The Salt of the Earth

The vast majority of the Brevic people are simple peasants, primarily farmers and craftpeople who owe their fealty (and their taxes) to one lord or another. A Brevic peasant’s life is largely the same throughout Brevoy—up with the sun in the short spring and summer months to tend the fields in Rostland or fish and mine in Issia, with household chores filing the rest of the day, and boisterous recreation when the work is done.

In the long, dark winter months there is no shortage of mending, brewing, carving, and cleaning. The people visit the local tavern or taphouse in the evening, and such places host dances and revels perhaps two or three times a season, with hearty food, strong drink, physical contests, and risque fooling-around for all. The wise man attends to his own house and avoids the attention of noble and priest alike, praying to all their gods simply for decent weather, good crops, a healthy family, and the peace with which to enjoy them.

With talk of rising political tensions from Brevoy, it may surprise someone who only follows rumors from the nobles' halls to learn that many of the regular folk of Brevoy would prefer to avoid civil war. After two centuries of intermarriage, such a conflict would literally pit brother against brother.