Danari¶
The Danari are a human people from the island of Danara in the south-west, slight of build, smooth-skinned, with a hint of elven blood in their unusual hair, who have been "extremely successful post-Shattering" through their location and their "organizational abilities". They are craftsmen and builders who raise "some of the finest Human structures and ships", and in the Fifth Age they are the most populous human people of the Broken Sea, with 4,760,000 counted in 704 SM.
The adjective is Danaric.
Appearance¶
The Danari are "considered slightly diminutive in stature for most humans". Their hair comes in colours unusual for humans, light blue, silver and black, "which betrays a hint of their partial-elven lineage", and their complexion is very smooth and a very light brown or tan. The Sancturi of the Fifth Age know them with golden skin and auburn, grey or balding hair, like the innkeeper Normand Haket of Harwith with his "rugged, sunburned, golden skin" or the tailor Zaena Greyson. The Sancturi campaign records are full of Danari in ordinary trades, innkeepers, tailors, soldiers and relic-hunting mercenaries, and a fallen Danari paladin of Arya among them.
History¶
Before the Shattering the Danari "were considered a 'backwards' society", but their island spared them the worst of the breaking of the world and they prospered afterwards until they dominated and ruled most of the south-west of the continent and supplied a large part of the human population of Dalmar. The old kingdom of Halath in the north was once one of the great Danari kingdoms, destroyed in the Second Rift War. The Thyssal Empire's central provinces were heavily Danari as well, and the fertile region of Whettan takes its name from the ancient Danari for "endless wheat".
The island kingdoms, Pesh among them, "were utterly destroyed during the age of the Dark Sun", and their legacy of abundant magic survives only in the Hollows that dot the ruined island. The Sancturi tried to resettle Danar in the seventh century SM, planting a colony at Pesh in 617 SM, and abandoned both their provinces there by 674 SM under the enmity of the Wights and their undead. The people themselves fared better: 4,500 Danari survived the Age of the Dark Sun, and by 704 SM they number 4,760,000, 1,850,000 of them in the Sancturi Imperium, 2,600,000 in the Riven kingdoms and 310,000 in the wilds.
Culture¶
The Danari "are very adaptable". They value art and culture; some prefer city life and others agrarian pursuits. They build in whatever material is to hand but for important work prefer stone that takes detail and refinement, marble, granite and polished wood, and they build large, multi-decked galleons.
The peerage¶
Danari society has four tiers: the peerage, the landed gentry (often very wealthy merchants and plantation owners), the freemen (usually craftsmen) and the serfs.
| Tier | Title | Standing |
|---|---|---|
| Peerage | King | Ruler of a nation, announced with every lesser title he holds |
| Peerage | Duke | A large regional noble, ruler of a principality |
| Peerage | Earl | A regional noble; earls and above often hold several titles |
| Peerage | Baron | A local noble |
| Gentry | Knight | A landed freeman with military honours |
| Gentry | Esquire | A landed freeman with military service |
| Gentry | Mark or Marquet | A landed freeman |
| Freemen | Freeman | An unbonded labourer without land or substantial wealth; wandering labourers "are looked down upon even more than Serfs" |
| Serfs | Serf | Bonded to a noble |
A serf "exists under the protection of a noble", who may contract the serf's labour to another landowner but is responsible for the serf's protection in exchange. Serfs often owe only part of their labour, or labour only at harvest, and may make their own money and eventually buy their freedom. A child born to a serf is bonded to the same noble as its mother. Serfs are not required to fight for their lord, "but often do so, since a loss for the lord often means the loss of their livelihood as well".
Pesh¶
Pesh is the oldest of the pure Danari kingdoms and "the heart of the Danari people, their homeland". Its recorded histories and bloodlines run back almost twenty thousand years, to before the sea cut Danara off from the mainland; its cities are more than a thousand years old and "filled with intricate art and craftsmanship", and its noble lines are traced back twenty generations or more. Whole towns and cities are carved from the plentiful red granite of its mountains, which earned it the name of the Red Kingdom.
Language and names¶
The Danari speak a dialect of Common. Danari naming follows its own pattern, given on the Names page.
Gap
The sources do not say which elven people the Danari descend from, or when the mingling happened.