The first humans to settle in this region of Alair, it is now not clear if the Northmen came over the eastern or northern mountains, but they settled quietly enough in the plains north of Sildor, and the dwarves saw no real reason to bring them to the attention of the Elves.Many independent kingdoms arose and fell in the North before the stabler nations emerged, setting a pattern that remained until the coming of the Dragon. Once the Elves realized they had neighbors, they traded with the Northmen, and, until the later days and the war with Tellare, had far better relations with them than they had with the southern humans.
Northmen are tall and strong for the most part, with brown, fair or red hair and pale or ruddy skins. They speak their own language, a remnant of the one they brought over the mountains.
Northman Culture tends to be based around kings ruling a hereditary nobility, with a peasant class underneath holding the whole thing up. In some cases a yeoman class exists in between, and merchants fit uneasily into the pattern somewhere in the middle.
Under the Dragon, Northman culture was radically altered. Varkar's Lizard elite were installed as an officer class in the military, and all towns and cities were brought under lizard control, reporting up to imposed Kin governers. Humans, relegated to second-class citizenry, were forbidden to carry any form of weaponry unless serving in the Dragonarmies. Life was regimented, and generally harsh, though variations between territories were common as each Kin governer established his personal style. By the time the Dragonslayers arrived in Alair, Northman humans had had nearly five generations to become accustomed to life under the Claw, and had almost forgotten the freedom and independence their ancestors had enjoyed. No longer known by the nationalities of old, all were officially Dragonfolk, part of the Dark Beast's Empire.
Since the Dragonslaying, groups of Northmen have sought indepencce in various ways. Some have moved to refound the nations of old; some have created new countries; some have remained in service to their Kin governers, willingly or otherwise, where these have retained control after the removal of their ultimate leadership. And some have turned in on themselves, becoming bandits or robbers, raiding their more civilized neighbors and with their hands turned against everyone.
Over the centuries after the Slaying, the North Kingdoms expanded to fill almost the entire North, with Northmen the majority population mixed with slightly more Lizardmen and dwarves than before. The fall of Tarlanor and invasions of dragons reduced their numbers in the northern lands, but the real blow was the onslaught of the Elf Death.
More than half the Northmen alive died in the plague, and their lands shrank back to what the survivors could hold. Great tracts of the North are once more wilderness.