"Welcome travelers! Come around my humble firepit, and sit your troubles away. I shall bring swamp-brew, and plenty of it, and we can drink, and sing, and you can tell me stories of the world beyond the weeping willows. Here, you are safe."

-Innkeeper of the Moonlit Fire Inn, Galvo Morgain

 

Boggart Culture

The Swamp Tribes

 

Some of the descendants of the dragonkin, first servants of the dragons, abandoned their posts and left the never-ending wars behind them. These dragonkin saw how fruitless their struggles were, and how little they gained from it. However, they knew that if they built a luxurious town, or fortress of their own, in those days they would merely be inviting their old friends to attack them. Furthermore, the dwarves would be unlikely to forgive them for their involvement in the sacking of so many forts and settlements. Therefore, they moved to the nearly uninhabited swamplands in the middle of Adra Majoris, the Far Bogs. They took refuge there in the shade of the weeping willows, and scattered into a number of tribes spread across the enormous swampland. These dragonkin changed, losing their deadly breath abilities, and gaining more aquatic traits to suit their new soggy homeland. They organized trade routes through their lands, guiding travelers through the marshes, and built fortified towns to reinforce these networks, and to organize their tribal communities around. This nation became defined in many ways by their ties to the outside world. Within the Far Bogs, the world moved slowly, as kin and tribe lived simple and pleasant lives. But for the town-leaders and elders of the tribes, life often revolved around deft games of diplomacy with their neighbors, leveraging their unique position in the world to remain safe from attack. They became famed across Adra Majoris as fair merchants and fierce warriors, and warlords or generals with Lizardfolk mercenaries in their armies were feared on the battlefield. Unlike most of the cultures in Adra, little has changed for these people since they first settled in the bogs, and in the third era more opportunities exist than ever before for skillful mercenaries and cunning tribal elders to gain wealth, power, and glory, within and without the Far Bogs.

          Boggart Culture is extremely old, but poorly understood by outsiders. Many people accuse Boggarts of being savage buffoons, who enter fits of rage at the simplest provocation. Others believe they live in utter squalor, defecating and eating in the same room, and sleeping on piles of mud under the stars. These are all misunderstandings or downright ignorant ramblings. Instead, those of the Far Bogs are self-sufficient, and therefore forgo many of the comforts and luxuries that the so-called "civilized world" seems to be unable to live without. Boggarts take pride in their ability to survive in adverse conditions, and view living for weeks on end in the wilderness as something to hang your hat on. This is of course not to say they know no settled ways. On the contrary, Boggart live lives centered around the family and tribe, with massive feasts celebrating just about any holiday being quite common throughout the tribes of the Far Bogs. Much of the reputation that lizardfolk and Boggarts have gained as savage and brutal warriors has come from an obvious source: many peoples' only encounter with a lizardfolk is with a mercenary, either fighting with or against them. It is true that lizardfolk make fearsome warriors, but off the battlefield, lizardfolk are gentle creatures, taken to gleeful gatherings and play. Without an agrarian economy, without even any arable land, Boggarts are renowned as masterful hunters. For this reason, many foreign nobles employ a Boggart in their court to teach their son or daughter how to be an expert hunter. The most admirable part of this complex culture is their willingness to accept outsiders into the fold; indeed, their warmth towards other cultures and races has made the Far Bogs swell with peoples taking refuge from war, plague, and other problems following them. However, just as non-Boggarts often seem to completely misunderstand their culture, Boggarts seem to misunderstand the strengths and abilities of the people that show up in their swamp. Boggarts consider most people, particularly the more human-like races, to be wholly unable to survive in the world, and even less able to survive in the harsh swamp environs. Therefore, these people are often sheltered from hunts and military encounters, being kept within the confines of walled cities for their own good. It takes time, and usually some event to prove oneself, for non-lizardfolk to fully prove themselves as a capable hunter or warrior in the eyes of most Boggarts. This view has saturated even the views of most non-lizardfolk Boggarts, who often view their own strengths to be an exception to the generalized Kith condition towards weakness and frailty.

          The Boggart people are most highly concentrated in the Far Bogs, though there are many Boggarts serving as hunters and soldiers elsewhere in Adra, though most eventually return to the Far Bogs. The races of the Boggarts are most predominately lizardfolk, with sizeable minorities of humans, halflings, goblins, and orcs. Furthermore, outcast races, like Tieflings and Shifters often live in the Far Bogs, where they are not treated with disdain. The most popular god in the Far Bogs is Aristagoras, though some scattered cults of Mirkatakatar exist as well. Boggarts tend to be friendly, accepting, and resourceful. They also tend to be controlling, stubborn, and uncouth. Boggart is the most dominant language of the culture.

 

If you choose the Boggart Culture, you gain the following:

~Either a +1 to your Constitution score or a +1 to your Strength score~

~A -1 to your Intelligence score~

~As a known language, Boggart Draconic~

~A Sub-Discipline in every knowledge skill on checks relating to Boggart Culture~

 

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