Waendra
A few thousand people live on the Frontier, in the country between the roads, and have for as long as anyone can trace. They call themselves Waendra — those who wander. The cities call them the Oetfolk, the outside people, which is not an insult and is not far from one.
How they live
In groups of twenty to fifty on a seasonal round, with perhaps a hundred miles between groups. They do not plant. They are not fixed, which leaves them nothing to defend: no land to clear and hold, no store for a Chirska to find, no terrace for a Skrafna to come up through. What they have instead is the country itself. They know where a Vespra sits, when a Kammra goes dormant, what water holds Svaekoil, and which ground a Kollgar pack has been hunting. That knowledge keeps them alive, is worth a great deal, and does not travel well.
The Oathbond
They hold an Oathbond like anyone in the Known World. A Waendra asked for their aeslae — family, station, city, in that order — will have one to give. A city person who assumes otherwise has made an error that will be corrected swiftly by the one it was made against.
They are not to be confused with the wild people of the Frontier bands, who are escaped slaves and hold no Oathbond. See Those Without an Oathbond.
Trade
They trade at Roedhavens and do not stay in them: meat, hides, skilled guiding, and what the country is doing, against metal, cloth, salt, and tools they cannot make. They arrive, trade, and leave the same day. A walled place belongs to someone, and being inside one after dark is a different relationship from being outside it. A station keeper with a standing arrangement with a Waendra group knows things, and what he knows is worth money on the Roedskrin — and is nearly all most cities know about the Frontier beyond their own walls.
Marks
A Waendra group has been cutting slave marks into skin for as long as the group has existed. See Fyndrecht.