Year 537 of the Reckoning Ends
The Folk: The outlanders are much pleased by the repairs the Folk offer for their ships, and depart before winter, leaving several charts behind of the nearby coast. These charts are quite detailed, and include shore expeditions which meticulously categorize the resources and strange things found near the lands of the Folk.
West of Vael, along the coast, they say the deep forest continues to a western sea, while to the south the forest peeters out into thick grasslands littered with copses of rich timber. These areas are rich in the saltrice with which the Folk are familiar, and lumbering sun-bears bask along the coast. Granite outcroppings make up most of the cliffs of this broken shoreline.
East of Ornmont, following the line of the eastern sea, great mountain spurs rise upward from the sea's edge. These peaks swiftly rise so high that snow tops their peaks, a formidable range which marches away southward, though to the east it subsides once more into forested hillocks. Immense twisted pines with bark the color of the dark places of the earth populate these slopes, and little grows near them - no sound of bird or bests is heard in these foreboding midnight forests, and the very stone about their roots has been drained of color. Quartz is to be found in these cliffs, of little value but perhaps betraying other rarer minerals deep below, and odd flecks of native silver wash down to the sea in the currents of the mountain streams.
The Remnants of Corvus: Emissaries return from Forgefend and Ironpeak alike - both offer different terms of trade, perhaps befitting the nature of the recipients. The Deepkin seem interested in the offer of wrought tools, proposing an exchange of a caravan of wains of the blood-red ore for one of the curious smoky metal of the dusk and one of the same in industrial goods. The Republicans of Ironpeak, on the other hand, offer a different exchange - they bind themselves to deliver a caravan of hematite every year for the next two generations, if the men of Corvus will provide them with ten thousand suits of good iron armor in return, enough to equip an army.
As for the Rebuilders, though they receive the emissaries well enough, they are leery of the offer. They have fought long and hard to be their own masters, and though the hand of friendship of Corvus is generous, their council of leaders politely state that their people do not wish to exchange of a cage of iron for a cage of gold. They are content to swear friendship to the men of the Remnant, but offer little more in way of assurances.
The Storm-Empire of Warcyfle: Efforts to extract the rich lightningstone have begun, but the industry sent for the effort have only begun to scratch the surface. Six units of Lightningstone have been extracted; greater investment could see even greater reward! There is, however, dark news. Raiders have come once more to Mauti, assailing the city and seeking to seize slaves. The brave efforts of the warriors of Lo have seen them off, but casualties were not light.
The Bacchanal Republic of Manikos: Dark tidings from the west - the caravans sent to the lands near Varra report that the outpost there has been destroyed, her burnt ruins all that remain of what was once a bustling settlement of the fair Machakan people. This disaster dampens trade, and those who remain far beyond the borders of Manikos are holding back resources to reinforce their own ambitions and homes. Trade Outposts will not produce resources until the next generation.
The Landsraad Imperium: Prospectors below Tsargrad report nothing of interest in their surveying and delving. The same is true of the miners sent into the depths of the crimson spires of Zharrdehur. Minor religious discord has occurred in the city of Forgefend, zealous agents of the Order of the Sky-Mother, a cult not yet given official sanction, petitioning the state to allow them to send missionaries to the Corvidians and Khortuun in the east. Such an action is likely to jeopardize relationships with these states, particularly the theocratic Khortuun, but a failure to act will upset the radicals.
Nordwood: There is nothing of great note this year, save quiet progress - which can be taken as a good omen after the disruptions of the past months, which are beginning to die down.
The Taiyang Dynasty: Military disaster dogs the steps of the People of Heaven. The laborers dispatched beyond the warding walls of Yuzhou this year to raise settlements in the hinterlands are ambushed by the eastern barbarians, many taken captive and others slain. Two thousand Freedmen have been lost. The enemy has marched back north in the direction of Nanzhou, apparently sated with the plunder they have extracted from the Huang. The army of the Huang which was to ambush the barbarians has reformed in Zhongdu, their casualties accounted for and their officers appropriately chastened: only six thousand and ninety eight of their wards have returned from the battle, the rest slain or deserted.
Khortuun: The cities of the Khortuun are quiet and peaceful, which is a relief. The emissaries sent to treat with the people of Ironpeak are greeted politely, but their overture rejected - the Great Republic may not be as strong as she once was, but then again, neither are the Khortuun. Bonds of blood are strong yet with distant Rivermouth, and the Republic of the River has strong commercial and financial ties to Ironpeak, the provider of the iron she uses to arm and armor her legions.
