"Wake up you whore-sons-and-daughters, hate to interrupt your sweet dreams, but time to suit up! There is a raiding party at Gavin's Redoubt, if we make it on horseback right now, we can probably run the fuckers off. I need 10 of you on horseback right now, the rest get the carts ready with supplies, they will probably need them. By tomorrow we will all be hunting greenskins."

-Sergeant of Tarra's Fist, Hank Tillman

Zaltian Culture

The Freelands

At first blush, the term 'Zaltian Culture' might seem to be a bit vague. After all, the old imperial province of Zaltia (Zaltium) holds the Blackwood, Wodan, and Goblinoid cultures. It spans a massive region, unfathomable in scope to some elsewhere in Adra. However, it is sparsely populated, and the far removed territories and settlements have to interact with each other, in trade, and in unity against outside threats. This means that a single culture is able to hold over a vast territory. The very first settlers came to Zaltia in two waves; first, many settlers came overland on their way to Manfried, and second, merchants and farmers established thriving settlements on the coast in Haldoot. These peoples, over a certain time, merged and became one broad people. These settlers tended to be impoverished landowners, who, being squeezed out of their farmsteads in wealthier provinces, came to grab up free or cheap land in Zaltia. With them came escaped slaves, former-peasant freemen, and retired soldiers, all looking to build homes and farms to feed their families. The majority of the land in Zaltia north of Haldot was not the most fertile land in the world, but subsistence farmers grew varieties of crops and vegetables to prevent against famine and ill-harvests. The land also made good grazing land in many places, and cattle herders, sometimes called cattle barons, at least the richest of them were, became prevalent as well. In Haldoor specifically, the land was well suited for mass cereal farming, and barley, wheat, oat, and millet came flowing out of Thumbclaw Bay, feeding surplus populations across the Glittering Sea. In particular, these grains fed the fast growing population of Eldios. Eventually, deciding to secure the grain surplus permanently, the Arissians invaded Zaltia, focusing on Haldoor, which became the main source of grain for the capital. For many years, Zaltia remained the frontier of the empire, a place where forts dotted the borders and river crossings, and campaigns to crush goblin war camps were organized. It became a key-stone of land based trade, and when the Arissians were able to protect the roads well enough, trade and people moved in great numbers between Aegyr and Rumpkin along the Long Road. While the Arissians ruled, the population of Zaltia bloomed, as people came to a province known for its freedom; here was a place too big for anyone to constantly spy on you, gossip about your behavior. It was a wild land, full of adventure and excitement. It had little religious or racial prejudices in its population, other than those against goblins, and this meant that people of new or often degraded faiths would settle and build temples in the region. Eventually, when the empire finally fell, the region became much more dangerous, as the roads became chock full of bandits, wild animals, and monsters. However, it also became more free. The ability of local magistrates and leaders to tax far-flung settlements was difficult even under the supreme logistical capacity of the Arissian empire. After Arissian rule left the region, taxing all of Zaltia became impossible, as did governing it in general. People in the Zaltia of today are more free than their ancestors were in centuries past, but this has come largely at the cost of safety and stability.

          The Freelands of Zaltia attracts the kinds of people who want freedom from the oppressive rule of aristocrats. Technically, there is a ruler of all of Zaltia, the Margrave of Longpost, but this is only nominally. In reality, outside of a few specific places, the vast majority of the settlements are de facto independent, ruling completely unopposed from anyone. Many of the types of people this attracts are farmers looking to be free of oppressive lord, former-slaves looking to finally live in peace, or ascetics looking to escape the political tribulations of the cities. However, it also attracts bandits, criminals, heretics, and warlords, all looking to carve up a piece of the pie for themselves. As such, the people of Zaltia are often in conflict amongst one another, warring for resources, land, or often simply survival. These fights tend to be small and frequent, since it is difficult to support any large army through the harsh landscape of greater Zaltia. Of course, this leads to selfish thinking, as people are forced to act quickly to survive and thrive in a harsh land. Often people are forced to live on their own to avoid betrayal or attack, and this can cause many of the Zaltians to be stranger than others in Adra, left alone to their own devices with no social taboos or rules to guide their behavior. Zaltians tend to be agrarian, since almost everyone in Zaltia has worked on a farm in some capacity in their lives. They value the land and cultivation of it, but because of the sheer amount of untilled land and wilderness in Zaltia, they do not value their land as highly as many elsewhere do. After all, if they are forced to leave their farmstead, they can start again in another place 50 miles in any direction, and have plenty of land to do it. Zaltians not only value their freedom in the wild world of Zaltia, but also tend to have adventurous spirits. Most commoners in Adra are extremely wary of adventurers, adventure, danger, tombs, dungeons, monsters, and anything like any of those things. But the people of Zaltia are fond of the romantic idea of a life of adventure, even if they themselves will never live one. Zaltians are simple people with simple pleasures, who tend to shirk city life, and prefer the life on a country farm. It is broadly speaking difficult to capture a single Zaltian culture, that exists over such a wide array of peoples and land. However, among them all exists an independent spirit, and it seems that any culture attempting to dominate and subjugate the Zaltians will have a difficult time of it.

          The Zaltian people are most highly concentrated in Zaltia, south of the Blackwood and outside of the Yalewood, and in Haldot. Zaltians rarely have the wealth or means to move elsewhere, though they sometimes can be found in the ranks of adventurers elsewhere in the world. The races of the Zaltians are most predominately human, halfling, half-elf, goblinoid, orc, half-orc, and kobold. The most popular gods among the Zaltians tend to be Ariendale, Gökotta, Eoulous, Tarra, and Saint Hutchesson. Zaltians tend to be independent, agrarian, and adventurous. They also tend to be simple-minded, self-centered, and strange. There are small pockets of other languages in parts of Zaltia, the only common tongue throughout the land is Low Arissian.

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

~A +1 to your Constitution score~

~Either a -1 to your Charisma score or a -1 to your Intelligence score~

~As a known language, Low Arissian Common~

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

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