SIM: The Blighted Lands
Background for a later book …
The Blighted Lands
Unlike the Allied Lands, the Blighted Lands have no formal existence. The necromancers who rule the lands wage war on each other with a terrifying frequency, to the point that borders – insofar as they exist at all – shift so rapidly that it is different to parse out the true size of any single necromancer’s domains. The landscape itself is mutable, depending on how much wild and/or tainted magic runs through the ground. It is a dangerous region to visit even if one should not encounter a necromancer or his servants. A person caught in a storm of magic might end up wishing he was dead.
The history of the Blighted Lands is not, in broad strokes at least, in dispute. Prior to the Faerie Wars, the Blighted Lands were part of the Empire. The names of long-gone kingdoms and city-states might have been forgotten over the years, but they existed. The wars, however, smashed the pre-war order beyond repair. The combination of wild magic, enemy intrusions and – eventually – the necromancers was simply too much to handle. The lucky ones managed to flee. The unlucky ones were killed, sacrificed or simply enslaved.
Despite their shifting nature, certain things are beyond dispute. The high-magic zones within the Blighted Lands, particularly the ones that play host to Faerie structures are far more dangerous than their northern counterparts. Even necromancers tend to give the dangerous ruins a wide berth. Storms of wild and tainted magic ravage the land, killing or transforming anyone unlucky enough to be caught in their grip. The lower-magic zones play host to everything from giant monsters, warped and mutated by the magic storms, to orcish settlements and human villages. The necromancers themselves tend to inhabit abandoned fortresses or cities, turning them into giant abattoirs. Even the smarter necromancers, the ones capable of understanding that killing all their slaves means depriving themselves of future slaves, can become lost in their lust for power. Most visitors to their lands never return.
Orcs are, as far as can be established, the most numerous race in the Blighted Lands. Shambling parodies of humanity, created by the Faerie; orcish males are incredibly strong, incredibly fast and almost mind-numbingly stupid. They are literally incapable of building a workable civilisation, if only because they fight each other for dominance. The only thing that keeps them in line is power. The necromancers have no trouble battering obedience into their heads (although even obedient orcs can’t follow complex orders, or indeed anything much more difficult than “charge”). Orcish women are supposed to be smarter, but very rarely seen. In theory, orcish women are grossly outnumbered by the males; in practice, despite the lopsided birthrate (ten males for every female), the high level of attrition amongst the male population keeps the gender balance remarkably even.
The human settlements within the Blighted Lands are nightmarish. Necromancers don’t need anything beyond magic and life force, so they rarely bother to encourage farmers to grow crops or craftsmen to produce much of anything. The settlements are more like plantations, with a goal of producing as many humans as possible. The inhabitants are effectively slaves, forbidden from leaving and striking out on their own (although the dangers surrounding the settlements are often enough to keep the inhabitants in place without fences and chains). Each settlement has a headman, who serves as liaison between the inhabitants and the local necromancer, and thugs, who serve as basic enforcers. (They often have some magic, although never enough to threaten the necromancer.) The arrangement is permanently unstable, if only because the necromancers are dangerously insane. A headman can be killed at a moment’s notice, on a whim or if he angers his master (regardless of how well he serves). Accordingly, none of the settlements are nice places to live … but some are worse than others.
The necromancers themselves have no formal structure. They do not ally with each other, save for a handful of very rare alliances that don’t last beyond one partner seeing advantage in betraying the other. Their society, such as it is, is ruled by force and force alone. A newcomer who overthrows a necromancer and takes his place is, insofar as the rest of the necromancers are concerned, the legitimate ruler. The smarter necromancers realise that fighting another necromancer is often dangerous – the loser will be dead, the winner will be so weakened that a third necromancer could jump him – but, given the nature of necromancy, it can be difficult to avoid a challenge.
The Blighted Lands do not have any formal relationships with outside powers, diplomatic or otherwise. The necromancers simply do not have the long-term focus to try to build relationships, even if they wanted to. There is very little trade between the Blighted Lands and the Allied Lands, almost all of it thoroughly illegal. A handful of merchants do move back and forth, at severe risk of their lives (particularly if they’re caught trafficking in illicit substances or simply anger a necromancer). Refugees are not unknown, but given the dangers of travel and the difficult terrain, rarely seen.
