A couple of Montangard Kanovs, also called Montanos or Montañeses. These are Western Kanovs
Montangards were so named as they were the principal people who lived in the mountain range known as Angards. They were hardy Western Kanov people who inhabited the rough environment of the mountains between the Human-centric Five Kingdoms of the Northwest.
Location[]
The Montangards, by living in the Angards, were effectively surrounded by settled and authoritative human kingdoms. The dual Kingdom of Sargos and Degoland in the Osorio River Valley, the large kingdom of Tardos to the east and southeast, The small kingdom of La Cruz also to the east, and the kingdom of Huncle to the north. The Dargoina Mountains to the east connected to the Angards and provided a means of escape, if one wished to risk the hazard the Orcs and Green Goblins of the mountains, or monsters and mundane hazards and hardships.
The Montangards were typically allowed to live in peace in the mountains or the more productive foothills and highlands, but were often subject to reprisals for their penchant for raiding, or persecution from sporadic intolerance boiling over. Over time, they were thinned out from the Southern Angards due to being surrounded by often intolerant kingdoms and the presence of Karentia, a Christian ecclesiastic State in the Southern Angards, and the Sargos Pass that cut effectively cut the mountain range in half for tribal peoples. This geo-political division also led to the Southern Angards to be referred to as the 'Karentian Mountains' as a common alternative name.
The Northern Angards remained an ongoing home for the Montangards due to the relative weakness of Huncle, less competition with humans and a bit more buffer regions, and the aforementioned connection to the greater Dargoina Mountains.
Description[]
Despite the Angards being 'just' a spur of the Dargoina Mountains, and surrounded settled kingdoms, the mountains were rugged enough, and the people inhabiting them were tough enough, that they weren't pushed out. These mountains and their surrounding highlands and foothills were mostly inhabited by the Kanovs of the tribe of the montañeses or Montangards, which often rebelled and opposed the rule of the human realms. They were tough and stubborn enough to fight back against reprisals, or to retreat and hide or take refuge in fortified keeps to wait out the soldiers that opposed them.
As Kanovs, the Montangards were hairy and stout people, they were patriarchal and clan based, operating off of rule of their chieftains first than any king or noble of the plains and valleys beneath their mountains. For centuries they successfully resisted the kingdoms that sought to tame them to feudal peasant societies, or convert them to Christianity. They would sometimes act in concert with the Dark Legion, but normally wished to be left alone to their own lives in their highlands.