Of Foreign Peoples and Distant Dominions

It remains to speak of those peoples who lie beyond the borders of the Known World. My knowledge here is imperfect, and I offer these observations as a foundation for further inquiry rather than as a settled account.

In the Waste dwell the Gremlings. They are a warlike people of great stature and acute senses, possessed of an elaborate honour. Their arms and armour 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 travellers in need despite their terrifying countenances. Their city has never been seen, and they claim to originate from another world entirely.

A people that has learned to cultivate both war and philosophy is among the most dangerous there is. It is wise neither to antagonize such a people nor to bind Daub to them until their nature is better understood.

The Dvorak Elves are more elusive, and in certain respects easier to 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 for settling disputes with their clients. Your Grace should not neglect the value of a people who move unhindered by borders. Many a Singhapura noble, secure behind his walls, has been surprised by a Dvorak wanderwagen trundling nonchalantly up the castle road.

Their conduct in commerce is consistent. There are many accounts of professional, if expensive, dealing, and they have on occasion served as mercenary overseers and as architects of great feats of engineering.

To the south, across the sea, lies Northern Abydos. The name raises questions, chief among them whether further Abydoi exist. The Singhapura Merchants Guild has begun expeditions, but the land, we are told, is desert and nearly inhospitable. Beyond it, known only from maps, are the Sathsunid and the Sahel, empires reportedly as old as our own, from whom we have no writings and no works.

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

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

I set these down not to discourage inquiry but to direct Your Grace toward 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 would advise Your Grace to keep one at hand.

Folio XIII · Of Provinces

Transcribed by Victor Konara