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 “…screaming bloody savages pouring like filth into the hinterlands, over the mountains from the east.
“They bring their women and children with them, not to mention disease! They are primitives, dressed in rags, living in tattered tents of rotting hide. And they kill and destroy every farm and village in their path, jealously pulling down walls and barns and crofters huts.
“Which brings me then, to my earlier mentioned proposition. If you can raise, oh, say fifty men, I can outfit them with armours, weapons and other sundries and between us we can make a tidy sum hiring them out to one of the Noble Houses in Jahan. It’s easy money – I mean how much trouble can a few semi-naked, half starved nomads pose to a properly equipped company?
-conversation over heard in the golden grove taverna, Roma
“The spirits of bison and bear, snake, hawk and trout have spoken to the shaman of our tribe and they tell us that dark days stretch ahead in these lands – we will face pain and fear if we head to the west. But doom awaits us if we stay. So we shall roam into the jaws of the future…”
- Highclaw, Warleader of the Deyen tribe
The Urdaal originate from the northern steppes on the other side of the Great Spine Mountains. Land-locked, and with no obvious commercial value, these lands and its people have held little interest for others cultures. The exception is the Khazim, who are forced to move their caravans through the southern-most parts of Urdaal lands before reaching the City-State of Jahan.
It is by the tales of the Khazim that the Urdaal are known. They are encountered typically first at a distance, visibly travelling in tribes numbering no more than three score. Five of these (known to the Urdaal as ‘a hand’), will then approach the caravan to barter for goods and exchange food before returning to the main group. It is believed by the Khazim that if a caravan was ever approached by more than one hand then this would be a bad omen, but this has yet to be confirmed by witnesses.
Occasionally an Urdaal will accompany a caravan for part of their journey, perhaps as a scout for the main tribe. Their purposes are not always clear, and the Khazim are not always fond of such arrangements and the unknown consequences they might bring. What these liaisons have revealed is the importance the Urdaal place on their hunting bows and the rare skill they exhibit.
For the people of Jahan and Vetiver, these tales have now turned into the harshest reality. From the north and the east they have come, a trickle that now threatens to turn into a flood. And all are swept away with this tide.
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