Rockhome
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Rockhome | |
|---|---|
| Religion | Storm Worship |
| Demonym | Rockhomite |
| Government | Oligarchy |
| Area | |
• Total | 64,874 km2 (25,048 sq mi) |
| Population | |
• Estimate | 30,000 |
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This page refers to the islands themselves. If you are looking for the category page, go here.
Rockhome is a cluster of five islands in the northwestern Attu Archipelago inhabited by a group of people dubbed 'Rockhomites.' As of 53 PC, Rockhome remains isolated from the other islands in the Archipelago. An omnipresent fog coats the island in shallow shadow.
Geography
The islands of Rockhome contain large deposits of clay and shale.
The High Isle
| Capital | Cliff Town |
|---|---|
| Demonym | Highlander |
| Government | Absolute Monarchy |
• Storm Eater | Unknown |
| Establishment | |
• Founded | ca. 500 TT |
| Population | |
• Estimate | 16,000 |
The High Isle is the largest island of Rockhome, and the home of the Highlanders. As it winds northward, it steadily rises, with the cliffs that compose its northeastern faces rising close to 40 meters in height. The southwestern coast of the isle is a stretch of stony beaches specked with gold. Iron deposits line the higher points of the land, and the rust-red bleed on the sides of many cliffs can be seen from afar.
The highest and northernmost plateau of the High Isle is known as its Crown. The Crown is always a few degrees colder than the rest of the island, and is the annual nesting ground of the rime-birds. To the south, situated on the cliff that stands closest to the Mountain of Green Fire, lies Cliff Town, a permanent settlement of Rockhome.
The Mountain of Green Fire
The Mountain of Green Fire rises like a giant's blackened fang off of the southern coast of the High Isle. Nothing but strange lichens and mosses grow on this hulk of igneous rock, and on certain nights yellow-green fires are seen flickering and writhing in the air above its peak. The people of Rockhome venerate and fear this holy place.
The Low Isle
Lowland | |
|---|---|
| Demonym | Lowlander |
| Government | Theocratic Republic |
• Council | of Lowland |
| Establishment | |
• Founded | ca. 400 TT |
| Population | |
• Estimate | 12,000 |
While flatter than the High Isle, the Low Isle, home of the Lowlanders, has its own cliffs on its southern face. As one leaves the northern beach and ventures south, the low foliage grows denser and denser. Villages dot the northern shore, and canoes and larger vessels are used by the people of Rockhome to cross the gulf between the High and Low Isles.
Worm Home
No human beings inhabit the tunnel-ridden and half-submerged rocks west of the Low Isle. These islands are the nesting grounds of the dreaded white worms.
Ecology
Climate
The climate of Rockhome is predominantly cold and wet, averaging around 15 C in the summer and -25 C in the winter. Snowfall is frequent, as well as rain in the warmer months. Most of Rockhome is a tundra, but the southern ridge of the Low Isle is a narrow strip of taiga. All islands of Rockhome contain many small ponds and patches of wetland.
Flora
The flora of Rockhome is primarily lichens, mosses, small herbaceous plants, and small shrubs, including berry bushes. The taiga of the Low Isle is home to a small forest of primarily coniferous trees, with a smaller population of birch and aspen. Rainwater pooling in the trees has created some small streams that flow northward down the island, and into the sea.
Fauna
Rockhome houses polar bears, black bears, moose, rime-birds, foxes, hares, lynxes, as well as various species of small rodents, mustelids, and birds. Various species of fish, pinnipeds, and toothed whales can be found in its coastal waters.
Government
The Priest Class
Important decisions regarding laws, hunting grounds, disputes between families, and so on, are resolved by Rockhome's priest class.
Priests are all male, and their office was previously legitimized by the Storm. Despite the Storm's absence, rites of passage to priesthood are still reference Its omnipresence.
Priesthood is hereditary, but priests are sworn to celibacy. However, kinship in Rockhomite culture is matrilineal. Priestly bloodlines are tracked from mother to daughter, and men that appear along the family branch can become priests.
Familial Ties
Disputes and dispute resolution are closely linked to familial ties. While functionally one nation, the lack of centralized governance in Rockhome leads to considerable bickering between various powerful families. Such 'houses' are typically referred to by the name of their most prestigious living member, such as House Celeris.
Military
Rockhome has no standing military, and large-scale conflict is unheard of. In the rare instances where uncontrolled violence breaks out, as opposed to violence organized by the priest-caste as punishment for a given person's transgressions, the people of Rockhome utilize bows, spears, and knives, much as they would while hunting.
Economy
Food Production
The soil in virtually all of Rockhome is either too sparse to farm in, too acidic to farm in, or frozen year round. In some places, the soil is characterized by all of the preceding statements. As a result, there is no agriculture in Rockhome.
In the north, rime-birds have been domesticated, and their eggs supplement the diets of Highlanders. In the south, fishing provides much of the food for both Highlanders and Lowlanders. Following The Calming, the fishing industry in Rockhome has grown rapidly, with whaling and sealing also growing in popularity as a means of gathering food and resources. But the primary and traditional method of food gathering is hunting. Practically anything can be hunted for its meat, but the people of Rockhome primarily hunt moose, hares, and even lemmings. Government dialogues between powerful families establish hunting zones, which are rotated yearly to avoid the depletion of animals.
Technology
Rockhome is a pre-industrial, non-agricultural society. Metalworking is known, but is rare. Due to a shortage of fuel, most metal goods created in Rockhome are cold-wrought, soft metals, primarily gold found on the southern slopes of Highland. Most tools made by the people of Rockhome are made with organic materials such as wood, tendon, and bone, as well as knapped stone.
Only recently have the people of Rockhome began building boats larger than canoes, and embarking on fishing expeditions to the waters beyond the island. There is a strong taboo associated with traveling beyond the bounds of the world, and people who do so are kept in seclusion until they can be ritualistically decomtanimated and reintegrated into society.
The bulk of Rockhome's scientific knowledge relates the the taxonomy, anatomy and life-cycles of the flora and fauna native to the islands.
Goods
Most of the material culture produced by the people of Rockhome is practical in nature: clothing, tools, and shelter. That said, practical objects nonetheless possess ornamental features. A shawl or poncho might be embossed with elaborate designs made utilizing yarn derived from feathers, precious metals, pearls, and seashells. The bone handle of a knife may bear elaborate carvings. People who are not occupied with matters of subsistence often stay busy by creating such objects or the components needed to make them, such as thread, leather, and refined metals.
Gifts and Trade
Culture
Language and Symbolism
The language of Rockhome is derived from the same linguistic ancestor as the language of La Rossa.
Naming Conventions
The people of Rockhome name their children after the qualities they hope the children will come to embody. For example, "Vivax," meaning "long-lived," or "Perspicax," meaning "observant." Names are always in the nominative case. Later in life people may be given bynames to distinguish them from other people who share the name, such as "Vivax of the Coast," or "Perspicax the Tanner."
Religion
The people of Rockhome have worshiped the Storm as God since time immemorial.
Infants were baptized by sea-flecked wind and holy flashes of lightning. Prayers were sung in Its honour. Marriages, comings-of-age, and all other manner of rituals were witnessed and legitimized by It.
When it vanished, the entire society was thrown into crisis. At first, the priests declared that this was temporary, that the Storm would return. As the years passed, fewer and fewer people believed them. A new generation of people who had never known the storm were raised faithless, and when they came of age they shattered centuried taboos by placing boats in the sacred waters to the north of the High Isle and to the south of the Low Isle.
Now, a new generation of priests rule. These neo-priests do not believe that the storm will return. Rather competing schools of thought have emerged. Some say that the Storm is dead and gone, to which their associates respond by arguing that to die is not to vanish, but to change shape, and that the Storm has reincarnated itself as the outside world. Another faction of priests believe that the Storm has only receded, and if one were to sail far enough, they might find Its holy winds once more.
Theology
According to the priests of Rockhome, the Storm was not only the creator of the world, but also the witness of the world. Everything that ever happened was witnessed by the Storm, and thus made legitimate. If it were to go unwitnessed it would have no metaphysical weight or consequence. Because of this, the "Eye of the Storm" is an important motif in Rockhomite art and culture.
As for what the Storm actually was, the people of Rockhome believe that the world is made of essence, which cannot be destroyed; only changed. The Storm was the progenitor and master of essence, responsible for both creating it and arranging it into its current form. When the Storm vanished, some priests speculated that perhaps the Storm Itself was made of essence and had changed Itself into waters.
Afterlife
Following the concept that essence cannot be destroyed, the people of Rockhome concluded that death is the mere changing of form. A person becomes a corpse which decays and becomes soil, which is fed on by plants which are fed on by animals. Thus, a person who dies is reincarnated in new forms. Eventually, they will circle back to being a person again.
Values
Kinship
The people of Rockhome are matrilineal: they trace their kinship through their mother's bloodline. Bonds between a given child and their mother's siblings are very strong, and such aunts and uncles often act as secondary parents.
Marriage
Diplomatic Relationships
La Rossa
In 61 PC Laetus the Farsighted arrived at the shores of La Rossa with his nephews Felix and Obstans whilst searching for the Storm. He spoke to Dux Giulio Moretti, and ultimately elected to remain in La Rossa for a time to familiarize himself with its people and customs, while sending his two nephews back to Rockhome with a crank-operated radio.