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To his Lordship and Majesty Raynald Dravarious Hawk

From the pen of his excellency's High Scholar Maxwell Leodius

Your Majesty, contained herein is a most faithful replication of the relevant text recovered from the royal library of Greywater after his Eminence's victorious conquest of that detestable kingdom, as requested on the note and regarding the savage northern lands colloquially known as "The Wilds". The letter dates from shortly after the founding of that weak kingdom. It is my humble opinion that your grace shall find the answers he seeks within the following pages and furthermore his illustriousness can be assured that the details contained herein can be trusted as much as any such an ancient document can for the letter is indeed the early works of the same wizened sage whose works are well known in all civilized lands.

A letter to the High King of Greywater on matters for expansion and future conquests,

concerning the northern borders of the realm.

My Lord, your most humble and faithful servant has completed his assignment in the land of the northern barbarians after sojourning with them for a time and indeed traveling the whole of the land. I give my report on my findings which I shall hope may in some small way be useful to you for your grand and wise purposes.

The Wilds as the lands north of the Greywater are known as to the locals as well as to the barbarians in the north is a queer of land as I have ever seen. Upon first inspection one can note the seemingly abundance of game and fertile lands. Ripe for conquest and settlement by good civilized men. If one were only to see such however he would be in great error for the lands holds much more beyond this and the reasons behind its bounty are both troubling and wonderful.

The land north is ringed on the northern edge by a set of impossibly high mountains called the Skypeaks most oft. These lofty mountains form a barrier against an oft frozen sea to the north I am told for it is impossible for one to scale these mountains in most places I am told. They extend less so on the western side of the continent breaking way for a large section of well watered land which meets the western shores of the great sea before a second smaller range of mountains extends further south along the western coast hedging the lands in. To the east the Skypeaks run south also along the western coast of the great sea for some time until they open upon the meeting of a desert which from my notes of previous times connect with the lands southern proper and are most likely the northern border of the small spice kingdom known as Sanctuary. Regrettably being that these deserts are nigh to unpassable for lack of water thereby it is impossible to discern this for sure.

At the center of the lands is a grand and ancient forest called Desova which hides well another towering and great mountain called Durus which rewards those who brave it by opening to a rich plateau of a pleasant clime and great mineral wealth.

The lands between Greywater and the Skypeaks north is but uninterrupted plains. For to the West further are smaller forests and to the east south of Desova is a smaller and less harsh desert which the Greywater runs through. On the western slopes of the smaller mountains of the west is a great forest which extends both north and west until it leaves but a small passage of plains to the smaller gap of plains that open to the sea. From the edge of the forest therein traveling alongside the Skypeaks for some great time are a series of small forest glades, canyons, fields of rocky crags and streams intermixed throughout. It is upon these areas that it is nigh impossible to find ones way except with an experienced guide. Yet some ways to the east, these foul lands give way yet again to a vast plain of perhaps the richest grasses and creatures in the world. In the are several small forests of little account however save one on the southern slopes of the Skypeaks and indeed extending into them a ways. That forest called Haven, for it is said to be the hunting grounds of a pair of great white dragons and their kin, most ancient and wise, is to the savages as most sacred. None will enter, and in this matter I must agree with the savages, for what man wishes to enter the land of dragons? The land of the Wilds continues mostly as such until a small range of the sky peaks tips to the south and east and the last bastard offshoot of Desova falls away.

The lands beyond this is no longer called the Wilds and indeed the queer properties of that land quickly fade after said point. Those lands are less rich but still much of the same smattering of plains and forests which continues south framed on the east by the Skypeaks's southern range and the west by Desova yet, until it reaches the grand desert.

There exists here in the Wilds many types and shapes of creatures found elsewhere in civilized lands. Yet the creatures here grow larger and breed more profusely than anywhere else. The savage hunters of these lands never want for meat for game is always plentiful. Neither do the hunting beasts go hungry or attack the races of these lands but rarely for their bellies can easily be filled elsewhere. Indeed it seems as if they pay the savages no mind unless cornered or defending their young.

The most curious aspect of this land is not that it contains a vast array of strange and large creatures, for it does but no. It is the fact that the many races seemingly live in harmony with each other. In all my travels throughout the land less than a handful of stories can I relate to you about one race raiding and wiping out the village of another race.

There is no formative structure that unites the land and the villages are most often lead by an elder or warchief, which is humorous given the fact that they do not as near as I was able to discern in fact make any wars. There are but three towns in the wilds and only one could be called a city or kingdom. That kingdom is the underground people of the Charring. About them I know little for they deal naught with anyone but the Oxmen, the Rugesh of the plains that surround their mountain. Yet I am told a great host lives beneath that mountain called Vex. They are humanish in appearance yet smaller and blue. Of those people however there is little need for concern for they appear to hate the sun greatly coming out only to deal with the Rugesh on moonless nights, and lack physical strength.

Ah, the Rugesh, if ever the great God deemed that a race must perpetually be clothed in fetid stench it is the Rugesh that would be favored as such. They stand taller than a man by far having cloven hoofs and large black horns upon their heads. While they stand tall like a man and can speak poorly they yet are naught but beatmen, nomands wandering the vast plains fo the fields feeding upon raw vegetation. The have thick hides which I believe would make excellent rugs or winter cloaks for the peasantry for no man of worth would wish to have a permanent stench about him as these creatures do. They appear to be the second most common people of the Wilds and greatest of the beastmen, for it is still Humans which dominate this land, as they do all things as the great God has deemed proper.

Yes human barbarians, tribals if you will, for they being the most numerous peoples of the Wilds, have built the greatest settlement here, called Greatwood. Despite how my time away from civilization may have dulled my senses I recall and recorded it as being a suitable town, albeit a rough one. It would take less than a day for a battalion to raze it to the ground of course but it serves well enough as a mixing ground for trades and has the whole host the beastmen represented within its poorly constructed wooden walls. Humans have established many villages on the plains bordering the numerous small forests for the most part. Their arrival seems to have been no more than 5-6 generations ago despite being so many on number, for the other races all tell of the arrival of Humans but none can do so for any other race in those lands.

Upon Durus are catmen, the most pleasant to deal with of the beastmen to be sure for they seem to have taken it upon themselves to try and simulate the doings of men in their buildings and dress,( yes for these creatures actually wear clothes unlike many others however poor they are at it). Of these creatures the greatest threat is posed where they live for they are expertly adapted to their forest homes, adept at stealth, climbing, stalking and hunting. Indeed a man in their territory is at their whim for the savage land that they inhabit Desova seems to aid them in every way and hinder man in the same fell breath. It would be foolish to enter such area in war with well armed troops yet small groups of rangers should be able to root out the cat villages, with their most excellent tactics and skills.

The rocky crags and ravines are inhabited by who I deem to be the most intelligent if not also one of the most repulsive beastmen of the Wilds, the Vestige. They are lizardmen with long faces full of sharp teeth, and tails with a wicked blade at the end. The Village of theirs that I entered with my Rugesh guide was in fact a rather marvelous one, for it was hewn out of living rock seemingly ages ago. There were several streams that milled about the village falling over cliffs and ledges, forming small pools here and there where the creatures lounged in leisure. The entire village was hidden from view from all direction save the sky. It would be a most troublesome problem having to locate all these villages, for the land which holds them also hides them well, for they are not a social race.

In the north along the Skypeaks are the giants of legend, the Teal. Large blue men with the aspect of dragon blood about them. They stand as men do thrice over with immensely large wings and strong muscles with terrible claws but lacking tails. Of them I saw only at a distance for my Rugesh guide told me they spoke little to others and were best left alone. Of them they prefer their small clans and stay to themselves.

The desert south of Desova as well as some area of the plains holds yet another race of beast men, called by themselves the Gre'nahk. They are from what I can gather fox men with long whiskered snouts and beady eyes. Upon their heads are a pair of comically small horns when compared to the Rugesh, yet like the Ah'komeli, the can men, they wear clothes and bath occasionally. They seem to keep a feudal patriarchal society. They have great avarice and pride I have traded large amounts of their crude good for a few small baubles, they would be conquered with a cart of shiny beads.

Yet there is one more common race if it can be called a race which I discovered called the Hezzekk, they are very large insects and very fierce, yet lacking in intelligence as is common in this land. Yet they have four legs with the same amount of small clawed arms and hate the other races, they love both moisture and shade, inhabiting swamps for the most part, yet a battalion could easily dispose of them for they are mindless and untrained and would thrown themselves upon our spears endlessly without merit.

On the far edge of the Wilds there are yet two other creatures which while in the in the Wilds more often can be found in the last just outside it; the Breck and the Unbridled. The Breck are a black winged race of, to call upon old tales harpies, yet they have arms as well as wings. They are reclusive and secretive, go about nude and dabble in strange magics called alchemy, of this is all I could find for my guide would not risk entering one of their villages set upon the cliffs of the Skypeaks. For he insisted the path was most dangerous and the solid ground for the plains was for his race.

And last and the most worrisome the Unbridled. I should preface this "race" by saying they live almost entirely within a small kingdom outside of the wilds in the north and east corner of the Skypeaks. They are by all my accounts daemons of the most real sort. My time spent in Vain, the capital of that nation has lead me to this conclusion. In the courtyard of the castle there is a great black obelisk ringed about with a magic circle which moves and lives upon the ground. I believe it is there that these vile creatures were and are summoned. They live among the people there who call upon the God of Volcanoes to give them dominion over these creatures. For they walk among the walls of that town without pause or note of the Humans there. They are little less than human in stature, dark skinned and have red glowing eyes. Beyond that the appearance can vary greatly, come have many horns upon their heads and body, some have wings others have not, some even have two heads all filled with twisted black fangs. Despite their size they are capable of the greatest feats of strength and serve alongside Humans in the Armies of that kingdom. May our great God protect us from such devils. All the land on the east there is filled with these things and the humans whom they serve it seems.

At the summit of one great volcano in this region it is said lives a great sorcerer who first built that obelisk and that this man is himself in bondage to a great black dragon, an ancient beast as the world itself whom no mortal can gaze upon and not faint from unspeakable terror. None of these men in that land nor the demons who serve them defy that sorcerer for so great is he and greater still his master. He stands alone upon the peak perverting magics most dark for his own purpose, unknown to honorable men. How terrible the lands and far removed from the light these lands must be to allow such a fiend to stand, the Wilds are truly a savage and lowly place.

The queerness of the Wilds is far from contained however by the number of creatures or the breadth of the beastmen that inhabit it. For there are lines of energy and power that transect that land, along these lines which I divined by our God's grace are the most fertile parts of the land with the fattest creatures. For as an acre of land may well be used to raise two sheep upon the Greywater in the wilds along one of these lines you could keep a dozen if not more and the grass would never wane.

It can also be said that these lines influence the races of those lands for the barbarians there, the Humans, they live as long as we do if not more, yet they lack the most basic of medicines that we have while relying on tribal shamen and medicine men. My Rugesh guide told me his kind lives to around 150 and that in fact all the races routinely reach a century of age save the Vestige and Teal which often reach twice that.

I can only speculate but it believe that it is these lines of energy that sustain the land for no only do the plants grow many times larger and faster than in our lands but the creatures do as well. For there are several large predators in these lands besides the Teal, and none are more terrifying than the Dragons for indeed there can be nothing greater than the firstborns of the world. While they are seen and known to have dens in a few places in the south all over, here in the Wilds, they are numerous. Within our lands there are four, but I gazed four in flight from a distance before I was halfway through this land. Yet despite their seemingly large number they have rarely been known to attack the villages here. My guide could only state one instance where a great green one did choke a village of Ah'komeli in noxious green acid melting all there including those sad souls within(if indeed these beastmen have souls at all).

For a year and a half I traveled this land and my advice on it is simple. If you grace desires it, know that beyond the plains the lead north it would take great effort to conquer and maintain it. And that the land itself seems savage and resists conquest. The barbarians that live here simply move on when they settle upon such an area that grows too much. I would suggest instead of conquest which may weaken our position to the surrounding kingdoms in the civilized world, to have them send raw resources to us in exchange for baubles. They pose no threat to us and guard well the northern border from any who might march armies there while they have little worth only land. The developed lands to the south seem to me to be a greater source of prosperity for the kingdom. But this is only my humble opinion.

May my humble knowledge aid your decision. I look forward to my return to the court whereby I can offer greater assistance or advice as my Lord may wish on these matters. With all respects and well wishes of Gods blessings upon you my Lord, your humble explorer. -Mekias Landing

This is a bit of a strange piece, which I think in a published work would be included in an appendix. Since I was lacking any map and wanted the readers to understand the Wilds better and why things are and wil happen the way they do in them. So I hope this will help readers become a bit more immersed in the story with this. One note on this piece is that this is an old letter and all things that are in it may no longer be true and in fact if you look at what I have already written you will see several things that are not true or at least no longer true including the omission of one race in a complete report on races(this might be important later). This also serves as a bit of an introduction to the lands south of the Wilds and you can conjecture their views on the Wilds to contrast to the view that Wilders have of them. Next up is Chapter 8, which I haven't even started yet or even have a finial sketch of all scenes. Hopefully it will come quickly to me and I'll have it up next week but let's not count on it. Thanks for reading as always and feel free to ask any question in the comments below. I'll try to answer them if I can without giving away future events.