The Junlocks are a race of wolf-like humanoids that live in a tribal society, similar to ancient european societies like the ancient gauls, or ancient britains (the guys the romans used to invade)
They worship the sun and the moon as gods, (Belmarix being the male moon god, and Jatis being the female sun god.) They build elaborate standing stones to track the suns movements to divine the correct time for festivities and sacrifices to earn the gods favour.
Their home land is very large but relatively sparsely populated. It is a very cold region (its not arctic, but they get a lot of snow and there are cruel icey winds) with snow covered planes and might pine forests.
The Junlock priests are known as druids and they believe in reincarnation, where the brave and righteous are rewarded with a new life by the gods.
They value personal courage and individual freedom above all things. They follow through on their belief in freedom to the extent that they consider imprisoning criminals cruel and unusual punishment. Execution is more merciful to the Junlock way of thinking. Obviously slavery is a right out for the Junlocks, and they view races that keep slaves (such as the Ivos) and those that are willing to trade slaves (such as the Zadakine or Brorg-Dao) very poorly.

Being relatively low tech they have often suffered attacks from stronger nieghbours; raids by the Brorg-Dao, numerous Ivos invasions and most recently crusades by the Darsai.
This has made many of them embittered, and many of their warriors travel to other lands to work as bandits or mercenaries, taking out their resentment on other races directly. This type of thinking makes some of them very open to making alliances with powerful but dangerous forces, such as the minions of the West.

Junlock society is fairly equal in the way it views men and women. Only fighting as a warrior is generally seen as an exclusively male role, though even here there are some Junlock women who have become renown as mighty warriors.
One example is the feared swords woman Valatrex, whose armour is said to have been pieced together out of steel plates torn from the bodies of a hundred Nameless warriors.

Junlock society does not tolerate homosexuality, which is seen as deeply immoral.
Anyone discovered to be homosexual is driven out and banished, though some might be lynched on the spot.
The Junlocks are even more hostile to half castes, especially those found to have any Ivos parents. Half castes can expect only the cruelest treatment at the hands of a Junlock community, unless they have very powerful or influential relatives who can offer them protection.

Junlocks are physically big and strong, and don't feel the cold much at all.
They generally enjoy hunting, out door physical activity and story telling.

Lacking much industry, the Junlocks often go into battle unarmoured, many fighting without even a shirt on (just their brightly patterned trousers.) Leaders and elite troops will often have some armour though, generally helmets and chainmail shirts.
They are brave, fierce, sometimes even berserk in battle, but also disorganised and reckless. Often they fight more as a group of brave individuals, rather then a coherant force, making them vulnerable to more disciplined armies.
They know their icy homeland very well, so they can ambush invaders and pick off supply lines very effectively, though if they were to try and take all out war into another country, without these advantages, their forces would be very vulnerable.
One of their most feared weapons is a heavy forward curving sword called a Falx, which can cause terrible injuries and punch through armour. This is especially useful as many of the Junlocks enemies, such as the Ivos and the Darsaia are well armoured in battle. The Ivos in particular have learned to treat those that wield these weapons with respect on the battle field!

Hmmmm…for the most part, I kinda like these guys. I mean, the half-cast and homosexuality part is a bit harsh, but other then that they're pretty cool.

So is an eclipse like when the gods have sex?

I don't know if you said that as a joke, but I actually think that's an interesting concept…
Lots of ancient religions included the gods having sex for one reason or another, its really only a Christian/Jewish/Muslim thing to treat sex as something bad.

That's actually rather romantic when you think about it, that the two gods are always apart except during an eclipse.

I figured it was a safe assumption that a race that worshiped the sun and moon would place special significance on the eclipse. Many cultures that didn't specifically worship the sun and moon still viewed the eclipse as a significant religious event. The Junlocks would probably consider this meeting of the gods to be a most holy time, especially considering the rarity of the event. A child born during an eclipse might be viewed as blessed above all others, possibly even an offspring of the gods. Or maybe the Junlocks would take great pains to attempt to conceive a child during this event, hoping to have their coupling blessed by this celestial meeting. Or it may have a less carnal meaning to them and I just have a dirty mind.

You do have a dirty mind, that much we all know!

But yeah, I was actually thinking something like wanting to conceive a kid when there is an eclipse would be a nice concept for their religion.
So great (and possibly dirty) minds think alike!

The junlocks remind me a lot about the celts. Do they have any tradition involving warpaint, like woad, 'cause I think that would look awesome.

Oh yeah, woad kicks ass!
Did you know it actually has properties that helps close up wounds, so it was nto jsut impressive war paint, but served a practical function?
Hooray for woad!

Makes you look terrifyingly awesome, AND helps you recover from various injuries. Now I want some woad…

I am expanding the Junlock pantheon with an additional god.
Jatis (the sun goddess) has a brother called Dobolly.
Dobolly is not represented by a celestial body and does not receive any direct worship. He is portrayed as a small scrawny Junlock with a wide grin and wild, staring eyes. Interestingly, despite being a god, he is portrayed as being relatively weak, being pushed around by bullies or frightened by large animals. However, though he cant do much in a direct fight, Dobolly is the master of cruel tricks, with which he teaches those who are wicked, selfish, greedy or tyrannical harsh lessons. And these lessons are indeed very harsh! The villains may be tricked into to cutting off their hands, or wearing red hot irons shoes or all sort so other cruel (and more often then not ironic) fates!
The many stories of Dobolly are humourous in nature but also serve as morality plays, teaching a valuable lesson to the listeners about the price of evil behaviour.
Junlock audience are kept in stitches by the telling of a good Dobolly fable from a skilled bard.
Since in Junlock society, swearing often relates to invoking the name of a character of history or legend, Junlocks commonly use Dobolly or characters from his stories.
“He needs to meet Dobolly!” or just “Meet Dobolly!” is a common exclamation, meaning “He needs someone to put him in his place/ teach him a lesson”

Love the detail you put into all of this. Very well thought out.

Thanks, I'm glad to know its all appreciated.
I'm always a bit surprised that people are really interested in all this extra stuff on the forum, but it seems to go over really well!

is homosexuality and half-castes despised in junlock culture because of how unatural such unions are or is there another reason (such as an ivo and darsai reason for half-castes)?
why is it that when i think of dobolly, i think of loki?
another thing ive been wondering is their magical powers. is it just reserved to getting angry and getting ice armor, or can more effective manipulators recieve weapons or other effects through other means other than junlock smash?

Their intolerance for half castes and homosexuals is partly a fact of their culture and world view, but their views on these topics have certainly been hardened because of harsh treatment from the Ivos in particular.
Getting invaded a lot innevitably results in women being raped and others willingly becoming romantically involved with the invading troops.
So having a larger number of half castes that look like their hated enemy has almost certainly made them more hateful towards half castes in general.
The Ivos have no problem with homosexuality (often considering it superior to hetrosexual love…after all, to Ivos thinking men are clearly superior to women in all ways so the love between too men must be the greatest love of all!) Homossexuality is thus seen as an Ivos trait, meaning that anyone exhibiting these tendancies is not just seen as a deviant, but a possible collaborator with the enemy.

Dobolly was certainly Loki inspired. Also, I noticed that husband and wife god teams were becoming a bit too common in Harkovast (the Golta have that set up, for example) so I wanted to mix it up a bit with a third memeber. The idea of a trickster fits well with the rich Junlock story telling traditions.

Other Junlock powers? I dont want to give too much away, as there are a few cool surprises in store. Remember, the Junlocks have ice AND life magic, and make use of both.
JUNLOCK SMASH! (I love that!)

gracias
dang ivos, them boars just caused way too much trouble. makes me wonder what they are like though. i knew loki had to be involved! he, maybe you also research some mythology there, tsavokraH, i was just today thinking of the creation of existences and found myself saying “and thats how thoth said his name!” if you dont know who thoth is, google it, im not a reliable source to many things. though, im sure he was the egyptian god who spoke his name and brought himself into existence.
also, glade you liked the JUNLOCK SMASH!
thanks for answering my questions

Be careful, if you say harkovast backward three times in one message, the KITW appears and kills you.
That's what I've heard, I've never dared try it so far…

I was not aware of a mythological god causing himself to exist, but if there is a god that did that, I think that's the religion we should all join!

I love answering Harkovast questions so feel free to field as many as you like.

all this makes me wish i knew more about ancient cultures, especially the barbarian nations of ancient europe.

for ranged weapons do the junlocks use slings, or bows. do some of them throw the heads of enemies?
living in what i assume is a very thickly forested land,Is it safe t assume their use of cavalry is very limited?
Since junlocks build large stone formations to keep track of the celestial bodies, does this make them the pre-eminent astronomers, and will this come into play later in the story?

this one not about junlocks directly.
In the zadarkine post you described the zadarkine as a matriarchal society, where homosexuality is okay, and sometimes preferred, because the love of two women must be superior to a man and a women.
On this page you said that the ivos were a patriarchal socirty, where homosexuality is okay, and sometimes preferred, because the love of two men must be superior to a man and a woman.
You've said that the zadarkine are much like carthage
You've said that ivos are much like rome.
You've said that the junlocks are like the barbarians the romans invaded, and specifically called the ivos attacks on junlock lands invasions.
why don't the Ivos, and the zadarkine regularly go to war, instead of being business partners in the slave industry? these two civilizations have unreconcilable differences, and it seems impossible for them to interact peacefully, let alone as business partners. The USA, and the soviet union both said they were for the people, and for equlity of everyone, and they could barely resist ending all life on the planet just to kill the other, so how do the zado, and ivos not go at it worse then rome, and carthage ever did?
Also, you were playing rome total war while designing those factions weren't you?

Tiberius
for ranged weapons do the junlocks use slings, or bows. do some of them throw the heads of enemies?
living in what i assume is a very thickly forested land,Is it safe t assume their use of cavalry is very limited?
Since junlocks build large stone formations to keep track of the celestial bodies, does this make them the pre-eminent astronomers, and will this come into play later in the story?

Junlocks use bows as well as thrown spears and axes as ranged weapons. Their armies are often more of a horde so in many cases the distinction between missile troops and regular soldiers is not very formal, with troops throwing or firing projectiles before rushing in to attack.
Junlocks do make use of cavalry…but I dont want to give too much away with regard to that, I have some surprises in store.
Junlocks have a good knowledge of the motions of stars, plants, the sun and the moon but there are other nations (such as the Komus or indeed the Lel) who have more formal and organised study who know more about these matters. Their tribal nature limits the Junlocks ability to acquire and retain large amounts of abstract knowledge in an organised way.

Ivos vs Zadakine
Neither the Ivos nor the Zadakine despise the idea of men loving men or women loving women. They just differ in which one they think is superior.
Ivos traders and Zadakine usually are there to trade with each other, not shag each other, so this doesn't come up a great deal between them.
They find the others society to be weird (as each thinks the other has gender roles reversed.) The two nations also don't really have any conflicting interests. They don't share any boarders and don't really come into conflict.
You could make a similar argument about America and Britain. British people think everyone owning guns would be bad, Americans think it is essential to their freedom. These are different and unresolvable differences. Doesn't mean the two countries are going to have to fight a war about it.
The Ivos are not on a mission to make men dominate women all over the world, and the Zadakine are not trying not force the reverse on everyone. To them that is just the natural order and other cultures are weird for not seeing this.
Equally you could say “The Ivos like gladiatorial blood sports and which a Tsung-Dao would find horribly immoral and offensive. Why aren't they at war?”
I think most every culture in Harkovast would find something offensive about another one, just because they are all so different in their values.

Tiberius
Also, you were playing rome total war while designing those factions weren't you?

They should make kids play that game in school, it is just so damn educational!