While I was Out Part 1

Nothing takes a break when you do, its the one inevitable thing about the world.  So while I was reading books, moving from dark cave to dark cave (killing the occaisional long forgotten beast of yore). The world got itself into a big damn hurry.

Travel: The major advance was the steam engine, both boats and trains.  With the trains came railway lines that stretched across the Red Hand and Ronerawth territories like spider webs. With travel being easier cities industry grew up over night along the tracks where as old trail towns withered and died.  Steam ships opened travel lanes across the ocean to other continents.  Which immediately lead to conflict with the people of those lands. It was one of the few times the Red Hand and Ronerawth united together to put down the conflict of the Tribals from across the water.

Conflict: The tribal conflict was a brief flare up, though it occured about twenty years after I gave up on the world and well into Ronerawth's withdrawal from the land masses normal conflicts.  It started with the Red Hand over reaching into the foreign world (shocking they are normally so subtle in political nuance).  Originally it ws confined to the land mass the tribals were located on (I call them tribals because thats as best I ever heard about them, I'm sure they have their own unique flavor, but over here its a curse word used to indicate barbarism). It wouldn't have even been a long conflict or noted if not for the Tribals anti magic weaponry and armor. In one of the few smart decisions the Red Hand ever made, they immediately called in the assistance of Ronerawth to stave off the coming tribal hoard (stupidly they didn't destroy their ships when the tribals turned the tables, though how they navigated the ocean to the Red Hand territory is beyond me, must have been some traitors that history has forgotten).

Ronerawth responded with their elite Ronerawth Imperial Guard (Known as R.I.G.'s to everyone, hell they are still known as that though thats the general term for Ronerawth military). In the time since the last conflict Ronerawth had used the new found industry to make new and deadlier bang sticks (Rifles, and pistols, multi shot with uniform bullet ammunition).  The conflict was less of a fight and more of an advertisement for Ronerawth's new firearms. Their job completed Ronerawth retreated back behind their nearly completed wall and continued refining their weaponry. The Red Hand certainly took note of their neighbors to the souths military might (in that they too began developing ballistic weaponry, though theirs were augmented by magic and thus had a bit of a reliability issue no Ronerawth weapon ever did).  The other major thing to emerge from the conflict other than fear of Ronerawths new weapons, was anti magic metal and shackles. No longer were magical people simply slain for being too powerful, now they could be effectively shackled and neutered.  The Red Hand tried their best to keep the techniques to themselves but the conflict got large enough that was impossible, and thus the seeds of their doom were created.

Those are just two of the aspects of new things that arose while I was checked out as it were.  Tomorrow I'll go over religion and a bit more of the general politics of things.  Woo! After that I'll explain why I rejoined the world and continued living even after I'd kind of giving up at both.