Kharolians

When most outsiders think of Kharolis, they think of
the Lordcity of Tarsis, though this betrays an ignorance
of the region’s long and diverse history. Kharolis extends
west of Tarsis to the Southern Sirrion Sea; Tarsis proper,
the heavily forested lands to the south of the Kharolis
Mountains, is sparsely populated by humans, but the
lands further west and beneath Qualinesti are home to
thousands of people living a fairly rustic existence in
woodland villages and seaside fishing towns. There were
larger towns there once, though the Cataclysm and years
of war with Ergoth wiped many of them off the map. A
majority of ethnic Kharolians makes up a good percentage
of the populations of Abanasinia and southern Solamnia
and Lemish. However, in Tarsis, the ability to trace one’s
bloodline back a hundred generations is an affirmation of
the importance of a pure Kharolian heritage, and no one in
the region will ever admit to sharing this heritage with the
rest of the continent.
Kharolians are light-skinned, slender, and dark-haired
people, with a fondness for bright colors, jewelry, and, in
Tarsis, masks. Kharolians with blond hair or blue eyes are
mixed-race descendants of the Highlanders of Icereach
and typically occupy a lower rung in society. Half-elves are
quite common in the rural areas and woodlands, and many
of the villagers and townsfolk of Kharolis betray some
elven ancestry in their facial features. These people will
generally avoid the Lordcity for fear of being accused of
racial impropriety, which never reaches the level of bigotry
but remains a cause of much social awkwardness. Some
sages outside of Kharolis will point out most Kharolians,
even the purebred nobles of Tarsis, have elven blood; they
have merely chosen to ignore the signs.