#ffolk

Faerûn is home to dozens of distinct nationalities and ethnicities beyond the so-called major human ethnic groups. 

Many more peoples have vanished into the mists of time, remembered only by a few scattered ruins, musty scrolls filled with indecipherable writings, or perhaps the legacy of an arcane spell or some forgotten god.

Human, Bedine

The Bedine are nomads of Anauroch who migrated from Zakhara via a portal shortly after the fall of Netheril in –339 DR and intermingled with a handful of Netherese survivors.

The Bedine retained the spoken language of their ancestors, Midani, but lost all knowledge of the written word. Centuries later, traders from the surrounding lands sought them out and introduced the alphabet of Thorass. 

The Bedine adopted the gods of the Netherese and continue to venerate At’ar (Amaunator, a dead Netherese deity reborn as Lathander), Elah (Selûne), Kozah (Talos), N’asr (some say Cyric, some say Kelemvor), Shaundakul (actually Beshaba), and many little gods as well. 

The Bedine are found primarily in the southern, sandy reaches of Anauroch known as the Sword.

Human, Chultan

The Jungles of Chult are home to tall, ebony-skinned humans who migrated north to the Chultan peninsula millennia ago from a great island in the southern seas of Abeir-Toril southeast of Maztica and southwest of Zakhara. Two millennia ago, there were many tribes in Chult, although the Chultans and the Eshowe were the most powerful and influential. 

A bloody war raged between the Chultans and the Eshowe from 1800 years ago to 1500 years ago, ending only after the latter group was wiped out. The Eshowe were destroyed after unleashing a great evil known as the Shadow Giant on their enemies, only to see it turn on them after being repulsed by the Chultan defenders. In the centuries that followed, unchecked by any rivals, the Chultans assimilated most of the remaining tribes of the peninsula into a single Chultan culture, sharing a common language and somewhat uniform social structure.

Chultans, who speak Chultan, adopted the Draconic alphabet before the founding of Mezro and spread it to the other Chultan tribes. The primary god of the Chultans is Ubtao, who is said to have brought their ancestors to the peninsula they now call home thousands of years ago and to have founded the great city of Mezro in –2637 DR. 

The remnants of the Eshowe venerate Eshowdow, a dark shadow of Ubtao subverted by Shar.

Human, Durpari

The Durpari are the relatively short, dark-skinned inhabitants of Durpar, Estagund, Veldorn, and Var the Golden. The Durpari have dwelt along the shores of the Golden Water since before the rise of the Imaskari empire. The fall of Imaskar precipitated the fall of the Durpari kingdoms and two millennia of barbarism. 

During this period, the Mulan of Mulhorand often slaughtered or enslaved the Durpari tribes. In –623 DR, the first Durpari kingdoms after the fall of Imaskar arose along the shores of the Golden Water, as Mulan influence over the region ebbed in the face of the burgeoning threat from Narfell and Raumathar. With the exception of Estagund, which was briefly conquered by the armies of Dambrath during the reign of Reinhar I in 551 DR, the Durpari have remained  independent ever since, trading among themselves and with their neighbors. 

The Durpari speak a language of the same name—derived from a mixture of Draconic, Mulhorandi, and Rauric—and employ the Thorass alphabet brought back from the west. 

The Durpari venerate a small pantheon of deities known collectively as the Adama, and thought to include Selûne, Oghma, Gond, Torm, and Waukeen.

Human, Ffolk

The native inhabitants of the Moonshae Isles call themselves the Ffolk, although only faint vestiges of the original human tribes who bore that name still remain. Today, the Ffolk are essentially an isolated group of Tethyrians, descended from a large wave of immigration from the Western Heartlands in 467 DR. 

The original Ffolk had already conceded the northern Moonshae isles to the Illuskans centuries before the arrival of the Tethyrians, yet the Illuskans are still considered the invaders by the Ffolk. 

Unlike their mainland cousins, the Tethyrian Ffolk speak Illuskan, but they still employ the Thorass script. 

They are governed by a strong druidical tradition.

Human, Gur

The Gurs, also known as “Selûne’s Children” or “the people of the highway,” are the nomads of the Western Heartlands. Most Gurs are members of extended family groups that travel together from settlement to settlement in motley caravans selling cheap cast-offs and working odd jobs. Others have settled in the poorest quarters of cities such as Baldur’s Gate, Elturel, and Irieabor, where they struggle to survive in the face of ancient prejudices. Among those few scholars who have studied their culture, the Gurs are thought to be primarily of Rashemi descent.

Although they have certainly intermingled with members of other ethnic groups, they strongly resemble the natives of Rashemen. As fragments of lore dating back to the erection of the Standing Stone refer to the nomadic Gurs, it is thought that they fled their ancient homeland during or immediately after the cataclysmic battle between Raumathar and Narfell.