"Zarmator" in the local dialect of Orcish means "Land of Wizards". For it is the Wizards who dominate the Land. These are not just any wizards, though. In Ages past three magical castles were constructed, and were employed by the Magic-Users who made them as mobile bases from which to conquer the Land; through the agency of their slaves and minions. Naturally each of these ancient Wizards was acting independently of, and in rivalry with, each of the others. There followed a particularly bloody, but short, war, which ended in a truce under which the Land was divided in three. Thus was peace imposed: for a while.
Inevitably that first peace broke down in conflict, and the pattern was set that has prevailed ever since: struggle between the leading Magic-Users of the Land for control of the Castles, and struggle between the controllers of the Castles (the "Wizards") for control of the Land. Generally there is little opposition to attempts by the Castles to seize towns, because of the futility of fighting a highly mobile fortress, and so casualties are mostly limited to the Castle-dwellers in their internecine struggles. There have, however, been notable exceptions over the years, when resistance from indigenous warlords has been brutally eradicated. In between these various conflicts uneasy truces, or lulls in the fighting, prevail.
Amongst ordinary people there is much resentment of the Wizards. It is felt that they live like parasites off the Land; taking what they want, and giving nothing in return. Their followers are rewarded, but the conquering Wizards generally do nothing to govern their subject towns. Sometimes a Governor is appointed in an effort to keep a particular town under closer control, but this is not usually a successful measure, as townsmen become braver when the Castle is away. Alternatively, sometimes the townsmen themselves appoint a Warlord (or he appoints himself), who, if he has the sense not to lead an attempt at resistance, will treat with the Wizard for better terms. More often the towns of Zarmator have no government at all, and no laws: nothing but anarchy.
In the past, seeking to avoid the depredations of the Wizards, people left the towns, and established their own smallholdings in the countryside. At first they were moderately successful in escaping the notice of the flying Castles, but eventually the Toilers (as they had become known) grew to such numbers that first they started fighting amongst themselves for the best land, and secondly the Wizards started to take an interest in them. The Wizards dealt with the Toilers by heavily taxing or plundering their farms, razing them, or more indirectly by letting loose a variety of monsters and Summoned Beings upon the Land, in order to plague those outside the protection of the towns. The end result, after a further period of particular bloodshed, was a reversal of the Toilers' Movement, but not its complete elimination.
The most worshipped Gods in Zarmator are KOROS (Who offers hope and is especially favoured by the Toilers), HAERIM (Who encourages opposition to the Wizards and is especially favoured by the townspeople) and TERRIK (Who laughs at the devastation of the Land and is especially favoured by those who see no end to its problems and seek only to live for today). KOROS and TERRIK have Their High Temples out in the Land, those of HAERIM are in the midst of the towns; His most powerful being the Temple of the Black Heart in Nârsh, the underground City in the Canyon.
Many also turn to the Thievish Brotherhoods, whose own thefts seem (or have been made out to seem) paltry compared to those of the Wizards. Either the Wizards have been unable to eliminate the Brotherhoods, or, like the Temples, they do not dare. One Brotherhood dominates the others in Zarmator: the Hyænas, whose proud boast is that they "laugh" at the Wizards. Their chief power base is in the city of Vlàger. In Nârsh, on the other hand, it is the Cave Rats who predominate.
Zarmator is not deficient in natural resources (which is perhaps why it has been able to support the plunderers for so long). Metals are mined in the Western Hills: iron, silver and gold, and coal in the Grey Waste to the East. Ox carts carry ore to the rivers, where it is loaded onto barges for shipment to the forges, which tend to be concentrated around the Southern towns. The efforts of the Toilers have improved agriculture beyond the level commonly found elsewhere in the Underworld. In crafts, however, the Land is backward, there being little incentive to produce the best if it will only be taken away. But in the basics the Land is well provided.
Paradoxically, the pattern of warfare in Zarmator results, on the whole, in fewer civilian casualties than are caused by the concentrated warfare that prevails elsewhere in the Underworld. Inter- racial violence is also a minor problem, as all people tend to feel united against the common enemy of the Wizards. Crime, however, is a major problem, the Brotherhoods thriving in the absence of laws or any effective control by the Wizards, and other evildoers only likely to be punished if their victims catch up with them or if they trespass upon the prerogatives of the Brothers. On the whole, the lot of the average Zarmatian does not in fact compare unfavourably with that of his counterparts in other Lands.
In the Year 2501 the three Wizards dominating the Land are:
The last truce is in danger of breaking up, as all seek to expand, and Nàrsan finds himself the most hard pressed.
P.R. Wild, 28 December 1986
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