Editing The Motley Crew (section)

==History==

'''The Grand and Terrible Age'''

When the [[Grand and High Powers]] finally fell to arrogance and insane magics in the Great Age, they took much of the Light out of the world.
*Whole peoples, lands, spirits and divine beings became pieces and pawns in their elaborate, ritual wars and amusements. 
*They bent time and space, plane and cosmos to their bidding, summoning Eldritch horrors to their own amusements, stocking and populating grand territories with their own creations.
*They violated ancient and divine precepts and slaughtered their avengers. 
*They began to bring change to the very fibre of reality to accommodate their increasing perversities.

The [[Great Wheel]] finally turned. So much so that the Moon, it’s mother, spun a tear from the sky to finally quell the Grand and High Powers.

The Grand and High Powers, in their arrogance unrepentant, were destroyed in a Light that decimated the Known lands.


'''The Moons Burn.'''

Completely destroyed every Grand or High Power, any offspring, anything that contained any of their essence or fragment of their spirit. It reached across all the known worlds at the same time and even into the infinite. All trace of the Powers ceased to be.

The Tear of the Moon fell on the heart of the Powers Empire and destroyed half the world - leaving behind huge, glassy wastelands surrounded by desert or desolate badlands. 

Only in places like Land Ends, where tall mountain ranges absorbed and deflected the worst of the Moons Burn, did people survive. Even here, great storms boiled overhead, thier rain and lightning seeking out and destroying any trace of the Grand and High Powers.

'''History begins'''

Things that were not part of the Powers survived the Moons Burn if they were not touched by the great burning light directly. This included people. Most of the survivors were servants of the Powers, their pets or slaves, unwitting or otherwise. With all the great wonders and everyday magics of the Powers gone, most peoples fell to barbarism or reverted to more primitive lifestyles. Here and there, cities or estates held on to enough knowledge and civilisation to use metals and mills and keep some of the old skills alive.
Most of these places, like Motley, have a similar history, holding on to enough of a civilization to weather the Storm and the chaos afterwards.

'''Recent history'''
That was a long time ago as the Sages tell it, in the lives of long dead ancestors. Those who count say it's been 442 solar years.

But the world still feels small this side of the mountains that saved the remnant populations of the hundreds of different types of subject peoples, left behind when the Grand and High powers were consumed and used to rebalance the world.

Illis is an isolated citadel and market town and has been for nearly 200 years - although two Kingdoms and three Empires have come and gone, Illis has been Illis through all of it. The same with Odd Arbage, one of several villages and clans owing loyalty to Illis. It is a Cliffside fishing town and deepwater port, home, like Illis, do well over a dozen clans and bloodlines from the last age. It has a small Keep and residing Captain, three shrines and a small collection of houses and homes. It is also home to the adventurers.

The area is ruled by the Illisian Prince, now Governor and Marshall of Eastport - a title that has changed hands more than once. The current Prince hopes to establish a legacy, but then so did the last three.

Between them, the Town and Villages provide shelter for 4 000 souls, and support the surrounding 15 000 who work the land and sea. The province is sheltered between the Saviour Mounts to the East and North and the Karstfells to the West, and has very little flat, open land, except around the rivermouth. Odd Arbage sits East the mouth of the Aird river, which flows North and East through rugged, unnavigable twists and turns, all the way to the Lee Plateaus and the Republic of which Illis is currently a far-flung arm.

Not that it is an ignored subject - the fisherfolk bring in exotic Southern fish and other things, dyes and shells the sell well in the north. The same with the local fruit and root crops - all have a market far away, which means coin and exotic goods, and the folk of Illis grow barley and wheat enough only for their own needs. Even the peasants do well by Republican standards.

Add the small but steady merchant ship traffic that ventures into Odd Arbage from the Border colonies or Manii to the west, and the place is fairly cosmopolitan for a village of 650 odd.