Documented by Lady Zariin, a scholar leading the study of Túnindæl.
Túnindæl - home of the Dælons
The village of Túnindæl lies in a valley south of Frithengest. It is the home of Dælons, a strange Östron tribe of the east.
Túnindæl's history was never written down, because the people are illiterate. But they have overcome this by remembering the stories; in fact, families get together every week to tell each other stories of the past. This custom has helped us a lot in piecing together the major events in Túnindæl's history.
Here is what we know:
First settlers here weren't Östron. Instead, it was a semi-nomadic tribe of unknown origin. They got food mainly by hunting, but also by harvesting wild wheat and mixing it with mushrooms to create their iconic mushroom bread.
The valley of Túnindæl was very safe and good for farming, so the non-Östron tribe decided to settle down here. For a few years they lived in peace. But no peace can last forever, and soon an Östron tribe found this valley too, and wanted it for themselves. A large battle took place, but eventually the Östrons won. They didn't kill any of the non-Östron women, because they were very beautiful. This decision exposed the Östrons to a completely different culture, which over time created the culture of today's Túnindæl, with it's own dialect of Östron, known as the Dælon dialect.
The newly settled in Östrons, who called themselves Dælons, decided to keep the already built wooden houses. The only alteration they made was reinforcing them with stone and spruce pillars, but they otherwise kept the style and the distinctive roof shape. This helps us with guessing the age of the houses in relation to each other, because the newer houses are built a bit differently.
But the Östrons didn't just take; they also added something new. They brought in spirit worship, mooshrooms, mining, and beer. They allowed the non-Östron women to bake their mushroom bread, because it was the easiest way to get food at the moment, and it didn't taste half bad. The Dælons call it fynehláf, meaning moldy bread, because edible mushrooms found around Túnindæl are mostly bluish, which reminded them of mold. Fynehláf with beer became their favorite daily meal very quickly, because it was so easy to make and tasted very good.
One thing we don't know is the religion of the original settlers, because Östron spirit worship completely replaced it, leaving no traces of the past behind. The Dælons mostly worshipped mooshrooms, wheat, and creepers, but other spirtis had their small home shrines too. Today, creeper worship is the most prevalent, but mooshrooms and wheat will always have a special place in Dælons' hearts.
Túnindæl has a large shrine dedicated to all nature spirits. It stands lonely on top of a nearby hill. The Dælons say there was a creeper explosion, which is why they chose that location. After some searching we've found it right behind the shrine. This find shows that the stories seem to be true.
Here are some paintings of Túnindæl provided by one of the scholars.
