THE LORE · THE VALE

The Lean Years

aka the Long Want, the Running-Down, the bad years

What the lower world calls the slow collapse it actually lives in — failing crops, drowned mines, dying trades, raiders off the cold passes, and no word from the capital in living memory. Nobody down here knows why it keeps getting worse; most have stopped asking and started just trying to get through the winter.

Ask a farmer in the Vale what's wrong with the world and they won't say 'the Sundering' or 'the broken god' — they'll say the grain came in light again, the Vandahl mine's still under water, the silver-road's not safe past the third milestone, and the cold's pushing folk down out of the passes who'd rather take your stores than trade for them. The Lean Years is the name the lower world gives the tide it can feel rising and cannot stop: famine, then the failing house, then the toll-takers and the free companies selling their swords to whoever's still solvent, then the monsters that move into the ground people abandon. Why it all keeps getting worse, no one down here truly knows. A few scholars and street-prophets blame the old ringing — the echo, the gods, the elves in the sky — and most people roll their eyes, because a hungry winter doesn't care about a dead god's grief and the man selling that story usually wants your coin. The deep cause is real and it is far over their heads; from the ground you get rumor and omen and a cut verse, never an answer. So the work that matters is the work in front of you: get the town fed, hold the pass, end the feud, drain the well, bury the dead, mend the wall. The world is dying, and the only honest thing to do about it is to fix the small piece you can reach — and most people, quietly, are trying to.

KIND

history

DOMAIN

the lived material collapse of the lower world

WHAT PEOPLE DON T KNOW

the deep cause (the broken god, the failing of the god's own making, the elves' designs) is far over their heads; from the ground there are only hints, and most dismiss them

THE WORK

the game resolves these material problems one at a time — feed the town, hold the pass, end the feud, mend the wall — slow, collective, hopeful repair

Connected

The WandererCONCEPT · The fat tides, the shivering ground, the long burnin…The Vale HarvestCONCEPT · The farm belt is the front line of the Lean Years: f…Old Harrow, Turner of the YearCONCEPT · Old Harrow is losing ground to the Lean Years and kn…The Fair CopyCONCEPT · The lower world's Lean Years are, to the Vyr, the sp…The Ash FamineEVENT · The Ash Famine is reckoned where the Lean Years bega…The Silver CollapseEVENT · The drowned silver mine is the Lean Years made local…

Type Fields

kindhistory

domainthe lived material collapse of the lower world

what_people_seefailing harvests and famine, the drowned Vandahl silver mine and the failing house, the relic/crystal trade drying up, raiders and the cold pressing down out of the passes, free companies selling their oaths, monsters moving into abandoned ground, no word, no aid from the capital in 400 years

what_people_don_t_knowthe deep cause (the broken god, the failing of the god's own making, the elves' designs) is far over their heads; from the ground there are only hints, and most dismiss them

the_workthe game resolves these material problems one at a time — feed the town, hold the pass, end the feud, mend the wall — slow, collective, hopeful repair

All Relationships (11)

caused_by

→The Wanderer — The fat tides, the shivering ground, the long burning summers keep the Wanderer's calendar — the collapse is, in hidden part, the summoning already working.

references

←The Vale Harvest — The farm belt is the front line of the Lean Years: failing harvests, beasts in the hen-yards and raiders at the barns are the collapse arriving at the food system first.
←The Fair Copy — The lower world's Lean Years are, to the Vyr, the spoiled draft — the ordinary ruin they would wash away rather than mend, never telling those who suffer it that the tide has an author.
←The Ash Famine — The Ash Famine is reckoned where the Lean Years began — three winters that killed grain and cattle together and broke House Vandahl's surplus.
←The Silver Collapse — The drowned silver mine is the Lean Years made local: the deepest shaft filled overnight, the house's income halved, and the decline became public.
←The Deepening — The dying relic-trade is one strand of the Lean Years — the brokers' ground worked out, the easy coin gone, told down here in livelihoods and not in cosmology.
←The Old Reckonings — Some scholars and street-prophets name the failing Note the true root of the Lean Years — and they are not entirely wrong, but the cause is far over the heads of those who suffer it, and most of the Vale rolls its eyes.
←The Far College — The College is the lower world's nearest thing to people asking why it all keeps getting worse — and they mostly come back with material answers: worked-out ground, fouled water, an over-dug trade.
→The Vallen Imperium — Part of the dread of the Lean Years is that no aid is coming: the capital has sent no word across the Rampart in four hundred years, and the frontier faces the tide alone.
←The Marrow Lances — The free companies are the Lean Years' war made a business — powers too poor to keep standing armies hire the neutral sword, and the sword sells to whoever is still solvent.

rival_of

←Old Harrow, Turner of the Year — Old Harrow is losing ground to the Lean Years and knows it — his green miracles thin at the margins where the failing world presses hardest.

This world ships in Valenfeld. Play the game →