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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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The Duxy of Flasten and the Morden Moors (ca. 4000 - 4500 I.D.)

Having secured five duxies in the southwestern part of the subcontinent, the Mar saw four potential avenues of advancement. The first was to cross the Lapis Amnis to the north of the Duxy of Domus. The second was to strike out onto the moors east of the Duxy of Domus. The third was to enter the dense swamp northeast of the Duxies of Piljerka and Pidel. The fourth was to march into the marshes northeast of the Duxies of Gunne and Piljerka.

Expeditions into the Fens of Reur ended in almost universal disaster, so most Marduxes contented themselves with maintaining fortified outposts along the river to discourage Drake expansion south. Small villages on the eastern edges off the Duxies of Pidel and Piljerka had learned to fear the kobolds who lived in the swamps, so no wizards dared carve out a duxy there. The marshes and the moors were the most attractive, so Mar civilization began to expand again.

They met with intense resistance from tribes of goblins, ochres, and several races of guer. After a generation of founding frontier communities and fortifying them against attackers, only four towns within a day's journey east of the Rubus Amnus remained standing for four consecutive years, and of those, only one at the edge of the marshes survived for eight years.

The Mar contested the regions with great patience, winning victories and suffering defeats by turns. Weard Berjer Niktot recruited many Mar from the eastern frontier of the Duxy of Piljerka during this period, leading his Niktoti Band in countless battles against the Drakes of the marshes. While he eventually went mad and led many of his followers into the Fens of Reur, never to be seen again, Mar claimed membership in the Niktoti Band for centuries after Weard Niktot's last adventure.

After a century of invading and being driven out, the Mar finally held the entire marsh for the requisite decade under the rule of Weard Held Flasten, who became the first Dux of Flasten. This proved far from the last word on the Duxy of Flasten, however. The Drakes reconquered major sections of the duxy on twenty different occasions in the next three centuries, and the Mar abandoned the duxy entirely on two occasions during this tumultuous period before the Duxy of Flasten became strong enough to repel most Drake invasions.

Flasten was aided in this by the Mar struggle to conquer the moors to its north. For five centuries, villages sprang up, struggled, and died on the moors - often within a decade of their founding. The goblins and guer of the area gave up none of their territory without shedding Mar blood. The wizards among the settlers named the moors Morden, meaning "slaughter" or "massacre," and after five centuries of uncertainty and death on the moors, the Mar withdrew. Ever since, no one has successfully established a duxy on the Morden Moors.

(Contributed by Weard Gilda Kronas)