Hillfolk

Hillfolk are the descendants of pioneers who forged far south of the old Kingdom of Aetgard, seeking to live free of rule or interference from the increasingly-order-crazed government. They are a rustic, independent lot, and while they band together to form various communities in the southwestern hills and mountains, they resist evolving into larger towns or cities, preferring their simple small-town lifestyle.

The Hillfolk enjoy simple living, preferring to provide for themselves as much as possible. Many are content to hunt, fish or grow their own food and take up some handicraft hobbies and live that way for all their life. Indeed, Hillfolk are known for the many skilled woodworkers and leatherworkers amongst them. While they are fiercely independent, they enjoy socializing with their own as well as entertaining visitors, and are always interested in hearing foreign news or purchasing the occasional knick-knacks brought by peddlers from others lands.

They are a hardy people living away from the trappings of more modern civilizations, and tend to have excellent hand-eye coordination. Their hair tends to be mostly varying shades of blond or light brown, and their eyes blue or gray. They are generally a bit shorter than the average human, and by some strange quirk they have tough, leathery feet topped with thick hair, causing them to often eschew footwear. The most common explanation for this amongst the Hillfolk is that as the pioneers made their trek south through the wilderness they often wore out their shoes and were forced to walk barefoot, and so their feet adapted. Such an adaptation over so short a period of time seems absurd, though varying folk tales attempt to present explanations for it - the most common being that the accelerated adaptation was caused by the Hillfolk pioneers fording the rivers of the mysterious Fey Forest while barefoot and thus absorbing some of the forest's strange energies.