On the western shores of the White Sea halfway between Gethamane and Icehome, Tuskstad is the principal town of the mammoth herdfolk. In the months of Earth, Wood and Fire, Tuskstad is a trade center for salt fish, mammoth hides and ivory, as well as mammoth hunt byproducts, such as hair and cheese. Most foreign merchants barely recognize Tuskstad as a town, much less a city-state. Instead, they see an overgrown barbarian camp of 15,000 people. Another 80,000 live in the citystate’s greenfields, emeralds and Outwall.
In summer, Tuskstad is hot and fly-ridden, smelling of tanning mammoth hides to make covers for the round aghar tents of the Outwall and drying fish and seal meat. The city wall is an earthwork rampart 20 feet high, set with a palisade of wooden stakes. Only four stone structures can be found within:
- two gatehouses,
- the tholos marking the Tuskstad’s allegiance to the League
- the longhouse of Bellowing Mammoth, wife of the Laughing Wind tribe chief
The Laughing Winds tribe hold Tuskstad and the narrow greenfield vale that extends 12 miles down to the sea and 6 miles wide. For more than 80 years, this tribe has held the vale against all comers. Now, the tribe acts as a major intermediary power between the League and the more independent herdfolk to the south.