Editing Daily Life Under the Shadow (section)

==The Steep Cost of Freedom==
The blood of the fey pays for what little freedom the
humans still enjoy. The war in Erethor and under the
Kaladrun Mountains has drawn away over half a million orcs
that could be occupying Erenland. In Erethor, the war extends
from the freezing bogs and evergreens of the Veradeen, along
the borders of the elven heartlands of the Gamaril River
Valley, Green March, and the Caraheen, and finally into the
dismal Druid’s Swamp of the Aruun. The elves fight a desperate
battle, giving ground foot by foot and watching as axe
and fire consume their ancient homeland.
Those that live free still suffer from the ongoing war
and the Shadow’s occupation of much of Erenland. Izrador’s
armies control the most fertile and easily accessible lands.
The free settlers have to struggle to survive, coaxing crops
out of barren, rock-strewn land and scrounging for fodder for
their declining herds. Clean water is a luxury in some areas
and its lack has led to famine and disease. The hard, thin soil
of these barren lands has forced most of the free people to
become nomads, moving from one pastureland to another.
The constant movement provides some protection from goblinkin
slavers that sweep ever farther into the wildlands
searching for fresh slaves. Villages and nomad camps are
forced to be on constant guard, setting pickets to scan the
horizon for sign of this scourge.
Strongholds of the
Resistance

====Erethor====
The demands of war reach into the very depths of
Erethor. No village is untouched, as the Witch Queen has
called every warrior that can wield a blade or notch an arrow
to bowstring to join the armies fighting along the Burning
Line. Only the very young or the infirm remain, left to tend
the groves and harvest Erethor’s bounty. Many villages, some
thousands of years old, have been abandoned because the
Witch Queen can not spare warriors to defend them. The orcs
are not the only danger to the residents of the wood; horrid
beasts created by the Sundering or roused from slumber by
Izrador stalk the darkest recesses of the wood. Demonic spirits
from the Aruun range farther north each year as the skilled
Danisil demon hunters fall one by one to their otherworldly
foes. Even the remote coastal villages of the Miransil are not
free from the conflict, as the dark god corrupts the great
beasts of the sea to his cause and the Witch Queen summons
troop levies from among the once peaceful coastal dwellers.

====The Kaladruns====
Unlike the war against the elves, in which orc armies
march en masse and the smoke and fire from the Burning
Line can be seen as a never-ending stain on the horizon, the
war against the dwarves is largely unseen. The orcs move
directly from the frozen north through the Icewall Mountains
and into the subterranean labyrinths of the Kaladruns. The
under-mountain rings with the clash of vardatch and spear
against axe and shield. Individual dwarven clans fight desperate
but hopeless holding actions against the uncountable
Shadow hordes. Some dwarven clans have survived by collapsing
every tunnel into their clanholds and praying to their
ancestors that the Shadow will pass them by.
Above the surface, the often impassable terrain has
allowed the Kurgun dwarves and their human allies to avoid
the worst ravages of the war. In the heights above Low Rock,
Dorn and Erenlander refugees have been able to carve homes
from the cliff sides, surviving thanks to their herds of boro
and goats. They watch in fear as the Night King Jahzir forms
a new army to strike at the dwarven clans from the south and
deny any hope to the former dwarven capital of Calador. The
southern Kaladruns and the foothills along the White Desert
have so far been mostly spared from the fighting. The clanholds
there are few, however, and have been so secluded that
they are unlikely to learn the lesson from their northern kin:
that uniting as one is the only hope in facing the orcs, who
gather even now near Drumlen.

====Raiders and Freeriders====
Even under the Shadow there is life and some small
degree of hope. North of the Pelluria, sheltered in the eaves
of the great forest and roaming free upon the Plains of Eris
Aman, House Redgard still fights for its people. With the help
of the Caransil and supposedly led by Roland, prince of
House Redgard, these insurgents have brought thousands of
refugees into the forest. While in some cases a burden to the
elves, these refugees have also assisted the war effort by
occupying elven villages that had to be abandoned when the
Witch Queen ran out of troops with which to defend them.
The raiders exist in a nest of uneasy freedom that is buffered
on the south by the Foul Bog of Eris Aman and to the northeast
by the ruins of Cale. With the Shadow focusing it efforts
well to the south and so many troublesome obstacles in the
way, only the orc garrisons of Fallport and Steel Hill remain
to harry the Redgards.
Meanwhile, many true heirs of Southern Erenland are
said to lead camps of freeriders south of the Ardune. While
the Shadow’s control here is absolute, the enemy has grown
complacent. There are no battle lines, something that the
clever insurgents use to their advantage. These noble princes
raid caravans, free slaves, and keep the traditions and tales of
their people alive while their usurpers lounge in palaces and
let the great Sarcosan cities fall into decadence and ruin.

====Wilds of Erenland====
Outside the more densely populated regions of
Eredane, in the vast wildlands, one of the greatest dangers is
the roving bands of goblinkin slavers. The slavers have free
reign to take as many humans as they can from villages not
under the Shadow’s dominion. The goblinkin have access to
many ready markets, all hungry for slaves: Steel Hill requires
miners, farms and cities alike need heavy laborers, the orcs
require occasional fresh meat to temper their hunger, and of
course the dark god’s priests require sacrifices. The slavers
especially prize young children that can be sold to legates or
collaborators to be raised and trained as loyal servants of
Izrador. Mercenary bands often purchase Dornish boys as servants,
later training them as soldiers to replace losses in their
ranks.
Slavers are not the only dangers in the wildlands. Poor
soil, lack of water, and limited game result in malnutrition or
even starvation. In the harsh winters in the north and the searing
heat of summer in the southern plains, many die each year
from exposure. The bleached bones of humans are a common
sight in the wastes of the White Desert or the cold tundras on
the northern coasts of the Endless Ocean. The harsh weather
is just one of the dangers. Animals turned feral and creatures
warped by the Sundering or maliciously altered by the
Shadow roam the wastes, competing for scarce food. In these
desperate times, even humans turn against each other: bandits
prey upon the weak and even fellow refugees may attack to
drive others away from areas with water and food.



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[[Midnight: North & South Portal|PORTAL]] &nbsp;|&nbsp; [[Midnight RPG - THE SOUTHIES|THE SOUTHIES]] &nbsp;





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[[Midnight: North & South Portal]]