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Marrishland has a long and violent history. Several civilizations have risen and fallen, here, and the book tells about events during one of the most turbulant periods - a period whose events determine whether a civilization survives or dies.

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First Mapmaker Expeditions (ca. 3000 - 3250 I.D.)

Mardux Lankarten and his counselors required all wizards and apprentices to register their skills and knowledge with the Domus Palus authorities. They assigned every magic-wielder and most mundanes to one of several groups intended to fortify Marrishland's position while readying it for extensive wars against the Drakes. These included the Viridite Order (who defended the country's perimeter), the Hammerfall Authority (who trained and equipped the Mar military), and the Landed Magocrats (who administered the daily needs of individual communities).

One of the most valuable assets in any war is intelligence. Mardux Lankarten and his allies were certainly aware of this, which is why they created the Affe Expeditionary Force to reconnoiter Drake lands well in advance of taking any aggressive action against them. The Affe Expeditionary Force was comprised almost entirely of mapmakers - whether mundane or wizard. This force quickly became legendary for the courage, ingenuity, and high incidence of casualties of its members. While it seems unlikely that these mapmakers only had a ten percent chance of surviving any given expedition into Drake lands, there is no denying that their work was extremely hazardous. Mundane mapmakers had far worse odds, but even wizards did not wear bright colors on those expeditions. There was still much about magic that wizards had not yet discovered, including most of those applications that modern wizards use to detect and ward away Drakes.

The primary objective of these expeditions was to learn as much as possible about the Drakes - the layout of their communities, their physical strengths and weaknesses, their capacity for reason and problem solving, and their relationships with other races of their species. Of secondary interest was locating places of strategic interest to the Mar. There was also some interest in locating any surviving Fygae, wints, or Mar of the Liter Asper Alliance in hopes of banding together with them to wipe out the Mass. Eliminating Drakes didn't even make the priority list, but mapmakers nevertheless killed stragglers and even wiped out small communities whenever the opportunity arose.

While the Affe Expeditionary Force was especially instrumental in the early centuries of the rise of Marrishland, these mapmaker expeditions continued throughout the long struggle between Mar and Mass. The most important discovery of all was that the Drakes were incapable of wielding magic. Once several generations had passed without encountering a single magic-wielding Drake, the Marduxes determined to test the strength of the Mass more directly.

(Contributed by Weard Gilda Kronas)