As perceived by Cargandom, Haram is a sun-baked furnace, a vast, dusty anteroom to Ifrigia and the Great Desert. Mountains, hills and plains are universally hot and dry. Within this furnace however, are paradisial gardens of unparalelled bounty, lining the rare rivers of the realm.
Haram is the oldest, and (after the decline of the Cargan Empire) the greatest empire of the known world. There may be lands greater than Haram across the oceans, but the Haramesh deny this, and no-one else knows.
Haram is divided into several shahdoms, all of which are subject to the divine authority of the Padishah Asad III. The Haramesh proudly proclaim that their ancestors built cities and kingdoms of their own, while all the rest of humanity were either savage or eslaved by elves.
The Haramesh regard all other lands on the continent as primitive, and consider the Clemencians, Confederates and Cargans to be both primitive (though less than the other lands) and decadent.
The Haramesh are dark-skinned (baked by the harsh sun of their lands), dark-eyed with black hair and thick and continuous eyebrows. Their noses are aquilline.
Haramean clothing is generally loose-flowing and light, with baggy breeches and tunics, tight (often brocaded) vests and sandals or curly-toed slippers.
Haramesh associate great importance with headgear.
Most Haramesh encountered in the northern lands are merchants. They sell fine fabrics of silk, velvet and cotton and colourful carpets, balms, perfumes and incense, potions, drugs and medicines, and fine metalwork of gold and brass.
Haramesh merchants are notorious for their rapacious slave-buying, and all Haramesh tend to be suspected of being slavers in the lands north of their own. Other than slaves, the Haramesh buy furs, dried fish and fine wines. Generally, they hold all foreign craftmanship (except that of vintners) to be vastly inferior to that of their own realm, but they make an exception for fine steelwork, whether made by dwarves or humans, and for elven artifacts of all kinds.
The Haramesh have the longest continuous literary tradition in the world.
The Haramesh have a reputation for being the greatest alchemists, astrologers and eulocists of the known world, surpassing even the Cargans.