Aragana

Aragana curves irregularly from the River Oceanus to the Mediterranean Sea, between Galecea and Tharshesh to the south and the wilds of Draconea to the north, and is mostly mountains. The Aragan Mountains are home to the Aragani, a fierce hunter-gatherer people who have fought off every outside ruler since the Atlantean Golden Age. Most are olive-skinned, with brown eyes and hair black as jet. They are barbarians by most measures, hunters, warriors or druids, and very few know any witchcraft or magic. They dread the evil eye but otherwise fear nothing, and are as ferocious and determined as a Hesperian Amazon.

They dress in crude hides with rough cloth leggings and, in battle, add bright red cloth or leather headbands and extra furs as armor. They fight chiefly with clubs, spears and staves, and above all the sling, their special skill; all their arms are well made. They roam in small family groups, build nothing permanent, and gather in numbers only for war or holy days. They worship the Old God Atta, whose symbol is the bear, and hold the cave bear, common in their land, sacred. Their druids perform rites inside a ring of cave bear skulls around a monolith carved as a standing bear, and each such holy day leads into a festival lasting a week, attended by most of the people.

Individual chieftains lead the bands and bow to the high druid, head of their religion. The Aragani want no one else's land but fiercely resent any trespass on their own and distrust all foreigners; an old Atlantean proverb calls them as rugged and unmoving as their mountains. Their one set of friends are the dwarves of the Citadel of Namtu, who leave them alone.