The Villages of Athas

Villages In your travels, you'll find villages scattered all over Athas, from islands in the Sea of Silt to peaks high in the Ringing Mountains. Usually, they stand at some site of moderate importance, such as a minor oasis, the crossroads of two trading routes, or near a flint or obsidian quarry. They consist of a few crudely built structures erected within a small area. Some villages are surrounded by a stone wall or a thorn-hedge stockade, but all are located in the most defensible position possible. Several times a year, the villagers will be called upon to defend their homes from beasts, raiders, or monsters, and they realize the advantage terrain can provide. No matter how carefully defended a hamlet is, however, don t count on it existing for very long. Sooner or later, its defenses will fail and the inhabitants will have to flee or die, abandoning their shabby homes to the desert. Client Villages The largest, best equipped villages are sponsored by the city-states, usually because there is something in the local area that is of importance to the city. Tyr, for example, sponsors a village at the site of its iron mine, and Urik maintains a sizable town near the obsidian quarries of the Smoking Crown. Occasionally, some interest other than a city also sponsors a village. For instance, the merchant houses of Wavir, Rees, and Tomblador in the city of Balic protect a critical junction along their trading routes by sponsoring the fortress village of Altaruk. The leader of most client villages is a military governor assigned by the sponsoring agency. In the case of city-run villages, this leader is usually a moderately powerful templar of proven loyalty to the sorcerer-king. Other sponsors usually rely upon a Preserver or Defiler as the commander. The governor is assisted in his duties by subordinate officers - templars if a city is sponsoring the village, mercenary fighters if someone else is sponsoring it. Compared to cities, these hamlets are culturally backward. When visiting them, you will find only the barest necessities and no amenities. The Veiled Alliance is rare in client villages, for most hamlets are so small that it is impossible for a mage to hide his presence for long. Where the Alliance does exist, it is only because the members are powerful enough that the authorities feel it would be more trouble to smash than it is worth. The other inhabitants of villages are mostly desperate and rough individuals whose favorite pastimes are far from conducive to the public peace. The governor's authority over the inhabitants is enforced by virtue of the garrison he commands. Client villages are rarely self-sustaining. They usually draw their water from a local well or spring, but they must rely upon shipments from their sponsors for food and other supplies. Often, enemies find it easier to destroy the village by cutting off these supply lines than by attacking the village itself. Unlike most other hamlets, when a client village is destroyed, the sponsor generally rebuilds it as quickly as possible. Often, to prevent such a holding from being looted repeatedly, the sponsor also goes to considerable effort to track down and eliminate the force that ruined the village in the first place. Slave Villages As we all know, slave escapes are far from rare on Athas. Those who survive inevitably find their way to one of the hundreds of slave groups hiding in the most forlorn parts of the desert. Because slaves are not well equipped to survive the rigors of the desert, most bands form raiding tribes (described later). These tribes make their bases in villages located in the most miserable, difficult-to-reach parts of the desert. If you happen to stumble upon a slave village, you won’t be allowed to leave without first becoming a tribe member, and you won't be asked to become a tribe member unless you can prove you're an escaped slave or will perform some great service for the tribe. The only alternative to membership, however, is a slow and lingering death in the desert. The leaders of slave villages are usually the best military thinkers, which means these hamlets are dominated by soldiers or gladiators. Wizards or extemplars-turned-slave never serve as leaders, for the slaves are too wary of magical power to trust such men in positions of leadership. No matter who leads the community, however, he must be careful not to be seen as a dictator. The slaves are quick to overthrow anyone who limits their freedom. Despite unpleasant associations with the sorcererkings, slaves realize what wizards can do to protect them. Therefore, wizards and sorcerers are more tolerated in slave villages than anywhere else. Usually, however, a hamlet has only one type of wizard: either Preservers or Defilers. The friction caused by the two different approaches to magic is destructive to village harmony. Many escaped slaves were once artists, so most slave hamlets have a rich cultural life. Should you visit a slave village, you will no doubt find brilliant masterpieces of sculpture and painting in ramshackle huts, and be entertained at night by poetry recitations, concerts, and plays. Most slave villagers are truly thankful for their newfound freedom, so you will note a certain blissful atmosphere in the community. At the same time, you had better be aware that there is also an undercurrent of barbarism that could explode into violence at any moment. Many ex-slaves are gladiators, soldiers, and other rough sorts who believe that the best way to resolve differences is with the sharp end of a dagger. Whether artist or gladiator, all the inhabitants are painfully aware that slave-takers from a nearby city could appear at any time, so they live with only one goal in mind: to enjoy what time they have to the fullest. Dwarven Villages You will find dwarven villages in any place dwarves have a reason to gather for a common purpose. Dwarves wishing to build a toll-bridge have established villages on isolated banks of dust fiords. Others, convinced that hidden seas lie under the Great Ivory Plain, have founded a hamlet in the center of the vast salt flat to drill for water. Still others, determined to restore the lost City of Dwarven Kings to its former glory, have built their village in the middle of the vast expanse of sand that long ago buried the ancient metropolis. The leader of most dwarven villages is the person who first devoted himself to the idea that is the focus of the town's existence. All of the other dwarves look to him for guidance and planning, executing his most tentative suggestions as if they were commands. If the leader of the village dies, then leadership is passed on in descending order of arrival. The dwarf who joined the project second becomes the new leader, then the one who joined third, fourth, and so on. In these villages, dwarven culture, what there is of it, centers on the family. When the dwarves are not working toward achieving the community's focus, they are caring for their families. Relations between the families are generally close and friendly, their ties strictly regulated by a code of honor. Although it is extremely rare for a dwarf to break this code, those who do are banished from the village. If you ever visit a dwarven village, be sure to ask for a recitation of its code of honor as soon as you reach the outskirts, or you may find yourself entangled in a blood feud with an entire community of stubborn dwarves. There is no Veiled Alliance in any dwarven community, and wizards are not tolerated within their bounds unless someone the dwarves trust will vouch that the wizard is a friend of the dwarven race. Halfling Villages As noted later (see Hunting and Gathering Clans), most halflings wander the forest ridges along the crest of the Ringing Mountains, sustaining themselves through hunting and gathering. Generally, they live in small, isolated clans that ramble through a well-defined territory. Every 100 days, however, these clans go to a small village abutting their territory. The village is little more than a stone pyramid rising above the forest canopy, surrounded by ten to twelve stone houses where the tribal chief, his wives, and high priests live. The chief resembles the sorcerer-king of the cities in that he is the absolute ruler of his territory (usually all the forest within fifty miles of his village), and in that he is a powerful wizard. However, all halfling chiefs are Preservers, not Defilers, and exercise great care not to destroy the forest when they use their magic. For this reason, their magic tends to be much less powerful than that of the sorcerer-kings, and their lifetimes are limited to a normal span. Most of their powers come from their psionic abilities. Halfling villages serve two important functions. First, they are a neutral area where different clans can meet without infringing on each other's territory. Thus, this is where marriages are arranged, goods are traded, and information is passed between clans. Second, a village is the chief's home and the center of the government. When the halfling clans go to a village, they take with them food and other items to sustain the chief, his family, and the advisors. Assuming the chief deems the offering adequate, he rewards them by bestowing upon them the rangerlike abilities that make halflings such capable hunters and stalkers. Aside from using his powers to help his followers be good hunters, the chief also has the duty to defend his clans, territories from outside encroachment. Therefore, he can conscript subjects as warriors or to build communal structures that serve the general welfare of entire tribe. This authority is never invoked for the purpose of fighting or building defenses against other halflings. Among all halflings, there is such racial harmony that they never fight with one another. When confronted with conflicting interests, even two chiefs will work together to find some compromise that serves both of them. Before moving on in my narrative, I must take a moment to offer a warning to any reader who is contemplating a visit to a halfling village the greatest gift a clan can offer its chief is a feast. And the finest feast a halfling can imagine is a delicious human or demihuman who has wandered into their territory and been hunted down.