The original neringas were people who were trapped on a sand dune spit during high tide and turned to tormenting each other until the tide changed. When they came back, they were altered, turned into the neringas, hungry to cause pain to others. These original neringas enslaved the villagers from their tribes and formed the first neringa farms. They altered the landscape to make the sand dune spit into a massive peninsula. They summoned aquatic predators, fed them their blood, and formed a reef so dangerous only neringas could swim or sail in it.

Neringas live in farming villages, each family having their own complex of slaughterhouses, fields, pens, fisheries, and homes. Each family is ruled by a patriarch. The patriarch represents the family in the village council, which sends a representative to the local lord, who answers to the warlord. Each pays tribute up the chain in the form of food, slaves, or warriors.

Children are raised by their families, with the patriarch representing violent enforcement of rules and his wives representing cruelly reluctant care. Neglect is common. Most nerginas try to run away at least once and are beaten severely. Once they are old enough to talk, they begin training as part of the family. Neringas reach adulthood at their final growth spurt, usually around the age of 15, and if not, they force it through rituals of pain to avoid becoming a slave for life. The oldest male is selected as the heir; he must be warrior and administrator. The other males must be overseers, warriors, and slave-catchers. Women are raised to be wives, who are barely more than slaves, and as such, they treat slaves even worse than the men do. Gender non-conforming neringas are made into slaves if they are caught. Slaves do most of the work around the farm.

In the village, the patriarchs have rank amongst each other, based on prowess, strength, and wealth. The most powerful leads the council and represents them to the lord. The lord is the leader of the most powerful village in the county. The lord represents the county to the warlord, and the counties are ranked by power as well. The most powerful county's leader is the warlord. This is almost always the county located on the main peninsula.

The warlord is the cruellest, most powerful male neringa in the country, and he has the most wives. Wives are bought and sold among families, but they go for more than slaves do and have slightly more rights. They get paid a small stipend by their husbands and may have freedom of the village (or county, or country).

Neringas have grim festivals where they torment slaves for sport and eat great feasts of pig's blood and raw flesh. There are eight of these through the year, each one a major slave-trading day: new year's day, day of the great fire (Beltane), midsummer, Halloween, midfallow, midwinter, and three days which are specific to each village. Feast days are only for the men; festivals are for everyone but slaves. Personal feast days include birthdays, adulthood anniversaries, and various personal victories.