III: Outlying Districts
THE BENDING JUNGLE Ten miles South of Urd Thlol, in the disputed region of Urd Avalor (see Section I), lies a league-long thicket of bamboo. It has no business existing in the Mesonorthern climate, and no one knows how it came to be there. In the year 220 of the New Empire, invaders from Ning Verrawn — best known for their cavalry assaults — came sailing up the Glomefall in tall ships, catching the Thlolian Army offguard. They had almost succeeded in breaching the city's defenses when a huge group of bamboo farmers, who had seen them sailing by, arrived to turn back the invasion. The tough, springy bamboo for which the Jungle was named has many uses. To this day, many farmers harvest it with machetes; and it was this long-practiced blade-swinging skill that enabled the bamboo farmers to fight off the men of Ning Verrawn. Ever since then, a paramilitary contingent of machete-wielding martial artists called Harrowers have been the city's second line of defense. BABBLEBROOK A town