This is an OOC thread, so you can discuss things, ask questions, make witty remarks, ect. How do people want to do character details? I am personally fond of revealing as little as possible OOC and letting it be known in the game thread organically, but a lot of people don't mind sharing details, and if that's what the players want I'm fine with that to.<br/><br/><div align="center">**********************************************************************</div><br/>Here are some important events that happened in the past year in Lupravia in the run up to the game's opening:<br/><br/><strong>12 months ago – </strong><br/>A sudden cold snap covers a 3 mile radious of the Skirith land. 3 feet of snow fall in the space of an hour. Crops die, people freeze, and more die in the riots. Total death toll: around 50, and food prices double for grains and produce.<br/><br/>The Krastov house guard, the Zrillie, hit a farming community in a cross border raid. 2 dead, 14 injured, and the granary is torched, further exasperating the food problem.<br/><br/><strong>11 months ago –</strong><br/>The Skirith house guard, the Ishmaril, retaliate against the Krastov lands, killing a horse trader and torching the premise, letting the horses run lose across the hillsides.<br/><br/><br/><strong>9 months ago - </strong><br/>A new crossbow designed by a gnome in the Krastov becomes popular with those who can afford it. The model can hold an additional four arrows, and a clever mechanism allows them to slot into place automatically, removing the need to reload after every shot. They are however a little expensive, and the requirement of a journey to the Krastov lands limits their availability, but those who manage to get their hands on one are satisfied with the results.<br/><br/><strong>7 months ago –</strong><br/>Mounting border tensions finally boil over into a clash between the Ishmaril and Zrillie. The two sides cautious make feints, inflicting minimal damage, only a single Zrillie casualty, but then after night fall the soldiers of the Tower outflanked the Ishmaril and forced them to flee. They lost 3, and killed 10 for it, and more importantly captured 2 alive, which the Skirirth where then obliged to random for dearly.<br/><br/>A being thought to be a powerful fey-regent, the Caller, is cornered and defeated by a group of the Riders in Grey led by a Gragoryn Szlachta. The head is mounted upon Count Ivak’s wall, and week of celebration is ordered in the Gragoryn’s land. Rothida join in, but the spirit is less infection for the Krastov and Skirith.<br/><br/><strong>6 months ago –</strong><br/>The Skirith begin a trade war against, attempting to restrict food from their land reaching the Krastovs, by tariffs at the border and new laws for merchants attempting to purchase grain.<br/><br/><strong>4 months ago –</strong><br/>The Rothida reveal a new addition to their house guard, massive giants of men, glad in heavy hide armour studded with iron spikes four inches in length. There is much speculation as to what these creatures are, and the Riders in Grey are apparently eager to test their mettle in combat.<br/><br/>The Skirith’s food embargo begins to effect the northern region of the Krastov Realms. Estimated death toll of around 35, order largely restored after additional Zrillie are sent to the affected areas.<br/><br/><strong>3 months ago –</strong><br/>Count Ivak summons the head of House Krastov and Skirith, and forces them to kiss and make up. Further details are unavailable, leading to rampant speculation from farmhands to headman.<br/><br/>A mountain man attacks a Krastov hamlet in the high mountains, but a group of monster hunters swiftly deal with them. This is a fairly typically example of Lupravian interaction with the stone skinned people.<br/><br/><strong>2 months ago –</strong><br/>The Gragoryn Vornic dies childless, and is succeeded by his cousin. There is a brief clamour for invites to the funeral, and brief reshuffle in the court’s internal structure, then business is back to normal. Rumours of a dictate about to be passed that will condemn the Rothida for not doing enough to combat the death cult that operates in the cliff on the border of their land.