Wilderness
The wilds spread all across the southern portion of the Midlands. It is an open grassland, named not after the land, but after the people who live in it. It consists mostly of unchanging, open, flat plains with tall grass. Trees are few and far between, mostly birch and alder in clusters along streams. Crossing logs (with no hand rope) are used as bridges across the streams. It is home to a number of native peoples, including the Mud People. The Kings' Port lay to the west of the Wilds, less than a week's walk south-west from the Mud People's village. No one lived in the west portion of the Wilds near the boundary.
Mud People Village
The Mud People village is set on a rise that passes for a hill in the western portion of the grasslands of the Wilds, south of the Rang'Shada Mountains, and out of reach of the troubles of most of the peoples of the Midlands. The village is set in a rough circle around an open area. It is a collection of buildings constructed of mud brick, surfaced with a tan clay plaster and topped with grass roofs that leak as they become dry, and have to be replaced constantly to keep the rain at bay (although a few of the buildings have been replaced with better clay tiled roofs that don't leak). There are wood doors, but no glass in the windows of the thick walls, only cloth hanging in some to keep out the weather. The buildings are mostly one-room family homes clustered tightly on the south side, most sharing at least one common wall, narrow walkways passing between the homes here and there, and communal buildings grouped together on the north. A variety of structures placed loosely on the east and west separate them. Some of these are nothing more than four poles with grass roofs, used as places to eat, or as work areas for making weapons and pottery, or as food preparation and cooking areas. In dry times the whole village is shrouded in a fog of dust that clogs the eyes, nose and tongue. In times of rain the buildings are washed clean by the rain, and on the ground a thousand footprints are turned to puddles that reflect the drab buildings above. Chickens scatter constantly around the Mud People in their village.
The Mud People's spirit house is a smaller building with no windows in the back of the larger communal buildings, set away from the others. The spirit house is where the elders hold the gathering of seers. A small fire burns in a pit at the back end, offering a little light to the otherwise dark room. Pottery bowls left from past meals typically lay about the floor, and a plank shelf along one wall holds a good two dozen ancestral skulls. Otherwise the room is empty.
