Setting generation questions. All brainstorming; feel free to say no, of course.
1. Tell me something about the Kingdom - the royal family, the capitol city, the treatment of the minorities, the architecture. Something like that. Whatever takes your fancy.
The current king is very old, more than 100 years old, some say, which is ancient for a human. He is still healthy and energetic, though, which has led some people to speculate in whispers that he may be prolonging his life unnaturally. He has several children who are themselves growing old, and dozens of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He was well-liked in his youth, but has grown stricter in recent years, and less willing to listen to counsel.
2. Tell me something about Horak-krel or grell society in general.
Most races of Hella bury their dead. Humans have funerals and tombs as elaborate and ornate as their means permit, usually on holy ground. Whar prefer to be buried in deep caves or under massive stone cairns. Darinjhar deal with their dead in private, and no one can say for sure what they do with them, though lurid stories abound. Nikoba and Grell, though, who live mostly in the countryside far away from cities, always burn their dead. Some say it's to prevent disease and keep wild animals from gaining a taste for humanoid flesh, but there are older, darker stories, too, about what can happen to unburnt bodies. At Nikoba funerals, the mourners light a pyre at sunset, and feast and drink toasts to the deceased until the fire of their cremation is completely cold, and sometimes the mourners will throw extra logs on the fire if they wish to show their affection for the deceased. Grell funerals, in contrast, are conducted in complete silence. When the pyre is lit, those who were particularly close to the deceased sometimes express their grief by scarring themselves.
3. Tell me something about your character's Fall.
Assaq is from a poor fell, led by an old grell named Beteq. When Assaq was young, Beteq's fell endured a number of years of hard times. Despite help from other fells, debt, poor harvests and sickness sent some to an early pyre, and others to seek their fortune elsewhere in the world, both of which weakened the fell further. Among those who died were Assaq's parents. Now, Beteq's fell is doing better, thanks partly to Assaq's hunting and bowmaking, but mostly to the general improvements in the village's fortunes caused by the influence of the shamen.