In the Eighth Hundred after those of Ruwenda came to rule over the swamp wilderness called the Mazy Mire (though not completely, for they never mastered the intractable Oddlings), legend and history both awoke to record one of those great changes which now and then alter the very balance of the world.
The civilized nations of the Peninsula-most especially we of neighboring Labornok - looked upon the wetland plateau of Ruwenda as a frustrating and vexing backwater, seeming to exist merely as a thorn in the flesh of more energetic and progressive peoples. In truth, Ruwenda was not at all a properly organized kingdom, owing to its failure to establish suzerainty over the peculiar aborigines dwelling within its claimed borders. Instead, the Ruwendian kings complaisantly allowed lawless enclaves of these so-called Oddlings to persist, ofttimes to the detriment of their legitimate subjects and the general peace and good order of the realm.
Of these aboriginal tribes, the bog-trotting little Nys-