An introduction to the peoples of the South (Dark Silver)

[Kindling]

THE PEOPLES OF THE SOUTH

Severim

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Typical male names: Alin, Alvaro, Casimiro, Catalin, Cebrian, Fermin, Galo, Gavril, Lope, Marin, Natalio, Roldan, Sabas, Sorin, Toma, Tristan, Vidal
Typical female names: Aracelis, Belen, Brunilda, Calista, Charo, Edelmira, Elisabeta, Ileana, Leonor, Mireia, Nieves, Odalis, Rahela, Septima, Varinia, Ysabel

Although they prefer the term Imperials for those not actually hailing from Severis itself, the people of the Severim Empire, especially the older provinces such as the Alberian peninsula, are usually collectively known as Severim to outsiders.
Severim of the working classes tend to be practical, somewhat dour folk, while the nobility and a good portion of the educated, mercantile middle classes are more flamboyant or brash. Regardless of social class, they view themselves as superior to other peoples - more intelligent, more civilised, more capable and generally less base and unrestrained. This is especially true of the aristocracy and of citizens of Severis itself, who even sometimes lump their less privileged countrymen in with the barbarians as being uncouth and ignorant.
The majority of Imperial citizens at least pay lip service to one of the twenty or so state-sanctioned cults revering the God and/or the Goddess, with a good-sized minority being genuinely pious and actively involved in one of the cults.
The Empire is essentially an oligarchy. Officially it is ruled by majority vote of the Council of Overseers, with a network of Council-appointed civil servants administrating individual provinces and regions. In actuality only the gentry can sit on the Council or hold anything other than minor office in the civil service, ensuring that birthright and nepotism are the true chief virtues in Imperial politics.
Most Severim dress in muted or pastel shades, preferring elegance of cut over vivid colours or patterns. Coats down to the knee or mid-thigh are the norm, usually worn over tight-fitted trousers and pale shirts. Many Severim also wear short capes for formal occasions, and these garments tend to be slightly less muted than the others that make up the ensemble, often using somewhat richer colours and sometimes floral patterns of embroidery.
This mode of dress is standard for both men and women throughout the Empire, with somewhat rougher, more practical variations serving as workwear. However, for special occasions and festivities some women, especially those from a wealthier or more upper-class background, will don ornate gowns of almost architectural construction, with complex displays of embroidery and pleats. These more elaborate garments, however, tend to use the same staid palette as the more everyday wear, as if their muted colours are an apology for the ostentation of their design.
Male hair is usually long enough to have a little "flop" to it, but short enough not to get in the eyes or hang below the collar. A military fashion is to shave the head from the ears back, and some civilians imitate this look. Female hair tends to be grown long, but worn up in a variety of more or less complex styles, many of them making use of hairpins.
Clean-shavenness is the norm among the Severim men, but fierce moustaches are favoured by some older gentlemen, and there is a growing trend for them also in younger, more rakish circles.
The chief arm of the Empire's military are the mail-clad companies of Imperial Dragoons that form both a standing army and, if necessary, a militarised police force to deal with internal unrest. The Dragoons are chiefly cavalry, but are also trained to deploy as mounted infantry when necessary, dismounting to form shield-walls or fire crossbows when sword and lance charges would be impractical.
Many minor nobles become officers in the Dragoons, while the majority of their other recruits come from the middle classes of merchants and artisans. Family heirs almost never serve in the Dragoons, so most of them were never educated to the same degree as their older siblings as they weren't expected to take over the family business or estates. As a result most Dragoons tend to lack all but the most rudimentary of non-military professional skills.
In times of all-out war the Dragoons are licensed to raise levies of auxiliaries from the general Imperial populous. These auxiliaries tend to be poorly trained, basically equipped with either spear and shield or crossbow, and bullied into formation by Dragoon sergeants given the task more as punishment than out of any competence at leading infantry.



The Five Tribes

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Typical male names: Artair, Bhatair, Cairbre, Cormag, Donat, Erwan, Gwenneg, Jago, Jodoc, Keir, Kentigern, Mael, Ranald, Seoc, Taskill, Torcuil
Typical female names: Aileas, Anais, Annick, Beathag, Eimhir, Elowen, Eseld, Lileas, Morag, Meraud, Nolwenn, Rozenn, Senga, Seonag

The people of the Dragorii, Colgaedii, Brethanii, Coronii and Gethorii - collectively known as the Five Tribes - are barbarians closely allied to the Severim Empire. These people, often called Fivesfolk or Fivers, hail from the regions directly to the north of the Alberian peninsula and once warred with the Severim in the early days of the Empire.
Since then they have enjoyed a long and successful history working as mercenaries for the Severim, supplementing the Imperial Dragoons with bands of fierce barbarian warriors. Nowadays as many Fivesfolk work as soldiers throughout the Empire as remain in their native lands, and long-term mercenaries are often awarded citizenship and property in the Empire. As a result, a significant minority population of Fivesfolk has developed among the Severim, although only a very few can afford the expensive permits required for foreigners to live in Severis itself.
Fivers are usually confident and outspoken people, and tend to dismiss the Severim's scorn for barbarians as a peculiar, sometimes irritating, affectation. They are fond of drink, food, and festivities, and are greatly impressed by physical strength, personal courage and skilled craftsmanship.
The main art-form practised among the Five Tribes is tattooing, and most Fivesfolk have at least some basic skills in the discipline. They are also fine woodworkers, ornamenting their traditional timber homes and furniture with similar abstract patterns to those found in the tattoos they wear.
The craft of the swordsmith has also been elevated to something approaching an art-form by some metalworkers of the Five Tribes, who consistently produce beautiful blades of very high quality (though they do have a somewhat savage or brutal aesthetic when compared to the creations of more civilised swordsmiths).
Fivers tend to acknowledge rather than actively worship the God and the Goddess, and only a rare few join cults as the Severim do. Instead, they save their reverence for honoured ancestors, especially those who achieved great things in their lives. They believe these ancestors' spirits watch over them and can provide guidance or protection.
Fivesfolk take a great pride in their physiques and musculature, and as such they tend to dress minimally in order to show this off to the full. Loincloths or short kilts of roughspun fabric with chequered or tartan patterns are the traditional dress among the Five Tribes, with voluminous, weighty cloaks of similar fabric and motif when it is too cold for their preferred state of semi-nudity.
Many Fivesfolk who live and work among the Severim adopt their fashions to a certain degree, but usually adapt them to be more revealing; for example cutting trousers short to reveal toned calf-muscles or wearing shirts unbuttoned and with the sleeves ripped off to display more of the upper body.
Dreadlocks are common among the Five Tribes, although hair is also often spiked or dyed a variety of colours. Most men shave, but infrequently enough that they are usually seen with heavy stubble, although some do grow fierce beards.
Tattoos are ubiquitous for Fivers of both sexes, typically on the shoulders, arms and chest. They usually take the form of complex abstract designs, although some prefer stylised representations of predators and other fearsome animals.
The Five Tribes have no real military doctrine as such, their warriors simply seek to close with the enemy and win personal glory through individual strength and valour. At best, they strike hard and fast, hurling javelins before charging in to close quarters. At worst they rush piecemeal onto the waiting blades of the enemy.
Despite this lack of tactical savvy, Fivesfolk warriors tend to be incredibly brave and can often win battles against the odds through sheer bull-headed stubbornness - combined, of course, with a good deal of ferocity and strong sword-arms.



Sylvics

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Typical male names: Adomas, Anselm, Ansgar, Egon, Falk, Gero, Gintaras, Kestutis, Lukas, Matas, Othmar, Reko, Valdas, Urs, Zydrunas
Typical female names: Aldona, Anika, Ausra, Danute, Ester, Giedre, Hillevi, Kirsi, Lovisa, Milda, Morta, Rasa, Sini, Tahti, Taika, Urte, Vilte

Sylvaine is the most recent province to be added to the Severim Empire, and also the least civilised in the eyes of the Imperials. This image of barbarism is enhanced by the almost-constant string of minor rebellions and insurrections that have occurred there since the region's inclusion in the Empire.
Basically a feudal country, Sylvaine was ruled by a long line of kings during its independence, and although the royalty has gone, the local barons who swore fealty to them remain, not yet phased out in favour of a standardised Imperial infrastructure.
The Sylvic noble and warrior classes tend to be grim and honour-bound folk, fond of grudges and the martial virtues. Every so often, though, they do let their hair down in the feasting hall to celebrate holy days, births, weddings, and even funerals.
By contrast, the commoners of Sylvaine are usually a warm-hearted lot. Despite, or perhaps because of, the strife in their country they seem to try to find as much pleasure in their lives as they can. They love good food, good ale and good company, and while these can be hard to come by for the poorer folk, they will still try to grin their way through all but the worst hardships, taking what joy they can, when they can.
Religion in Sylvaine is not too different from anywhere else in the Empire, and even during its independence many of the same cults were active in Sylvaine as throughout Severim lands. Indeed, a good number of the Imperially-sanctioned cults originally started out in royal Sylvaine centuries ago, before spreading south and east to the provinces of the Empire.
Although Severim garb has started to be worn by a few of the more fervent supporters of the Imperial regime, most Sylvics still prefer simple, traditional dress; tunics and trousers for men and ankle-length gowns for women. These basic garments remain the same regardless of social class, though the rich tend to wear finer, more comfortable fabrics, often embellished with embroidered trim. Heavy wool or fur cloaks are added in cold weather and both sexes wear their hair long, mostly tied back in simple ponytails or single plaits. Sylvic men all sport full beards or long, drooping moustaches.
The warrior class in Sylvaine sees the most honour in face-to-face contests between formations of heavy, mail-clad infantry. Despite this preference, the most ubiquitous combat skill in the region is archery, as many commoners either make a living as hunters, or use occasional hunting to supplement their diets. The warrior and noble classes also often hunt for sport and so are proficient bowmen despite their favour for melee fighting.
As a result, archer levies are often employed to support the warrior elite's dense shield walls in pitched battle, and usually have as much effect on the outcome as the swordsmanship of the professional soldiers.
Small numbers of cavalry are also seen in Sylvaine, equipped similarly to the Imperial Dragoons of the Severim. While effective, these horsemen are usually too few in number to be decisive in large engagements.
The warrior elite of Sylvaine's emphasis on the honour of standing firm in line with one's comrades leads Sylvic troops to usually be more disciplined than those of the Severim and the Fivesfolk, whose ideal of the glorious charge can sometimes see them employing rash, incoherent tactics.

[O Senhor Leetz]

Great stuff Kindling! If I may though, perhaps a bit more "weirdness"? I know you have it in you. Also, there is no mention of demons - am I missing something?

[Kindling]

Haha, no, you're not missing anything. The south is kind of the "safe zone" of the setting, the place from which you venture out into the nastiness of the north - although that nastiness will start to spread southwards as the campaign goes on. Rest assured, there's weirdness to come, just for some reason I felt like writing up the more mundane cultures first. Mundanity is good though; if everything in the setting is bonkers then none of the craziness will seem that crazy.
For example one of my PCs is a Severim and was, until the start of the campaign, pretty sure that magic only existed in fairy stories. He has since fought the living dead, tracked wolf-demons, met a woman who can mend wounds with her touch, witnessed a ritual summoning Ektherion Tath-Kra (albeit a failed one), run away from four-armed insecto-reptilian horrors from the Beyond, and all sorts of other madness, all of which it is far cooler for him to experience seeing as he comes from boring old Severis.

[Steerpike]

Very cool stuff!  A few questions...

1) How common is intermarriage?  Say between Severim Dragoons/officials and Fivers or Sylvics?  Is there stigma against it, or is it very common?

2) Is there significant resistance to the Empire?  Yeah, I've been playing Skyrim recently...

3) Are you running this with IH?  If so, I'm just curious, do the various ethnic groups have something similar to "favoured classes," in an informal sense?

4) How many provinces are there in the Empire?

5) Is slavery around in this setting?

[Kindling]

1) Yeah, there's a stigma. Imperials would probably be happy enough to sleep with barbarians, and some might even develop a fondness and attachment for their barbarian partner, but they'd never dream of actually marrying them and would do their best to keep any resulting children a secret from society. Even if a Severim did fall in love with a barbarian, they probably wouldn't be able to admit it to themselves, let alone anyone else.

2) There sure is in Sylvaine. Not too sure about anywhere else, though. There are some parallels between the situation in Sylvaine and that in Skyrim, actually, but I came up with my kinda-nordic-province-with-various-noblemen-fighting-each-other-and-the-Empire-in-a-fairly-constant-low-to-mid-level-insurgency first, damn it!

3) I was running it with IH, but will be moving over to Savage Worlds when we restart after about a year's hiatus. I dunno about favoured classes, but in my game the Fivesfolk character is a Weapon Master (with an ancestral greatsword called Big Sword), the Severim is a Thief who had to flee the Empire to escape punishment for unspecified crimes, and the Sylvic who joined them for a short time was a Harrier with Razor Fiend. I think the more typical classes might be Berserker or Hunter for the Fiver and Man-at-Arms, Armiger or Archer for the Sylvic. I think Thief suits non-military Severim quite well actually, with probably Man-at-Arms the best fit for a Dragoon...

4) I don't know, probably at least five. At the moment I only have names for two; Sylvaine and Alberia. Alberia is to the city of Severis what Italy is to the city of Rome, so that's kind of the heart of the Empire and the most "Severianised" province. I may keep the exact number of provinces vague as I don't plan to visit the South too much in-game.

5) Probably, although it hasn't come up in-game yet. I honestly hadn't even thought about it, but it would fit.

[O Senhor Leetz]

Is the rest of Alberia treated as second-class citizens by the Severim or are they full citizens of the Empire?

Are different parts of Alberia different than Severim in small but significant ways?

If you are using IH or something else, what about picking the best IH classes for each "archetype" you have a simply renaming them to keep the fluff and crunch together? For example, simply calling a Man-At-Arms in the Dragoons a Dragoon, regardless if other people from other places are still called Man-At-Arms (at least where the fluff and crunch can converge to do so)