Clan Sigferth

[Lunari]

Symbol: Stag/Deer
Element: Earth
Values: Charity, compassion, physical and emotional health
Colors: Green, yellow, white
Aesthetic: here
Leader: Willow Sigferth (NPC)
Culture:
Society

• Herbalists and healers, obviously, so their knowledge of the properties and uses of plants is higher than the rest of the clans. They make and sell tinctures, salves, and poultices to be used by others.
• This training is passed from generation to generation often through oral tradition, very little has been recorded in writing. Those who wish to learn will often serve as apprentices to older healers so that they can gain experience.
• They will not turn away someone who is sick or injured. They must do their best to assist even their enemies.
• Life is valued to an extreme degree, and to take a life is the highest crime. Because of this, criminals are given community service for lesser crimes (ex: theft) and banished for major crimes (murder or rape).
• They treat the Earth with worshipful respect; the Earth is seen as a kind of mother figure who nurtures the humans that live there. Even foraging methods have been perfected so as to cause as little harm to the plants used as possible.
• The wisdom of elders is valued and young people are expected to be respectful to those who have more life experience than them.
• Modesty/being humble is valued as well, bragging is seen as rude.  

Combat

• Combat training is extremely limited in Sigferth--healing is very much valued over doing harm.
• Approximately 4-5 people stay in a cabin at the end of the mountain pass and take turns watching the only manageable path that leads towards the populated areas. Two will go on watch at a time, and if travelers approach, one will go down to check their reasons and escort them. If they do not signal approval to the others, the archers will shoot down the travelers.

Courting/Marriage/Funerals

• Marriage is fluid in Sigferth. Couples may hold a celebration, but the joining of a couple is not nearly as publicized among the community as the birth of new life later on.
• Marriage/love is seen as a private affair between a couple, something that is deeply personal. A small ceremony may be held between the couple and their immediate family, but many see the proposal itself as the main ritual of marriage.
• Proposals may be begun by either gender. The initiator is expected to give flowers to their intended; this can be as simple as a bouquet, or as intricate as growing a garden specifically for that purpose. A popular story says that the clan leader’s husband decorated her entire bedroom with her favorite lilies for his proposal, from floor to ceiling.
• Divorce is as simple as a couple deciding they no longer wish to live together and separating.
• Childbirth is quite an affair among Sigferth women--when the woman nears her time she will be taken to a separate maternity cottage at the edge of the village and be attended by only other women. The father of the child may be brought in if she allows it during the process of labor.
• Women are considered to have primary rights to their children as they are the ones who carried them, but both parents do have legal rights to the child if they were present at the birth. A man can have a legal case called before a council of elders if he believes that his child is being withheld from him.
• Single women will sometimes choose someone to father a child for them, but it is required that they make it clear to the man from the beginning that they do not want him involved in raising the child.
• Names are also passed through the mother’s lineage, rather than the father’s, and do not change at marriage. (Ex: Willow Sigferth gave birth to a daughter named Violet Sigferth. Violet married Heath Killgore, but her last name is still Sigferth.)
• While it may seem macabre to those in other clans, a deceased Sigferth is buried either in a family flower garden or in the community fields so that they can continue to nurture new life. A funeral is held in which the member is returned to the Earth. Some believe that their spirit will be reincarnated somewhere else in the world.