The Peoples of the Cailem Peninsula Region

The Cailem Peninsula region includes the peninsula as well as the lands immediately to its north. The region is generally underdeveloped, and the only settlement of any note is the city of Belthar's Folly.

## The Ten Tribes

The ten tribes are a collection of native groups that dwell in the upper Cailem's Peninsula region. The term is used by the settlers to refer to the ten different groups that fought against Belthar’s Folly during King Obald’s war.

### The Pale Ones (Krachern)

also called Ash-Skins, The Pale Ones is the name given by settlers to the groups of human natives that dwell in the Crumbling hills and dust valley region and practice a necromancy-enriched form of ancestor worship. Little is known of them though prospectors and miners returning from the Crumbling Hills tell a wide variety of horror stories about these tribes and the undead they command.

### Bloodhounds (Ya’Carack-Yich)

The Bloodhounds, or Ya’Carack-Yich (The Spawn of Lies) in their own tongue, refers to the many devil-worshiping Gnoll packs that scour the region for sacrifices to their fiendish lords. Asmodeus is the most common patron, but all of the lords of hell are represented amongst the Bloodhound’s packs. These packs tend to attack first and give sacrifices later, though they will engage in diplomacy if they think it can give them the upper hand. They are given little quarter by anyone; though their numbers are few they are dispersed and can be found virtually anywhere in the region if one is sufficiently unlucky.

### Briners (The Tide Peoples)

The tide peoples--or “the Briners” in common slang--are the Darfellan peoples who inhabit shoals along the Disappointing Coast. They are a loose set of tribes only some of whom participated in King Obald’s War. Many share traditions in their ritual scarring and sacrifices to the god ‘’. They are despised by both sailors and coastal refugees alike for their alleged raiding and eating of sentient land dwellers. They are also known to cultivate a variety of strange sea anemones in their communal villages.

### Goblins of the Briarwood

Goblins of the Briarwood live in the briar. They really don't belong in the same group as the other tribes, but the settlers lump them together anyway. They raise birds and goblin dogs and try to avoid other races that come around from time to time in search of free labor or food. Every now and then the Briarwood will disgorge an entire tribe, women and children and all, which is variably viewed as a blight or an opportunity for resources depending on who you are.

### Hobgoblin Clan Holds

Hobgoblin clan holds dot the area around the shivering river, as well as the coast east of the Crumbling hills. They are independent agrarian societies with a strong warrior hierarchy that participates in constant raiding and expansion of their territories. The farming itself is generally done by slaves.

### The Roma (Amrod-Hoth)

The Roma, or Amrod-Hoth (wanderer folk) in their own tongue, are a collection of nomadic gnomish tribes notable for their symbiotic relationship with Bulette. The tribes are generally considered a blight because their druidic leaders settle for short periods of time to engage in magically-intensified agriculture, a practice that leaves the land baron and soil depleted in its wake, as well as the destruction and holes left behind by their Bulette. They are well-traveled traders, however, and are generally tolerated for this reason (also they have a fucking bulette).

### Mud Orcs

The orcs that live along the lower shivering river are generally referred to as, well, orcs. Their native habitat has been severely encroached upon by settlers, and consequently many of their number have been reduced to the life of vagabond or beggar on their erstwhile tribal lands. A fair number are water orcs though. North of the Briarwood these orcs are able to exercise their native culture. They live in small villages that are constructed like giant mud-based beaver dams along the bank of the river, meaning that they have only submerged entrances. Generally referred to as “Mud Orcs,” these creatures subsist on cultivating an edible cattail-like plant call Brish conducting river-based raids on those who come to the river banks. The cultivation of Brish occurs in the small, shallow lakes that are created upstream of their dams/homes.

### Perfecting Nation

The Wood and Wild Elves of the Perfecting Nation reside in the Whisperwood, living as nomadic wanderers and fierce defenders of the forest. They worship a pantheon of animal spirits lead by Obad-hai as the creator god. They are harsh survivalists who believe in survival of the fittest as the will of the Gods made manifest. Rumors abound of a single temple-city to their Gods somewhere in the depths of the Whisperwood. Very rarely, non wood or wild elves have been sighted in this region, but it is unclear if they are members of the Perfecting Nation or if they are envoys from the Direwood or from even farther afield.

### Trestin

The Trestin people are a culturally distinct group of human farmers that live in town-seized communities, generally found between Dust Valley and the Whisperwood, though reports exist of Trestin towns along the Eastern coast of Cailem’s Peninsula. Trestins are extremely insular and xenophobic, and no travelers are allowed within their villages on penalty of death. They are, however, willing to trade for iron tools, jewelry, and slaves (though what becomes of the slaves is not known). Only two Trestin villages participated in King Obald’s War, and both were probably drawn into the conflict due to provocations from settlers (Trestin villages are generally situated on the best land for agriculture). One of these villages, Krell, was captured and subsequently raised to the ground by General Kellson.

### Yavearin

The Yavearin peoples refers to the halfling villages that are scattered through the Whisperwood, notably in the southern region. These communities subsist primarily by clear-cutting a small swath of forest and then cultivating mushrooms and vermin on the rotting plant mass. They are also adept trappers and guides. They worship Cihuacoatl, whose domains are Animal, Death, Earth, and Plant, and whom they believe oversees the cycle of the world. When their fields of rotting biomass are exhausted the Yavearin communities moves on to another suitable spot (generally every 3-4 years). Many Yavearin youths succumb to wanderlust, and thus small bands of these halflings can be found in surprisingly far-flung areas (including, as it happened, King Obald’s War, hence their inclusion on this list)

## Other Barbarians

### Jerren

Jerren refers to the halfling tribes and holds that are scattered across the valleys of the Mossy Hills. These barbarians are known demon worshipers and satanists, and their depredations are well documented. The Jerren tribes used the chaos of King Obald's War to commit many massacres against the settlers of the Mossy Hills; however, they are not considered to be members of the ten tribes because they did not sign the Treaty of Three Rivers. Despite the constant state of war between their tribes and the Beltharin settlers in the Mossy Hills, little is known of their culture-except that their thirst for blood s unmatched amongst the residents of the region.

### The City of Newinter

On the eastern shores of Cailem’s Peninsula the swamps taper off into a sliver of higher plains about 15 miles across. For uninterrupted millennia these plains were inhabited by small, semi-nomadic tribes of halflings and humans (called dry folk) who lived in constant fear of the swamp-folk to the east, as well as a handful of Highren colonies which hugged the coast and lived in constant threat of being sacked by the lizard tribes. All this changed, however, when a group of Arctic and Glacier dwarves arrived on these shores in 796 bearing an artifact know as The Everwinter Orb. This Greater Artifact creates a permanent veil of winter around it, with temperatures getting as low as -15 degrees Fahrenheit in the mile immediately surrounding the orb. Within the orbs chilly embrace now stands the city of Newinter, the imperial capital of the Newinter Empire. The areas within the influence of the orb are beyond the reach of lizardfolk raiders, whose cold blood freezes in their veins in such environments. Beyond its icy veil, however, is a bloody state of smoldering war between the icy newcomers and the ancient lizardfolk, a war which has caught the former Highren colonies and the nomadic dryfolk in the middle of a war that neither belligerent has the capacity to achieve total victory in.

## Other Races

### Hadozee

Hadozee are indigenous to The Dreaming Jungle’s coast, but they sail aboard merchant vessels throughout the Shimmering Gulf, and as such are a rare but not unheard of sight in the areas around Belthar’s Folly.

### Belthar

The nation of Belthar is an infant by the standards of Ambar. It has, however, grown incredibly rapidly due to a huge influx of refugees fleeing the Burning Conjunction in Galoren. For more on Belthar, see Belthar's Folly.