Story by a Player
They wish to remain secret until the update
Part I
The first to arrive were the wisdom-keepers for they had the maps. They settled at the mouth of what the local tribes saw as a great river. It was large, but certainly not great. The rich alluvial plain was wide and stretched many miles upriver. The land was mostly untouched by war and devastation. The locals called themselves bashie or spirit people. They were a simple and earnest folk who appreciated the clever ways the small, but growing group of Tilapians, as they called themselves, could make life less of a chore. These Tilapians were the people of the fish and had an impressive knowledge of water how to use it and the things that lived in its depths.
After a prosperous summer and fall among the bashie, the Tilapians prepared great canoes to sail south along the coast. The elder bashie were dismayed and begged Lila, one of the women who led the Tilapians, to stay another year and guide the spirit people. Lila was reluctant and the nightly council fires of the Tilapians burned long and bright for a week. In the end they agreed to stay and guide the bashie for another year, even though they knew one year would stretch into two and then another and soon it would be decade and more. So, yes, they would stay just another year.
In the spring, as if by magic, Tilapian women carrying small children found their way to the fertile plain along this unnamed river of the spirit people and a new liveliness sprung up among the bashie and their guests, summer and fall was again prosperous and rich with food and hope. The bashie were deeply tied to the earth, its bounty and its source of life, but prior to the coming of the fish people life had been a struggle for them. Their small corner of the world saw few visitors and most of them came only to take what little the bashie had.
To the amazement of the bashie, when raiders from the distant mountains arrived to empty the barns and storehouses of wheat and barley and rape the young women, the gentle Tilapians showed they also knew the art of weapons and of making war. To the last man the raiders were slain without mercy and then it was that last man who was spared and brought into the village and soon favored by Lila and her wise companions.
Young men arrived in small groups and were a welcome addition to the local workforce. Coupling and marriage became common among the young people of both groups and the villages grew to small towns. Wood and earthen buildings were improved and on the fifth anniversary of the first meeting of the bashie and the Tilapians, a small stone building was built around a well, on a hill, that was not too far from the ocean. It was dedicated to union of earth and water.
If you guys want an update this weekend get those orders in. If not then we will update next weekend

.