Cultures of the World

Main Human Cultures

Imperial

The history of the empire and its culture begins far to the south of the current empire. Following a series of apocalyptic events that destroyed their ancient homelands, the imperial forefathers sailed north to find a new homeland. After founding a new seat of power on the island of Ashenstone, the empire expanded over the next four centuries to conquer, annex, subjugate, and convert the kingdoms and empires of the north. They are now the predominant force in the north and its citizens enjoy objectively the best quality of life and levels of freedom of any known civilization in the current age.

Current Imperial culture is a mixture of the many cultures conquered by the empire. For instance, many of the seasonal holidays and festivals draw heavily on ancient Indip celebrations tied to agricultural customs. Clothing worn in each province still has echoes of the clothing developed by the indigenous culture. Artwork and music also continues to exhibit local regional influences. Imperial culture is also notable for the general lack of traditional gender roles, with a long history of legal equality between men and women.

The one thing that is truly homogenous throughout the empire is the Imperial religion, just known as “the Faith,” which worships the pair of gods, Xan and Xun. The pair represent the “parents” of humanity and the direct ancestors of the long line of Emperors and Empresses. Due to the association of the apocalypse that destroyed the old empire with the misuse of magic by heretics, the Imperial religion is firm that only the clergy of their religion can be trusted to properly wield magic. All other magic users, whether followers of the faith or not, are prosecuted as heretics within the core Imperial lands, though enforcement is less on the frontier and within the semi-autonomous kingdoms where local leadership does not support the church.

Taynish

The Tayns were once the dominant cultural group in the north prior to the arrival of the empire. Historically, there were five major Taynish kingdoms, though now only two remain as semi-autonomous kingdoms under Imperial rule.

Though they are now largely agrarian people, their history dates back hundreds of years prior to the presence of the Empire as a collection of woodland tribes that shared similar cultural and language roots. Over the centuries, and in the face of foreign enemies, the tribes united first into many smaller kingdoms and confederacies, to their eventual peak of five allied kingdoms spanning not only Taynuit and Lynnla, but stretching into Negarta, northern Denrylak, and western Mulhong, at the time known as Gritia.

Tayns have a strong history of agricultural traditions. Land inheritance and ownership laws gives peasants more power in the Taynish kingdoms than serfs in other feudal systems enjoyed. The result though has been centuries of issues with Imperial land-grant policies that has led to continued issues with full assimilation of Tayns into the Empire.

Taynish religion is heavily grounded in the worship of the spirits that bring magic to the material world. Worship was overseen by local circles of priests, who were often powerful mages that acted as the bridge between everyday people and spirits.

Due to the strong support for the remaining Taynish royal houses and feelings of religious oppression, the Tayns have been a constant threat of rebellion to the Empire since the kingdoms were first invaded in the 3rd century. Though most Tayns in the cities have converted to the Imperial religion and enjoy many imperial customs, the ancient practices are still held in more rural parts of Taynuilt and Lynnla.

Wuldan

Hailing from the cool northern islands, the Wuldan people are a strong-willed people. Not strangers to months of long, dark nights and harsh climates, Wuldans value making the most of life while you have it. Wuldans have little time for anything that they don’t want to do, which leads to a fierce independence. Wuldans are also notable for having no legal framework for marriage, with relationships lasting only as long as both parties wish to and not always being solely between two people.

Wuldans are also known for their skills in battle, though culturally they do not believe in killing when given the option, believing that nature has the ultimate authority over death. Should an enemy fall in battle, so be it. But if an enemy surrenders or is non-mortally wounded, there is an acceptance that they have earned the right to fight another day, even if that means fighting stripped of anything with value.

Wuldan religion is similar to the ancient Taynish religion, with the major difference that a pantheon of “major spirits” that are personified with natural entities like “Wolf” and “Mother Willow”.

The Wuldan lands consist of multiple smaller kingdoms, each ruled by a family of varying statuses. Of these ruling families, a High King is elected to act as primary ruler of Wulda. The High King is a life long position elected by the monarchs. The High King has the final say in most political affairs, and can overrule any of the lesser monarchs on essentially any decision they make, though a unanimous vote by the other monarchs can veto any act of the High King. In international affairs, the High King represents the interests of the Wuldan people.

Sygassan

Like the Empire, the original Sygassans migrated from lands to the south. Like the empire, the early Sygassans strove to subdue the existing petty kingdoms that existed in western and southern Denrylak. However, the lack of a central theocratic royal house led to constant infighting between the noble houses that hampered consistent expansion. After the wars between Sygassas and the Empire in the 2nd century, Sygassas directed its development towards mercantile and technological prowess. Now, Sygassas operates one of the largest fleets of naval merchants, including some of the best shipyards, rivaling even the Imperial Royal Navy shipyard. Sygassas also produces some of the fiercest mercenary pirates who will sail under whatever flag pays them the best.

Princeptian

In Imperial Common, Princepta literally means “land of Princes,” referencing the many principalities and petty kingdoms that share cultural customs to the northeast of the Empire. Within the Empire, the Princeptians are seen as a backwater people who are unremarkable in any way beyond their ability to fight each other. Despite that imagery, they are actually a culture of shrewd merchants and warriors who have been shaped by the unforgiving lands surrounding Caratunk Bay.

Dwarven

Mountain Dwarves

These dwarves inhabit the handful of sprawling underground cities nestled deep within mountain ranges throughout the lands. They may be among the most ancient of customs, largely unchanged since the Long Dark many millennia ago. One thing that makes them distinct from other people is their strong sense of pacifism in the face of outside threats, instead being able to rely on the impenetrable nature of their mountain fortresses. However, when they are forced to confront a threat head on, they are formidable opponents.

Unsurprisingly, mountain dwarves are among the best miners, smiths, and craftsmen of stone and metal in the world. Their underground lives have left them mostly severed from the spirits that allow direct channeling of magic, but they have learned to harness certain magic-imbued ores deep within the earth to imbue artifacts with very stable magical forces.

Hill Dwarves

Hill dwarves are any dwarf that was not born within the underground dwarven cities. Due to the law that only dwarves born within the underground cities are allowed within the cities, these dwarves occupy the surface lands around the entrances to the underground metropolises. They are known for being more amiable to outsiders than their underground brethren, some even living within human or halfling settlements.

Elves

Elves are tall, long-lived human-like beings who may be found in the Northern Lands. Indeed the vast majority of Elves are genetically very similar to humans, but unlike humans live on average 600 or 700 years and have a natural affinity for magic.

Sylvan Elves

Most of the time, elves are nomadic. Groups of dozens of elves, tied together by their relationship to a designated moon priest, travel the world guided by nodes of strong magical energy. Some are known for traveling by ship, others by land-based caravans with ornately carved wagons, others groups by more flexible means. Along the way, they raise money by taking mercenary contracts, sharing healing practices, trading crafts, and other odd-jobs. These Elves are commonly known as the "Sylvan Elves".

The Sylvan Elves are among the most magic-attuned people in the world, with almost every elf having a direct connection to magical energy. However, due to both the laws of Imperial lands and their own religious customs, most refrain from using significant magical powers outside of specific rituals.

On a calendar governed by a group’s moon priest, every few years a group of elves will return to one of many ancient Temple-cities. Here, they will stay for a year before returning to their nomadic lifestyle. These ancient cities were left behind many millennia before and the elves (along with gnomes) see themselves as the caretakers of these ancient, magically imbued places. To take care of these places, pregnant elves, recent parents, the elderly, and those otherwise unable to travel nomadically live in the cities full-time. Here they perform religious ceremonies, grow food to feed visiting nomadic groups, and raise elf children communally.

Cosmopolitan Elves

Some Sylvan Elves settle in human cities and towns, and even marry humans or half-elves. These Elves (and half-elves), when they assimilate fully or partially into human culture, are called "Cosmopolitan Elves". Most emblematic of Cosmopolitan Elves is their sedentary rather than Nomadic nature, though there's not a strict delineation. Additionally, Cosmopolitan Elves are much less likely to practice magic than their nomadic brethren, though some cosmopolitan Elves have occasionally been known to rejoin Sylvan society.

Some towns, such as Flaa in Invëénland, Indip, are composed of almost entirely cosmopolitan Elves.

The Ildarii

Part of a 2024 Lore Expansion by Jon

The Myth of "The Visitors"

It is rumored that there are other species of Elves that may still be found in the Northern Lands. These are referred to as "The Visitors" by Imperial common folk. It is told around campfires and in bedtime stories that these Elves can teleport, travel among the stars, have crystalline skin, and are older than the World itself, having come from the previous World. The Imperium scornfully denies the existence of The Visitors, considering them an invention of heretics and apostates.

In Wuldan and other non-imperial human domains, parents tell their children stories of the noble "Elves of the Aurora" who sacrificed themselves to seal away the Deadmoon. Most Cosmopolitan Elves and half-elves also consider the Visitors to be a myth, though many Elven bards incorporate them as a theme in their performances and tales. Some Cosmopolitan Elves even boast or jest of having Auroran Blood, but this is probably bluster.

On the matter of The Visitors, The Sylvan Elves and maybe even the Wuldans may know more than they're letting on...

The True Nature of "The Visitors"

The Visitors' true identity is that of the Ildarii, the ancient Elven progenitor race responsible for building the great temple cities Alk'Sira, Alra'Nazar, Jezier'Raïk, and Kiv'la. While very similar in appearance to Sylvan Elves, the lineages are fairly distinct, being only slightly more related to each other than either are to humans and other humanoids. The Ildarii still extant in the Northern Lands are, in a sense, living fossils, reflecting a genetic history prior to the mixture of the bulk of the Elves with other humanoids.

The Ildarii were said to have vanished long ago, or to perhaps never have existed at all. In truth, most Ildarii travelled beyond the "Circles of the World" long ago, and even those remaining may not fully understand where their kin have gone. Regardless, the Ildarii rarely now involve themselves in governance or trade, deferring instead to the Sylvan Elves and Gnomes who now inhabit their ancient cities. Indeed only a few dozen Ildarii remain within the Innermost Circle ("on the surface of the planet," as we might say).

To a member, those Ildarii who remain on the planet are gifted hunters of Aberrations. These Ildarii see themselves as rearguards against the threats their kin left the Circles long ago to defet. All belong to one of two extant orders:

  1. The Deepseekers of Jezier'Raïk, who hunt Graxils - aberrations associated with the Deadmoon, Almak-Nearanu.
  2. The Seershadows of Kiv'la, who pursue nameless aberrations associated with the living Moon.

DnD 5e Information:

Halflings

History has forgotten where halflings came from, though many myths suggest they evolved from groundhogs and sprang out of the ground one day. In recent memory, most halflings live integrated within human society or hill dwarven communities, though there are many rural farming and mining villages consisting of almost entirely halfling populations. Most significant is Burrowton, the closest thing to a halfling city, about two days upriver from the City of Lynnmouth.

Halflings are known for their casual and laid back natures. They rarely will choose to pick a fight, preferring to solve disputes through games and challenges like drinking competitions and riddles. They are not particularly spiritual people, preferring dealing with the hear and now rather than speculate what the future might hold.

Gnomes

Gnomes are a mysterious people to most of human civilization, as most choose to live alongside elves within the giant ancient complexes of the Ildarii Temple-cities. Those gnomes who do leave the elven controlled lands tend to either integrate quietly into human society or live secluded lives either alone or in small family units deep in the woods where they can practice their magics undisturbed by human laws.

Orcs and Half-Orcs/Unhorned

Orcs, and their so-called “half-orc” or "Unhorned" relatives hail from the steppes to the east of Imperial lands. They don’t have a centralized leadership structure and instead are made of hundreds of clans that live nomadically in the lands east of the Empire. Orcs are known for customs that are perceived as excessively violent and cruel by the standards of most other people, and are identifiable by the full length horns protruding from their foreheads. Half-orcs, identifiable due to the lack of horns, which are periodically whittled down during childhood, are known for the intense sense of honor, duty, and personal rules that replaces the cruelty of their cousins.

Half-orcs are not actually the progeny as orcs and human relationships, as some myths portray, but rather represent orcs who follow the teachings of the ancient prophet Mulua, whose teachings led to a cultural revolution within many orc clans. The result is a culture that exists alongside, and often in conflict with, orc culture. Mulua, a visionary of the "Unhorned," led many to forgo practices that to humans appear excessively violent and primitive, like the sacrifice of the first-born to the earth spirits and religious decree to kill or enslave every non-orc in a clan’s path. As a result, “half-orcs” are tolerated by human civilizations. Within the Imperial Capital of Ashenstone, there is an entire half-orc enclave within the city.

The paragraphs that follow are part of a 2024 Lore Expansion by Jon

In -982 KD, the Orcish Necromancer-kings L'Ratomi and Z'ratomi captured and burned as a heretic the High Priestess Anüa, Mulua's great-great-granddaughter, launching the infamous Inquisition of the Horns. This inquisition lasted half a century, with Orcish necromancers and blood priests persecuting, murdering, and reanimating the corpses of their Half-orcs to serve in the undead fleets of the orcish Necromancer-kings. This triggered the Great Flight of the Unhorned, leading to the mass Unhorned migrations northward up the Western rim of the Gold Desert, inhospitable to the Undead Fleets which required occasional exposure to the air of the sea to remain re-animated.

For nearly a millenium, during the Indip Empire, half-orcs were venerated as the "Holy Unhorned" by the humans of Indip - indeed the name "Indip" is an homage to the historical holiest site in half-orcish ethno-religious history. This venerated status of the half-orcs among humans declined sharply with the fall of the South Indip Empire in 9 KD.

Unfotunately, despite the millenia-long history of proved nonviolence of the Unhorned, there are some zealots in the Imperial high command and religious structures who are known to privately view Half-orcs with suspicion and even hatred, considering them Orcs pretending civilization as a pretense to plunder and pillage more effectively later.

Dreamcursed (Tieflings)

Part of a 2024 Lore Expansion by Jon

Dreamcursed, as they are most commonly called, are not so much a culture as a specific group of individuals from various backgrounds with unique traits from birth. To the wise and well-learned they are known as Tieflings, beings with a mysterious infernal lineage.

Dreamcursed are rare, and most people in the world will live without ever meeting one. In fact, they occur so rarely that few if any know any other. Over the centuries, scholars dedicated to the study of Dreamcursed have determined that there are exactly thirteen alive at any one time.

What little is known to scholars about the phenomenon of Dreamcursed points to some relation to Tief the dream-spirit (or god of dreams in some cultures). The appearance of Dreamcursed is said to match those of Tief – horns, a tail, solid colored eyes, and unnatural shades of skin. But more peculiar is the apparent inability for tieflings to have dreams when sleeping, pointing again to an association with the great dream-spirit.

Despite their rareness and unusual appearance, people who interact with Dreamcursed often find comfort in their presence and though they can’t place it, feel a sense of familiarity with any they meet. Scholars have suggested that this may be because of the resemblance to Tief, who people claim to often see in their dreams. This strange sense of familiarity also strangely wards off any particular surprise individuals might otherwise have upon meeting such striking appearance.

How Dreamcursed appear is also mysterious. Most records suggest that children destined to become Dreamcursed are born to single mothers. Cultural hearsay suggests they are blessings (or curses) upon women whose biggest dream in life is nothing more than to have a child but for whatever reason are unable to. Some Dreamcursed appear to be products of immaculate conception, with no paternal figure at all. Once again, scholars and spinners of folk legend alike have speculated that Tief plays the role of the father in a biological sense, and that Tief transcends from the spirit world to grant these women their biggest dream. Many Dreamcursed mothers are reported to recount seeing Tief frequently in their dreams in the time leading up to discovering they have somehow become pregnant.

In infancy, Dreamcursed Tieflings appear as their mother’s race, but as they age into early childhood, they start to develop the tell-tale Dreamcursed traits like solid colored eyes (no apparent pupils, irises, or sclerae), horns, tails, etc. They wil always carry some traits of their birth race though, for example dwarf Dreamcursed will be short and stocky.

While most Dreamcursed are treated fairly well, there are reports, mostly in Imperial cities, of mothers who abandon or murder their Dreamcursed children upon their transformation - these mothers are said to one day go wild with nightmares and lose the near-omnipresent sense of familiarity that most folks take for granted, either dying themselves soon after or going permanently mad. The Dreamcursed children themselves do not seem inherently affected by the madness, but are ususally (and more than understandably) very traumatized by the experience. Even more strangely, this nightmare effect has been observed to spread, with nightmare-afllicted Mothers' towns becoming temporary hotspots of Dreamcursed persecution at the hands of half-mad townsfolk.

It is suggested that this phenomenon appears most often in Imperial cities due to the strong suspicion of magic and magical beings in the traditional Imperial Faith - Dreamcursed are sometimes unfairly conflated with magical constructs and spirits the Imperial faith abhors. Additionally, some religious zealots pray fervently against figures such as Tief, even conducting rituals to excise Tief's influence. Imperial-skeptic cultures such as Wulda point to this practice frequently in their criticism of the Empire. Legally, however, the ancient trial of Ashenstone Dreamcursed Asmos the Wise established in Imperial Law that Dreamcursed have equal rights as full citizens, much to the discomfort of Imperial Faith zealots.

Ashenstone, the imperial capital, is accordingly a strange patchwork of acceptance and ostracism for Dreamcursed. Dreamcursed born in Ashenstone have been known to haunt the streets as family-abandoned urchins only to end up later as famous musicians or respected merchants later.

Ultimately, most Dreamcursed end up living (mostly) normal lives, especially outside of the Imperial center. However, Dreamcursed are cursed to finally begin dreaming and be visited by Tief at night in the year prior to their death. Most carry on, unaware of the meaning of the sudden dreams, but those in the know quickly realize their fate draws near...