The Flood

Warriors of the Flood preparing to ford a river

From a letter from King Ambrozy VII of Kengel to the Arcane Congress, dated 3 Tertium 1022 YE:


[...]


For almost two years rumours of a new people coming out of the East have been brought to us by travellers and merchants; horse-men from a land beyond the dawn. Over the summer of the Year of Enlightenment 1021 merchants brought back news from the Transwyza of slaughter and burned villages.

[...]

As the seasons turned towards winter, refugees streamed across the Wyz, and strange riders were seen on the far bank. Still we did not fear, for the mighty river has always been an impregnable bulwark against all evil from the south.

In the history of our people, the river Wyz has frozen over only five times before. Each time has brought with it chaos and suffering as barbarian tribes or monsters have crossed the ice to harrow our lands. This last winter brought with it such a frost as we call Fimbrowik, and the Wyz turned into a great bridge over which poured the terrible warriors of the Flood.

The first battle stood on 13 Primum, in the Khorimow province, where the duke led his men to stem the barbarian tide. Word of his defeat reached my father, our noble king, at the same time as the news of the fall of the city of Pizs.

Our enlightened ruler gathered his Zlachta and called his brave men to arms, and with righteous hatred in his heart he led his army south to drive the enemy out of the realm. Seven and a half thousand men followed the royal banner. No more than a thousand returned. Our beloved king, my father, remained, as did the flower of our nobility.

With spring now upon us, we see the full extent of the cataclysm fate has devised for our people. The lands lost to the barbarian Flood is now being plowed by foreign hands, and each new day swells their ranks.

[...]

Flood camp-site

Excerpts of a conversation between van Mangrav and the White Lama:

Lama: Those you call the Flood call themselves the People, Tek'wana'ke, in their own tongue. They come from the oceans of grass far to the east of your world, and like sheep before the lion, they flee from the Dragon of the Seventh Mountain. [It] was awoken by the Drums of the Servants of the Heavens, so that your world can be cleansed in [its] fire.

Warrior of the Flood with war-paint

From a letter from Smyiewitch of the Strigioi to Aktor Smit:

The Flood is not composed of monsters, nor is it motivated by evil. It is but a nation of mortals, driven by that most basic of instincts: survival. They see your lands as fat and green, and in your internal strife they see a weakness to be exploited.

They flee from a great dragon, and care not about the Exarch, no more than the doe hiding from the hunter fears the wolf. As the proverb says, "do not ask a starving man to build a bridge."

[Picture source: 1 The Master Walks; 2 Ocean's Bridge; 3 Indian Faces]