The Rumor Mill - Week 1

Everyone can use a few rumors to spice things up and add some cultural color, so I'll gather 8 of them every week and try to theme them together. That should give me over 400 rumors by the end of the year, if I keep up with it every week. I think it's a really easy lift for me to crank out an 8-rumor table weekly on a Sunday, and it'll technically cover any gaps since I'm writing 8 tiny things every 7 days. Win!

Now to see if anyone produces a d52 so I can hook all of these together...

Let's start with eight mostly-wrong rumors about other cultures you can hear on the streets of Fellport.

1d8	Rumor	True?
1	The elves of Alfinwald consider human flesh a delicacy.	No1
2	Fellport lets the rich get away with murder. They say, "Justice has an open hand."	Maybe2
3	The Barbary Coast contains nothing but savagery: orcs, pirates, and brigands.	No3
4	Mountain dwarves and giants hate each other, a legacy of numerous wars.	Maybe4
5	The Okulari traditionally train archers, mounted scouts, and merchants.	Yes5
6	The clans of Dunhill grow restless. Beware of a third Unification War.	No6
7	The Nelendi Kingdom is just a few water-breathing elves acting powerful.	No7
8	The Ionian Republic attacks Fellport because Ionians hate non-humans.	No8

1 - The forest contains critters that will eat you, just not elves. Eating the flesh of sentient beings is generally frowned upon.
2 - In Fellport, many imprisonment penalties can change to a simple fine. The proverbial open hand refers to mercy, not grift.
3 - Many orcs live on the Barbary coast, but only a small percentage of the population live by raiding and stealing.
4 - Many dwarves still hold a grudge against all giants, but stone giants are fairly common, and make great mercenary miners.
5 - Solo merchants who become horse raider rogues with bow and cutlass are still a mythical Okulari cultural ideal.
6 - Sure, some clans hate each other and fight, but the Dunhill Confederacy now self-balances so a full war isn't likely.
7 - Several underwater cities with thousands of water-breathing inhabitants is a hoax? Humans just love a conspiracy theory.
8 - Ionia still has racial prejudice, sure, but it wants Fellport back because it has the biggest harbor around. Follow the gold.

Part of T.W.Wombat's Lore 24 project, detailing the world around Fellport.
For all city posts, see the Fellport Index. For posts about the wider world, see the Beneterra Index.