Humanity
- Human culture is derived from 'dark age' Celtic in the Deverry novels by Katharine Kerr
- Children of Aethyr
- Society is matrilineal; property is owned by Women and familial descent is traced via the female line. Both genders can be warriors - most are male
- All land is owned by the nobility and rented from them by a free peasantry - they are entitled under law to move where they wish
- The land-owning nobility live in Duns (walled forts usually within hillforts) with a stone tower (called a Broch), home for the Lady and her family and place of refuge for their tenants in times of trouble. Duns are normally named after their Lady's family - e.g. Dun Rhynllo
- Noble female ranks are: Lady - Tierhyn (Count) - Gwerbret (Duke). There has never been a Queen (or King)
- Nobles rule their personal domain; a Tieryn rules a Tierynrhyn of her domain and those Ladies that owe her fealty and a Gwerbret rules a Gwerbretrhyn of her domain, those Tieryns who swear her fealty and those Ladies that also owe fealty to the Gwerbret directly (not many do though)
- Noble male ranks - which are all beneath the female equiv. - are: Warchief - Warlord - King - High King (no female equivalent)
- Note: the male ranks are all appointments made by the female nobles. There is no requirement to be married to female noble to hold a rank, but a noble mother is.
- The female nobility run their domains and conduct the dynastic manoeuvrings of their families, while their menfolk enact the political decisions and actions the women have determined. Given the honour-bound culture of the nobility this often leads to armed conflict
- Masonry is not a craft known by humans. Their towers are made the same way as their walls - drystone - with an earth filling to remove draughts
- All human buildings are circular. It is known that is the only shape the gods allow
- Elves (Children of Air) are those from Ironsworn, not the 'Westfolk' of Deverry. Generally helpful to the lost, there are rumours of conflicts over specific areas of Forest. The Deep Wilds are their lands - well their's and the Varou's ...
- Dwarves (Children of Earth) are not as secretive; trade openly along the north of The Havens from their homes in the Tempest Hills and Veiled Mountains. They have domesticated the mountain goats and bred them to enormous size and use them as mounts and beasts of burden (see the 'Battle of Five Armies' movie). They are the main source of metals; some run mines for humans, but most humans have never met a Dwarf or have, but thought them a shorter human
- Otterkin (Children of Water) are humanoid otters that live in or near rivers. They are secretive and naturally stealthy, hiding in their riverside burrows if danger threatens. Not many even know that they exist
- Varou (Children of Fire) - based on Gnolls. They claim the Hinterlands as their own and fight with the Elves for the Deep Wilds and the Humans for the Havens. It is known that they eat humans,elves, even the broken ...
- The Broken are the degenerate remains of a people that lived in the Ironlands long, long, ago and were present when the Deverrians arrived. They are white-skinned, filthy, shorter than Deverrians, wearing only loincloths. It is known that they sacrifice captives to their gods on their brutish pyramids in the deep woods and then eat the remains ... They eat their own dead too
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| Inspiration for Varou |
- 'Silver Daggers' are wandering mercenaries normally disgraced warriors cast out of a warband - lifted straight from Deverry books
- Human religion is Druidism with a pantheon of gods - Bel is the sun god and chief god
- All Druids completely shave their bodies
- Clans form the core of human society and are named for animals - Wolf, Stag, Badger, Boar, Dolphin, Eagle, Ram, Hawk, Falcon, Wyvern, etc.
- Large clans have different branches with qualified names, e.g. Boar Rampant, Leaping Stag, Winter Wolves, etc.. Almost invariably branches of same clan will aid each other
- Deverry is mostly forested with human settlements analogous to islands in a sea of trees. The closer one is to a settlement, the less threatening are the woods. An experiencd traveller is easily able to determine the time it would take to reach a setlement.
- The further south one is, the denser the population until the woods become the islands and the fields are the sea.
- I use this online generator - https://donjon.bin.sh/fantasy/name/#type=aw;aw=celtic_town for human names. I'll take a entry from the list and then add a suffix to make it sound - to me anyway - more feminine / masculine as needed
- I'm using the Ironsworn Ironlands name oracle for Dwarf names
- Called Dweomer, and manipulates the Five Elements - Aether, Air, Earth, Fire and Water. Each element manifests as sentient beings called 'Kings'; e.g. King of Air, etc
- 3 is the magic number
- The elements have gemstones associated with them: Aether - amethyst, Air - topaz, Earth - emerald, Fire - ruby, Water - sapphire
- Each element - except Aether holds sway over a particular time of day and the times that these 'tides' change can be dangerous or useful to manipulators of magic. Midnight to dawn - Earth, dawn to noon - Air, noon to sunset - Fire, sunset to midnight - Water
- Sighted also lets you know when someone is using Scry to see you. If you know them, you will recognise them
- If both parties have the Scry asset they can talk when they Scry each other
- Coinage is used - 4 farthings make a copper penny, 12 copper pennies make a silver shilling and 20 silver shillings make a gold pound
- Most people very rarely see coins - barter is most common form of exchange among people that aren't merchants
- Based upon Barry Dickson's excellent Comprehensive Economic System for RPGs 1
- Manbeasts - men with features of beasts: Minotaurs, Fauns, Satyrs, Varou, etc
- Beastmen - beasts with features of men: Centaurs, Lizardfolk, etc
- It is known that any human corpse not laid to rest by Samaen, will return as an undead horror of some sort ...