Saxons

Saxons came from Germany, and have raided the coasts of the Isles for centuries. When the Romans occupied the Isles, they built a series of forts to defend the coasts and rivers from Saxon pirates.

According to Saxon legend, they were invited to settle the Isles by some long lost king of the Britons, but no one else seems to remember this invitation nor the king in question.

The Saxons invaded from the south, and quickly occupied the southern parts of what they called, Angland. Saxons are an expansionist people, and controlled various areas from Germany, down to Italy, and as west as Iberia during their people's height, but they are a loose confederation of tribes and not a united kingdom. Their collective name comes from the type of dagger they all used; the seax.

The saxons in the Isles quickly formed several states, consisting of Essex, Middlesex, Sussex, and Wessex.

Saxons live within a rigid caste system of nobility, freemen, serfs, and slaves. Every caste has a monetary value placed on it. For example, a noble is worth 700 heads of cattle, a freeman 116, and a serf is worth 87. If a serf should happen to be killed, the offending party must provide restitution to the family of the dead equivalent to their worth. Marriage between castes is forbidden on pain of death.

In Wessex, the newly crowned king has converted to Christianity due to the influence of a Jute missionary. While this means all the saxons within Wessex were supposed to convert as well, the freemen and slave castes still practice their old beliefs behind closed doors.

The beliefs of the saxons of Essex, Middlesex, and Sussex include the worship of gods like Woden, Eostre, Frigg, Hretha, Tiw, and Thunor.