Erenlanders

For more than 2,000 years, the Northman descendants of the Dorns and the colonial Sarcosans have lived together as two cultures unified by military, commercial, and royal alliance under the single banner of the nation of Erenland. In that time, they have also become kin through friendship and family. From the southern coast of the Pelluria to the shores of the Ardune, the peoples of both races have interbred and intermarried for so long that a new race of true Erenlanders has been born.

These people are a handsome mix of their forebears. Not as large or pale skinned as their Dorn parents nor as slight or dark as their Sarcosan ancestors, their colorations and builds vary widely. They are a transitional people between both Erenland’s northern and southern regions as well as its past and future. Erenlanders are the true children of their kingdom, a people born of two ancient traditions but owing loyalty instead to one young nation. Though different settlements, and even different families, hold more strongly to some Sarcosan or Dornish traditions, most Erenlanders sense they are truly a unique people, something other than simply the combination of their

ancestries.

Erenlanders have long been left to their own wit and strength in settling the central plains, and as a result are a crafty and inventive people with independent and pragmatic natures. Though the often proud behavior of their pureblooded Dorn and Sarcosan countrymen may make the Erenlanders seem disloyal or uninspired by comparison, this is not the case. Erenlanders simply do not feel bound to their ancestors’ traditions and so are not limited by Dornish or Sarcosan social mores, expectations, or taboos. This has served them well under the Shadow; because they are not paralyzed by the loss of a long ancestral heritage, they have been better able than the other human cultures to simply adapt and carry on.

Though the lack of cultural restriction means Erenlanders have greater social freedom, that freedom is not without greater social cost. Whereas respect for the past and hatred of the Shadow bind the Dornish houses and Sarcosan liegemen to their people, the Erenlanders have no such guiding lights or sense of unity. Indeed, it may have been their diluted loyalties that made many Erenlander communities fertile soil for Izrador’s dark seeds in the Second and Third Ages. It is yet to be seen whether the Erenlanders of the Last Age will devolve into a directionless, broken people, or will rise above the suspicions and betrayal of their time and unite the two bloodlines, north and south, Dorn and Sarcosan, that created them.

Erenlander Racial Traits

• Erenlanders gain a +2 bonus on ability scores of the player's choice and suffer a -2 penalty on one other ability score of the player's choice. Erenlanders are the most diverse and versatile race of Eredane and demonstrate a wide range of physical and mental strengths and weaknesses.
• Medium: As Medium creatures, Erenlander humans have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
• Erenlander base land speed is 30 feet.
• 2 extra feats at 1st level. Erenlanders are unrivaled in their ability to learn specialized tasks, and they feature many different talents.
• 8 extra skill points at 1st level and 2 extra skill points at each additional level. Erenlander humans are adaptive and uniquely competent in their chosen fields.
• Weapon Familiarity: Erenlanders are not fully dissociated from the cultures of their forefathers. An Erenlander may choose a single exotic weapon associated with either Dorn or Sarcosans. He may treat that weapon as a martial weapon, rather than an exotic weapon.
• Favored Region: Northern Erenland, Central Erenland, or Southern Erenland.
• Erenlanders begin with 4 bonus ranks in one Craft or Profession skill of the player's choice. In the Last Age, life in central Erenland is hard, and men and women must develop useful trades and crafts at a young age simply to survive.
• Automatic Language: Erenlander. Bonus Languages: Any. Erenlanders live in the heartland of Eredane and are exposed to many different cultures and languages.