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Description

Ivan
Koran

A brief
summary of the nation of Holzstein

History:
The history of Holzstein is not
particularly long, but it is unique. The story of it's creation
starts with a very small ship full of settlers sailing through the
Northern-passageway from the East coast of the Glass-land (the
continent that Holzstein is on)  to the West Coast. What was unknown
to the passengers was that a few settlers were carrying a horrible
sickness. The sickness spread to all of the settlers and caused them
all to become mortally ill. There is only one passenger that wasn't
stricken by the illness and that person was a small boy by the name
of Thorhallur. He was only a few years old, but miraculously wasn't
affected by the illness aboard the ship. Almost all of the people on
the ship were dead, and those who weren't were too sick to steer the
ship, so it drifted towards the northernmost shore of the Glass-land.
When it landed, the few remaining people and Thorhallur went into the
dense, icy, forest in order to look for either food or shelter.
Suddenly, a large ice-bear came out of the bushes and attacked the
two crew members. All the while, Thorhallur simply sat down in the
bush and hid from the bear. Even if the crew members were not sick,
they would not have been able to defend against the vicious bear. It
killed them with ease and as it ate their remains, Thorhallur was
able to make his escape. As the years passed by, he learned about the
environment and finding ways to use it to improve his life. When he
was older, possibly in his late teens, a caravan of traders came
through the territory looking to trade. As Thorhallur had nothing of
value to the traders, they only stayed at his settlement for a few
days, to re-stock on provisions. During these few days, Thorhallur
and Frida,  the daughter of one of the traders fell deeply in love.
Frida abandoned her family and the traders to live with Thorhallur.
They had many children and later created a larger settlement. After
all of their children were matured, more and more people married into
the family until there was a large enough population to be considered
a nation. To this day, every person of Holzstein ancestry is said to
be a direct descendant of Thorhallur, the original Holzsteiner.

Economy:
Holzstein uses a Barter system.
It has no official currency, although in some towns, crystalline
marbles have been used as tender. Mostly, the people of Holzstein
hold one of four jobs: Tree-cutter, Miner, Farmer, or Craftsman. All
four of these jobs hold the same honor, as they require either large
amounts of skill or strength. Everything is very Communistic. The
workers of each job all share equipment and will help one another out
if needed.
Government: The
government of Holzstein would appear to be nearly tribal. Every town
has a leader known as 'townfather'. Even if the position is held by a
woman, they are still referred to as  the 'father'. The closest thing
to a central government is the council of townfathers and Elders.
This group makes very broad laws that apply to the entire nation.

A meeting of either an entire town, or just town-leaders is headed
by the townfather to make decisions regarding each individual town.
To be a town-leader, one must own land and be recognized as highly
honorable by a good amount of other townspeople outside of that
person's immediate family. To elect a townfather, the old townfather
will call a meeting and the townspeople must nominate somebody. The
nominee must be considered able to take the job by at least 3 people
outside of their family, and must be old enough to be considered
mature. A townfather can be either a man or a woman. There are no
restrictions other than having the trust of the townspeople. The
townfather is not only responsible for running the town meetings, but
also must settle arguments over trade and assist townspeople whenever
they need help. A townfather can also decide the value of something
for barter.

There
is no dedicated police force in Holzstein. Crime is controlled by
civilians who either report a crime to the townfather, or take
matters into their own hands and apprehend a criminal. The
interpretation of laws is done entirely by the meeting of
townspeople. Punishment is usually carried out using stocks. There
are rarely prisons in towns, so most serious crimes must be punished
by either banishment or disfigurement. Some crimes, however, are
punishable by death. Depending on the severity and if the criminal is
found guilty by his or her town and on occasion, a Jury from another
town.
Foreign Relations: Holzsteiners
are very prideful of their nationality and heritage to their original
settler. They are usually rather Racist and highly nationalistic.
They are not usually quick to accept outsiders. On most occasions,
non-natives will be disallowed entry into the country without an
invitation. The only exception to this rule is people of the small
nation of Hell. Many settlers from Hell intermarried with
Holzsteiners long ago in the early years, and thus some western
Holzsteiners retain a small bit of Hellish ancestry. Due to the small
size of Holzstein, it is in constant fear from invaders. In response
to this fear, the Tree-cutters have made sure to leave the most
heavily forested area to the south of Holzstein untouched and very
dense. This acts as a natural barrier against invading armies. There
are also small villages along the coasts and in the southern dense
forest inhabited only by soldiers made to look like civilians. These
villages serve only the purpose of defense, and nothing else. While
Holzstein is very wary of outsiders and sometimes thinks very little
of them, it has very little interest in conquering other nations. The
people of Holzstein simply wish to separate themselves from the other
more 'pitiful' races of people.

Geography:
Holzstein has basically two
geographic features: Thick forested areas to the south and  east and
high plains in the north and west. The forests contain huge trees,
averaging nearly eighty meters high and a couple meters in diameter.
These trees hold birds as well as wolfs, bears, and some small wild
cats. Thick undergrowth covers the forest floor and makes it very
difficult to navigate.

The plains are the coldest part of Holzstein. They are usually below
freezing at night and barely higher during the day. Not many
creatures live in the plains, however, those that do are very tough.
One of the most well known is the Sheba. It is a large herbivorous
creature that lives off of the short, rough grass growing in the
area. The Sheba has a heavy coat of wooly fur, long tusks on it's
face, and claws on it's fore-paws. These claws are used for both
digging for food in winter and self-defense.  It is comparable in
size to a buffalo. It is hunted by Holzsteiners for it's fur and
meat.

A
common creature that has been domesticated by the Holzsteiners  is
the Becram. It is similar in size to a swine, but is covered with
coarse black hair. It feeds mainly on whatever it can dig up in the
Forrest or the bark and soft
fibers from plants and trees. Holzsteiners feed these fibers to the
Becram that they keep and slaughter them for their meat.

The
People: Because the
Holzsteiners are all related to one common ancestor, they are all
similar physically. They are usually nearly 2 meters tall and are
built very heavily. They usually have  blue or gray eyes and light
brown hair. They have broad shoulders and stout legs. Their physical
makeup allows them to become immensely strong due to their constant
mining, tree-cutting, or farming. It is said that one Holzstein man
is twice the man of any other nation. This is hopefully true due to
the small population of Holzstein in comparison to any other
countries.

Families usually live together with  neighbors and other members of
their town in large bunkhouses. Larger towns have huge houses with
many floors in order to accommodate the townspeople who do not own
houses.

Culture:
Like in many other countries at
this time, the children of Holzsteiners do not attend school. The
small exception to this being that almost all children are taught to
read in the ancient Holzsteiner language. The written language is
very simple consisting of a 10 letter alphabet and several symbols to
represent different items. The Children are either taught by parents,
or in large towns, by a professional teacher. Literacy ensures that
people will be able to understand laws and agreements made on paper.
Almost all children take on apprenticeships under either a parent,
or a friend of a parent in whatever job a child is interested in.

The people of Holzstein have no weekly schedules. They work every
day in the morning and afternoon. In the evening, all townspeople
meet and sit around drinking mead, eating Becram, telling stories,
and dancing. Parties like this are an important part of Holzstein
life.

Religion:
While religion is not an
important part of daily life, Holzsteiners do have several mythical
stories to explain natural phenomenons. Most things can be blamed on
angry spirits, or the antics of mythical creatures

An
example of this is the story of the creation of the continent. This
story is passed down from generation
to generation and told regularly at the evening parties. It begins
with a war between two opposites. A huge lizard-like beast named
Karthirok and god named Udo. Udo loves to create things. He designed
and created all the animals and plants that exist In the world.
Karthirok is the exact opposite of Udo. His only purpose is to devour
everything. Udo grew tired of Karthirok constantly eating his
creations, so he worked day in and day out for 5 years to create the
world. His plan was to feed it to Udo to either satisfy his hunger,
or to kill him by causing him to choke. Udo gave the world to
Karthirok who gladly started to chew on it. His teeth tearing away at
the earth and causing all the erratic landforms now seen today.
Karthirok ended up choking on the earth and realized that Udo had
meant to kill him. He released the earth and began to attack Udo.
Eventually, Karthirok managed to eat Udo, who still battled away from
inside of Karthirok. The pain of Udo battling inside of him forced
Karthirok to flee, although he will never be able to escape Udo now.
The story of these two mythical creatures creating the world is a
prime example of Holzstein mythology.

Description

Ivan
Koran

A brief
summary of the nation of Holzstein

History:
The history of Holzstein is not
particularly long, but it is unique. The story of it's creation
starts with a very small ship full of settlers sailing through the
Northern-passageway from the East coast of the Glass-land (the
continent that Holzstein is on)  to the West Coast. What was unknown
to the passengers was that a few settlers were carrying a horrible
sickness. The sickness spread to all of the settlers and caused them
all to become mortally ill. There is only one passenger that wasn't
stricken by the illness and that person was a small boy by the name
of Thorhallur. He was only a few years old, but miraculously wasn't
affected by the illness aboard the ship. Almost all of the people on
the ship were dead, and those who weren't were too sick to steer the
ship, so it drifted towards the northernmost shore of the Glass-land.
When it landed, the few remaining people and Thorhallur went into the
dense, icy, forest in order to look for either food or shelter.
Suddenly, a large ice-bear came out of the bushes and attacked the
two crew members. All the while, Thorhallur simply sat down in the
bush and hid from the bear. Even if the crew members were not sick,
they would not have been able to defend against the vicious bear. It
killed them with ease and as it ate their remains, Thorhallur was
able to make his escape. As the years passed by, he learned about the
environment and finding ways to use it to improve his life. When he
was older, possibly in his late teens, a caravan of traders came
through the territory looking to trade. As Thorhallur had nothing of
value to the traders, they only stayed at his settlement for a few
days, to re-stock on provisions. During these few days, Thorhallur
and Frida,  the daughter of one of the traders fell deeply in love.
Frida abandoned her family and the traders to live with Thorhallur.
They had many children and later created a larger settlement. After
all of their children were matured, more and more people married into
the family until there was a large enough population to be considered
a nation. To this day, every person of Holzstein ancestry is said to
be a direct descendant of Thorhallur, the original Holzsteiner.

Economy:
Holzstein uses a Barter system.
It has no official currency, although in some towns, crystalline
marbles have been used as tender. Mostly, the people of Holzstein
hold one of four jobs: Tree-cutter, Miner, Farmer, or Craftsman. All
four of these jobs hold the same honor, as they require either large
amounts of skill or strength. Everything is very Communistic. The
workers of each job all share equipment and will help one another out
if needed.
Government: The
government of Holzstein would appear to be nearly tribal. Every town
has a leader known as 'townfather'. Even if the position is held by a
woman, they are still referred to as  the 'father'. The closest thing
to a central government is the council of townfathers and Elders.
This group makes very broad laws that apply to the entire nation.

A meeting of either an entire town, or just town-leaders is headed
by the townfather to make decisions regarding each individual town.
To be a town-leader, one must own land and be recognized as highly
honorable by a good amount of other townspeople outside of that
person's immediate family. To elect a townfather, the old townfather
will call a meeting and the townspeople must nominate somebody. The
nominee must be considered able to take the job by at least 3 people
outside of their family, and must be old enough to be considered
mature. A townfather can be either a man or a woman. There are no
restrictions other than having the trust of the townspeople. The
townfather is not only responsible for running the town meetings, but
also must settle arguments over trade and assist townspeople whenever
they need help. A townfather can also decide the value of something
for barter.

There
is no dedicated police force in Holzstein. Crime is controlled by
civilians who either report a crime to the townfather, or take
matters into their own hands and apprehend a criminal. The
interpretation of laws is done entirely by the meeting of
townspeople. Punishment is usually carried out using stocks. There
are rarely prisons in towns, so most serious crimes must be punished
by either banishment or disfigurement. Some crimes, however, are
punishable by death. Depending on the severity and if the criminal is
found guilty by his or her town and on occasion, a Jury from another
town.
Foreign Relations: Holzsteiners
are very prideful of their nationality and heritage to their original
settler. They are usually rather Racist and highly nationalistic.
They are not usually quick to accept outsiders. On most occasions,
non-natives will be disallowed entry into the country without an
invitation. The only exception to this rule is people of the small
nation of Hell. Many settlers from Hell intermarried with
Holzsteiners long ago in the early years, and thus some western
Holzsteiners retain a small bit of Hellish ancestry. Due to the small
size of Holzstein, it is in constant fear from invaders. In response
to this fear, the Tree-cutters have made sure to leave the most
heavily forested area to the south of Holzstein untouched and very
dense. This acts as a natural barrier against invading armies. There
are also small villages along the coasts and in the southern dense
forest inhabited only by soldiers made to look like civilians. These
villages serve only the purpose of defense, and nothing else. While
Holzstein is very wary of outsiders and sometimes thinks very little
of them, it has very little interest in conquering other nations. The
people of Holzstein simply wish to separate themselves from the other
more 'pitiful' races of people.

Geography:
Holzstein has basically two
geographic features: Thick forested areas to the south and  east and
high plains in the north and west. The forests contain huge trees,
averaging nearly eighty meters high and a couple meters in diameter.
These trees hold birds as well as wolfs, bears, and some small wild
cats. Thick undergrowth covers the forest floor and makes it very
difficult to navigate.

The plains are the coldest part of Holzstein. They are usually below
freezing at night and barely higher during the day. Not many
creatures live in the plains, however, those that do are very tough.
One of the most well known is the Sheba. It is a large herbivorous
creature that lives off of the short, rough grass growing in the
area. The Sheba has a heavy coat of wooly fur, long tusks on it's
face, and claws on it's fore-paws. These claws are used for both
digging for food in winter and self-defense.  It is comparable in
size to a buffalo. It is hunted by Holzsteiners for it's fur and
meat.

A
common creature that has been domesticated by the Holzsteiners  is
the Becram. It is similar in size to a swine, but is covered with
coarse black hair. It feeds mainly on whatever it can dig up in the
Forrest or the bark and soft
fibers from plants and trees. Holzsteiners feed these fibers to the
Becram that they keep and slaughter them for their meat.

The
People: Because the
Holzsteiners are all related to one common ancestor, they are all
similar physically. They are usually nearly 2 meters tall and are
built very heavily. They usually have  blue or gray eyes and light
brown hair. They have broad shoulders and stout legs. Their physical
makeup allows them to become immensely strong due to their constant
mining, tree-cutting, or farming. It is said that one Holzstein man
is twice the man of any other nation. This is hopefully true due to
the small population of Holzstein in comparison to any other
countries.

Families usually live together with  neighbors and other members of
their town in large bunkhouses. Larger towns have huge houses with
many floors in order to accommodate the townspeople who do not own
houses.

Culture:
Like in many other countries at
this time, the children of Holzsteiners do not attend school. The
small exception to this being that almost all children are taught to
read in the ancient Holzsteiner language. The written language is
very simple consisting of a 10 letter alphabet and several symbols to
represent different items. The Children are either taught by parents,
or in large towns, by a professional teacher. Literacy ensures that
people will be able to understand laws and agreements made on paper.
Almost all children take on apprenticeships under either a parent,
or a friend of a parent in whatever job a child is interested in.

The people of Holzstein have no weekly schedules. They work every
day in the morning and afternoon. In the evening, all townspeople
meet and sit around drinking mead, eating Becram, telling stories,
and dancing. Parties like this are an important part of Holzstein
life.

Religion:
While religion is not an
important part of daily life, Holzsteiners do have several mythical
stories to explain natural phenomenons. Most things can be blamed on
angry spirits, or the antics of mythical creatures

An
example of this is the story of the creation of the continent. This
story is passed down from generation
to generation and told regularly at the evening parties. It begins
with a war between two opposites. A huge lizard-like beast named
Karthirok and god named Udo. Udo loves to create things. He designed
and created all the animals and plants that exist In the world.
Karthirok is the exact opposite of Udo. His only purpose is to devour
everything. Udo grew tired of Karthirok constantly eating his
creations, so he worked day in and day out for 5 years to create the
world. His plan was to feed it to Udo to either satisfy his hunger,
or to kill him by causing him to choke. Udo gave the world to
Karthirok who gladly started to chew on it. His teeth tearing away at
the earth and causing all the erratic landforms now seen today.
Karthirok ended up choking on the earth and realized that Udo had
meant to kill him. He released the earth and began to attack Udo.
Eventually, Karthirok managed to eat Udo, who still battled away from
inside of Karthirok. The pain of Udo battling inside of him forced
Karthirok to flee, although he will never be able to escape Udo now.
The story of these two mythical creatures creating the world is a
prime example of Holzstein mythology.