DEATH

It is estimated that 60-70% of the Meswoth died over the course of 50 years.

There were several decades of collapse among the Meswoth... Following some attempts at mitigating the plague, it is thought that Ba-Sarnotha and Ba-Hasurhosta collapsed. With their populated taking to the new roads or to their graves, the cities were unable to adequetely maintain themselves and collect food and tribute. It is known that the governments of both splintered, with some factions leaving the city and some remaining. There are no records of officials returning to any sort of prominence from either city.

Despite these threats, the actual wide state apparatus of Ba-Sarnotha managed to remain more or less intact. This system was inherited by Srutalasi, in a grand example of irony: the city that had been invaded by Ba-Sarnotha went on to inherit its state. Srutalasi also took on many of Ba-Sarnotha's records, and made use of its writing system. In this way, civilization remained along the coast. Some of Ba-Hasurhosta's ideas on education and government ended up in Srutalasi.

By the time Death Fever seemed to run its course, the political landscape of the Meswoth changed: one coastal city commanded the highest population in the land, the greatest army, the oldest records, and the widest range of travel...

In so many villages, animals and people died. Families were broken. Children were without parents, husbands without wives, and friends without friends. In the northern plains, a migration was being undergone. Groups were heading north, into the forests, where it seemed people better survived. Various tribes of the northerners, who called themselves the Kaksantha, began to meld with the Meswoth. These northerners were strange to the Meswoth: they seemed similar to the matriarchal clans of the Meswoth, but much more like the divided society of the Volgoth to the south.

These two groups, over the years, engaged in their own little... Kerfluffle. Some groups were able to easily merge with the Meswoth. Some Mewoth adopted their way of life, and many of the Kaksantha began to adopt the Meswoth way of life... And still other groups engaged in skirmishs and limited warfare... By the time these northerners began to reconnect to the Meswoth of the south, they existed in a variety of mixed states, which the southerners found intriguing.

Moreover, a similar process happened in the south. The Fwee were welcoming, though they too suffered disease. Intermingling with the Fwee was very natural, and it seemed like the right thing to do for many, especially those who already knew of the Fwee, and saw them as neighbors and friends of the Meswoth.

The Sinsou were a different story. The Meswoth much less contact with them than with the Fwee. Groups and adopted families flowed southwards, deeper and deeper into the steppe, and often came across abandoned Sinsou camps, ringed with stone cairns, small groups of cattle often trudging nearby, some dying, some blind. The Meswoth noticed that the sickness had come to the Sinsou, and they had faired much worse than their norther neighbors. Sometimes the Meswoth would come across camps which were still actives, little bastions of the Sinsou culture. The Meswoth were sometimes welcomed, and oftentimes became integral parts of new, sedentary villages. This was often accompanied by a drop in death fever victims, whether due to a slight decrease in animal exposure or the demise of the disease on a global scale.

These new Meswoth communities quickly shifted from their homeland's culture, and they quickly became of particular interest.

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