Fog People

Descendants of those who vanished into the fog. They appeared after the Shrouding lifted, like ghosts given flesh. Many outside their ranks doubt they exist. They have no common identity beyond the rituals they follow — habits they never learned, that they perform their whole lives without knowing why. The fog shaped them, but the shape remains unseen.

What they say about "The Shrouding"

The story they tell children

What adults believe is true

What they think the Fog People are

The one detail that is actually true

Society

Structure

The Fog People have no hierarchy, no territory, no fixed society. They exist as a loose network, bound not by laws or leaders but by an unexplained draw toward one another — a pull they feel but cannot name. Groups form and dissolve. Individuals travel alone for months or years, then find themselves walking in the same direction as others without having planned it. There is no word for "stranger" among them, because no Fog Person is ever truly unknown to another.

On leadership

There are no leaders. The Fog People do not seek authority over others, and would not follow it if offered. When a decision must be made that involves several of them, they talk until a path emerges or the group parts ways. No one commands. No one obeys.

Daily life

Every Fog Person follows rituals — habits they never learned and cannot explain. Some are daily: arranging stones in a certain order before sleep, tracing a pattern on their palm at dawn. Others respond to surroundings, weather, or the season: standing still when the wind shifts, refusing to cross running water after dark, humming a specific tone under a full moon. Each individual has their own set, acquired at emergence or birth. They perform them their whole lives without knowing why. The rituals are not religion, not tradition — they are simply what Fog People do, as natural as breathing.

Gathering

The Fog People do not build cities. They have seasonal gathering sites — ruins, clearings, sheltered valleys — where they meet in larger numbers for a short time. These gatherings are not markets or councils. They are simply a place to be together, to perform shared rituals whose meaning no one remembers, and to disperse again. The largest known gathering site is a hidden valley called Whisper-Hollow, used once every seven years. No one knows who decided this interval.

The question they carry

Every Fog Person carries a silence at their core. They do not know where they came from, why they have their rituals, or what the fog intended. They sense there is an answer — buried, inaccessible, waiting. They do not speak of it, but it is always there: the question that has no shape, only weight.

Attitudes toward other folks

Naming conventions

Given names

Mer, Vesper, Solace, Drift, Pale, Wren, Hush, Still, Echo, Grey

Surnames / epithets

Fog People do not use family names. They are known by a single name and sometimes a drift-name. Examples: Mer-of-the-West-Wind, Vesper-Who-Sees-Behind

Typical character concepts