Chondathan

Chondathans are hardy folk, not afraid to take risks, travel, or settle new lands, and are always looking to better themselves and their families monetarily. As Chondathan culture has taken root in so many distant lands, Chondathans are comfortable in most human societies. Many Chondathans are merchants of one sort or another, selling their skills and the fruits of their labors for coin. Although Chondathans make skilled mercenaries and cunning rogues, Chondathan culture has not encouraged study of the Art or great religious fervor. Notable exceptions exist, particularly in the study of the Art among Netherese-influenced Chondathan cultures that lie north and west of the Inner Sea.

Chondathans are slender, tawny-skinned folk with brown hair ranging from almost blond to almost black. Most Chondathans are tall and have green or brown eyes, but all builds and hair and eye hues may be seen. Those Chondathan who dwell north and west of the Sea of Fallen Stars (except in Sembia) are more likely to have blue eyes and have fairer complexions and darker hair than those born in the South, evidence of significant Netherese heritage. In Chondath itself, particularly in the lands bordering Sespech, a significant Shaaran influx in recent centuries has given many natives of Chondath more of an olive-skinned hue.

Naming Traditions

Feminine names

Arveene, Esvele, Jhessail, Kerri, Lureene, Miri, Rowan, Shandri, Tessele

Masculine names

Darvin, Dorn, Evendur, Gorstag, Grim, Helm, Malark, Morn, Randal, Stedd

Family names

Amblecrown, Buckman, Dundragon, Evenwood, Greycastle, Tallstag

Culture

Major language groups and dialects

Chondathans speak Common and Chondathan, two closely related tongues. Chondathan, one of the root tongues of Common, is the modern form of Jhaamdathan ("Old Chondathan"), which was one of two root tongues of Thorass ("Old Common"). Chondathan employs the Thorass alphabet, a set of characters used to represent the trade tongue that came into use thousands of years ago along the shores of the Lake of Steam./p] As many Chondathans dwell amid other human cultures (or at least have extensive trade contacts with such societies), many individuals learn the local tongue or language of their nearest neighbor. Commonly learned second languages include Illuskan if the individual in question lives in the Western Heartlands or the North, Damaran if she lives in northcentral Faerun, Shaaran if she lives south of the Vilhon Reach, or Alzhedo if she lives along the shores of the Lake of Steam. Spellcasters, particularly those who dwell in Cormyr or the Dalelands, usually learn Netherese and Elven in order to acquire magic from old sources. Few Chondathans outside those areas learn Elven, a legacy of generations of conflict and a likely contributor to future conflicts.

Shared customary codes and values

Chondathans measure others by how much wealth and influence a person or family has acquired. To a Chondathan, all things are for sale, assuming one can agree upon a price. Intrigue and covert manipulation are simply means to an end, but unnecessary bloodshed is destructive and wasteful. Chondathans have found that power inevitably swings to whoever controls the purse strings, not whoever carries the biggest sword and set their aspirations accordingly. Fierce competition in all walks of life is the guiding rule of Chondathan society, and those raised within its confines are used to seeing fortunes won or lost, with commensurate gains or losses in stature. Chondathans expect each individual to look out for himself or herself, and they are often surprised when others act selflessly.

Chondathans are drawn to adventuring for one of two reasons. Some take up arms and spells to defend what they hold most dear, a tradition harkening back to the early Chondathan settlers. Others are drawn to a life on the road by the same impulses that send Chondathan merchants into unfamiliar lands in search of trading opportunities, a hunger to search for wealth in the unknown. Most Chondathans who adopt adventuring as a career are drawn to the potential of acquiring great wealth by looting some long-forgotten tomb or recovering some fabulous treasure from an ancient ruin.

Average technological level

Through centuries of commerce, Chondathan merchants have spread their culture's trade goods across Faerun, making their favored weapons, forms of armor, and other equipment the norm throughout the region, not the exception. Similarly, Chondathans have adopted the most useful items of other cultures as their own, making them commonplace across Faerun.

Arms and Armor

Chondathans do have some distinct equipment preferences. Favored weapons include crossbows (except in the Dalelands where longbows are the norm) and all manner of blades, including the longsword, the short sword and the dagger. Commonly employed forms of armor include leather armor, studded leather armor, chain shirts, chainmail, breastplates, half-plate and shields of all kinds. Heavier forms of armor are more commonly employed in the cooler climes to the north of the Sea of Fallen Stars.

Common Items: Chainmail, chain shirts, longswords, and crossbows can all be purchased among Chondathans for 10% less.

Unique Items: Somewhat broader in the blade than usual for a longsword, Chondathan steelswords are favored by mercenaries and merchant guards.

Animals and Pets

Chondathans favor small felines as pets and hunting companions, particularly in the Forest Kingdom of Cormyr. Tressyms are highly favored by those who can afford them, as are lynxes. Dogs are owned to a lesser extent and consist primarily of guards, herding and hunting breeds. Horses play an important role in Chondathan society, but those who can afford them also employ hippogriffs, particularly along the shores of the Vilhon Reach, and in the service of the War Wizards of Cormyr.

Associated Creature: In Hlondeth, serpents are the norm, with flying snakes imported from Mhair Jungles achieving wide-spread popularity in recent years.

Chondathan Magic and Lore

Chondathans do not have a strong arcane spellcasting tradition, nor do Chondathan bloodlines include the ancestry that gives rise to a great number of sorcerers. However, many Chondathans are drawn to the divine and become clerics or druids. In their great diaspora of a thousand years past, the Chondathans carried the worship of many of their gods to all corners of Faerun; it's sometimes said that Chondathans conquered a continent with their gold and their gods.

Spells and Spellcasting

Chondathans who study spellcasting remain generalists, become transmuters for wide spell selection or learn the abjurer's art for the protection such spells afford.

Spellcasting Tradition: Chondathans have strong divine spellcasting traditions, especially among those devoted to deities attuned to nature, including druids and rangers. Any spell that helps travel across the far-flung Chondathan lands is appreciated, whether it is a lowly rope trick for a safe evenings rest or a powerful wind walk spell. Also favored are divine spells that assist in commerce such as zone of truth, sending, and tongues.

Chondathan Magic Items

Chondathans favor magic items that provide personal protection or comfort, facilitate travel, guard against theft, and enable the surreptitious gathering of information. Swords and daggers are commonly crafted with defending and speed abilities. Armor is typically crafted with arrow deflection or spell resistance abilities, reflecting Chondathan culture's long-standing fear of elves and rogues.

Common Magic Items: Hats of disguise, Heward's handy haversack, gloves of missile snaring, and periapt of proof against poison. Due to the prevalence of these items in Chondathan lands, they may be found in any large city in Cormyr, Sembia, the Dragon Coast, of the Vilhon Reach.

Related Organizations

• City Watch

Relations with Other Races

Chondathan history is replete with clashes with various elven realms, and, as a result, few Chondathans (with the exception of some Cormyreans and most Dalesmen) have good relations with the Fair Folk or their half-elven brethren. Likewise, Chondathans have traditionally regarded the planetouched with a great deal of suspicion, as Chondathan culture has never had a great deal of interaction with outsiders and most planetouched they have encountered were representatives of rival cultures (such as the air and fire genasi of Calimshan, or the aasimir and tieflings of Mulhorand and Unther). Half-orcs are considered little better than their full-blooded brethren by most Chondathans. They are seen as little more than raiding scum intent only on disrupting the flow of trade and pillaging the farms of hardworking settlers.

Chondathans have good relations with dwarves, gnomes, and halflings, all have proven to be good trading partners and have traditionally dwelled in small enclaves within Chondathan societies. Chondathans get along best with Calishites, Damarans, Shaarans, Tethyrians, and Turami. Relations with the Mulan have never been warm, Illuskans are regarded as little better than orcs, and other cultures are largely unknonwn.