The Norkin or Norish people originating from the Lands of Maria, a small grouping of villages and freemen. Ethnic Norkin have pale skin, blue, green, or black eyes, black, red, orange, or blonde hair, and are taller and bulkier than most Plains Humans. The Norkin maintain a racial purity from their original clans leaving their genetics in the lands of their enemies but being discouraged from bringing in foreign cultures.  

The Norkin enjoy flavorful food and are known for faire that most consider strange or distasteful. They have relied almost entirely on what they can grow and produce with in the Norlands. They rely on smoked fish, fresh seafood, root vegetables, domesticated animals, and many root vegetables. Some of their staples include a chicken and leek soup, a cabbage, onion, cheese, and mashed potato casserole, and a savory meat pudding. 

The Norkin are composed of familiar clans and larger alliance groupings. The Norkin have laws individual to city-state holdings, and their union forms the Norkin Federation. They worship Mealis and Ondra Seir foremost and the family Patriarchs hold dominance and are the sole owner of all a clan’s property. Warriors are ascended above other clan members and are treated very well as proper warriors ensure the order and status is maintained by the Patriarch. The lower status members of the clan are often left to fulfill all the work needed by the community. The Norkin are one of the most accepting of the Plains Human people having no care if you are the same race, species, or people so long as you follow orders and are good in a scrap they’ll accept you. Women and Men are of the same status except for only men can become Patriarch. There have been a few instances of a Matriarch rise with exceptional individuals or lack of male heirs. Structures are simple, palisade walls, and fortresses where the Patriarch lives. Their entertainments are mostly physical games that promote strength, agility, skill, and help promote prowess in combat from archery, wrestling, sparing, axe throwing, log toss, runs, and a few games of strategy. They enjoy creating music that tries to capture the panic and adrenaline of war as well as poetry of death meant to keep the heroic dead alive in the hearts of the Norkin.  

The Norkin believe in a strong work ethic, personal strength, and a strong warrior culture. The Norkin are mostly an agrarian society having kept the faith and remained behind most of their neighbors at least in architecture. The Norkin are one of the most militant of cultures and many a young man trains to serve as a mercenary in foreign lands to earn enough prestige to be ascended into a position of a Clan Warrior. They produce excess produce and help keep the massive cities of the Evari and Norgathi fed. The Norgathi warriors are drilled to show no fear, pain, or hesitation. Facing their heavy infantry is terrifying as the hulking berserk Norkin warriors charge enemies down. They are augmented with levies of archers, heavy calvary, axe throwers. 

The Norkin primarily rely on the trade of produce and a mercenary service to support their nation state. They sale lumber and with a small, specialized alchemist guild export high quality cuts of meat to noble lands preserved with cold. 

The Norkin maintain close alliances with the Norgathi and Evari having entwinned their alliances so tightly they can almost no longer function separately. The Norkin have a large corp of elite warriors, heavy calvary, and large swathes of levies.