General Information
Gender
For the most part, females will be heartily oppressed by
modern real life standards. Females definitely "have
their place" in this world, i.e. homemaking and
child-rearing. A cocky female adventurer will certainly be
looked down upon. Females, under most circumstances in polite
society, do not give males orders. They generally are not
afforded opportunities for education (aside from homemaking)
that a male would have access to in similar situations. Female
adventurers are often from broken homes. Females can rise
above their station though, if they are smart and have
sufficient talent to overcome male bias. This is especially
true in human, elf and gnome communities as well as in the
Church of Adrahil (a slight majority of ministers of Adrahil
are female). Times seem to be changing slowly though and the
older stereotypic roles for females seem to be softening in
the recent past. Halflings and dwarves are considerably more
conservative. Female dwarves are almost never seen outside of
Mourningthain. Even dwarf wives living in Duath remain
cloistered away at home. Halflings are quite a bit more
liberal, but, by tradition and convention, halfling females
are quite stay-at-homeish. Playing a female character is as
valid as playing a male; there will just be a few more
challenges that the character will have to face.
Naming your character
Most Faalorian humans have a common name and a surname.
Common, first names are usually short English or word names.
Examples from those chosen by players already: Melody,
Sylvester, James, Constance or Jasen. Other styles of names
exist: Neb, Fruthwith, Streely, or other variations of real
life names. For characters from smaller villages or from
families more traditional Teussian (old style) will have more
Old-English-, Teutonic- or Norse-sounding names: Halfadan,
Gudrod, Harold, Waldmar, Hilda, etc. Faalorian surnames--when
used--are simple, earthy sorts of names like Oxhead, Goodfield,
Darknight, Fenworth, Tidewell or Lockheart.
Gnomes, dwarves, elves and halflings usually have a bit
more unusual names. Hopefully, you won't have too much trouble
coming up with suitable names.
I think, considering who I am inviting to play, I won't
need to remind you of what is NOT a good name, but I think I
will anyway. Popular, real life celebrity names, alternating
caps, names which any loving parent would NEVER put on a kid
(like Master Killer) and other names unbefitting role-playing
will not be allowed.
If you have trouble coming up with a name, click here
(fantasy name generator) for some ideas.
Languages
Teussian is the common language spoken on Faalor. At it's
root is the old tribal language of Vilha but over the years it
has picked up dwarven, elvish, gnomish and Simsulani words and
phrases. All citizens of Faalor are expected to do business in
this language. Simsalan is a language that has almost died out
on Faalor. It was once spoken by many more folks but now is
found only in very scholarly circles. Many of the old
classical works of philosophy, theology and law are written in
this language. Dwarves speak Hralai, an ancient tongue spoken
now only in the halls of Mourningthain. It is generally
considered bad form to teach non-dwarves (with the exception
of gnomes) this language. Gnomes speak an ancient language
called Blusoi. They are a bit more open about the use of their
language and will readily teach it to anyone who wishes. Elves
speak Blusoi and their own tongue, Illythwarai. As with the
dwarves, elvish speech is generally reserved for the elves
alone. Halflings posses a hard dialect of their own. Their own
language has been supplanted by Teussian, but when speaking
with one another outsiders find it very difficult to
understand. Orcish, Gruumylrish, is a relatively
common language group on Faalor. Each tribe has it's own
distict language in the group. Because of the corruption of
the languages, orcs from different tribes cannot readily communicate
to one another, thus many orcs learn to speak common. Rom is spoken by the Vistani people. It is NEVER
taught to non-Vistani.
The following languages are valid in Faalor:
- Common. All PC characters speak this
language. This is Teussian, the language of the
original human colonists.
- Simsulani (the scholar's tongue). This is a
dead language, spoken now only by theologians,
philosophers, lawyers and scholars. It is taught to initiates
of the Draelic School as well.
- Prezmyr (The Forked Tongue). This is a secretive
language spoken by the Illriggers, monks of the Black Hand
and their unholy allies. Of course, only those who
are full members of these organizations will be taught to
speak the language.
- Chuth Orcish.
- Mnluug Orcish.
- Veshnuul Orcish.
- Illythwarai (Elven).
- Hralai (Dwarven).
- Blusoi (Gnomish).
- Thieves' Cant. This an unofficial language
taught in many unsavory circles. It is primarily based on
body-language and is designed to communicate without being
seen. Assassins, thugs, career criminals use
the language.
- Rom (Vistani)
- Imryth Code. The Code was a diplomatic language
used by Dwarves, Gnomes and Elves before the coming of
humans to Faalor. It has gone out of fashion in the
past 300 years though.
Literacy
Nearly 70% of all people on Faalor are effectively
illiterate. There is an educated class which makes it's living
in law, commerce, religion and politics who have a great need
for reading but by and large most people will barely be able
to recognize their own name. I will assume a PC is literate,
but this of course will depend on the character's background.
Currency
Gold is the standard measure of currency on Faalor. One
tenth of a gold piece (one silver piece) is the standard wage
per day for a common laborer or servant. One whole gold piece
is usual wage for a full days work for a skilled laborer or
scholar. Dwarves and elves maintain a separate standard, but
are expected to convert all coinage to Faalorian gold outside
of their own lands.
General Knowledge
It is assumed that all PC's will know most of what is
posted under The Setting section of the website. I would
imagine that most PC's will know more even. Some illiterate
and disenfranchised characters may know even less.
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