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Cultural Traits: Rural

A young firbolg man makes his way back to a small settlement, his baskets loaded with ripe fruit. He passes a drow woman tending to vibrant flowers, and as her hands pass over new buds, they unfurl and blossom. In the scant village, a halfling healer tends to the wound of an elven hunter, their holy symbol just barely tucked away.   The traits you gain from growing up in a rural environment are:
  • You know one cantrip from the druid spell list. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for it.
  • You can read, speak, and write Common plus one other language you think would be spoken in your community.
  • When making a Religion check related to the Old Faith, you are considered proficient in Religion and can add twice your proficiency bonus to the check.
  • Your Constitution, Strength, or Wisdom increases by two.
While living in a rural community means less access to magical schooling, magic still permeates the lives of rural folk. Most communities rely on nature or must know how to interact with or defend themselves against it to survive, so their magic typically affects their surroundings. As a result, you know one druid cantrip.   Given that rural communities are not as large as urban ones, and therefore less diverse, you know Common and one other language. Your entire community may speak in Gnomish--regardless of whether or not they are all Gnomes--and you may simply use Common only when you go into town to trade goods. Additionally, you may speak Common within your community and Sylvan with the various fey creatures you have encountered in the wild and learned from.   Being farther away from the influence of the New Thought that permeates major cities, some folks quietly practice rituals of the Old Faith or pray to gods that may be taboo to the wider population of Taifar. Parts of the culture of the Old Faith still make their way into small settlements, and as such, you are proficient in the Religion skill when making a check related to the Old Faith.   Due to living in closer contact with nature and in some cases having to do more physical labour, your Constitution, Strength, or Wisdom score increases. Those that have overcome harsh weather, natural disasters, or poisons from dangerous flora and fauna have a hearty Constitution. People that work in the fields or partake in other manual labour for a living have significant Strength. Healers and those that get their magic from the nature surrounding them often have a high Wisdom.  
Note: I haven't written out any concrete ideas for rural communities, but I have a few vague concepts bouncing around my head. So, I figured we could work together to flesh out the details of a rural setting your character may be from. We likely won't need a whole lot of detail, since rural environments will likely not be as complex as a large city. A rural environment can consist of a small town, a settlement or camp, an secluded area away from civilization where your family built your home, or just the wilderness you grew up in. We can make a rural setting for any of the four types of landscapes I've listed.

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