04 Night's Watch.pdf - Chaos Bleeds

CHapter 3: beyond the Wallbedtime stories as the people of Westeros do, the free folk have no betterinformation as to how to fight the Others. Thus far no tribe hassuccessfully repelled the Others through force of arms, though manyhave tried.Resources & IndustryWhile the lands north of the Wall have resources in the form of wood,skins, and stone, they have little in the way of iron, coal, gold, or othermineral wealth. Tin and copper are mined in the mountain valleys ofthe Thenn tribes, but no other tribes have knowledge of how to do so oraccess to suitable mineral deposits. Some have found limited depositsof gold and silver in the north, but such deposits are usually harvestedby panning from nearby streams or from crude pit mines, both of whichproduce limited results. Most weapons of the free folk are made ofstone, wood, and bone, with more advanced weapons found only amongthe Thenn tribes or as plunder from raids over the Wall. Because of this,any steel weapon is highly prized among the free folk and can fetchseveral times its value in the south as long as skins, animal meat, andcrude jewelry are accepted in trade.Because of the limited materials available north of the Wall, the freefolk tend towards staffs, clubs, stone-headed maces, bows, and firehardenedspears for weapons. For armor most of the free folk wear skinsand hides of some fashion, with many tribes clothing themselves in theskins of the animals most important to their tribe, such as the bearskinsworn by the Ice Wives. A few mismatched bits of metal weaponry andarmor are common in most tribes as heirlooms from past raids to thesouth or gained through trade. These items become more common thecloser one comes to the Wall. Some of these weapons and armor arefrom the armories of the Night’s Watch, either taken from dead membersof the Watch, carried over the Wall by a crow who fled his vows, ortraded to the free folk through one of the many illicit deals between themen of the Watch and the free folk. The Thenn tribes are the only tribesable to equip all of its warriors with metal weapons and armor; althoughthese weapons are only bronze, they still give the Thenn tribes a massiveadvantage when fighting other free folk tribes, making them one of themost feared tribes in the north.While the free folk are not particularly skilled in making armor orweapons, they are extremely adept at making equipment to protectthem from the severe cold of their homeland. From massive bear furcoats to whalebone snow goggles, the free folk produce a wide varietyof tools to better help them survive and navigate their homeland.These vary from tribe to tribe based on the terrain and environmentalconditions they commonly face; snow goggles are common in themassive polar expanses of the Frozen Shores, but not so common inthe region around the Haunted Forest. The dogsled is very common,used by many tribes of the Far North. Pulled by a pack of long-hairedwolfhounds, these sleds are the best way to get around the regionsof deepest snow where horses flounder in the high drifts. It is a lackof such tools that often dooms travelers from south of the Wall, andeven those of the Night’s Watch only make use of a limited selectionof these items. More technologically advanced devices like far eyesand lodestones are all but unknown north of the Wall, and those thatdo exist were all either taken from the Night’s Watch or brought toHardhome by foreign merchants.WarfareWar among the free folk is different from that waged among the peopleof Westeros. To the free folk war is equal parts sport, a method ofpolitical change, a means of finding a mate, and a form of populationcontrol. The free folk never play at war or dueling, as any contest maywell end in a death since the free folk are so reluctant to give in to anenemy. At the same time, the free folk are always willing to start afight, having a very low threshold for what will drive them to violence.Even their courtship rituals are steeped in violence—it is a part oftheir everyday life. While the people of Westeros are often exposedto violence, they do not use it as a means to solve problems nearly ascasually as the free folk. To the free folk, fighting is as good a way topass the time as most others, and if someone dies in the process, atleast they died fighting.Unlike the lands of the South where only knights and soldiers are expectedto know the arts of war, every man, woman, and child among thefree folk is expected to fight when called upon. When a free folk tribegoes to war, all but the youngest and the oldest answer the call—andconsidering the short lifespan of most of the free folk, there are few thatsurvive past their fighting years. When tribes go to war over resources orterritory the tribes will usually snipe at each other with raiding parties,fighting a war of attrition until one side decides its losses are too greatand leaves the area.In such conflicts, tribes are more concerned with forcing the enemyto leave the area than conquering them. Tribes rarely seek to force othertribes to join them, not wanting the possibly disloyal extra mouths tofeed. Sometimes conflicts get more personal, such as when one tribegives grievous insult to another or kills a well loved tribal leader. In suchcases the two tribes mobilize in raiding parties and fight until one tribeis completely wiped out. Such conflicts are rare since the free folk seesome level of brotherhood among all the free folk and every tribe willbe needed when the Others come.When going to war the free folk prefer to operate in small groupsof raiders, using their mobility and knowledge of the terrain to theiradvantage. The free folk never take the field in open combat like thearmies of Westeros, lacking the training or discipline for such combat.The free folk are fearsome guerrilla combatants, and any army thatinvades their territory will pay heavily for every step it takes—but thefree folk would have little hope of actually stopping such any manner ofarmy in open combat.The GiantsThe free folk can trace their lineage back to the First Men, before theWall when the Children of the Forest still walked the land, but thereare more ancient inhabitants of the lands north of the Wall woken bythe Horn of Winter in the Age of Heroes. Now holding only a shadowof their ancient power, the giants are still one of the strongest forcesamong the free folk.Giants are large humanoids, standing at least twice the height of aman and weighing at least four times, though giants rarely stand upstraight to make full use of their height. Hunched with longer armsthan legs, they look something like the apes said to inhabit the SummerIsles. Their lower torso is noticeably thicker than their shoulders,77