Backwaters of Sindall A.K.A. The Deadlands

The Backwaters of Sindall is a disputed region which sits between Rowen and Korrinth to the north of Sindall. The region was once airable and home to peoples from all three lands, though principally the Sindalise. During the late Sixth Age defacto government was set up by warlord sorcerer Hidakots(of Korra descent. The land later became a desert.

In the New Day era, the region is known as The Deadlands.

Climate

Original

The Backwaters were originally arable but dry, receiving on average 20 inches of rain per year. There were no forests but scattered trees. It was mostly grassland back then, with very poor-quality soil. The area was home to a sizable shallow freshwater lake called The Dogga Sea, impounded by the Dogga Escarpment.

During the Mage Wars, a series of small rivers and streams fed the Dogga Sea and made the area fairly livable. Once the Foundation drained these, the place became much more arid.

Post Cataclysm

After Samuel Fate blasted an enormous hole in the Dogga Escarpment, The Dogga Sea drained completely and The Backwaters went from arid grassland to a dry, cold desert.

History

Mage Wars

The Backwaters are so-named by the Sindalise because the region could only be reached by traversing the furthest tributaries of the River Elb, then climbing the Dogga Escarpment. A challenging journey at the best of times, only to reach a region that could only barely be described as arable.

Still, many battles were fought in the region, most notably between the Marcon Alliance and ancient Rowen. The Rowens reportedly did not do well in the open country, and focused on hit-and-run tactics designed to harass and demoralize Marconians before the real fighting began in Rowen Proper. On several occasions during the war, the Rowens were able to capture and hold Two-Fang's Pass, effectively cutting off invasion from Korrinth through that route.

No one ever really wanted The Backwaters for themselves, only for it's geographic proximity to Sindall and Rowen(both regions which historically resisted the Marcons extremely violently).

Alliance Era

Golden Age

During the early decades of the Golden Age, the dispute shifted from the battlefield to the halls of the Alliance. Rowen and Korrinth both lay ancestral claims on the region, while at the time a portion of the government in Sindall made a bid for the land to extend their formal borders(Sindall was then in a dispute with Ozork Flight, preventing them from establishing a formal border to the east and the Plains of Blood and Salt. All three states were members of the Alliance now in good standing(though Korrinth was the last to join). The arguments were fierce, and the concern over an armed conflict was a very real possibility. The absurdity of the situation was pointed out by the newly-minted Pendragon Aden Searlin, who commented that everyone was getting ready to go to war over a feted swamp.

The Korra first began to take matters into their own hands by building "collective farms" in the region. These were little more than thinly-veiled military encampments and were openly called out by Rowen as an act of war. Sindall was the first to formally mobilize its army in response. Due to a separate mutual defense pact with neighboring Sahal, they were required to prepare for war as well, which in turn invoked various Alliance measures. This created a very complicated situation: Korrinth was a member of the Alliance and refused to acknowledge the troop formations in The Backwaters, having them instead plant crops around the encampments both to advance the lie about the farms, and to invoke Alliance laws regarding colonization.

Aden Searlin called upon the then-newly formed Gudersnipe Foundation for assistance. The Foundation had recently sold a large quantity of light and medium weapons to Sindall; mostly riffles, mortars, and artillery. By contrast, Korrinth was still arming its soldiers with pikes and shields. Foundation analysis predicted that Sindall would defeat Korrinth handily, but in doing so inflict very severe casualties. Korrinth had neither the technology nor the understanding to deal with gunshot wounds, and Sindallise soldiers lacked the training and discipline to use the new weapons effectively. The battle would be a bloodbath.

However, to further complicate matters, the Foundation had an old non-aggression pact with Rowen that forbade them from interfering militarily, even if it was on Rowen's side. So Aden did the practical thing: he asked the Foundation to do something "non-militarily".

Enter the Crimson Blade Corpse of Engineers. They already had extensive maps of the area per their military campaign in Korrinth a century earlier, and found the region vulnerable to a particular kind of attack. Working in tandem with the Rowen Militia, the engineers dug a series of secret canals which drained the deadlands of all water. In a matter of a few short months, the region went from dry but workable with great effort, to a mostly empty desert next to an enormous inland sea. It was an ecological disaster in an already ecologically-devastated area, but it had the desired effects.

The crops planted by the Korri failed before their first harvest, which annulled their colonization claims. With the crops failed they could also no loner support the collective farm lie. The troops were forced to withdraw(both for political reasons and out of thirst), and the crisis was averted.

Aden Searlin then brought representatives from the three nations back to the negotiating table. As punishment for the unlawful military incursion, Korrinth was forced to drop all territorial claims on the region(a requirement they found easy to comply with, given the land was now useless to them). Sindall and Rowen were then asked why did they want the land. The Sindallese government replied that they did not want it, but that they would not support any action that gave it to Korrinth. Most of the border between Korrinth and Sindall was controlled by good natural defenses. If the Korri were allowed control of the Deadlands, they would have an extremely convenient invasion route into Sindall(the only barrier being the Dogga Escarpment, and that served the invaders better than defenders). Sindall said they did not care what ultimately happened to the land as long as no standing army was placed there. The Rowen representative expressed similar desires, that the land was useless now but that they wanted it as a buffer against invasion.

Since Rowen and Sindall were long-time allies, the land was officially given to Sindall(who by now did not want it) in order to appease Korrinth(who did not want the Rowens to have it, but had no disputes with Sindall). The Backwaters were classified as a "Remote Autonomous Region".

Thanks to finally having official recognition in the early part of the Golden Age, The Backwaters opened up as a sort of new frontier. Many companies in the more civilized regions of Aren liked to promote colonization efforts and land-grabs, few if any of whom were recognized by the government of Sindall. Do to its remote location and difficulty of access from Sindall, providing any sort of governmental services such as police or doctors, was nearly impossible. Attempts were made to build a railroad at various points in the Golden Age, but crossing the Dogga Escarpment proved too expensive. The only formal way in or out of the region was by riverboat and mule trail(the various routs up the escarpment were not even wide enough to accommodate wagons).

There were, however, two other very easy ways into The Backwaters: via Rowen or Sindall; both of whom refused to recognize the region's status. As such, it became a defacto state, populated mostly by criminals and outlaws from the two countries(and settlers coming in illegally through Sindall).

For centuries over the later part of the Golden Age, The Backwaters were divided, united, and generally fought-over by a never-ending series of bandit gangs and tinpot dictators, none of whom could solve the core problem of making a life in an arid, resource-poor region prosperous.

Second Age

By the start of the Second Age The Backwaters had turned into an enormous headache for all parties involved. Sindall no longer had a formal military of any kind(just a poorly-armed militia mostly focused on responding to natural disasters), and long ago gave up any pretense of policing the region.

The so-called "New Troubles" began when Korrinth(by then in possession of a modern, mechanized army) fortified Two-Fang's Pass and declared the border with Sindall Closed