Tugi River Feud

THE FIREBALL THAT STARTED IT ALL

The Tugi River is the natural border between the Gheni Prideland of Bluefields and the Brahmaur Clan-tor of Pine Mountain. The Pine Mountain braunaur make a potent whiskey called Shroomby that is illegal in Bluefields. Most commoner Gheni resent the law prohibiting Shroomby and are very willing to pay Brahmaur smugglers for a jug of it. They sneak across the river in the night then head to prearranged meeting places in the back hills. Most local officials are partial to Shroomby as well and won't do anything to stop the smuggling unless there is a visiting official who takes offense at Shroomby.
Hyrmin'Kia was a young bull brahmaur who had a talent for getting his family Shroomby wagon across the river quickly. As he drove to the old haybarn behind Blueberry Hill, he was attacked by a fire spell. Brahmaurs are immune to magic but the spell was not aimed at him. Instead, the spell struck the load of Shroomby filled jugs in the uncovered wagon. Shroomby burns, and once the spell hit, all the Shroomby burst into great flames, setting the entire wagon, and Hyrmin'Kia, ablaze. This was ordinary fire, not magic, and the brahmaur was not immune to ordinary fire. He burned to death.
The flames could be seen for miles from both sides of the river, and it did not take long for what happened to be realized. Who cast the fire spell, however, could not be proven but gheni and brahmaur both suspected who it could have been. Duvol Clawgrip was a local Bluefields wizard who considered Shroomby a filthy stain upon his fellow Gheni. His being a High Guild magi gave him an inflated sense of importance that few in the area agreed with. His family was as arrogant as him and constantly complained about Shroomby drunkards. When Duvol proved he was at home sick, thanks to one of the local clerics attesting to that, tempers flared among the brahmaurs who felt the gheni officials were protecting Duvol and not abiding by the the Seventh Law of fair justice between allies.

THE FEUD

Within a month, prized hogs were stolen off Bluefields lands and tracked across the river to the farmstead of the Kia brahmaur, the family of the murdered brahmaur. When the brahmaur officials ruled that the theft was a fair trade for the unsolved murder of Hyrmin'Kia, the gheni were outraged. With anger now on both sides of the river, things took a turn for the worse. Smugglers were robbed of their Shroomby, beaten or killed. In retaliation, gheni were found stomped by cloven hooves or gored to death by horn, which all brahmaur have.
A year later, Duvon Clawgrips' eldest son, a young magi, was killed by brahmaur after he proclaimed all brahmaur were just filthy shroomers in need of being culled from Bluefields. Brahmaur and gheni took to raiding each other across the river. At first one, sometimes two, ended up dead on either side but the raiding parties got bigger and more began to die. The Bluefields and Pine Mountain officials tried to end the feud to no avail.
Then, a gheni raiding party attacked the farmstead of the Kia family. They surrounded it and set it on fire. Yllyphyr'Kia, mother of Hyrmin'Kia, rushed out with her two older children. In the smoke and madness of the raid they were horribly attacked. Ryndyll'Kia, father of the Kia family, charged out, leading his two youngest children, whom he had been carrying out of their burning home then set down, when his wife and older children were attacked. He trampled half a dozen gheni and successfully escaped with his two youngest children.

THE END

The massacre of a mother and children proved too heinous a tragedy for the officials of Pine Mountain and Bluefields to settle peaceably so they turned to the High Guild Council to bring peace. The High Guild arrived and put soldiers in every settlement to enforce a curfew. None of the soldiers were gheni or brahmaur and too well trained to be bribed into favoring one side over the other. Gheni were forced to stay on their side of the river, and the brahmaur had to stay on their side. Any Shroomby found on the Gheni side was destroyed. Duvon Clawgrips complained that this was not enough. He and his family were forcibly moved out of Bluefields and told never to return. Ryndyll'Kia had his farmstead rebuilt and a crypt built for his lost family members. He was allowed to keep the hogs.
It has been a hundred years since the Tugi River Feud and, since then, Shroomby is no longer illegal. Trade across the river is peaceful now with no need for smuggling.