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POPULATION
The population of the city of Riva is about 100,000; another half
million or so in villages and on farmsteads.
RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES
Temple of Belar in the city of Riva
Religious observances standard Alorn (See Cherek)
Honor is also paid to Aldur
Religion: see Cherek
MAJOR HOLIDAYS
Erastide - The world's birthday.- a week-long celebration in
midwinter.
Riva's Birthday - Early summer - Patriotic rededication to the
defense of the Orb.
Gorek's Day - Or a day of national mourning over the death of Gorek
the Wise - early September.
Festival of Belar - Spring. A religious holiday. Feasting, some drinking.
Brand's Day - Celebration of the victory at the Battle of Vo Mimbre.
Military games. Midsummer.
Cherek
Cherek is a mountainous peninsula on the northwest coast,
extending northward to the polar ice. With the exception of the valley of
the Alorn River and the fertile basin south of Val Alorn, Cherek is
too mountainous to be arable. There is some fishery in the Gulf of
Cherek, and fairly extensive mineral deposits in the mountains
iron, copper, gold, silver, tin, certain gem-stones. The capital city at
Val Alorn is a town of some 40,000, walled, stone-constructed, with
narrow streets and high-pitched roofs.
THE PEOPLE
The Chereks are, of course, the elemental, archetypal Alorns. They
are a noisy, boisterous, hard-drinking, rowdy race with little
reverence for proprieties and little patience for subtlety. They are master
ship-builders and superb seamen, but unfortunately have always
had little taste for honest commerce, preferring piracy on the high
seas to legitimate trade. It has been observed that frequently even
the most stable merchant among the Chereks will fall back upon this
predilection when the opportunity presents itself, and Tolnedran
vessels are therefore always wary when meeting'a Cherek vessel at
sea.
Perhaps because their stock is more undiluted than that of their
cousins in Drasnia and Algaria, the Chereks are a taller, somewhat
blonder people. Their social structure is clannish, but the clans all
pay homage to the Throne at Val Alorn. Such feuds and disputes as
periodically erupt are either settled by the King or decided in
ritualized single combat.