"Five Things Every Barovian Knows: ..."

[KingCorn]

For the list, I've taken some inspiration from Gwenfloor so for every few domains, I will include not just the domain, but also the non-human perspective from that domain (to give the non-human perspective of 5-things, but with some flavor for that nation), and could use some suggestons for others in terms of combos. Here's what I've got so far:

• Nova Vaasa Gnome
• Nova Vaasa Paka
• Richemulot Paka
• Falkovnian Kobold
• Nidalan Kobold
• Tepesti/Forfaran Goblyn
• Lamordian Dwarf
• Sithicus Elf (really just Sithican, cause that most of them)

Can you guys think of any other combos to make to give the non-human perspective for potential races? Like, Invidian Caliban or Invidian Half-Vistani.

[KingCorn]

Got alot more, just might post some to see what you guys think of them. Have also started the opinions of religions section like in Faith's of Eberron (big thanks to Nathan of the FoS for his posts on that)

Five Things Every Mordentish Knows:

1. The Great Investigations of Alanki Ray:The chronicled exploits of the famous detective Alanik Ray are a favorite among Mordentish readers, who are said to purchase more of these books than even the Darkonese who print them. Many Mordentish think of themselves as accomplished amateur sleuths by being able to guess the solution in most of his cases.
2. Always trust a dog:While not all actually own dogs, and even some owners don’t know the proper care for them (despite their insistence that they do), all Mordentish know to trust dogs as a matter of course. Seen a preternaturally moral, and believed able to sense evil and lies, Mordentish will trust a dog’s judgement over a man’s almost every time.
3. All men are equal, both in death and at the tavern: Mordent enjoys a cosmopolitan existence, and the classes are known to mingle. Most of this mingling is usually done nightly at the tavern, and titles such as ‘sir’ are left at the door. Besides here, all Mordentish know that all are equal in the grave.
4. How to light an oil lamp: To fight back the fog, Mordent is infested with oil and gas lamps, even in the lowest hamlet and dead-end roads. Citizens take it as a matter of duty to refuel and relight these lanterns whenever possible and have become quite skilled at it.
5. How to make anything into Tea: The Mordentish love for tea and lack of funds to purchase it with has made the populous very creative when it comes to acquiring it. Often they experiment with local wildflowers and even weeds to create their own varieties of tea, even treating poisonous plants into a tea with a delightful sting.

Five Things Every Darkonese Knows:

1. Where they were during The Requiem: The Requiem and the chaos that followed has been the most traumatic event in living memory for Darkon. While some lost everything, others found in it a chance to turn their lives around and even build fortunes. Whatever they’re reasons, all Darkonese remember where they were when they learned that Ill’Aluk died.
2. All are equal, though not all the same: The Darkonese know that no race is superior, much less just defined as a distortion of humanity. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses, and each covers a necessary niche in Darkonese society.
3. Death is not the end: The teachings of the Eternal Order, and the defense of the living by the dead have filled the Darkonese with a grim certainty. They know the dead do not fade into oblivion, but continue on, bound to the world by their desires.
4. Which business is going to fail: The Darkonese are fond of cottage industries as opposed to large scale businesses, though these businesses can fall as fast as they pop up. Guessing which business will fail and when has become a sort of game for the Darkonese, and richer ones make it a gamble by games of investment.
5. Some foreign insult: Despite the lack of self-admitted foreigners living in Darkon, the Darkonese have a surprising variety of foreign insults, with every citizen knowing at least one. Many claim to have heard it from a foreign parent, now long deceased or left for abroad.

Five Things Every Paridoner Knows:

1. The basics of gardening: Every citizen is required to spend some time each week tending to the many public gardens which feed the populous, and so have all picked up the basics of crop rotation, hoeing, and other necessities of sustenance farming. Besides the public plots, many have of the rich have taken it up as a hobby, while the middle and lower classes create smaller food plots when times are tough.
2. Who or what they lost to The Mists: While it has been nearly 20 years since the Mists constricted and stole the countryside, every Paridoner still remembers something lost to them. Be it a business partner or family member, or a small farm or business, all but the multigenerational urban poor lost something. Besides the Day of Remembrance, many take time to mourn privately, or plan a dangerous excursion out into the Mists.
3. It's not what you know, it's who you know: While Paridoner’s pride themselves on their education and merit-based culture, they also have long understood the virtue of connections, particularly with those of the upper class. A peasant with many friends can get more done than an aristocrat with few, and both can get far more done if they are ‘friends’ with each other.
4. Everything within 15 blocks of their flat: With the tightness of the working schedule and the constant crowding, Paridoners make it a habit to memorize every convenient location and route within 15 blocks of their flat, and many create predetermined routes in order to get the most out of any single trip. A daring few even incorporate roof paths into their routes, running and jumping from rooftop to rooftop.
5. A surprising variety of foreign curses: With trade now a vital necessity for Paridon, the many languages of the Mists have begun to seep into Paridon. And with the rough nature of the docks where the trade is done, the first words to arrive have been the slurs and curses of foreign sailors and merchants, and Paridoners take to them with aplomb. While in public the aristocracy is embraced by this crudeness, in private they write them down for use, along with a convenient fake meaning to excuse the insult.

[KingCorn]

I've made a google doc containing both the 5-things ideas I've done so far as well as the views of the faiths in the Mists. Please fell free to view and comment: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Jmt ... ue&sd=true

[KingCorn]

I've already shared the Google link, but just for feedback heres the opinions between faiths for some of the minor faiths of the Mists:

The Divinity of Mankind:

• Ezran Faith: Such a quandary: A faith that is both highly splintered, yet highly dogmatic. That is the worst that can be said about them however, and such a cerebral faith is close to our own. Their search for moral living and exploring the world to understand Ezra’s will is but an abstraction of our own search for knowledge and perfection, just wrapped up in the cloak of faith. If you can cleanse a worshiper of their dogma, they prove an easy convert.
• The Morning Lord: The most tolerable of the pagan faiths, their hopeful message of mercy and salvation is far preferable to sacrifice and shamanistic rites. Though in these miserable lands, such proselytizing could convince anyone.
• The Divinity of the Masters: An abomination of our faith, born from an abomination of humanity! They improve themselves only so they may better prey on others, becoming better parasites, and claim it the same as our path of ascension. May I live to see the day that this perverse ideology is snuffed out.
• Others: It is sad to see how many in the world still live in the darkness of superstition, only able to explain the world in lies and phantasms rather than reason and discovery.

The Divinity of the Masters:

• Ezran Faith: Leave it to humans to make the simple search of external knowledge as something ‘divine’ and then just as quickly excuse their own ignorance as ‘The Grand Scheme’. Is it any wonder they cannot even keep a consistent dogma? Still, such a widespread faith cannot be ignored, and we should take pains to replace its sect leaders, beginning with the Home Faith.
• The Lawgiver: All reasonable faiths understand the wisdom of keeping lesser in their place in service to the deserving few. The lack of any other pretenses in this faith makes it more refreshing though I suspect it comes more from their lack of imagination than from true wisdom. If nothing else, this faith proves a useful tool but limited in scope.
• The Divinity of Mankind: So close yet so far. While they too search for perfection, they can only ever hope to be a perfect human, and thus forever inferior to even the least of us.
• Others: Pathetic. Leave the animals to their chants and their stick waving, see how far it takes them.

The Wolf God:

• Hala: The witches have only caught a glimpse of the secrets of the wild, and yet so arrogantly assume to know all. Their control of beasts and men, their changing of shape; what they mimic by ritual we know by instinct. The strongest among them might be worthy of our blessing, but the rest shall die in ignorance.
• The Ancestral Choir: ‘Fiend of the Dark Forest’, ‘Twister of the Song’, such interesting titles they give us before the screaming starts.
• The Catlord: We deal with these half-changers from time to time. If their god ever lived then Father Wolf has long since devoured him, and the weak have no place to carry a grudge. Still, their anger makes them good sport.
• Others: When the weak cannot accept their deaths nor take pains to defend themselves, they always turn to praying. It never saves them.

The Catlord / Sehkmaa:

• The Lawgiver: They sought to cage the Cat Lord and were clawed for their trouble, and so content themselves on abusing his children. While their eyes are everywhere they are easily led astray by human pretenders to our faith, and all the better hide us in the haze.
• The Wolf God: Long has it been since the Great Wrong was committed, and much has been forgotten. But this we remember: It all began with the dog.
• Others: The only ones of any concern are the ones whose gods might happen to be real. The problem is each one says they are.

The Ancestral Choir:

• The Morning Lord: In such a dour world, it is often necessary to hear the song of salvation before our time has come. They are an inspiration for all souls in the choir, and those yet to join its song. Their only fault lies in their hopes for a perfect world, rather than simply a better one, for while the latter is possible the former is not.
• The Lawgiver: Everything we stand against, or we would if we had the means. They would crush the great multitudes in favor of the few, silence the virtuous in favor of the wicked. Each of its victims joins the great choir, and their voices joined as one will one day shatter the chains of this faith.
• The Wolf God: The place of a wolf is within the Dark Forest, not within the body of a man. Just the same, it is the voice of man which shapes the world, not the howls of the wolves…and yet they do conjure miracles. Something has gone wrong in the choir, something very wrong indeed.
• Others: Be it great spirits or noble heroes, all that they worship now joins with the choir. Their miracles are but a few notes in the great song.

The Cult of Erlin:

• The Morning Lord: How far have we fallen that we now turn to the god of our conquerors? This message of endurance in hopes of a salvation that will never come is just another chain they wish to put upon us and we have taken it willingly. Look for those who have begun to lose hope, for that is when they are ready to see just how they have been deceived. Then they will take up the true tools for freedom with fervor unmatched.
• The Eternal Order: Strange foreigners with an even stranger faith, they are almost worse than the barovians. They would claim our god like he was a fancy trinket and add him to their own horde of deathly faiths in hopes of converting us. We will take their help for now, but they will never own us.
• Others: What use do we have for foreign gods? Gundarike has Erlin, and that is enough.