing directly with the gestalt spirit of the land itself. 

Black Rock

Black rock is home to the Council of Shaman. It is protected by a cluster of local tribes to the area who consider it a sacred duty. The council, sit, dream, talk, smoke euphoric leaves, talk, sleep, talk, and send out guidance to the other tribes. All tribes may send a Shaman to the council. Once the Shaman joins the council they are no longer considered part of the tribe they came from but old friendship and loyalties remain. This is expected and makes sure no-one’s needs are forgotten. So long as a Shaman does not put their tribe before Frontier as a whole this is not a problem.

The Silver City:

The Silver City is a place that exists across the Dreaming, Astral and real world. In the real world it exists on top of a Mountain in Frontier guarded by the tribe of the Shimmering City.

The Silver City is inhabited by all manner of strangeness including spirits that have their own thoughts, their own will and agenda, perhaps created long ago by the dreams of many they are called the Polymachus. The Polymachus fall into two varieties, the Nox and Lurkers, although their are some flavours in-between. Polymachus are not a playable race.

The Nox are very similar to people of the real world in outlook, they live in societies, they can be friendly or not, good or bad, they may have lifespans and offspring although not in the same sense as the real world it is more the mixing of spirits to create something new.

The Lurkers are lone polymachus, they are creepy and freakish, sometimes monstrous, mostly immortal and they know the back doors to the astral pathways or shortcuts, knowledge they will not or even cannot reveal, knowledge that tends to drive them insane.