Aureates

“If I gotta have someone at my back, it better be an Aureate - they’ll push me on, keep me from falling, and never steal my gold without haggling.” - Grimwald Sternshield, Warrior of Renown

Locations
High Lakes, Plethora, various

Typical Physical Attributes
With trade came foreigners, whom the Aureates embraced according to their financial worth. Alongside goods and services there was much exchanging of cultures and bloodlines, making the Aureates cosmopolitan in custom and varied in appearance.

Prevailing values
Aureates are a cosmopolitan people who prize community and commerce, their culture measuring prosperity by the flow of one’s goods and services, not by how much one owns. A good trade is one where everybody wins, and this has given them a solid reputation for honesty in their dealings. By their logic, anything that isn’t actively used is wasted, and therefore it’s better to trade such things even at a modest price. This has made them quick to adapt to changing situations and varied company, and are therefore welcome in all sorts of groups.

Aesthetics
Public works of art and architecture of both great elegance and magnificence. Cloth-of-gold, rich embroidery, brocades and silks.

History
Aureates are Humans descended from Enkindlers who settled in the High Rivers delta back in the Second Age. The original colonists were driven by greed and profit, which drove them to spread ever further upstream in search of riches. It wasn’t long before the trading post of Plethora had become a prosperous city through which the wealth of the northern world flowed.

The merchant houses of Plethora grew in wealth and power, and there was a time when their greed threatened to consume everything, gathering wealth for its own sake. From among the ranks these factions rose Kullas, a merchant who defied expectations. No one could compete with the business acumen of this plain-robed merchant, and no one controlled as much trade, yet no one was as honest and humble as Kullas. “Wealth is that which you contribute, not that which you hold. Anyone can own more than they need, but that only weighs you down. Would you rather stretch your pockets with heavy things than simply buy it from someone when you need it?”