Yet, Er-Darim is not uninhabited. In cyclopic cities erected on stone crags reaching above the swamp, humans make their living, and over uncounted centuries, bought with tens of thousands of lifes, roads and even a giant stone causeway have been erected.

The power over Er-Darim rests with the priesthood on residing on the island paradise of Er-Ruadh, of which even most inhabitants of the country have never heard. Tradition and obediance have ever been the way of the cities. Life is hard in the swamps, food and hunting are scarce, and many die young of disease, and there is little room for questioning the way of things. Being cast out from a city usually means a death sentence.

Conditions are a little less harsh in the eastern parts of the swamps, where salt marshes give way to grassland, and some villages have managed to establish some degree of independence by escaping into the foothills of the mountains. There is little trade with the outside world - every few years, an especially brave trader manages to cross the mountains and do business with some of the outlying villages, but a stranger reaching deeper into the swamplands, to one of the big cities, would almost certainly be killed.

Nobody knows who originally built the foundations of Ak-Endur or Ak-Arun, what the purpose of the causeway may be, or what the priesthood in the golden temple is really doing, but there is certainly no shortage of tales.

Created by Thorsten Renk 2016 - see the disclaimer and contact information.