Kehahn/Places: The Plains: The grasslands where the Watchers and Waiters dwell

The People of the Plains dwell between the Western Wall Mountains on the West, the Rift of Ashor and the forests there to the North, and the Southern Hills or sometimes further to the South. How far to the East they travel I cannot say: perhaps as far as the border with Skiolia itself.

The Elders of the Plains were entrusted with great responsibilities, and have kept these tasks so long that they cannot say when they started. Certainly it is before the start of any modern history, and some say that the People of the Plains were instrumental in ending the Gold Disc Wars thousands of years ago. This must be assumed to be folklore, however, along with rumours that they guard and keep secret a fortified city called Kehahn.

The boy Heesm is one of the People of the Plain; he is of the tribe known as the Watchers. These people have many songs that they sing, and practice a severe life style: in their religion they believe they will be called to serve a messianic figure as slaves, and they practice this diligently.

They spend their sixteenth and seventeenth years in lonely vigils awaiting the return of their saviour, and when he does not appear, many of them go to serve another tribe as slaves. The choice of who is sent as a slave and who remains to breed and eventually become a priest or elder is a secret kept within the tribe, and appears to revolve around the ro^les that people take within a complex ritual of dance and song.

The People of the Plains have light skin, and often reddish or fair hair. They dye their clothing in bright colours, and build dwellings hidden entirely in the tall grasses of the plains. The tribes meet each year for an entire moon-turn, when they renew their songs and exchange husbands, for they are governed entirely by their women.