The Ger lands are located in the northernmost part of Terra’s mainland—the farthest north, in fact, of any country in the world. It is bordered by Imp in the west, the northern areas of the Khepri Desert in the south, Xheng in the southeast, and the Onan Sea in the north. Divided almost in half by the Aru Mountains, much of the Ger lands consist of cold steppes. Although the southernmost parts of the country sometimes experience hot spells during the summertime, the climate in general is extremely cold. Winters are long, harsh, and windy; summers are cool, with most of the annual rainfall occurring over a few brief moons.Because of the harshness of climate, the relative vastness of the territory, or the exacting lifestyle of the Ger, it is the most sparsely populated country in Terra. In general, it contains very little arable land; this may help to explain the nomadic or semi-nomadic practices of most Ger, who depend on herds of sheep, goats, and even camels as their main form of sustenance. Very few permanent villages exist, and only one city, named Surgut, which sprang up under the cultural influence of Xheng in the southeastern portion of the country. Scholars once considered Surgut the unofficial “capital” of the Ger lands; but since the rise of the warlord Merv and the city’s subsequent fall, its continued existence as such is uncertain at best. Instead, the majority of the Ger live in tent-like structures of wood and hides that can be set up, broken down, and transported easily as they move from place to place.
A number of ruins and so-called “deer stones”—monolithic rocks carved with pictures of flying deer—scattered throughout the Aru Mountains have led scholars to speculate that a different race may have inhabited the Ger lands before being conquered or driven out by the Ger; but who these people might have been is unknown. All that researchers have been able to gather so far is that this earlier civilization was an agricultural one, and that the richness of the Ger culture—surprisingly rich, in many scholars’ minds, given their tendency toward gruffness and the nation’s relative isolation—may stem in part from having absorbed parts of the earlier culture.
For most of its history, Ger society has been subject to a pattern of near-constant internal conflict and the occasional raids on the Xheng or Al’hazir borderlands. Domestic conflict between tribes varies in seriousness; sometimes the consequence of blood-feuds or territorial scuffles as clans vie for pastureland, the raids can also sometimes serve as “training exercises” that are meant to test the skill and strength of the clans’ young warriors. In the latter case, deaths are infrequent and may even strengthen the relationship between the clans involved by either proving the clans’ might to one another, or possibly establishing one tribe’s superiority over the other. Whatever the exact circumstances of any given skirmish, raiding parties are typified by their ferocity and swiftness. Ger warriors are trained from a very young age to ride horses; the mounted raiders will often appear, invade, and leave a targeted area within a matter of hours, to great and often overwhelming effect.
Very rarely, the different tribes of Ger will unite to form huge confederations, which rise to prominence with surprising rapidity and move against neighboring countries en masse. The first instance of such solidarity occurred in 601 RE, when a warlord by the name of Cai Li Hui brought the various clans under his own banner and stormed Xheng, eventually sacking the Imperial Palace and causing the collapse of the Nara dynasty. Such a feat has been attempted, to different degrees of success, by warlords Chuluun in the ninth century RE, Bodun Nyam in the tenth century RE, Dzoldzaya in the thirteenth century RE; and, most recently, Merv. Having used mercenaries to supplement his Ger armies, Warlord Merv first led his soldiers against the Xheng border in 1602 RE; and the struggle continues today in the central portions of Xheng. To all appearances, Merv seems to depart from his predecessors in his intent to expand the Ger lands rather than the other warlords’ desire to raid and pillage. Interestingly enough, scholars studying the conflict have remarked on the relative stabilizing influence that Merv’s conquest has had in those areas not directly affected by the war. Both commerce and communication have improved drastically throughout the Ger lands in the years since he took power.
Economically, the Ger have always been some of the most isolated and self-sufficient people in the world, living off of their herds and the land around them rather than relying on goods brought in from other places. Trade is mostly limited to the efforts of foreign caravans that travel through Ger which, although always at risk of raiding parties, report a deep-rooted sense of hospitality among the different clans. Long ago, a Legati trader coming out of the Ger lands wrote that the Ger “are a terse and sometimes proud race, prone to the same silence as the snow-covered lands around them, but ultimately good-hearted and giving of themselves, especially to a jangling caravan full of lost and hungry travelers. The shaman-elder who met my troupe, almost smiling, informed us that there was little enough succor in those cold wastelands without his people being unwelcoming themselves; and with that, a thick stew was set to cook over a fire, and my troupe and his tribe spent the night exchanging all manner of news, song, and stories.”
Culturally, the Ger are not the “barbaric” people that many foreigners often think; rather, their traditions are very old and extremely rich. Many Ger are literate, not just in the common tongue dominant in Terra, but also in ancient Ger as well. Story-telling and khoomei—throat-singing—are popular pastimes, in addition to archery, wrestling, and games such as shagaa (which involves flicking sheep ankle bones at a target set several feet away, in an attempt to knock the target over). Every midsummer, the Ger celebrate for three days during a national festival known as the Games; significant competitions include the two-day horse race, played out over a long stretch of open country, and the trick-riding portion of the Games, which sees riders perform amazing feats on horse-back. It is said that the best Ger rider of all time, Sükhbaatar Damian, once scattered coppers on the ground before picking them back up while riding at a full gallop. Winners are highly honored, gaining ancient titles–nachin, or falcon, is given to the fourth-best competitor; zaan, or elephant, to the third-best; arslan, or lion, to the second-best; and the first-place victor is awarded a suitable epithet, which is applied and remembered for the rest of the victor’s life.