The Votanki hunters are the original human residents of Griffin Island.
They perpetuate the hunter-gatherer lifestyle of their ancestor since the
beginning of time, and will still be doing it long after the stone walls
of the citadels have crumbled into dust...
The various Votanki tribes are similar to each other and are representative
of hunter-gatherer societies throughout Glorantha. .
The family hearth is the focus of the Votanki lifestyle. Grandmother
Sky taught all women this, and they all teach their children the true in
this. A family hearth is centered upon a single hunter, son of Votank, who
must provide fresh meat and skins for all his dependents, and protect them
from violence. In practical terms, each adult man supports his wife or wives,
his children, his parents and sometime his parents-in-law, plus anyone else
he cares to add. The size of the hearth varies depending upon the hunting
skill of the man and the gathering skills of the women and children, but
averages 4 to 8 peoples. The hearth is considered an unbreakable family
unit. Even through a man or woman might desert his or her clan brothers
in an emergency, he or she will never desert a hearthmate.
Normally, the Votanki are open and peace-loving people. They are sociable
and try to stay together in larger groups if possible. Sometime, the scarcity
of game in some areas necessitates drastic separations into nuclear families.
Their natural friendliness and desire to protect humans from the orcs causes
them to welcome other hunters for the winter. Even with the threat of hunger,
they are always happy to meet other hunters and talk with all winter.
Outsiders are called "foreigners" and are associated with the
citadel-living clans who wear cloth, eat tame pigs and indulge in forbidden
practices. Strangers are less readily received because all Votanki have
heard many stories which abjure them to resist new-fangled inventions like
metal, kings and strange gods. Many of them can relate bad personal experiences,
usually from misunderstanding, at the hands of the foreigners.
One of the many worries of the Votanki is that a foreigner will not be able
to provide his own food. The hunter's sense of responsability will force
him to share the family food with strangers whom he has admitted into the
hearth, even to the extent of making his own children go hungry. Thus, many
of them refuse to deal with foreigners at all, for fear of sharing their
fire and food. They flee from strangers, often leaving behind much of their
equipment. The goods are abandoned to some future when the hunter will try
to regain it through wile, trade or combat.
All reticence falls after a hunter accepts the newcomer. In a little ritual recitation, any Votanki man or woman can make a "foreigner" into an "insider". As such, the newcomer is treated as an equal, another hunter from a stranger clan.Such acceptance is personal, from one individual to another, but last for life. Throughout the winter an accepted foreigner will hear the recital many times, as more and more people becomes friends.
Everyone is part of a clan. A clan is a group of hearth united in the
worship of the same Totem. Totemism here means that the people's birth,
initiation and death rites call upon the same spirit for each clan. Clan
membership is determined by matriarchal inheritance, and clan laws are strict
in determining which clan a spouse may or may not be taken from.Members
of a clan always treat each other with the respect born of kinship, never
calling another of the clan an enemy. Meeting with a friendly clan hearth
during hunting is always cause for rejoicing, even if the meeting is brief.
Two groups of leaders top the Votanki clan hierarchy, the secular hunting
autorities and the shamans. In most case, their dual purpose work toward
the one common good.
The hunter hierarchy includes the Chief, elected at the death of the old
chief for a lifetime office, and the Council of Elders.
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