Friends and Foes

Bildsa
The settlement of Bildsa lies to the east of Skalafell and is the nearest settlement of Daggermen.  It's leader is a woman named Hedris.  Hedris has a difficult time maintaining order in her village and has sometimes come to Skalafell for help.  This amuses Grettir.

Bildsa has no priestesses of Saewelo but some of its members are descended from Nerthuz, and thus they live off of game and what can be gathered from the forest.  They occasionally send bands to trade or, less commonly, raid Skalafell.

The Spear People
The Spear People claim to be descended from Wodanaz, but the name of their human ancestor was not worth carving on Skalafell's Great Stone.  Perhaps they know it.

They live closer to the Walchos and often trade with them, raid them, and sometimes even serve in their legions.  This has made them love luxury and also fattened them like a pig for slaughter.  They make for good raiding.

Their nearest settlement is called Hjall and is dominated by an old Walchos villa which the Big Man there uses as his hall.  His name is Athelgar.  Their are rumors he may try to host a thing sometime in the future, and it is unknown if any of the Daggermen will attend if he does.

The Red Men
The Red Men come from the north.  They paint themselves in clay and mud, which one must assume they find after their priestesses melt the snow with Saewelo's light.  Their warriors often raid the lands of both the Daggermen and the Spear People.  The magic they cast on these raids is Lightning and Thunder and their warriors favor hammers and clubs.

The loot from these raids is sometimes taken to Skalafell and other villages to be traded.  The Red Men are sometimes difficult to understand, as their speech is slurred but their voices are quick.  They are known cheats.

The Walchos
When the Sun and the Moon still shone, the old people of Skalafell told stories of the Walchos and their great armies and their strange ways.  They had not been seen in the lands of the Daggermen for many years when the Wolves ate the Sun and the Moon and it was a strange day when they returned.  The Spear People say their kings came on white steeds but their soldiers were dead men caked in grave dirt and reeking of Helheim.  One of the living, a strange man in a pointed cap, hurled a great spear across the Rinaz and then the dead men set about rebuilding their old forts.

The Daggermen have not seen these dead men.  Raids across the Rinaz show most Walchos are just men, though they are exceptionally rich and do not descend from the gods.  Their strange priests, who occasionally travel to the villages and halls of the Spear People and the Daggermen, claim their god died but rose again.  Some among Bildsa and Hjall have said they've seen these priests raise corpses out of the ground like draugos.  None in Skalafell have seen this.

Their speech is strange, but since they hire the Spear People as mercenaries many know the speech of men.