Lineages

Skulu
Verda
Nyrna
Urdr

Skulu

The Skulu lands sprawl along the curving bases of most mountain ranges. This is a particularly volatile location due to the frequent shudderings of the earth that often send large shucks down on the Skulu people. But with a combination of help through the work and strength of domesticated Amptes, the Dwarves and their metals and materials pulled from within the hearts of the arching mountain peaks and soaring foothills, and the structural plans and work of the Skulu, there have been constructed tall, thick defenses.

Skulu settlements are usually found on the windy side of the range. They utilize the moisture and rich soil to grow crops that they trade with the Dwarves and other tribal kingdoms nearby.

Skulu women, with their Ampte-tuned antennae, command and guide their Ampte through pheromones, touch, and light to complete the tasks needed of them. One of the most important of these is for the enormous Ampte to fill their large stomachs in their third, tail segment with water from mountain waterfalls and rivers and return to provide irrigation for the crops.

Skulu females are also commonly seen with the Ampte in the creatures' natural hunting ground in the forested valleys below the mountains. These Skulu led hunting parties feed the enormous Ampte and allow the Skulu people to have meat to eat as well as bone, skin, meat and other things to trade along with their crops.

Skulu males are typically, when not at home or with other Norns, are found among the Dwarves. They assist the gigantic race in mining material from the mountains and acquire the copious amounts of food Dwarves need to reproduce. This food comes in part from their wives' hunts and trade with other kingdoms. Skulu males use their horns to communicate in the frequency of the Dwarfish runic languages. 

Skulu children are taught in a dual manner. They gain political and social learning form the most learned of their community. Their second form of learning is with their parents. The daughters, with their antennae, learn how to communicate and worth with the numerous, hive-minded Ampte while the sons learn from their fathers the Dwarfish cultures and runes and how to appropriately communicate through their horns.

Verda

The Verda of the Norns are widespread. They are typically found in flat lands such as prairies, forests, or meadows. They also frequent the foothills of mountains but the places they are never found are the snowcapped heights of the mountains or the Molten Lands. The Molten Lands are where plants dare not lay their roots for fear of the fire just below the ridged and rippled black that continues on to the horizon.

The Verda are quick as they leap and bound in their various settlements. Some live in treehouses, others in molded domes of earth covered in flowers, or in rugged rock structures in their rarer mountain homes. But what is common to all Verda settlement is their Beowulf farms. Their homes are established close to the Beowulf octagon-structured dens.

The domesticated Beowulf colonies are allowed to hunt on large swaths of Verda-controlled land, under the watchful eye of their feminine herders. She uses her Beowulf antennae to monitor the packs and keep them within her lands. While the Beowulf hunting packs send out by their queen are gone, the younger children of the Verda and their grandparents harvest the sweet, sticky substance that the Beowoulfs line their dens with.

To help with the monumental task of managing the wide-roaming and gigantic Beowulves are the Kobolds. The Verda males use their Kobold-tuned horns to communicate with the Kobold heard hands that work and live across the expanse of the Verda's land.

A Verda couple works closely together. She expresses to him the movements, desires, and potential pack to pack fighting of the Beowulves. He then uses the Kobold runic frequency of his horns to signal the Kobolds and give them instructions. He also oversees the training of the Kobolds to ensure their efficient natures are aligned best to the work needed of them.

The children of the Verda spend most of their time with their parents. Of all the Norns, they are the most lacking in societal and political proficiency due to the fact that general learning among the Verda become quite difficult when they reach the suitable age to herd with their parents.

Nyrna

The Nyrna are the most remote of the Norns. They live on the ice caps of the mountains, on the side of the sheerest cliffs, in hollow caverns, and even in still-cooling cavities on the border of the Molten Lands. 

They of all the Norns orient themselves off the direction and stimuli of the Great Tree whose branches are never lost from sight. The tops of the Tree crest the western horizon like a rough-edged, greenish sun. They claim to see light of magnificent and shifting colors emanating from it.

The Nyrna often live with the underground societies of Elves. With his horns, the male Nyrna consider and contemplate the cosmos, the Tree, the dragons, the other societies, the Fairies, the legends of their ancestors, the motivations of the lowest creature and all that the Elves could determine of the world around them with their many and various forms of whiskers, antennae, tentacles, large eyes, and other sensory inputs. The Nyrna record these conversations and trade the learnings with other tribal kingdoms across the land. They are often deliverers of the cryptic foresight of the Elves.

The Nyrna females, who are less proficient at communicating with the Elves, focus instead on the dark-lucking Bitela. Though the Nyrna can't see well or at all in the huge, deep Bitela tunnels, they use their hard, carapace-like fingers to imitate the creaks and rustles of Bitela wings. They use their antennae along with their knowledge of Bitela creaks to understand the response.

Each Nyrna female generally has one Bitela they have domesticated and ride through the passageways. Nyrna hunting parties usually allow their Bitela to lead the way while they gather mosses and fungus from the cavernous walls. Once they've followed the Bitela to their current feasting ground, the Nyrna work to retrieve valuable and resonative material from the corpses deceased dragons, a Bitela's most common food source, before the Bitela consume them. The Nyrna use their senses and those of the Elves to stay out of the way of wild Bitela and dragons that might be attracted to the dead creature. What the Nyrna harvest, they trade.

Urdr

The Urdr have little in common with their places of living, except that each is defensible. For some Urdr settlements, these are enhanced natural defenses, and for others the defensibility is integral to its construction. 

The Urdr males are the leaders of the Norns. The horns of the males call out to all the Norns. it is them that call together the tribes of the Norn when battle is needed or when great matters must be discussed.

The Urdr females also have great sway over the Norns. They are the merchants of the Urdr. They travel to the other tribes of the Norns, bringing their merchandise as well as messages from the ruling Urdr. Their antennae, rather than sense an animal, can sense through pheromones and identify Nornish males from a great distance. They often use their ability of high attunement to the male Norns and their knowledge of both politics and society to subtly shift perception and decision in a way they think is best, knowing the local situation as well as the situation of the Norns at large.