The history of the Southlands, though complex and rich, is nothing so much as a history of protracted, bloody warfare. Some of the wars were fought among the various clans on both sides o fhte land -- Qirsi fighting Qirsi, Eandi fighting Eandi. The wars between the Fal’Borna and the J’Balanar, Qirsi clans of the Central Plain, were particularly bloody, and to this day the clans remain wary of each other.
But no wars in the history of the Southlands were more difficult or more bitter than the Blood Wars between the Qirsi clans and the Eandi sovereignties. And no wars are more likely to begin again than those between the two races….
The Southlands are bounded on the north by the Border Range, on the east by the Sea of Stars, on the south by Morna’s Ocean, and on the west by the Western Sea. This is a spectacular land, with majestic mountain ranges, surging rivers, deep forests, and a great inland sea. The Southlands are part of the same land mass as the Forelands, the setting for the Winds of the Forelands quintet. They are separated from the Forelands by the lofty peaks of the Border Range. The Qirsi invaders who attempted to conquer the Forelands in the time of Carthach, nine centuries before the events recounted in the Forelands books, came from the Southlands.
Like the Forelands, the Southlands are home to two races: the Qirsi and the Eandi. The Qirsi are sorcerers who wield powerful magics that enable them to glimpse the future, light fires, shape and destroy matter, heal wounds and sickness, weave mists and winds, communicate with beasts and birds, and bend the minds of others to their will. Their magic, however, comes at a price. The bodies of most Qirsi are frail. They are prone to disease and they live short lives compared with the Eandi. Indeed, each time they use their magic, the Qirsi shorten their lives just a bit. They are a strange looking people, with white hair, yellow eyes, and skin that is so pale as to be almost translucent.
The Eandi, in contrast, wield no magic, but they are a hardier race. They are healthier and more powerfully built than the Qirsi, and they live, on average, thirty to forty years longer.
Unlike in the Forelands, where the Eandi outnumber the Qirsi by a factor of more than ten to one, the populations of the two races in the Southlands are much closer in number, with the Eandi outnumbering the Qirsi by a factor of only three to one. This difference between the two lands is of great importance, for with the Southlands Qirsi having such a large population they are able to use their magic to offset the other advantages the Eandi might have in a military conflict: their greater numbers, their superior strength, and their relative skill with arms and other mechanisms of war. Furthermore, because Weavers, those Qirsi who possess all magics, and who have the ability to bind together the power of many Qirsi and wield it as a single weapon, have never been persecuted or executed in the Southlands they represent a far larger segment of the population than they ever have in the Forelands. This is not to say that there are many of them -- Weaving magic is always rare. But whereas in the Forelands, there were only a few Weavers living at any given time, in the Southlands there may be hundreds. Not surprisingly, they hold positions of great power and influence in Qirsi society.
Clan warfare has played an enormous role in shaping the history of the Southlands, and clans continue to form the basis of the land’s ruling structure. The surviving Qirsi clans control much of the territory west of the Ofirean Sea, some of them singly, others as alliances of several clans that have banded together to increase their influence. Each of the twelve clans or alliances is led by a Tesserate, a council of four men or women, who are headed by a Clanlord, usually a Weaver, who votes with the Tesserate on matters of governance and leads their deliberations. These Clanlords are also members of a central Council of Lords that rules the Qirsi lands.
Remnants of the Eandi clans, more loosely organized than the Qirsi clans, nevertheless continue to hold the reins of power in the Eandi lands of the east. Though the Eandi outnumber the Qirsi, they control somewhat less than half of the Southlands. Up until approximately one hundred and fifty years ago, their holdings were still diminishing in the face of periodic Qirsi military campaigns. The Qirsi-Eandi conflicts have largely ended and peace now reigns throughout the Southlands. But the structure of Eandi society still reflects the exigencies of this violent past. The five Eandi sovereignties are led by Sovereigns. Below them are the regional lords who control and protect quadrants of each territory. These are military divisions, designed to provide for coordinated defense in the face of Qirsi aggression, despite the fact that the wars have been over for a century and a half. Such is the result of having lived for centuries in a state of war with a frighteningly powerful foe.
Southlands society includes three other groups of great importance to the land’s history and current affairs. One is a segment of the Qirsi population known commonly as the Y’Qatt. Named for a long extinct Qirsi clan that refused to fight in the ancient clan wars, the Y’Qatt are ascetics who do not use magic under any circumstances. Even prophetic dreams -- involuntary expressions of gleaning power -- are viewed with mistrust and even fear. The Y’Qatt believe that Qirsar, god of the Qirsi, never intended for Qirsi magic to be used, and that this is why the use of Qirsi magic shortens the user’s life. Magic is life power and should be preserved as such. Small Y’Qatt communities have been found in the Qirsi lands for centuries, and the Y’Qatt refused to fight in the Blood Wars against the Eandi. In recent decades, as the Qirsi population has continued to diminish relative to that of the Eandi, and Qirsi have come to fear that their dominance in the Southlands may soon be threatened, the Y’Qatt movement has begun to grow.
The second group is known as the Mettai. These are Eandi sorcerers who live in the remote northern regions near the Companion Lakes and in the high reaches of the Aelind Mountains. The Mettai wield what is known as blood magic, though they themselves prefer to call it earth magic. This is to say that their magic is not controlled by their minds like Qirsi magic, but is based rather on the Mettai affinity for their natural surroundings and consists of spells and craft. That said, Mettai magic has a hereditary element. Not all Eandi have access to it. For many centuries, the Mettai have been shunned by both races, viewed as strange and disreputable by other Eandi, and distrusted by the Qirsi. They, too, played no part in the Blood Wars, preferring to keep to themselves. They live simple lives and have often been forced off their lands by both races. Their villages are isolated and can be found in the northern reaches of Eandi land.
The third group is social and economic rather than racial. Throughout history, the merchants of the Southlands have managed to move freely among all other societies and communities. There has long been active trade between the Eandi and Qirsi -- it is often said in the Southlands that commerce cares nothing for the color of a man’s eyes. Not surprisingly, merchants in the Southlands -- Eandi and Qirsi both -- wield a good deal of influence, not only with commoners, but also with those who rule. They are able to collect hefty commissions for their services, cutting into the profits of craftsmen and farmers.
As mentioned previously, the Eandi-Qirsi wars have largely ended and the two races live separately but in relative harmony. It is important to note, however, that the wars ended not because the mutual hostility between the two races vanished, and not as a result of some new understanding that was reached between the two races. Rather, the fighting stopped because both sides recognized that they could no longer sustain the level of violence that had persisted for so long. The Eandi could not afford to risk losing any more territory. And simply by dint of their shorter life spans the Qirsi found themselves increasingly in the minority and thus unwilling to spend more lives in questionable military pursuits. This was, as some have put it, “A peace of reason, rather than one of the heart.” As such, the peace remains somewhat fragile, even after one hundred and fifty years.
Clans and Nations
The five Eandi sovereignties have long been at war with the Qirsi clans, and though those wars ended more than a century ago, Eandi distrust of the white-hairs remains, and the sovereignties continue to organize themselves as military units. The two border sovereignties -- Stelpana and Naqbae, which border Qirsi lands -- have, over the years, grown resentful of those sovereignties that have safer borders. Stelpana, the northern border sovereignty, holds the eastern bank of Silverwater Wash, the eastern shores of Owl and Turtle Lakes, all the land east to the western slopes of the Aelind Range and the western fringe of Tordjanne Wood, and the lands south to the shores of the Ofirean Sea. Naqbae, the southern border sovereignty, famous for its magnificent horses and skilled riders, holds both shores of the Grand Salt River and some land west of the river into the Herders Uplands. It holds all land north to the southern edge of the Qosantian Lowlands (where the lowlands meet the Rocklands) and it holds all the Ebon Peninsula. The people of Naqbae take great pride in the fact that they still hold both shores of the Grand Salt River.
Qosantia, holds all of the lowlands north and east to Maifor’s Wash. Its northern border between Raven’s Wash and Maifor’s Wash is somewhat in dispute with Stelpana, though most agree that a straight line drawn east from the point where Raven’s Wash enters the Ofirean Sea delineates the boundary. Tordjanne holds all land north of Maifor’s Wash, east of the western fringe of Tordjanne Wood, and south of the southern slopes of the Aelind Range. Aelea’s holdings are marked by the Aelind Range, the Border Range, and eastern shores of the Southlands. Aelea is the one sovereignty not resented by the border sovereignties because during the last of the Blood Wars, when Qosantia and Tordjanne kept their armies home to guard against threats of a naval attack across the Ofirean or from the waters to the south and east, Aelea sent her warriors west to fight on behalf of Stelpana. The other two protected sovereignties like to point out that Aelea’s rocky shoreline is almost unassailable and that she doesn’t touch on the inland sea, but this made little difference to the people of Stelpana, who still see the Aeleans as their truest allies.
There are twelve Qirsi clans in the Qirsi nation, and though they still have their disputes, many Qirsi like to say that the Eandi have their five sovereignties, but there is but one Qirsi nation in the Southlands. (It should be noted that some of the so-called clans are actually blendings of two or more ancient clans.) The twelve have somewhat more fluid boundaries than those that separate the Eandi sovereignties from one another, but they still do have territorial identities.
The five most powerful clans control the eastern edge of Qirsi land, and thus the spine of the Southlands. In the north are the Fal’Borna, fearsome warriors, skilled riders, and hardy, self-reliant people, who eschew the ceremony and pomp of the Council of Lords. No Weaver from the Fal’Borna has ever led the council. What wealth they possess comes from the mines in the north mountains and from their trade in rilda skins. Bordering the Fal’Borna, controlling the Fallow Downs and a large stretch of coastline on the Ofirean Sea, are the J’Balanar. Some of the J’Balanar, those living in the downs, are nomadic horsemen, skilled in warfare, much like the Fal’Borna. But most of the J’Balanar live in larger towns along the seashore. They are shipbuilders, fishermen, sailors who have amassed some wealth in these pursuits. The J’Balanar can be recognized by the intricate tattooing around their right eyes.
South of J’Balanar lands are the Talm’Orast -- a blending of two ancient clans -- and the H’Bel. These are two of the wealthiest clans in the Southlands, controlling as they do the fertile lands bounded on the north by the A’Vahl river and Lake Qiran, and encompassing the two forks of the H’Bel River. Both the Talm’Orast and the H’Bel work the land, growing fruit, producing fine wines and ales, and also producing flax, cotton, dyes for clothing and blankets and many other tradeable goods. The Council of Lords is usually led by a Weaver from the Talm’Orast or the H’Bel. South of the H’Bel live the T’Saan, another warrior clan. Like the Eandi of Naqbae, the T’Saan are horsemen. They are also shepherds and fishermen and they produce leather goods which they trade along with the fish they catch. In the Berylline forest of the Northwest live the M’Saaren and the A’Vahl, their lands separated by the upper waters of the A’Vahl river. They are woodland folk, living among the trees. They are famous for their fine carvings and other goods made from the strong woods of the north.
The D’Krad are coastal peoples. Not known for their prowess in battle, they are prosperous nevertheless. Some fish, others build ships, others grow excellent light wines in the moist valleys of the north. The R’Troth and I’Prael are miners who have found gold, silver, and gems in the Djindsamme Mountains. The I’Prael are also fine seafarers. The Nid’Qir, are a little bit of everything. They have rich forests, ample coastline, and fertile farmland. They produce wines and fruits, lumber, ships, and even some gold and gems that have been dug out of the Iejony River valley. The Nid’Qir are, along with the Talm’Orast and H’Bel, the wealthiest of the clans.
Finally, there are the B’Qahr, who live on Senkora Island. This is difficult land. There is some shepherding there, and a bit of mining. But most of the B’Qahr earn their gold on the seas. They are merchants, sailing the coastline of the Southlands. More than any other Qirsi clan, the B’Qahr have peaceful dealings with the five Eandi sovereignties. The other Qirsi clans rely on them for trade, and the wealthier clans accept them as an important part of the Qirsi nation. But they are resented by the more warlike clans -- the Fal’Borna, the T’Saan, and the J’Balanar -- who see them as gold-hungry traitors.
EANDI
Stelpana -- The River People. Their flag shows three curving ribbons of blue and white on a green background. Blue, White, and Green. “As swift as coursers; power to carve stone.”
Aelea -- The Mountain Nation. A golden eagle soaring above purple mountains. Gold and purple. “Immovable, unassailable.”
Tordjanne -- The Heart of the Land. A green and brown oak on a white background. Green, brown, and white. “Strength, courage, blood.”
Qosantia -- The Wolf People. A red wolf on a gold background. Red and gold. “Tireless, fierce, canny.”
Naqbae -- The Riders. A white horse against black and brown field. Black, brown, and white. “Better death than surrender.”
QIRSI
Fal’Borna -- Horsemen, hair worn long and tied back. Darker skinned than most Qirsi.
J’Balanar -- Also horsemen in north; seamen in south. Hair loose. Intricate tattoo around the right eye.
Talm’Orast -- Wealthy growers and craftsmen. Current leader of the Council of Lords is from Talm’Orast.
H’Bel -- Wealthy growers and craftsmen.
T’Saan -- Warriors, horsemen. Shaved heads save for wehmat, small pony-tail from back of head.
M’Saaren -- Woodland people.
A’Vahl -- Woodland people.
D’Krad -- Seafaring people.
R’Troth -- Mining people.
I’Prael -- Mining people.
Nid’Qir -- Miners, farmers, seafaring, very wealthy. Many Qirsi of other clans speak of the arrogance of the Nid’Qir. Not prone to leadership, but very powerful because of wealth. Can oppose leaders of the Council.
B’Qahr -- Island people. Merchants, sea captains. Ghostly pale.
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