Unapproachable East.pdf - The Forgotten Realms

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