The Manmarchers

Thousands of people spread across hundreds of hamlets and a half-dozen fortified hillforts in North Manmarch — a heavily armed, feud-ridden neighbor that could become a serious threat if anyone ever united it.

Hamlets cluster around chiefs who claim to protect them, demand oaths, set wergild, and exact vengeance. The region is shaped by blood-feuds, treachery, ambition, and decades-long cycles of war and peace. The South Manmarch is related but less settled: a disputed prairie borderland between the civilized south and the World's End. Hillfolk graze there, merchants cross it, Manmarchers hunt, trade, raid, or attempt new settlements, and most homesteads eventually fail.

Wergild is central to Manmarcher law. Once paid, the feud must end, and a chief who ignores paid wergild invites a curse.

• Kin, refugees, or raiders crossing into Stonetop's reach
• Escorts, settlers, and feuding neighbors
• An ambitious chief beginning to unite the hillforts