Note: The information below is outdated and does not yet reflect the current state. It should be updated asap.
The Utgardian races have each their own way of living and handling things. Every race has its own way of choosing their leaders and dealing with other things like punishment. However, form every race a leader, or sometimes more then one, is chosen. This leader will take a seat at the council of Utgard, where they discuss matters concerning the entire nation. The council is the ruling power of Utgard. They take the important decisions and also control the armies of Utgard.
Tellurians
Tellurians live together in so-called clans. The clans consist of Tellurian families who helped each other at some point and remained together after that, often swearing mutual oaths of trust and bonding. Most clans will have some record of their founding, and most Tellurians will gladly tell the history of their clan. Tellurians are very proud of their clan and the achievements of their clan. This results in a friendly rivalry between clans, with every Tellurian trying to do the best he can for his clan. The result is a hard working race that does not quickly give in.
Every clan is very self-sustaining, with most of the clans living in their own private district in the city, every clan having its own treasury and every clan having its own resources, like farms. Some of the more wealthy clans even have their own mines or breweries. Although this would suggest Tellurians to be a very solitary people, sticking to their clans, the opposite is true. There is a lot of trading going on between clans, trading food for ore or weapons for tools. Inter-clan marriage is also very common, with marriages reinforcing the bonds between clans.
Every clan has its own leader, usually the eldest member of a clan. There is no distinction in power or position between the families of the clan, with every family being equal. The only exception to this is when the leader of a clan dies. Normally, the new leader will be the next-eldest member of the clan. However, should it happen that there is more then one tellurian of about the same age, the leader is chosen from the family with the closest ties to the founding families of a clan.
There is a single clan from which the leader is also the leader of the entire Tellurian race. This leader is simply called the Royal Clan, and the leader of this clan is the High King of the Tellurian. The Royal Clan can trace its lineage back to the very first Tellurian, the ones created by Gataur at the birth of Heimr.
The clans of the Tellurian do not change a lot. Although inter-clan marriages happen often, this usually leads to a Tellurian becoming a member of a different clan. The clans themselves continue to exist, and only rarely is a new clan created, usually only when a group of Tellurians decides to leave a city to found their own city or village. As this is a rare event nowadays, new clans do not emerge often.
Utgardian Trolls
The trolls live in small groups called tribes. Before joining Utgard, trolls were very nomadic creatures. The tribes are remnants of this nomadic past, where a few trolls would group together to hunt and live. These trolls would then remain together until they came in contact with other trolls, when there would be a chance the tribes would merge and form different tribes. This behaviour is still seen in the savage troll tribes, the Trallmalu. The trolls have continued to live like this for at least until the spiritual revolution. It is thus very strange and shrouded in mystery why they ever built a great city.
After the spiritual revolution and the great civil war, many of the Utgardian trolls started to settle down, building small towns or joining the other races in their cities. The towns they founded were usually founded by a single tribe, thus the tribes continued to exist, but in a different way. The tribes nowadays are more constant then those of the old days. To the Utgardian trolls, they act more like a family, although this concept still does not have a lot of meaning to them. However, contrary to the old tribes and also contrary to the savage tribes, the members of a tribe usually do not mate with other members of the same tribe, instead choosing mates from different tribes or even different races.
Utgardian tribes are instead together for hunting, storytelling, spiritual worship and general companionship. They are not ruled by females, but instead the wisest amongst them is chosen as leader of a tribe. This is usually a witch doctor, which is unsurprising as the Trolls believe the witch doctor's contact with the ancestors give them a great amount of wisdom. From among the tribe leaders the wisest is chosen to lead the entire race and take seat at the council of Utgard. Choosing these leaders is done by intricate rituals involving ancestor worship. Trolls believe their ancestors in spirit form have infinite wisdom and can thus judge best who is suitable for a position. This done for more things, for example, a Troll court trial is more a ritual of ancestor worship then a court trial in human terms. Not everyone is happy with this practice, but those that need to appear before a troll court are seldom happy with anything.