Haloyl

The Haloyl are the people who live along the strip of fertile coastal plain between the Great Ocean and the preternaturally arid plateau of The Empty Quarter. They make up the preponderant majorities of the cities of Oluz and Halumay and are ethnically distinct from the inhabitants of the other communities of the Eleven Cities to the south. The people of those cities often refer to them simply as "northerners."
Over the centuries small minorities of Haloyl have settled in some of the other cities, most notably Pholyos and Dypholyos. Linguistic evidence suggests that the city of Dyqamay, though exactly what they would have been doing in that particular area is not a settled issue.

Ethnography

The Haloyl are not particularly visually distinguishable from other inhabitants of the Eleven Cities. Artistic conventions of previous centuries depict them with slightly slanted, almond-shaped eyes, though this appears to have died out at some point in the last century BWR, coincidentally at around the time many Haloyl began settling in Pholyos.

Language

Distinct Haloyl culture is prominently expressed via the language of Oluzian, which is the lingua franca of the cities of Oluz and Halumay. The people of Halumay claim that the language arose there; why it is named after the former city is unclear, but this is one of numerous possibly complimentary reasons for the parochial ill feeling between the two communities.
Oluzian is recognisably descended from Old Zolian but also noticeably different, tending to hinge on larger numbers of shorter words and a heavier use of various vowel sounds not present in other dialects spoken in the Eleven Cities. This is typified by the fact that native speakers of the language, particularly those from wealthy backgrounds, bear names consisting of three or four distinct words rather than one or two as in the southern cities. This produces a recognisable and persistent accent; native speakers often pronounce other languages with pronounced stops between syllables, as if trying to cut words up into smaller pieces.

Traditions

Sandwiched between the sterile plateau of the Empty Quarter and the even larger, equally questionable expanse of the Great Ocean, the Haloyl have developed a thriving tradition of coastal seafaring. One interesting consequence of this is that although Oluz and Halumay are geographically closer together than any two of the other Eleven Cities, no purpose-built road has ever been built between them; one travels between the two communities by sea. This tradition of coastal shipping keeps lines of trade and communication open between the two cities despite the long-standing antipathy of their peoples. It also stands the Haloyl in good stead as they travel the Sea of Jars to the south. Many expatriate Haloyl have found employment on the short-haul trade networks between the insular cities, for example. 
Trade with the southern cities has gradually become crucial to the Haloyl. Both Oluz and Halumay have grown to the extent that their own geographical holdings can no longer produce enough food to feed the community, leaving them reliant on food purchased from the south. Fortunately those holdings produce minerals and cash crops which are in consistent demand in the south, and a balance of trade, ably abetted by the Commercial Guilds, has long been established. Sugar and yams, two staples of the Haloyl diet which the southern cities cannot produce in economical quantities, have gradually permeated the southern diet, becoming particularly popular among the wealthy.
Though the pre-Wesmodian Haloyl had the same religious tradition as the other people who plied the Sea of Jars, it seems to have been rather more focused, with the deities Zargyod and Ajqyod enjoying far more prominent and active worship in the north than their various siblings. Pergyad in particular appears to have been largely unknown in Haloyl communities. It has been suggested that this religious duopoly stems from the sharp dichotomy of the Haloyl experience of the natural world. Caught between the harsh deserts of the Empty Quarter and the great seas, these people may well have given primacy to the god of fire and the god of the seas. Traditions observed in the northern cities and largely unknown elsewhere probably stem from this duopoly - both cities practice bullfighting, for example, which is widely believed to be a post-Wesmodian hangover from sacrificial traditions related to Ajqyod. 
One interesting exception to the forgoing is that Halumay was the only city in which Dahan was the subject of any organised worship. Why this should be is an interesting question to which few thaumatologists have a clear answer. 



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