05-16-2018, 12:35 AM
First draft...
AMAZONS OF THE GOLDEN HORDE: Horse-nomads native to the plains west of Tenh and south of the Vales, the Amazons of the Golden Horde are known in their own tongue as the Lovas-Lanyok, or Horse-Maidens. They are cousins of the Amazons of the North with strong Peshwah, Skandaharian, and Kells bloodlines. Their language reflects this mix and is not mutually intelligible with that of the Amazons of the North. No men ride with the Lovas-Lanyok; when a Horse-Maiden reaches the point that she wishes to bear a child, she goes to neighboring lands to seek out a worthy sire. Male children born to an Amazon are traded to nearby Kells or Peshwah for unwanted girl children. Amazons of the Golden Horde are often encountered elsewhere, even as far south as Mirakos, as mercenaries; they generally serve exclusively in all-Amazon companies. The Lovas-Lanyok have curly or wavy blonde, red, or platinum blonde hair; blue or green eyes; pale to tan skin; and median to tall height and athletic build. They are animists, their shamans revering the sun and wind, grass and rain, as well as a few foreign goddesses (especially Epona of the Kells, Artemis of the Mirakosians, and Argimpasa of the Peshwah). Amazons of the Golden Horde speak Lovas-Lanyok, which is never taught to non-Amazons. It is not a written language. [Hungarians]
AMAZONS OF THE NORTH: Native to the forests, swamps, and lake-lands between the Skandaharian Vikings and Varangians, the Amazons of the north are known in their own tongue as the Noita-Ihmisia, or Witch-Folk. Unlike their western nomad and eastern seafaring cousins, the northern Amazons maintain their own population of males of the same race, though theirs is a matriarchal society, and males are subservient in all ways (males are laborers or warriors who serve the ruling female caste, who are witches). The Noita-Ihmisia have straight black, brown, or platinum blonde hair; grey, hazel, or blue eyes; very pale skin; and are tall and lithe or wiry. They worship evil goddesses of the Finnish pantheon (Chaos, Tuonetar). Witch-Folk speak Noita-Kielta, the Witch Tongue, which is written using Chaotic sigils.
Note that the underlying population of the Realm of the Egg of Coot derives from the Witch-Folk, though has been heavily mixed with slaves from all ends of the earth (especially Kells and Skandaharians), as well as mutated by the horrible sorcery of the Egg. [Finns]
AMAZONS OF THE SEA: The islands south of Rhun are home to an Amazon race of remarkable sort, the Amazons of the Sea, known as Meremased or “Sea-Bitches” in their own tongue. Like the Amazons of the Golden Horde they have no men sailing with them, and like them, they go forth into the wider world to find worthy mates. Males born to Amazons of the Sea are sacrificed to their dreaded sea goddess (when males of other races are not available). Regardless of their father’s nature, all Meremased have straight or wavy blue or green hair, piercing eyes of a startling color opposite that of their hair, pale skin that freckles bluish-green, and are tall with an athletic build. They worship Vedenemo, the Goddess of the Sea, a Chaotic goddess who drowns fishermen and sailors who do not respect her. Their language, like that of the Lovas-Lanyok, is so divergent from that of their sisters it is mutually unintelligible; it is written using Skandaharian runes. [Estonians]
AQUILONIANS: Descended from a mix of Synobians and Skandaharians, followers of the great warlord Phalko who raided and settled the northern coast of Synobia almost three centuries ago, eventually to build the realm of Aquilonia (the “northern kingdom”). Aquilonians are a thoroughly mixed people, with all manners of hair and eye colors, pale to ruddy skin, and any build. The noble houses have kept more to the original Skandaharian type through selective marriage amongst each other and with members of the noble houses of the Northern Lords and Frisia. Aquilonian culture is much more rough-and-tumble, cruel and grasping than even the Thonians or Mirakosians. Most follow the tenets of the Holy Thonian Church (Lawful, Mitra), though many nobles especially give it little more than lip service, while some still follow the old Heathen ways (Neutral Norse paganism) or the modern Gudtro faith (Lawful, Aesir). Aquilonians speak the Aquilonian dialect of Synobian, which is written using the Thonian alphabet. [Norman French] [Most of the “Thonian” settlers of the Northern Marches are Aquilonians]
BOLGERS: Bolgers are descended from a mix of western nomad tribes of Mingol sort and native hill and forest tribes of Kells and undifferentiated sort. They are native to Great Bolgerie, a patchwork of kingdoms, duchies, tribes, and petty realms in the western regions of the Great Kingdom. There are many sub-groups and dialects, fraught with extensive ancient feuds and internecine warfare. The Bolgers are as numerous in the Great Kingdom as the Thonians; to recognize this, the capital of the Great Kingdom was moved in 1000 AC to the city of Mohacs, a city on the border of Thonian and Bolger territories.
Great Bolgerie encompasses many kingdoms, duchies, marches, counties, and tribal territories, including the County of Bileca, the Grand Duchy of Borno, the Kingdom of Botulia, the County of Celate, the Kingdom of Faraz, the Kingdom of Khotyn, the County of Kostolac, the Duchy of Maritsa, the Concatenated Cantons of Perunland, the Principality of Plevna, the March of Slove, the County of Stabilny, the County of Tutora, the Duchy of Varna, the Zamorian League of Cities, and the Zaporoskan Territories.
Bolgers have a wide variety of hair, eye, and skin colors., but the most common type in the cosmopolitan cities of the region have wavy or curly black or brown hair; brown or hazel-eyes; pale to tan brown skin; and median height and build. Most adhere to the Church of Great Bolgerie, an offshoot of the Holy Thonian Church (Lawful, Mitra), but some groups continue to follow their Heathen or Paynim ways (Neutral Slavic paganism or Celtic druidism; Neutral Tengrism or Chaotic Erlik-worship), and a few hold the Saracen faith of the Salikar (Lawful, Shamash) or even more esoteric faiths. Bolgers speak Bolgovorya (in a wide number of dialects), which is written using the Bolgerie alphabet. [Slavic]
CIRKOSHIANS: These peoples from the far south are said to be the greatest sailors and merchants in the world, willing and capable of circumnavigating the continent and sailing from the burning south to the freezing north in search of profit. Small settlements are found in most port cities and towns. Cirkoshians have curly or wavy black hair; dark brown or amber eyes; dark brown swarthy skin; and a tall and thin build. They revere their own ancient pantheon of gods (generally Neutral, Canaanite). Cirkoshians speak Cirkoshian, which is written using the Cirkoshian alphabet. [Phoenician]
FRISIANS: An offshoot of the Thonian peoples, the Frisians did not mix with the Mirakells native to the northern region due to isolation in their swampy lands. As the go-betweens for Varangian Skandaharians and Thonians, they mixed more with the northern allies, and thus retain more ancient Thonian ways and physical appearance. As merchants, they are second only to the Cirkoshians in the north; the two often have neighboring enclaves in port towns and engage in mutual sabotage and skullduggery both private and public. Frisians helped found many of the port towns in the north, most notably Robinsport and Maus; the only port town in the north where they are not found is Port Dacoit, which is a Cirkoshian stronghold.
Frisians have straight or wavy tawny or blonde hair; blue or gray eyes; pale skin; and short or median height and light build. Even though they were eventually conquered by Geneva and folded into the Great Kingdom, they maintain their own faith, the Frisian Rite (Lawful, Forseti). Frisians speak Frisian, a tongue mutually intelligible with both Thonian and Skandaharian; it is written using the Thonian alphabet. [Frisians]
KELLS: Once upon a time, the Kells ranged from south of Geneva to the westernmost Vales west of the Northern Marches. Today, they are, as a free and independent people, found only to the west of Tenh and the Duchy of the Peaks, their various tribes and clans known together as the Valemen. The Vales are known to the Skandaharians as the “Land of Thralls,” as they and the peoples of the Duchy of the Peaks raid the Vales for slaves. Some small groups remain in the Northern Marches, first dominated by the Vestlingians, now by the Aquilonians. Tenhas and Synobians are the most prominent groups descended from the Kells, from the mixed peoples known as the “Mirakells” that arose in the early days of the Mirakosian Empire. The Tenha mixed further with other Kells, while the Synobians mixed further with Thonians.
Physically the Kells are highly variable; those of the Vale are known for curly or wavy red or tawny hair, green eyes, pale skin, and average height and weight. Kells in the Northern Marches and the Duchy of the Peaks are much more variable, though the isolated highland clans of the Superstition Mountains, as the favored slave soldiers and bodyguards of the Xothians, and thus not forced into breeding programs like other Kelltic slaves, retain straight black hair, blue eyes, and bronze skin. Kells of the Vales follow their ancient druidic ways (Neutral); favored patrons include Brigit, Lugh, Nuada, and Crom. Kells speak various Keltic dialects; there is no written form, though Kelltic druids use a type of runic alphabet on their stelae. [Celts, those of the Vales are Gaels]
KHITAINS: These peoples are native to the far west and southwest, far beyond Great Bolgerie. The Empire of Khitai is said to be as large if not larger than the Great Kingdom. The northeastern-most kingdoms of Chulan, Kankiang, Koda, Kusan, and Monkai were conquered by the Great Kingdom within the last century. While Khitains are not unknown, they are rare in the Northern Marches.
Khitains have straight black hair; brown eyes; pale brown to sallow yellow or golden skin; wide variety of height and build; and within this, many varieties within tribal and kingdom groups. As Khitai is as large and varied as the Great Kingdom, there are many different faiths practiced by the Khitains, often non-exclusionary, with the majority follow a Lawful philosophy translated as “The Way of the Philosopher” (Lawful, Confucianism). There are dozens of dialects of Khitain, some not mutually intelligible. Khitain is written using one of three forms – an alphabet, a glyphic system, and a syllabary, and it is through the use of the glyphic system that all dialects can understand each other. [Chinese]
MINGOLS: Native to the great central steppes of the south and west, the Mingols proper are merely one of many tribes and clans of “Paynim” horse nomads of similar culture and religion. They have an even wider variety than the Khitains, as they have been joined over their long history by other peoples on the plains and steppes. Wide variety of hair colors but usually straight or wavy black or dark brown; usually brown or gray eyes; tan bronze or dark brown to copper or golden yellow skin; usually short, wiry, and bow-legged. Their faiths are varieties of Heathenism or Paynim worship (Neutral Tengrism or Chaotic Erlik-worship). Mingols speak dozens of various tribal dialects, not all mutually intelligible. Similarly, each tribe and clan use a different variant of a local writing system, if they use any at all. [Turks and Mongols]
MIRAKOSIANS: The Mirakosians were one of the earliest city-building human civilizations in the northeastern portion of the continent. They grew from petty city-states, to small kingdoms, and finally to the great Mirakosian Empire which ruled from the southern jungles to the northern seas. It was the bronze-clad warriors and bearded priests of the Mirakosians who conquered the Northern Marches a thousand years ago and built there the first human towns (the Kells were already there, but lived a much more bucolic rural life, and the Picts lived in the savage atavism they remain in today). When their great empire fell to the invasions of the Thonians and Bolgers almost 600 years ago, their culture lived on in both peoples, who grafted their own barbarian ways onto the rituals, laws, and culture of the Mirakosians. Mirakosia today has reverted to squabbling city-states and petty principalities. Not having learned from the mistakes of the past, Mirakosian lords count on Cirkoshian merchants for their economy and Thonian, Mingol, and Tangori mercenaries for their defense as they engage in their petty vendettas.
Mirakosians of today are descended from every ethnic group that once made up the citizenry and subjects of their lost empire, though the most common physical type remains curly or wavy tawny to dark brown hair; brown or hazel eyes; pale to dark brown skin; and is of median height and light build. The Holy Mirakosian Church (Lawful, Mitra) has been on the decline for centuries, ever since most of the Mirakosian princes chose to return to their ancient Pagan ways (Neutral, Greco-Roman pantheon). Mirakosian is spoken with a different dialect in each major region and city, but all are mutually intelligible. Mirakosian is written using the Mirakosian alphabet. [Greco-Latin]
PATURSIANS: Native to a land of plains, mountains, and valleys and caught between the lands of the Thonians, Mingols, Khitains, and Stygians, the Patursians have an ancient history of great civilized empires and savage barbaric tribalism, often at one and the same time. The Patursians are merely the leading tribe of a half-dozen major tribes and scores of minor tribes and clans, each with its own valley, plain, and mountain range to call their own. Only the northernmost clans have been conquered by the Great Kingdom, which named the combined domain Patursia after the whole nation.
Patursians are a varied lot, though the majority have wavy or curly brown to black hair; blue, grey, or brown eyes; pale to swarthy skin; and are of average height and build. The Holy Prophet Epemitreus, at the time a dissolute scholar exiled from Mirakos, was called to his cause by Mitra in Patursia, thus there are many sites sacred to the Holy Church in this realm. While the Holy Church has some adherents (mostly Thonian immigrants), most Patursians remain faithful to the Old Faith (Lawful), in which Mitra is a major leading figure among a pantheon of gods. This is also the homeland of Ahriman and his devils (Chaotic), which still hold sway over many small tribes and no few clans and cultists. Each tribe has its own dialect of Patursian, but all are united in using the ancient Patursian cuneiform script. [Persian]
PESHWAH: A nomadic people native to the Plains of Hak south and southwest of Tenh and west of the Great Waste of Salik. Cousins of the Patursians and more distantly related to the Mingols, the Peshwah are born to the saddle. Though the Hak is their heartland, they ride wherever their horses lead them, provided there is plentiful grass and water for their herds of cattle. Warlike, the Peshwah make implacable enemies, but conversely, they value friendship above even the bonds of the family or clan (though it is extremely difficult to earn the friendship of a Peshwah). Peshwah have straight or wavy blonde, tawny, or brown hair; hazel or gray eyes; tan bronzed skin; and are of average height, wiry build, and are bowlegged.
The gods of the Peshwah, in general descending order of importance, are: Thagimasidas (God of Horses), Arash (God of War); Tabiti (Goddess of the Clan), Argimpasa (Goddess of the Stars), Oitosyros (God of the Sun), Api (Goddess of the Earth and Grass), and Papaios (God of Thunder and Lightning). Their Neutral religion is otherwise animist; shamans dedicated to Argimpasa have renowned powers of divination. Peshwah believe in reincarnation, and that the worthy are reincarnated as horses, and the great are reincarnated as pegasi, which they treat as semi-divine. The Peshwah tribes each have their own dialect; there is no written form. [Scythians]
PICTS: These peoples are the true native humans of the Northern Marches; their myths and legends have them springing from the moldering earth of the Great Dismal Swamp like earthworms. Where once they ranged from north of the Black River (today the Black Sea) south to the Waste of Salik, and from the North Sea to the Vales, today they are found only in the swamps and forests of the Great Dismal Swamp and in small pockets nearby. Picts are extremely backward and xenophobic, purposefully atavistic savages; they do not smelt or work metals though they are perfectly willing to use metal weapons found or stolen from others. They live by choice in primitive huts in hamlets surrounded by wooden palisades, within which wander the monstrous pets of the shamans. They are ruled by their war-chiefs and the shamans and are (usually) willing to lay down their lives instantly for their chief or shaman (even ecstatically offering themselves as sacrifices to the monstrous beasts kept or summoned by the shamans).
Pictish hair is straight or wavy black; their eyes are black but glow red in the dark (60’ Infravision when in the Great Dismal Swamp); their dusky-gray skin is covered with scars and tattoos of personal, clan, and tribal totems; and they are short to medium of height and wiry to muscular of build. Many Pictish women are more Kelltic in appearance, with wavy red hair, green eyes, pale skin, and average height with athletic or voluptuous build; the Pictish physiotype is strong in the male line but weak in the female, and over long millennia of stealing wives from the Kells, the Kelltic type has become not uncommon among Pictish women. As mentioned, the Picts zealously follow a pantheon of Chaotic bestial demon-gods, led by the God-King of Beasts, Jhebbal Sag, whose main goal is to destroy civilization and return humanity to a beast-like subservient state. Their language is as the howling, screeching, whistling, bellowing, cawing, and hissing of beasts of forest, swamp, sky, and stream; it has no written form. [Howardian Picts]
RIZEELA: These peoples are descended from a mix of Thonians, Mirakells, and Mirakosians and are native to the principalities of Rizzo and Relaco of the Great Kingdom and several Mirakosian city-states to the south and east. Thonians consider them to be distant cousins and mostly Mirakosian; Mirakosians consider them to be country bumpkins related to the Thonians. The Rizeela consider themselves to be suave and urbane; they are renowned for their adaptation of the Mirakosian vendetta and for their clan-based society.
Rizeela have a wide variety of hair, eye, and skin colors and heights and builds, as their cities are mixing points on the borders of two well-mixed cultures; the members of the noble houses, which prefer to intermarry with Thonian houses, often exhibit tawny hair, blue eyes, and pale skin. Rizeela tend to be ambivalent about religion, as magic-users are endemic to and prominently powerful in the land, and so the city folk tend to be blasé about the gods. However, the countryfolk take their religion very seriously, and each town or village has its own patron saint of the Holy Thonian Church, Holy Mirakosian Church, or patron god of the Mirakosian pantheon. Religious strife is endemic in the rural regions of the Rizeela. Rizeela speak the Rizeeli dialect of Mirakosian, which has differentiated such that it is not mutually intelligible. IT is written using the Rizeeli variant of the Mirakosian script. [Italian]
SALIKAR: The Wastes of Salik are a broad, long series of sandy deserts, rocky wastelands, burning steppes, and fertile oases that range from the Valley of the Ancients in the north to the Great Sandy Wastes in the south and from the Karpashian Mountains of Great Bolgerie in the east to the Southern Hak in the west. The natives of this vast wasteland are the Salikar, a people renowned for great savagery and terrifying zealotry, yet at the same time for their great appreciation of beauty and unshakeable honor.
The Salikar are divided into two major groups: the nomadic Salikar proper and the sedentary Shirki, who live in the oases towns and villages. The nomad Salikar clans wander the wastelands from fertile plains to fertile plains with their herds of horses, sheep, goats, and camels, while the urban Shirki live in the towns where they produce the various goods and services needful by the nomads. The nomads trade in horses, sheep, goats, camels, and loot from raids on neighboring peoples for their needful products. The nomads are organized into clans, each named after a prominent ancestor; examples of clans include the infamous Beni Hassock, the Beni Sandalye, the Beni Koltuk, the Beni Kanepe, and the Beni Yatak. From time to time over the centuries, kingdoms have been built by merging the fierceness of the nomad with the technical know-how of the urban-dweller, but these never last more than a generation or three.
Salikar have straight or wavy black hair; dark brown or amber eyes; swarthy brown skin; and are of average height and build. Four centuries ago, a prophet, the Holy Prophet Maiyan al’Qabar of the Beni Hassock, took the pagan faith of the Salikar and forged a lawful religion out of it based on the worship of Shamash, the God of the Sun. Many cities and clans still follow the Tariq Alshams, or “Way of the Sun” (the Faithful are known as “Saracens” to the Thonians) though as many or more still follow the old pagan pantheon (mostly of Neutral sort). Others worship or at least placate the genies of the wastelands, as this powerful race of beings is prominent in the region; the djinns of Salik are renowned for their ability to grant wishes and deal out destruction. The Salikar dialects are numerous and based on clan and oasis. The Holy Prophet introduced a writing system based on the script used by genies; writing prior to four centuries ago used various borrowed alphabets and glyphic systems. [Turko-Arabic]
SINDHIS: These peoples are from the far south, beyond even the Mingol steppes and Khitai. A small fleet of them, refugees, were guided north (at great price) by Cirkoshian merchants several centuries ago. They settled in a small village in what eventually became the Duchy of Tenh, transforming it overnight from a village to a small town. Port Dacoit, as it became known, is still the major home for the Sindhi peoples, though they are found in small enclaves throughout the Northern Marches. They remain strongly allied with the Cirkoshians, and no love is lost between them and the Frisians thereby.
Sindhis have curly or wavy bluish-black hair; dark brown almost black eyes; very dark brownish-black skin; and tend to be short and wiry. Many Sindhis these days, especially those outside Port Dacoit, are descended from a mix of Sindhis and other peoples, so appearances can vary greatly. They are known as great weavers, jewelers, gem-cutters, and healers. They mostly cleave to their own faith, known as Dharmargah (Lawful, Hindi pantheon); there are also those who follow a debased form of Kali worship, the Thuggees (Chaotic, Kali). The Sindhis of the North speak their own highly divergent dialect of the Sindhi tongue, which is no longer mutually intelligible with the modern Sindhi tongue of the south. It is written using a variant of the Sindhi script. Only those adopted into the Sindhis are ever taught the Sindhi tongue. [Hindus]
SKANDAHARIANS: Skandaharians are native to the far northern portion of the continent, and are the cousins of the Thonians, whose ancestors once lived where now dwell the Skandaharians. Save for the peoples of the three kingdoms of the Northern Lords, they are a thoroughly barbaric and savage peoples, dedicated to ravaging, pillaging, plundering, maiming, and rapine. They are said to be the second-best sailors in the world, after the Cirkoshians, and are second to none as sea-faring warriors (though the Tangori sailors of the Pearl Isles given them a good run for their hacksilver). No Skandaharian man would ever farm, husband animals, or fish for his own dinner when he can take thralls (slaves) in battle and make them hew his wood and carry his water. The Skandaharians are divided into countless tribes, clans, and bands; only in the south among the Byerningas are there true kingdoms (three) plus the island-realm of Rhun to the east.
The Skandaharians are divided into three main groups: the western Vikings, the eastern Varangians, and the southern Byerningas (“Townsfolk,” known as the “Southern Lords” to the Thonians); the peoples of Rhun are a further mix of Varangians, Byerningas, and Frisians. Skandaharians of all three groups usually have pale skin that tans in the southern sun and are generally tall and muscular. Vikings generally have wavy or curly red hair and green eyes, Varangians have straight or wavy blond hair and blue eyes, while the Byerningas and the Rhuningas are a mix of the two with some Northern Amazon, Frisian, and Thonian bloodlines. Both groups revere the Aesir and Vanir (the Varangians moreso the Aesir, the Vikings moreso the Vanir), while the Byerningas and the peoples of Rhun follow the Gudtro faith of the Aesir (Lawful). Clans and cults following Loki, Hel, and the other Chaotic gods of the pantheon are rife. All Skandaharians speak the Skandaharian tongue, with generally mutually understandable dialects; it is written using Skandaharian runes, derived from old Giant and Dwarf runes. [Norse (Viking), Swedish (Varangian), Danish (Northern Lords and Rhun)]
STYGIANS: Stygians are a mysterious people of the far southern jungles and deserts. It is said that they worship snakes, sacrifice men to their dreadful gods, animate the dead to create their armies, are served by dog-headed men, and live in stone pyramids. No one in the North has ever knowingly met a Stygian. Such is the terror the very name holds that it is used as a form of bogeyman among the Thonians and Mirakosians. [Howardian Stygians]
SYNOBIANS: The Synobians are descended from the Mirakells, Mirakosians, and Thonians who untied as one culture in the centuries following the fall of the Mirakosian Empire. They once held a powerful patchwork of kingdoms in the south and east, along the coast and inland between the North and Mirakosia (save for the Frisian marshes, which they could never conquer). These petty realms were not able to unite against the common enemy, either the western Thonians or their northern Skandaharian cousins who went on to conquer the northern quarter of their lands and form Aquilonia. Their continued internecine battles enabled the Great Kingdom to fold them into their realm all too easily.
As they have been politically outmaneuvered and sidelined by the Bolgers in the last few centuries, the Synobians have turned inward, and today are the philosophers and cultural innovators of the Great Kingdom. Music, cuisine, clothing styles, dueling styles ecumenical theories – you name it, and Synobian styles are all the rage, from the Khitain Domains to Rizzo, and from Patursia to the Northern Marches. It is said that the only thing greater than the Synobian sense of style is their ego. Their most recent major development is in the reorganization of the various monastic orders of the Holy Church, which are causing quite a stir throughout the Great Kingdom.
Being in the central-eastern region of the Great Kingdom, the Synobians are a thoroughly mixed people, but the common sort resembles the core influences of Thonians, Mirakells, and Mirakosians, with wavy or curly blonde to dark brown hair; any eye color though most often brown; pale to dark brown almost swarthy skin; and average height and build. Synobians wholeheartedly cleave to the Holy Thonian Church (Lawful), though of late there have been small revivals in the ancient Mirakosian pagan faith, mostly due to adventurers who have discovered ancient tracts in Mirakosian ruins found throughout Synobia. Also, the region is known for heretical peasant “revivals” of Mitraism, mostly as an expression of the serf and peasant class against their oppressive noble and clerical masters. The Synobian language is primarily based on Mirakosian, with strong Mirakells and Thonian influences, and is distinct enough from Mirakosian to be unintelligible, but familiar enough to Rizeeli as to be understandable. It is written using a unique flowing, cursive script known as Synobois. [French (Occitan)]
TANGORI: The Tangori peoples are very rare in the Northern Marches; their homelands stand many thousands of miles south, south of Cirkoshia and Patursia and east of Stygia and Khitai. However, they are not unknown in the Northern Marches, as Tangori mercenary companies serve far into the north; Tangori traders and raiders sail far into the cold northern seas to trade and raid for loot and slaves; and conversely, Skandaharians, Xothians, Cirkoshians, and servants of the Egg of Coot sail far south for trade and on raids for loot and slaves.
The vast sub-continent of Tangor is home to every sub-tropical and tropical environment and terrain known. The Tangori are divided into numerous kingdoms, tribes, city-states, and clans. Each region and sub-group has its own physiotype; hair ranges from wavy, curly, or kinky dark brown or black to reddish or bluish black; eyes are typically brown, though other colors are not unknown (including amber in general, gold among the Nubt and Meduwa, or blue among the Tamasheq); skin ranges from light brown to chocolate brown, dark brown to ebony black, reddish-brown to cinnamon brown; height and weight also vary greatly, from very short and wiry to very tall and muscular and everything in between.
The Tangori have a wide variety of faiths. Many are animist, with a small group of ancestral gods. Others worship pantheons of mighty gods; some abase themselves before monsters of Chaos. The best known is the ancient pantheon of Nubt and Meduwa, a Lawful faith lead by the hawk-headed god Horus-Re.
There are more dialects of Tangori than there are kingdoms, tribes, and clans in that realm. Each region has its own common tongue, based on the dominant kingdom or tribe at that time. Overall, the tongue of Nubt (Nubtaic) and its hieroglyphs and hieratic script are best known across all Tangor and into the northern lands.
[Northern inland and coastal are Bantu, coastal and islands are Swahili, southern coastal and eastern inland are West African, inland desert are Tuareg, inland plains are Masai, inland jungle and riverine are Nubian, inland highlands are Amharic]
TENHAS: Tenhas are descended from the original mix of Mirakosians and Kells (“Mirakells”) who lived in the North before the fall of the Mirakosian Empire. When the empire fell, they fell into anarchy for decades, until the rise of King Uther Andahar, “Black Uther,” originally the Warlord of Blackmoor, later the King of the North (reigned 507-538 AC) who reigned from shining Caergardd (now lost, but some sages claim it stood where later Tonisborg was built, and today stands the city of Vestfold). Sadly, the Shining Court of Uther did not outlive his reign, and the northern barbarians, the ancestors of the Vestlingians, eventually overran the ancestors of the Tenhas. Many Kells and Mirakells fled west, through the Great Dismal Swamp of the Picts, to joint their brethren in the Vales west of the Misauga River.
Thus, the Tenhas remain relatively “pure” from Vestlingian bloodlines (though there is no small Frisian influence in Robinsport and Sindhi blood in Tenha veins in Port Dacoit). Tenhas generally have curly or wavy red, blonde, or tawny hair; blue, green, or hazel eyes; pale milky white to light brown skin; and are of average build and height. Tenhas mostly follow the Church of St. Cuthbert, a distant offshoot of the Holy Thonian Church that reveres St. Cuthbert (the hero-founder of the church after the fall of Caergardd) as much as it does Mitra; also, six major gods of the Kelltic pantheon have been adopted as exalted beings, another major point of contention between the two Lawful faiths. Some follow the old faith of Kelltic Druidry (Neutral). Their language is mostly Kells with a remnant of Mirakosian, and is a distinct, unintelligible dialect from that of the other Kells of the Vales. [Welsh]
THONIANS: The Thonians are the cousins of the Skandaharians of the north. When the Mingols and Bolgers invaded the Mirakosian Empire from the west, the Thonians invaded from the north. Within a mere century, the two barbarian peoples had caused the collapse of the empire in the north and west, and each settled in to build their own kingdoms on the ruins of empire. The Thonians were the first to build their own greater civilization, due to stronger unity among the larger tribes, lack of incessant warfare with the Mingols, and better relations with the remnant of the Empire.
Thonian civilization is really a mix of Thonian, Mirakells, and Mirakosian; the Thonian tribes and their warlords admired the life lead by the empire, and so sought to preserve as much of it as possible, though altered through their own tribal traditions in law and culture. The Synobians and Rizeeli are the most integrated, with Thonian, Mirakells, and Mirakosian fully merged, and are thus dealt with separately. Thonians proper are, ethnically speaking, a mix of Thonian and Mirakells, with other local influence from the native peoples, to a greater or lesser degree depending on region, tribe, and clan, and with strong cultural influence from Mirakos.
The Thonians of Geneva, first a tribal alliance, later a kingdom, were the most dynamic of the Thonians, and quickly took the lead in Thonian politics and society. It was King Robert I of Geneva who united Geneva and its conquered Thonian and Rizeeli states with Mirakos in 800 AC, forming the Empire of Thonia and Mirakos; and it was King Ernst I of Geneva who reformed the ramshackle empire into the Great Kingdom (sans Mirakos) in 926 AC.
Thonians are found throughout the Great Kingdom. The heartland of Thonia is the Kingdom of Geneva; other notable Thonian domains, each based on an ancient tribe or tribal alliance, include the Earldom of Alden, the Kingdom of Avalon, the Bossonian Marches (strong Mirakells influence, the border province of the Northern Marches), the Kingdom of Catmelun (heavily mixed with Patursians), the Duchy of Darien, the Duchy of Delavan, the Earldom of Elkhorn, the Royal Province of Gunderland, the Kingdom of Keoland, the Kingdom of Koth (heavily mixed with Cirkoshians), the Duchy of Lyons (heavily mixed with Synobians), the Neron March (heavily mixed with Bolgers), the Duchy of Maritz (heavily mixed with Frisians), the Principality of Poitain (mixed with Synobians and Rizeeli), the Grand Duchy of Tarantia, the Royal Province of the Tauran, the County of Urnst, the Grand Duchy of Urnst, the Earldom of Walworth, the County of Yerocundy, and the County of Zenda. This does not include double that number of baronies, free cities, royal cantons, and other petty domains in between the major ones.
There is no real typical Thonian type, though various noble houses have maintained the ancient archetype, accidentally, though extensive intermarriage. This “High Thonian” type has curly or wavy tawny hair, blue or hazel eyes, fair skin, and is tall with an average build. This type is also predominant in rural areas where the native Mirakells and/or Mirakosians were either exterminated or expelled, such as in Geneva, Gunderland, Keoland, Tarantia, the Tauran, and the Urnsts.
Thonians cleave to the Holy Thonian Church (Lawful), and little remains of their old faith from their barbaric days (animist, with a dash of Aesir/Vanir reverence). The various native Pagan faiths often crop up here and there, especially in regions where the Thonian upper-classes heavily oppress the less-Thonian and more-nativist lower classes. Heretical beliefs out of Bolgerie, Patursia, Poitain, and Synobia are not uncommon in lands where such peoples are found in minority groups.
Just as there are scores of regional Thonian sub-cultures, so too are there scores of Thonian dialects. There are three dialects that are found in use throughout Greater Thonia and the Great Kingdom. “Common Thonian” is a patois of the various Thonian dialects with a strong admixture of Synobian, Mirakosian, Bolgovorya, and Aquilonian; it is the tongue used by merchants throughout the Great Kingdom and beyond. Royal Thonian is the dialect of Geneva, aka Genfisch, and is used in all the royal and noble courts of the realm. Finally, Auld Thonian is the liturgical tongue of the Holy Thonian Church, used in rituals by the clergy and often used in many scholarly tomes, even those not dealing with theology. Common Thonian is written using a simplified Mirakosian alphabet; Royal and Auld Thonian are written using the Thonian alphabet. [Germans]
VESTLINGIANS: These peoples are descended from the last major migrations of the Thonians from the northern sub-continent to the mainland. They are primarily descended from three great tribal alliances – the Spydingas (Spear-People), Oksingas (Axe-People), and Svaerdingas (Sword-People), as well as dozens of lesser tribes and clans. At first, they were invited into the region by the Mirakells as mercenaries against the Picts, the Peshwah, the Salikar, and their western-Kells cousins. Finding the lands of the North abandoned by the Mirakosians to be mostly empty and still quite fertile, the mercenary bands soon become a flood of families, clans, and eventually whole tribes.
Held back from full-scale invasion of the Northlands by King Uther and his knights, the three tribes first held to the lands between the North Sea and the Redwood and trickled into the lands along the Root River. Bramwald was the first of their settlements. By the time Uthur was able to turn them back, they had claimed all the lands between the Root River and the Bossonian Marches to the south. The local Mirakells and Kells they reduced to serfs or thralls. When Uther died, and the Shining Court fell in civil war, the Thonians swarmed north, conquering the rest of the solid lands west of the Great Dismal Swamp. Most of the Mirakells and Kells fled west; most of those who remained were assimilated into the Vestlingian clans as serfs and thralls or rarely, freemen. Only in deep forest and on hilly moors did the wild Kells, never tamed even by the Mirakosians, remain free.
Each band, clan, tribe, and tribal alliance founded their own independent kingdom, though the strongest of the kings often claimed the title Bretwalda (“King of Kings”), it rarely meant anything of real political or economic significance. The Vestlingians remained heathens – followers of the Aesir and the Vanir – unlike their southern Thonian cousins who turned to revere Mitra and founded the Holy Thonian Church. Other cults, remnants from the Kelltic and Mirakosian pantheons mostly, also gained some following here and there. This lack of unity politically and religiously meant that the Vestlingians never really gelled as a single people, unlike as occurred with their cousins in the south. “Vestlingian” is a term applied by outsiders; each Vestlingian considers himself to be a countryman of his own sub-realm, whether one of the Big Five or a tiny two-horse hamlet.
And so, the independent kingdoms rose and fell, waxed great in power and waned to mere memory, over the following centuries. Raiders from elsewhere – Picts, Tenhas, Salikar, Skandaharians, Xothians, and even renegade Thonians – invaded from time to time, in small bands and even large tribes. These outsiders might conquer a portion of the land for a while, but over time the Vestlingians would assimilate them, their realm would fall, and they would leave some small remnant of their time in architecture, religion, language, myth, or legend. But the Vestlingian culture remained dominant in the North, surviving regular slave raids by the Xothians, half the land being conquered by Varangians, and even the founding of the Wizard Realm… until the advent of the Egg of Coot.
About five decades ago, the Egg of Coot announced his (its?) existence with the first invasions of strange and terrible monsters, backed by armies of orcs and goblins and worse. These invasions, which occurred every six years and lasted for months, weakened the Vestlingians by sapping their greatest strength – their warriors. With regular invasions, Vestlingian losses could never be replaced in time for the next invasion. First this caused the fall of the Wizard Realm, at the same time that the lands north and south of the Black River (then a wide channel river like the Amber Channel and Misauga) began to sink. The northern swamps of the Picts were the first to go; then the moors for which the town and realm of Blackmoor were named sank beneath the waves; and the Witch-Folk of the north lost their southernmost realms, until the modern Black Sea formed.
This action is still occurring today, with the Sinking Lands north of Maus and the Shallows between the Egg of Coot and Bartertown. However, the process has slowed greatly, and with the continual rise and fall of the Sinking Lands, it seems the power of the Egg does have some limits. But great swaths of the lands held by the Vestlingians were lost to the north, and the invasions continued every six years like clockwork. Then, for three invasions in a row, the Vestlingians were unable to offer any serious resistance – whole districts had been depopulated, and entire towns fallen into ruin. And each time, the forces of the Egg of Coot poured out of the Northlands into the Bossonian Marches.
After the third such invasion, the Thonians had had enough, and called the Northern Crusade to invade, take, hold, and repopulate the Northlands as a buffer against the forces of the Egg, with the goal of someday overwhelming and destroying him (it?). Unable to resist the invasion, so weakened were they, many Vestlingians welcomed the Thonians with open arms as liberators… though quickly discovered that they had traded a monstrous threat with the grasping, greedy, and often cruel overlords that formed the noble core of the crusade. And now the Thonians are sending colonists to the north, great wagon-trains and fleets full, sending every useless ne’er-do-well, village idiot, larcenous merchant, and swindling thief from the cities and towns of the south. For every hard-working peasant family that comes north seeking to build a better life, some lord of the south has emptied his donjon of a coterie of criminals...
Vestlingians have retained the classic Thonian type but have mixed with all the various peoples of the surrounding areas, and then some. The typical Vestlingian has straight or wavy tawny, blonde, or brown hair; blue or hazel eyes; pale to ruddy skin; and is of average height with stocky but muscular build. Many show a mixed heritage; green eyes reveal Kelltic or Tenha blood; pale blond hair and great height indicate Skandaharian blood (very common on the North Sea coast); black hair and brown eyes indicate Salikar or Pictish influence; dusky skin Sindhi ancestry; red hair might indicate Kells or Viking blood; and so forth.
Vestlingians have never been big on religion; it was always felt to be an individual issue of faith, and so no one faith ever grew popular or powerful enough to unite the peoples. The heathenism of the Aesir and Vanir is most common, though each individual shrine or temple is independent. Second most popular is the Druidry of the Kells; especially so in areas where Kells remain relatively strong. Third most popular are various independent offshoots of the Holy Church and he Church of St. Cuthbert; usually founded by exiles or immigrants; these too remained independent from their parental organizations. The Church of St. Cuthbert and the Holy Church are next in popularity; each hierarchy answering only from time to time as need required to the hierarchies of their mother churches.
Shrines and even temples to other pantheons and faiths are not unknown, including those of the old Mirakosian pantheon; the Saracen faith of the Salikar; the Dharmargah (and Thugees) of the Sindhis; the temples of the Cirkoshians and Frisians in seaports; shrines of Peshwah deities; and even cults of the Xothian, Pictish, and Witch-Folk sort! As one Vestlingian replied to Bishop Carr of the Holy Thonian Church when asked as to the state of religious affairs in these lands, “Sure, Mitra, why not? Also, Thor is good, especially for battle, but Brigit is better when you seek healing. Neptune is best if you are going to sea, or maybe Yam if you are heading far to the south. Good gods are good, just remember to avoid the bad…”
Today, of course, in areas held by the Thonians, the Holy Thonian Church is the official church of the land, and many other temples and faiths have lost lands, treasure, and lives to the paladins, priests, and bishops of the Holy Church. Tithes to the church are enforced by the lord’s men, and heresy, apostacy, and blasphemy against the “one true faith” are punished in the lord’s court.
Vestlingians speak Vestlingian, a dialect of Thonian distinct from any other, though it has much in common with the Bossonian dialect and the language spoken by the peasants of Aquilonia; it is not mutually intelligible with either. Vestlingian is written using a rune system similar to that used by the Skandaharians, Giants, and Dwarves. [Anglo-Saxons]
VISTANI: Little is known of these people, save that no one knows whence they came, nor wither they go when they leave. Often, strange gray mists appear prior to their arrival and before their leaving. When they arrive, they travel in small groups of extended families in intricately-decorated wagons called vardos. They are as proud of and protective of their horse as they are of their wives and children.
Vistani women are said to have great powers of prophecy and divination, and use all manners of devices, including crystal balls, tarot cards, and tea leaves, to tell futures for gold, hard cash. These same witches are said to be able to cast the evil eye and bestow curses (for a fee, or if insulted or harmed). Their menfolk are superlative smiths and tinkers. It is said they are unsurpassed thieves and con men, while the un-married women are excellent dancers, and dance (and provide other services) for a fee… or out of love. But beware of jealous boyfriends, incensed fathers, and vengeful grandmothers…
Vistani are a most unique people, seemingly unrelated to any other in the known lands. They have wavy or curly bluish-black to dark brown hair; amber, brown, or black eyes; dark brown swarthy skin; and are of average height; men tend to be wiry, women voluptuous. They are very private about their religion, to such a point that outsiders have invented terrible rites and cults for the Vistani involving worship of devils and consorting with vampires, werewolves, and spirits of the night. Their language is never taught to outsiders, and sages aver it is not related to any known tongue. [Gypsies of Ravenloft] NOTE: Vistani are not available as player-characters!
XOTHIANS: The Xothians of the Duchy of the Peaks are an alien people – truly, it is well known that they are not of this world and arrived here from some other world in time and space some four centuries ago. For all their alien origins, they prove that people are people wherever they may be from, though sadly, these people are counted among the worst known. Their culture is dedicated to personal pleasures, regardless of the cost to others (due to their religion, this willful malice is a requirement of everyday life). Every Xothian is the absolute master or mistress of those beneath him or her and is the abject plaything of those in superior positions in society; “Abasement is owed to your superiors, brutality is demanded to your inferiors” is the embodiment of their culture and cult.
The term “duke” was applied to the realm due to a linguistic misunderstanding of the term dux; the leader of the Xothians is the one who is best at the struggle (or war) that is life.” The Duke of the Peaks is more properly the First Warlord of the Realm, as Xothians consider themselves at war with the rest of the world, as well as with one-another.
In Xothian society, the “Purebloods” (nobles) rule, the “Half-Bloods” (gentry) and “New Bloods” (middle-class) serve, and everyone else is a slave. Within each caste are numerous levels of precedence, each earned first by birth, then held by merit -- merit being determined by those who are most cunning and merciless. Purebloods are, like elves, both warriors and wizards, and seek to excel in both as well as other skills and talents that prove their superiority over one another. Males and females are equal in all regards. Every Xothian of any worth has their own personal hiakh, the giant riding-birds that the Xothians happily sell to the highest bidders (though the best are only ever reserved for themselves).
Half-Bloods are descended either directly from a mix of Xothian and other blood, though any Xothian blood is enough to be considered a Half-Blood. Half-Bloods are rarer than one might think, as the Xothians have mastered the alchemical arts of prophylaxis and abortifacients – Half-Bloods are allowed to be born only if it is felt that the child might have potential (based on the non-Xothian parent’s qualities). Half-Bloods are never born from common slaves or concubines, nor do Xothian women have Half-Bloods willy-nilly. Half-Bloods who do not “prove themselves worthy” by their fifth birthday are sacrificed to the Devil-Gods. Half-Bloods are otherwise as per normal humans. Half-Bloods do all the high-level labors in service to their Xothian family group (“families” in Xothian culture being amorphous things, translate more properly as “companies,” usually having multiple generations of inter-related husbands and wives and children, such that families may consist of scores or even hundreds of Xothians).
New Bloods are non-Xothians accepted as “more useful than other slaves” in Xothian society. Likely slaves, with superior skills, intelligence, cunning, and cruelty, provided they are properly obeisant and lickspittle, can rise in the slave caste until they are promoted to “New Blood” status. These serve the Xothians in all ways as a middle-class. Their loyalty is programmed through regular application of charm enchantments; thus, they are often found outside of the duchy, trading or raiding, spying and slaving. Note that the least Half-Blood is still superior to the greatest New Blood, regardless of the talents and merits of the New Blood.
The slave caste is made up of slaves taken from all over the known lands (and even beyond), and so is a thoroughly mixed and miserable mass of peoples. The value of the life of a slave is only in the cash value to its owner; there is are no laws against harming or even killing a slave’ doing so incurs the wrath of the owner only to the extent that it means that the slave cannot perform its duties and can usually be cured with a simple exchange of money.
Xothians have straight bone white or ebon black hair; glittering garnet, citrine, emerald, or sapphire eyes; bone white, ashen gray, or ebon black skin (always of a different color than their hair); and are tall and athletic. Half-Bloods are of the same skin coloration, but their hair and eye colors are inherited from non-Xothian ancestors.
Xothians are zealous followers of a pantheon of sadistic, cruel, and psychopathic Devil-Gods. Thasaidon (King of Hell, Lord of All Evils, Prince of Darkness) is the leader of the pantheon. He is served by Alila (The Queen of Perdition, Goddess of all Iniquities), Basatan (God of the Sea, Lord of the Kraken), Geol (God of the Earth, Lord of Riches), Ililot (Goddess of Lust, Lady of Depravity, Handmaiden of Alila), Mordiggian (God of Death and Slaughter), Thamogorgos (God of Magic, Grand Magister of the Seven Scarlet Hells), Yuckla (God of Mirth, the Diabolical Dwarf, Jester of the Court of Hell), and Yululun (God of Undeath, Lord of Tombs). There are innumerable lesser, minor, and petty devils and demons of infernal sort in this pantheon, each the particular patron of a city, town, village, site, or family.
The Xothian tongue is alien and unrelated to any others known, as is the strange system of glyphs used to write it. As it is only used among Xothians (a patois of Kells and Skandaharian being used to order around the slaves), it is not generally known outside of the Duchy of the Peaks. [People of Xothique] Note: Only Half-Blood Xothians are available as a player character races, as the Pure-Bloods never leave their homelands save to go to war.
AMAZONS OF THE GOLDEN HORDE: Horse-nomads native to the plains west of Tenh and south of the Vales, the Amazons of the Golden Horde are known in their own tongue as the Lovas-Lanyok, or Horse-Maidens. They are cousins of the Amazons of the North with strong Peshwah, Skandaharian, and Kells bloodlines. Their language reflects this mix and is not mutually intelligible with that of the Amazons of the North. No men ride with the Lovas-Lanyok; when a Horse-Maiden reaches the point that she wishes to bear a child, she goes to neighboring lands to seek out a worthy sire. Male children born to an Amazon are traded to nearby Kells or Peshwah for unwanted girl children. Amazons of the Golden Horde are often encountered elsewhere, even as far south as Mirakos, as mercenaries; they generally serve exclusively in all-Amazon companies. The Lovas-Lanyok have curly or wavy blonde, red, or platinum blonde hair; blue or green eyes; pale to tan skin; and median to tall height and athletic build. They are animists, their shamans revering the sun and wind, grass and rain, as well as a few foreign goddesses (especially Epona of the Kells, Artemis of the Mirakosians, and Argimpasa of the Peshwah). Amazons of the Golden Horde speak Lovas-Lanyok, which is never taught to non-Amazons. It is not a written language. [Hungarians]
AMAZONS OF THE NORTH: Native to the forests, swamps, and lake-lands between the Skandaharian Vikings and Varangians, the Amazons of the north are known in their own tongue as the Noita-Ihmisia, or Witch-Folk. Unlike their western nomad and eastern seafaring cousins, the northern Amazons maintain their own population of males of the same race, though theirs is a matriarchal society, and males are subservient in all ways (males are laborers or warriors who serve the ruling female caste, who are witches). The Noita-Ihmisia have straight black, brown, or platinum blonde hair; grey, hazel, or blue eyes; very pale skin; and are tall and lithe or wiry. They worship evil goddesses of the Finnish pantheon (Chaos, Tuonetar). Witch-Folk speak Noita-Kielta, the Witch Tongue, which is written using Chaotic sigils.
Note that the underlying population of the Realm of the Egg of Coot derives from the Witch-Folk, though has been heavily mixed with slaves from all ends of the earth (especially Kells and Skandaharians), as well as mutated by the horrible sorcery of the Egg. [Finns]
AMAZONS OF THE SEA: The islands south of Rhun are home to an Amazon race of remarkable sort, the Amazons of the Sea, known as Meremased or “Sea-Bitches” in their own tongue. Like the Amazons of the Golden Horde they have no men sailing with them, and like them, they go forth into the wider world to find worthy mates. Males born to Amazons of the Sea are sacrificed to their dreaded sea goddess (when males of other races are not available). Regardless of their father’s nature, all Meremased have straight or wavy blue or green hair, piercing eyes of a startling color opposite that of their hair, pale skin that freckles bluish-green, and are tall with an athletic build. They worship Vedenemo, the Goddess of the Sea, a Chaotic goddess who drowns fishermen and sailors who do not respect her. Their language, like that of the Lovas-Lanyok, is so divergent from that of their sisters it is mutually unintelligible; it is written using Skandaharian runes. [Estonians]
AQUILONIANS: Descended from a mix of Synobians and Skandaharians, followers of the great warlord Phalko who raided and settled the northern coast of Synobia almost three centuries ago, eventually to build the realm of Aquilonia (the “northern kingdom”). Aquilonians are a thoroughly mixed people, with all manners of hair and eye colors, pale to ruddy skin, and any build. The noble houses have kept more to the original Skandaharian type through selective marriage amongst each other and with members of the noble houses of the Northern Lords and Frisia. Aquilonian culture is much more rough-and-tumble, cruel and grasping than even the Thonians or Mirakosians. Most follow the tenets of the Holy Thonian Church (Lawful, Mitra), though many nobles especially give it little more than lip service, while some still follow the old Heathen ways (Neutral Norse paganism) or the modern Gudtro faith (Lawful, Aesir). Aquilonians speak the Aquilonian dialect of Synobian, which is written using the Thonian alphabet. [Norman French] [Most of the “Thonian” settlers of the Northern Marches are Aquilonians]
BOLGERS: Bolgers are descended from a mix of western nomad tribes of Mingol sort and native hill and forest tribes of Kells and undifferentiated sort. They are native to Great Bolgerie, a patchwork of kingdoms, duchies, tribes, and petty realms in the western regions of the Great Kingdom. There are many sub-groups and dialects, fraught with extensive ancient feuds and internecine warfare. The Bolgers are as numerous in the Great Kingdom as the Thonians; to recognize this, the capital of the Great Kingdom was moved in 1000 AC to the city of Mohacs, a city on the border of Thonian and Bolger territories.
Great Bolgerie encompasses many kingdoms, duchies, marches, counties, and tribal territories, including the County of Bileca, the Grand Duchy of Borno, the Kingdom of Botulia, the County of Celate, the Kingdom of Faraz, the Kingdom of Khotyn, the County of Kostolac, the Duchy of Maritsa, the Concatenated Cantons of Perunland, the Principality of Plevna, the March of Slove, the County of Stabilny, the County of Tutora, the Duchy of Varna, the Zamorian League of Cities, and the Zaporoskan Territories.
Bolgers have a wide variety of hair, eye, and skin colors., but the most common type in the cosmopolitan cities of the region have wavy or curly black or brown hair; brown or hazel-eyes; pale to tan brown skin; and median height and build. Most adhere to the Church of Great Bolgerie, an offshoot of the Holy Thonian Church (Lawful, Mitra), but some groups continue to follow their Heathen or Paynim ways (Neutral Slavic paganism or Celtic druidism; Neutral Tengrism or Chaotic Erlik-worship), and a few hold the Saracen faith of the Salikar (Lawful, Shamash) or even more esoteric faiths. Bolgers speak Bolgovorya (in a wide number of dialects), which is written using the Bolgerie alphabet. [Slavic]
CIRKOSHIANS: These peoples from the far south are said to be the greatest sailors and merchants in the world, willing and capable of circumnavigating the continent and sailing from the burning south to the freezing north in search of profit. Small settlements are found in most port cities and towns. Cirkoshians have curly or wavy black hair; dark brown or amber eyes; dark brown swarthy skin; and a tall and thin build. They revere their own ancient pantheon of gods (generally Neutral, Canaanite). Cirkoshians speak Cirkoshian, which is written using the Cirkoshian alphabet. [Phoenician]
FRISIANS: An offshoot of the Thonian peoples, the Frisians did not mix with the Mirakells native to the northern region due to isolation in their swampy lands. As the go-betweens for Varangian Skandaharians and Thonians, they mixed more with the northern allies, and thus retain more ancient Thonian ways and physical appearance. As merchants, they are second only to the Cirkoshians in the north; the two often have neighboring enclaves in port towns and engage in mutual sabotage and skullduggery both private and public. Frisians helped found many of the port towns in the north, most notably Robinsport and Maus; the only port town in the north where they are not found is Port Dacoit, which is a Cirkoshian stronghold.
Frisians have straight or wavy tawny or blonde hair; blue or gray eyes; pale skin; and short or median height and light build. Even though they were eventually conquered by Geneva and folded into the Great Kingdom, they maintain their own faith, the Frisian Rite (Lawful, Forseti). Frisians speak Frisian, a tongue mutually intelligible with both Thonian and Skandaharian; it is written using the Thonian alphabet. [Frisians]
KELLS: Once upon a time, the Kells ranged from south of Geneva to the westernmost Vales west of the Northern Marches. Today, they are, as a free and independent people, found only to the west of Tenh and the Duchy of the Peaks, their various tribes and clans known together as the Valemen. The Vales are known to the Skandaharians as the “Land of Thralls,” as they and the peoples of the Duchy of the Peaks raid the Vales for slaves. Some small groups remain in the Northern Marches, first dominated by the Vestlingians, now by the Aquilonians. Tenhas and Synobians are the most prominent groups descended from the Kells, from the mixed peoples known as the “Mirakells” that arose in the early days of the Mirakosian Empire. The Tenha mixed further with other Kells, while the Synobians mixed further with Thonians.
Physically the Kells are highly variable; those of the Vale are known for curly or wavy red or tawny hair, green eyes, pale skin, and average height and weight. Kells in the Northern Marches and the Duchy of the Peaks are much more variable, though the isolated highland clans of the Superstition Mountains, as the favored slave soldiers and bodyguards of the Xothians, and thus not forced into breeding programs like other Kelltic slaves, retain straight black hair, blue eyes, and bronze skin. Kells of the Vales follow their ancient druidic ways (Neutral); favored patrons include Brigit, Lugh, Nuada, and Crom. Kells speak various Keltic dialects; there is no written form, though Kelltic druids use a type of runic alphabet on their stelae. [Celts, those of the Vales are Gaels]
KHITAINS: These peoples are native to the far west and southwest, far beyond Great Bolgerie. The Empire of Khitai is said to be as large if not larger than the Great Kingdom. The northeastern-most kingdoms of Chulan, Kankiang, Koda, Kusan, and Monkai were conquered by the Great Kingdom within the last century. While Khitains are not unknown, they are rare in the Northern Marches.
Khitains have straight black hair; brown eyes; pale brown to sallow yellow or golden skin; wide variety of height and build; and within this, many varieties within tribal and kingdom groups. As Khitai is as large and varied as the Great Kingdom, there are many different faiths practiced by the Khitains, often non-exclusionary, with the majority follow a Lawful philosophy translated as “The Way of the Philosopher” (Lawful, Confucianism). There are dozens of dialects of Khitain, some not mutually intelligible. Khitain is written using one of three forms – an alphabet, a glyphic system, and a syllabary, and it is through the use of the glyphic system that all dialects can understand each other. [Chinese]
MINGOLS: Native to the great central steppes of the south and west, the Mingols proper are merely one of many tribes and clans of “Paynim” horse nomads of similar culture and religion. They have an even wider variety than the Khitains, as they have been joined over their long history by other peoples on the plains and steppes. Wide variety of hair colors but usually straight or wavy black or dark brown; usually brown or gray eyes; tan bronze or dark brown to copper or golden yellow skin; usually short, wiry, and bow-legged. Their faiths are varieties of Heathenism or Paynim worship (Neutral Tengrism or Chaotic Erlik-worship). Mingols speak dozens of various tribal dialects, not all mutually intelligible. Similarly, each tribe and clan use a different variant of a local writing system, if they use any at all. [Turks and Mongols]
MIRAKOSIANS: The Mirakosians were one of the earliest city-building human civilizations in the northeastern portion of the continent. They grew from petty city-states, to small kingdoms, and finally to the great Mirakosian Empire which ruled from the southern jungles to the northern seas. It was the bronze-clad warriors and bearded priests of the Mirakosians who conquered the Northern Marches a thousand years ago and built there the first human towns (the Kells were already there, but lived a much more bucolic rural life, and the Picts lived in the savage atavism they remain in today). When their great empire fell to the invasions of the Thonians and Bolgers almost 600 years ago, their culture lived on in both peoples, who grafted their own barbarian ways onto the rituals, laws, and culture of the Mirakosians. Mirakosia today has reverted to squabbling city-states and petty principalities. Not having learned from the mistakes of the past, Mirakosian lords count on Cirkoshian merchants for their economy and Thonian, Mingol, and Tangori mercenaries for their defense as they engage in their petty vendettas.
Mirakosians of today are descended from every ethnic group that once made up the citizenry and subjects of their lost empire, though the most common physical type remains curly or wavy tawny to dark brown hair; brown or hazel eyes; pale to dark brown skin; and is of median height and light build. The Holy Mirakosian Church (Lawful, Mitra) has been on the decline for centuries, ever since most of the Mirakosian princes chose to return to their ancient Pagan ways (Neutral, Greco-Roman pantheon). Mirakosian is spoken with a different dialect in each major region and city, but all are mutually intelligible. Mirakosian is written using the Mirakosian alphabet. [Greco-Latin]
PATURSIANS: Native to a land of plains, mountains, and valleys and caught between the lands of the Thonians, Mingols, Khitains, and Stygians, the Patursians have an ancient history of great civilized empires and savage barbaric tribalism, often at one and the same time. The Patursians are merely the leading tribe of a half-dozen major tribes and scores of minor tribes and clans, each with its own valley, plain, and mountain range to call their own. Only the northernmost clans have been conquered by the Great Kingdom, which named the combined domain Patursia after the whole nation.
Patursians are a varied lot, though the majority have wavy or curly brown to black hair; blue, grey, or brown eyes; pale to swarthy skin; and are of average height and build. The Holy Prophet Epemitreus, at the time a dissolute scholar exiled from Mirakos, was called to his cause by Mitra in Patursia, thus there are many sites sacred to the Holy Church in this realm. While the Holy Church has some adherents (mostly Thonian immigrants), most Patursians remain faithful to the Old Faith (Lawful), in which Mitra is a major leading figure among a pantheon of gods. This is also the homeland of Ahriman and his devils (Chaotic), which still hold sway over many small tribes and no few clans and cultists. Each tribe has its own dialect of Patursian, but all are united in using the ancient Patursian cuneiform script. [Persian]
PESHWAH: A nomadic people native to the Plains of Hak south and southwest of Tenh and west of the Great Waste of Salik. Cousins of the Patursians and more distantly related to the Mingols, the Peshwah are born to the saddle. Though the Hak is their heartland, they ride wherever their horses lead them, provided there is plentiful grass and water for their herds of cattle. Warlike, the Peshwah make implacable enemies, but conversely, they value friendship above even the bonds of the family or clan (though it is extremely difficult to earn the friendship of a Peshwah). Peshwah have straight or wavy blonde, tawny, or brown hair; hazel or gray eyes; tan bronzed skin; and are of average height, wiry build, and are bowlegged.
The gods of the Peshwah, in general descending order of importance, are: Thagimasidas (God of Horses), Arash (God of War); Tabiti (Goddess of the Clan), Argimpasa (Goddess of the Stars), Oitosyros (God of the Sun), Api (Goddess of the Earth and Grass), and Papaios (God of Thunder and Lightning). Their Neutral religion is otherwise animist; shamans dedicated to Argimpasa have renowned powers of divination. Peshwah believe in reincarnation, and that the worthy are reincarnated as horses, and the great are reincarnated as pegasi, which they treat as semi-divine. The Peshwah tribes each have their own dialect; there is no written form. [Scythians]
PICTS: These peoples are the true native humans of the Northern Marches; their myths and legends have them springing from the moldering earth of the Great Dismal Swamp like earthworms. Where once they ranged from north of the Black River (today the Black Sea) south to the Waste of Salik, and from the North Sea to the Vales, today they are found only in the swamps and forests of the Great Dismal Swamp and in small pockets nearby. Picts are extremely backward and xenophobic, purposefully atavistic savages; they do not smelt or work metals though they are perfectly willing to use metal weapons found or stolen from others. They live by choice in primitive huts in hamlets surrounded by wooden palisades, within which wander the monstrous pets of the shamans. They are ruled by their war-chiefs and the shamans and are (usually) willing to lay down their lives instantly for their chief or shaman (even ecstatically offering themselves as sacrifices to the monstrous beasts kept or summoned by the shamans).
Pictish hair is straight or wavy black; their eyes are black but glow red in the dark (60’ Infravision when in the Great Dismal Swamp); their dusky-gray skin is covered with scars and tattoos of personal, clan, and tribal totems; and they are short to medium of height and wiry to muscular of build. Many Pictish women are more Kelltic in appearance, with wavy red hair, green eyes, pale skin, and average height with athletic or voluptuous build; the Pictish physiotype is strong in the male line but weak in the female, and over long millennia of stealing wives from the Kells, the Kelltic type has become not uncommon among Pictish women. As mentioned, the Picts zealously follow a pantheon of Chaotic bestial demon-gods, led by the God-King of Beasts, Jhebbal Sag, whose main goal is to destroy civilization and return humanity to a beast-like subservient state. Their language is as the howling, screeching, whistling, bellowing, cawing, and hissing of beasts of forest, swamp, sky, and stream; it has no written form. [Howardian Picts]
RIZEELA: These peoples are descended from a mix of Thonians, Mirakells, and Mirakosians and are native to the principalities of Rizzo and Relaco of the Great Kingdom and several Mirakosian city-states to the south and east. Thonians consider them to be distant cousins and mostly Mirakosian; Mirakosians consider them to be country bumpkins related to the Thonians. The Rizeela consider themselves to be suave and urbane; they are renowned for their adaptation of the Mirakosian vendetta and for their clan-based society.
Rizeela have a wide variety of hair, eye, and skin colors and heights and builds, as their cities are mixing points on the borders of two well-mixed cultures; the members of the noble houses, which prefer to intermarry with Thonian houses, often exhibit tawny hair, blue eyes, and pale skin. Rizeela tend to be ambivalent about religion, as magic-users are endemic to and prominently powerful in the land, and so the city folk tend to be blasé about the gods. However, the countryfolk take their religion very seriously, and each town or village has its own patron saint of the Holy Thonian Church, Holy Mirakosian Church, or patron god of the Mirakosian pantheon. Religious strife is endemic in the rural regions of the Rizeela. Rizeela speak the Rizeeli dialect of Mirakosian, which has differentiated such that it is not mutually intelligible. IT is written using the Rizeeli variant of the Mirakosian script. [Italian]
SALIKAR: The Wastes of Salik are a broad, long series of sandy deserts, rocky wastelands, burning steppes, and fertile oases that range from the Valley of the Ancients in the north to the Great Sandy Wastes in the south and from the Karpashian Mountains of Great Bolgerie in the east to the Southern Hak in the west. The natives of this vast wasteland are the Salikar, a people renowned for great savagery and terrifying zealotry, yet at the same time for their great appreciation of beauty and unshakeable honor.
The Salikar are divided into two major groups: the nomadic Salikar proper and the sedentary Shirki, who live in the oases towns and villages. The nomad Salikar clans wander the wastelands from fertile plains to fertile plains with their herds of horses, sheep, goats, and camels, while the urban Shirki live in the towns where they produce the various goods and services needful by the nomads. The nomads trade in horses, sheep, goats, camels, and loot from raids on neighboring peoples for their needful products. The nomads are organized into clans, each named after a prominent ancestor; examples of clans include the infamous Beni Hassock, the Beni Sandalye, the Beni Koltuk, the Beni Kanepe, and the Beni Yatak. From time to time over the centuries, kingdoms have been built by merging the fierceness of the nomad with the technical know-how of the urban-dweller, but these never last more than a generation or three.
Salikar have straight or wavy black hair; dark brown or amber eyes; swarthy brown skin; and are of average height and build. Four centuries ago, a prophet, the Holy Prophet Maiyan al’Qabar of the Beni Hassock, took the pagan faith of the Salikar and forged a lawful religion out of it based on the worship of Shamash, the God of the Sun. Many cities and clans still follow the Tariq Alshams, or “Way of the Sun” (the Faithful are known as “Saracens” to the Thonians) though as many or more still follow the old pagan pantheon (mostly of Neutral sort). Others worship or at least placate the genies of the wastelands, as this powerful race of beings is prominent in the region; the djinns of Salik are renowned for their ability to grant wishes and deal out destruction. The Salikar dialects are numerous and based on clan and oasis. The Holy Prophet introduced a writing system based on the script used by genies; writing prior to four centuries ago used various borrowed alphabets and glyphic systems. [Turko-Arabic]
SINDHIS: These peoples are from the far south, beyond even the Mingol steppes and Khitai. A small fleet of them, refugees, were guided north (at great price) by Cirkoshian merchants several centuries ago. They settled in a small village in what eventually became the Duchy of Tenh, transforming it overnight from a village to a small town. Port Dacoit, as it became known, is still the major home for the Sindhi peoples, though they are found in small enclaves throughout the Northern Marches. They remain strongly allied with the Cirkoshians, and no love is lost between them and the Frisians thereby.
Sindhis have curly or wavy bluish-black hair; dark brown almost black eyes; very dark brownish-black skin; and tend to be short and wiry. Many Sindhis these days, especially those outside Port Dacoit, are descended from a mix of Sindhis and other peoples, so appearances can vary greatly. They are known as great weavers, jewelers, gem-cutters, and healers. They mostly cleave to their own faith, known as Dharmargah (Lawful, Hindi pantheon); there are also those who follow a debased form of Kali worship, the Thuggees (Chaotic, Kali). The Sindhis of the North speak their own highly divergent dialect of the Sindhi tongue, which is no longer mutually intelligible with the modern Sindhi tongue of the south. It is written using a variant of the Sindhi script. Only those adopted into the Sindhis are ever taught the Sindhi tongue. [Hindus]
SKANDAHARIANS: Skandaharians are native to the far northern portion of the continent, and are the cousins of the Thonians, whose ancestors once lived where now dwell the Skandaharians. Save for the peoples of the three kingdoms of the Northern Lords, they are a thoroughly barbaric and savage peoples, dedicated to ravaging, pillaging, plundering, maiming, and rapine. They are said to be the second-best sailors in the world, after the Cirkoshians, and are second to none as sea-faring warriors (though the Tangori sailors of the Pearl Isles given them a good run for their hacksilver). No Skandaharian man would ever farm, husband animals, or fish for his own dinner when he can take thralls (slaves) in battle and make them hew his wood and carry his water. The Skandaharians are divided into countless tribes, clans, and bands; only in the south among the Byerningas are there true kingdoms (three) plus the island-realm of Rhun to the east.
The Skandaharians are divided into three main groups: the western Vikings, the eastern Varangians, and the southern Byerningas (“Townsfolk,” known as the “Southern Lords” to the Thonians); the peoples of Rhun are a further mix of Varangians, Byerningas, and Frisians. Skandaharians of all three groups usually have pale skin that tans in the southern sun and are generally tall and muscular. Vikings generally have wavy or curly red hair and green eyes, Varangians have straight or wavy blond hair and blue eyes, while the Byerningas and the Rhuningas are a mix of the two with some Northern Amazon, Frisian, and Thonian bloodlines. Both groups revere the Aesir and Vanir (the Varangians moreso the Aesir, the Vikings moreso the Vanir), while the Byerningas and the peoples of Rhun follow the Gudtro faith of the Aesir (Lawful). Clans and cults following Loki, Hel, and the other Chaotic gods of the pantheon are rife. All Skandaharians speak the Skandaharian tongue, with generally mutually understandable dialects; it is written using Skandaharian runes, derived from old Giant and Dwarf runes. [Norse (Viking), Swedish (Varangian), Danish (Northern Lords and Rhun)]
STYGIANS: Stygians are a mysterious people of the far southern jungles and deserts. It is said that they worship snakes, sacrifice men to their dreadful gods, animate the dead to create their armies, are served by dog-headed men, and live in stone pyramids. No one in the North has ever knowingly met a Stygian. Such is the terror the very name holds that it is used as a form of bogeyman among the Thonians and Mirakosians. [Howardian Stygians]
SYNOBIANS: The Synobians are descended from the Mirakells, Mirakosians, and Thonians who untied as one culture in the centuries following the fall of the Mirakosian Empire. They once held a powerful patchwork of kingdoms in the south and east, along the coast and inland between the North and Mirakosia (save for the Frisian marshes, which they could never conquer). These petty realms were not able to unite against the common enemy, either the western Thonians or their northern Skandaharian cousins who went on to conquer the northern quarter of their lands and form Aquilonia. Their continued internecine battles enabled the Great Kingdom to fold them into their realm all too easily.
As they have been politically outmaneuvered and sidelined by the Bolgers in the last few centuries, the Synobians have turned inward, and today are the philosophers and cultural innovators of the Great Kingdom. Music, cuisine, clothing styles, dueling styles ecumenical theories – you name it, and Synobian styles are all the rage, from the Khitain Domains to Rizzo, and from Patursia to the Northern Marches. It is said that the only thing greater than the Synobian sense of style is their ego. Their most recent major development is in the reorganization of the various monastic orders of the Holy Church, which are causing quite a stir throughout the Great Kingdom.
Being in the central-eastern region of the Great Kingdom, the Synobians are a thoroughly mixed people, but the common sort resembles the core influences of Thonians, Mirakells, and Mirakosians, with wavy or curly blonde to dark brown hair; any eye color though most often brown; pale to dark brown almost swarthy skin; and average height and build. Synobians wholeheartedly cleave to the Holy Thonian Church (Lawful), though of late there have been small revivals in the ancient Mirakosian pagan faith, mostly due to adventurers who have discovered ancient tracts in Mirakosian ruins found throughout Synobia. Also, the region is known for heretical peasant “revivals” of Mitraism, mostly as an expression of the serf and peasant class against their oppressive noble and clerical masters. The Synobian language is primarily based on Mirakosian, with strong Mirakells and Thonian influences, and is distinct enough from Mirakosian to be unintelligible, but familiar enough to Rizeeli as to be understandable. It is written using a unique flowing, cursive script known as Synobois. [French (Occitan)]
TANGORI: The Tangori peoples are very rare in the Northern Marches; their homelands stand many thousands of miles south, south of Cirkoshia and Patursia and east of Stygia and Khitai. However, they are not unknown in the Northern Marches, as Tangori mercenary companies serve far into the north; Tangori traders and raiders sail far into the cold northern seas to trade and raid for loot and slaves; and conversely, Skandaharians, Xothians, Cirkoshians, and servants of the Egg of Coot sail far south for trade and on raids for loot and slaves.
The vast sub-continent of Tangor is home to every sub-tropical and tropical environment and terrain known. The Tangori are divided into numerous kingdoms, tribes, city-states, and clans. Each region and sub-group has its own physiotype; hair ranges from wavy, curly, or kinky dark brown or black to reddish or bluish black; eyes are typically brown, though other colors are not unknown (including amber in general, gold among the Nubt and Meduwa, or blue among the Tamasheq); skin ranges from light brown to chocolate brown, dark brown to ebony black, reddish-brown to cinnamon brown; height and weight also vary greatly, from very short and wiry to very tall and muscular and everything in between.
The Tangori have a wide variety of faiths. Many are animist, with a small group of ancestral gods. Others worship pantheons of mighty gods; some abase themselves before monsters of Chaos. The best known is the ancient pantheon of Nubt and Meduwa, a Lawful faith lead by the hawk-headed god Horus-Re.
There are more dialects of Tangori than there are kingdoms, tribes, and clans in that realm. Each region has its own common tongue, based on the dominant kingdom or tribe at that time. Overall, the tongue of Nubt (Nubtaic) and its hieroglyphs and hieratic script are best known across all Tangor and into the northern lands.
[Northern inland and coastal are Bantu, coastal and islands are Swahili, southern coastal and eastern inland are West African, inland desert are Tuareg, inland plains are Masai, inland jungle and riverine are Nubian, inland highlands are Amharic]
TENHAS: Tenhas are descended from the original mix of Mirakosians and Kells (“Mirakells”) who lived in the North before the fall of the Mirakosian Empire. When the empire fell, they fell into anarchy for decades, until the rise of King Uther Andahar, “Black Uther,” originally the Warlord of Blackmoor, later the King of the North (reigned 507-538 AC) who reigned from shining Caergardd (now lost, but some sages claim it stood where later Tonisborg was built, and today stands the city of Vestfold). Sadly, the Shining Court of Uther did not outlive his reign, and the northern barbarians, the ancestors of the Vestlingians, eventually overran the ancestors of the Tenhas. Many Kells and Mirakells fled west, through the Great Dismal Swamp of the Picts, to joint their brethren in the Vales west of the Misauga River.
Thus, the Tenhas remain relatively “pure” from Vestlingian bloodlines (though there is no small Frisian influence in Robinsport and Sindhi blood in Tenha veins in Port Dacoit). Tenhas generally have curly or wavy red, blonde, or tawny hair; blue, green, or hazel eyes; pale milky white to light brown skin; and are of average build and height. Tenhas mostly follow the Church of St. Cuthbert, a distant offshoot of the Holy Thonian Church that reveres St. Cuthbert (the hero-founder of the church after the fall of Caergardd) as much as it does Mitra; also, six major gods of the Kelltic pantheon have been adopted as exalted beings, another major point of contention between the two Lawful faiths. Some follow the old faith of Kelltic Druidry (Neutral). Their language is mostly Kells with a remnant of Mirakosian, and is a distinct, unintelligible dialect from that of the other Kells of the Vales. [Welsh]
THONIANS: The Thonians are the cousins of the Skandaharians of the north. When the Mingols and Bolgers invaded the Mirakosian Empire from the west, the Thonians invaded from the north. Within a mere century, the two barbarian peoples had caused the collapse of the empire in the north and west, and each settled in to build their own kingdoms on the ruins of empire. The Thonians were the first to build their own greater civilization, due to stronger unity among the larger tribes, lack of incessant warfare with the Mingols, and better relations with the remnant of the Empire.
Thonian civilization is really a mix of Thonian, Mirakells, and Mirakosian; the Thonian tribes and their warlords admired the life lead by the empire, and so sought to preserve as much of it as possible, though altered through their own tribal traditions in law and culture. The Synobians and Rizeeli are the most integrated, with Thonian, Mirakells, and Mirakosian fully merged, and are thus dealt with separately. Thonians proper are, ethnically speaking, a mix of Thonian and Mirakells, with other local influence from the native peoples, to a greater or lesser degree depending on region, tribe, and clan, and with strong cultural influence from Mirakos.
The Thonians of Geneva, first a tribal alliance, later a kingdom, were the most dynamic of the Thonians, and quickly took the lead in Thonian politics and society. It was King Robert I of Geneva who united Geneva and its conquered Thonian and Rizeeli states with Mirakos in 800 AC, forming the Empire of Thonia and Mirakos; and it was King Ernst I of Geneva who reformed the ramshackle empire into the Great Kingdom (sans Mirakos) in 926 AC.
Thonians are found throughout the Great Kingdom. The heartland of Thonia is the Kingdom of Geneva; other notable Thonian domains, each based on an ancient tribe or tribal alliance, include the Earldom of Alden, the Kingdom of Avalon, the Bossonian Marches (strong Mirakells influence, the border province of the Northern Marches), the Kingdom of Catmelun (heavily mixed with Patursians), the Duchy of Darien, the Duchy of Delavan, the Earldom of Elkhorn, the Royal Province of Gunderland, the Kingdom of Keoland, the Kingdom of Koth (heavily mixed with Cirkoshians), the Duchy of Lyons (heavily mixed with Synobians), the Neron March (heavily mixed with Bolgers), the Duchy of Maritz (heavily mixed with Frisians), the Principality of Poitain (mixed with Synobians and Rizeeli), the Grand Duchy of Tarantia, the Royal Province of the Tauran, the County of Urnst, the Grand Duchy of Urnst, the Earldom of Walworth, the County of Yerocundy, and the County of Zenda. This does not include double that number of baronies, free cities, royal cantons, and other petty domains in between the major ones.
There is no real typical Thonian type, though various noble houses have maintained the ancient archetype, accidentally, though extensive intermarriage. This “High Thonian” type has curly or wavy tawny hair, blue or hazel eyes, fair skin, and is tall with an average build. This type is also predominant in rural areas where the native Mirakells and/or Mirakosians were either exterminated or expelled, such as in Geneva, Gunderland, Keoland, Tarantia, the Tauran, and the Urnsts.
Thonians cleave to the Holy Thonian Church (Lawful), and little remains of their old faith from their barbaric days (animist, with a dash of Aesir/Vanir reverence). The various native Pagan faiths often crop up here and there, especially in regions where the Thonian upper-classes heavily oppress the less-Thonian and more-nativist lower classes. Heretical beliefs out of Bolgerie, Patursia, Poitain, and Synobia are not uncommon in lands where such peoples are found in minority groups.
Just as there are scores of regional Thonian sub-cultures, so too are there scores of Thonian dialects. There are three dialects that are found in use throughout Greater Thonia and the Great Kingdom. “Common Thonian” is a patois of the various Thonian dialects with a strong admixture of Synobian, Mirakosian, Bolgovorya, and Aquilonian; it is the tongue used by merchants throughout the Great Kingdom and beyond. Royal Thonian is the dialect of Geneva, aka Genfisch, and is used in all the royal and noble courts of the realm. Finally, Auld Thonian is the liturgical tongue of the Holy Thonian Church, used in rituals by the clergy and often used in many scholarly tomes, even those not dealing with theology. Common Thonian is written using a simplified Mirakosian alphabet; Royal and Auld Thonian are written using the Thonian alphabet. [Germans]
VESTLINGIANS: These peoples are descended from the last major migrations of the Thonians from the northern sub-continent to the mainland. They are primarily descended from three great tribal alliances – the Spydingas (Spear-People), Oksingas (Axe-People), and Svaerdingas (Sword-People), as well as dozens of lesser tribes and clans. At first, they were invited into the region by the Mirakells as mercenaries against the Picts, the Peshwah, the Salikar, and their western-Kells cousins. Finding the lands of the North abandoned by the Mirakosians to be mostly empty and still quite fertile, the mercenary bands soon become a flood of families, clans, and eventually whole tribes.
Held back from full-scale invasion of the Northlands by King Uther and his knights, the three tribes first held to the lands between the North Sea and the Redwood and trickled into the lands along the Root River. Bramwald was the first of their settlements. By the time Uthur was able to turn them back, they had claimed all the lands between the Root River and the Bossonian Marches to the south. The local Mirakells and Kells they reduced to serfs or thralls. When Uther died, and the Shining Court fell in civil war, the Thonians swarmed north, conquering the rest of the solid lands west of the Great Dismal Swamp. Most of the Mirakells and Kells fled west; most of those who remained were assimilated into the Vestlingian clans as serfs and thralls or rarely, freemen. Only in deep forest and on hilly moors did the wild Kells, never tamed even by the Mirakosians, remain free.
Each band, clan, tribe, and tribal alliance founded their own independent kingdom, though the strongest of the kings often claimed the title Bretwalda (“King of Kings”), it rarely meant anything of real political or economic significance. The Vestlingians remained heathens – followers of the Aesir and the Vanir – unlike their southern Thonian cousins who turned to revere Mitra and founded the Holy Thonian Church. Other cults, remnants from the Kelltic and Mirakosian pantheons mostly, also gained some following here and there. This lack of unity politically and religiously meant that the Vestlingians never really gelled as a single people, unlike as occurred with their cousins in the south. “Vestlingian” is a term applied by outsiders; each Vestlingian considers himself to be a countryman of his own sub-realm, whether one of the Big Five or a tiny two-horse hamlet.
And so, the independent kingdoms rose and fell, waxed great in power and waned to mere memory, over the following centuries. Raiders from elsewhere – Picts, Tenhas, Salikar, Skandaharians, Xothians, and even renegade Thonians – invaded from time to time, in small bands and even large tribes. These outsiders might conquer a portion of the land for a while, but over time the Vestlingians would assimilate them, their realm would fall, and they would leave some small remnant of their time in architecture, religion, language, myth, or legend. But the Vestlingian culture remained dominant in the North, surviving regular slave raids by the Xothians, half the land being conquered by Varangians, and even the founding of the Wizard Realm… until the advent of the Egg of Coot.
About five decades ago, the Egg of Coot announced his (its?) existence with the first invasions of strange and terrible monsters, backed by armies of orcs and goblins and worse. These invasions, which occurred every six years and lasted for months, weakened the Vestlingians by sapping their greatest strength – their warriors. With regular invasions, Vestlingian losses could never be replaced in time for the next invasion. First this caused the fall of the Wizard Realm, at the same time that the lands north and south of the Black River (then a wide channel river like the Amber Channel and Misauga) began to sink. The northern swamps of the Picts were the first to go; then the moors for which the town and realm of Blackmoor were named sank beneath the waves; and the Witch-Folk of the north lost their southernmost realms, until the modern Black Sea formed.
This action is still occurring today, with the Sinking Lands north of Maus and the Shallows between the Egg of Coot and Bartertown. However, the process has slowed greatly, and with the continual rise and fall of the Sinking Lands, it seems the power of the Egg does have some limits. But great swaths of the lands held by the Vestlingians were lost to the north, and the invasions continued every six years like clockwork. Then, for three invasions in a row, the Vestlingians were unable to offer any serious resistance – whole districts had been depopulated, and entire towns fallen into ruin. And each time, the forces of the Egg of Coot poured out of the Northlands into the Bossonian Marches.
After the third such invasion, the Thonians had had enough, and called the Northern Crusade to invade, take, hold, and repopulate the Northlands as a buffer against the forces of the Egg, with the goal of someday overwhelming and destroying him (it?). Unable to resist the invasion, so weakened were they, many Vestlingians welcomed the Thonians with open arms as liberators… though quickly discovered that they had traded a monstrous threat with the grasping, greedy, and often cruel overlords that formed the noble core of the crusade. And now the Thonians are sending colonists to the north, great wagon-trains and fleets full, sending every useless ne’er-do-well, village idiot, larcenous merchant, and swindling thief from the cities and towns of the south. For every hard-working peasant family that comes north seeking to build a better life, some lord of the south has emptied his donjon of a coterie of criminals...
Vestlingians have retained the classic Thonian type but have mixed with all the various peoples of the surrounding areas, and then some. The typical Vestlingian has straight or wavy tawny, blonde, or brown hair; blue or hazel eyes; pale to ruddy skin; and is of average height with stocky but muscular build. Many show a mixed heritage; green eyes reveal Kelltic or Tenha blood; pale blond hair and great height indicate Skandaharian blood (very common on the North Sea coast); black hair and brown eyes indicate Salikar or Pictish influence; dusky skin Sindhi ancestry; red hair might indicate Kells or Viking blood; and so forth.
Vestlingians have never been big on religion; it was always felt to be an individual issue of faith, and so no one faith ever grew popular or powerful enough to unite the peoples. The heathenism of the Aesir and Vanir is most common, though each individual shrine or temple is independent. Second most popular is the Druidry of the Kells; especially so in areas where Kells remain relatively strong. Third most popular are various independent offshoots of the Holy Church and he Church of St. Cuthbert; usually founded by exiles or immigrants; these too remained independent from their parental organizations. The Church of St. Cuthbert and the Holy Church are next in popularity; each hierarchy answering only from time to time as need required to the hierarchies of their mother churches.
Shrines and even temples to other pantheons and faiths are not unknown, including those of the old Mirakosian pantheon; the Saracen faith of the Salikar; the Dharmargah (and Thugees) of the Sindhis; the temples of the Cirkoshians and Frisians in seaports; shrines of Peshwah deities; and even cults of the Xothian, Pictish, and Witch-Folk sort! As one Vestlingian replied to Bishop Carr of the Holy Thonian Church when asked as to the state of religious affairs in these lands, “Sure, Mitra, why not? Also, Thor is good, especially for battle, but Brigit is better when you seek healing. Neptune is best if you are going to sea, or maybe Yam if you are heading far to the south. Good gods are good, just remember to avoid the bad…”
Today, of course, in areas held by the Thonians, the Holy Thonian Church is the official church of the land, and many other temples and faiths have lost lands, treasure, and lives to the paladins, priests, and bishops of the Holy Church. Tithes to the church are enforced by the lord’s men, and heresy, apostacy, and blasphemy against the “one true faith” are punished in the lord’s court.
Vestlingians speak Vestlingian, a dialect of Thonian distinct from any other, though it has much in common with the Bossonian dialect and the language spoken by the peasants of Aquilonia; it is not mutually intelligible with either. Vestlingian is written using a rune system similar to that used by the Skandaharians, Giants, and Dwarves. [Anglo-Saxons]
VISTANI: Little is known of these people, save that no one knows whence they came, nor wither they go when they leave. Often, strange gray mists appear prior to their arrival and before their leaving. When they arrive, they travel in small groups of extended families in intricately-decorated wagons called vardos. They are as proud of and protective of their horse as they are of their wives and children.
Vistani women are said to have great powers of prophecy and divination, and use all manners of devices, including crystal balls, tarot cards, and tea leaves, to tell futures for gold, hard cash. These same witches are said to be able to cast the evil eye and bestow curses (for a fee, or if insulted or harmed). Their menfolk are superlative smiths and tinkers. It is said they are unsurpassed thieves and con men, while the un-married women are excellent dancers, and dance (and provide other services) for a fee… or out of love. But beware of jealous boyfriends, incensed fathers, and vengeful grandmothers…
Vistani are a most unique people, seemingly unrelated to any other in the known lands. They have wavy or curly bluish-black to dark brown hair; amber, brown, or black eyes; dark brown swarthy skin; and are of average height; men tend to be wiry, women voluptuous. They are very private about their religion, to such a point that outsiders have invented terrible rites and cults for the Vistani involving worship of devils and consorting with vampires, werewolves, and spirits of the night. Their language is never taught to outsiders, and sages aver it is not related to any known tongue. [Gypsies of Ravenloft] NOTE: Vistani are not available as player-characters!
XOTHIANS: The Xothians of the Duchy of the Peaks are an alien people – truly, it is well known that they are not of this world and arrived here from some other world in time and space some four centuries ago. For all their alien origins, they prove that people are people wherever they may be from, though sadly, these people are counted among the worst known. Their culture is dedicated to personal pleasures, regardless of the cost to others (due to their religion, this willful malice is a requirement of everyday life). Every Xothian is the absolute master or mistress of those beneath him or her and is the abject plaything of those in superior positions in society; “Abasement is owed to your superiors, brutality is demanded to your inferiors” is the embodiment of their culture and cult.
The term “duke” was applied to the realm due to a linguistic misunderstanding of the term dux; the leader of the Xothians is the one who is best at the struggle (or war) that is life.” The Duke of the Peaks is more properly the First Warlord of the Realm, as Xothians consider themselves at war with the rest of the world, as well as with one-another.
In Xothian society, the “Purebloods” (nobles) rule, the “Half-Bloods” (gentry) and “New Bloods” (middle-class) serve, and everyone else is a slave. Within each caste are numerous levels of precedence, each earned first by birth, then held by merit -- merit being determined by those who are most cunning and merciless. Purebloods are, like elves, both warriors and wizards, and seek to excel in both as well as other skills and talents that prove their superiority over one another. Males and females are equal in all regards. Every Xothian of any worth has their own personal hiakh, the giant riding-birds that the Xothians happily sell to the highest bidders (though the best are only ever reserved for themselves).
Half-Bloods are descended either directly from a mix of Xothian and other blood, though any Xothian blood is enough to be considered a Half-Blood. Half-Bloods are rarer than one might think, as the Xothians have mastered the alchemical arts of prophylaxis and abortifacients – Half-Bloods are allowed to be born only if it is felt that the child might have potential (based on the non-Xothian parent’s qualities). Half-Bloods are never born from common slaves or concubines, nor do Xothian women have Half-Bloods willy-nilly. Half-Bloods who do not “prove themselves worthy” by their fifth birthday are sacrificed to the Devil-Gods. Half-Bloods are otherwise as per normal humans. Half-Bloods do all the high-level labors in service to their Xothian family group (“families” in Xothian culture being amorphous things, translate more properly as “companies,” usually having multiple generations of inter-related husbands and wives and children, such that families may consist of scores or even hundreds of Xothians).
New Bloods are non-Xothians accepted as “more useful than other slaves” in Xothian society. Likely slaves, with superior skills, intelligence, cunning, and cruelty, provided they are properly obeisant and lickspittle, can rise in the slave caste until they are promoted to “New Blood” status. These serve the Xothians in all ways as a middle-class. Their loyalty is programmed through regular application of charm enchantments; thus, they are often found outside of the duchy, trading or raiding, spying and slaving. Note that the least Half-Blood is still superior to the greatest New Blood, regardless of the talents and merits of the New Blood.
The slave caste is made up of slaves taken from all over the known lands (and even beyond), and so is a thoroughly mixed and miserable mass of peoples. The value of the life of a slave is only in the cash value to its owner; there is are no laws against harming or even killing a slave’ doing so incurs the wrath of the owner only to the extent that it means that the slave cannot perform its duties and can usually be cured with a simple exchange of money.
Xothians have straight bone white or ebon black hair; glittering garnet, citrine, emerald, or sapphire eyes; bone white, ashen gray, or ebon black skin (always of a different color than their hair); and are tall and athletic. Half-Bloods are of the same skin coloration, but their hair and eye colors are inherited from non-Xothian ancestors.
Xothians are zealous followers of a pantheon of sadistic, cruel, and psychopathic Devil-Gods. Thasaidon (King of Hell, Lord of All Evils, Prince of Darkness) is the leader of the pantheon. He is served by Alila (The Queen of Perdition, Goddess of all Iniquities), Basatan (God of the Sea, Lord of the Kraken), Geol (God of the Earth, Lord of Riches), Ililot (Goddess of Lust, Lady of Depravity, Handmaiden of Alila), Mordiggian (God of Death and Slaughter), Thamogorgos (God of Magic, Grand Magister of the Seven Scarlet Hells), Yuckla (God of Mirth, the Diabolical Dwarf, Jester of the Court of Hell), and Yululun (God of Undeath, Lord of Tombs). There are innumerable lesser, minor, and petty devils and demons of infernal sort in this pantheon, each the particular patron of a city, town, village, site, or family.
The Xothian tongue is alien and unrelated to any others known, as is the strange system of glyphs used to write it. As it is only used among Xothians (a patois of Kells and Skandaharian being used to order around the slaves), it is not generally known outside of the Duchy of the Peaks. [People of Xothique] Note: Only Half-Blood Xothians are available as a player character races, as the Pure-Bloods never leave their homelands save to go to war.
Welcome, James!
