Athania

To many.. this information is academic, and obvious beyond repeating. However, from a historian's point of view, I must be complete. And no treatise on a land would be complete without at least a passing description of its peoples. -- Tholaris.

There are three main races of civilized beings that populate the continent of Athania. They are respectively humans, tellurians, and gondals. In current day, Athania is, for all purposes, a human settlement. The largest cities are populated by and controlled by humans, and most of the commerce, trade, and political activity that occurs within the land is completed by human hands.

However, it was not always such. The original inhabitants of Athania were the tellurians -- a race of long-lived beings that are somewhat human in appearance, but are generally taller. They generally have a much darker complexion than humans, and they inevitably have dark hair. The tellurians are also distinctly marked by their unearthly, cat-like eyes. However, they are a beautiful race, with fine sculpted features and a quiet poise about themselves. While the past is full of bloody wars between the humans and the tellurians, today the two societies co-exist in a state of uneasy peace. This is aided by the fact that few tellurians ever leave their homeland in the Nightmist Forest. Those that do venture into human civilizations are usually met with reactions that range from guarded cautiousness in towns and cities to outright hostility in the more rural areas.

Over the years there has been some cross-breeding between the humans and the tellurians. These individuals bear characteristics of both races, though the tellurian eyes are always present. The half-tellurians are almost always unwelcome by both races, usually being the product of an unhappy union.

The third race of sentient beings on Athania are the gondals. These beings are also generally human in appearance, except that they are incredibly large. The average gondal adult stands about seven feet, and is incredibly muscular. They are a nomadic race that inhabit the vast Betharian Plains that lie between the Stonefist Mountains in the west and the Drake's Spur Mountains to the east. The gondal males tend to be fierce warriors, and in a society based largely on hunting, the strongest and quickest lead the tribes. Gondal women are only slightly less fierce, but their duties are to tend herds, build the shelters, and to raise the children. There are at least three different large tribes of gondals that claim the Betharian Plains for themselves, and they are almost aways at war with each other.

Besides the three civilized peoples, there are a number of other races that are not so civilized, though these tend to be far removed from the affairs of mankind, and little is known about these races. There are the Jhateel, a race of insect-like beings that are purported to inhabit the barren desert wastes of The Mulash Waste. And there are the Thissaleans, a race of lizardmen who live deep within Dead Man's Moor.

Tellurian Culture

As mentioned above, the tellurians are for the most part, a quiet, stoic people. They are human in appearance, though generally taller with brown skin and dark or black hair. Cat eyes and fang-like incisors make for a feral appearance though, and these traits are large part of why humans often tend to regard them as savages. For generations, the tellurians have been an isolated society. After the 200 Year War, they retreated to their homelands in the Nightmist Forest and Ethrin Wood.

From the History..

However, over the course of the years, the humans slowly gained control of the land. The tellurians were eventually split into two large groups, separated by the natural barrier of the Stonefist Mountains. The tellurians east of the mountains were known as the Onuklan, and they mostly made their home in the Ethrin Wood. The last, largest battle was fought at the base of Stormwatch Hill, against the Onuklan. The tellurians army had been reduced to approximately 400 warriors, and at the base of Stormwatch they made their last stand against a human force of 2000 archers and foot soldiers. For five days the battle raged, until finally the overwhelming numbers of the humans surrounded the tellurian army, and annhilated them to a man. There were no tellurian survivors -- no prisoners taken.

The tellurians west of the mountains, known as the Natehran, retreated into the Nightmist Forest. The humans attempted to advance into the forest, but the Natehran held, and at the narrow strip of land between the innermost point of Whiteblood Bay and the Stonefist Mountains, the tellurians drove the humans back. Unable to advance further, but unwilling to leave the ground unguarded, the humans built an immense castle at that location, called Tornham's Hold. Tornham's Hold still stands today, serving as a reminder of older times when it served as the defender to the human held territories.

Since the 200 Year War, the two tribes of tellurians have developed distinctly different cultures — though both maintain similarities. All tellurians are masters of the woods. Expert hunters, trappers, and woodsmen. Their cities are typically made of alabaster stucco, but elm and thistledale will be interwoven into the very walls themselves, to give them a more natural appearance.

The Natehrans, in the Nightmist forest, have become almost entirely isolationists. They withdrew into their forest, and few have seen them since. They have almost no trade with the humans, and in general hold all humans in disdain. If you are human and enter the Nightmist forest, you are quite likely to be killed without even knowing why or what killed you. They are that hostile. Within the forest itself, unknown to most humans, the Natehrans have built three large cities, and there are a variety of settlements strewn throughout. Within the interior, there are even stone and wooden pathways and roads that the tellurians use for travel and trade within their kingdom. Natehrans as a whole are fierce, aggressive, and exceptionally hostile to humans. There are some exceptions, but not many. A few farming settlements along the edge of the Nightmist Forest have established uneasy relations with the Naterhans, and some trade takes place. But those trades almost always take place within the villages themselves. No humans enter the forests to any degree. Seven Elms, on the western edge of the forest ,is such a settlement.

The Onuklan, on the other hand, in the Ethrin Wood, have actually come to embrace human culture and civilization to a much greater degree. A thriving trade with humans occurs up and down the Dunleaf River, and tellurians can often be seen trading and bartering in the cities of Amber, Land's End, and Seluvial. Some have even taken up residence within the cities. Younger Onuklan have embraced and borrrowed even moreso from human culture, and can sometimes be seen with bleached and dyed hair, or wearing jewelry and fashions more human in nature. Make no mistake though, the Onuklan are still strong in their heritage overall. But relationships between the Onuklan tellurians and humans are far more favorable, and travel through the Ethrin Wood is for the most part safe, though it is still wise to let the Onuklan be aware of your presence in their forest.