"What is this piss? You call this a bisque? I would not feed this swill to the pigs, for fear it would transfer down into the taste of their meats! You are a joke, a fool not fit to be in my kitchen. Get out of my kitchen, and do not return until you have learned the utter basics of the art of cookery."

-Royal Chef, Jacque de Beaumont

Haelish Culture

The Sophisticate Elite

When people from the west came east, those with more nautical tendencies took to the waves of the Glittering Sea and made their way east to the isles of Adra Minoris. Some of these people settled on the Isle of Haeland. Haeland was an island dominated by a single forest, with a fertile plain on the northern part of the island. The forest hardly held up to the great woods of Adra Majoris, but compared to most forests, it was huge, and the early people became known as a woodland people. Eventually, the island was invaded and colonized by the Arissian Empire, who tamed the wild-blood of the local population, and built several major settlements across the island. The population bloomed, and the size of the island allowed its people to be fully assimilated into the Arissian culture. It eventually became the seat of one of the four imperial capitals, in the city of Maldew. From it, the rule over the rest of the Isles of Adra Minoris was orchestrated, and the people of the other isles at times resented the people of the island for it, in particular this bred hostility between Haeland and Halstat, and began a rivalry between them that lasts to this day. Eventually, when imperial rule fell apart on the islands, the people of Haeland remained friendly towards the Arissians. The new aristocracy that rose out of the island attempted to retain all of the gravitas and majesty of their former overlords. They became masters of art, cuisine, and music. They fostered a sophistication that their kin in the other isles lacked, and became known throughout Adra for their refinement. The aristocracy of the island maintained strong ties to the Arissian Empire, who supported them in proxy wars against their more anti-arissian neighbors. However, unlike their neighbors in Martum, the Haelish would never accept full imperial rule again willingly. Far from it, they view themselves as an anchor point for a new sort of cultural revolution throughout Adra, and see themselves as superior to their former imperial overlords in many ways.

          The Haelish are known around the world for their snobbishness. This to some degree, is a mischaracterization. Just like in the other agrarian societies of Adra, the average peasant doesn't have much more than a pot to piss in, so it is difficult to say those folk are snobbish. However, for the average city goer or nobleman, this characterization tends to be accurate. The Haelish tend to carry on the sense of a divide between civilized and barbaric people from the Arissian Empire, but, whereas the Arissians draw a sharp line based on which nations organize their economies in a similar way to Arissia, the Haelish judge others by more aesthetically driven factors. For example, the Haelish believe strongly in the use of eating utensils during meals, and view those who don't use them as savage brutes, unfit to sit around a polite dinner table. These sorts of cultural faux pas are often very specific, and deliberately difficult for foreigners to understand. However, this aesthetic-obsessed culture has produced genuinely great artists, chefs, and creators, so that Haelish food for example is the envy of most of the rest of the world. In combat, Haelish tend to value valor and chivalry highly. This means that the Haelish have fantastic knights, but make terrible mercenaries. Like many feudal cultures, the Haelish enjoy game hunting. However, the Haelish take to their forests and engage in grand hunts, competitions between dozens or sometimes even hundreds of noblemen, to see who can catch the most game or who can discover a single elusive beast first. While skilled at range in the hunt, Haelish find ranged combat to be cowardly and distasteful, and insist on pitched battles in hand-to-hand, mocking those opponents who hide at range. The Haelish also tend to be well-educated, with many villages employing village instructors to teach children. In the cities, literacy rates are extremely high compared to the rest of the feudal world, and among the elite, Haeland is known for having the oldest proper university in the world, Laketown University. Unlike the Tower of Wisdom in Eldios, for example, Laketown does not pride itself on hording knowledge, but rather on distributing it. Many of the smartest people in the world study at Laketown, and as such, Middle Arissian, the language used there, is thought to be extremely useful among erudite people. Of course, since Haeland is known for its high class, its scholarship, its fine cuisine and art, and its courtly graces, there is a stark contrast in the kingdom between the elite, those who fully embrace and master this culture and system, and the lowborn, those often shunned for being too stupid or ill-bred to be capable of fully participating in it. The Haelish peasants are a rowdy people, and revolts against the elite are not too uncommon.

         The Haelish people are most highly concentrated on the island of Haeland, and some of the surrounding smaller islands. There are also many Haelish immigrants living in other parts of Adra Minoris, and many scholars and artists from Haeland are employed by the gentry of courts and palaces across Adra. The races of the Haelish are most predominately human and halfling, with a considerable elvish population in the cities. The Haelish people most commonly offer praise to the pantheon of Borondor, the church having been implanted in the island by Arissian missionaries long ago. Among the nobility, Aristagoras is praised highly. Haelish tend to be sophisticated, artistic, and erudite. They also tend to be snobbish, vainglorious, and judgmental. Middle Arissian is the key language spoken within Haeland, and no other sees nearly as much prominence among the Haelish people.

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

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

~A -1 to your Constitution score~

~As a known language, Middle Arissian Common~

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

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