Parthanul is a small village that gets its name by corruption from the Thergerim "Pratheron" (Pratheron, reunion/meeting) and "Anul" (Anul, water), literally meaning "meeting of waters", doubtless referring to the Mashdai River that meets the Adanian Seacost, where the village is located. With barely one hundred inhabitants (of Avennorian origin) the village has strong dwarven influence (hence the name) due to the active trade with dwarves in a nearby settlement to the north. Living mainly on the sea catch and trading everything else the people need for a living, Parthanul is a typical Manthrian fishing village.

Description. The majority of the houses in Parthanul are crude cottages, made of stone and some wood, with roofs made of dried reeds on a wooden structure. As wood is not exactly abundant in that region, these houses are built on a single row, in order to take advantage of some of the existing walls. These shacks have few divisions and scarce furniture. They all have a front yard in which nets are mended and fishing items are seen. A couple of prosperous fishermen/traders have, however, better dwellings, made of stone brought all the way from the Mithral Mountains up north.

The village itself is small: apart from the habitations, there's only one common building located just in front of the harbour: a storage place where fishermen keep their nets and other utensils, and smoke their fish. It has a weather vane in its top. The harbour and the centre of the village are located in the exact spot where the Mashdai River meets the sea; equidistant from both, inhabitants can easily access both their fishing boats – to fish on the ocean – and the drinkable water a bit up in the River.

Water dominates the landscape, as well as mountains; there’s few vegetation or arable terrain. Just outside the village on the north side there’s rocky terrain, with small reentrances/niches that are used to store dried, smoked or salted fish. This terrain also serves the purpose of drying the reeds collected. A common sight in the small beach are the long rows of recently caught fish being salted, or drying in the sun.

Parthanul is the last stopping place to the ships that came from Marcogg, supplying them here and providing the village with small trade. It’s worth mentioning that this village is relatively recent.

Location. Located on the Santharian province of Manthria, in the Adanian Seacost, the village of Parthanul is framed on the East by the Adanian Sea, on the North by the Mithral Mountains and on the South by the Mashdai River. To the West lies Marcogg, to the North the dwarven settlement of Tyr Ethran and the village of Nepris.

Climate. Though there are a few remarkable storms in this town during the winter (normally due to the different wind fronts: the cold wind from the sea shocks with a warm front from the land), being so close to the sea balances the temperature during the year. Neither too cold nor too hot, one can say that overall it is a sunny coast.

People. The inhabitants of Parthanul are the typical Avennorians. Being so, they have quite different physical descriptions (they can be blonde or brunettes, generally with blue eyes and white skin tones), but in this village there appears to be a majority of people with dark brown hair and eyes and a skin tone a bit darker than white. But then, as any other fisher folk, they have their skin tanned by the sun. These characteristics are not a general rule, though when a child is born with lighter hair or eyes, some bad-taste jokes about the mother are said.

The inhabitants come from different places. They are a mixed lot, including settlers from Marcogg, travellers from Nepris and other folk from the local province that found it a good place for a harbour, due to its strategic location. As the places from where the inhabitants came had good trading relations with the dwarves, so this village has had an active trade with the dwarves since its foundation, more than with Marcogg, because they considered the dwarves more honest in their bargaining. First directly with Tyr Ethran, and later with a local tradepost where the dwarves preferred to trade, local folk have, in fact, been strongly influenced by the dwarves in several aspects of their lifes. The name of the village; their language, though Tharian at its core, has some Thergerim vocabulary (mainly related to trade - numbers, units of measure, currency); some of the fishermen have had their beard grown considerably. Both men and women pay a devote attention to beer – drinking it not only at lunch and dinner but also quite early in the morning. Fortunately they were not influenced by the dwarves’ low affinity for water.

Being the typical Avennorians the people of Parthanul are quite fond of their wealth; so trade plays an important role in Parthanul – trade with both Marcogg and the dwarves, supplying them sea delicacies and items such as shells.

The idea that first led the settlers to this point proved successful – in ten or twenty generations Parthanul became a somewhat prosperous village, featuring about 350 inhabitants. Unfortunately, Parthanulians had their source for fresh water up in the River Mahdai. They did not think that farther up in the River the town of Marcogg threw away their garbage and dejects on that same river. So, as time passed by, Marcogg grew and their residues increased – which began to affect Parthanul. As the families had the habit of sharing the same plate, the same food, soon dysentery, diarrhea and similar diseases spread through the whole community, greatly reducing it. The scarce 50 people left had to find another water source; they used the Raven River, farther north.
 
The prosperous village had to start all its economy from the beginning; it stills bears the marks of that shock. The inhabitants did not yet recovered completely – there are few more than 100 people currently. At this time, however, it has been experimented planting common water reeds in the river Mashdai after Marcogg in an attempt to cleanse the water, and some results are already noticeable.

The village is neither patriarchal nor matriarchal; both men and women share their responsibilities and neither thinks superior to the other – though mostly men occupy themselves with the rough life of sailing into the ocean in search for shoals of fish, a few women also do the job. Repairing nets, smoking, drying or salting and selling fish is left for the women who prefer to stay in land and sometimes the children, or the elderly. Trading is done usually by women – and if a buyer from another town thinks that he’ll get a good bargain because he’s dealing with a woman, they can be quite surprised – women of Parthanul are exceptional sellers and quite persuasive.

Clothing. Parthanul people do not use any remarkable clothing – they prefer dressing in a practical fashion, both genders. Except for specific ocasions they do not have any special dress. The few women that help the men in catching their fish are often seen in trousers, and they do not feel less women because of that.

Resources. Though the major part of the resources of this village comes from the sea or the river, Parthanul benefits of some rock from the mountains nearby and little arable terrain.

Fauna. Small mammals as rats and amphibious animals that provide neither trade nor food are found in this region. Most of the fauna, though, comes from the sea: several varieties of fish (as bonehead and evoor) and crustaceans, namely oysters and trysters. 

Flora. Mostly reeds and water plants (chitt, lifereed, yealm reed) but here is also found the medicinal herb arv, that only grows on coastal regions.

Production/Trade. Literally everything that comes from the sea is used – all fishes are either dried or smoked or salted, except the evoor, which is not used for food but to provide oil for lamps, and then used as a fertiliser for the small and primitive agriculture practised in Parthanul or as bait for other fish. Oysters are captured in large quantities, and though they’re not sold because there’s no market for them, they are largely eaten and their shells used to decorate houses or make some small gifts. Their cousins, trysters, on the other side, are considered a delicacy and though rarer than oysters, Parthanul provides a good quantity of them. They are not so much eaten as they are sold, however, as they present more profit that way.

From the reed gathered, chitt and yealm reed (common water reed) are used in the roofs and other items as clothes and other durable objects. Lifereed is also used in roofs, and their fruit stored. When treated by the salt water of the ocean, they’re quite rigid, and used to construct small walls to mend something.

It is very rare to find here any pearl, and that is a desire of every person. When anyone finds one, they prefer to keep it instead of selling it, though it would render good money. They believe that a pearl is a gift from Baveras herself.

Parthanul consumes little of all these things; the excess is sold. Fish, trysters and some varieties of reeds are sold to Marcogg, as well as some small items made with shells - selling usually takes place on the third day of the week, which is Marcogg's market day; lifereed and some parts of the crustaceans are sold to the dwarves of Tyr Ethran. It is very common that this trade is not the usual item-money exchange, but rather exchanging seafood with other types of food, and drinks (especially beer).

Government. Every year is elected one Master of the Harbour – usually a fisherman past his days of sailing, experienced on the ways of life, a very charismatic person. People turn to him to hear his advice in everything, from a trade issue to his opinion on the weather; he also blesses any marriage or birthday and has always something to say in a funeral.

Image description. The Giant Kraken of Parthanul. Picture drawn by Quellion.

Myth/Lore. As every other fishing village, Parthanul is specially devoted to Baveras, the Goddess of the Sea. They do not hide this; in every house prayers are held before each meal and there’s some item representing her – an especially beautiful shell, for instance. There is also a prayer before each boat leaves; and it is believed that seeing a dolphune (which are believed to be Baveras’ close friends) is a good omen for that catch.
 
One particular legend concerns the foundation of the village. It is said that when the first settlers arrived to found Parthanul, folk from the countryside, not used to the ways of sea life, they forgot one very important thing - to honour Baveras and thank her for the fish that was the basis of their lives. Angry, she ordered a Giant Kraken to frighten them and shoo them away. It was impossible to live there - that was their punishment. After sometime, when settlers from other places near the sea, which properly revered Baveras, tried to move there, the Goddess of the Sea felt more appeased and let them live there. The Giant Kraken was found dead on the beach, and people felt their prayers were answered. Though this is a myth and may not be relied upon as real facts, one point is true - the finding of a Giant Kraken. Probably killed by other reason other than Baveras’ benevolence, what is certain is that one of the rare and enormous seamonsters was found lying dead on Parthanul's beach. - Other than this, Parthanulians are very eccletic people in what concerns religion.

History. Though there are not any remarkable events to tell about the Parthanul village, as it is a quite recent village, there are some happenings worth telling that are taken in high esteem by the Parthanulians.

The founding of the village is not known for sure, being related as a legend concerning a Giant Kraken (see Myth/Lore). This being a real fact, however, it was assumed that the date of the foundation of Parthanul coincides with the date of the finding of the Giant Kraken carcass (about the beggining of the tenth century), though there probably already lived some people.

TIME TABLE OF THE FISHING VILLAGE OF PARTHANUL THE ERA OF THE SOUTHERN WARS (YEARS 825 A.S. - 1.062 A.S.) 905 Foundation of Parthanul The finding of a Giant Kraken's carcass is considered the foundation of the village of Parthanul, according to its local stories. Dwarves, who traded with this village since its debut, account favourably for this date.    1.025 The Storm of Three Nights This storm is named so by the inhabitants of the village of Nepris up north, where the storm is felt more violently, killing many. Though with less intensity, the remarkable storm damages Parthanul too, ruining some of the buildings. THE AGE OF DISCOVERY (YEARS 1.144 A.S. - 1.440 A.S.) 1.360 to 1.510 Disease strikes the Village There are no precise dates for this happening. Due to pollution in its water source, diseases as diarrhea or dysentery reap the prosperous population, currently greatly reduced and still suffering effects from this.

	"Theme of Parthanul", composed and performed by Ralrok Format: MP3, Length: 4:38, original Santharian work. Click here to download the song, use right-click and "Save as..." (4.26 MB)