Tamarac

Tamarac, the central eastern region of Eria, is the land of the Mound Builders, a family of tribes of average height with reddish-brown skin and straight black hair. Both sexes dress in deerskin, the men in leggings, loincloths and moccasins and the women in long caftan-like dresses, decorated with copper jewelry and many kinds of beads worn or sewn onto clothing.

With only the simplest hand tools they build tiered earthen ceremonial platforms, domed houses and large burial mounds. The dead are buried in the mounds with all their belongings to keep their spirits content in the next life, and food and drink are offered to them once a year. Shamans tend the mounds, which are sacred; tampering with them is sacrilege usually punished by death.

A well-organized people, they grow certain food plants and know herb lore well, and their women weave and make pottery of fine quality. They have little skill at mining or smelting but use copper widely for armbands and bracelets, since the surrounding hills hold plenty of it, much of it pure and ready to use.

Their warriors are easy to spot in headdresses of deer hide crowned with sharpened antlers, and before battle they paint face and body red and white for a wild, frightening look. Stone axes and war clubs are their main weapons, with spears and short bows too, though they think the bow better for hunting and prefer hand-to-hand fighting. They count the Akela and the Kawanna as foes.