Of Foreign Peoples and Distant Dominions

It remains for me to speak of those peoples who lie beyond the borders of the Known World, though I confess that my knowledge here is imperfect. I would rather present an honest account of what is uncertain than a confident account of what is false. I therefore offer these observations as a foundation for further exploration.

In the Waste dwell the Gremlings. They are a warlike people of great stature and acute senses, possessed of an elaborate honor. Their arms and armor are magnificent; indeed the ashwakadu we use today descends from their great horse-cutter swords. They occupy themselves also with poetry, painting, and pilgrimage through the Waste, and are known to assist travelers in need despite their terriying countenances. Their city has never been seen; they claim to originate from another world entirely. It has been observed that the most dangerous peoples are often those who have learned to cultivate both war and philosophy; it is wise to neither antagonize or bind to such people until their true nature is better understood.

The Dvorak Elves are more elusive but in certain respects easier understand. They believe themselves to be the discarded drafts of their Creator’s work - a theology which, whatever its truth, has produced in them a people of remarkable industry and ingenuity. Their manufactures are of surpassing quality, and many Artifacts recovered from the Waste prove upon examination to be their work. More significant is their ability to move through the world by means we do not yet comprehend. They use this faculty for commerce and the settling of disputes with their clients; but Your Grace must not neglect to understand the value of being who can move unhindered by borders. Many a Singhapura noble, secure in his borders, has been surprised by a Dvorak wanderwagen nonchalantly trundling up the the castle road.

Their behavior in commercial dealings is instructive in its consistency: there are many tales of professional, albeit expensive conduct, and they have on occasion served as mercenary overseers and architects of great feats of engineering.

To the south, across the sea, lies Northern Abydos. The moniker raises questions, the principal one being whether there exist further Abydoi. The Singhapura Merchants Guild has begun expeditions, but the land, we are told, is desert, and nearly inhospitable. Beyond these - gleaned only from maps - are the Sathsunid and the Sahel, empires that are reportedly as old as our own, but from whom we have no writings or works.

To the Far East lies what we call the Obsidian Empire. We do not know its full extent. Of these peoples we have seen little beyond curiosities - bows of horn and ivory, unkown instruments of extraordinary sharpness, coins bearing unknown characters. The Samarskand Commentaries speak of “the empire of black glass and the rising sun,” which may well be a reference to the Obsidian; though I must confess that the Commentaries run to six thousand pages and can be notoriously unreliable. Of all lands Your Grace and Daub are best positioned to explore this avenue further. Civilized people, whereever they may be, almost always have wares to trade.

Barbarica, as the Lusians named it, exists to the Far West, has since been acknowledged as a border state, but as yet we have no dealings with them.

I say these not to discourage inquiry, but to direct your Grace towards finer sources. The Annales Historici, maintained by the Dvorak Elves, covers trade routes, languages, economies, and customs from the western sea to the verified borders of the Obsidian Empire. Merchants pay heavily for good editions. I recommend your Grace keep one at hand.