Introduction
Ghotharand is one of the most geographically remote and inhospitable lands in Aestis, its flat tundra was ideal for the nomadic Elsari people, but a poor environment for the conquering Ghothars, who hoped to find verdant pasture lands for their horses and cattle. The Ghothars are an impoverished people, but fiercely proud. They are deeply resentful to the Veskans, who they claim tricked the Ghothars out of the finest black earth lands in the east. There is also a culture of silence that surrounds the many crimes of Ghothar Kings. The theft of Elsari lands and the enslavement of poor Ghothars, Elsari and Olorians in the building of the
The Prayadine Canal casts a long shadow over the Ghothars, who often attempt to reject their involvement in the great Arc-Veska project, blaming slavery on their Veskan cousins. The keepers of Ghothar memory are the Skalds, the originally story tellers and guides of the Ghothar people, now largely rejected by the Ghothars arrogant kings (particularly the current monarch, Roharradh and his inner circle of noble sycophants). Ordinary Ghothars, however, still treat the Skalds with reverence. The other great Ghothar art form is Beyspilungun, or the 'weaver's tale', where master weavers have created vast tapestries that tell powerful sagas, many with strange hypnotic qualities.
Harsh Realities
'The Ghothar soul is born on the great windswept fields of dust and despair. Their children see their mothers and fathers fight in vain against the eastern winds themselves and this teaches Ghothars a powerful lesson as they grow; suffering, loss and defeat are inevitable. Ghothars also come to understand that if living well isn't an option, then dying well is. This is why so many of the sons and daughters of Goti have fought for their king so bravely, and why a sword in a Ghothar hand is prized greatly by the lords of the Arclands, and feared by their enemies.'
Reflections on the North Lands
Mordei Morhannan
One thing that Mordei Morhannan omitted to mention in his book of the north is that Ghothars are frequently hired across Aestis as mercenaries because they are cheap. The deep seated economic problems of Ghotharand mean that it exports many of its citizens (or more to the point, they choose exile from their poverty) and as a result Ghotharand has a rapidly aging population, where villages are being emptied of their youth and vitality. Some Ghothars have found new lives for themselves in the Arclands and have set aside their old allegiances. However, for many, there is a deep loyalty to Ghotharand and a deep sorrow over its fate. Ghothar kings have stirred up hatred towards the Veskans (though there is some evidence that Veska engineered a famine in Veska twenty years earlier in the year 275).
Some Ghothars claim that their country, the only nation other than
Wardenhal to inflict a major defeat on
Mordikhaan, is by its very nature tougher and hardier than Veska or the Arclands. Most Arclanders, when they think about Ghotharand at all (which is infrequently), find the idea that poverty and hardship are somehow a badge of honour and character an absurd proposition.
The city state of
Dran have long standing ties with Ghotharand, recognising to some extent, a kindred spirit. Just as Arc has cultivated strong ties with Veska over the building of the
The Prayadine Canal, Dran and Ghotharand have become allies of convenience, as both nations stand to benefit if the canal were to be prised from Arc and Veska's hands. So many Ghothar soldiers have volunteered for the comparatively generous pay of the Dranian army that the lords of Dran created a distinct Ghothar Legion within its ranks.
Beyspilungun
The first Beyspilungun tapestries sailed with the Ghothars from Skor Barradh, it is claimed that the weavers created the map of the sea and the stars that guided the Ghothar fleet on its route. Svan Hyrikson, the father of the Ghothar and Veskan peoples was friends with Owayne Tariansan the first of the great weavers, who made his home eventually amongst the Veskan people. Tariansan created tapestries for the first Ghothar Kings that lined the walls of their castle, Omhargh, the ruins of which sits on the cliff tops east of Khozan. Legend tells that the tapestries of the night sky, the moon, the stars, the forests and the sea came to life and absorbed those that looked upon them, taking them far beyond their mortal bodies and deep into this world and others. Harbingers from Gol have been known to come to Ghotharand to find original threads from the first Beyspilungun, believing the stories of their immense powers.
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