Thule may be a cruel and hard land of many dangers, but it is not a hell on earth. Many people lead somewhat decent lives and enjoy their share of ordinary pleasures in their due season—feasts and revels, family and children, the satisfaction of work well done—whether they are illiterate barbarians, simple craftsmen, or great nobles. Adventurers, on the other hand, are far from ordinary. The stories of their lives are written on a broader canvas, for good or for ill. But they arise from the same common clay as all other people in Thule, and grew up amid the same traditions and ways as the people around them. The ordinary details of life in Thule are part of who they are.
City-dwellers, Barbarians, and Savages
People in Thule may fall into one of two broad categories within a vast spectrum of humankind: tribesfolk and city-dwellers. In general (but not always), these two cultural groups distrust and dislike each other. The uncivilized jungle hunters or tundra nomads regard the people of the cities as corrupt, decadent, untrustworthy, and greedy beyond all reason. In return, the citizens of Thule’s city-states think of the barbaric peoples of the continent as ignorant, lawless brutes, all too ready to meet any obstacle or setback with senseless violence.
City-dwellers, naturally enough, are the people of Thule’s civilized realms. Only the upper classes are normally literate, but all are subject to the laws and customs of the city in which they live. A large number of city-dwellers are farmers or frontier-folk who actually live outside the protection of city walls, tending the fields and groves that feed the masses. The Lemurian and Vrilerinnen cultures are typically associated with this kind of lifestyle, but there are many Thulean cultures who have adopted similar customs, becoming sedentary peoples relying on agriculture to feed themselves and palisaded towns to protect them from outside threats.
Barbarians are not far behind civilized folks in some areas, particularly the crafting of weapons and armor. Some are nomadic or semi-nomadic, moving from place to place to follow food sources such as migrating herds or to seek milder lands for the winter months. Others are settled, and keep herds and tend fields much like civilized people. The chief differences between these sedentary barbarian tribes and civilized folk are the simplicity of their social hierarchy and the lack of written laws and records. Such things may still be documented in more primitive notations, such as cave paintings, pottery, idols, and runestones. Alternatively, legends and laws may be recorded orally (and spiritually) via prominent lawgivers and shamans—usually elders—who wield mediumship with powerful spirits like the Beastlords. In a typical tribe, a barbarian answers only to their own conscience, serving no lord or master. Chiefs and elders are respected and listened to, but they do not rule—they lead.
Savages, on the other hand, are significantly less advanced than barbarians. One might naturally think the terms “barbarian” and “savage” interchangeable, but in this case they mean different things. The people of a savage tribe use only those tools and weapons they can find in the world immediately around them; they know nothing of metalworking, writing, or commerce, and very little of magic or other secret lore. Despite the preconceptions of civilized folk, savages aren’t stupid. After all, surviving in Thule’s wilderness with nothing but stone, wood, and fire requires a great deal of planning and inventiveness, and any savage warrior is quick to appreciate the value of a bronze or iron blade. They are simply wary of change and suspicious of different cultures. The most well-traveled individuals from all three groups (adventurers, for example) soon learn that there are good and bad people wherever one goes. Many tribal wanderers find their fortune in one city or another, and plenty of civilized merchants and mercenaries form fast friendships with people of the tribes they meet.
Coin and Trade
Precious metals are relatively common in Thule. Every major city—and a few noble houses, temples, or especially prosperous merchant enterprises—mints coinage in copper, silver, gold, and occasionally bronze, electrum, or platinum as well. In general, the value of the coin is dependent on the weight of its metal; denominations aren’t widely used, simply because the intense rivalry and competition between cities means that coinage marked with a value higher than its physical worth may not be honored outside the boundaries of the city where it was struck.
Some of the more notable coinage that circulates in Thule includes:
- Gold crowns. The most common gold piece in Thule, worth itself in weight. Most are struck with the head of Kalayan the Conqueror, since they were minted in his time, although other monarchs have appropriated their own versions (with their own heads).
- Atlantean sunburst. Made from orichalcum, the red gold of Atlantis, a sunburst features a hieroglyphic sun emblem. It is a rarer coin, each mint valued at 20 gold pieces in most large cities.
- Quodethi double peacock. A gold coin of twice the normal weight, the double peacock is stamped on both sides with the princely emblem of the city. It is worth 5 gold pieces in Quodeth, or 2 in another city. Due to its long name, the colloquial term for this coin is "doubloon".
- Margish kraken. These large silver coins are emblazoned with the image of a many-tentacled kraken. In Marg, their value is fixed at one healthy field slave, fifteen to twenty-five years in age (or fifteen to fifty years old for a Vrilerinnen slave), and they can be redeemed for such at any civic auction. For a slaver, the kraken’s value is about 10 gold pieces.
- Ikathian amber. These similar-sized amber stones occasionally turn up in Myrmidon hives. They are accepted in most Lemurian cities as worth 5 gold pieces, but in Quodeth they are known as "vermin's gold" and sometimes regarded as bad luck.
While a purse heavy with gold pieces can see to many needs in civilized regions, not all the peoples in Thule care about money. Savages have little use for coins; they can’t be eaten, they aren’t tools, and they can’t be used to make clothing or shelter. No matter how many coins a merchant offers, a savage won’t part with something tangible and useful such as a pelt that might keep one warm or a hunting spear. However, coins are pretty, and many savages are happy to trade pretty things of their own such as uncut gemstones or ivory carvings. One may find that savages are more than happy to trade their trinkets for civilized goods that are clearly useful, such as bronze spearheads or warm garments.
Barbarians have a better idea of what coins are worth, even if they rarely use them. They are more likely to measure wealth in terms of the livestock they own, the houses and halls they build, or the weapons and tools they craft. Bartering with one’s neighbors for goods or services is more common than paying in the coins of the cities. Most barbarian tribes have at least occasional contact with civilized traders or encounter trading posts during their travels, so they tend to save what coins they do collect for the occasions when they’ll be useful in trade.
Days of the Week
In addition to the months and days of the Atlantean calendar, the people of Thule also count seven-day weeks tied to the phases of the moon. This is only used to provide weekdays and provide a more convenient schedule for regular commerce and observances, which otherwise would have to be fixed to specific dates ahead of time. The days are named after major deities as follows:
- Asura's Day
- Tarhun's Day
- Kishar's Day
- Nergal's Day
- Tiamat's Day
- Mithra's Day
- Ishtar's Day
The middle of the week is considered inauspicious in some cities, and people superstitiously avoid beginning new enterprises or conducting important business on Nergal’s Day and Tiamat’s Day. Even civilized people have little notion of a weekend, but in most places Ishtar’s Day is a day of light work; many festivals or revels are planned to fall on the last day of the week.
Record of Years
Most people in Thule count years from the beginning of their monarch’s reign. For example, a merchant might boast that she bought an olive grove “in the third year of Queen Nalyani’s reign,” or promise to pay a loan “by the eleventh year of the queen’s reign.” If the queen’s reign happens to end before eleven years, people understand that the date means eleven years from the year in which Queen Nalyani assumed the throne. In the course of a single human lifetime there are rarely more than half a dozen rulers to keep track of in any given city, so it is not very confusing. But from time to time, truly villainous or despised monarchs are stricken from history by their successors, which can introduce some uncertainty for later scholars.
Tribal peoples follow a similar custom, but they tend to date years from notable events—battles, natural disasters, or heroic deeds of great renown. For example, a barbarian might count “the seventh year since we fought the Lemurians at the River Klal,” or “the ninth year after the Great Azure Comet passed through the sky.” On occasion, the beginning of the rule of a well-loved (or much-hated) chieftain counts as a notable event, but not often. Finding common references by which two barbarians can agree on when something happened can be challenging at times.
Scholars and sages make use of the Postdiluvian dating system, which counts years from when the Great Flood covered the world, sinking Atlantis and the Lemurian continent. In this system, the Great Flood took place in 0 PD, and the current year is estimated at 1202 PD. Click here to learn more about the Atlantean Calendar...
Common Languages
Most peoples in Thule are bilingual to a greater or lesser extent. They know the language of their home city or tribe and converse fluently in that tongue. They may also know some amount of Lemurian—the language of the Lemurians, now widespread since the days of Kalayan the Conqueror. Or, they may know Atlantean—the language of old Atlantis, still spoken by the Vrilerinnen and the Atlantean holdouts of Imystrahl. Most speakers of these "common" tongues get by with a couple of thousand words and some standard phrases, but can converse well enough for all but the most complicated or nuanced concepts.
The more isolated barbarians have little use for a common language, and it’s not unusual to find that particularly reclusive or hostile tribes don’t understand any Lemurian or Atlantean at all. Then, there are the oft-unwritten languages of monsters; relics of the prehuman and pre-Atlantean civilizations. The names given to these wicked languages go unknown by most, save for their cult acolytes or the likes of dark magus orders, such as the Black Circle, who may utter spells in such aberrant tongues.
Stone, Bronze, Iron, and More
The Atlanteans were masters of metallurgy and machines, but their influence did not penetrate to the deepest jungles of Thule. In general, the savage peoples of this land make do without metal arms or armor, while the peoples of the city-states are skilled in working bronze and iron. Barbarians who have any regular contact with civilized folk are able to equip themselves with metal arms and armor too, whether through trade, tribute, or pillage.
People (and intelligent monsters) who have little contact with civilization generally wield weapons of stone, bone, and wood. In many cases, these inferior materials are still quite sufficient to do the job—an arrow with an obsidian point is nearly as lethal as one with a hard metal point, as long as the target isn’t wearing armor made from better materials. Naturally, few adventurers insist on using primitive weapons when better weapons are available, so even the most savage heroes usually get their hands on metal spears or swords early in their careers once they begin interacting with more civilized folk.
Weapons and armor made from crucible steel—the strongest weapon steel that can possibly be made from materials native to this Earth—are rare. The only people in Thule who know the secret of working crucibles are the Atlantean holdouts and the weapon cults of Lomar, and neither would simply sell their most prized arms.
The mages and craftsmen of antediluvian Atlantis knew the secret to working steel beyond use for weapons or basic tools. Of course, they were no stranger to more mysterious alloys as well—cold iron, star-steel, and others. It is possible that these secrets may still survive in some Atlantean ruins, but for the most part this knowledge has vanished from the world. A small amount of such antediluvian weapons and suits of armor can be found in the treasuries and vaults of Thule, and they are generally regarded as priceless. Only the greatest of rulers and heroes own such marvels.