Unapproachable East.pdf - The Forgotten Realms
Unapproachable East.pdf - The Forgotten Realms
Unapproachable East.pdf - The Forgotten Realms
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Respect your family, the spirits, and the deities, for they guard<br />
your soul in this life and after.<br />
Respect the spirits of your home, for they guard the land<br />
when you sleep.<br />
Obey the Iron Lord, for the safety of all Rashemen is his responsibility.<br />
Obey the Witches, for they are the bond that ties the people<br />
to the land and the Iron Lord to the people.<br />
Be strong, resolute, and courageous, for the weak, lazy, and<br />
craven betray the spirit of the Rashemi people.<br />
DEFENSE AND WARCRAFT<br />
Most of Rashemen’s soldiers are warriors and berserkers.<br />
Unlike in most other countries, the standard leader or elite<br />
member of an army is not a fighter but a barbarian. Rashemen’s<br />
warriors favor light and medium armor for mobility<br />
and stealth, dressing for concealment in snowbanks when enemies<br />
approach. <strong>The</strong> military is divided into units called fangs,<br />
which serve together as members of the same berserker lodge.<br />
Warriors support the berserkers with ranged fire or follow<br />
them to deal with foes left alive after the initial charge. Some<br />
units ride small mountain ponies to reach the front lines or<br />
to deploy ranged weapons, but they dismount for battle because<br />
the ponies are not suitable combat mounts.<br />
Although the berserkers are terrible to behold, they rarely<br />
use group tactics. <strong>The</strong>y generally advance as a screaming mass<br />
to tear holes in the enemy lines, which is effective but costly.<br />
It is the Witches who make the berserkers successful in war,<br />
using powerful place magic and summoning great spirits to<br />
attack and terrify the enemy forces, taking advantage of the<br />
berserkers’ initial successes. <strong>The</strong>y also use the witchboats to<br />
deploy forces rapidly into key locations, utilizing their great<br />
mobility to place shock troops where they are needed.<br />
Most communities in Rashemen have defensive walls. With<br />
the cessation of attacks by the Red Wizards, the Rashemi are<br />
enhancing and expanding their southern fortifications, often<br />
with spells such as wall of stone. As much as they hope for an<br />
end to centuries of war with the Thayans, the Rashemi have<br />
lived with their hostile neighbors for too long to believe they<br />
could change their colors so easily.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Rashemi are generally content to defend their own borders<br />
and rarely invade neighboring lands. On the rare occasions<br />
when large numbers of Rashemen’s warriors did leave<br />
their homes for war, it was always to make a punitive strike<br />
against an enemy fortification in retaliation for an attack<br />
against Rashemen. <strong>The</strong> Rashemi, and the berserkers in particular,<br />
feel there is no honor in slaying commoners barely<br />
able to defend themselves; they prefer to take out their aggression<br />
on military targets.<br />
RELIGION<br />
<strong>The</strong> Rashemi are a devout people, involving religion in every<br />
aspect of their daily life, for they venerate the spirits of the<br />
land as minor deities. Rashemi religion focuses on “the<br />
RASHEMEN<br />
139<br />
Three”—Bhalla (Chauntea), Mielikki, and the Hidden One<br />
(Mystra)—but also honors telthors and famous heroes. Most<br />
of the spirits are not known by name, except for very old ones<br />
with recognizable personalities. Most people do not meet the<br />
spirits in person but instead seek their signs, which are interpreted<br />
as miraculous occurrences and omens. Celebrated heroes<br />
are believed to serve the Three in the afterlife as generals,<br />
strategists, and messengers. <strong>The</strong>y are rarely seen except in fantastic<br />
displays of hathran magic such as the planar ally spell.<br />
All Rashemi respect the hathrans in their role as speakers to<br />
the divine (whether deities or spirits). <strong>The</strong> younger divine spellcasters<br />
(ethrans who have not yet become hathrans) are responsible<br />
for most spiritual guidance and healing, much like<br />
clerics and druids in other lands. This frees up the hathrans to<br />
concentrate on greater matters, such as battling the Red Wizards,<br />
thwarting the bheur hags, and guarding Rashemen. Only<br />
when an ethran’s power is insufficient to minister to the people’s<br />
needs (such as in the case of a plague) are the hathrans called in.<br />
THE WYCHLARAN<br />
<strong>The</strong> wychlaran (“wise old women”) are the spiritual guides of<br />
the Rashemi people, watching over their souls and communicating<br />
with the spirits of the land. <strong>The</strong> formal term for a<br />
member of this group is hathran (“learned sister”), although<br />
the Red Wizards and others call them the “Witches of Rashemen,”<br />
a term the women use informally themselves. All female<br />
spellcasters in Rashemen, arcane or divine, fall into one of the<br />
four following ranks: unproven, ethran, hathran, or othlor.<br />
<strong>The</strong> unproven are those female spellcasters who do not<br />
choose to become ethrans. (In game terms, these are Rashemi<br />
spellcasters who do not take the Ethran feat.) A number of<br />
adepts and minor spellcasters fall into this category, women<br />
who simply do not have the inclination or aptitude for further<br />
study. <strong>The</strong>se women are generally left alone by the<br />
Witches to practice their magic as they see fit, so long as they<br />
do not claim the privileges and authority of a true Witch.<br />
Ethrans are low-ranking initiates of any arcane or divine<br />
spellcasting class, although most are clerics or sorcerers. (To<br />
become an ethran, a character must choose the Ethran feat.)<br />
An ethran is a Witch and bears the full responsibility and authority<br />
that goes along with the title, although she must<br />
defer to the hathrans and othlors. <strong>The</strong>re are thousands of<br />
ethrans, although most are little more than village healers or<br />
spirit-talkers.<br />
Hathrans are the leaders of the sisterhood. (To become a<br />
hathran, a character must acquire at least one level in the<br />
hathran prestige class.) A hathran can do no wrong in Rashemen;<br />
her word is law, and to disobey her is death. <strong>The</strong>re are<br />
about three hundred hathrans scattered over the country and<br />
elsewhere in Faerûn; the actual number is a carefully guarded<br />
secret of the sisterhood.<br />
<strong>The</strong> wisest and most experienced hathrans carry the title of<br />
othlor (“true one”). No more than a dozen or so othlors exist<br />
at any one time, although the title is freely awarded to any<br />
sister who merits it.