Anagakok

An anagakok was a special type of wizard unique to the Great Glacier who had been magically adapted to the cold.

Description
An anagakok was immediately recognizable, because the secret ceremony of his or her initiation magically and permanently changed his or her physiology&mdash;an anagakok had fur like an animal. An inch of soft, white fur covered the entire body of an anagakok. If the hair was shaved off, it would grow back in less than a day.

Unlike other Ulutiuns and because of their warm fur, anagakoks did not dress in thick, layered clothing. Instead, they tended to wear simple, loose tunics.

Abilities
Anagakoks had excellent, almost instinctive, survival skills and could locate food even in the worst conditions. They could also magically increase the fortune of themselves and their companions.

An anagakok's fur granted him or her protection from the cold; however, it meant that they overheated easily if in hot environments, and, outside the Great Glacier, they were viewed with suspicion, since they had such a strange appearance.

The anagakok tradition tended to favor the following spells: airy water, change self, charm monster, deeppockets, fabricate, feather fall, fly, gust of wind, haste, hold monster, invisibility circle, jump, levitate, light, magic missile, magic weapon, polymorph self, scare, sleep, strength, unseen servant, water breathing, and whispering wind.

Requirements
To become an anagakok, one had to be a human wizard who had lived at least 40 years and who was in particularly good health.

A prospective anagakok first had to find an older anagakok to be a mentor. The mentor would assign a difficult task&mdash;usually involving a survival skill. If the supplicant passed the test, the elder anagakok would agree to teach the trainee the secret lore of the anagakok. The training period lasted one month and included long lectures, at which point the apprentice and instructor waited for a particularly cold night, one with temperatures below &minus;50 &deg;F (&minus;46 &deg;C). On this night they would travel into the wilderness for the final test. The two would sit staring at each other, dressed only in light clothing, and would meditate the whole night, holding hands. If the apprentice could last the whole night (a period of at least ten hours) in deep concentration without freezing to death, the magical ceremony would change him or her into an anagakok, and fur would immediately begin to grow.

Only about half of prospective anagakoks survived this cold night.

Role
Roughly every Iulutiun village with at least 200 people would contain an anagakok. Anagakoks were rarer among the Angulutiuns and nonexistent among the Nakulutiuns.

Anagakoks were rarely leaders in their society, but their superb survival skills meant that they very often accompanied long hunting expeditions or ikiki.

Notable Members

 * Dygah, the most powerful anagakok on the Glacier in 1359 DR and the leader of the tiny outlaw village of Eghagu
 * Mafwik, an anagakok specializing in the creation of magical items

Rumors & Legends
Circa 1059 DR, an evil anagakok tried to animate the white dragon skeletons lying at the bottom of the Shakkak Pit in Nakvaligach. The dragon skeletons slaughtered him and still existed in the area some 300 years later.