The people who speak Bosa are semi-nomadic herding people. There are basically three groups of people, those who travel with the flocks, those who stay at the winter homes year-round, and those who travel for trade. They travel with flocks of wooly heard animals of various types through the mountains in the northern part of the continent throughout the spring, summer, and fall, retreating to valley dwelling structures to overwinter their flocks. They use a combination of harvesting, cultivation, and trade to stock their winter residences with grain and hay to feed their animals. Some people stay there year round to maintain the structures, do crafts, and prepare for winter through the summer, usually older folks who no longer wish to travel, tradesfolk who spin, knit, and crochet, or make cheese and jam, and sometimes pregnant or post-partum mothers who do not wish to travel while pregnant or nursing (not that all mothers do; it is considered an option that some take and some don’t).
Each group has its own style of felted hat and knitted sweater, and people can recognize members of the same group by their distinctive sweater patterns and hat shapes.
Every fourth year, everyone who can attends a summer meet-up which is part festival, part conference, part leadership council, and while everyone is there, a great deal of information sharing, small-scale crafts trade trade, livestock breeding, and out and out partying goes down.
Gender roles are not terribly strict, but it is expected that the leadership of any dwelling place is a middle-aged woman, while leadership of a traveling group falls to the most experienced traveler. Direct oversight of flocks is typically given to young men and young women that have no children, although the organization of that oversight is typically organized by whoever is leading the traveling group, so it varies.
One type of magic used by these people is based in singing in groups. A pair of singers can cause a glowing light by singing the right tones together, and it is common to group three singers together to keep a steady light shining, each taking a turn drawing a breath as the other two continue the tones to keep the light shining. Larger groups of singers creating more complex harmonies can make the light change color or texture and a large choral group can make a spectacular light show.
The second type of magic is magic done in knotting and twisting of fibers. This is a more subtle magic, concerned with keeping things in place, setting intentions, selecting a direction of motion, and so on. Perhaps more powerfully, it can store information and the power of songs. A trio of singers and a knitter or crocheter can store light in a cloth, and later release it by pulling the yarn to unravel the item. It is never as bright as it is when it is sung, but it can allow a single person to release light without the support of a companion or two.
Their origin story is that father mountain and mother valley produced all the people and all the animals, and Grandmothers Sun and Moon and Grandfathers Wind and Water gave them the gift of the illumination songs. Father Mountain and Mother Valley gave them the gift of the knotwork. They figure they are no relation to the lowland people down south who came from the dream of a woman who arrived there from another world, nor to the people in the far south who commit themselves to one of five spirits.
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