Gypsies



The Gypsy folk are the most resolutely nomadic people in all of Ortosis. Having originated along the warm, southern coasts of Mardion and The Vard Lands, the Gypsy folk have been travellers since they broke free of their Southern cousins’ wretched city ways. Nowadays they are often mistrusted, ridiculed as homeless wanderers and blamed as bringers of misfortune and disease - but the Gypsies do not mind. They love their freedom and accept the abuse stoically.

In a curious twist of fate, the Gypsy people cannot bear the children of the other human races - only amongst themselves and the Elvish people can the Gypsies breed. No one is certain as to why this is the case, but it has long been said that Gypsies are more closely related to Elves than Humans. Due to this, Gypsies are a pure race, who sport only black hair, gently tanned skin and bright, curiously purple eyes. Rare it is that a Gypsy would reach six foot in height, or even the upper end of five feet - they are a short, lithely built people with an unmeasurable grace.

The Gypsies usually travel in their family groups, meeting several times a year with the other families in the region. Their portable shelters consist of caravans and tents in brightly painted colours, usually red and blue and purple. Each encampment has a main tent where the family gathers for meals and singing, and several individual caravans for sleeping. Most family group has also a trading caravan, stocked entirely with things to trade and sell each time they pass a town or city.

Gypsies are beautiful, graceful people who make excellent dancers and bards. They are also skilled fighters, with their sharp reflexes and lithe forms making them brilliant with sabres or daggers. Those born with an affinity to magic usually only take it on as a novelty, using illusions to enhance their story-telling or to make them invisible when required.