Bigfolk

 
Names: Worker People, Children of Labor
Origin: The worker people originated on a floodplain between the two sunward peninsulas of the mainland.
Elemental affinities: Water, Heat, Emotion
Size: Worker people are somewhat bigger and stronger than humans.
Skin: Their skin is brown and leathery, resistant to cuts, blisters, scrapes, and punctures. It forms calluses easily.
Hair: Worker people can have many types of hair in colors ranging from blond to black.
Beards: They have no beards.
Language: They speak Lashrefi’s language among themselves. Because they were isolated for so long, their dialect sounds archaic to native speakers of other dialects.
Divine gifts: Worker People have the ability to work ceaselessly from dawn to dusk without becoming exhausted.
Common magic: Magic is considered frivolous, although people who are especially strong in Water and Heat will use their affinity as a means to boil a kettle of water. Laborers who succumb to fatigue may visit a master of elemental Emotion who will help them rediscover their drive to work.

Origins

The worker people found themselves on a long river in a land where rain was rare. Devlen provided them with many crops and the knowledge of how to irrigate them.

Irrigation projects, farms, villages, and finally cities moved up the river, reaching the narrow canyonlands.

Migrations

Even after ocean trade was established with the Thinker People, the Worker People remained isolated. It was not until later that they were allowed to emigrate and establish permanent settlements among other peoples.

None of these settlements resembled colonies. It was always a case of integrating into the local economy as an immigrant labor force.

Philosophy

Everyone has a job to do. Not doing your job is unthinkable. Why even exist if you aren’t going to do what you were made for?

Religion

As with the Children of the Sun, this culture has experienced historical tension between those who serve only Devlen, the god of labor, and those who wish to serve all nine deities.

In practice, people have developed an attitude of opportunistic polytheism: they pray to the god who seems best able to help them with their situation. Practitioners are not really trying to get something for nothing. They just figure that helping people is part of a god’s job.