Rulership of the Lands

Iuz's writ runs no farther than his forces can impose themselves, for the most part, and the Bandit Lands are bedeviled by petty conflict among the priesthood and mages of Iuz. Just as the bandit chieftains competed to possess the largest forces, the biggest city base, and the largest herds of livestock, so do the puppets of Iuz now in Rookroost, Riftcrag, Stoink and elsewhere. Indeed, as the map shows, all three have been designated regional capitals, though the regions have not been specified by Iuz.

Cranzer, a Lesser Boneheart mage, is stationed at Riftcrag and is technically the ruler of the lands in Iuz's name. What this actually means is that if anything goes wrong and Iuz learns of it, Cranzer gets the blame. Thus, the mage spends much of his time covering up the problems which the key resources, locations and peoples of the land face him with frequently. His position is tricky indeed, for the rulers of Rookroost and Stoink are both ambitious themselves and frequently ignore orders Cranzer sends them or "interpret" them to their benefit. Worse still, Archmage Null and Jumper are frequent visitors and they often "drop in" on Cranzer unannounced. They generally like to leave him with the feeling that the job he's doing in the Rift Canyon isn't quite up to snuff and that they would like to see some improvement immediately.

In many areas of the Bandit Lands, the "ruler" is whomever has the troops to enforce his rule. Further, large areas of the Bandit Lands have no settlements larger than hamlets of one to two hundred people. The typical way of life of all but the largest bandit groups does not include settling down in towns and cities. This is especially true of the western margins of the lands, as the color map shows.

Iuz’s commanders adopt a wide range of strategies for dealing with the Bandit Lands. They vary wildly, from one local commander to another, from time to time, and certainly on the nature and size of the bandit groups being dealt with. Leaders may try to recruit "free" bandits, ally with them, hire them as mercenaries, force them into submission, try to wipe them out, or just warn them away from important roads, cities, towns and fortifications. The bandits respond in a variety of ways, as noted below, but in very few cases can they actually offer any stiff opposition to Iuz's forces, especially in the controlled castles and cities. Thus, Iuz hasn't fully subdued these lands, but they offer him little in the way of stern opposition and aggression.