Civilisations of the Tallowlands

(All - please add to/edit this with your ideas.)

Besides the greater and lesser beasts and wildlife of this rich region, detailed in my accompanying bestiary, there are numerous groups and nations that populate Rhô. Some warrant closer examination for the traveller – either to ensure you find appropriate lodgings, or to help avoid them entirely. 

Extracted from Travel Writings of Jethelech (Proscribed by the Emerald Wardens)

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Orcs

Northern orc tribes often emulate the heavy
armour of the Nygorach – trading, looting or
enslaving smiths to this end.

The Orcish tribes suffered catastrophic damage during the Felltide. Many of the great tribes were situated in Northern Rhô and the foothills of the Dar'Koath Highlands - too numerous and powerful for even the Sinians to eradicate – and when the Great Totem was threatened nearly all the tribes in Rho answered the call to battle. Hosts of greenskins - the greatest Orcish mustering Rho had ever seen - met the Felltide blade-to-blade on the Ioti Plains. Each side fought the other to oblivion with no quarter asked or given. It is said that the melee was so brutal that it attracted the attentions of foreign war-born deities keen to harvest the souls of so many fallen warriors, and the skies boiled with clouds of green and red as the greenskinned gods fought the interlopers. After three days of fighting, the armies were both obliterated and the power which fuelled the western Felltide was largely spent. Though they will not admit it, this is believed to have been what ultimately saved the Dar'Koath clans from being overrun.


Today, only a handful of Orcish tribes survive, trying to rebuild their civilisation away from the Charred Lands.

The fate of the Totem is unknown.

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Goblins

Where the orcs were decimated during the Ghoul War, goblin-folk continue to thrive across Rhô (with the exception of the Charred Lands, which are too inhospitable even for goblins). Too numerous to quantify, it is only their inability to cooperate for any great length of time which prevents them from being a serious threat to the peoples of Rhô. At their worst – when the Bad Moon is in the ascendancy - they are a local menace; otherwise, they are generally considered to be a pest.

Unlike orcs, goblin society is not tribal and familial ties bind only very loosely. Goblins naturally gravitate to leaders they believe will be successful - whether that be through brute strength or low cunning – and larger goblin settlements tend to be ruled by a hierarchy of gangs.

The goblins' dislike of direct sunlight is well-documented, and as such they are mostly found underground or in shaded regions. The most commonly-sighted types of goblin are:

Cave goblins 

The most populous variety, they inhabit the Underland in vast, crude cave-cities. The relative security of the Underland against surface-dwellers means that cave goblins are more likely to fight wars against other cave goblins than humans or elves, although the raiding of surface settlements is more frequent still. Their most hated enemies, though, are the Skaven, who desire control of the Underland. Indeed, many of the biggest and most terrible battles ever fought in Rhô have been underground and entirely unnoticed by the surface races. Uniquely among goblins, the Underlanders have developed a primitive form of writing. It is speculated that this is an imitation of dwarven rune-casting.

Forest goblins

Numerous but feral and rarely seen in civilised lands as the great forests supply everything they need to thrive. Perhaps surprisingly, the spirits of the deepwood prefer to host goblin townships over all other communities as they almost never harvest live wood (fallen timber being easier to gather and plentiful enough to fulfil their needs), are sufficiently superstitious to treat the fey folk with fearful reverence, and are aggressively territorial, thus giving the forests a defence against anyone who intrudes. Combined with the fact that they do not try to cultivate the woods beyond building their canopy homes, the forests and the goblins have an ideal symbiotic relationship. This is an uncomfortable truth which causes much consternation among the wood elves.

Mountain goblins

Often confused with forest goblins, as many of the mountain ranges of Rho are forested. A scarce breed (inasmuch as goblins can be) due to the relative paucity of mountainsides which are in constant shade. A common tactic among mountain goblin communities is to deposit waste onto accessible lower shelves and plateaus in order to attract trolls, which will take up residence and unwittingly provide the settlement with excellent protection.

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Dwarfs

Rhô is home to many of the dwarf folk. Those who have a smattering of dwarf-tongue (khazalid) will quickly recognise that the dwarfs have an inward-looking and labyrinthine social structure, quite incomprehensible to outsiders. The current dwarf civilisation includes a range of overlapping castes and nations that range from the ancient – possibly aboriginal – inhabitants of the region, to more recent colonizers. 

Most dwarfs are allies of the human domains, and they form a crucial part of the mercantile health of the region. Dwarf roads are certainly ancient, their true origins shrouded in myth, but they cross the region and link all the principal cities and domains. The sheer scale of dwarf-built construction lends credence to the idea that they pre-date all other civilised races in the region – though the elves and others contest this; and it is likely that nomadic greenskins and barbarous half-men have made a living here since time immemorial.

Hill dwarfs

Hill dwarf of the Gorm Ranges

Likely the most familiar dwarfs to mankind, hill dwarfs resemble short, stocky men. The menfolk are hairy and heavily-bearded, their compact frames packed with muscle. Hill dwarfs refer to themselves as dawi, and can be found across much of the Tallowlands, often making a living as traders, farmers, smiths and mercenaries. Interaction with humans and elves is relatively common, though mainly limited to the practical: bartering, selling of wares, and military aid. Hill dwarfs rarely welcome visitors, and have a reputation for being ungracious hosts.

Hill dwarfs favour isolate and mountainous regions for their great cities, which means they have a long and antagonistic relationship with goblins, beastmen and other feral cultures. All mountainous regions of Rhô have housed hill dwarf civilisations over the ages, though the range of dwarfs has dwindled over time. Today, the Barrow Hills and Gorm Ranges form the largest remaining strongholds of the hill dwarfs. 

Hill dwarfs are often cunning and learned, their sneering attitude making them difficult to negotiate with. While they hold themselves to a strict and complex code of personal honour, this is inflexible and heavily biased against non-dwarfs. Hill dwarfs can thus appear supercilious, selfish and frequently malicious, particularly  to outsiders. Their seemingly capricious nature has led to as many large-scale wars between the other settled races, as alongside them. 

Sky dwarfs

– Pages missing: perhaps they will be found soon? –

Dust dwarfs

Grey-skinned and less stocky than most other dwarfs, dust dwarfs are vanishingly rare – in the Middle Kingdoms and Southern Fiefdoms, they are often thought of as mythical. Far more closed than even other dwarfs, their historical range is the extreme east of Rhô, and the collapse of the Sinian Empire has made their appearance still more unusual. Dust dwarfs are crepuscular, avoiding bright lights; and live nomadically, moving through swamplands, forest and desert.

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Elves

Both more insular and admired than the dwarfs - at least among the human nations - elves have a long and fraught relationship with the lands of Rhô. They are at one and the same time responsible for some of the most beautiful moments and monuments in the history of Rhô, and also the most terrible tragedies to befall the land. The same minds which crafted the Caress of Years also wrought the Unbraiding and the Splintered Vessel.

A war-dancer of Oakhall

Elven culture is as diverse as any other race's, although (perhaps owing to limited interaction with elves) most humans and dwarfs associate elves with poetry and lightly sparkling wine. What is often overlooked by the more pragmatically-minded peoples is that to an elf there is no distinction between art and artifice. When an elf performs an action, as much emphasis is placed on the 'perform' as the 'action'. This is often borne out in their practice of warfare - at once elegant and effective.

As with most civilisations, elven societies are often categorised with reference to their environments or broad social inclinations. Better-known elven groups include:

Wood elves

Consciously in tune with the land, wood elves believe themselves to be the duty-bound protectors of the natural order. Modern-day wood elves are the descendants of Caer-Nadhg's first followers and all - even those whose entire lives have been spent elsewhere - call Oakhall home. While mostly unfriendly towards other civilised races, they are welcoming towards druidic sects.

As is typical of wood-elf voyagers, this individual travels alone.

It is something of a contradiction that, despite being less tolerant of other races than many other elves, the forest-folk are natural wanderers of wild paths and a small but significant number choose to journey away from their forest halls during their lifetimes. Accordingly, the common folk of Rhô are far more likely to encounter a wood elf than any other kind, and a wood elf abroad will most certainly be more versed in the ways of non-elves than would, say, a sea-elf.

People who live in the shadow of the Greenwood (a term used by the wood elves to describe any area which they inhabit - as far as they are concerned, all woods are connected by their roots) are usually careful, as a result of painful experience, to be respectful of the forest and harvest only what they need to survive. Wood elves are not intrinsically opposed to live wood being felled (and indeed do it themselves on occasion) but will treat mass destruction as a plague and eliminate it by any means necessary.

It is also worth noting that people living in close proximity to wood elves often conflate the elves with the fey spirits of the deepwood even though they are not the same.

Wood elves are skilled hunters and are almost invisible when in the wilderness. Being as they are immersed in the natural cycle of life and death, hunter and hunted, they will not hesitate to kill for a purpose - i.e. to feed or to protect themselves and their homes. However, the idea of killing for pleasure is anathema to them and any who do so must hope the wood elves never learn of it lest they be marked for vengeance. Wood elves therefore reserve a particular hatred for beastmen and the noble classes among other civilisations - even other elves. This has historically caused diplomacy between the wood elves and other factions to be minimal.

This in turn caused great suffering to the forest-folk, for when the Felltide approached Oakhall there were few allies upon which to call for aid. Eventually a united response was amassed across the Southern Fiefdoms, but by this time grievous damage had been done to the Greenwood - damage which may never be repaired.