Siberian colonization campaign help

>>52344537
'Siberia' is a pretty big place at that point in time. It pretty much encompassed the whole of Russia's Asian territory. Any particular part of Siberia?

>>52344537
http://www.all-creatures.org/articles/rf-thesisters.html

>Cannibalism was absolutely a real problem in Siberia, because some tribes were human eaters indeed. Rare cases of cannibalism had been registered by Soviet authorities even in the 1950s.

Look up the native folklore on the area in which the Butugychag gulag was established. The valley was cursed with death and haunted by malevolent spirits, in the form of radiation from the heavy uranium deposits which eroded out of the landscape.

I can't find a reliable source, but supposedly when the native Lamut people discovered the valley (being reindeer herders they generally avoided the climatically extreme mountainous hinterlands between the Kholyma river and the Sea of Okhotsk), the clearings in the stunted forest of the valley floor were covered with the bones of men and reindeer, presumably victims of the radioactive landscape. Accordingly, 'Butugychag' translates as "Death Valley."

Regardless of whether that bit is true, it's certainly the case that the region of Kholyma and the Russian Far East in general have some pretty crazy folklore. For comparison, the environment that gives us tales of insane cannibal wendigos is temperate in comparison to this region, and even the insanity of arctic folklore was spawned out of a more clement climate.

>>52344537
An arc about consumption being literally caused by a vampire would be pretty good.

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>>52344537
Actual Siberian here, ready to answer any of your questions.
>I am not too familiar with either slavic or Siberian myth
"Siberian myth" is an incredibly broad blanket term. There is no single cohesive mythology because the native peoples who live in Siberia number in the dozens, and many of them are not related in any way. To know what you're dealing with you need to specify the part of Siberia where you'll be running your campaign. It's generally divided into West Siberia (my homeland, the most densely populated and thoroughly Russified region), East Siberia (that's where most of the natives live; mountainous and sparsely populated) and the Far East (the pacific coast, volcanoes, Japan-like climate in the south and Inuits in the north).
>I was wondering what foes to throw at my players other than barbarian tribesmen
The White-Eyed Chudes are basically the West Siberian dwarves. They used to inhabit the region before the humans came, then, after some fighting, they said "screw it" and moved underground, but promised to return and kick the humans out for good.
>Also if there where an myths or ruins of of an ancient civilization in that area or some other plot hooks that I might be able to use.
Ruins, in Siberia? You must be kidding. We never had civilisations any more developed than Native Americans. Although there are ancient Indo-European cities just across the Urals, the most ancient proper cities that the Indo-Europeans had ever built before splitting into the various tribes.

>>52344537
>Siberian colonization campaign
>1830-1850

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>>52347055
>We never had civilisations any more developed than Native Americans.

>>52347537
Is that some Tuvan palace? Making low-grade copies of Chinese stuff a civilisation does not constitute.

>>52347055
I think that my campaign would likely take place in western Siberia, where towns had been slightly more established, but the area was still quite lawless. The PC's would be foreign nobles or the like, sent to command the Cossack guards. Do you happen to know any local folk lore that might evil a sinister or unsettling feeling in the players. Also, what was the response of the Siberians to the Russian colonization, was there active armed resistance like the apache, Comanche and plains tribes in the west or was it more isolated settlements being assimilated and picked of one by one.
Final would it be plausible to have a ancient lost info-european city on the eastern fringe of the urals?

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>>52348902
>Do you happen to know any local folk lore that might evil a sinister or unsettling feeling in the players.
First thing that comes to my mind are the legends of Yeti (a kind of abominable snowman). Some people still believe in the Yeti.
I mentioned the Chudes already, they're pretty much a fantasy race unique to Siberia.
There's also the legendary treasure of Kuchum, the last Siberian Khan (see below). It's supposed to be both large beyond measure and cursed.

>was there active armed resistance like the apache, Comanche and plains tribes in the west or was it more isolated settlements being assimilated and picked of one by one.
In the case of West Siberia specifically, there existed another country there before the Cossacks came: the Siberian Khanate, a remnant of the Mongolian Empire largely populated by the Tatars. The Siberian khans weren't particularly strong, and at one point they decided to voluntarily submit to the Russian rule. The khan who made this decision was quickly deposed by a more radical pretender who severed the ties to Russia and tried to turn Siberian Khanate into an islamic country. Using that as a pretext for war, the Cossacks invaded the Khanate and made a short work of its military. Apart from the Tatars, it was populated by the Khanty, the Mansi (basically ancient Hungarians) and the Samoyeds (who gave name to the Samoyed dog).

>Final would it be plausible to have a ancient lost info-european city on the eastern fringe of the urals?
There aren't any, probably because crossing the Urals is neither easy nor reasonable for a culture of steppe-based horse breeders. But it's your campaign, I don't see why you can't introduce a lost Indo-European city in Siberia.

>>52349415
By yeti, do you mean almas or chuchunya?

>>52349415
>Siberian Khanate

Is that the same as the Golden Horde?

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>>52344537
-The word "shaman" comes from the ones found around there. The Yupik ones have insane masks.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Yupik_masks

-Bear worship will be found among the natives. It was common at the whole Artic Circle. Gilyaks, ainus and sami captured bear cubs, raised and fed them until maturity, then performed a ritual sacrifice. Upon reaching the otherworld, the bear's soul was expected to praise the humans for the treatment they had given it.

-The barbarians know how to work bronze and may have weapons and armor made of it. They also dig undergound burrows under their homes to survive the worse of the winter. One of these could be a classic dungeon.

-There was some level of contact between inuits and far east siberians, so alaskan myths are doable.

-An unknown civilization could have built a pykrete city on top of a coal vein, once thriving on a wasteland of treeless permafrost, now full of tocharian mummies. They might still be there, and if you want, having an unique possible agriculture composed of moats filled with compost and low walls diverting the wind to create microclimates where certain tubers might grow.

-One could combine all the above. Heck, they might even a off-shoot of proto-indo-european or neanderthals adapted to the region, renamed "yeti". Also using aztec-like weapons made with diamond shards from the Popigai Crater.

Katorga, the predecessor of the Gulag system, was in full effect. A ghost town with a poltergeist going on is possible. A party utterly distinct to each other could form as a band of fugitives.
http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/kropotkin/prisons/chap1.html
>The arbitrary despotism of the directors of prisons had no limits, and the dreadful tales which circulated in Transbaikalia about one of them--Razghildeeff--were fully confirmed.

>>52347055
Well, that armor is a 18-19th century costume of german origin.
https://www.menil.org/collection/5137-witnesses

>>52352752
>Heck, they might even a off-shoot of proto-indo-european or neanderthals adapted to the region, renamed "yeti".

Denisovans come from that region of the world, don't they? Neanderthals are more around the Middle East and Europe. Which means you have even more latitude, as no one knows what the Denisovand looked like beyond they were likely robust like Neanderthals and human enough that good ol' H. sapiens found them attractive and they could produce viable offspring. Denisovans also interbred with another human species that we have no bones for (or at least none with preserved DNA, some suspect the mystery hominin could be the Red Deer people or Asian Homo erectus).

>>52344537
Google Dyatlov Pass.

I will not be held responsible for any nightmares.

>>52344537

Make the area a once large wealthy city/fortress over a gold mine. The mine can be the labrynth with cut in chambers for the slaves or workers to live in never seeing sunlight. Hell, tap right into natural caves with geothermal hot air and placid lava rivers if you want. You can make an entire civilization under ground with connections to other cities that are above ground.

What destroyed them? Why did this old civilization suddenly disappear? What horrors lurk in this deep underground city labrynth? What other lost cities could be discovered by exploring this place?

So, I've got a valley of death, a ruined ancient city from the dawn of civilisation, some white eyed dwarve (any more info on them?), and some tartar tribes men in the woods.
Any other infomation? I was thinking of perhaps taking some inspiration from love craft with the mi-go seeing alas someone brought up yeitis

>>52351366
No, it's a separate thing.

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>>52352752
>The Yupik ones have insane masks
Wait until you see their armour

>>52354342

Dyatlov Pass was just an avalanche. The radiation thing was added later to spice up the story.

>>52357219
Furthermore, it didn't even take place in Siberia.

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>ctrl+f "tunguska event"
>nothing
Are you kidding me? That was the largest meteor to hit the Earth since the one that killed the dinosaurs, and it was speculated to be the result of an experiment by Nicola Tesla.

>>52344537

Even in 2017 most of Siberia is extremely sparsely populated or uninhabited entirely. Where exactly are they trying to colonize?

>barbarian tribesmen

That's definitely supernatural, since Siberia had nothing like that in the 19th century. It was a handful of Russia whalers, loggers, and miners, eskimos, and whole lots of nothing.

>>52357287
Southern Siberia has respectable population density, nobody cares about the north.

>>52357312
Southern Siberia is also majority-urban, with its density higher due to the spread caused when tracking average pop density compared to district area. There's even places further inward in the Urals that people haven't set foot in for decades, if not centuries.

>>52357329
I wouldn't say that. Tourists and geologists go there all the time.

>>52357287
How about Old Believers? Religious, ascetic (read: backward in culture and development), persecuted (thus xenophobic), and despite all zeal not above some weird ideas or even outright heresies, especially priestless ones.

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>>52357899
>ascetic (read: backward in culture and development)
Anon, Old Believers owned the biggest factories in Russian Empire.

>>52357987
Hardly a horror fodder for this thread (beside XIX century working conditions).

>>52348174
>Is that some Tuvan palace?
Abakan.
>Making low-grade copies of Chinese stuff
Except it was probably build by chinks.
Also it's already far above
>civilisations any more developed than Native Americans.

>>52358090
The Old Believers are in general not any scarier than the Calvinists or something along these lines. The Khlysts, on the other hand, can be very cool antagonists for a mystic-themed campaign. They basically wanted to become gods, isn't that cool? Even Rasputin himself was accused of being a Khlyst.

>Vsevolod Ivanov thread?
http://weirdrussia.com/2014/06/08/fantastic-art-of-vsevolod-ivanov/

>>52344537
>>52347055
>>52352752

You'd best have the Baba Yaga as a major force for the region. that old russian witch is queen in those parts.

>>52360557
>XIXth century Siberia
>Vsevolod Ivanov
I like this crazy motherfucker as much as the next guy, but his pictures don't fit.

>>52360895
You can have Baba Yaga for sure, but it would be a strange choice - tales about her were brought by the colonists from Central Russia. It's like saying brownies are a part of the American folklore. I suppose the original settlers believed in brownies, but the legend originated elsewhere.

>>52357276
tunguska was 1908, campaign is set in 18XX. although I'd say the setting really calls for something in the spirit of Call of Cthulu, and set a bit further in time than OP wishes...

they were still settling towns in the frontier up to the 1990s, so... no problem there. (look up the conatruction of the baikal-amur-magistral, for example)

>>52357987
>Old Believer
>Trims his beard
Goodness, how sinful.

>>52344537
Play Kholat

>>52364917
Kholat is a bad game;
and Dyatlov Pass is not in Siberia.