Kulugmiut

Kulugmiut is the name for the northern islands and coasts of Eria, vast snowfields almost bare of plants and very hostile to travelers. Legend says early Atlanteans explored it, yet no remotely dependable map exists.

According to the Akwatuk, it is home to many small and middling tribes they call the Tunit, who unlike most Erians are rather short, stocky and sallow. Scholars think they came over land bridges, now sunk, that once joined Eria to Jambu. Each tribe takes its name from its patron spirit animal; among the tribes known by name are the Caribou People, the Wolf People, the Bear People and the Otters, and the Akwatuk keep repeating unproven rumors of cannibal Tunit far to the north.

The Tunit are said to be master craftsmen who make much from very little. They carve barbed harpoons and arrows from ivory, as well as runners for sleds pulled by tamed wolflike dogs and studded ice shoes for climbing glaciers, and make waterproof clothes and kayaks from walrus gut and hide. They build domed houses of packed snow, some big enough for fifty, with skylights of stretched walrus gut. They eat only raw meat but know fire, and heat their snow lodges with crude lamps of seal oil in a saucer with a twisted moss wick.

Their faith is shamanic and animistic, holding that everything has a living spirit. Very superstitious, they count many harmless acts as taboo depending on circumstance, and only shamans can lift the ill omens they so dread; shamans and warriors wear costumes made from the hide, teeth and claws of their clan's animal, and female shamans are thought stronger than male. Carved walrus tusks serve as scrolls, spellbooks and histories and are highly valued by foreign traders. Most tribes are not openly hostile to outsiders, but they feud among themselves and their superstition makes them unreliable.