Outreach across the marshes

Albet van Temeschwar watched the young orc conduct the lesson with a dedication to her charges that would have made any priest of the Little Mother proud. Swift Fisher might be young, but like many Summer Children, she was impossibly tall and surprisingly mature for her age. Even so, it was a peculiar scene, the young orc stood in front of an antique looking blackboard on a heavy wooden frame, as half a dozen adult members of the sept struggled to copy their letters.

In many ways the whole thing epitomised the Sand Fishers. The young members of the sept were packed off to Holberg to study in the schools (and lately the university) alongside the children of Holberg's wealthy families. But as soon as school was out, they had to hurry home where they were expected to devote every hour to teaching what they knew to the older members of the sept before they headed back to the city. Albet couldn't remember the last time he'd spoken with someone so dedicated. When he'd asked Swift Fisher where she'd got the black board from, she'd explained that her school had been throwing it out, so she and a fellow student had lugged the rickety old thing all the way back to Misericorde between them.

He smiled to himself as a humorous notion occurred to him. "We can't possibly let them join the League" he whispered to Verah, "they work too hard... they'll make the rest of us look bad!" His fellow prince stifled a laugh, to avoid disturbing the lesson.

She shook her head as if to disagree with him. "It'll be fine," she explained, "a few hours in the company of Harlequin and he'll teach them "enjoying the fruits" is the whole point of all that labour."

Albet smiled but something about the exchange struck him as significant. He'd jumped at the chance to come to Misericorde when Lia Adelaar had asked the merchant princes to find a way to persuade the orcs to join the League. He'd told himself it was the opportunity for new customers, and maybe even the prospect of finding new members for his carta, but mostly he'd just been curious for a chance to meet the famous Holberg Orcs. Now he had, it was easy to see why everyone seemed to like the Sand Fishers. They were as affable as they were earnest. Enthusiastic supporters of Holberg and the League, they were honest and hard-working in equal measures.

It raised the rather obvious question of why anyone would want to change that. Albet and the other merchant princes had all been briefed on what they were here to do, but suddenly he was struck by the fact that he didn't know why he was here at all. To persuade the Sand Fishers to join the Empire of course, but why? Was all this for their benefit... or the Empires?

He didn't have the answer to that question, which was annoying because he had a feeling it just might be the key to the whole thing.

The Merchant Prince of Misericorde Market, Jonah Yakovitch, is one of the Imperial envoys to the Sand Fishers.

Overview

At the Spring Equinox, the League Assembly declared attracting other people to join the Empire was their highest calling. It is a Virtuous endeavour, but even the League cannot move the whole world at once. To be effective the nation would need to focus their efforts on one group at a time. They also needed to decide who might be best to spearhead this diplomacy.

The League Assembly overwhelmingly backed the judgement of Lia Adelaar von Holberg urging the Princes of the League to reach out to the Sand Fishers. The Prosperous sept of orcs were given the region of Misericorde as their own lands in Spring 383YE - since then the relationship has only grown stronger. Now the Princes of the League are aiming to see what might be done to persuade the sept to join the Empire; who better to persuade the orcs of the benefits of a seat at the great game?

Ultimately, the egregore decides who can or cannot join a nation - the nature of the bond is that it can only be formed with someone an egregore recognises as having the potential to be a member of the nation. But the League has already embraced the Apulian Orcs, why not the Holberg Orcs as well? Either way, the Empire can benefit by holding their allies close.

Virtuous Friends

Thanks to the wayfarers who preached in Ossium, the orcs of Misericorde have found deep wells of Pride within them.

The Sand Fishers have enthusiastically embraced the idea of Prosperity.

The Sand Fishers are deeply grateful to the League and the Empire for everything it has done for them

It is hard to imagine a group more likely to be open to the prospect of joining the Empire than the Sand Fishers. Holberg took a big risk when they ceded an entire region of Holberg to a foreign sept, one only just liberated from the rule of the Druj, but the gamble appears to have paid off. The sept have contributed to the Prosperity of the territory, working with the League to develop the Flaxen Pillars so that both parties could share the benefits. They have traded herbs with League farms as well as using them to buy mithril and weirwood from the Misericorde market. They've even made donations to the Imperial treasury, albeit a fraction of what they would have paid were they actual citizens dwelling in the Empire.

They've also embraced the Virtues with a fervour that would put a League bishop to shame. Most of them are passionate advocates of Prosperity, but they also talk about the importance of Ambition, Loyalty, Courage, Pride, Vigilance and Wisdom. They quote the tenets of the Virtues with obvious reverence and they treat auras of the Virtues as nothing short of magical. Every season they pay seven priests of Holberg to walk all the way to Misericorde just to create consecrations for them, and those who can afford it, purchase an anointing whenever the opportunity presents itself. And they see even the most innocuous hallowed items as priceless weapons. They have an unshakeable conviction that the Empire is beating the Druj because of the Way - they contrast the power of the Virtues favourably with the Druj's embrace of the malign spiritual aura of fear.

They've also taken advantage of every opportunity the Empire has extended to them. They've sent members of the sept to study war magic with the Imperial Orcs in Skarsind and with the Imperial Necromancer Claudia Remislav. Young Sand Fishers are now a common sight in Holberg where they attend schools and universities, studying hard alongside other League students and citizens. Such an education is expensive, but it has all been paid for by the Imperial Senate.

If there was a single act that really made the difference however, it was the defence of the Sand Fishers when the Druj came hunting them. Up to that point, the Sand Fishers seemed convinced that somehow the Druj would find them and drag them back into slavery, that everything they had gained by throwing in their lot with the Empire would be torn away from them. At the point where the Empire risked their own armies to protect the sept from the ancient enemies, it convinced them that this new future would last and that their new allies could be trusted with their lives.

Given all that, the real question is why in the name of the Seven Virtues, wouldn't they join the Empire?

Sticking Points

There are four key sticking points preventing the Sand Fishers from joining the Empire

Despite everything the Empire have done for them, there are a number of sticking points holding the Sand Fishers back from joining the Empire. They are reluctant to talk aboit them, but the merchant princes visiting Misericorde are persuasive and used to getting their own way. Eventually the orcs are convinced to talk openly about the prospect of becoming part of the Empire.

Paradise

The Sand Fishers are deeply reluctant to give up ownership of their own lands and the right to rule themselves

Almost every Sand Fisher alive today who is over the age of ten has lived the majority of their life under the mind-numbing cruelty of the Druj. When they dwelled in Ossium, the Sand Fishers were subject to unbelievably callous brutality on a day-to-day basis, expressly intended to break their spirit. The Empire freed them from that horror, giving them new lands to dwell in, away from the homeland of the Druj. The Sand Fishers are deeply grateful to the Empire for freeing them from the Druj rule, but the very cause of that gratitude, the precious freedom they have gained, is the same thing that makes it difficult for them to accept the offer to join the League.

The sept like having their own laws, their own leadership, and most especially their own lands. They speak of Misericorde with something akin to awe - they're aware that most Holbergers consider it to be a fairly worthless strip of coastline, but to them it's akin to a utopia. It's not hard to eulogise a land of plenty, overflowing with food and drink, and safe from all threats, when you and your people have suffered hunger and deprivation for decades under the brutal rule of the Druj. It is hard for them to see joining the Empire as anything other than giving up that paradise.

And while Three Hands and the other elders might still lead the sept, they know that if they join the Empire they won't be making their own rules; they won't govern themselves. The younger Sand Fishers have studied civics in school; they know that anyone with a business will get a vote in the Holberg senatorial elections if they attend Anvil. But only one Sand Fisher with a business has ever made that long journey, so the reality for them is that they'll be led by a senator they only met once and that briefly, and subject to the laws of a Senate they've never even seen.

They're Proud of the fact that they rule themselves now. They're not foolish enough to imagine that they could ever have thrown off the tyranny of the Druj by themselves - they know that self-rule was a gift given to them by the Empire. But they've embraced that gift and taken it into their hearts - persuading them to give it up is not easy. Not at the moment, at least.

We’re not ready to live on Imperial lands. The young ones are – they don’t know any different. They don’t remember what it is like to live under a tyrant. But I remember. My sept remembers. We’re just not ready to live under someone else's laws, not yet. You gave us Misericorde so that we could rule ourselves. That is precious to us – unbelievably precious. We are not yet ready to return this gift you gave us.

Three Hands

The Empire could just wait for this problem to go away. The Sand Fishers are a young growing sept, and within two generations, twenty years at most, this problem will be completely gone. Sand Fishers like Swift Fisher and Fleeting Grin would join the League in a heartbeat - but for the fact that they won't leave their sept. Once people like Swift Fisher and her peers are in the majority, then it's almost inevitable that the sept will embrace the Empire, but that day is still a long way off.

Prudence

The Sept as a whole would be financially worse off if they joined the League

There is a pragmatic reason not to join the Empire - namely the Sand Fishers would simply be worse off. Three Hands openly repeats something he has already said in a letter to Lia Adelaar von Holberg.

You gave us Misericorde, land that is teeming with life. But we’re not covered by your laws. We don’t have to pay any taxes. We’ve checked and our donation is a fraction of what we would pay if we were actually taxed like citizens. But when the Druj came… you defended us. We’ve got everything we could possibly want – and there is no price for any of it. Why would we give that up?

Three Hands

The Empire provides many benefits for its citizens - but few are more fundamental than the fact that it strives to defend its citizens from any threat. That promise is often honoured more in the breach on the borders of the Empire, but Holberg is protected by the greatest fortification in the world. There are fifteen thousand soldiers who garrison the territory - and curtain walls like mountains. The Sand Fishers might not have studied at the Barossa School of Imperial Strategy but they understand the implications of that perfectly. They have plans they train to abandon Misericorde, if needed, and retreat to the protection of those giant walls if their lands are attacked by the Druj.

Crucially they understand that that garrison costs a small fortune to maintain. They don't know how expensive Imperial armies are, but they do know it reqires inconceivable sums of money to keep them in the field. The Sand Fishers get all the benefits of the protection the Imperial military provides - and they pay nothing towards its upkeep.

Another great benefit of Imperial life is education. The Sand Fisher sept were completely illiterate when they came to Misericorde. If the Druj found a Sand Fisher who could read or write, they would have been subject to an agonising execution for possession of forbidden lore. Likely they would be slowly impaled on a spear in front of the whole sept as a warning to others. The youngest Sand Fishers study at Holberg with a passion for their lessons that puts many a native born Holberg child to shame. They treat their classes the way a drowning man treats a mouthful of air. The young Fishers learned their letters in record time, in part because they spent the time out of school teaching the older members of the sept. The Sand Fishers treat the education they get in Holberg as a priceless gift.

Gift is arguably the right way to describe it - because it costs the Imperial Senate over fifty thrones a year to pay to give the Sand Fishers access to the finest teachers money can buy. And the Sand Fishers contribute essentially nothing to these costs. It's all given to them for free.

Imperial citizens who own property pay taxes to meet some of the huge costs of running the Imperial state. But the Sandfishers get all these benefits of being citizens of the Empire - without paying any of the costs. They're not the only ones with such a beneficial deal - the Sarcophan have somehow persuaded the Empire to provide them with some of the same benefits in their enclave in the Alivetti estates. But there are scores of Sarcophan there who own property at most, compared to hundreds of Sand Fishers who have established their own businesses. There would be costs if the Sand Fishers joined the League - the Empire would have to pay to maintain and govern the region of Misericorde, but the taxation of the territory would rise to more than cover that.

That's taxes that aren't going to the Sand Fishers. Wealthy Sand Fishers will be able to pay their tax easily - some of them are remarkably Prosperous these days - but they're also a very communal people. They're very motivated by what is in the best interests of the Sand Fishers. And it's hard to escape the obvious conclusion that joining the Empire isn't actually in their best interests - not when they currently get everything for free.

There are benefits of citizenship that the Sand Fishers don't enjoy. Most obviously, they don't have access to Imperial lore - so they are unable to study ritual magic. In a sept of thousands, they have one trained ritual magician - an orc called White Beard. He's very studious by all accounts, but he's not forming his own coven any time soon. But they never had ritual magic and they've quickly adjusted, hiring Holberg magicians to pay for enchantments on their properties.

The Sand Fishers have worked all this out for themselves. They know how good the deal they have is. It clear that this imbalance is a source of some distress for them - they are aware of the tenet of Prosperity that teaches people to "Despise... those who take without giving". The sept are searching for a way to redress what they see as this failure of Virtue. But it doesn't make it easier to persuade the Sand Fishers that they should join the Empire when they have almost all the benefits of being members, without suffering any of the costs. Pragmatically speaking, the sept are simply better off the way they are.

Philosophy

The Sand Fisher belief in reincarnation is at odds with the Doctrines of the Faith.

The Sand Fishers believe they reincarnate, a view that is at odds with the Way

For all their commitment to Virtue, the sept don't have the best grasp of the Way. Some of the younger ones who have studied in the schools of Holberg can recite the Doctrines of the Faith by heart, but it's not clear that any of the Sand Fishers pay them much heed. They revere the seven Virtues, but they're fully aware that their beliefs are at odds with the Doctrines of the Faith and by and large they don't care.

Perhaps the reason for that is that the Sand Fishers believe that their own metaphysical beliefs are probably not true. Most of the sept believe they reincarnate - that has been the oral tradition that formed the basis of their views going back as far as anyone can remember. But of late they have started to suspect that this might not be true - and that if it isn't then it could be a lie deliberately spread by the Druj.

As a result, most Sand Fishers believe what happens after death to be a mystery. They're not particularly motivated to try to solve that mystery - they're a lot more concerned with building up their farms and businesses than they are with metaphysics and epistemology. But when pushed, they're happy to discuss the Doctrines and when encouraged to be frank their views are alarmingly at odds with the Way. They don't know if orcs reincarnate or not, but as far as they are concerned, it just doesn't seem very likely that humans reincarnate and orcs don't. Why would that be so? Clearly orcs and humans are different because humans have true liao and orcs have black lotus, but the fact that orcs can't use liao doesn't seem to them like a solid basis for an entire set of metaphysical assumptions about what happens to the souls of orcs when they die.

None of this worries the Sand Fishers in the slightest. They're simply not that curious about this kind of metaphysical question. As Three Hands says, either we get one life and should make it as Virtuous as possible because that's all we get, or we reincarnate and so we should be as Virtuous as possible to ensure that happens quickly - so it doesn't really matter which is true. What does concern them is that if they were subject to Imperial law then they could face execution for their beliefs. An Imperial Orc was executed by the Empire for failing to observe the Doctrines within the last year. The Sand Fishers are no more observant of the Doctrines than Bloodcrow Knott was.

None of this was a problem for the Apulian Orcs when they joined the League - they quietly abandoned centuries of supposedly, deeply held religious beliefs at the drop of a hat when it was clear they weren't acceptable to the Empire. But the Sand Fishers are a very different prospect - a deeply earnest people - they won't change their beliefs simply because it is politic to do so. They'll cite the tenets of Pride and Courage and face their deaths accordingly.

It is possible that the Sand Fishers could be convinced that the idea that they reincarnate is wrong. They are open to such a possibility, they suspect much of what they believe to be false.

...we were taught that all life is an essential torment, into which orcs are born over and over again. But we know now that this not true, because life in Holberg is good! Life in Holberg is great! So everything we have always believed is a lie. We suspect the Druj taught us these things, the better to crush our spirits.

Three Hands

But given their history with the Druj it won't be easy for an external group to persuade them of something new. And worse, at the moment, people keep trying to encourage them to talk to the Marcher Orcs who are absolutely adamant that they reincarnate. Exposure to other orcs who believe in reincarnation is only likely to buttress their existing beliefs and demonstrate that the idea of orc reincarnation is not just something the Druj made up to subjugate them.

Probity

Events in the Barrens continue to cast a long shadow over all the Empire's efforts to deal with orc folk.

The Sand Fishers don't want to be associated with the excesses of Imperial military policy

Holberg lies just across the border from the Barrens. For obvious reasons, the Sand Fishers take a lot of interest in the war with the Druj, and they watched the events of the conquest of the Barrens unfold with horror. All their experiences with the Empire have been overwhelmingly benevolent - the Empire freed them from the rule of the Druj, gave them an entire region of land of their own where they could govern themselves, and then fought and died to protect them from the Druj. The Empire has been nothing but good to the Sand Fishers throughout - their experience of the Empire is overwhelmingly positive.

As a result, they're horrified by the treatment of the Rahvin, the Black Wind, the Vendarri and most particularly, the Montanians. They expected the Empire to treat these groups the same way they were treated - the fact that the Empire's treatment was arguably worse than the horrors of the Druj astounded and appalled them in equal measures. For all their Ambition, the Sand Fishers are not well informed about political decision making in the Empire and perhaps as a result, they have absolutely no idea at all why that happened. They simply do not understand why they were treated so well, when others were treated so badly.

The Sand Fishers have rarely expressed these opinions to the Empire. They may not be ruled by anyone any more, but centuries of deference are hard to break. But they have not shied away from pointing out the inconsistencies to anyone who has spoken to them. On more than one occasion they have been asked to represent the Empire to the other septs languishing under the rule of the Druj. To explain to people how good life can be in the Empire - how well the Empire treats them. They have always demurred, pointing out that Pride would compel them to also acknowledge how badly the Empire has treated some groups. They are happy to extol the benefits that they have gained through siding with the Empire, but they won't hide what happened to the other septs, less fortunate than themselves.

What concerns the Sand Fishers is not that the Empire might do these things. They like the Empire, and they love the League, but they understand that the Empire is far from perfect. In some ways they have a higher view of the Empire than some citizens do. Yes, at it's worst, it is cruel and tyrannical, capable of cruelty that would make even the Druj blanche. But at its best it is a beacon of Virtue - capable of benevolence that no Druj could ever contemplate. An Empire that swings between embracing the Virtues one moment and imitating the Druj the next is infinitely better than the Druj, even if that is only true half of the time.

The problem for the Sand Fishers is one of moral conscience - of culpability. As allies of the Empire with negligible political influence, the Sand Fishers are not haunted by the murder in the Barrens. They wish the Empire had shown the septs the same mercy they were given, but they don't blame themselves for what happened. The Sand Fishers don't imagine that the Varushkans would have held back if Three Hands had written them a strongly-worded letter asking them not to wipe out the Montanians. They don't believe that there was anything they could have done to stay the hand of General Archavion and save the Rahvin.

But the Sand Fishers are a very communal people - they make major decisions by everyone coming together, talking it through and agreeing what to do. It's not dissimilar to the approach used by most Urizen spires - it's the sort of simple practical arrangement that works for small communities. But that approach affects how they see the world - in their minds the decisions the sept makes are made by everyone in the sept. They believe that if they join the Empire then they become responsible for the things the Empire says and does. If that happens, and there are further massacres like the three that characterised just the closing moments of the Barrens campaign then that will be on them.

This world is full of evil, but none more so than the Druj. The Empire has fought the Druj for so long that the taint of them has infected you. It is the poison in your blood. They are the sickness in your soul. Perhaps when the world is free of the Druj you will be whole. Or perhaps when the world is free of them you will simply take their place.

River Cloud

That thought of being culpable for such deeds horrifies the Sand Fishers. They hate the Druj with every fibre of their being. But it's what the Druj represent that they hate. The idea of imitating the Druj, of becoming the Druj, is a moral evil they cannot - will not - countenance.

Practical Issues

The Sand Fishers have put down deep roots in Holberg.

There are some countervailing considerations as well. These issues are not fundamental - and they're probably not intractable. Provided that their friends in the League have considered them and are satisfied that the problems are not insurmountable they won't stop the Sand Fishers joining, but they do reflect some of the more worldly concerns the sept has.

Flax

The Sand Fishers are concerned that the Flaxen Pillars could be relinquished

The Sand Fishers control the land that a great stand of weirwood, the Flaxen Pillars is on. Working hand-in-glove with the League, the sept have established logging operations there complete with kilns to dry the timber. They share the output with the League, in return for the investment needed to develop the resource - an arrangement that provides a range of complex benefits for both parties.

Crucially, the Flaxen Pillars salves a part of the Sand Fisher's moral qualms. As far as they are concerned they are sharing all that is worthwhile with those who deserve it. The fact that the League benefits from the Flaxen Pillars is a Virtuous response to the many things the League has given them. That reciprocity is part of the reason they insisted that the resulting bourse seat must be a League position.

If the Sand Fishers join the Empire, then Misericorde won't belong to the sept, it will belong to the Empire and that means the Flaxen Pillars won't belong to the orcs either. And that means it would be legal for the League to relinquish control of the Pillars, to make them an Imperial position. The Sand Fishers see the Pillars as a fundamental part of their settlement with the League - the thing they have done that benefits the League in a way that reflects what the League did for them by giving them Misericorde.

That kind of reciprocity is very important to them. Perhaps ironically, the Sand Fishers are ultimately concerned that if they join the Empire, they won't be in a position to pay the Empire back for everything it's done for them. But on a more practical level, they simply don't want their allies in the League to lose control of the Flaxen Pillars.

Bunds

The sept are concerned that the lands of Rebeshof and Utterlund have been drained to create farmland
The sept don't want to farm land that does not belong to them
The League does not have anyone who wants to farm these lands

A few years ago, the late Professor Immanuel Gelberg was called on to appraise the Prosperity of Holberg. As part of his work he proposed the construction of a series of dykes to drain the wetlands of Holberg. Once complete, they would slowly drain the marshes, turning them into fertile farmland. Work began on the Adelaarskade after the Autumn Equinox 387YE and it was quickly completed. As a result, the wetlands of Rebeshof and Utterlund will be slowly drained, and, assuming nothing else changes, the regions will lose the marsh quality by the start of the Spring Equinox 389YE.

The Sand Fishers are deeply concerned about this development. As they understand it, the plan relies on members of the sept settling in these new lands, where they will live as foreigners (or citizens if they join the Empire) and farm the land. That will produce wealth for the Sand Fishers and food for Holberg - they can see the advantages, but there are two distinct problems.

The first is that there are not enough members of the Sept who are interested in settling in Imperial lands to make a difference. The Sand Fishers are inordinately Proud of the fact that they own the lands they live on - they belong to the sept. They don't want to live as foreigners - as guests - of the Empire. The taxation, ironically, is not the issue. The crown tax that each farm will need to pay is insignificant compared to the profits that Sand Fishers like Frost Eyes have calculated that a pig farm would generate. It is the emotional hurdle - the barrier of moving from living on their own lands to the lands of others that bothers them.

Of course if they were members of the Empire, the land would not be a problem - but it would create a very different issue. If the Sand Fishers join the Empire, most folk would expect them to join the League. It's certainly what many of them imagine may eventually happen to the younger members of the sept. But if they join the League, they'll become League citizens, they'll form a magical bond with the League egregore. They'll dress a little bit more like League citizens, they'll think more like other League citizens, they'll act more like any other League citizen would.

And that's a problem, because as Three Hands has repeatedly pointed out, there are precious few people in Holberg who want to live miles from the city, farming for a living. Most of the population of the territory is concentrated in the city, and moving to the city is the kind of dream that animates anyone with imagination and drive who doesn't already live there. Many older Sand Fishers still find the bustling streets of Holberg intimidating, but the younger members of the sept certainly don't. If the Sand Fishers become League citizens, why would they settle for farming lands in Rebeshof and Utterlund? Prominent League citizens don't run farms - they live in the city and run businesses. If the Sand Fishers were League citizens, why would they be any different?

...all the Sand Fishers love Holberg and we don’t want anything bad to ever happen to it. We just want good things to happen to Holberg!

Swift Fisher

But if the Sand Fishers don't farm the land who will? This issue seems to genuinely animate the Sand Fishers - they're concerned that their friends and allies in Holberg have spent a prince's fortune arranging to drain the marshes to turn them into farmland and now there is going to be nobody to farm the land. They hate the thought of all that food going uneaten - they don't want the the city of Holberg to miss out on anything. The sept joining the Empire makes the problem of who will farm the outlying parts of the territory worse - not better - and that's a deep concern for them.

Conclusions

The diplomacy carried out by the merchant princes of the League have identified all the issues that might prevent the Sand Fishers from joining the Empire
The leaders of the sept are coming to Anvil at 4pm on the Saturday to discuss joining the Empire with the League
This is a singular opportunity for the leaders of the League to persuade the sept if they can successfully address those concerns

These problems cannot be solved by commissioning a sinecure or giving the Sand Fishers access to Imperial lore. Not even the vaunted prognosticators could appraise a simple way to improve relations with the Sand Fishers. The Empire has not given the Sand Fishers everything they asked for, but they have given them lands, protected them from the Druj, and paid to educate their children. As a result, the Sand Fishers already love Holberg - there is no easy way to make them like the Empire more. And even if there was, it isn't clear that that would address the essential doubts the Sand Fishers have.

The merchant princes who followed Lia Adelaar von Holberg to Misericorde to talk with the Sand Fishers have used their long years of experience as politicians to discover exactly what motivations the Sand Fishers have, but in doing so they have proved that the situation cannot be resolved simply by building a commission. As Albet van Temeschwar, Merchant Prince of the Four Crows charmingly puts it - "everything in life boils down to one of two things, problems you can throw money at to make them go away - and problems you can't." According to the merchant princes, this is the second. The nation's experts at throwing money at problems to make them go away, think this is very definitely not that kind of problem.

For their part, the Sand Fishers are open to discussing these problems in detail at Anvil. One thing the arrival of some of the most prominent members of League society has done is help to convey to the sept just how important this matter is to their neighbours. As a result, Three Hands and some of the other leaders of the sept are planning to travel to Anvil in the time for the next summit. They plan to head to the camp of the Rebeshof Roadwarden, Lia Adelaar von Holberg at 4pm on Saturday.

Once there they will make themselves available to anyone who wishes to discuss the issue of the sept joining the Empire. The meeting is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to persuade the Sand Fishers to fully embrace the Empire. All that is needed is for the leaders of the League to find a way to address enough of the Sand Fisher's concerns.

An Oddity

The Sand Fishers are raising a small armed force in Misericorde

As the merchant princes are making their way back to Holberg and the rest of the Empire, one of them, Arios von Temeschwar happens to mention the army the Sand Fishers are raising. There is some laughter at first, everyone knows the Sand Fishers don't have any soldiers. The closest thing they have to any warriors at all is their hunters and the bows and spears they use are ill-suited for warfare. But Arios is absolutely adamant that he had been talking with two members of the sept who had to leave because "it was time for drill". Intrigued, he'd gone with them to discover a camp deep in the heart of Misericorde, where the Sand Fishers are raising a small army - equipping members of the sept with mithril weapons and armour and training and drilling them in basic principles of warfare.

According to Arios, it is a very small army - a fraction of the size of an Imperial force. At most there are probably five hundred armed soldiers being equipped and trained. But they've clearly been at it for a while now and to his eye, they soldiers look green and inexperienced, but no more so than a newly raised Imperial army might be.

Discussion among the group confirms that nobody knew the Sand Fishers were doing this. It's not clear where they have got the mithril from and while technically they can do what they like on their own lands, it is concerning that they haven't mentioned this to anyone. Arios' report suggests that the camp is not exactly a state secret, but on the other hand, they've clearly hidden it away... And Three Hands and the other leaders of the sept have never once mentioned what they're doing to anyone.

It's a cause for concern among the merchant princes, in what is otherwise seen as a largely successful venture. And does it really matter? The merchant princes have identified the issues that will need to be addressed if the Sand Fishers are to join the Empire. The rest of the League just needs to step up and seal the deal and then the sept will become citizens and it won't matter that there is an orc army, albeit a very small one, hiding in the forests of Misericorde.

Outreach across the marshes

Contents

Overview

Virtuous Friends

Sticking Points

Paradise

Prudence

Philosophy

Probity

Practical Issues

Flax

Bunds

Conclusions

An Oddity

Further Reading

Profound Decisions[edit | | ]

Community[edit | | ]

Wiki Editors[edit | | ]