Salting the Feast

Once upon a time...

— every story ever, pretty much

Our tale begins in the small town of Póltinou in the year 5614, a mere decade shy of this tale's telling. Póltinou, like so many of the Vostene Republic's towns, sits alongside a large river, through which the river-trader people - the Arriusi - travel. Yet it is also a town nestled into the crook of a well-travelled road that meanders through the Republic and beyond, paving the way to even the fanciful palaces of wine-drunk Ordan.
This little town, unmarked on many maps, thus becomes an important place of connection between peoples. Joyous riverfolk chatter about glimpses of forest fey to wide-eyed adventurers, and traders from different strokes of life broker new deals under the beating sun. It is ever a pleasant environment, requiring little from the Republic's guards on most days.
This is the tale of when that peace led to nascent love, which bloomed into a romance pure enough for any grandmother to swoon over. It is the tale of a wedding, of two hearts coming together as one, crossing boundaries they were never intended to cross. It is the tale of a tragedy so sudden that the brave had no time to draw their swords, so stealthy that even the strongest captured in its tide could only succumb.
This is the tale of the Reaving Thirst, as has been passed through the riverways for ten years hence. Learn well what it teaches.

A Telling of the Tale

Some years beyond the century's turn, an Arriusi maiden arrived in Póltinou with her clan. Her trade-name, the name by which all knew her, was Milena; a common name, and one of Vostene origin. Her birth-parents had left her in childhood, so it had fallen to her elder brothers and clan-kin to teach her the ways of the Arriusi.
By the time Milena arrived in the cheery town, she was skilled in debate, in trade, in swordplay, and in ship-maintenance - but knew little of the traditional Arriusi crafting techniques, for she cared little for their delicate nature. She wasn't good with delicate things.

Milena of the Arriusi by Hanhula (via Midjourney)

At the same time, a trade caravan from strict Medimia pulled into the town. Distant and closed-off, they stayed with their wagons in isolation, meeting only under the sun's rays for trade chatter and bonding. Or - well - most of them did.
The son of the caravan's leader, a craft-minded lad with a strong love for plants, did not care to remain with his people, and snuck into Baritwine Quay as night fell. His name, given by his father in Medimian tradition, was Clarus.
The eve upon which they met in the Quay was a rowdy night, full of celebration at the announcement of a townswoman's successful birth. Clarus found no issue wandering into the party, and Milena grabbed him for the dancefloor in the dim light, believing him to be another friend.
When the dances were over, though, the two had already realised a connection, and snuck upstairs to talk. It would need to stay a talk, for Clarus was expected back and Milena's brothers had an eye on her whereabouts, but the two promised to meet again.

And so they did: not just in Póltinou, but as each year passed, they found ways to cajole their respective groups to dock at the same towns. With each meeting, the two talked for longer. When Clarus was finally set on doing something about this obvious attraction, he arrived to their next meeting with flowers - and was met by the disapproving stares of her brothers, instead.

Milena was spitting mad at their audacity. They'd locked her in a room to stop her interrupting, so she screamed through the walls that they'd better stay out of her life; that she'd marry who she liked, if it came to that.
Clarus, who'd been expecting merely to confess his affections, was overwhelmed by the entire affair, and fainted when one put a sword to his throat - to their amusement.
He'd never needed to be threatened before, and honestly, he was hoping to never need to be. He'd always prided himself on being nice!

You live a life she'd hate, and your people demand we give ourselves up to join them. You'd take her away from the rivers, force her to live on the land.
We'll not see Medimia make a loyal servant of our sister.

— brother

The brothers had point enough, though. His culture was far different from her own, and expected 'foreign' partners to adhere to Medimian law. He could not leave it easily, either: if he did not return to Medimia, his family would be punished in his stead.
Yet neither Clarus or Milena wanted to quit this affection so soon, not when they still had a chance. So, they instead struck an agreement. The two would court in the same fashion they had been - itinerant, brief in affections - and if they still sought eachother's adoration in three years, then they would marry under the Republic's rules. In theory, this would not change much of the nature of their partnership.

Clarus of Medimia by Hanhula (via Midjourney)

By not informing the Empire of his wedding, Clarus would be seen as unmarried under Medimian law. Milena would be considered wed by the Arriusi, but would stay with her people and would continue to meet Clarus only when their paths crossed.
He hoped that in time, he would be able to convince his family to depart from the Empire with him, or that he could persuade Medimia's officials to allow him to officially emigrate from the Empire into the Arriusi.
It was not without precedent. Arriusi trading routes had travelled through Medimia's lands for centuries, and such partnerships were not that uncommon. The damming of the Imbreagat had intensified tensions between the two groups, however, and what was once common was no longer so acceptable.
The years passed under the shadow of this arrangement. Soon enough, they were swept up in wedding celebrations, once again in Póltinou.

Clarus's family prepared to attend a party of no strict description - to avoid Medimia's authority from deciding to halt the impending false nuptials - and Milena's clan decorated the entirety of the Baritwine Quay. The night passed in a blur of celebration, Milena's colourful dress attracting much attention from the Medimians more used to wedding garb of red and gold, and the two joined hands under the sun and moon.
The peace was not to last.

It has never been certain, not on the day nor in the years after, who decided that the two could not be, but the motivations were almost certainly political in nature.
Clarus was first to complain, quietly, of an odd thirst, to which his family agreed. Milena, soon after. The couple and their immediate families turned on the rest of the Quay, snatching food and chugging drink; Milena's brothers broke into the kitchens, and began to eat the Quay's salt supply whole. The wedding guests were stunned: was this a curse? Had someone cursed the families? They sought to act, trying to capture the now-screaming families.
As they did, though, others began to complain of similar symptoms with horror - a thirst that would not abate, a need that could not be sated, a demand.
And through it all, a call. A whisper that built into a murmur, into a cacophony inside the heads of those affected.

Red Wedding by Hanhula (via Midjourney)

The guard in Póltinou, used to a calm town, arrived too late: the Quay lay wrecked, its staff dead or missing save for the few who had fled when the curse had first spread. About half of the wedding guests remained; some lay on the floor in the throes of agony, twisting unnaturally, salt and gore staining their mouths and clothes. Others gnawed at those on the ground, animalistic in their blind fury. Milena's former friends sat glass-eyed and still. Clarus's trader friends writhed around the utensils that impaled them.
The rest had disappeared. No sign of their living presence remained. Clarus and Milena and all their living kin, utterly gone - and worse, Milena's family barge had departed, too.
No sign has ever been found of the missing couple, but those travelling the rivers and forests near Póltinou occasionally whisper, when the lights are low and the children are asleep, of the bright-coloured dress they saw darting through the woods...

Star-crossed by Hanhula (via Midjourney)

Date of First Recording

5626

Date of Setting

5614

Related Ethnicities

• the Arriusi

Related Locations

• Baritwine Quay
• Póltinou

Related Organizations

• Vostene Republic

Related Conditions

Reaving Thirst

I don't blame Clarus for falling for her, nor for Milena for falling for him. They're both lovely folk, and they fit into each other's weak points.
I can picture it now, fifty years down the track... she'll be building boats and sailing the riverways, he'll be tending their garden and organising all her contracts.

— optimistic trader

Clarus's Path by Hanhula (via Midjourney)

I heard Milena invited him on board her ship, but he didn't want to be seen as being improper!
What a laugh, when we know they spent nights together in the grass!

— Arriusi girl, prior to the tragedy

Arriusi on the Move by Hanhula (via Midjourney)

Why them? Why the innocent?
What did they ever do to deserve this? If this is because of the dam, or a foolish deal, or-- or even plain old racism, why choose the young, the innocent..?

— despairing elder

Historical Basis

So, the real story?

— expectant scholar

As far as Kartovian scholars investigating the Reaving Thirst can tell, the story is at least true in its broad strokes. There certainly did exist a Medimian trader named Clarus, and an Arriusi woman named Milena, and the two did vanish after an outbreak of the Reaving Thirst at their wedding. The events are recorded by the hand of Póltinou's guards along with a number of other odd instances of trouble along the river.
Whilst some is fact, the details of the story may be made up, especially as the story travels and various storytellers go to different lengths to describe the horrors of the Thirst's outbreak. Horror tales are always prone to exaggeration.
However, the common folk refrain that the Reaving Thirst had never appeared prior to this instance is nothing more than folk myth. The Thirst had not yet been formally named by 5614, but occurrences of odd salt-obsessed folk and strange meandering undead throughout eastern Valathe had already been recorded by this time, largely in northwestern Niniéra near the Medimian border.
As both families involved likely travelled trade routes passing by these regions, it is likely that one of the two group was, unbeknownst to them, a recipient of tainted salt carrying the Thirst. Out of the two, it is then more likely that the poor souls bringing the curse with them were Clarus's family, as the Arriusi tend to use their salt-goods as they travel whilst Medimian traders do not open their crates before needed.
The truth, then, is likely that the wedding party partook of their food first, and succumbed first to the Thirst as the tainted salt claimed them. The rest had already eaten when the wedding party's symptoms began, and thus had no warning that it would claim them as well.
Whether the details are fully truthful or not, the event was an utter tragedy. It is very likely that those who escaped from the Quay have either been killed as saltreavers - or still wander the forests, clasped in the grasp of undeath and marching to the Thirst's fell call.

Can you look at salt the same, now? by Hanhula (via Midjourney)