Paws (Town of Simplicity)

“The loss of the village of Paws was a horrible tragedy… yet another fragment of old Sosaria gone, lost forever to the hordes of evil…”

Location: Southwest of Britain, consists of a number of small farms. Originally was north of Trinsic, in the Fens of the Dead. Only one ruined structure remains.

Virtue: None

Government: Considered part of Britain.

Imports: None

Exports: Food

Heraldry

None

Geography

Paws is the name for a large rural region of the Britain region lying southwest of the Old Fort. Paws once lay in the area north of Trinsic, at the north central area of the swamps, which have become known as the Fens of the Dead. The inhabitants of Paws had built large dikes to divert the swamp water, creating large tracts of arable land to farm. The dikes long since collapsed due to neglect, and the swamp reclaimed its lost territory. All but one of the buildings, and the graveyard, were lost. Since then those two structures have become haunted places, avoided by many.

History

Before the Shattering, Paws was a sizable farming community, who grew enough food to feed nearly half of Lord British’s lands. The Cataclysm shifted the land considerably, but the town lay on a relatively stable plate, and ended up in a lowland area, surrounded by quickly forming swamps.

It took several years, but slowly the people of Paws constructed a complex system of dykes to divert the water of the swamp, to make tracts upon which to construct their homes from the wood nearby. They lived by simple hunting and gathering for a few decades, before developing new strains of crops capable of being grown with a low level of water, as rice is grown.

Paws wasn’t discovered for many years, ironically it was a ship from Vesper that found the small community in 72 A.C. rather than Britain, who were far closer. Paws developed a closer relationship to Britain, though, because of the relative distance. They traded their simple foodstuffs for crafted tools and items impossible for them to make themselves.

Paws survived many centuries of conflict on the mainland due to its relative isolation. Very few armies could cross the wide swamp, or resist the diseases that lay in its waters. (The people of Paws were renowned for their incredible resistance to disease.) The Great Earthquake in 101 A.C. had subsided by the time it reached them, but the waves were another story. The rise of water came over the dykes, forcing the inhabitants to take to what ships they could find until it passed.