The Princess Amna. (Patreon)

It is necessary when discussing a person and the tribe to which they belong to also touch on the relevant history of that nation. Know then that Amna belongs to a people called the Weligyrwas, a name meaning willow-bog-people or more accurately, the willow folk who dwell hard by the fen. The Weligyrwas are the result of a fusion between two separate races, those being the Putlopreyh and the Southern Slodgers. The Putlopreyh are a race of farming folk who claim descent from the firstborn son of the god Woodir and the goddess Firalah, this son named Putlo impregnated a mortal woman who became the shared ancestor of all Putlopreyh. Putlo became a divine symbol of fertility and growth and his idols are always depicted with an erect penis to symbolise this. The name Putlopreyh means friends of Putlo, though perhaps “the lovers of Putlo” would be more accurate.

These Putlopreyh migrated from the south of the continent of Evroz up into the Brycglonds, or bridge lands as they are also known, and displaced the native tribes of primitive foragers that dwelled there in those times. For the most part, farmer settlement resulted in complete population replacement of any given area, but when it came to the southeastern region of the Brycglonds known as the fens, these farmers could make little headway. The fenny marshlands are practically impassible without local knowledge of the labyrinthine waterways and thin, snaking islets which are used as causeways to those who know their winding paths. Having been unable to push into the region as they had done with the rest of the mainland, the Putlopreyh sought other avenues for settlement. In the time of their arrival, there was an ongoing conflict between the northern and the southern people of those parts, it was an ancient dispute whose origins I will relate to you now.

The origin of the war of the northern and southern fen folk, or Slodgers as they are also known, goes as follows. The young queen of the south Slodgers had passed from our mortal plane, and their king was heartbroken. One morning, the king went hunting alone to clear his mind from woe when he saw three beautiful women washing themselves in the spring. A wonderful sight it was, and their tones of song filled the air like a spring breeze rustling its way through willow leaves. The women were so fair that their skin gleamed in Leuada’s ray, their hair was gold as Gelh, and their eyes were blue as Duneos’ daytime sky! The king was alleviated from his heavy heart and became besotted that very moment with the youngest and fairest of the maidens. He watched as they put on their robes that they had carefully laid on the reed bed, and he noticed that they were no ordinary robes of wool, leather, or linen, but they were the skins of swans! They put on their swan skins and flew off, the oldest first, then the middling, then the youngest. The king could not get the swan maiden out of his mind; he was lovestruck, and for a full year, he returned every morning to that same spot. One year from the day he first saw them, the swan maidens finally returned. The king had a long time to plan, and so he snuck up to the reed bed where the maids had left their feathery robes and stole away the robe of the youngest. The old one left, and then the middling, and when the youngest went to fly off, she could not find her robe. The king waited until the cool of the evening had set in and pretended to stumble across the maid by chance. He offered her his furs to keep her warm and brought her to his warm hall. The king had them both married, and the south Slodgers prospered in fowl, fishes, and heirs. The swan maid bore onto the king princes nine and princesses nine. The children were gifted with the magic of their mother and were married off to the many petty kings of the fens. Hence flows the magical blood of the royal family of all Slodgers alike. And for a very long time, all was well. However, eventually, the day came when the king was asked in his hall how he had won such a fair maid, and so he told them all in earnest how it had happened. He brought forth the queen’s swan robe, and the queen was as angered as you’d expect. Just as soon as he had brought it before his audience, the queen snatched it and flew off through a hole in the thatched roof! There was an uproar in the hall, and sides were taken for and against the king for his actions. The southern kings stayed loyal, and the north turned against him. This is how there came to be a division among the north and south Slodgers.

The newly arrived Putlopreyh offered to aid the south Slodgers in their fight with the northerners if they themselves might be allowed passage to the islands of dry land to grow crops in the fertile black soil of the fens. The southerners agreed, and because of the Putlopreyh reinforcements, their campaign in the north was a success. The south Slodgers and the Putlopreyh dwelled together for many years and eventually merged as a population, becoming the Weligyrwas. Though this merger was not merely one for one, it was exclusively the aristocracy of the Putlopreyh, whose veins Putlo’s blood ran thickest, that bred with the less numerous Southern Slodgers, thus forming a new ruling class. It was a novel arrangement: the people whose land had been settled (the south Slodgers) became the rulers over the settlers, and with this new parasitic arrangement, the Weligyrwas aristocracy was able to hold onto all of the notable patches of dry land within the fens for themselves, utilising both their numerical advantage and their organisational superiority due to their centralised elite. The descendants of the northerners were routed and, with having been made leaderless, scattered into the wilderness of the fen and are now simply known as Slodgers, for they are the only full-blooded of their race that remained after the formation of the Weligyrwas tribe.

The Weligyrwas elite became very insular and sought to keep their blood pure to further entrench their grip on power. This distinguished them from the population they lauded over and gave them an even greater sense of royalty and nobility. When arranged marriages could not be made with suitable partners from neighbouring fen islands, unnatural pairings were made.

Amna here was born to a mother who sadly died in childbirth; her cruel father blames her for this. One thing that doesn’t help matters is that Amna does not look like her supposed father, or even her mother for that matter, for she lacks the phenotype of Weligyrwas aristocracy. She has ink-black hair characteristic of the common folk, but she retains the blue eyes of the nobility, leading to widespread speculation of an affair between the queen and a peasant. Her father, the Earl, takes out this anger that he feels both for the loss of his wife and the shame of having been cuckolded by some serf unfairly on his poor daughter, Amna.

Amna has an innate aptitude for magic, so when Arrowaun arrived at the Weligyrwas islet of Weligburh, Amna begged to become his apprentice. Arrowaun was hesitant at first, but when Amna demonstrated her handiness with a bow and explained her uses as both a cook and a healer, Arrowaun, after making her fully aware of the perils of his quest, said that he would take her on with the consent of the Earl, to which the Earl, of course, assented.

It is through Amna’s eyes that the reader will witness the magic of Concavia and the wisdom of wise Arrowaun.