04 Night's Watch.pdf - Chaos Bleeds

CHapter 3: beyond the Wallthrough the deepest snows barefoot, the soles of their feet as resilient asboiled leather. Making little use of mounts or pack animals, the Hornfootscarry their belongings on their backs and believe that a man should onlyown as much as he can carry as anything else is too easily taken. Othertribes sometimes look at them as being foolish or simple, but the Hornfootssee themselves as living closer to the land itself. There may be some truthto this as the greensight comes more to the Hornfoots than most tribes.The Hornfoots follow the migratory patterns of elk and reindeerthrough the course of the year, ranging from the edges of the FrozenShore to the Haunted Forest in their wanderings. They are not muchconcerned with raiding other tribes, having little interest in wealth theycannot carry, and are one of the less aggressive tribes of the free folk becauseof it. Hornfoots are not known as particularly fearsome or skilledfighters, but they are always the last to break in battle and will standto the last man without flinching. With better training, discipline, andweapons they could be a fearsome fighting force. Hornfoots favor huntingbows and spears and their weapons are made of stone, bone, andwood. They sometimes trade for metal weapons with other tribes andduring yearly visits to Hardhome, but such items are rare.Despite their relatively passive nature, the Hornfoots are still freefolk and do not take insults or attacks lightly. When threatened, theHornfoots are tenacious fighters and it is said no free folk hold grudgeslike the Hornfoots. Making an enemy of a Hornfoot is making anenemy for life, and Hornfoot tribes have been known to hang ontothe smallest grudge for generations. For example, the Nightrunnersand the Hornfoots are sworn enemies due to a past wife-stealing incidentwhose details have long since been forgotten. The Hornfoots havejoined Mance Rayder’s horde in the face of many attacks from the Othersin hopes they can escape to the south and are even willing to workwith the Nightrunners to see this goal achieved.Ice WivesClaiming the northern reaches of the Haunted Forest, the Ice Wivesare one of the few matriarchal tribes among the free folk. The triballegends claim it was founded by Kala, the wife of Gorne, the first Kingbeyond-the-Wall,when he did not return from his trip under the Wall.The tale tellers of the Ice Wives claim Kala wanted a tribe free from thefolly of men, allowing no men in their tribe for centuries, kidnappingmen as needed for reproductive purposes and then killing or releasingthem, depending on whether they fathered a female child or not. Nowthey are a tribe made up of men and women as other tribes are, but theleadership of the tribe remains firmly in the hands of women.The Ice Wives are known among the free folk for the white-furredsnow bears they train and ride into combat, making them a fearsomefighting force. These bears are raised from birth to be obedient to theirmistress, who must pass trials of strength and endurance in order for herto earn the right of becoming a bear warrior. Those who pass will carefor their bear until one of them dies. If the bear companion of a warriorof the Ice Wives is slain, that warrior will likely never have another,such is the difficulty of training a new mount and the depth of the linkbetween them. It is common among the Ice Wives for a warrior to killherself if she somehow survives her bear companion.The Ice Wives are semi-nomadic, moving among a handful of settlementsover the course of the year. They subsist primarily by hunting herdsof elk and moose along with fishing in the Milkwater. They often comeinto conflict with the cannibal clans and the Hornfoots, but the bears ofthe Ice Wives give them a distinct advantage in most situations. The IceWives wield weapons of bone, favoring long spears usable from the backof their bear mount. Metal weapons are looked at askance, many believingmetal to be some sort of corrupting influence on the mind since it drivesso many to possess it. The Ice Wives wear thick hide and leather armormade from the hide of fallen bear companions, often making it hard tosee where a warrior of the Ice Wives ends and her bear mount begins.Mance Rayder recruited the Ice Wives to his cause when he killedtheir leader, Morga Bearkin, during a battle between Mance’s followersand the Ice Wives. Morga had been one of the contenders for thetitle King-beyond-the-Wall who would not submit to Mance Rayder,and so he put all his military strength into forcing her to submit or die.The Ice Wives have accepted this for the time being and the council ofgrandmothers that advised Morga Bearkin now leads the tribe until anew leader is chosen, but the Ice Wives are not ready allies of ManceRayder. Given the opportunity they would rather fight the Others thanrun to the South, but for now they cooperate.NightrunnersAt home among the trees of the Haunted Forest, the Nightrunnerswere once a nomadic tribe that has become more sedentary over time.Over recent decades they have begun raising their own animals ratherthan hunting them in the wild, having learned more of animal husbandryfrom those who flee over the Wall. They have also built settlementsand resettled ancient villages, at first moving from village tovillage throughout the year but now usually staying in one settlementall year. Where they were once known for their night time raids on theHornfoots and Thenn tribes, the Nightrunners have become more andmore like the people to the south of the Wall, and are scorned by thefree folk because of it. Considering the Nightrunners have a higherproportion of members from south of the Wall than any other tribe,this is little surprise.The Nightrunners are now found in settlements near the Wall likeWhitetree, where the climate is mild enough to support raising animalsand growing some particularly hardy crops year-round. Also their settlementssometimes boast industries more common south of the Wall,like mills. The Nightrunners do not have the supply of metal to warrantsmithies despite having several smiths from south of the Wall amongthem. Some hope to find such supply through Hardhome, thus makingthe Nightrunners the only supplier of steel weapons north of the Wall.Unlike most other tribes, the Nightrunners actually hold territorythe whole year through and do not take well to other tribes enteringit, since the Nightrunners already have a hard time seeing to their ownneeds. Any tribe that moves into Nightrunner territory is likely to beattacked if it does not depart in a day or two, though tribes that intrudefor the first time are often given a warning first (not that many heed it).The Nightrunners regularly come to blows with the Hornfoots, withwhom they have a longstanding feud with over some ancient instanceof a Hornfoot man carrying off the wife of a Nightrunner chief, or atleast that’s how the Nightrunners tell the tale. Any time the Hornfootsare found in Nightrunner territory they are attacked with the full mightof the tribe as soon as it can be marshaled.87