Story of Keshen

22nd day of Kenea, 3300, written by Makshi Barkhata

As the construction of our new settlement begins, I find it important to note the problems we have faced so far.

On the second day, a week before today, I witnessed a fight between two members of our community. One was a priest and the other was a member of the Malli tribe. The priest said that the farmer’s tent encroached on his land. The farmer, Malli Madenila, claimed that there was no space left in the territory prescribed to the Malliga. The two of them would repeatedly move the fence denoting their lots, with the priest hitting the farmer on at least two occasions (I have heard of a third occasion, but this is unconfirmed).

I aided these two in getting an audience with the grand prince, Konian e Ilian, who sided in favor of the priest, saying that he needs more land for his priestly duties. Madenila was left unhappy, but I helped him bargain with a nobleman of the Malli tribe to share his land. This bargain was again brought before the grand prince, who again sided against Madenila, saying that he must find land of his own (during the discussion, Madenila raised the point that the nobleman had claimed the land after Madenila’s brother had already laid claim to it). In the end, I helped Madenila acquire land near the outskirts of the village.

27th day of Kenea, 3300, written by Makshi Idkhosa

My appointment to the court of grand prince Konian e Ilian has introduced me to the world of politics among the Mitzianga. This world, I have found, is more balanced compared to his father’s time. I knew the grand prince as a child, but he seems to have changed since his father passed. Just today, he pardoned a man who stole bread from a baker. During his father’s rule such a crime would be punishable by the loss of a hand. The grand prince told me, as well as others in his court that disagreed with this decision, that this was because in his father’s time the people were barely sustaining themselves, so stealing bread caused greater harm.

While I agree that loss of a hand is a severe punishment for theft and this change in precedent is welcome, it is still surprising to see such a shift from father to son. He also weighed in on a number of disputes between members of the senior classes and the junior classes, some of which I found to be confusing, such as his decisions to prioritize the territorial desires of priests over the needs of the people. He also decided that fences would be built around our settlement each night. This sounded like a good idea at the time, but I noticed that, even on the first night, people were given the options to crowd into small tents and sleep on top of one another or to sleep in the open air, a poor decision I would say given how early in the year we are.

29th day of Kenea, 3300, written by Makshi Aminosa

When princes Konian and Mizian returned after their journey to survey the land, it became common knowledge that there were people in this valley. What surprised me, among many of my colleagues, was how big they are. Today we were visited by what we presume to be an envoy from a local lord. This envoy appeared from the edge of the forest along the bank of the river, led by a man over forty-four spans tall, nearly four times as tall as anyone among our people. This man did not need a steed, as his pace on foot was matched by trotting horses.

The tall man wore a heavy coat of a material nobody I spoke to has ever seen before and stained in different, flamboyant colors. His hat was as wide as a donkey is long, with a brim that rises as if to catch rain instead of diverting it from his face. He had mud-colored hair that he held tied along his back and a mustache like a pair of swords on his face. His companions looked similar to him, wearing similar clothes, wearing their hair in similar manners, but being more similar in size to one of us.

The tall man held his party outside our current gates, and our grand prince walked out with priests and advisors to meet him. As they spoke, the air in the camp grew tense. Afterwards, I was able to meet with one of the advisors who was willing to give me a description of the conversation that ensued:

One of the normal-sized humans at the tall man’s side produced a raven in a cage, who spoke on behalf of their human captors. They introduced themselves first, with the tall man being named Eradon. Eradon is an advisor to a lord of a city within the forest, named Halon, who asks what our people are doing in this land. The grand prince explained, and Eradon said he was told to offer trade with us under a few conditions.

The first of these conditions was that we remain within our settlement. He explained that this was because there were dangerous people in the valley that slaughter those they perceive as different. He said that if one of our people is seen by these beast-men, as the advisor I spoke to called them, our man will likely be killed if they are lucky.

The second condition was that we allow lord Halon to send his own priests to perform spells on our village. The leadership of the settlement seemed unwilling to accept this, but apparently reluctantly agreed. The reason for this is because, according to Halon and Eradon’s party, there is a well-known curse on the lands we settled between the forest and the edge of the world. This curse is said to have been placed by serpent-beasts, creatures of evil not unlike the beast-men mentioned before, and is supposed to cause illnesses, birth defects and eventual death.

As our grand prince left Eradon’s party, a line of horse-drawn carts emerged from the woods. These carts entered our settlement and were revealed to have large quantities of foods, clothing, lumber, stones, and more that would make building our home easier. When their carts emptied, however, the day was growing old, and Eradon said that they must return to their city to avoid the dangers of the night. They wished us well and left, and we celebrated our good fortune for the evening.