The Chromatic Chord

The Rimward Passage War

The early Windscar war of c. 135,000-c. 128,000 BR in which Rimward strongholds shut their wells and High Scar escort-bands took water by force, until the Pacts swore new terms over the dead that told reserve-right from treaty-right. See The Folds, the Scarps, and the Shore.

Overview

The Rimward Passage War was an early war among the Windscar Orcs, fought for the wells of the basin rim between the strongholds that held them and the escort-bands that had been sworn passage past them.

It follows The Founding of the Windscar Pacts, when the well-holding strongholds of The Rimward Basins and the escort-bands of The High Scars first come to blows over the same water.

Wells Shut, Passage Forced

The war begins in a hard dry cycle, when basin reserves run low just as traffic on the routes is heaviest.

The Rimward strongholds start barring their gates to escorted parties more often than Pact custom allowed. Their reason is plain: drink the wells dry and the rim falls, and the whole Windscar loses its fixed points of water. The High Scar escort-bands see betrayal. Passage was sworn at the treaty-grounds, and if a stronghold may bar its gate whenever it grows afraid, every oath made under the Windscar Pacts is worthless in exactly the seasons when the land kills.

Reserve-Right and Treaty-Right

The war makes the Windscar name two claims that earlier custom had run together. Reserve-right is a stronghold's claim to shut its wells when a node on the rim would otherwise fail. Treaty-right is the claim of sworn passage: escort, warning, a hearing at the gate, and a real welcome, under oaths already given.

Before the war, everyone assumed the same strongholds and bands could honour both. The war breaks that. A stronghold can be right about its wells and still wrong about what it swore to travellers; an escort-band can be right about its oath and still wrong about what a well can bear.

Settlement and Custom

Neither side wins. The bands have shown they can take a well; the strongholds have shown they can hold one; both have buried too many.

The Pacts swear new terms at the treaty-grounds. A stronghold may still shut a well that would truly fail, but it may no longer simply bar the gate. Wherever it can, it must give a sworn party one of three answers: a small, guarded welcome; a later welcome on stated conditions; or a guided turn towards another well that can take them. The answers are three of the four the Halfling cistern halls first gave in The Measure Cistern Crisis (c. 147,000-c. 143,000 BR), now sworn into Orc custom. A stronghold that turns travellers away with no answer at all invites the escort-bands back, and the Pacts no longer hold them off.

Historical Significance

The Rimward Passage War is the Windscar Pacts' first great split, and the far side's first settlement bought wholly in blood. After it the Orc world holds two claims inside one harsh land: the strongholds' duty to keep their wells and the escort-bands' demand that sworn passage be honoured.

Later Windscar quarrels turn on whether a stronghold is hoarding behind reserve-right, or an escort-band is singing of passage while drinking someone else's survival. Orc history gains a war of its own, not borrowed from its neighbours. The war left the rim haunted: escort dead rise at the fading cairns where no warning was given (see Cairn-Wakers), and the wells that changed hands most often are still called blood-wells. Treasure-hunters dig the pan floors for the stone-covered graves of war-leaders buried with their spears and silver, and the pan hyenas are usually there first.

In the Writers’ Guide

See Also