Barbarism and Civilization

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When looking at Progonos one sees a gigantic frontier, a savage land that challenged the young human race to try and survive within. Despite that almost half of a millennium had passed since the end of the primal Mythic Age, the overall conditions have not been greatly improving. The majority of the people still live as humble settlers in the countryside or as hunter-gatherers deep in the unforgiving wilderness.
From the rocky highlands through the fertile valleys to the open steppes, the outside world breeds hardy, defiant men and women who know it well that even the smallest things can only be accomplished through hard labour. They have been through it all, raiders, beasts, and the rampage of the elements themselves but neither of these hardships were able to break them completely.
At the present age, the rise of civilization is the reason for them to be concerned, the countryfolk, and especially the primitives eye the high walls with suspicion and alarm. The power of the city-states is growing ever more, but eventually, they will run out of resources and living space within, and then they will begin to expand and take that of others. At some places in the world, it has already started...

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Civilization has taken root not so long ago, the foundations of the first enclosed settlements were laid down about three hundred years ago, so they are rare and rudimentary things to encounter. Not that there are too many to find, only a token number of tribes have chosen isolation over endurance as a response to the cruel laws of survival. On Phoris for example, Ariapolis is the one and only civilized settlement for the whole continent.
The further elevation and refinement of themselves became the leading goals in all of the endeavours of the civilized folk. Certainly, their ingenuity has brought them many interesting breakthroughs in the fields of culture, science and craftsmanship which had granted them the necessary background force to pursue further dreams, and not to settle with simply keeping what they have scraped together so far. They grow and prosper, but their separation from the world had some side-effects as well.
Within their homes made of lifeless stone, society evolved into a dry system of superiority made of favours, interests and obligation through which its denizens must cleverly navigate in order to get further in life. Treachery, deceit and opportunism are not unfamiliar to them, because they know that for every goal, there is a good possibility that at least one other person out there will fight to destroy it or to have it for himself.

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