Meniards

Meniards are the human people of Medland, the largest and most powerful/influential country on the western mainland. The Meniard language has become widely spoken across the region, and is often just referred to as Common.

Meniard

Meniards believe that in ancient times the first emperor, Guldrex, made a pact with certain gods; in exchange for their worship as the state gods of Medland, the emperor's subjects would not be subject to the natural chain of being but instead go to a special afterworld after death, a place ordered much like the Meddish state. Meniards believe that they will be punished in death for laws they break in life.

You can't "escape" the Meniard afterlife; it's like a curse placed on the original subjects and their descendants. Non-Meniards who live in Medland aren't subject to it, but Meniard communities who have lived outside Medland for centuries still would be.

Some Meniards, resenting the concept of a toil-filled afterlife exactly as bad as being alive, instead follow Landus, who is said to have broken free from Guldrex's pact and escaped this afterworld, but little is known about the practices of this secretive, persecuted group.

Meniards consider extended family and lineage very important. Most Mediards have three names - a first name, a family name, and a "house" name, marking the family from the time of Guldrex that you're patrilineally descended from. Since there aren't any new original families, the tendency of names to die out over time means that there are relatively few house names - only a hundred or so in common use. It's said that in death, you'll be placed with your house; the idea of not bringing shame to your house is very important, even though these houses are impossibly huge, impersonal entities at this point.

Most Meniards have sort of a soft, round, balding look, like Oblivion-era bosmer.


 * and Kaskareau - ("Nameless Ones"
 * and Kaskareau - ("Nameless Ones"

Sweccians of Sweccia