Heimrean (Culture)

The Heimrean people group is a cultural, ethnic, and religious group that originally developed in north eastern Sørligste. They have since dispersed across several continents and have/had presences in Sparwood and Helmia.

Etymology
The word Heimr comes from the Heimrean word for home and was used as the name for the region they inhabited. The word would eventually be used to describe the people themselves as Heimreans which roughly translates to "Home people". The word also has a sacred connotation as it is the name of the place where in the Fjoldian faith the gods first met with the Heimrean people.

Prehistory
The Heimrean ethnic group first came about when they split off from the Valdic people and migrated west to what was at the time a relatively flat plateau. These proto-Heimreans would wander this plateau hunting and gathering which would sustain a meager population. They would have a minor population boom after the domestication of the Heimrean Prickle Berry. This food surplus would allow for temporary settlements to begin to develop, but wouldn't allow for anything permanent so the Heimreans remained nomadic. During this period while there were many different groups of Heimreans they were relatively united by culture and there was relative peace. This was the case until a great disaster split the plateau apart into mountain ranges and valleys. In the Fjoldian faith the splitting up of the plateau is blamed on a great fight between the gods while others believe it was an incredibly strong earthquake. Either way this led to the Heimrean people being divided into multiple cultures and dialects. Eventually the Heimreans would even begin large scale fighting amongst different "chiefdoms". This would go on for some time until an era of great peace was established and the cultures and languages of Heimreans were reunified. Fjoldians believe the gods of the intervened to rectify the mistake of splitting them in the first place. The place were the gods first re-unified the Heimreans is known as "The Heimr" and would become a meeting place for the different chiefs of the region. This would establish a new status quo for the Heimreans until the invasion by Frostmarch. The Heimreans didn't want to come under Frostmarch's banner so they fought back. During times of great crisis all of the chiefs of Heimr are meant to fall under the banner of one Kaiser this was the first time it was actually used though. "Hagor the Mighty" was elected as Kaiser by all the chiefs. A crown was created for him and he wielded the full might of the Heimrean people. He would fight with Frostmarch for many years and eventually after the Frostmarch forces begin to threaten the holy sight at The Heimr he negotiated the Heimrean surrender so the chiefdoms could remain nomadic and continue to self govern.

Frostmarch occupation
Under Frostmarch the Heimrean culture would become more and more Valdic over time as trade and the conversion of the upper class began to influence culture. Eventually the whole Heimrean would decay into nothing as Valdic would be adopted by everyone in the region. Some tried to save their language by modernizing it and writing it all down into a compendium, but due to the nomadic nature of the Heimrean people's nomadic lifestyle at the time the compendium would end up being lost after a landslide leveled a Heimrean camp site. Overtime many of the chiefs began to move east to the larger Frostmarcher cities leaving their people behind. During this period the Heimrean culture, faith, and language decayed to the point of being unrecognizable.

Founding of Heimr
One man who would see this decay and attempt to do something about it was Historian. He believed the way to save the Heimrean people was to unite them all in one city so they were no longer divided even by distance. Historian advocated for the construction of a city on The Heimr. The only problem was that he couldn't get funding to build his city due to the impoverished nature of the Heimreans at the time. Eventually he was able to raise enough funds from the common Heimrean people to build a city, but wasn't able to get the approval of Frostmarcher government. So he attempted to build his settlement in an area he believed was more rural and undeveloped so he traveled to Niedene and founded a city he dubbed Heimr (would later be known as old Heimr). This settlement would be short lived but would be very important due to the people it brought together. Mouskau a Frostmarcher noblemen would eventually track them down and tell them they were squatting on Soleanan land and that if they came back to Frostmarch with him they could build a city in the Heimrean homeland. They would then travel back to Frostmarch and establish the city of Heimr at The Heimr.