When the morning came, Luki resumed her walk up north. Unlike yesterday's travel, she had to walk on the hills, devoid of civilization. The west side of the interior sea is probably the most populated region in the Land of Oak, and probably in Minbazkar as a whole. Civilization as we know it is born in this subcontinent, and had adapted to its temperate climate - it is so beaming with life that finding a place still untouched by the hand of men, dwarves or elves is a very rare sight by now.
Those hills exert no attraction over anyone - its soil is improper for agriculture, does not bear enough water to allow vegetation to grow in the way it does to the western shore, and he clay ground and fragile rocks that lay under the dirt harbor neither metal nor gem - as a result, neither human, elves nor dwarves saw fit to colonize this area.
Civilization grew organically - it was rare, in 142, that a royal decree decided the construction of a village or of a fort - for most powers in Minbazkar, this was the prerogative of the kings vassals. Everyone understood that it would be less costly to wage war against their neighbours for the control of the more valuable piece of land than to try and transform the hills so they can sustain sentient life.
In retrospective, maybe paying the initial cost of irrigating the hills would be worth it - as long as the Dune of Thunder remains wild, the only practicable road linking the southern settlements to the rest of the kingdom can be closed on a whim not only by the elves of Emepeaye, but also, further in the mountain, by the dwarves of Nishthiz. And if the kingdom's relations were good, the war they currently waged on one another was pretty much preventing safe travel.
If we can colonize the Enchanted Swamp, thought Luki, surely those sandy hills are not so big of a deal. Maybe she could interest the queen with such a project in the future.
It is not the lack of water that made this road hardly practicable, but to the contrary, it's overabundance With a lot of rivers and no bridge to cross any of them and no reliable map to navigate through the watery maze they formed,the travel is made much longer, and much harder - so much in fact, that she just found her way out of the hills when the sky turned red.
Far from human civilization and desperate for a shelter - as the darkness devours without trace the lone travellers after nightfall - she had no choice but to ask for asilum in a little dwarven hillock.
This dwarven equivalent of a small hamlet was inhabited by sky dwarves - or as they call themselves, dwarves of Desor Uzol. Those dwarves dress in blue and white, their symbol is an image with two clouds, and they have a habit of breading their facial hair, while they tie their hair in a ponytail. Desor Uzol and Mong Kima are still at war - an unpopular decision for which the great general Tis, dead a few years ago is blamed for. Testimonies from soldiers sent to lay siege on their fortress confirmed it was indeed a war of larceny - Tis finding no value in the dwarven holdings, preferring to impose a tribute upon them - tribute that was on multiple occasions contested in blood.
While the war cost the life of a great number of people in both sides, it also provided the kingdom with a steady income of weapon grade metals, of which they are always in short supply.
For half a decade however, no attack has been carried out by either camp, so much so that it can be said that the war unofficially ended. While a reignition of the conflict might still occur, men and dwarves now live in peace - waiting for their respective rulers to officialize the end of their conflict.
Luki would be granted shelter without any protest - if, of course, animosity and suspiscion still exist between pearlites and sky dwarves, it is not to the point either of them would refuse shelter from the darkness to a lone traveller.
She spent an unconfortable night in the hillocks, and would be ready to rejoin civilization by the morning.
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Guys, I'm super sorry it takes time, and there's not so much to discuss... I'm on a big project right now, this takes a lot of my time, and right now my main concern with Mong Kima is to set the universe, so people understand what is going on, how people relate to each others, and how the conflicts between different powers shape the landscape and the story to come. Be super assured I'm working on it, after this interlude chapter, there will be a bunch of events I have to cover. And when all of that is done, we'll resume fortress building.
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Topic: Mong Kima - The Nation of Pearls (DF 0.47.05) (Read 254416 times)