Overview
Area originally settled by escaped debt slaves from soon after Dosjorya's settlement by humans. Farming is the primary occupation. The Sythen region is isolated from the bulk of Dosjorya.
Characteristics
The river that lends its name to this region is a silty, spring fed waterway that also provides this area with its primary economic focus. Outside of Tanfor's population, nearly ninety percent of Sytheners either are farmers or come from a farming background. A vast majority of the smaller family farms are subsistence, providing for a single family's needs. Many larger farms exist between towns and villages, farms so large they hire laborers for their fields and provide much of the food for the southern half of Dosjorya. The Sythen River rarely floods, making its lands ideal for permanent settlement. However, its placement in southern Dosjorya near the ocean leads to very hot and humid summers.
Because of the events that led to Tanfor's founding and the settling of the Sythen River, not all of its residents are literate, contrasting to the near perfect literacy of the rest of Dosjorya and of the lands Dosjoryans originally came from. Speech in Sythen villages and towns differs as well, leading to a distinctive drawl that is often viewed as a sign of a lack of intelligence.
History
Tanfor was first founded as a sanctuary for men and their families who escaped the declining conditions of slavery within a couple of generations after humans arrived in Dosjorya. As the efforts to build and rebuild after the war with the Gendirlo required more hard labor, slaves were not only kept by slavers following the end of their contracts and nullification of their debts, their children were also kept as slaves. Because they always had food, water, and shelter at an acceptable level, many remained content but older slaves, who had once knew freedom, finally escaped.
These slaves took their families with them, children and grandchildren who were not always able to receive an education due to the work asked of them. Even in Tanfor, where they were free, the hard and never ending tasks of building and defending kept many others from learning to read. Gradually it was seen as an unnecessary skill to those who never left the region, and even after the abolition of slavery soon after Tanfor's founding, Sytheners remained isolated and less literate.
As time passed, more commerce arrived on the shores of the Sythen region and its people grew more literate and educated again. As they never reached the level of the rest of Dosjorya, Sytheners are still seen as under educated, illiterate farmers who do little for the economy of Dosjorya.
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