Vesper People

The Vesper People are an ethnic group best know for their night-shifted culture and lifestyle.

Originally from Chiroptera in southern Hu, today Vesper communities can be found in cities across the Kingdom of Hu and southern-coastal Long. There are estimated to be around 800,000 self-identifying Vesper in the two kingdoms.

**Night-Shifted Lifestyle**

Most Vesper people wake up in the evening (5PM - 8PM) and are active throughout the night, settling down to sleep in the early morning (6AM - 9AM).

There are several theories how this custom came about:

* working the fields at night so as to avoid midday heat (although note that Chiroptera has a temperate climate);
* communities were active during night so as to avoid detection by pirates and rovers;
* southern Chiroptera has long days during summer and long nights during winter and thus daylight plays a lesser role in setting internal clocks;
* this is a holdover from cave-dwelling ancestors.

The Vesper's night-shifted lifestyle is a cultural rather than a biological phenomenon. Children born into Vesper society grow up with this practice and thus it has been perpetuated across generations. Due to lifetime acclimation, Vesper have difficulty adjusting to a diurnal schedule just as most people have difficulty working late at night and sleeping during the day.

**Anthropology and Appearance**

Due to their lower exposure to sunlight, Vesper people tend to be pale.

It is also documented that the incidence of genetic baldness or alopecia among Vesper is significantly higher than among the general population. This condition affects not only Vesper men but also some Vesper women. Further, many Vesper lose their hair during young adulthood or even childhood and some babies are born hairless and never grow hair at all. A small number of Vesper are born with or develop alopecia universalis and in the severest cases individuals even lack eyebrows.

This phenomenon is due to endogamy and "inbreeding" as Vesper culture strongly discourages marrying outsiders. Thus the Vesper have a closed gene pool.

The actual prevalence of genetic alopecia among Vesper is difficult to estimate as it us customary for Vesper men to shave their heads and for Vesper women to keep their heads covered. Shaved heads can also be seen among Vesper women and children.

**Culture**

The Vesper founded their own villages and communities in Chiroptera where they lived apart from outsiders; today a dozen Vesper villages remain extant although their populations are stagnant or dwindling as young people choose to leave. For centuries, however, many Vesper have lived alongside their diurnal neighbors. It has been said that these Vesper occupied the same spaces as their neighbors but at different times of day and thus the two groups' lives barely intersected.

**Language**

The Vesper community is known for speaking with an accent similar to old Chiropteran (which basically means there are a number of consonant sounds they have difficulty pronouncing). Vespers also have an atypical vocabulary with archaic words.

**Vesper Society Today**

In cities across Hu and southern-coastal Long, Vesper people make unique and valuable contributions to larger society by filling night jobs (e.g. watchmen). Many lamplighters are Vespers. The Vesper also operate night markets which are patronized and enjoyed by Vespers and outsiders alike. Besides offering late-night food, drink and entertainment the night markets are known for illicit trade and shady dealings.

**Prejudice and Organized Crime**

Many outsiders view Vesper with suspicion given their insularity, their activities carried out under cover of night rather than light of day, and their association with organized crime. There is an international Vesper crime syndicate thought to have a foothold everywhere that Vesper communities can be found. The true extent of the crime syndicate's membership, operations, and influence is unknown given their successful efforts to remain in the shadows.