The Green - Peoples of the Green

People of the Green

The Green is a vast expanse of forest, river, marsh and swamp. Such an environment supports many cultures and many different people. To talk of "People of the Green" is to underestimate the variety of life that the Green can support.

At the edges of the Green are the Border Peoples. These take many forms. Along the southern mountains the Green merges with the forests of the mountains and people there live in small mountain villages, travelling into the fringes of the Green to hunt forest creatures and to gather sacred and magical plants. Along the northern edge of the Green , the forest turns into bushland and then into steppe. Here are many different communities - farmers cultivate the bush and the steppe beyond, travelling into the Green to hunt. Small villages can be found in the Green that use the resources of the bush and steppe as well as the bounty that the Green provides. Nomads travel through the steppe and hunt the fringes of the Green for forest animals and plants. Along the edge of the Great Sea, the Green turns into twisted forests of cypress trees standing in great salt marshes and people live in small villages, fishing in the marshes and hunting in the Green. Nestled among the deltas of the Great Rivers are large cities. These cities control the area of Green around them and their hunters and armies regularly enter the Green. They control the growth of the Green and harvest its bounty, with loggers and vast plantations. They also use the Great Sea for fishing and their wooden fleets patrol those waters. Their influence stretches along the rivers but not further into the Interior.

Along the great rivers that flow through the Green can be found many villages. Most of these are land-built, or Ground Huggers as those from the Interior say. Some of these are on stilts, others are built into the mud alongside the rivers. These riverine villages are fairly uniform in culture, being descended from settlers who moved along the rivers millennia ago. They fish the rivers, having a sophisticated way of river management, and hunt and gather in the Green near their villages. They trade with those along the river and with the great cities at the mouths of the rivers.

Deep in the Interior of the Green are small cities, each based around a sacred pool or series of pools. These cities are a lot smaller than those beside the Southern Sea and are from a different culture. They use the surrounding resources but do not have plantations, preferring to accept the bounty of the Green rather than imposing their will onto it. Some of these cities have died and are ruins, covered by the Green. Small bands of nomads wander the Interior of the Green, moving from sacred place to sacred place, hunting and gathering food. They make their shelters in small villages, some high up in the forkings, some on the forest floor. Several of the peoples of the Interior make their villages in the forkings and have bough roads between the houses and villages. Some of these folk have never been to the forest floor, which they regard as taboo.

Not only humans live within the Green. Deep within the forests live a number of the so-called Elder Races.

Forest Elves awoke within the Green one day under a hot sun and made their homes here. Some Forest Elves live in villages high among the forkings, moulding the trees as men might mould clay. Others move from place to place, visiting their brethren. Still others live in the deep, dark Green, away from anyone else and killing all who would contact them. They were forced here by the raids of the Grey Elves and they have withdrawn from all who are not kin.

Forest Goblins, or Karee, live deep within the Interior of the Green, although some travel south to meet their Mountain-dwelling kin. They are secretive nomads, always on the move, and try to avoid contact with others. Where Forest Goblins meet outsiders, there is normally trouble, for they tend to treat domestic animals as prey and are often caught for raiding farmsteads. They go naked through the Green and those who have had contact with them say they have no shame and do in the open what people retire to their huts to do.

Orcs from the mountains often come into the Green to hunt and seek slaves. Some Orc tribes have moved permanently to the Green, living on the fringes in fortified villages or as nomads, moving from one fortified camp to another. There is normally hostility between Orcs and others of the Green as the Orcs are more aggressive than the Green's other inhabitants. These Orcs are usually called Green Orcs, but they are the same species as other Orcs and can intermarry and breed with their brethren without difficulty.

Deep within the Green is a marshy wilderness of drowned trees and murky swamps where only the hardiest nomads go. Here dwell a race of lizard folk, living in cities made of crystal and gems, riding great lizards and dragons. They have been known to eat humans and are very aggressive when meeting invaders.

In the centre of the Green is the Volcano. This is a mountain that rises almost to the Sky. Its slopes are warm to the touch and hot springs fill the forests with mists. The land around the Volcano is fertile, warmed by its touch, and the Green is deep here. Smaller volcanoes can be found nearby, children of The Volcano, and they make the land fertile. Around the volcanoes are small cities filled with worshippers of the volcano gods. They keep slaves that they gather from the surrounding areas, human, goblin and elf, and make sacrifices to the volcano gods. They have never been conquered, for they have the might of the volcano to defend them, but they have never spread out too far as they cannot live in the cooler areas of the Green.

The Green is a place of opposites - Interior and Exterior, Village and City, Settled and Nomadic, Human and Non-Human. But, perhaps the greatest of the Opposites is Above and Below. Many of the people of the Green live in the canopy, with villages and roadways spread throughout the forest. Others, however, live on the forest floor, in cities, villages or simple encampments. Those who live Above despise those who live Below as ground-grubbers who have dirty hands and feet, barely different from the pigs and boar that root beneath the trees. Those who live Below despise those who live Above as uncultured creatures, barely different from the monkeys that also live in the canopy. The Gods and Spirits of Above and Below are different. Above has gods of light and plant, motion and harmony. Below has gods of cold and darkness, rot and decay. But, all dwellers within the Green have their own gods who help them survive in this welcoming but hostile environment.

The Volcano Cities

The first Volcano burst forth from the land in what is now known as the Green. He rose high above the land and spread his fertility far and wide. Where his ash fell grew new plants and trees and the Green was formed. The other land gods in the great hollow felt the release of pressure and tried to vent the heat that lay inside them. One by one they grew mountains of their own and blew their fertility over the land.

Sometimes the fertile ash fell and grew into a person not a plant. These people were the sons and daughters of the volcanoes, tall and fair and filled with heat. They built great cities from blocks of basalt at the foot of the volcanoes. At the heart of the cities were great pyramids, rising high in emulation of the nearby mountains. But they had a problem. The volcanoes were angry and sometimes punished their kin. They boiled over in heat and fire as often as in fertility and ash. Nearby cities were destroyed more than once by flaming clouds of death and rivers of fire. The volcano folk sought for a solution and found one when one of the Kings gave his son as a sacrifice to the volcano. Ever since, the people of the volcanoes have practiced human sacrifice to appease the volcanoes.

Every day a young man, old enough to have hair but not old enough to have fathered a child, is taken to the volcano's rim, stripped naked, shaved all over with an obsidian blade and thrown into the boiling lava. Once a year, a beautiful maiden, the most beautiful in the kingdom, is chosen to be the volcano's bride. She is taken to the volcano's rim, stripped, shaved all over with an obsidian blade and cast into the lava below. Several hours later the earth shakes as the Earth God joins with his bride and if he is pleased then he releases a shower of fertile ash to enrich the nearby earth. If he is unhappy, however, he shakes the ground in anger, stamping his feet, and showers the land in burning fire. It is not known why the god becomes angry. Perhaps the sacrifice is not a maiden, perhaps she is cold to his touch, perhaps she is too shrill or not beautiful enough. Whatever the reason, this is seen as a bad omen and the next year's sacrifices are doubled.

The sheer number of sacrifices required by each volcano city mean that the surrounding people are filled with fear. Bands of armed soldiers and priests scour the Green looking for suitable sacrifices. Young men are taken from the humans, from the Trogod and even the Ormkin. Young maidens are selected by priestesses and taken to the Volcano Temple where they are schooled in how to be good wives and the best is chosen to become the Volcano Bride. Many families take desperate measures to ensure their children are not taken. Boys are scarred and maimed when they reach puberty to make them less attractive sacrifices. Girls are introduced to the love of men when they reach puberty so they are no longer maidens. Because of this, the raiding bands have to travel further and further for sacrifices and often raid those kept for sacrifice in other cities. This means that the cities are never ready to conquer other areas because they are too busy raiding each other and capturing prisoners.

The volcano folk themselves are tall and fair. They have long bronzed limbs and handsome faces seemingly chiselled from the brown volcanic rock. They have a fire inside them and can operate in the hottest conditions, feeling no discomfort from standing at the rim of a volcano or leaping over a stream of molten lava. Many can breathe fire and all have some immunity from being burned. However, they are vulnerable to cold and water. They cannot survive frost or snow for long and are deeply uncomfortable in cold nights. They cannot abide water, using it only for drinking. They do not bathe, preferring to wash by rubbing themselves with plants or sap and shaving themselves with obsidian blades. For this reason, they normally have a strong perfumed scent and seem exotic to many strangers. Volcano folk cannot swim and can go into shock simply by falling into water and for this reason they have taboos on crossing rivers and living near water. They often keep slaves for carrying water and drink only fermented fruit juices and tree sap.

Delta City

The rivers of the Green were wild and untamed. They grew many heads and poured into the sea. Every time someone built near them the rivers would shift and drown the new village or city. They were masters of the Green. Nobody dared to cross them and nobody could even come close.

Then came The Builder. He was a young man, tall and handsome, quick and intelligent. Perhaps he was one of the Ancients or one of their descendants. Perhaps he was the son of Demigods. Whatever the case, he came to the mouth of the River and built a hut made of reeds in the delta. The River was furious and sent one of its heads against the hut, but The Builder lassoed the head and struggled with it as a man would struggle with an eel caught on a line. Back and forth they went until with a mighty heave the Builder broke the back of the river's head and it lay quiet in its bed. The Builder smiled and sat on his porch, waiting for the River to act. He did not have to wait for long. The River gathered its strength and poured into all its heads but the Builder simply caught them all in his snares and broke them one by one, laying them into their beds and raising banks alongside them.

The Builder built more houses from reeds and people moved in, safe from the river's anger. They fished in the delta and in the sea nearby. Some travelled up the river but the river was angry and crushed their boats and drowned them. The Builder went upstream and lassoed the River, fighting it and breaking it's back again. As they went further into the Green the people took more wood and quarried stone from local outcrops. They built towns along the tamed riverbanks and built a great city in the delta. The Builder showed them how to make bridges from rope and then from wood and stone. The River was too wide near the delta to bridge, so the people crossed on boats and ferries. The different towns in the delta were connected by bridges and the river became so tame that they forgot that it had once been dangerous.

Having tamed the River, the people of the city began to tame the Green. They found the best trees and replanted them, turning the wild Green into carefully cultivated plantations. They planned the growth, choosing which trees to plant, which plants to grow and which areas to leave alone. They made boats from single logs and travelled along the coast and up the river. After many years they built more advanced ships and patrolled the coast, setting up small colonies nearby, but those colonies fell to disease and soon disappeared. As they moved further and further along the River, the people built towns and villages on both sides. Each time the Builder broke the River's back, he built a Temple that kept the River chained. These Temples were the source of their strength and their greatest weakness, for if the Temple was destroyed the River became unchained and could fight back with flood and could whip around and drown whole towns. At the present day, the towns stretch several hundred miles upriver and the plantations cover both banks of the River. The cities have cleared much of the land for farming and many have turned their backs on the Green, but some see this as a mistake.