(After he fell the following unsent letter was found among Balian's things.)
Bron,
Dear brother, I trust you and the Northstar Keep weathered the winter well. I find myself far to the south on the edge of the map, peering into the unknown river lands. I lodge at what passes for a keep here. A commoner named Oleg manages it. A commoner he may be, but in holding his keep and protecting the honor of his wife from the dangers that prowl out here, he is as wily as any lord I have met. Svetlana his wife is a young woman whose beauty is wasted out on the frontier. She looks like she should be prancing the Bravonian court, not married to a glorified innkeeper on the edge of nowhere. I am curious as to how she found herself here, though I dare not risk her honor or my own by asking such prying questions.
There is nobody claiming lordship over these lands and none to protect the commoners from the animals that prey on them. I have taken it upon myself to clear the area of any dangers I lay my eyes on. In this task, some brave and unusual companions have joined me.
There is the elf known as Fiz. Yes, I swear on my shield, a real elf. He is not anything like I expected. He wears no scale mail that resembles leaves and carries no elegant blade. He wields magic but not an elven sorcerer, as you would assume. He lobs canters and vials of magic substance at his enemies with a most fiery effect. I thought the elves tend to stay close to their kin. He also seems hesitant to venture underground and on this, I cannot blame him. Why is he out in this wilderness by himself? I also wonder, does he possess a vial that can undo stone?
As strange as the elf might be, a man from the south matches him in oddity. This Zuhair as he calls himself hails from a land called Quadira. He wears flowing robes that resemble what you or I might wear to sleep. He fights while wearing this costume, underneath his armour of course. It does not appear warm and at all and if it was not for the divine protection of his goddess Sarenae I would expect he would have froze this winter. For all his oddities, I respect him. Not only because of the heavy curved blade the large man carries, but for his healing which has kept me out of Death's reach on more than one occasion.
Finally, there is Theodric. At first glance, he seems like a man but the longer you watch the more you notice strangeness about him. I am convinced he is not entirely human but whether fey, demon, or some other blood runs through his veins I cannot say. He has a strong sense of justice which one cannot be help but admire. We water the ground with the blood of bandits we have slain. His mercy consists of an oath and a brand for criminals that choose to repent. It is more mercy than I would show them but the Riverlands have different ways than I am used to. An oath here is as powerful as is back home and the river people seem to take them as seriously as any knight to his lord. The one point I strongly disagree with this Theodric on is his twisted idea of freedom. Theodric believes that commoners should be free to govern themselves. A bold idea and foolish.
Under a Lord’s leadership commoners are free to marry, bear their children, harvest their crops and pay their taxes. Without a Lord to govern who will protect them? Who calls the banners when the lands are under siege? Who will patrol the highways to keep them cleansed of banditry? What good is freedom without order? Pure freedom is what these Riverlands have now and they are as dangerous a place as I have ever seen. With a strong lord and his sworn swords as stewards, the commoners can be free to live out their lives without it ending on a bandit’s blade.
The night grows late and I become weary. We camp tonight in the arms of the largest tree I have laid my eyes on. It is comfortable but Tyre and myself still feel restless as if some unknown evil stalks near.
May my shield never shatter and my lance strike true.
-Balian Orlovsky Northstar
