Please judge on words.
There is a Waerd settlement located in the semi-arid desert (currently known as Tollhill in the County of Darkcombe) on the lucrative border between the southern kingdoms of Lor Voskara and Caprakan on the Oceanus server, This town will provide a unique experience to those who have the tenacity and determination to grab hold of fear, turn it upside down and shake all the coins out it’s pockets!
There are strange things out in the deep desert, far beyond the stunted trees and odd grasses that struggle to find foothold in the dry packed ground. To outsiders the deadly creatures, plants and landscapes appear to exist solely to torment and harm.
But of course there is life out here, you just have to know where to look.
This is Our safety...this is Our home.
Travellers would be lucky to survive out there without the help and service of our caravans and guides. The guides find their way across endless stony plains and shifting dunes by chanting and breathing Our ancient tribal stories and songs...almost as if they were breathing the dry air itself.
Each word and verse is far deeper and more meaningful than they first appear. Chanters find their way to sand-drowned landmarks and to the hidden traces of water that can keep us all alive long enough to glimpse the stark truths of the Two Fold Queen.
This is where We, the hardiest few live, having made the best of the worst of situations. Trade routes are being established and towns are forming on the edges of the great wastes. Families and communities are growing.
But there are are also disturbing rumours of strange things being unearthed out beyond the blackened beyond. Yet, We seek them so We can shine light on that dark.
The Waerd name for this town is Ichralàrch. In old Neran-speak this meant ‘Vipers Gate’. It was named an age ago by my family who named it after the horned desert snakes that would pass through this place in times of searing drought, attempting to escape death by seeking the vestiges of water that lie in the nearby swamps and bogs of our cousins the Dras.
Though the snakes kill some of our old, our children and our livestock, We in turn kill and eat them for food and use their skins for clothes and trade.
All in equal measure and all in balance...as She wills it.
Development of town infrastructure such as schools and the trading hub as well as the ‘Silk Road’ that runs through it, will see trade flow like hot blood through an artery, taking wild exotica from the jungles to the south to the famous Last Oasis in the north.
Though I am now Set of this, my family town, I never saw myself as a leader of people. I just wanted to study my crafts, teach them to passers by for a bit of coin and run a stall in the markets.
But I know that the unbelievable things We have seen, learned and made here in the desert, will continue to put crowns on heads and knives at throats.
Including my own perhaps.
All in the name of Balance, of course.
Southwest of here is the wetland of the To’Resk, a people we have not been able to influence. Their ways are not like ours but they dwell with the protection of the Prime. I may need to seek counsel to ensure they stay where they belong...or at least so they do not feel justified in killing Us when our paths cross.
Otherwise there will just be more Great Work to be done.
Even further west is the broiling sea. Pirates roam the coast and raid our border towns. This will not do. We fight back and the Great Work goes on.
We see. We act.
So wanderer, do you want to see and feel, maybe taste the heart that beats at the centre of the known world? Some say it’s just red dust, dry sands and cold stones.
But I assure you, the true Heart is black and white....and pure gold.
