Land of Shadows Read online



  Land of Shadows

  by Jeff Gunzel

  Copyright Jeff Gunzel 2012-2013

  Publisher’s Note

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recorded, photocopied, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. All rights reserved.

  Geography and Culture of Tarmerria: An Introduction

  The land of Tarmerria is rather beautiful, if not wild and mostly unexplored. Oh, there are many different societies indeed, cultures that differ greatly from one town to the next.

  The business-oriented folk in Denark are always willing to sell goods or trade with anyone as long as fair compensation can be produced. These people are always on the lookout for outsiders that might not be as business-savvy, and thus easily taken advantage of.

  The rainy season in Denark is always quite violent, and has built a bit of a reputation for the town due to the extreme weather. Smoldering hot summers and bitter, cold winters are nothing new here. Throw in the occasional monsoon, and that is Denark as a whole. Not that many people call the average-sized town home. Sure, there are some locals, but it is mostly a trade town where folk come and go. You can get anything you need here as long as you have plenty of coin or something of value to trade.

  This is also one of the few towns in Tarmerria that does not have a large staff of militia on hand despite the large quantity of goods that could be gained by raiding the trade town. The main reason why Denark has little to worry about raiders is mostly due to its place in the delicate balance of Tarmerria’s economy. It would serve no purpose to sack Denark, since almost all the local towns and even some not-so-local cities benefit from having the supply town nearby. For one, they have no political allegiance to any of the larger cities. They have no friends or enemies on any side, and will trade with any government who can offer proper compensation. Cities often send couriers many miles with one or more wagons to stock up on goods that are hard to come by during the winter months, or even common goods that are simply cheaper to buy in large quantities from the trade town.

  Denark is not known for the high-quality goods that can be found in Athsmin, but you can usually get a better price, and the quality is fair enough. It is also a better town to buy grains and other food items, although most of those are imported from Bryer.

  The other reason has little to do with business. Denark is one of the only towns that finds criminals to be an inconvenience instead of a source of revenue, and disposes of them as fast as possible. Any individual caught stealing—or committing any crime, for that matter—is simply executed the same day. For small crimes, like petty theft or vandalism, the perpetrator will usually be strung up in front of the town and whipped by one of the guards. This seems to be an effective deterrent against crime.

  The tall barbarians from Dronin hail from way off to the west in the Apili Mountains, where it is cold more often than not and it is commonplace to wear thick furs as opposed to stylish clothing. The city itself is backed by the great mountain peak called Steris. There is only one major road that leads up to Dronin, but it is quite large, enough for ten wagons to ride side by side up until you get within a mile or so of the city. Then the road narrows significantly, again for defense purposes, so Dronin archers can pick off oncoming enemies.

  Despite their military preparedness, the Dronin people are not especially hateful, or even aggressive. Instead, they believe that preparing for war all the time means it will never happen.

  To the north of Tarmerria lies the city of Taron. It spreads for miles in all directions and has plenty of political influence to go along with its sheer size and highly educated people.

  Taron is considered the largest and richest city in all of Tarmerria. The people are heavily taxed but consider the tradeoff worth it, considering the amount of funds needed for maintaining the safety of a large city. Wages are much higher to begin with due to the skill of the labor force. Blacksmiths, armorers, furriers, masons, roofers, even locksmiths all thrive here.

  One of the largest sources of income is Taron’s heavy participation in the games. The market is large for slavers, who buy and sell criminals from cities that simply look to turn a profit from someone who would be executed anyway. Slavers rent their “goods” to Taron to compete in the great arena called “Moxis.” Here, they charge per person at the door to watch the carnage.

  Many of the criminals and the poor souls who simply made the wrong people mad are given a set number of trials they would be forced to face. If that number can be reached, they win their freedom. This mockery of justice was never intended to add any fairness to the games, but is merely used as a psychological tool. It is widely accepted that most never get past the first two trials or so. But a person’s instinct to survive takes over, and they will try as hard as possible as long as it seems survival is a possibility. This seems to work well enough to give the paying mob a rather spirited contest.

  Tarmerria has plenty of culture, but remains wild in the sense that all towns and cities are independent of one another. Every town and city looks out for itself and rarely seeks aid from neighboring towns, and even more rarely provide it. That is not to say that it never happens, but it comes at a steep price. Aside from just being compensated for any aid provided, there is the perplexity of status being lost or gained.

  The ranking of most cities and towns is directly tied to the amount of financial or political influence tied to that town. If a neighboring town is in economic turmoil or recovering from siege, the surrounding areas that have to share the same resources would actually benefit if the town were to dry up. As such, to provide aid on any level to a potential enemy, or at least a competing rival that could pose a threat in the future, is done rarely, and only at great cost to the recipient.

  In fact, to dispose of an entire town that seems to be gaining strength and may pose a threat in the future is rare, but not unheard of. There are a number of ways to do this and not draw too much negative attention. The most common is to simply hire leathers, or mercenaries, if the militia’s resources are not sufficient enough.

  Leathers have a reputation for not being skilled in anything but sword-wielding. Their notoriety precedes them, and most reputable tradesmen would never hire a leather for anything, no matter how minimal the skill level needed for the position. Leathers are either hired to kill, or not at all.

  An accepted practice amongst the cities and towns is to hire leathers to ransack each other, making the attacked town inhospitable and thus forcing the populace to flee to the town that initiated the attack in the first place. With this plan of attack, two objectives are accomplished: the threat to power is no more, and the attacking faction’s numbers and resources increase.

  In Tarmerria, the wildlife far outnumbers the small patches of civilization scattered across the continent. Countless beasts roam the fields and forests. Because of the existence of creatures such as the alcatross, a fierce carnivore large enough to take down humans, most of the continent is largely unexplored. Little is known about the lands that lie to the far north and south, except that the north is predominantly an uninhabitable desert and the south is an impenetrable forest.

  Apart from the minor skirmishes and takeovers, no major battle has taken place in Tarmerria for hundreds of years. The last documented war, the “Undead War,” took place some four hundred years ago, and unlike the world of old, which historians continue to try to piece together, it is very well documented. It was a time when humans banded together to fight against the crytons, whom the humans named “the undead.”

  Calling the crytons “the undead” is a deceiving concept born mostly out of superstition due more to the
ir physical appearance than to any biological similarities to a walking corpse.

  The war between humans and crytons lasted for fifty years, according to the records kept. The war was bloody on both sides, and in the end, the crytons retreated into the Mogan Forest, which is why it is sometimes referred to as the ‘Dead Forest.’

  Most humans believe whatever crytons remained were probably killed by the unnatural energies dwelling there. No human could have ever returned from the dark forest, so why would the undead be any different?

  Accounts of the war feats of the crytons include sketches of the war machines used by them. Their ingenuity was considered brilliant, and many historians believe they would have driven the humans into extinction if they had not been outnumbered fifty-to-one. There are detailed descriptions of the mystic powers used by many of them, accounts of creating fire from nothing but their bare hands and calling down lightning from the sky to strike their enemies.

  Why did the war happen in the first place? No one knows who struck the first blow, or why. Nonetheless, the war raged on for decades before the humans drove the crytons back.

  A favorite ghost story told by the elders entertains the idea that the undead still exist, and have found a permanent home in the dead forest. There, they wait patiently for the human world to lower its guard, and then they will rain fire from the skies and take back what they believe to be theirs.

  Now would be as good a time as any, given that the humans are hardly united. Each town and city worries far more about its own affairs and survival. Any unity developed by humanity post-war is now nowhere to be seen.

  Ghost stories have little bearing in the harsh daily life of Tarmerria, and folks keep doing just enough to see the next day come and go.

  But there are far worse things lurking in the uncharted shadows of the realm than superstitious rumors…a far greater evil than the human world has ever known.