The colorful wagons of Gypsies are a common sight in the Old, although a not entirely welcome one. This itinerant people wander about in large extended families, living on the margins of society. On the surface they are very outgoing and flamboyant people, viewed as entertainers, or worse, rogues, thieves, scoundrels, and mountebanks. But despite this façade, they are an insular and secretive group, very jealous of keeping their culture safe from intrusion. Most of the Old Worlders know them as "gypsies" or the "Strigani", they however, call themselves the "Rom".

They Rom travel about as they will, showing an aversion for local authorities and local customs. Each band of Rom is usually a large extended family, although some groups may be two or more families. They move about in large covered wagons, or box-like wagons with walls and roofs made of wood. A few groups along the river travel along on riverboats. They usually encamp just outside of a community, setting up their brightly patterned tents. Although Old Worlders view these gypsies with alarm, the arrival of gypsies breaks the monotony of their everyday life. These gypsy encampments provide all manner of entertainment, and the Rom will often set up performances or organize a circus, which local townsfolk will flock to for the diversion. While staying in communities, they are fairly well behaved. The Rom are less concerned about maintaining good relations when passing through. A few smaller and more conservative gypsy bands are traveling artisans or handymen who look on their entertainer kindred as reckless children.

The People

The Rom have always lived a semi-nomadic existence, and they identify themselves as a people because of their dialect known as "Roma". The Roma-speaking people are believed by many scholars to have originated in the area between Kislev and the Empire, stretching all the way down to the Border Princes. This knowledge is disputed by some who claim that the Roma-speaking peoples came from a country in the far south near Araby. However as far as traditional scholars claim, at one time there was an area ruled over by the Rom south of the Border Princes, beyond the Skull River. As the Dwarven citadels gradually succumbed to goblinoids, the goblinoids poured forth from the World's Edge Mountains and scattered the Rom peoples about. It is this homeland that the Rom claim as their own, and speak one day of returning to their homeland. Today they roam from Kislev to Estalia. Intermarriage between the Rom clans have resulted in a huge and secret community that spreads between the countries. The compositions of these clans is always changing as Rom leave to marry, or bring in new spouses, or leave for months or years to visit relatives in other clans or just to travel about with some other group for a change. This constant interaction and marrying makes nearly all Rom groups closely related.

Each Rom community is led by a group of elders, although a capable and energetic male of middle-age is usually chosen to lead the everyday clan activities, and he is known as "Uncle" by everybody regardless of his real relationship. There is also the "Matriarch" of the clan, who is the center of Clan life and serves as the most important person in the clan, whose word has powerful influence on the elders and the "Uncle".

The Secret History of the Rom

The Rom originated from the area of Nehekhara in the fertile valley there but quickly moved beyond that region northwards, taking with them some of the dark secret knowledge that would prove the downfall of Nehekhara. From here this group of people, sharing a common language and traditions spread about, living a partly nomadic existence and intermarrying between families. Some wandered over the World's Edge mountains to the west that would later be known as the Far Side, but most stayed in the region known now as the Badlands and the Border Princes. A handful settled around an inland sea, and the fate that befell this group is both dark and terrible.

This area was constantly destabilized by an influx of refugees from the turmoil in Nehekhara, many of these immigrants people with dark histories and evil motives. Death cults formed amongst the communities of nomads and over time the traditions of many of the nomads became twisted to serve these evil intentions.

Those that had settled in the mountain valleys surrounding the inland sea were visited by a refugee from that area. Unbeknownst to the people living there, the water in the region was polluted, warping their minds and making them susceptible to the influence of darkness. Over time a great necromancer appeared in the region, to be worshipped as a god, and through ghastly ritual most of the populace became cannibals, devolving into ghouls. By the time the transformation was complete, the other nomads had severed all ties from their wretched kin.

For the other families of nomads to the west, settling down would prove their undoing. A close association of families known as the Lodringen settled a region whose capital was Morgheim. It was prophesied by the shaman of the Lodringen that this would be their empire. The Rom known as the Strigani of the Old World today are descendants of these ill-fated people. This shaman, known as Kadon created the Empire and ruled over it wielding great necromantic energies. Kadon wrote great and terrible necromantic tomes, and his prophesies were proven correct when his "god" appeared before him. When the great war against the Vampire infested city of Lahmia ended, the area around Morgheim was flooded by those fleeing this war, many of them fleeing with secret and blasphemous knowledge. One of these new immigrants was a great and powerful vampire, Ushoran, Lord of the Masks. He appeared before Kadon and proclaimed himself a god.

To honor the new living god, the area was renamed "Strigany" and the capital renamed Striga. Human necromancers led by Kadon united with the Empires on a war of expansion, for the Vampires, under edict from Ushoran chose not to feed upon their followers, but on prisoners of war. The other families fled the region in fear, never to return. Soon their empire spread. The union of living and dead resulted in a rebirth of necromantic knowledge and many necromantic tomes originated from this era. This constant campaign for captives to feed the dead proved their undoing. Spreading further and further from their region, they pushed into areas controlled by goblinoids. The goblinoids responded to this intrusion by invading en masse. The armies of Kadon were used to pursuing nomads about and were unprepared for the sheer savagery of the orcs and goblins. The land of Strigany was put to the torch and the final battle waged at the gates of Striga where Ushoran and his vampires were destroyed by the goblinoid forces. The people of Striga fled, many of them concealing vampires in their midst. The land was razed and became the Bad Lands, a place where almost no humans inhabit. Those people who fled became known as the Strigani. Ironically, they became rootless travelers like those they had pursued, and to this day, the Strigani still maintain a distinct identity.

The Strigani are the largest of the Rom clans. The term Strigani is used for those clans that fled the destruction of Strigany. The Rom is the overarching term used to describe all the nomadic people of the Old World. Traditionally this term meant those early migrants from Nehekhara, although now the term includes those other nomadic peoples such as the Dolgans and others who through marriage are now related to the Rom.

Distinctions among the Rom

Anyone who is considered Rom is a person who speaks the Rom dialect of Old Worlder. This dialect is the most distant of all the dialects, having linguistic survivals of the old Nehekhara language, loan words from other Old Worlder dialects, and words and phrases from non-Old World languages, such as the Dolgan tongue, a linguistic cousin to the language spoken by the Ungols of Cathay. Even within the dialect there are dramatic differences, for example the Rom of the Irrana mountains speak a different Rom dialect than those roaming in Kislev. However with a bit of patience both groups can communicate.

There are not just linguistic differences, there are broad cultural differences, and the Rom of each area tend to adopt some cultural elements of their host culture. Clothing, sport, and cooking can vary from region to region, and differences vary between those Rom who take to the waterways and those who travel traditionally by wagon caravan.

The greatest differences though are historical. The close-knit collection of clans known as the Strigani are avoided by nearly all the other Rom clans due to their dark history and their ancient wars for prisoners against the other clans. While the Strigani are still feared, they are accepted as Rom, and even despite old animosities, a fellow Rom clan is still a part of the Rom, and in this world the Rom must stick together. Loyalties to the Rom are paramount in the face of perpetual persecution that the Rom must suffer.

The Strigani have made great efforts to come to remedy ancient wrongs, and now the Strigani are known for their great power and influence. Their magical abilities are superior to all other clans and their seers are known as the most effective at divining the future. It is reputed that if a secret has been whispered anywhere in the world, that the wind itself betrays that confidence by carrying those whispers to the ear of a Strigani witch or warlock. When a clan is in trouble, they often turn to the Strigani for assistance, both magical and spiritual. Due to their dark history, the Stirgany are privy to all sorts of knowledge, and they know how to both invoke and dispel curses. Some whisper that the more secretive clans within the Strigani still serve their vampiric overlords, although the Strigani clans vehemently deny these claims. The Strigani dream one day of returning to their homeland, although no serious attempt has been made to resettle there.

The Rom of Estalia are quite sedentary, rarely leaving the borders of Estalia. These Rom have over the centuries interacted with the Estalian mountain clans and now act as traders throughout the region, relying upon their large kin networks to distribute goods and capitals. During the Crusades against Araby, many of the defeated Arabians fled into the highlands and were absorbed into Rom clans there and their language and traditions have borrowed many aspects of the culture of Araby. This adoption of foreign customs has often resulted in religious persecution of the Rom in Estalia.

The Rom of Bretonnia, the Empire, and Tilea all interact and it is not uncommon for them to emigrate from one region to another over a few years. All these clans are closely interrelated and constantly interact with one another. In this way, information and rumors pass quickly through the communities and the Rom often have an excellent idea of what is going on in other parts of the Old World. Most of these groups travel broadly offering services. Some work as groups of pedlars, others work as entertainers or as traveling circuses. Those who ply the rivers often act as legitimate mercantile concerns and among the most accepted of the Rom people's in the Old World. Although they are viewed with suspicion, they are less persecuted than in Estalia. However violence between communities and the Rom are not unknown or infrequent. In the area of the Empire known as Sylvania, the Rom have a particularly dark reputation, and it is said that most Rom families avoid those that call Sylvania their home.

The Rom of Kislev have close associations with the Dolgans of Kislev and other nomadic peoples. For centuries the Rom have been tied by mutual interests and experiences with these people and marriages between the groups are common. The Rom often travel alongside these groups, and the Rom in Kislev rely less upon wagons and more upon horses. In Kislev many of the Rom have taken up herding alongside the Dolgans, an uncommon practice among the Rom. The Rom are generally outside the tyrannical laws that rule the peasantry in Kislev and as a consequence the nobility of Kislev have great animosity towards the Rom, this has often resulted in persecutions and even massacres. Their close associations with the nomadic peoples to the east do little to improve relations. Still despite the dangers the Rom still wander about Kislev, although they are among the more insular of clans.
The Rom of the Border Princes see themselves as the inheritors of Rom tradition. Their close proximity to their lands south of the Border Princes and their relative freedom in the region allows them to practice their way of life with little interference. The Rom of the Border Princes view themselves as superior to their kindred throughout the world, an attitude that sometimes causes animosity between the Rom of the Border Princes and their kin elsewhere.