Peoples

The Fair Kingdom is ethnically diverse. One of the Kings of the past encouraged migration to his lands after yet another war had depleted them of people.

The core stock of the Fair Kingdom are the Plains People. Their ancestors were horse nomads who came from over the forbidding Oriental Range and practised a shamanistic religion. They converted to the True Faith centuries ago but it is rumoured that some of them still invoke the spirits rather than the saints in times of trouble — such as these. Both the indentured serfs who toil the land and the petty nobles who lord over them descend from this stock. There is abysmal class difference between the nobles, clergy, and inhabitants of free towns on the one side, and the peasants on the other side.

In the mountains of the Fair Kingdom live the Mountains People. They are all free men, a status that was granted to them by the Kings of the past in exchange for guarding the mountain frontiers of the Fair Kingdom. The Mountains People are proud and warlike.

Despite the ever raging wars, trade is brisk between the empires, the petty fiefs of the Fair Kingdom, and the more distant lands in every direction. A rich class of burghers has appeared, who manages all this trade. They have built large cities on the rivers and along the main trade routes. They are nominally protected by the Emperor of the One Faith, and it is through the burgher class that the High Language has become the common tongue of all in the Fair Kingdom.

All the peoples mentioned above are equally split between the Old and the New Way of True Faith.

Two other, more mysterious peoples live in the Fair Kingdom:

1. the Gipsies are a travelling people who trade in used items and who repair furniture. They are often accused of many wrongdoings, but this has possibly more to do with their dark complexion than with any actual misdemeanors. Their women are held to be able to predict the future.
2. the People of the Herds are a semi-nomadic people who has recently arrived with their large herds of sheep from the Empire of the Crescent Moon. They however seem to have their own faith, and it is rumoured that they are ruled by a coven of witches. They seem to be well versed in ancient occult lore.

The Gipsies and the People of the Herds lie outside of feudal society. They are subordinate only to the king, and sometimes to the monasteries on whose lands they happen to dwell.

Note: this setting does not contemplate any demi-human player characters nor any sentient non-human opponents, i.e., no elves, no dwarfs, no orcs, no lizard-men.