Chabaari

The Chabaari are a distinct caste or community who live along the middle and lower reaches of the River Helvander, many on the river itself. Their lifestyle and traditions are intimately connected with the river and almost all of them are employed as watermen, fishermen, boat crews, and so forth. They are typically highly proficient in these vocations and are widely recognized as masterful boatmen. Some live in settled villages along the riverbank or in their own enclaves in larger towns, but others are quasi-nomadic, with whole extended families living on their boats and moving up and down the river seasonally or in search of work. 
They have the same mixed Brecai-Uremite heritage as the general population of the Helvanderûn, but their peculiar ways and shared sense of identity mean they stand apart from the rest of the region's inhabitants. They speak Tuvai with a distinctive cant or accent and have a whole range of folk traditions unique to their caste. Part of these traditions is their communal claim of shared descent stretching back to ancient times, and they tend to only marry within their own caste in order to preserve this common ancestry, meaning all Chabaari families are interrelated to some degree (however tenuous). Outsiders often view them as clannish and insular, and may suspect them of criminal tendencies. Certainly their skill on the water means that some find success as smugglers and, when the law is weak, robbers or river-pirates.
Chabaari are known by a variety of nicknames, some pejorative, others less so, along the length of the Helvander. They are often called "water-rats" or "river-rats." Around Torrune and certain other areas, they are called "rakers," since many of them work the fisheries of freshwater clams and oysters along the river's sandy-banked stretches, which are harvested using long-handled rakes with curved iron tines.