CHAPTER 3: BEYOND THE WALLTo the people of Westeros, the lands north of the Wall are said to be anempty, frozen place that promises only death and terror. Its people are saidto be thieves, savages, cannibals... and worse. It is said to be the home toa hundred legendary terrors, from direwolves and giants to the Others.Many terrible things are said about the lands north of the Wall, and afair number of them are true—or at least have been true, at one time oranother. But if you ask those who live in the Far North about the landsto the south, they will tell equally terrible tales of despotic lords who ownboth man and land, women who are treated little better than cattle with nosay in their future, and a civilization of weaklings know nothing of the realterrors that lurk in the cold places of the world. These tales are also true.The lands of the wildlings are a harsh, unforgiving place that hasproduced an equally harsh and unforgiving people who would ratherdie than kneel to someone who has not proved his strength and cunning.These descendants of the First Men are called wildlings in thesouth, but the people of the Far North call themselves the free folk,seeing themselves as the only truly free people in Westeros. Valuingstrength, cunning, and tenacity over manners, scholarship, and decorum,they are a rough, barbaric people who see civilization as the creation ofweaklings. While the people of the South see them only as villains, thepossibility for heroism exists among the free folk as anywhere else, evenif it is a coarser breed of heroism.This chapter deals with the society of the free folk including the basicsof tribal life, the major groups among the free folk, and rules bothfor free folk characters and for running entire campaigns built aroundplaying a tribe of free folk.“T he gods made the earth for all men t’ share. Only when the kings came with theircrowns and steel swords, they claimed it was all theirs. My trees, they said, you can’teat them apples. My stream, you can’t fish here. My wood, you’re not t’ hunt. Myearth, my water, my castle, my daughter, keep your hands away or I’ll chop them off, butmaybe if you kneel t’ me I’ll let you have a sniff. You call us thieves, but at least a thiefhas t’ be brave and clever and quick. A kneeler only has t’ kneel.”–Ygritte, A Feast for Crows73
CHapter 3: beyond the WallThe Free FolkThe free folk were born as a people when Bran the Builder raised theWall at the end of the Long Night, forever separating Westeros fromthe Far North and the Land of Always Winter. Those people northof the wall were permanently cut off from the lands of the south andwould receive no aid, leaving them on their own to face cold, starvation,and the ancient evils from which the rest of the world was now shielded.This forged a hard, independent people who know they cannot counton anyone else to survive. Every man, woman, and child is expected tosee to their own needs and have the strength to stand up for themselves.It is this independence that helps the free folk survive in the terriblybrutal land they call home, as each member of a tribe can see to theirown needs when necessary—but it also prevents them from comingtogether en masse without a leader like Mance Rayder spending yearsin the effort to gather them.Tribal OrderThe free folk have no laws as such. While each tribe may have somestrictures about behavior due to historical or spiritual influences, thereare no intertribal laws among the free folk aside from cultural biases.Some tribes have taboos or other regulations, but no tribe has an actualwritten or codified system of law. For the most part the only law is thatof “might makes right” since each man, woman, and child is expected todefend themselves and their belongings from abuse.Thus if someone steals something it must be because the victimwas not strong enough, cunning enough, or have enough allies toprotect it, and thus did not deserve it. Having strong allies is certainlya way to prevent such things from happening, so even a sociableor cunning weakling can prosper in this system. Along similar linesthe entire might of a tribe may be turned against a tribe memberwho causes the wrong sorts of problems. When every mouthful offood is important, a mouth that does nothing but make trouble isnot worth feeding.The free folk organize themselves into tribes that rarely numbermore than a hundred members. Those tribes that are larger than thisusually break into smaller bands in order better support themselves offthe limited fare available in their homeland. A few hundred free folk inthe same area for more than a few weeks can render the land barren ofgame, food, and resources for months to come if they are not careful.Free folk tribes are made up of several extended family groups, oftenincluding three or four generations within the tribe.Tribes are evenly split between men and women with a quarter ofmost tribes made up of children. There is no concept of bastards amongthe free folk due to their looser sexual customs, and children are judgedby their own abilities rather than by their parents’ relationship. Eachtribe is related by blood to several other tribes as nearly all tribes makea practice of kidnapping their brides from neighboring folk, continuallymixing the blood of the various tribes. The idea of marrying within yourown tribe is heavily frowned upon, even if the bride and groom are notblood relations.The women of the free folk are not so meek as to take such wifestealingefforts lightly, and they are often more than capable of defendingthemselves. Many a would-be free folk husband has beenkilled trying to take a wife who was not willing. A free folk womanwill only go with a suitor who proves his strength and cunning in thebride’s capture, and even then the wife-to-be will put up as strong afight as she can. Such activities are seen in the south as being littlebetter than socially accepted rape, but among the free folk it is seen asthe best way to ensure a match between suitably strong parents whowill produce equally strong offspring.Also it is well known among the free folk that any husband whoabuses his wife is likely to find his throat slit when he least expects itand the wife will face few repercussions for doing so, thus there is arespect between husband and wife that is not commonly seen in thesouth. As the free folk say “A man can own a knife, or a man can own awoman. A man cannot own a knife and a woman.”Only a few tribes marry within their own ranks, those usuallybeing the most remote tribes that have little contact with others.Such tribes are often avoided by other free folk who know wellthe dangers of not bringing fresh blood into the tribe. Some of themore southern tribes have been known to raid south of the Wall forwives, but such practice is frowned upon by most free folk. The wivesgained from such efforts are seen as being weak and holding littlepromise of strong children.Language & the Free FolkThe dominant language among the free folk is the Old Tongue of the First Men spoken by their ancestors. Indeed in some areas ofthe Far North the language spoken is virtually identical to that used by the First Men before the arrival of the Andals, but in most areassome linguistic drift has occurred. There are free folk who go their whole lives hearing no other language. Regional accents and dialects areextremely common, most of which develop along tribal lines. Giants speak a variation of the Old Tongue when dealing with humans. Veryfew of the free folk can read in their native tongue.The Common Tongue is spoken by many of the tribes closer to the Wall, but usually only with outsiders. It is spoken exclusively in a fewtribes and settlements, most of which were founded by those who fled over the Wall. In recent decades the Common Tongue has spreadthrough the free folk with increasing speed as the influence of Westeros on the free folk increases. While the Common Tongue is becomingmore common, few free folk are literate.The various other languages spoken in Westeros, such as scholarly languages like Valyrian or the languages of lands over the seas, are allbut unknown north of the Wall. Hardhome sees some foreign tongues used by merchant visitors, but otherwise these languages are deadnorth of the Wall.74
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