#kaldyr

behavior: nocturnal and cathemeral

markings: white only

skin color: lighter and cooler tones on the Keeper spectrum

eye color: lighter tones, warmer toned eyes are rare (but not unheard of)

eye shape: slightly smaller than their Keeper cousins

hair color: varies from shades of brown to auburn, dirty/strawberry blondes

body paints: white (hvitauur) and black (myrkbaní) only used for Rites, blue woad for hunting

height: taller than average miqo’te

increased resistance to cold

“Majka. Da mig vidis?”

Tova is speaking Kaldyri, the native language of her tribe. Basically, it’s a mixture of Serbian and Swedish.

I’m near fluent in Swedish (reading, though, not speaking or writing, I’m a bit rusty there), so that makes the Serbian much easier (and really fun!) to play around with.

Majka is a word for mother in Serbian, mig is me in Swedish. Vidiš is Serbo-Croatian for see. It ends up being pronounced, “Mai-ka, dah may veedees?”

I’ve gotten a few questions about Tova’s attire in relation to the climate in Coerthas. While yes, Coerthas did used to be temperate, I believe Eorzea has seasons, and as Kaldyr lived close to, if not in, the mountains, I believe Tova was well acquainted with snow long before the Calamity.

So Why So Little Clothing? While yes, Tova can and has worn furs and heavy layers, she does not necessarily need to. She has a high tolerance for cold, and could run around naked in the snow if she truly wanted. She has described the feeling of cold on her bare skin as not a harsh, unpleasant feeling, but a very subtle bubbly feeling, like champagne.

A complex form of divination in Swedish folk tradition... The tradition of year walking is predominantly recorded from Southern Sweden, and was usually practised at Christmas or New Year’s Eve. Different regions of Sweden give contrasting explanations for how this was accomplished. From Småland and Blekinge, the year walker was supposed to lock himself up in a dark room, without speaking to anyone nor taste food or drink. At midnight, he (or she) walked to the parish church – or a cluster of different churches – and circled it three times (or more), then he (or she) blew into the church’s key hole. With this the year walker temporarily lost his (or her) Christianity. When this happened, supernatural beings appeared and challenged the year walker. If the walker managed these tests, glimpses of the future could appear; either in vision or by sounds. These could be interpreted as glimpses of what would happen the following year. The phenomena could vary greatly regionally or even in the same district.

KALDYR VISA | I music of the wild north

Sad je Kraj (Сад је кра)