Cosmology and Belief

The truth is, there is no truth.  Liches, with their understanding of the relationship between all things and no things, are able to live forever, as it were, while deity continually and willfully pervert natural and magical law, why Magic itself is a kind of eraser of reality and agreement. 

There are many players in the game of truth, perception, reality, control, and belief.  There is the God King Mok Turosh; the living Kordic God who stands at the gates of Kias and knocks with his hammer.  There is King John, the lord of all men, who has been King since his ships landed almost two thousand years ago, on the shores called Kias.  There is Malfator, the Gray Veil, lord of undead and keeper of the way between worlds, devourer of Leah’Dah, brother of Varmelius and wielder of doom.  There is Varmelius, the last of the Great Gods before the coming of John and the Light, who lives in his Holy city of Tulnimoon, served by his deathless knights and manifested through his priesthood, everywhere, at once, all the time.  There are the Simulacra who are all Ovardiis and none a slave to the will of the watcher between worlds.  There are the faces of the Dark, the beings and the powers of the entire Wold from before and without the Light; these are Great dragons, air spirits, things that protect and live in the woods, the Elves themselves are born of the Dark; they are the forces of the natural world, the planes of energies and powers and elements, the creatures of Fey and Faerie, of fen and cloud, of wood and water.  Then there is the Light as Pholtus foresaw, and Leah’Dah birthed and mankind, both men and women carry; a power to end darkness and the dominion of all wild and evil things.  Then there are the Godlings, the beings who have escaped the poles of creation to become birthless and deathless;  Igyaya, Yihoon, Lumn, the Shiboan Matriarch Thrala, Inis the deceiver and Riit, the cloud goddess and hater of all man’s kind. There are also the Druids of Westfolden, the ancient and abandoned race of men, the westerners.

Mok Turosh was Born, or as some say re-born out of the height of the arrogance of Man.  He united all the horned people of the southlands.  He walks among his people, shares his food with them, holds up his great shield for them and breaks down the walls of the cities that would keep his people out, their hearts in their chests, their life their own.  The God King will suffer no man to keep his manhood and many who fall on the field will be corrected before a death blow might be made or before even they are taken as slaves or for living fodder.  The women are keep like animals and taken far to the south of their land and used to breed a slave class in those lands.  A powerful Kordic cheiftan may have ten such human and elvin women for this purpose.  The tongues of all of the pale races are removed and eaten.  None that have been a slave and escape, leave with their tongues or their manhood.  All worship and obey the Godking in his lands, even the slaves must.  Those who are not sincere in their worship are eaten , and the armies always need food, and so waste no time with indoctrination or coercion, in fact, killing and eating those captured is preferred and easier.  Those who have fought against the Godkings armies speak of mortally wounding great beasts of their kind only to have them whole again before the sword can be raised for another strike.  They have seen clouds of arrows flee their targets.  They have seen the souls of warriors ripped from their fighting bodies by witches and stuffed into gourds or devoured on the spot.  They have seen blades break on the skin of their enemies, poison evaporate and lances warp.  They have watched helplessly as armies have taken entire battlegroups captive and stripped them, raped them, emasculated and removed the tongues and branded and gambled for the right to own or eat them all just 15 feet from the front lines and all of their friends and captains while they are unable to push even a dagger blade past the impenetrable ranks of the Kord Shield lords.  Men have seen witches call for lightening and obscuring clouds and summoned beings from the very nature of the Wold to thwart or uproot walls and barricades.  Hey have seen invoker knights unleash hell only to watch these chalk-witches turn the brimstone to a light rain or a smoke.  The only thing that has saved the rest of Mankind is that Mok Turosh has no use for subterfuge or assassination or infiltration.  He would rather destroy Kias then move on the Vicars burg then Hardwall then bypass the city or raid the lands by simply attacking more than one place at a time.  Only King John has been able to push the Godking back from his walls, and that with great effort.  There are many in the north who are terrified by these stories and many lords who can remember them like they only happened just before breakfast.  You can imagine the threat of the rule of the God King could make any sane person act a fool.  There are Cults in the north let by wild men who seek to bring this apocalypse to full height.  This is made worse by the fact that, while the elves hate men, they do not completely hate Kords, which they view less as adversaries and more as animals, which can be dangerous but can also be controlled or avoided.  And since the Armies of the Godking are intent to destroy all of Human kind, the heat is not felt so strongly by others, or as urgently.  The symbol for Mok Turosh is a red face on a white flag.  His armies are painted in white chalk with only the chieftains and the witches adding red imagery or symbols.  Kords can be so strong and huge as to be literally un-killable.  They can also be so numerous and small as to be indefensible against.  Many of the Kords of the North are Clanned and while they have the same temperament, they are not guided and protected by divinity.  Superstitious farmers in the outlands will leave totems and sacrifice to the local Kords, believing they will be spared or that it will incur goodwill.  Hunters and rangers almost all speak some kordic, and the act of emasculating game after a kill or removing and eating the tongue is a Kordic ritual adopted by humans.  The call “Hok” is a Kordic word meaning The End, or Finish.  It is also a challenge and is shouted to declare your intent to fight to the death to a stranger.  If you hear the call, you should leave the path you are on and turn back, or you can submit, or rush forward and join the enemy.  While there is no mingling with the culture of the Deity, his will is still projected in these northern lands.

King John is the Great king of Men.  Though there are other kings, none are as old or as powerful.  John forbids the worship of Deity in his lands and it can be said he is the God of an atheist state, but that would be intellectually dishonest.  John is no God but his is powerful and seemingly immortal.  It is the power of nationalism, race, heredity and pact that rules the hearts and the wills of the people of Kias.  It is speculated by free thinkers that he draws on the love and support of his people and it makes him powerful, nay, it makes him god-like.  Only the Leahdist were ever allowed to be a part of his kingdom and that is because Leah’Dah saw the Light come in john and helped him build a kingdom and inherit the vision of Pholtus and felt herself as much his subject as his protector.  John’s symbol and the symbol of the lands of the king is a Gold crown above a black tower on a blue field. There are variations of this of course and the kings own seal is just his crown.  Loyalty to the King is paramount though in the North it is waned to a lip service.  In the south, such derision is treasonous and will win you a trip to the front lines to reinvigorate your faith in country and king.  “One Land, One King” is common parting and greeting amongst warriors on the road.  (more to follow...)

Malfator - The God of Suffering, Deceipt and Slavery.  He killed Leah'dah, and ushered in a new age of death, and waning of the Light.  the world goes to sleep.  He is the God of the undead, they carry his voice, he sees from their eyes, hears what they hear.  He bears three aspects who walk the world, bring up evil, and with the will of others, turns out the light wherever it tries to keep shining.  They say you see his face when you die.  they say Leah'dah is not there to catch us anymore and hold us in her hands safe from he that is the Great Heaven, and place us with love back into the Gift.  They say he gives himself to the dead.  They say all things that once were, are now again through his power.

Varmelius - the God of Truth, Change and Journeys.  he is a sitting God.  He is the Light on the Hill.  He is the City and his people, the Vistilry of Ingveroon, he is the heart of his Priests.  His powers surround, keep men safe, call them forth again from the hands of the Great Heaven.  Many serve him, and through their worship, drive the dead from the gift, and destroy the hands of Darkness where they are found.  

Peytah - The God of Fire, Pain and Endings.  His priests are servant of Fire.  They are mad, they have little love of this life, are seen always staring into flames.


Ovardiis and the Simulacra - Elven lich king of old, and his seven Simulacra.  Only in the North do we fear these.  The old one himself ha been awaken, and stirs.  His Simulacra, built before Men knew this place, wake again also, his tolls for walking through time this far, rise and horrify the lands.

The Dark - all natural magical things in the world; dragons, beasts, undead, fairies, wood and water spirits and spirits of the sky.  If it is not man, or a beast that has been found in the light as cattle, sheep, some birds and fish are, then it is a thing of darkness, and an enemy of man.

The Light - the humans, and the birth of the Gods, belief and the dawn of the soul.  The Light shines in the Gift, which is what the Light makes of the world that once was nothing but darkness.  The light is man and his things, it is godliness, the gods, and the control of evil and the use of magic to defy darkness.

Igyaya - The Goddess of Venom, Serpents and Insanity.  She loved Pholtus.  She fell from all things when he left us.  she is mad and lives will her people in the south, in the sea amongst the Shiboans who love her still.  She is poison and insanity and takes her toll where it is levied by the errors of Men.

Yihoon - The God of Wind, the Seas and Longing.  She rides the sky, she hates Men.  She blames us for Pholtus leaving us.  We are too weak for her.  She will not help us.  She loves Aday.  He still sleeps or is imprisoned.  Yihoon has come though to some.  her reasons are not known.  She rides the skies.  She is here, now, up there, despising our weakness, and our fear.  Be strong brothers and sisters.  the dark loves our cowardice, she hates it.  

Lumn - The last of the western Kings cursed never to die, wanders the lands.  He is the last, the only man of the west, some say he was the brother of Aand, but who can know this.  He wanders wastelands.  He is quite mad.  Some are said to have spoken with him.  You heard about Itroll the wanderer and his Dagger of Whispers.  He said that it is Lumn who told him the Daggers name, it is how he can fly and be vapor.  Lumn solved the riddle of the dagger.  Lumn knew the Dagger.  Lost to time and all but Iroll's hand and Lumn's memories.  

Thrala - The Goddess of Destiny, Entropy and the Stars.  They say she fights the Great Heaven, even now, and has since Pholtus left us.  She will help you fight too.  she will fight the coming of the end forever.  Fight with us, fight.

Innis - The Vampire God - rules the plane of nightmares and dreams.  He does not serve Malfator though he is cheifest of the undead, a foul and ancient vampire.  

Riit  - 

The Druids of Westfolden.  they are the voice and the will of the Gray Elves now that the families have fallen and the doors of the great house have closed and the houses have been returned to the earth.  They send the Emissaries, the great  and powerful elven spies.  They send the Leafwinders, the powerful assassins, intot he world of men to watch and to weaken us and to lay the way to take back all of these lands.  They are not the children or Ooya.  The Gray Elves hate men.  The northern Province was once their Eastern Kingdom or Sarand, and Ovardiis their last dynastic King.  They keep peace with John for the time being.  Up here, we fend for ourselves.  

The Westerners - the long Vanished race of men who came first to the world by way of the Great Light.  All are gone, their language known only by few sages.  Their artifacts remain, they brought with them the Light, and had the first souls.  Through them all gods were born.  Most of their ruins lie to the west of the known lands.

Learning and Teaching in the Northern Province

Where to begin, but isn’t that that point.  The best instructors in the world can do only so much to make a 60 year old woman a Swordswoman.  And, the right kid, a natural if you will, can teach herself anything by watching, hanging out in the smithy, sitting on the wall of the arena, fighting boys, fighting Men.  This is not to say she will not benefit from the hard instruction of a southern Warmaster, but, she may not be the type to be taught, as well. Perhaps it is her defeat that instructs her in killing, perhaps it is her victories that embolden her and terrify others, or her rage from wrongs unrelated to steel.  Perhaps it is the spirit of an ancestor or an elemental that has decided to grow something of the Dark in her, or perhaps it is the time she spends sweeping the Practice room and feeding the men of the Guild that teaches her most, about weakness, assumption, close mindedness, lack of creativity or even doubt.  Whatever it is, it can be safely said that there is learning going on inside the pupil, and teaching, well, teaching is going on but the question is who is doing it.

What can an alchemist discover in her lifetime?  What can she learn from a witch in 8 months of slavery tutelage?  The benefits of structured focused and effective training help prevent the remaking of mistakes, the standing on the shoulders of the witch who came before.

Observation may teach a guide all they need to know about a route but leave some blanks as to why they stopped where they did, and why certain routes were taken at certain times.  To exceed mimicry, which is only the window of learning, one must understand many things in some cases.  How long does it take her to learn 50 knots?  How many escaped slaves or fallen loads will it take her to learn why there is more than one knot to use.  It is assumed that anyone can leap onto a horse with enough courage but a woman who fights from horseback, firing arrows from her thieves bow while hanging from the side of her horse while still guiding it, well, that is a tough skill to teach, even to the gifted pupil.

Some will not teach for any amount of money, the daughter of their enemy.  Others will take your coin and time and leave with little more than you had before you met them.  For others, there simply is not the time to learn.  How much can you learn about birdcalls from a guide on a three day trip through the greenwood?  How much attention can be given over to it, how quickly do you pick something up? Are you the girl that needs to be told twice?  Three times?  Again and again?  Perhaps an injury you received as a child when Kords raided your farm and almost escaped with you, has left your tongue cleft, or your lip scarred, what whistling and clicking then?

To think that a skill can be bought the sword the skill will wield is foolishness, and yet, there are many rich and powerful fools.  Some teach for free, some teach out f love, or even fear, others seek only coin or life debt or revenge.  The best advice, which coincidentally is the single most wasted effort in the history of learning, is to understand what you want and what you are willing to do to get what you want.  Few women wake up wanting to be a swordmaster, what they want is revenge for a rape, the death of their sister/father, the need not to be afraid, powerless, and weak.  Swordmastery may even be a side effect of a well oriented woman who started on a path of revenge and ended in a fief built over the ruins of the camp of them men she destroyed.

So she wants to learn potion making, or does she.  Perhaps what she wants is to be a healer, or to have a man fall in love with her or to hurt the enemy of her lover or to be able to protect those she loves.  What does she really want to learn?  Who best to teach her these things, where to go for instruction what to provide to the instructor, how will she know when she has what she wants?

A foolish girl with no patience or will to learn is as hard to teach as a young girl so full of anger and disappointment that she cannot convince anyone to help her.  Perhaps she just is not strong enough the make a dagger stick but can juggle them all day.  Perhaps she can fight and parry all day but can be pushed over by a large dog.  Maybe she is the best shot with a crossbow but it takes her three times as long to crank it back for a shot, or maybe she is beautiful but unlettered and cannot learn the spells for the languages she cannot grasp.  Or maybe she has the strength and the respect of men but is foolish with her trust or too slow to anger.

She may spend all her childbearing years learning the sword and indeed teaching and yet, the first person she kills is her sister and swears away steel from that day, taking up robes and the path.  Perhaps she learns potions and sells them to the wrong people.  Life cannot be avoided and to think of learning as something different from surviving three harrowing days trapped in a burning fort, or fleeing Kords is a mistake.  Learning starts when the eyes open but it does not stop when they close.  Strength, a cold heart, knowledge of the enemy, pain tolerance, endurance, quickness, elvin steel, sorcery, custom armor, a good mount, adequate rest, fresh food and water, even ground, a cloudless day, a surprised opponent, a terrified opponent, a distracted opponent…  what makes a better warrior, two weeks at the guildhall learning a disarming move?

And yet, who will teach letters.  They may not be observed and mimicked.  Who will show you how to make sword ore?  Who will show her how to turn cattle into armor, teach the times and the treatments. 

How many Kords must she fight with a dagger before she learns that they prefer to grapple and buys herself a spear she does not know how to use but puts red feathers at the base of the point and avoids wilderness contests that way.

Many fools have learned the sword, the bow, the shield.  There are a few powerful women who have learned to hunt, defeat enemies and protect the ones they love without weapons or armor.  And yet, what a sight, Riel Silversleet, in white, her thin blades drawn, her veil on, the blood of many at her feet, her thin calm lips below freckles of blood.  

The adventurer will find many opportunities to learn.  they meat strangers almost constantly, and if swards are sheathed, what is it if not friendship that exists now between them?

Many skills have tiers of knowledge.  Language for instance.  there is a difference between someone struggling in their learning of vocabulary, a person who is well spoken and competent, and a sage or a poet and their ability to use language to its fullest effect.  It is best to describe this as three proficiency slots.  

The same goes for any skill, for instance Mining.  A one proficiency clot miner can work in the mines and not kill himself or others.  It is the equivalent of a years experience.  When he is able to add another proficiency slop, he is then able to train others to mine, can follow ore veins, and build some or the tools and devices or at least inform their manufacture.  When the miner spends a point on the last slot of Mining, her can prospect, develop mines, extract wealth efficiently with few errors.  

Travel in the Northern Province

It’s easy to buy horses, two weeks rations and 50’ of rope, hell, you can even splurge for some crazy chain barding, however, there is a gulf of knowledge and experience between that and travelling safely and swiftly through wilderness for three days, because it’s all wilderness, no matter what curvy ink lines show as a road on your map. Try binding 4 warrior Kords for travel to the slave markets of Brighton. Do you think Rope Use will teach you that?

There are many people who depend on the ignorance of young princes and adventurers. Some horses are sold twice a week. Great money for the stable and the bandits by the yellow road who happen to be run by the stable owner’s brother in law. To survive you must be prepared to accept that there is a line of people whose bread and butter depend upon you making the mistake you are going to make, because you are brash, inexperienced, cocky, willful and wrongly confident of untested abilities.

There are many “locals” willing to Guide newcomers for the right price. There are also many “locals” who are willing to walk a group of newcomers into a trap for everything they own, including their lives. Reputation is everything in the Northern Province; protect yours.

The Guard are probably the first place you should look for local guides and litter Guards while you are in town. You can also try the Freeblades guild but know that the only loyalty a Freebladesmen has is to another Freebladesman. You can hire a hunter from a farm, a Broken One from the yellow wood, a theif, a servant of a local lord, you can hook up with a caravan, fall in with adventurers, or strike out on your own.

Guards may or may not be available for the work or may not have the knowledge of the area. They will often direct you to the people best suited to guide you. It is always a good idea to meet with the different gourd houses when you arrive in town and pay respects as well as check in and see who is available to be a city guide. You should know that there is no Law to speak of in the Northern Province as there are no Kings men here in that capacity and no Sage Guild to direct enforcement. If approached through the Guards, you will likely get a man in livery, which is more valuable, as many won’t cross the Guard. It is not unlikely for you to be charged a kings piece a day. Hiring a guard without going through the Guard will result in a lower price but many Guards can only wear their livery while they are on watch. The Guard will supply his reputation only and if he has little or none, you might have just employed a thug to greater effect.

Guards may guide you to places outside town and sometimes to neighboring hamlets, but not often. The Bar and Cross are an example of a Guard that has a large territory to the north of Brighton, even unto the Yidari Duor. Many of the Guard make the ride to Bricking and know all of the farms and settlements in the north and north west of Brighton, as well as the towers and keeps of the local lords.

There are those of the warrior caste amongst the Freeblades that will sell their services as guide to adventurers and the like for good money and will be worth that money but few fledgling heroes can drop 500 Kingspiece for a three day ride to the Sunken Temple, or the Blue Shrine. However, if you want to get there and back with no problem, that is probably the best way.

The problem with hiring a farmer or Hunter is that while they may know trails and paths and shortcuts, and can read animal signs and avoid some danger, they are farmers and hunters, not guides per say and there is more to leading ten people and gear with no wilderness experience than just playing follow the leader and camping. The upside is that a farmer can be convinced to do almost anything for a hand full of Steel Pieces, or a Lords Piece, as long as it is not planting time or harvesting time, or calving time, or market time, or hunting time, or harrowing time, or any of the Old Sun days, or if Kords have been seen in the area, or if his son is sick, or wife is pregnant, or if he has a dispute with a neighbor; I think you get the idea.

The Broken ones are great trackers but will be killed like elves in the street or on the road if seen. They can and will eat people. They are as much animal as they are human. They will find trails and cut scent but take pay in medicine, game or trophy. They do not speak as humans do and so you will need someone who can communicate with them, typically, Kords. They can be rounded up, captured and forced to track then killed when you reach your destination, a fairly common practice. They can also be cultivated. It is rumored the Bar and Cross has some Dogmen trackers. Oh yeah, and horses would rather throw you then get near them, kind of like wolves.

Thieves are great guides and scouts, if you can find a way to negotiate from a position of strength. Leverage replaces trust when dealing with underworld types. Find some, keep it, use it only when you have to, don’t use it if it can be turned. Not all leverage is a threat, and thieves don’t buy blue sky. The problem with thieves is you are always paying at least ten times what something is worth. This is not because they are adroit at delivering results, it’s just that coin is so easy for them to get, anything less than a lot of easy money is just not worth it to most thieves.

Lords will not hire out their men. You must serve a Lord or be affiliated with one through marriage or through pact. Even then you cannot just show up in force of arms at a Lords door and ask to hire a guide; that’s another way people disappear in the Northern Province. The truth is, you will probably be challenged before you are able to enter a Lords lands and if you don’t meet well, you might not get the opportunity to even turn back. Know your Lords and Landholders. You should never respond to a challenge with “Who’s lands are these?”

Lords are also not keen on adventurers getting drunk and killing farmers in their Taverns, or waking unspeakable evil on their lands or shifting power among the Tribal Kords on their lands by wiping a hunting party or routing a clan. They don’t want adventurers looting their ancestral crypts or driving away their game, or mistaking their henchmen for “bandits”.

Serving a Lord can be easy and difficult. It does not benefit a Lord to sanction a cadre of mercenaries so that they can loot some tombs and leave. It does suit a Lord’s interests to sanction a Cadre and then have them move on an adversary or bolster a military action against a regional threat, or even stay on as Man at Arms. Trust is built slowly with a Lord as most of a Lords men are come with him to these lands after years of war in the south, or they are his son’s nephews, nieces, or the children of his servants or Loyalists.

Expect to be taxed if you deploy an expedition on a Lords lands without permission, although it is more likely you will just be killed. When you begin to think about taking on a Lord, remember that a Lord of the South is probably 15^th level, as well as all of his or her companions. Every warrior or henchmen that serves a Lord with their name is at least 9^th level. All 9^th level followers of a lord have their own retinue. That is not counting the Men at arms, mercenaries, standard henchmen and landed militia and all of their blood and affiliations. The chance of you sitting at a table with a Lord and being able to actually enter initiative with a lord is so remote as to be irrelevant in terms of being a factor in your reasoning.

Caravans are an effective way to move around and while some groups follow caravans, they are not allowed to follow closely. Some caravans will not let people who are not Company , accompany them. Others will take all the swords that want to ride along, however, keep in mind, Adventurers are known for buying passage with a caravan and then robbing it themselves after killing everyone on the caravan, if the goods were worth the effort, like food stuffs for their camp and the animals and wagons. Most caravans are full of vegetables, wheat, and other foodstuffs, some caravans haul lumber or run livestock. With the exception of the wheat and lunber, it makes them attractive targets. This is why most caravans have guards from the Freeblades guild as most caravan owners or trade captains are Freebladesmen, will keep a sell sword in food drink and sex for their company. Its hard to beat the price and its impossible to outdo the talent.

Adventurers will not escort anyone. They will however “party up” and if the people you are partying up with are capable, well, you just have to hope they are willing to give you some of what you all find and it should be successful. Not all adventurers are Freebladesmen. Many will lose the membership because they kill other members outside the area. Some are honest but hard luck has forced them to give up dues which are expensive for Any adventurer at 500 kings piece per moon. It is almost impossible for an untalented warrior to even find the funds to join for anymore time than 1 month. There are instances where delivering a legendary Magic Item has given a Freebladesmen lifetime membership, but it doesn’t happen often. While the guild speaks to the best in men, the houseless and the guiltless warrior is a dangerous being, in fact, anyone who claims a Great Nature dragon is the toughest foe you can face, has never found themselves at odds with a group of adventurers. This is where reputation and friendship come in, and though there are friends among adventurers, they will still kill each other. This brings up the idea of the unsuccessful adventurer, meaning, all adventurers, as successful adventurers are never met, as they have moved on to the great cities of the North, Tarsus, Petra or Hardwall. All the adventurers that are met in the NP are hungry, need money and are waiting for the next sucker with a good map or a new route to an old tomb, or larger numbers or better gear, or simply more coin to provision. Adventurers are drawn to the NP from across the continent to plunder tombs or bring down Akua or Ride the Stichel road or find the barrows of the Simulacra, or break the Lock, or open a new room in the Quarry, or pierce a vault of the Ascendants or even of the lost Leahdic temples. There is success too, and some find it.

Striking out on your own is probably the least advisable way, though after reading this it may sound like the best idea. Before you do, keep in mind, there is only one road in the Northern Province, and it is the old dwarven road and it runs from the old sea fort, straight inland and into the brake towards Elvin lands. In King Johns time in the NP, some 200 years ago, the road was only visible ever visible three times, and the king had Fouge to guide him on it. Most roads are just passable areas. You may encounter wagon and cart tracks but many live in these lands and there is no guarantee a road will lead to a home or a hamlet. Imagine these directions; “Follow the arable lands north till the woods thicken then cut east towards the sea. Climb the ridges of the break until you see the White Spire of Olinus the Old. Keep this tower no on your right as you make your way north to the peaks. There you will find an old road, little more than a path that will take you to a plateau half way up the mountain. From there look west and take the way between the Dragons Teeth. A cave will open in a damp ravine, this is the first door of the Underoad and will lead to the high roads and then to the passes.” Now imagine this is spoken over dinner, not written down, who knows how to read and wright? Now keep in mind that these directions were given carefully, thoughtfully and willingly by someone with something to lose if you do not find your way. Ok then, off you go. Now imagine getting your directions using subterfuge or torture, or buying them from an avaricious youth, or overhearing a conversation or interpreting them from the written elvish.

Travel on foot is perilous, takes almost ten times as long as travel by horse though it is quicker then travel by wagon or cart if those traveling are unencumbered. The more people, the slower the going. One man could probably take more risks, cross obstacles swiftly and travel light. Make that two and the party is only as fast as the slowest person.

All that aside, travel by foot is how almost everyone travels in the Northern Province. Only the wealthy and powerful travel by horse. If you are carrying a sword and food for a week, you will NOT be running or covering good distance, now, your wounded, or evading Kords.. You can see how the most dangerous part of an adventure tends to be the getting there and back again.

Adventurers tend to travel the best, as do couriers or scouts. The latter are light, quick and stop for nothing. The former travel in large capable groups, take their time and are provisioned well and are well informed.

The robbing and murdering of travelers is a thriving business, and we are only talking about people and the occasional Kord, which is to say nothing about dark forces, dragons, the undead, the servants of the Veil, and the agents of ancient powers. It may be said that the Northern province devours more souls than does the war in the south, which would be a lie, but not by that much.