Rysallean Culture

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Rysallis has always been a land of people enamoured with the wild, with misticism and the great forests. In the early days, before the birth of the Ravillan Empire, the Rysallis area was considered part of the Catfolk territories, and its inhabitants, though human, were considered equal citizens of the Clans. Rysallis and the other Clanlands were ruled by what was known as the Elder Circle, formed mostly by Druids, Spirists and Witch Doctors. In times of war, the Elder Circle could choose to turn over their leadership to the Fang Circle, formed by chieftains and warriors of the Lion and Tiger clans, as well as Rysallis Rangers. Oddly enough, this war council never attempted to wrestle the control of the Clans from the Elder Circle, this only evidencing the worship of nature these groups centered their lives around. Eventually the situation turned sour during the war of the Claw, an obscure conflict between the Clans and the Ravillan state, which at that time had already conquered Xiadom and was waging a war against Lochmore. The higher instances of the clans regarded the humans in Rysallis as second class clansmen and argued that sending young catfolk to die for such a meager territory would be a waste. On the other hand many of them thought of the Humans in Rysallis as brothers, the Elder council was divided and only the Lynx clan went to the aid of Rysallis, from there that the two groups have always remained as brothers through the ages. However the lynx were no warriors, the loses for both Rysallis and the Lynx clan were great, in the end the Ravillans did not only invade the small strip of land that was the settlements of the Rysallean Humans but also conquered the whole of south Rysallis, Lynx land, by the time the other 3 houses of the clans realized what had happened it was too late, All of south Rysallis had been taken over by the Ravillans and they had already fortified many of the outlying cities, with no experience in siege warfare, the Lion and Tiger warriors were unable to recover their territories.

In the end, however, the Rysallean humans were benefited by the whole situation, the Emperor Lucius Orator, after realizing the only possible way of conquest was through assimilation and not bloodshed, gave the whole territory of south Rysallis to the administration of its original Human inhabitants, they quickly set Deepwood City as its center, the territory's organization worked in the same manner for years, as a copy of the Catfolk Circles, the Druidic circle was set to govern the forests, and a Political Circle to govern the cities, the latter was conformed by the captain of the Ravillan Forest guard, usually from Decima, the elected leader of Deepwood, the head of the Druid circle and a viceroy to represent the Empire's interests in the province. This continued in the same way until the civil war came, when Ravilla broke in two, the Forest guard was the first to take Claudia Orator's side, they used their rangers and druids to harass the northernmost encampments of her half-brother Anticious. Though vulnerable in open field, the Forest Guard wisely set small druid glades and ranger stronghold's in the disperse forests of Lochmore, ambushing everything from supply caravans to small regiments of Anticious's Red Knights, as well as infiltrating spies into the main Lochmorian Cities. When the civil war ended, Claudia pulled most of the Druids and Rangers back to the northern forests, but commanded some small groups to remain and follow closely her brother's movements. At the same time she detached most of the Forest Guard's Archers and re-attached them to the Decima Regulars, the main army of the newly formed Caessen Empire. Though Claudia's decision was wise, as she realized that because of their guerilla tactics and position within a forest, the Rysalleans were unlikely to face an enemy in open ground, her timing could not have been worse, since shortly afterwards her brother set sail norhtwards. Barely a month after the Nervan army departed, the Clans were attacked by a massive army of humans, tharezians and lizardmen, the clans quickly sought help from the Empress, who promised help, but for some reason kept her army stationed in Decima, delaying any order to go to battle. Seeing as the help from Decima did not arrive, the Clans sought for the help of the Forest guard, the guard denied any help, some speculate as a vengeance for the Catfolk negligence when Rysallis was conquered. The Clansmen fought an ever loosing battle against the hordes of Lizardmen until Kiannan Zhedanen, leader of the Lynx Clan, visited Deepwood personally, due to their strong bonds with the lynx, the forest Guard readied for battle, but it was too late, some of the druids of the Duirdic Circle had been corrupted by some strange force and they poisoned the forest, turning many of its dwellers into foul beasts. Though the rest of the guard joined the Clans in the fray, they were mostly slaughtered, seeing as everything appeared to be lost, the leader of the Duidic Circle, Angkone, had the remnants of the forest guard hold back the enemy's troops, allowing the main bulk of Catfolk to escape through South Rysallis and eventually reach the plains of Ravilla to rendezvous with the stationed Caessenian Army near Decima City.

Though the Forest Guard managed to delay the enemy forces in the forest long enough for the Catfolk to escape, they were entually swept away by the mysterious army, in collaboration with the corrupted druids, Deepwood city fell and was almost razed to the ground by the enemy troops, much of the forest was lost as Thadre's army prepared their siege engines to attack Decima City.

After Thadre's defeat, the survivors of the forest guard started the reconstruction of Rysallis and Deepwood City, the forests had been invaded by thieves and rogue warriors, remaining bands of Thadre's army still roamed the darkness of the forest, as well as some of the creatures Thadre corrupted.

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Region Stats

Capitol City -
Deepwood City
Population 20000 (75% human, 20% Catfolk, 10% others)
Ruled by the Grand Sheriff Yarry Warford

Important Places
The Moonwater Glade - Home of the Druidic Circle
Newdon - Small trading city
Renka - Large Coastal City
Azhoral - Small Military Enclave
Kisaki - Rysallean/Xiadomian city
The Epellon Way - The Great Road, main trade route for all of Caessen.
Lake Leiby - Bountiful lake in the middle of Rysallis.
The Forest Path - Network of traving roads through the forest.
The Leob Path - Old mining road.
The Rice Road - large trading road from Xiadom.
Moonwater Road - Road from the Epellon way to the Moonwater Glade
The Lake Path - Road from the Rice Road to Newdon.

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Name Database
Names common to the Rysallis region.

House Names
Mowward
Chatcastle
Stanam
Lichward
Folkethorpe
Ketterfield
Crewavon
Bletching
Lynham
Hereness

Male Names
Clifton
Willard
Julian
Isaac
Byron
David
Morris
Thaddeus
Marcel
Kendrick

Female Names
Eve
Odessa
Ernestine
Elinor
Althea
Melissa
Emilia
Sofia
Rose
Claire

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Relations with other races
Ravillan Humans - 8
Xiadomian Humans - 8
Lochmorian Humans - 5
Caerhamian Humans - 4
Lynx Catfolk - 10
Panther Catfolk - 8
Tiger Catfolk - 6
Lion Catfolk - 5
Hydrans - 6
Terrans - 7
Eolans - 5
Igneans - 4
Dah'kin - 3
Hauken - 4

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Quick Facts

- Rysalleans have great love for forests and, they hate places that are either too dry or low in vegetation.
- Rysalleans have a poor taste for overspiced foods.
- Rysalleans usually travel light wherever they go, they dislike feeling overburdened
- Rysalleans are normally quiet people, they are not very prone to talking unless they have something worth saying.
- Rysalleans enjoy calm music and melodic music, though every once in a while they can relate to the catfolk tribal music, they would rather not make it a habit.
- Rysalleans are sworn enemies of every lizardkin.
- Rysallean are mostly green element.
- Rysalleans are not exaclty the most law abiding citizens of the Empire, though not criminals or rebels, they prefer to consider themselves as free spirits that use rules mostly as guidelines instead of boundaries.
- 1 out of every 2 Rysalleans has practiced gardening at some point of their life.
- Rysalleans are adepts at hunting, however, unlike the Tigers or Lions, they are more inclined towards ambush methods than tracking or chasing.

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