Of Mages and Men
The Safe Zones, as indicated by the green areas on the map, are localities of relative safety for those accused of or afflicted by magic, and mage sympathizers.
Laws are passed of varying severity in Lat Salok, Kestrana, Kaetho, Belakei, Mastay, Neachey, Gyatso, Swanfall and Bhuti Mingyur to banish or dispose of those symptomatic of magical ability. The smallness of scale and triviality of an allegation is of no consequence in the eye of the mandate when one is proposed to be suspected of mage activity, and the promise of reward for identifying mages to the local authorities is motive enough for many to point an accusatory finger at their neighbor. It is not difficult to fabricate evidence of guilt and present it as fact to the judgement of the superstitious.
Scouring the roads most travelled by vagrant asylum seekers cast out from their homes are those dutifully and decorously inhibiting their pursuit of sanctuary, while vulturous racketeers scavenge the austere remains of any fortune they might carry. Bandit clans grow all the bolder, their numbers accruing with the flux of desperate people discarded into the wilds, and raids on small townships become increasingly common. As stable supplies brought by merchant trade dwindle to naught amid the maelstrom; robbery among townsfolk and tribes, too, eventuate at an alarming rate; many instances of such escalating to violence, and all-out riots.
Safe houses and refugee camps for the magically afflicted, sympathizers and wrongly accused are beginning to form, far from the reaches of metropolitan jurisdiction.
In Ehiasall, inhumed by an intricate web of water-logged caves tunneling into the bases of mountains cradling a salt lake on the far-west coast of the continent, is reputed to be a haven known as Nuusan Grotto. It is safely accessible only by barge, for the immense cliffs overhanging it's access effectively thwart any other means, and the bargeman comes only for those who know how to summon him.
In Aeslend, nestled in the foothills on the outskirts of the Ethereal Badlands, Bitterroot Hallow is secreted amidst a dense network of canyon fissures carved into the dry desert earth, and shrouded in a perpetual sea-born fog. It's remote obscurity renders Bitterroot near-impossible to find without the guide of those who know the path, and the rumors of a beast standing guard - a terrible creature of shadow and malice incarnated by dark magic - deters most of ill-intent from perusing it's gate.
In Apora, Guardian's Watch shelters those exiled from Bhuti Mingyur and the Meozas settlements of Nconga and Tsogyal, though the protection offered by the temple leans solely on the people's respect for the Elders, and their fear of further wrath of the Guardians. The stability here is frail and uncertain.
Meanwhile, the anomalies afflicting the world are unrelenting. Though the fog engulfing central Ehiasall is beginning to disperse, the ground has soured in it's wake; the vegetation wilted, blackened with rot, reeking of decay and writhing with all foul manner of varmint that flourish amid the filth. The animals have move on, while once clear streams are now blighted by mire, and the aquatic life that had inhabited the waters in abundance have perished. And from this place of putrescence, of death and abandonment...
Something other begins to stir.
PROMPT
The discord of the world is all-consuming, inescapable and a growing constant in the day-to-day life of even those living the simplest, most reclusive or remote lives. How do they respond, and how acutely are the effected by these goings on?