The Free Isles
The Peoples Of The Free Isles
"The Free Isles has been a refuge for the dispossesed, the persecuted, the adventurous and the unlucky for many generations." - Introductory passage from a lecture given in Poppleton University.
Because of it's history there are a variety of peoples living in the Free Isles, both human and demi-human.
Humans
The Empirions
This is the dominant culture of the Western Realms. They are olive skinned with dark curly hair and large brown or green eyes. Beards are uncommon, but tend to be neatly trimmed and close cropped if present. They tend to wear clothes in strong, but not bright colours, greens, blues, reds and browns being favoured. They believe themselves to be superior to all other peoples and often refer back to great events in the history of the Empire. They tend to have jobs in the diplomatic service, the military and merchant trades. Women are treated equally in all respects and many have positions in the government and at the heads of guilds.
They tend to worship the gods of the land and sea, wealth and power, life and death.
The Outlanders
The Outlanders come from beyond the mountains that mark the eastern edge of the Western Realms. Blonde, blue-eyed and tall they are adventurous and brave in battle. They favour wearing their hair long and beards, both long and short, are common. Most have been employed in the military where their strength and bravery can be put to use. They tend to wear simple tunics and breeches in pale colours particularly while and pale blue. These simple garments are often brightened by a gilded buckle or a colourful embroided border.
Many become clerics and fighters, few become thieves or magic users.
They worship different gods to the Empirions. Proteus god of the oceans, Vanya, the goddess of war and Tarastia the goddess of revenge being the most popular.
The Sharhan
The Sharhan originated from the Desert Of Dreams in southern Bormaris. They are generally tall and slightly built, with dark complexions and sharp features. Their black hair is cut shoulder length in men, but women often wear it much longer. Beards are frowned upon and are seen as a sign of a criminal. The wealthy wear fine silk or cotton robes dyed in bright colours and often embroidered with gold thread. The poor tend to wear plain cotton or wool trousers and shirts with a long robe of the same material.
Many become fighters and clerics and a few become thieves and magic-users, often specialising in fire magic.
The Sharhan worship only a single god Al-Urabi - The bringer of growth and plenty.
Demi-Humans
Dwarves
Short, stocky, bearded, heavy drinkers, foul tempered and dark hearted. Tree haters, Dark dwellers, Kinslayers. Fearless, boisterous, strong, clever. Dwarves in the Free Isles are feared and respected in equal amounts. There are two types of dwarves in the Isles. The black haired (Kurdenrast) and the red haired (Blysdenrast). The former are dark, scheaming and greedy,tending to secrecy and plotting, the Kurdenrast keep themselves to themselves and live in carverns deep below ground. The Blysdenrast are hot tempered but more warm hearted and tend to mix better with humans. All dwarves however dislike elves to a lesser or greater degree and fear giants.
Most worship Kagyar, the Forger Of Worlds, though it is rumoured that some secretly worship Thanatos the Dark Destroyer.
The city of Dal Skyr is the largest concentration of dwarves within the Free Isles.
Elves
Persecuted almost to extinction after the Great Plague, the long lived elves are struggling to survive as they have few children. This is due more to habit rather than biology and messengers have been sent out to the smaller forests from the Elf Queen bidding her subjects to have more children. Sadly this seems to have fallen on deaf ears, a depression has taken the elves heart and it may never give it back. The elves occupy scattered colonies throught the Realms, one of the largest on the Free Isles is at Deepdale.
Halflings
There are very few halflings in the Free Isles. Those that do live here tend to use their skills and open generous personalities to great effect. They often rise swiftly to positions of power, the mayor of Avondale for example is a halfling. They work hard to try and lose the scatty, fun-loving, untrustworthy tag that most other races give them.
Gnomes
Like halflings gnomes are not common in the Free Islands. A small clan live and work with the dwarves in Dal Skyr, building and repairing the forges and other devices the dwarves need to keep producing the goods from which the dwarves have built up thier wealth.
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