Mongrel Farmers
Referred to by the Fair Folk as “mongrel”, because they don’t have a fancy heritage or a genealogy worth mentioning. Largely simple farmers clustered in small villages, they work the land, raise livestock, hunt and fish. Uneducated and hard-working, they struggle to survive. Hard lives and meager diets make their life span relatively short; 45-50 is the median upper age limit; to live to be 60 or more is a rare thing. Their government consists of a council of the five eldest men in the village, known as the Ruling Hand.
Fair Folk
They are divided into two distinct classes: aristocracy and commoners. The aristocracy live within the walls of the citadel, which they refer to as the Holy City. Those who live within the walls are high-born and constitute the de facto ruling class. All leadership positions are held by these individuals. Their government is matriarchal in nature and the seven elderly women who constitute the ruling council are referred to as The Grandames. Access to the Holy City is limited to aristocracy and invited guests.
In contrast to mongrel farmers, these individuals – both aristocracy and commoner – are educated, and are technologically superior to all other peoples in the region. However, knowledge of advanced science and technology is kept hidden away and only entrusted to the Grandames. Their past holds a dark secret which has led to an innate distrust of advanced science and the ability of man to use it wisely. The commoners constitute the working class and provide manual labor.
Normen
Woodsmen and adventurers, they enjoy a simple life. Skilled craftsman, they can create anything they need from the woods about them. They value neither education, social grace nor personal hygiene. Brawny, brash and boastful, their idea of a good time is beer and brawling. Their houses are lodges constructed from logs and they do not have a centralized community and it is not uncommon for them live isolated from each other. Their communities are loosely organized without any real structure other than familial leadership. Fishers Port is unusual in that it is not exclusively a Normen settlement, but a mixed community of farmers, merchants and fishermen that has become an established trading post.
Ghouls
Once men, they have devolved into primitive, loathsome creatures. Living primarily far north of the Fair Folk, they dwell in the limestone caverns and the swamps of that region. Their sensitive eyes are unable to handle daylight and are nocturnal in nature. Little is known of their culture save they love to eat flesh and delight in pain and suffering. The extent, exact locations and size of their population is unknown, but they have been known to sally forth in marauding packs to hunt at various times and seasons.
Emallinawima
Explorers from a distant land, around a hundred of them arrived via ship on the Coldmere and have centered their operations out of Fishers Port. Highly intelligent and educated, their people are skilled in natural sciences and self-defense. Wandering the lands exploring and mapping, they are organized in a military fashion with senior members acting as officers. The bulk of the them are younger members of their society fulfilling a mandatory period of service after having completed a number of years of schooling. This schooling includes the language of the indigenous peoples. This is not the first time they have visited this region. Previous missions have gathered significant information about the regions including the language and culture in preparation for a larger, more thorough exploratory mission.
Soulanders
They come from the far south beyond the Blue Desert, little is known about them. An ancient enemy of the Fair Folk, Miricel was established as a protective fortress from their aggressions. Fierce and war-like, they are a formidable foe.