Picto-Celtic

It is essentially a rural world of farms and villages where the typical person is a farmer with the boredom of day to day life broken up by the occasional cattle raid and fey pranks. The deep forests, long barrows, barrow mounds and moonless nights are still feared.

The deep forests harbor mixed wood elf, tallfellow halfling, treant and fey communities of a few families each, they are semi nomadic and only build temporary structures in the winter, they trade with the forest gnomes whose tunnels riddle the forest floors and with the firbolgs. Near forgotten stone circles, bogs and barrow mounds dwell packs of wood elf were-wolves, skulks and unseelie fey, the people under the hills (I'm using Underfolk from Races of Destiny) still come up from beneath their ancient long barrows to steal cattle on moonless nights.

Fomorians live in fortified island villages off the coast and are communities of mongrelfolk fishermen and farmers, half-orc pirates, half-ogre champions and fomorian overlords.

To the west lies a land of warring tribal humans, hill giants, goblinoids, ogres and orcs, just as happy to fight their own kind as each other, the northern part of this land is a mountain chain ruled by frost giants and white dragons, further west are mountains dominated by fire giants and red dragons. To the east is an archipelago inhabited by a kingdom of bronze dragons and high elves. To the south are more civilized areas of human city-states, some ruled by merchant princes and others dominated by snake worshiping theocracies.

PCs can be humans, half-elves or outcasts from the forest or underfolk trying to blend in, and the ruling druids are a bard/druid prestige class, Fochlucan Lyrist from the Complete Adventurer. The PCs fight/unite other tribes, fend off fomorians, raid/explore the forest or barrows or the western or eastern lands, trade with the advanced southern human merchant/slavers, etc.

History

(4,000 years ago) Wood elves and fey dwell in the forested river valleys and a small population of scattered neolithic human farmers live in small stable communities of rectangular log cabins built on the upland hills and on the coastal plains, avoiding the thickly wooded valley bottoms. They plant wheat and barley, and raise sheep, cattle and pigs and hunt as a supplement to their agriculture. They build communal graves that also serve as centers of religious activity centering on a cult of the dead and fertility. They are driven from the coastal plains by the Fomorians.

(3,000 years ago) Builders - These bronze age folk were farmers, archers, brewers and metalsmiths, they lived in round thatch-roofed houses and built round barrow mounds for their warrior-chieftains and stone circles on the neolithic religious sites for their own gods. They fight off the Fomorians from the coastal plains and slowly drive back the neolithic people who begin hiding in caves under the hills and the wood elves and fey deeper into the forests. 1000 years later after being weakened by a famine and plague, the Fomorians having grown strong again, strike back and kill the rest. The famine was brought about by increased cattle stealing in the winter by the people under the hills (as the neolithic folk are now called) and half the wood elves embracing a dark god of vengence and their clerics are cursed with lycanthropy, the elven were-wolves destroyed outlying settlements and small groups of travelers.

(2,100 years ago) The Black Hand - An orc tribe settles in the area and within a few years are decimated by the lycanthropes and Fomorian raiders, a plague finishes the rest. Some of their human slaves survive and form their own society, worshipping at the great stone circles and 100 years later are defeated and forced into serfdom by

(2,000 years ago) High Elves - with horses, better weapons and powerful magic drive back the lycanthropes and the Fomorians. They avoid the stone circles and barrows. 500 years later they are defeated by

(1,500 years ago) Pritani - Several iron age tribes who build farms (stone houses and separate, walled fields), hillforts, a warrior aristocracy, they hunt with large wardogs and do not pray at the stone circles, in fact they scavenge the smaller stones to build their houses and walls, they do adopt the practice of barrow mounds for their dead though. 1000 years later the last of the high elves have gone away or died, although those with elven blood still exist (half-elves) and their culture merges with that of

(500 years ago) Picts - An iron age warrior culture led by druids begin settling in the area

Present - The Pict tribes are a group of peoples loosely tied by similar language, religion and culture. They have no central government and are quite as happy to fight each other as anyone else. They are warriors, living for the glories of battle and plunder, nailing the severed heads of enemies to the doors and wearing them on their belts, warfare is a sport. Clans are bound together very loosely with other clans into tribes, each of which has its own customs. Druids act as priests, political advisers, teachers, healers, and judges. They have their own universities, the right to speak ahead of the king in council, act as ambassadors in time of war and uphold the law. They are the glue keeping together the culture and hold their religious rites in woodland groves, waterfalls, springs and bogs.

Religion

For the most part the picts revere nature, rivers, mountains, oceans, lakes, the standard D&D druid religion, plus each tribe also has its own various ancestor demi-gods and gods, two are so common that they have become Intermediate deities. They worship in sacred groves, springs, lakes, waterfalls and bogs, not at the stone circles.

Brigit - chaotic neutral red haired goddess of fire and poetry (maiden, mother, crone), female priesthood, domains - Magic and Fire (charm for maiden, protection for mom and knowledge for crone).

Her clerics get three domains, one of which changes (its charm until she has a child, then its protection until she reaches old age and then its knowledge).

No armor, pro w/ swords, daggers, spear & shortspear and once per day can perform a greater turning against undead in place of a regular turning (they burst into flame and burn to ash, the undead that is, not the cleric).

Horned God (combination of Arawn and Cernunnos) - antlered pale skinned man who leads the Wild Hunt.

His clerics are lawful neutral and choose from the domains of animal and death

Duties of priesthood: Priests of the Horned God preside over burial and funerals, and must hunt and destroy all undead they encounter or hear about. They can only turn undead and are forbidden to rebuke them. They are likewise

prohibited to cast any spell or use any item that can raise or animate the dead. These forbidden spells include animate dead, create dead, create greater undead, raise dead, reincarnate, and resurrection. Otherwise, priests of the Horned God are the traditional guardians of "mortuary mounds", that is: cold, damp, and foggy places where are buried heroes, rulers, and other important characters. Such places often contain gates that lead to the underworld.

Other common patron dieties of tribes include

Corellon Larethian, Olidammara, Fharlanghn, Kord, Obad-Hai, Ehlonna, Wee Jas and any from the elven pantheon.

The Formorians worship Erythnul and Karontor

So its a mix of mythology, history and D&D

The high elves are the Tuatha De Dannan from mythology, the builders are the beaker culture from history, the formorians are the vikings.

I want to make an outline of two or three neighboring tribes and was thinking about common geas for the different tribes, like one against drinking mead. And a background story for an elven chainshirt awarded a past human chieftain by local wood elves and the Merrow (aquatic ogre, aka Grendal) that has it in his lair for a starting adventure. Basically along the lines of the PCs are on their first cattle raid and come across a destroyed farmhouse and tracks leading into a mist covered bog.

Each magic item should have a history, like the +1 longsword the party finds after defeating the merrows avenging brothers. It was made by the duergar for a human traitor who led Formians to a sacred wellspring to ambush some druids. Years later, overcome with guilt, he threw it into the well. The +1 dagger was made by a high elf for his daughter long ago and lost when she was mislead by will-o'-wisps and drowned trying to sneak off one night to elope with her human lover etc, etc.

Random bits of unorganized Picto-Celtic information

Each tribe is led by a king, who is subject to an Ard Ri or High King, there are two high kingdoms: one of the north, the other in the south.

Elected Kings lead the tribes and society is divided into three groups: a warrior aristocracy, an intellectual class including druids and bards and everyone else.

Women participate in warfare but not in kingship (maternal grandsons and maternal nephews can be elected king).

One of the most important cultural oddities about the Picts is their system of matrilineal line of succession, descent through the female line, not the male.

After a battle they often dedicate their enemies weapons to the gods and throw them into a river or lake.

Warfare is endemic, society is organized around warfare but this is more of a sport focused on raids and hunting. Tribal conflicts over leadership, land and resources are commonplace, it is more a matter of ritual, than of slaughter, most of the time, this is an age of Hillforts, brochs, crannogs and duns.

The chiefs and the wealthy wear armor taken in battle, bought from other cultures or copied from other cultures.

Though they have a written language, the Ogham script is only used for ceremonial purposes and the picts have an oral tradition. All classes are illiterate except bards, clerics, druids and wizards.

Males are clean-shaven with mustaches, some tribes favor ritualized scarring for the barbarian and fighter warrior elite, some tattoos, some a mix of both.

Copper is used for blue tattoos, ash for black, woad is used for battle wounds and dye.

The intellectual class (bards & druids) use tattoos on their legs to help remember things (+1 to a Knowledge skill check for each tattoo).

Merlin gets to be the leader of the woads cause he is covered with the most dirt and doesn't do anything (King Arthur movie reference).

The ritualistic killing of aging Kings and replacing their Kings who have any infirmities, losing a finger or eye or even going bald, basically any perceived weakness, real or not.

No towns. The basic economy is mixed farming and a few farmsteads around a broch are the norm, cattle raising is more important than cereal cultivation in some rocky, colder regions. Wealth is determined by the number of cattle, horses and followers you have, but gold and silver are good too.

Criminals are killed during a holiday with their guts festively strung in a sacred oak tree, drown in a holy spring or thrown into a bog with their throat cut, each tribe has its own custom.