Lands of Tyranny
Day 14 of The Overlord, Year 416
Messalyan
The inhabitants of the vast valleys and hilly lands called overall as the region of “Messalya” by the Empire, are a unique mix between tribes and families of nomad and settled lifestyle. Small villages and groups of houses are scattered along the plains and harsh, mostly arid valleys, each along one single oasis or well, often left inhabited only for the wet season, during which herders and hunters repopulate most of these lands. Only the valley of the Pymm river and its smaller tributaries are crowded by a multitude of small towns, farms, semi-permanent tent camps that get particularly busy during the dry season, when everyone dedicates to agriculture, which boomed as activity after the arrival of the Empire, making the Pymm valley one of the most productive of the Continent, but at the same time, bringing many traditional nomadic tribes to settle in the crowded valley. Due to their often nomadic lifestyle, they have been great horsemen, their light cavalry still being a great asset for the Imperial Army.
Society
Messalyan society is mostly divided between nomads and settlers. The first, usually living off hunting, gathering, and moving their livestock seasonally, tends to be more conservative, less open to strangers and their ways, when living near the towns or villages, they establish their large camps, welcomed by the local population as they bring with them their seasonal products but also news and some story from further away lands.
They are divided into Clans, with multiple clans often forming a Deme. The latter instead live off agriculture and some commerce, historically mostly on the Pymm river, but with the coming of the Empire and its easily walkable, extensive roads, also via land.
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Messalyans are like most other humans divided into nobility and plebs, but both are characterized by the same societal structure of representatives. Every family would have a representative that would bring the word of the families to other families and to the Clan (in case of Nomads) or village/neighbourhood Council (in case of settlements). Each Clan, or Council would in turn decide a representative that would represent it, often in even larger assemblies, such as the Town Oligarchy or the Council of the Deme.
Even if they would indeed keep this representative structure, the ones elected from an Oligarchy or a Deme would often be people coming from the same families, effectively forming semi-stable dynasties of queens and rulers. In Messalyan society in fact, roles of governance often fell onto women more than men, who were instead assigned more often duties of herders, traders, or warriors and commanders. This structure is still preserved today after about two hundred years of Empire domination, even if yet another assembly rules above all others, the Messal Assembly, governed by a member particularly appreciated by and loyal to the Empire.
Living in their unforgiving environment, where food but especially water could be very difficult to find, made hospitality be something sacred for Messalyans: water, a slice of bread, and a place where to rest for a night would be offered to anyone; even more so by the nomads. A traveller in need would never be refused.
This custom made it so that many of the ancient Messalyan gods were slowly replaced by Valthoss, the wandering shepherd, that became by far the most worshipped of the New Gods in the region. Due to their partly nomadic and isolated lifestyle, some tribes also still conserve some customs of the Old Gods, if not fully worship them at least when far from the authorities.
Messalyans often find themselves at war against the tribes of Ogroids and Beastkin that live in the dry vast wastelands. They contend with them in both food and water which are scarce. Both these dangers however have been put to rest since thanks to the conjunct effort of the Empire troops and the local cavalrymen.
The only remaining sparse tribes are left to fight each other for the even more scarce resources, others were forced to emigrate, or died out of starvation and thirst. A notable mention however is to be given to the silver mines of Khorovia, a small village but with quite a large garrison, and an even larger population or Greenskin laborers, kept in chains and made to work, eat and keep their numbers by the imperial soldiers. Elves are not uncommon in the towns of the Pymm valley, living in very modest and poor conditions, though gladly surviving in these conditions, but enjoying at least a life that has other rhythms and risks than the one in the major cities of the Empire. Dwarves and other races are very uncommon in the region and the average Messalyan has likely never seen one, same for creatures of the Underworld, that seems to either have only uneasy accesses in the area, or perhaps particularly isolationist dwellers.
The region is devoid from the presence of settlements of other civilizations, the only town present being purely made by their human occupants. Mostly lacking great or imposing buildings, both for the scarcity of proper materials, but especially for the partly nomadic lifestyle and the more modest views of these people, not looking at making imposing buildings, but more to their utility and efficiency in repelling the heat, or in keeping the humidity. Only some palaces of the nobility stand out in the otherwise quite plain towns around the Pymm. Several small settlements in the drylands are instead inhabited only in the wet season, and on several occasions in history, entire towns had to be abandoned due to severe droughts.
Apparel
Messalyans typical garbs reflect their lifestyle of mostly nomadic people living in dry and hot areas of the world: light, simple colors, less covering clothes or ones that are baggy, and made of very light textiles. Even the people that settled permanently in the valley of the Pymm still mostly keep the same clothes as the generations before theirs, even if with the passing of the centuries, also thanks to the roads and travel stations made by the Empire to cross the drylands, the influences of the Annorian culture and even the bordering Khezan started to be felt -and seen- in the way people would dress, especially the wealthy and the nobility.
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The omnipresent soldiers of the Imperial Army stationed in the area would often add the typical long scarf of the Messalyans to their uniforms, often
​keeping it wet or humid, for protection against the dry air and the sun. The famous Messalyan light cavalry instead remained mostly unchanged through the years, now brandishing the insignias of the Empire, but fighting mostly as Auxiliary unit, keeping their semi-irregular and very simple, usually civilian outfits, equipped mostly with javelins, light spears, and leather covered shields.
History
Messalyan tribes and villages are as old as any surviving written chronicle goes. These territories have often seen the presence of foreign invaders before, but their vastness and the nomadic, adaptable nature of its inhabitants made it so that it was never fully conquered, with the exception of the Empire, of course.
With the rise of other civilizations the fierce Messalyan, toughened by years of smaller tribal conflicts, were often payed off to keep the borders safe from potential incursions and disputes, and soon after Messalyan Light Cavalry started to appear as mercenary unit in service of other kingdoms, even some of the last elves settlements from the center of the Continent, that however were slowly all subdued to human rule. The elves now present in the region are indeed often descendents of the people that centuries ago hired these early Messalyans, that even with their accumulating fame were not enough to win their wars.
Messalyan nobility has been often in close contact with the southern kingdoms in the past and some of the more prominent families entered marriages and alliances with them. Something similar happened also with the Empire, which managed to subdue the Messalyans by splitting their tribes and putting them against each other via bribes, alliances and strategic weddings. Messalya never suffered the power of an Edict, quite on the contrary, the stories tell of how, about two hundred years ago, an Edict shook the earth, provoking indeed some damages to buildings, but especially making the ground fracture in multiple places, making the waters of the Pymm flow in multiple directions and channels in the valley, soon making it in the rich, lush farmland that it is now.
After the conquest by the Empire, the famous Messalyan cavalry was neither dismissed, nor totally incorporated in the ranks of the Imperial Army. It was instead often kept as an Auxiliary corp to be used mostly in times of war and particular conflict, otherwise its men allowed to remain in their lands of origin, keeping the Greenskins and Beastmen population at bay, as well as their herds fed.
Authors: Rashan
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