The Daily Life in Vintermor

Life in Vintermor is often harsh, and never boring. The bitter cold that envelops the city eight months of every year, if not more, means that much of the city's activity, both social and professional, occurs indoors.

COMMERCE
The street markets' booths are often built around small clay chiminias, portable fireplaces that keep the merchants warm. Heavy tarps and hides serve as windbreaks, and more often than not, one will see 'folding booths' or tents that can be easily broken down at the end of the day. This need for protection from the elements also means that groups of merchants will often combine resources and share a tent, chiminia, and selling-space. This leads to a much more cooperative sales environment, and a merchant's guild that encourages slight discounts on combined sales to help keep these small merchanter groups afloat.

These groups are recognized formally within the merchant's guild as 'Knots' -- most often, a Knot will be known by either its location or its eldest or founding member. Usually they will include between three and twelve merchants

Knots aren't limited to just the street peddlers, though -- the drop-front stores so common throughout the rest of the city often form these small bands as well, offering recommendations to one another's shops.

Common trade items include hides and furs, whale oil (for waterproofing), hardwood and coal (for fires), steel and metalwork, and eisvines and meads.

Steel items are slightly cheaper in Vintermor than in more temperate climates. A smith's job is much less unpleasant in the frigid climes of this metropolis than in the warmer regions, and thus, elaborate and artistic metalworking is part of the norm here. In addition, metal resources in this region are rich, and quite productive. Wrought iron is a far more common decoration on the homes of the wealthy than lattices or vine-racks.

FOOD
The food in Vintermor tends to be heavy and filling. Stews, roasted meat, sharp or soft goat cheese, and dark breads are common fare. Fruits are more often used to make eisvines and meads than as a dietary staple, and the short growing season means that vegetables are often more pricey than meat. Winter berries grow on a hardy bush, and serve as an exception. They are well-liked as dessert, or as a component of fancier meals. Winterberries are green-white, purple, red or deep blue in color, and each has a distinctive flavor.

Meat is plentiful and cheap. Mutton and buffalo are the staple meats of the Vintermor diet, with fish a close second. Semi-domesticated fowl is less common, though pheasant is well-regarded as well. Fish is as often fresh as dried and smoked; both varieties are widely eaten.

Beef is something of a luxury, as is pork. Both can be found, but at a higher price than mutton, buffalo, or the gamey goat-meat some favor. Wild boar is popular, as well; when a group of hunters manages to bring back boar, they will always find that any meat they do not keep will be quickly sold at a tidy profit. Horse meat is uncommon, as the sturdy equines of the region are better used for travel, pulling sledges, and carrying things.

It is far easier to find milk and cheese from goats in Vintermor than cows, as cattle are not nearly so impervious to the unrelenting cold of the area. One benefit to the area is that the cold helps to preserve food longer, and thus, smoked meat is common, but fresh meat even in the winter can be had.

In a tavern, a poor man's meal sells for a copper and consists of day-old bread and meat dripping, with a hunk of goat cheese. A common meal sells for two copper and usually features a hollowed-out bread loaf filled with roast meat or stew, with cheese and perhaps some berries alongside.

DRINK
Vintermor's inhabitants drink mead, eisvine (ice wine), or the clean mountain water most commonly. Conventional ales are common as well as a default, but more of the natives of the city prefer the headier, spicier, beverages.

Vintermor's eisvines and meads are thick, sweet, and very potent. The quick-freeze to fruit crops during the changes of season mean that the sweetness of grapes and other fruits are trapped within the fruit itself, making the beverage both sweet and potent when fermented. Eisvines and meads can be served cold, or heated in a mug with spices.

The vineyards and orchards of this region are tended with great care during the short four-month growing season. Many of the druids of this region are somewhat Bacchanalian in temperament, as they are the primary tenders of the vineyards and the fields of grain and wheat.

Unlike most cities, Vintermor also has a nearly constant source of fresh water -- the snow. Snow is collected in vats and heated over fires to melt it into water for drinking, cooking and bathing. As a result if this process, many of the impurities of the water are removed, leaving it clear and mineral-rich.

DRESS
The commonfolk of Vintermor tend to dress similarly. Here, women commonly wear wool leggings under their long skirts, and in many cases, they forego the skirt entirely and replace it with trews of tanned hide, treated with wax and oil to repel the water.

Both genders most often wear a layer of soft-spun wool (leggings and a short, hip-length shift) under all of their other garb. Over that is usually a shirt, covered by a tunic, a pair of trews, and boots. Boots are usually fur-lined, and trews that are not made of heavy hides may be as well.

The most common fabrics are hides, wool, and furs -- fox and rabbit are very common cloak-linings, and the heavy coats of the mountain goats are often woven into almost blanket-like wraps that are kept on hand in case the wind gets extraordinarily bitter.

HOMES
Private homes in Vintermor tend to be small and open. The average Vintermore house has two stories, each with a single large common room. In most cases, the the entire second story is set up as a large communal sleeping area. As a result, children are usually aware of the intimate facts of man and woman at a young age, and consider it no more shameful than eating or sleeping.

The main room of the house usually has a hearth at each end, one used for cooking and the other, simply for warmth. The house's common room is the heart of family life, the place where families eat, work, play, and spend most of the time when they are not working outside the home.

Houses tend to be made of the evergreen wood types, with mud bricks, tar, and hide used to line the inner walls for warmth. The windows tend to have wooden shutters rather than glass, as glass is a luxury, and doesn't keep out the fierce chill. Furniture tends to be wooden and sturdy, with pieces passed down from generation to generation. Dried flowers and woven goat-hair tapestries are often used to make a home more cheerful.

FAMILY
Daughters and sons are raised in more or less the same fashion. Both genders learn the necessary skills for survival -- hunting, cooking, cleaning, building, mending, and so forth. More often girls will concentrate on the home arts while boys focus more on the external ones, but it is not uncommon for children to go against these loose gender roles.

At least some of the children of a family usually end up in the same profession as their parents. Others will move on to other things, and often a child who shows promise in a different profession will be apprenticed to another family, with a child from that family 'traded' to the first.

Familial ties are strong, but blood kinship is not the only measure of family. Some Vintermor natives will consider themselves as part of a handful of families: the one into which the child was born, the one into which he was apprenticed, the one into which he was married, and perhaps even the family of his closest friend. As a result, the folk of Vintermor have large extended 'families' upon which they can rely.

COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE
Young adults in Vintermor tend to choose their own mates in the non-noble classes. Often a young couple will arise from an apprenticeship to another family, where the apprentice will end up marrying one of the master's children. On rare occasions, marriages will be arranged between families, but that is uncommon.

Marriage is seen as the largest and most important choice a man or woman must make. The custom is for a year-and-a-day courtship. When a son asks the father of a woman for permission to marry, he has a year and a day from that moment to prove his worth to the father, and to his potential bride. If he does not satisfy both of them, the marriage can be called off without notice.

Most often, the male partner of the couple is the one who proposes the idea. One tradition is to leave a pair of acorns for the young woman with a small gift, as a promise of intention. If the woman returns the acorns to him, she is unwilling to marry him, but if she intends to marry him, her family will invite his to the house for a meal, and the two will plant those acorns on her father's land. This is usually the moment when the young man asks his prospective father-in-law for permission.

There is no dowry, per se; both women and men keep aside a portion of their wages and possessions in a 'promise chest,' which provides them with the new start they need upon marriage. Often, a sibling or two will move in with the new couple to help them keep house and prepare to build a family.

Parents of the newlyweds will give a wedding-feast, jointly, and those who attend will bring useful, practical gifts. Almost inevitably, one of those gifts is a puppy, who will later become the family dog.

LIVESTOCK
In this region, the hardier animals are more common. Buffalo, mountain goats, heavy-wooled sheep, shaggy mountain ponies and hardy, squat draft horses are among the most populous.

DOGS IN DAILY LIFE
Most commoner homes have a dog, one with a thick coat, a powerful body and muscular legs. Some of the larger families have two or three. Sleek dogs are uncommon here, except among the nobility, because such animals must be imported. A family's dog is guardian, shepherd, hunter, and sometimes draft animal - the sight of dogs pulling sledges to market is quite common. Most of Vintermor's dogs have a strong strain of wolf-blood in their heritage. Among spellweavers native to Vintermor, wolf-dogs are highly-prized as familiars and animal companions.

As a result of this, dogs enjoy an odd status among Vintermor's residents. When a family's dog becomes too old and infirm to continue, a new one is acquired, and old teaches new. Once the new dog is trained, the older dog is generally given a swift death and buried near the family's property to serve as guardian in the afterlife as well.

It is an insult in Vintermor to mistreat a dog. Dogs are never killed for meat. Dogs are fiercely loyal to their families, and vice versa. To kill a family's dog is an offense punishable by death, or indenture to the family.

Because so many of the dogs are hunters, it is not at all uncommon to see the men of a household and their dogs taking down a kill together. Some dogs even hunt in small packs without humans, and bring their kills home. It is considered a mark of respect to be invited to a family's home to share in their dog's kill. To be given a pup sired by or birthed from a strong hunter is an honor among the commonfolk that binds families together. Many commoner families have resolved disputes spanning generations with the gift of the pick of a prime bitch's litter.

Dogs are usually given names similar to human ones. Rarely will one find a dog with a 'sweet' name. One names a dog for its qualities, if a human name is not used. Thus, the most common dog names in Vintermor are things like Hunter, Ranger, Guardian, Treeclimber, Chaser, and so forth.

ADVENTURING
The cold of Vintermor means adventurers have to be exceptionally hardy and well-prepared for nature's sharp bite. As a result, most of those who hunt bounties or monsters (or both) set up a base of operations within the city, and travel out on short trips to deal with the nearby issues.

That standard (free) outfit every character gets is an Explorer's Outfit -- one simply cannot survive in Wintermor's harsh surrounding lands without the proper clothing.