Chondathans

Introduction
Chondathans, are hardy folk, not afraid to take risks, travel, or settle new lands, and are always looking to better themselves and their families monetarily. As Chondathan culture has taken root in so many distant lands, Chondathans are comfortable in most human societies. Many Chondathans are merchants of one sort or another, selling their skills and the fruits of their labors for coin. Although Chondathans make skilled mercenaries and cunning rogues, Chondathan culture has not encouraged study of the Art or great religious fervor.

Chondathan emigrants have settled most of central Eid'run as well as much of the southern parts. Thanks to far-wandering Chondathan traders, the Chondathan tongue is spoken even in regions where the number of pureblooded Chondathans is small or nearly nonexistent.

Description
Chondathans are slender, tawny-skinned folk with brown hair ranging from almost blond to almost black. The avarage Chondathans are about 1.75 - 1.85 meters tall and rarely weigh more than 90 kg. unless they are fat and out of shape. They have green or brown eyes, but all builds and hair and eye hues may be seen. Those Chondathans who dwell north of the Icecrown Mountains are more likely to have blue eyes and have fairer complexions and darker hair than those born in the South, who have more of an olive-skinned hue.

Chondathans regard themselves as having come to dominate central Eid'run almost by accident; they have “conquered” more land through trade and settlement than with armies. They show little arrogance and only a small amount of pride regarding the predominance of their language and culture. Likewise, Chondathans are more apt to identify themselves by their national origins, such as Bretonian, Franconian, or Germanian than by their ethnic group. The Chondathans of central Eid'run is collectively called Eidropians. If Chondathans do have a common vice, it is perhaps their cultural focus on wealth and its acquisition. Among Chondathans, prestige and influence are often directly tied to wealth, and it is no accident that the merchant nobility plays a strong role in most societies influence by Chondathan culture.

Outlook
Chondathans measure others by how much wealth and influence a person or family has acquired. To a Chondathan, all things are for sale, assuming one can agree upon a price. Intrigue and covert manipulation are simply means to an end, but unnecessary bloodshed is destructive and wasteful. Chondathans have found that power inevitably swings to whoever controls the purse strings, not whoever carries the biggest sword, and set their aspirations accordingly. Fierce competition in all walks of life is the guiding rule of Chondathan society, and those raised within its confines are used to seeing fortunes won or lost, with commensurate gains or losses in stature. Chondathans expect each individual to look out for himself or herself, and they are often surprised when others act selflessly.

Chondathans are drawn to adventuring for one of two reasons: Some take up arms and spells to defend that which they hold most dear, a tradition harkening back to the early Chondathan settlers. Others are drawn to a life on the road by the same impulses that send Chondathan merchants into unfamiliar lands in search of trading opportunities, a hunger to search for wealth in the unknown. Most Chondathans who adopt adventuring as a career are drawn to the potential of acquiring great wealth by looting some long-forgotten tomb or recovering some fabulous treasure from an ancient ruin.

Culture
Chondathan culture varies widely across Eid'run. Compared to other cultures, particularly Calishite and Mulan, Chondathan societies have relatively weak class divisions. Hard work and good fortune have been enough to catapult more than one member of the lower classes into the merchant nobility. Commerce plays an important role in all Chondathan-dominated cultures, giving rise to the maxim that everything is for sale at some price. Chondathans honor their word, although not for moral reasons. One’s reputation is like a purse fixed number of coins that, once squandered, is costly to repurchase.

As Chondathans place a high value on book learning, many receive some amount of schooling while growing up. Chondathan youths are apprenticed to a master by the age of 12 and are expected to learn a trade during their apprenticeship. Chondathans have little patience for able-bodied indigents, and all adults are expected to earn their own keep in whatever field they were trained. Wealthy persons are afforded great respect in Chondathan societies, and those who squander money foolishly are looked down upon. Chondathans are expected to work until no longer physically capable or until death. Even those too infirm to earn a living often pass their days at their former place of works, offering advice to those who have replaced them.

Outside Chondathan-dominated lands, Chondathans strive to integrate into the local culture, even if that means learning a new tongue or converting to the worship of the local gods. Of course, such integration strategies do not interfere with sharing Chondathan necessities and customs with the local populace, a practice that over time slowly subsumes the local culture. Chondathan minorities usually organize themselves into merchant houses or trading costers for protection and to maximize their opportunities for profit.

Relations with other Races
Chondathan history is replete with clashes with various elven realms, and, as a result, few Chondathans had good relations with the elves or their half-elven brethren. Likewise, Chondathans have traditionally regarded the planetouched with a great deal of suspicion, as Chondathan culture has never had a great deal of interaction with outsiders and most planetouched they have encountered were representatives of rival cultures. Half-rocs are considered little better than their full-blooded brethren by most Chondathans. They are seen as little more than raiding scum intent only on disrupting the flow of trade and pillaging the farms of hardworking settlers.

Chondathans have good relations with Dwarves, Gnomes, and Halflings, for all have proven to be good trading partners and have traditionally dwelled in small enclaves within Chondathan societies. Among human cultures, Chondathans get along best with Calishites, Damarans, Shaarans, Tethyrians, and Turami. Relations with the Mulan have never been warm.

Illuskans are regarded as little better than orcs, however, due to the rise of the Úlfvòld family their reputation have been altered in a more positive direction. The two ethnecities are not openly at war, and if a Chondathan village or city is raided, it's simply seen as their misfortune as a community and not an attack on the Chondathans as a whole. This is largely due to the Chondathans deep fear of the Illuskan, although few will admit it. Other cultures are largely unknown to them.