KLESHITES
Native to the jungles in the southeast corner of the Lankhmar continent, kleshites are a small quick race of dark-complexioned men. They live throughout the jungles and challenge any to try and lay claim to their lands. Many think these are a primitive and barbaric folk, but there are great and ancient cities found deep within their steamy jungles, and according to what little evidence is available, the kleshites built them.
Naming Traditions
Feminine names
Female names: Andea, Denjissi, Nuinnen, Serri
Masculine names
Male names: Adwa, Embae, Koonteachi, Menjal
Family names
Names: Kleshite names put emphasis on vowels over consonants. Names very greatly in length. Some say that the size of the name given to a kleshite child is directly related to the boredom of the parents when they choose it. Their names often have meaning in the Kleshian language that can't be directly translated into Lankhmarese.
Culture
Major language groups and dialects
The largest ethnic groups are the Baklish (48% of the population), the Sanghash (20%), the Tekesh (17%), and the M'Bochish (12%). The Tekesh group suffers from widespread discrimination from all the other ethnic groups in KLESH because they are unorganized forest dwellers with little political power.
Culture and cultural heritage
Personality: Industrious hunter-gatherers best describes the culture that represents these folk. Kleshites are inquisitive and love to trade for advanced luxury items and tools not normally found in their country. The penchant some merchants have for betraying, stealing, and sometimes enslaving the folk of the jungle has led to an attitude of weariness that didn't always exist here. While flexible in many ways of thinking, their devotion to the Earth is unshakable. To them it is a primal elemental force to be worshipped and revered, considering it to be the highest of deities, and the only true god to worship.
Common Etiquette rules
The Kleshites take great pride in their appearance and manner of dress. Regardless of financial status, it is common to wear clean and pressed handmade garments. There is a certain formality in social interactions in both urban and rural areas. An inquiry must be made about one's health and family to indicate the required level of respect. Older people are shown respect through physical gestures, and agreement with them is considered more important than frankness.
Common Customs, traditions and rituals
Storytelling is part of the cultural tradition.
Songs fill the air during the performance of chores and recently have been observed. all forms of music are played with native instruments.
Birth & Baptismal Rites
The infant mortality rate is high, and for this reason women tend to bear many children. Care of infants is largely a female responsibility, though forest dwellers tend to share parental duties.
Common Myths and Legends
Ideals
Beauty Ideals
Physical Description: Kleshites are generally a short people, but with amazing reflexes. The bright sun and intense heat of the jungle homeland has given the kleshites a dark skin, almost ebony in color. Though the kleshites would be considered extremely hairy when compared to the eevanmarenseer; they actually have little body hair. They can grow rich full heads of hair, but there is little beyond that. Many in the northern lands consider this lack of excessive body hair to be very attractive and alluring. This might help explain some of the slavery problems the border tribes have. They were only a moderate amount of clothing, a result of the warmth of their native environs. The outfits they do choose though, are often bright and decorative. Some of these clothes fetch well over 200 rilks in the stalls of Lankhmar.
The only physical flaw seen among the people of Klesh is their more slight nature. While it makes them agile in their homeland, they are at a slight disadvantage when dealing with environs and diseases from beyond the jungles. This results in their personal stamina being slightly less than most other humans. Some have learned about this flaw and think the kleshites are weak. Most of the folk who believe this end up dancing on the end of a spear.
Gender Ideals
Women typically are responsible for labor in and around the house; this includes planting, harvesting,food preparation, water fetching, minor housework, and child rearing.
Men in rural areas hunt; those in urban areas are the family money earners.
Women are underrepresented in politics and the higher levels of the government. In rural areas, women are often discouraged from attaining paid employment and education. They are instead encouraged to focus on family and child-rearing activities. This gives them limited power in social dealings with men, who typically are better educated and have more money. many initiatives to improve the status of women, have been tried, but ultimately fail.
Courtship Ideals
Traditionally, family members arranged marriages. Today, this is less common, especially in the cities. A practice that dates back to ancient times is the dot, or brideprice. Once price has been set between the two families, the groom must pay it to the wife's family. The dot is often very high.
Relationship Ideals
Relations: Traders from as far away as Eevanmarensee and Mulg Nar make their way to the jungle borders for trade. They are watchful but friendly and have traded with most who come to the edges of their lands in peace. If any try to penetrate too deep into the dense jungle the kleshites will hunt them down; with the intention of driving them out or simply killing them. Whichever the discovering tribe decides is easier. The Kleshites have regular and frequent skirmishes with ghoul nomads on the continent's interior and similar problems along he coast with would-be mingol raiders.
The one race the kleshites watch for more than any other are the quarmallians. These folk see the jungles solely as a source for renewing their supplies of always dwindling servants. Caravans bearing the markings of Quarmall are almost always attacked on site.
Kleshite Racial Traits
+2 dexterity, -2 constitution. While kleshites are normally slight of build and quite healthy, the jungle environment they call home is amazingly free of northern and eastern ailments. The disease and filth found in civilization is often more than their bodies can stand. This leads to the weakened constitutions.
Kleshites receive the additional feat and skill points common to all typical human races.
Automatic Languages: Kleshian (remember this language has no written component). Bonus Languages: Lankhmarese, Quarmallian, and Ilthmarish.
Spellcasters of Klesh are sorcerers; this is the only place where the blood magic 
is found in Nehwon. Many of these spell casters become eventually Earth Mystics. This is the only culture suspected of having these ancient wizards, and any who practice this magical form that are found in the cities of the north have based their skills and rituals on gifts seen in the powerful Kleshite magics.
Favored Class: Barbarian. The harsh life endured by the people of the jungles makes them naturally tend towards the warriors found in nature.
Civil war and political instability have caused large-scale violence. The rebels were mostly from the south, and nationalist forces came from the north and from neighboring countries. Both national and rebel forces committed summary executions and rapes. Civilians were convicted of being rebels and executed without a trial. Many soldiers on both sides were undisciplined, and mob violence was common. Trade and the infrastructure were disrupted during the civil war, causing water and food shortages, disease, and displacement that involved almost a third of the population.
Parent ethnicities
Diverged ethnicities
Related Items
Languages spoken
Related Locations
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