Empire Spotlight Series, Part 2: The Kin of Zahargund.

This is the third entry in our series of short stories designed to give you taste of the larger factions that occupy The Enclave, and will no doubt shape the lives and stories of the player Houses. Want to be part of the story? Join us on Friday for our weekly games and join the Community Discord.

Repudiation’s Consequences Though it lacked the same manner of wild and dangerous beasts as other Continents, the Rimeland's mountain range still posed a deadly threat to those who underestimated her thunderous, icy breaths. The residents of Kryzvéna knew this well, having chosen to build their homes partially embedded into a cliff face that once roared to life with a waterfall. 

They had seen what happened when others had built on lands deemed the property of the Dwarves of Zahargund. Kryzvéna itself had dealt with them before, and remained on reasonably good terms with them - though they suspected this was because there were far fewer hoops to jump through when one chose to reside outside the Dwarves’ domain. 

This has not been so for a group of Arrivals about twenty years prior. They had been warned not to set up their dwellings on the lusciously green western banks of the Granitsa River, one the few unfrozen water sources used to mark the border of the Dwarven kingdom. But, as some Arrivals had a penchant to be, a few hot-headed leaders insisted that they could "take on" anyone who dared to oppose their land claims.

It was almost amusing when not even a half-day later, a Dwarf with a gold-trimmed halfcape strode into the middle of the Arrivals’ encampment. Farmers from across the river in Kryzvéna saw members of the Arrivals madly gesticulating, while the Dwarf drew out a long sheet of parchment. The altercation went on until almost nightfall, when the Dwarf, appearing exasperated, left. 

Members of the Arrivals bragged in the tavern in Kryzvéna that evening. The Dwarves had come to complain about "lack of proper land procurement processes" and had threatened the group with "resource allocation management" if proper procedure had not been upheld. 

The heads of the Arrivals had laughed as they recounted telling "those stuffy bootlickers where they can stick their processes".  

They had no idea they had set in motion. 

Kryzvéna and the Arrivals awoke the next morning to see the entire riverbed had run dry. While the Arrivals panicked, the leaders of Kryzvéna were greeted with a missive from their perniciously inclined neighbours - an apology for the inconvenience caused by the river being diverted, but the new denizens needed to come to an agreement on taxing processes for living on Zahargund soil before reaping the benefits of the natural resources. 

The next morning, another Dwarf, in a gold-lined halfcape, arrived into the Arrivals encampment with a bundle of scrolls, detailing in fastidious detail the terms on which the Arrivals may stay on the land, and the tithe that would be owed. Once again, the leaders of the Arrivals balked, partially at the sheer volume of paperwork, and also at the persnickety elements to the agreement, down to exactly how many buckets of water could be taken from the stream per day, once it was returned. 

Having once again come to no agreement, the dwarf sighed. 

"I can see there is no reasoning with you. Farewell.” he said with a grimace. 

That was the final time the Arrivals would have direct contact with the Dwarves of the Zahargund, and although most celebrated, a few within their numbers were perturbed by the ominous nature of the dwarves' words.

The next morning, the few trees on the western side of the riverbank had been chopped down, and the wood was nowhere to be seen.

The morning after, the stumps had been removed from the ground, leaving the patch of land the Arrivals had camped on barren aside from the slurry of frozen mud where they slept. They had no drinkable water, no wood for fires, and were fast running out of what they had brought with them. 

It took only three days after the trees had been removed for the new Arrivals to make their decision. The denizens of Kryzvéna watched as the Arrivals packed up what little they had left, and crossed back over the river to the eastern side where Kryzvéna was located. 

As the last member of the Arrivals stepped off Zahargund soil and onto the eastern embankment, a thunderous crashing began to crescendo, and the Arrivals watched in a mix of fury and awe as the crystal clear waters of the riverbank returned in their full glory. 

Dwarves began descending upon the land, replanting saplings where trees had once stood and using scythes that glinted in the morning sun to trim the grass. Before long, the western bank looked as if it had never been touched, as it had the day the Arrivals found it.