Ka-Teni

The mountains can be cold and dangerous to live in, but some folk always find a way. The Ka-Teni are one such people.

Bowl of Sky. The Ka-Teni disagree between themselves on their true origin, with as many versions as there are households. The common detail is that the sky is clearly a great, upended bowl, with the ground below being the spilled meal of some unimaginatively huge worldeater. This upset is said variously to be caused by the whim of the gods, a clashing of titans, or the collapsing table of cosmic scale. The place of mortals is atop these spilled remnants, with other planes being different ingredients. The exact culinary nature of the Material Plane is the subject of spirited debate, but has lead to the belief that each day should be seized vigorously, because “tomorrow we might be swept away or eaten.”

Making Hay While the Sun Shines. The Ka-Teni pursue a mixed strategy of herding and agriculture in order to survive, as their preference is for a meat-heavy diet. In spring they drive their long-haired cattle down to the freshly-thawed pastures and set up temporary shelters there. In the meantime, druids use plant growth and fertilize field to boost the growth of their crops. For a few glorious months, they make preparations for the long, hungry winter, harvesting crops, smoking meats, drying livestock feed, and collecting plants for colorful dyes. Those Ka-Teni that leave their mountain homes usually do so and return during this scant four-month window.

Behind High Walls. The winter shelters of the Ka-Teni consist of round houses up to 50 feet high and about 30 feet across, with reinforced rammed earth and stone walls about six feet thick. Each has several murder holes, four to five floors, and one very solid door. Multiple generations of a family live in each, and as families grow sufficiently large, they build a connected house, often with a central courtyard or covered path. This leads to Ka-Teni towns resembling a single, huge structure, allowing its citizens to move relatively freely despite the snow. The Ka-Teni typically keep their herds within their homes or courtyards, both for extra heat and as a renewable source of fuel for the fire.
Established Ka-Teni settlements have installed beacon stones—flat rocks with the direction and distance of the nearest settlement embossed on their surface—in large, concentric circles around them to help guide hunters and travelers in bad weather.

Bright Colors for Dark Months. It gets very dreary in the long, dreary months, so the Ka-Teni favor vibrant colors and fascinating patterns in their clothing, the making of which is a common task in winter. Some take this further, shaving similar patterns in their hair or fur or coloring it with the gentlest of their dyes. The drinking of various tisanes and teas and the telling of stories and singing of songs is very important to keeping the darkness from overwhelming them.

The Ka-Teni are a seasonally migrating people that spend eight months of the year in their fortified mountain homes, and the rest making the most of a short growing season in the thawed valleys below with their herds of long-haired cattle. They value community and the passing on of knowledge above all else, as they would otherwise not survive their harsh lifestyle, but also laud the storytellers and artisans that make the dreary winters bearable. Many of the Ka-Teni are the specially adapted Snow-Spotted pantherans, but dwarves, birdfolk, and garoul are well-represented among them, along with a smattering of other heritages.

Apprenticeship. As a child you were taught the basics of a trade, though your profession may have later deviated from it. If you are already proficient with a skill or piece of equipment granted by this culture, you instead gain an expertise die. Choose one of the following:

Crafter: You are proficient with woodcarver’s tools, jeweler’s tools, and tinker’s tools.
Farmer: You are proficient in Athletics and with leatherworker’s tools.
Healer: You are proficient in Medicine and with the herbalism kit.
Herder: You are proficient in Animal Handling and with land vehicles.
Storyteller: You are proficient in Performance and with either the disguise kit or an instrument of your choice.

Beacon Finder. To help guide hunters and travelers to safety, Ka-Teni settlements install beacon stones, which are made uniformly enough to be located with the locate object spell. You can cast locate object once per long rest. Your spellcasting ability for this spell is Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma (whichever is highest).

Catnap. When you take a short rest, instead of spending hit dice to recover hit points, you can recover a number of hit dice equal to half your proficiency bonus by spending the time taking a nap instead.

Skilled Brewer. You are well-versed in brewing soothing tisanes. Once per long rest, you may spend ten minutes and a use of a healer’s satchel to make one dose of a hot drink. A creature that consumes it reduces its strife by one level, but it can only benefit in this way once per week. In addition, if you brew fortifying tea (see Table: Ka-Teni Equipment), it allows creatures to ignore 2 levels of fatigue instead of one.

Languages. You can speak, read, write, and sign in Common, Dwarvish, and two others.