Tiny Steps Northeastern Regions

Northeastern Regions (Land of Mystics, The Poets, Ghost Towns, Noreast Villages, The Smiths, The Brothers, Alliance Against the North):


Land of Mystics:
The Land of Mystics is a region that now enjoys a great amount of peace – they either have the respect or friendship of their neighbors, or otherwise their neighbors aren’t terribly capable of invading them. They have used this peace in order to deeply refine their craft, which is magic; they are some of the preeminent spellwrights in the world, along with the Poets and the Scholars’ Redoubt (both of which the Land of Mystics is generally quite friendly with), and their sharpening of magic is deeply rooted in mystical lifestyles and rituals that seem to provide some actual framework for their craft. The Land of Mystics has not always had peace, however – in the bug world’s early years, they often skirmished with the black and red ants when their war spilled over. Worse, the bugs in the cities of the Land of Mystics (incidentally, a very diverse bunch) never really developed any formal or even strong informal cooperation mechanisms; they only made on-the-spot agreements and kind of just found themselves on the same sides in battle. This is why they developed their magical expertise: without either numbers, gear, organization, or physical prowess with which to defend from the ant incursions, the Mystics ultimately decided to lean on magic-working tendencies, and make it into a true expertise – and it worked. Not only did they in the end avoid seriously being cut into, but they are today recognized as the experts, and they are a regionally prominent presence, if maybe not a true power.

The Poets:
The Poets, much like the Mystics, are a group that despite having little in the way of organization between cities gained peace over time. Unlike the Mystics, however, their freedom from battle came not at all from their own actions, and it came earlier. The black ants had been significantly pushing into their land, pushing them back against an old human road, when a brutal famine hit much of the area – and though it ultimately stopped short of the Poets, it devastated the ant land to the west of them, causing the black ants to withdraw further western into other ant territory. Ultimately, the Poets didn’t move to retake anything, but rather withdrew into themselves. The society of the Poets is extremely urban, but much more fragmented than the Driftwood Coast, which is similarly urban – it is effectively a bunch of disjointed city-states with similar values. The people here have a strong distaste for rural bugs, and indeed for much of the outside world, instead taking an isolationist stance and developing both magic and new and intriguing forms of writing known as “poetry” – they’re some of the most skilled in the former and the inventors of the latter, which they do take rather a lot of pride in. The Mystics are about the only people that the Poets deign to interact with on a regular basis.

Ghost Towns:
The Ghost Towns were once the “rear” lands of the vast black ant empire, and possession of as much territory as the black ants held, including what are now the Ghost Towns made the black ants the dominant belligerent in the ant wars. They were a force to be reckoned with in the northeast, too – though they rarely engaged in sustained campaigns against the other northeastern regions, with the Poets an exception, their warring often spilled over into other areas. That’s when an unexpected famine brutalized the region – some of the primary sources of human-scavenged food abruptly burned down in a fire, and suddenly the ants here had nothing to eat. Ultimately, they withdrew into their more core lands to the west, and the Ghost Towns were left nearly abandoned. Nearly abandoned – many of the rural groups of the area still exist, and mites and parasites inhabit the remaining houses, but no real urban core exists to this day. And with the fact that there still aren’t many food sources, nobody has expressed much interest in retaking the area – it would be difficult and unrewarding. This has left it largely a void, sparsely inhabited by bug groups who are perfectly happy to be left well enough alone.

Noreast Villages:
Living in a very idyllic spot of the world (which is idyllic in large part because of the efforts of the Alliance of the North against the raiders that sometimes cross from, well, the north), the Noreast Villages have been free to pursue their lifestyle. Ultimately, this lifestyle is an exceptionally parochial one – having discovered the art of agriculture very early on, and mostly not consisting of hive bugs, the bugs in these areas largely grouped into rural villages, meaning the houses of the area aren’t terribly populous. Instead, there’s a great deal of farming that goes on here, and the farmers here are exceptionally peaceful, as the advantage that agriculture gives them means that prosperity is an easy thing. In fact, they produce so much food that they have a significant amount to export to their neighbors – despite the lack of real institutions tying the villages together, a myriad of agreements between individual communities tie them with their neighbors. The Noreast Villages are, in fact, what ties the entire far northeastern region together, as their food sustains many of the regions here, gaining services and friendship from them in return. The Noreast Villages thusly are quite important, despite the lack of actual direct power and something of a lack of desire to get involved with those farther than their current friends.

The Smiths:
Another one of the four regions that make up the core of the far north-east, the Smiths are exactly that – a set of largely unorganized cities and villages that practice and refine the art of metalsmithing, whether it be functional blacksmithing, metallurgy, or fine metalsmithing, one will find communities in the Smiths that have worked on that particular art in very great detail. The Smiths are not the only ones who can work metal – the ants and termites and Driftwood Coast all developed this capacity, and it’s spread to many groups, including the Scholars’ Redoubt, but the Smiths are undoubtedly the best at it. Benefitting from food from the Noreast Villages and protection from both the Brothers and the Alliance Against the North, the Smiths have been able to thrive (including naturally expanding southwards into some of the more intact areas of the Ghost Towns when they became, in fact, ghost towns, though this expansion has stopped) and to focus on their craft with every fiber of their beings. They aren’t as isolationist as many of the other northeastern groups, and they will happily trade much of their handiwork, which has found its way across the world as prized tools, ornaments and weapons, but as the Scholars’ Redoubt recently discovered, it’s extremely difficult to get them to actually divulge their techniques, which they feel possessive over.

The Brothers:
The Brothers have long been a fairly marginal presence on their own in the region – though a martial group of peoples, comprised of a varied mix of urban, village, and nomadic communities with little direct commonality, they never competed with the black ants because they never would have been able to, instead mostly just keeping to themselves and practicing arts of combat that they never found themselves using. Then, however, the Great Fire that ravaged the ants came to then, too, and so did the famine that came with it. The bugs here were on the verge of death, not having anywhere to really flee to without dissolving totally, when their neighbors intervened – the Noreast Villages provided them with food, and the Smiths helped them in rebuilding. The bugs here did not forget this kindness: in fact, it caused something of a reformulation of their identity, a debt they swore they’d forever repay. Rechristening themselves the Brothers, they gave themselves a purpose, now: they are bodyguards and friends to the people of the Noreast Villages, the Smiths, and to a degree the Alliance against the North, dedicating themselves to the protection of the people that saved their lives, even a generation down the line.

Alliance Against the North:
The Alliance Against the North is a region with a very, very specific purpose. The peoples of the north are very dedicated raiders, living and idolizing a lifestyle of hunting and raiding and fighting… during the very earliest years of the world, though they did not cross in sufficient mass to conquer, they were a constant threat, raiding and attacking the communities of the northeast constantly. Ultimately, the bug communities on the edge of the human road that separates the known world from the North decided that enough was enough. They did not band together in hierarchical or economic or political structures like much of the rest of the world, or even the very formal military networks of the Domains of Cooperation, but rather the leaders of the communities (like much of the rest of the northeast, urban and rural and nomadic) came together and created a very strict and simple alliance: they would, no matter what, work together to repel the invaders from the North. They have settled into this grim duty and performed it admirably – the people of the Alliance are very hardscrabble, doing what they have to to not only survive but to win. They are, thankfully, supported in this task: fed by the Noreast Villages, equipped by the Smiths, and aided by the Brothers, who are all quite aware what the failure of the Alliance would spell for them if it ever happened, the Alliance Against the North has remained competent in the task it has assigned for itself, precisely-focused and dedicated.