The Parchland

There are many difficulties one encounters while traveling on the road. Fortunately in Naemore bandits are not one of them. Sometimes it can be slow going through the mud or up a slope of loose stone but it never felt like an insurmountable obstacle - until the Parchland. Traveling the paths kicks up salt dust adding to the clouds of it that sometimes billow around. Every cut stings, your mouth dries out, your eyes burn, and your skin cracks. I don't think this place has ever seen rainfall.

— Carlyle Westerward, Travel by Horse: The Parchland

Between Salt and a Hard Place

While the Parchland is not as remote as Farpath it is much more alien. Much of the land is flat as far as the eye can see, the ground a strange off-white colour, and air that makes the eyes water. The soil - if one can call it that - is not accomodating to plant life and anything that grows there is stunted and doesn't live long. This salt flat makes up most of the land of the region.
The western border of the Parchland is a huge crevasse known as the Scar. This deep gouge in the land is home to brave miners and adventurers who seek the riches that can be found within.
Depite the hardship the persistent inhabitants of the region refuse to leave. It may lack most of the resources that are required to live but it has some valuable ones - salt and deep minerals. These resources make mining a lucrative business that can bring in any other resources they may need, water may be expensive but it is available and - more importantly - profitable.

The Saltmines

Working in the saltmines is a grueling job, hard labour that sends salt dust flying into the air you breathe. Yet the work pays well and it pays better still for the owners of the mines. These are open mining pits wherever the layer of salt is the deepest - there is no reason to operate dangerous tunnel mines when surface mining is easier and more profitable.

Pay Up or Shut Down

In order to operate a business in the Parchland a fee must be paid monthly to the lord of the region and are paid in addition to taxes. Very few services - if any - are provided in exchange for this tribute but it is the cost of doing business in a profitable land ruled by a greedy lord.
It was not always this way, the first two lords of the Parchland had no such rule but the third sought more wealth and now the noble family is known for excessive opulance and their distain for the hard-working people of their land. The other lords do not question them because they have little power to make change in regions other than their own - that and they are afraid to jeaprodize any trade with the area.

Salt Blindness

Repeated and prolonged exposure to the sunlight beaming off the bright salt pan can cause damage to the eyes. Not to mention the effects of extended irritation by saltstorms. To combat this the people of the Parchland wear goggles made of whatever they can get their hands on that leave only small slits for vision. This protects them from the sunblindness and helps to keep the salt out of their eyes.
Now, tighter fitting goggles with glass lenses are found, though they are more costly and the glass must be frequently cleaned. The traditional goggles are prefered and considered to be a better look.

Parch Spices

There are a few spices that come from the Parchland that are found nowhere else. These unique flavours come from a couple of hardy plants that are cultivated in the region but refuse to grow in other, more fertile, areas. Some of these are found exclusively within the depths of the Scar.

"Welcome to the Parchland. I hope you're good at remembering voices newcomer because between the goggles and the face coverings you may never get to see the faces of those you work beside. Here take some yourself, you will need them."

Allied Lord

Capitol Region

The Scar