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Now that he had met his mother at long last, Ya-Shuur took the opportunity to travel among the valls of lower or southern Be’r-Jaz to see what they were like during this difficult period of Rot. He walked through the settlement around the new manor, noting that it appeared to be in various ways more advanced than the nomadic encampments of middle Be’r-Jaz. Instead of the simple dens that the middelvals made, these southern valls built quite impressive structures that looked to be small wooden attempts of building something like Li’Kalla’s manor. They made use of poles gained from trees that had not yet fully developed. These were tall but not quite as thick as a more developed tree, and once they had gathered many and gotten rid of small branches and leaves they were packed tightly together to make a round barricade which formed the wall of the hut, and the roof was a mixture of several layers of these poles and leaves and mud, though they were placed in such a way that rainwater would not gather on top but would drain down the sides and onto the ground. They were still primitive structures and at risk of flooding, but quite impressive overall when compared with the temporary dens the middelvalls dwelled in.

As Ya-Shuur walked among them the hungry and emaciated inhabitants of the settlement, they gave him tired but curious looks. He smiled thinly and greeted them and they responded with their stiff and respectful greetings. That was another thing that differentiated these valls from their relatives in the middle Be’r-Jaz. Those ones were not quite as attached to these respectful gestures. These seemed more refined and cultivated, which was probably the effect of being near his mother.

But despite that, the Rot was having a negative effect on valls here too. As he continued from the settlement he came across many who were in active and hostile disputes with others over scarce food. It had not become a terrible and bloody carnage as had happened with the middelvals, but here there was death of the old, the vulnerable, the ill, the young. There was much sadness and anger, and petty squabbles erupted into fistfights which evaporated after some time. It was clear that Li’Kalla’s influence was strong enough to ensure that things did not completely fall apart. It was not quite a might makes right world down here, especially because the Valthumir seemed to step up in this period of difficulty and take up the mantle and responsibility given them by Li’Kalla. It gave everyone a focus and hope, and it was not uncommon for Ya-Shuur to come across settlements where the leading Valthumir had grown in power due to the Rot and had been able to organize their people in such a way as to reduce the effects of the Rot. There was equal sharing of scarce food, with those who were most in need of help and support getting the most support and help.

Ya-Shuur approved of this. “Those who most need help are to get the most help,” he mused to himself. It seemed that the system that Li’Kalla had set up, seeming unfair and arbitrary at first, actually resulted in overall good. Resolving the matter of leadership with her divine mandate meant that in times of hardship the valls here rallied readily around their divinely-mandated leaders, and so were more organized and better equipped to survive and thrive. It was the exact opposite of the middelvals whose leadership was uncertain, and who had fallen into a might makes right trap the moment extreme hardship had destroyed their nascent organization and tribal social structures because they had not been able to cope with the changing realities around them. 

Ya-Shuur found this interesting, and it made him think that if simple divine guidance had protected the southern valls from so much pain, how much more could direct divine intervention and leadership do so? His attempts to simply teach the middelvals about the idea of justice had done them no good beyond giving them an ideal of how things [i]should[/i] be. Perhaps he should have taken a more active approach...

It was at this time that he finally gathered up the power and strength to put a halt to the curse of Rot. From all that he had seen and his discussions with numerous valls, valthumir, and with Li’Kalla, he was able to ascertain with some certainty that the curse was unjustified. He had not been able to speak with the one who had set up the curse and he regretted this, but there seemed to be no way that Ya-Shuur knew of to track the god in question down. After this, Ya-Shuur set off to return to Li’Kalla’s mansion.

[list][*][hider=Summary]Ya-Shuur travels around south Be'r-Jaz and notices that due to the structure that Li'Kalla has established the Rot has not led to complete destruction and carnage, but actually the Valthumir and hierarchy have been a force for order and overall good. This makes Ya-Shuur wonder about how much better it would be for the middelvalls if they had direct divine intervention and leadership. It is after this in the time line that he dispels the curse, which happened in this post: https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/4945618[/hider]
[*][hider=Might Summary]No Might points or Free points spent!
0 Might points and 7 Free points left for Ya-Shuur[/hider]
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