* Going about visibly unarmed and unarmored gives you a -8 penalty to Charisma ability checks. People will challenge you to combat.
* Going about armored, but visibly unarmed gives you a -4 penalty to Charisma ability checks. People will challenge you to wrestling matches.
* Reacting negatively to being soaked during the Water Festival gives you a -2 penalty to Charisma ability checks.
* Going about unadorned when you can afford embellishment of clothes, jewelry, and weapons gives you a -1 penalty to Charisma ability checks. Fortunately, all magical weapons are embellished with runes or inlays or gems, so visibly wearing one counts as being adorned. Fine clothes are also sufficient avoid this penalty.
* If you try to avoid a flyting challenge, you gain a -2 penalty to Charisma ability checks for the next 1d6 days.
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:25, Tue 23 Jan.

Karls make up the bulk of Nordlander society. They are merchants, warriors, scholars, and farmers. They own their own lands and make their own craft items. They can make personal exchanges of crafted items without joining a guild, but if they want to sell something, they have to join the guild that controls the sale of those items.

There are two special kinds of karls. Huskarls are personal armsmen or fighting retainers to a noble. And thegns describe freemen capable of handling themselves in combat and who exemplify the positive traits of self-reliance, boldness, and courtesy.

Thralls are indentured servants working off debts or reduced in status from freeman as a punishment for a crime. It is possible to return to karl status.

Jarls are the Nordland nobility. They are collectively called jarls, but are formally known as riddars, herres, jarls, and hajarls. A riddar might be responsible for a prosperous village; a herre for several such settlements or a medium-sized town; a jarl is both wealthy and powerful and responsible for a suitably more substantial area. And a hajarl even more so.