Gur

The Gurs, also known as Selûne's Children or the people of the highway, were a nomadic human people who traveled throughout the Western Heartlands, although a few settled in some of the poorer sections of cities such as Baldur's Gate, Elturel, and Iriaebor.

Description
Like their Rashemi kin, Gurs were typically a stout, strong, and sturdy people, with thick black hair, dark eyes, and dusky skin.

Society & Culture
The Gurs were arranged by large extended families. A nomadic people, they traveled from settlement to settlement in assorted caravans, picking up random jobs and selling or trading any unwanted goods. Some found work as soothsayers and diviners. Those few who settled in cities struggled to survive in their poorer quarters. Gur culture placed a high value on honor, but they suffered long-standing prejudices from other folk.

Religion & Magic
The Gurs mainly followed Selûne the Moonmaiden, goddess of wanderers and navigation.

However, some Gurs of prophetic bent were also known to worship Savras, Lord of Divination, with a faith secretive to outsiders. This likely explained the survival of his faith during his long period of imprisonment. Thus Gurs were often gifted oracles and known for their talent in soothsaying and divining. Like their Rashemi kin, some Gurs possessed "the Sight", an unreliable gift for glimpses of the past and snatches of history.

Language
Within their own tribes, the Gurs spoke Gurri, a patois or creole tongue with roots in the Imaskari languages, but with influence from many other tongues, many thought long-dead—in particular, Halardrim, an ancient dialect of the Rashemi language. The Gurs used the Thorass alphabet. They were also proficient in Chondathan, which they used when communicating with those outside their culture.

Population
Gurs made up only about 1% of the human population of the Western Heartlands, but this was perhaps their greatest population in Faerûn.

History
The Gurs were believed by scholars to be mainly of Rashemi descent, owing to their strong similarity with the natives of Rashemen. They were also likely to have acquired ancestry among other ethnicities on their travels. Fragments of lore originating from the period around the first-century Dale Reckoning could be found that described the Gurs as a group of nomads. What was known of the early Gurs suggested that they were refugees fleeing the long-ago war between Raumathar and Narfell.

The Gurs were well known in the Western Heartlands of Faerûn by the 14th century DR.

Notable Gurs

 * Therin, a thief and strongman of Pinch's gang.

Background
The Gurs are explicitly inspired by the Roma people, commonly called "gypsies".

Appearances

 * The Nobles, Book One: King Pinch
 * Races of Faerûn, page 106