Sharrarde

The Sharrarde (pronounced shar-RAR-day) are a primarily human people who live in the marshlands surrounding the mouth of the Kanesh River in southern Viridia. Though their lack of written history makes definitive statements difficult, their presence in the region likely predates the expansion of the Dominion east across Thadria, or their arrival was at the very least concurrent with that of the legions.

Geography

Nearly all Sharrarde live in the marshy landscape where the Kanesh River meets the Chaska Sea, within the modern Viridian province of Herren. Their religious beliefs are intrinsically tied to the river and consequently they are often strongly reticent to leave its surroundings for long.

Culture

The Sharrarde follow a system of beliefs that clearly align with, but are not identical to, the worship of the Chaskan pantheon that is otherwise dominant across Thadria. Central to their faith is a deity called Tallali, who they identify with Taliash. Tallali is first and foremost a goddess of fresh water, the source of the Kanesh, and the bringer of good health, but she can also serve other roles as needed. As a god of agriculture and the dead Tallali takes on a male form and adopts much of the imagery associated with Socharin, while as a goddess of the ocean and the sky she returns to female and is more akin to Usumu. Worship of Tallali is effectively unique to the Sharrarde, which has at times attracted negative attention from the churches of Viridia, particularly that of Harinna and especially its more aniconic sects.

Sharrarde communities are small villages nestled along the banks of the Kanesh River and the surrounding marshlands. None are home to more than 300 inhabitants each, and it is rare for the Sharrarde to leave these villages in search of other prospects in larger cities. Whenever a village reaches this size, a few families typically separate to found a new one elsewhere.

Despite their general lack of a propensity to travel, the Sharrarde welcome passing merchants and outside visitors, and in fact rely heavily upon them. While certainly capable of advanced metalworking, for example, they prefer not to engage in such trades, and instead barter their agricultural surplus for works of iron, steel, glass, and other such goods.

Farming is central to Sharrarde society. The calendar of their year, their festivals and celebrations, and their divisions of labor are all determined by agricultural needs and events. Even those who serve other roles in their communities are drafted, at least temporarily, into the planting, harvest, and processing of their wetland crops, which is primarily rice but also includes fruits and vegetables like water chestnuts and blueberries.

Cleanliness and water rituals are highly important to the Sharrarde. Offering a prayer to Tallali each time, they wash their hands and arms each morning and three more times throughout the day, and their entire bodies before consuming their evening meal. The water involved in these rituals must be acquired from the Kanesh River, and must never have been stopped from flowing more than two days prior; as a result, those living short distances from the Kanesh often construct elaborate circulating fountains or even larger diversion ponds to keep their water fresh. Viridian scholars have credited these prayers, the rituals, or both as contributing significantly to the relative lack of disease amongst the Sharrarde, even when they are visited by merchant vessels that had previously stopped at ports where outbreaks were known to have occurred.

Sharrarde architecture does not differ significantly from the stone and wood construction common throughout southern Thadria. In the past they used to build bundled reed houses, but for many centuries this style has been relegated entirely to use for temples.

The Sharrarde speak a dialect of Thadrian, though with an unusual and unique vocabulary containing many words believed to derive from the ancient language Chaskan.