For reasons not known to most people, Rhyrgia has always been the country where the birth rate of Gifted children was much lower than anywhere else in the known World, which made the country not only very different in its social structure from the “true” magocracies farther in the south and also made the country a playground for smaller intrigues. For centuries, Rhyrghia was a backwater country, its people the butt of jokes for the more powerful city states in the south and east. Rhyrghia was the country of smelly dirt farmers, delusional warlords, and hedge mages who have troubles to invoke a magic light. More importantly, Rhyrghia re-mained a country where religious beliefs stayed common while they became stigmatized in the South; while this underlined the superstitious backwater reputation of the country in ma-gocratic times, the druids who form the clergy class have maintained a long-standing tradition and a vast collection of knowledge, which may even match the collective scriptures of the magocratic rulers elsewhere. In addition, no other country has mastered the transition from the magocratic age to the Dark Golden Age nearly as well as Rhyrgia, and the former backwater country has become the sleeping giant of Gondal.

Rhyrghia is a kingdom, ruled by the high king, but the feudal structure of the country has prevented a strong central power while the local nobles have strong influences at least in their home domains. This is underlined in the fact, that the king and his court has no permanent residence but travels from one palatinate to the next one. For these reasons, many people would argue that the druid cult is the true power in the country and rule it behind the coulisses – and probably more efficient than the aristocracy might rule anyway. The more powerful nobles usually have druid counselors and rumors of a “druid conspiracy” which plans to take over the rule of the country are prevalent.

The vast majority of the Rhyrghian population are simple farmers, and there are few larger settlements, or even towns. The country has not a very high population density, and most Rhyrgians live in small villages or rural towns. The rest of the country is covered with thick, dark forrests, but the wild of Rhyrghia lacks many of the larger monsters which are an inheritance of the magocracy. This makes the Rhyrgian wilderness a lot more feasible since most of the wildlife consist of natural creatures, who are neither as dangerous nor as aggressive as the magical beasts which were formed in the laboratories of vivisectionist mages.

Rhyrghians are the humans with the lightest skin and fairest hair in the known world. They are of average height and stature, and are often described with the moniker “white Rhyrghians” or “Pale Rhyrghians”. In clothes, Rhyrghians have not the resource of bright colors which are common in the south, and therefore, Rhyrghian clothes are often more drab and bland, but woven patterns of differently colored wool are very common.

Druidism is the state religion in Rhyrghia, and very common among all classes of society. The druids are often seen as the true rulers of the land, and the high king has to be acknowledged both by the nobility and the druids – and most of the Rhyrgian high kings were educated druids as well.

Generally, Rhyrghia is almost completely inhabited by humans, just because there were never a larger population of Beastfolk to start with. The second largest population are the daimonid type of the Psitaco, tall blue-skinned humanoids with glowing white eyes, and who form a solid and stable paralell society in Rhyrgia. Unlike the beastfolk in the South, the daimonidsare usually not second-class citizen or subjugated minorities in Rhyrghia, but more an alternative society of their own.

While the majority of the human population that usually stays in one place for their whole lifetime, the Rhyrghian daimonids are semi-nomadic travelers and in this function they not only took over the trade within the country, but also the information network. Their messengers and heralds are a common stereotype in the Rhyrghian society. Despite their undisputable qualities in this area, the Psitaco are not inclined heavily in the armed forces of many local aristocrats. The more militant of the daimonids have long left the country, either as mercenaries in the Thurian wars against the rebels in their marks, orto find a place in Sascria.

Other non-humans or beastfolk are both very rare, but there is a true demon enclave in the Calbaken Mines keeps up a friendly relationship to many nobles and the more important or-cish families in the country. The demons from this mine also send out a personal bodyguard for the high king of Rhyrghia and rumors about a ‘Shadow War’ between the Calbaken miners and the druids are as persistent as those of the druid conspiracy.

Rhyrghia is a very poor country, and the land is not very fertile, either. Apart from farming and animal husbandry, there is only very little industry or crafts. Rich natural resources are rare, and even the few sources that are in the country are often not achievable, since the powerful druid cult opposes the expansion of the infrastructure into the wild for exploiting these sources. The climate is cold, and the winters are long and hard.

Rhyrgian soldiers can usually not afford heavy armor, and even chainmail is usually only worn by the nobility and their most important retainers. Often, metal armor is treated as a mixture of highly priced equipment and a folly - it might protect you from arrow and sword, but it will never protect you from the wind or the cold, and in Rhyrgia, these two are more dangerous.