Traveling through The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim

The area of ​​Sunny Garden Fortress is at least three times that of Blood Throne Fortress, but even so, it can only accommodate no more than 300 people. If you want to live comfortably, it is best to keep the number of people within 50. The castle is isolated on the top of the mountain, and there is not much land to cultivate around it, so it cannot support more people. The last time I heard a more accurate number was from Annis, who said that Helgi's brother and sister controlled more than 300 people.

This scale was far beyond the castle's capacity, so it was quickly dismantled by Tager. In my opinion, when it comes to the ability to manage the tribe, Moira is not necessarily much better than Stella and Zoltan. Besides, if there were really 1,800 people, why were they so embarrassed in the winter battle? There was a lack of troops to take care of even the key positions, which led to Helgi being captured by the enemy.

Although I have visited Sun Garden Fortress, I only visited the matriarch in a hurry and did not observe carefully. My information was basically from Annis and Mrs. Montoya, which was hearsay. According to Lund, these two people usually stay in the castle and have no idea of ​​the real situation of the tribe. Before the imperial army arrived, my respectable fellow lived in the city wall for less than five days, and spent the rest of the time in the gullies in this area.

Of course, he was not here for sightseeing, but to visit the residents scattered around to understand their living conditions and the difficulties they faced. Based on the information provided by these people, Rund believed that Lord Igmund of Markarth was adopting a steady expansion strategy. In the winter of the year before last, his troops opened up the road from Markarth to Loristed Town. In the following year, they used this as a basis to sweep away the Reachman tribes along the way.

Even a large tribe like Snake Cliff Ridge could hardly resist the lord's elite troops, let alone those small tribes with less than a hundred people. The complex terrain of the Rich Territory provided them with an opportunity to escape, but its barren land made it difficult for them to obtain enough food. In the end, a small number of these Rich refugees hid deeper in the mountains, while the vast majority migrated upstream along the Cass River to seek shelter from the large tribes.

In addition to the lord, other wealthy families in the Reach were also not idle. They took the opportunity to eliminate dissidents and seize land and minerals under the pretext of arresting the spies of the Forsworn. Among them, the most ruthless one was the Silver Blood Family in Markarth. This caused a large number of residents who had already left the tribal life to be displaced, and the identity of refugees was no longer limited to the Reach people.

Moira was very cold to these refugees, and was even reluctant to allow them to live near the castle, so she naturally didn't care about their specific number. Some people had planned to settle in the abandoned Granite Village and reclaim the land in the spring of the following year. This idea was completely extinguished by the massive attack of the Imperial Legion. They could only continue to flee southward and finally gathered outside the west gate of Falkreath.

Lund learned from the guards that Nanya refused to resettle the refugees, but he didn't know why she made such a decision. For now, he could only try his best to raise some food and medicine to provide relief.

Once he started talking, he began to talk nonstop and told me what he had observed.

The matriarch Moira initially cultivated her own power, including not only her eight apprentices, but also a dozen male lovers such as Dehengu, plus Annis and Helgi. Most of these people came from the former Snake Cliff Ridge tribe. They occupied the best rooms in the castle and basically controlled all the wealth. Mrs. Montoya also mainly dealt with these people.

In theory, they are the so-called ruling class, who decide the internal and external affairs of the tribe, but Lund believes that Moira's control is questionable. The female leader is very satisfied with the current situation. She is of noble status, has a good life, and is still at the end of her childbearing age, so she is making every effort to ask the gods to give her an heir. And Annis is obviously secretly connecting with the old people in the tribe, intending to counterattack Snake Cliff Ridge as soon as possible.

This disunited team has recently encountered a severe challenge. Moira's old rival Esmerelda led twelve apprentices to the castle in the name of support, and after the war, they had no intention of withdrawing. The two crow hags have quarreled many times, and the newcomer accused the current patriarch of incompetence and demanded to share or even control the decision-making power of the tribe.

Annis was in an awkward situation. Moira thought that the sister of the former clan leader had invited a wolf into the house and had ulterior motives; of course, Esmerelda would not trust her. The reason why the old aunt could still retain a bit of dignity was purely because the competitors brought too many people, and the female clan leader needed her to stand by her side and barely hold the scene. Moreover, Lund believed that she must have made some kind of promise to invite reinforcements, but he had no way of knowing what the specific conditions were.

The two incompatible groups lived in the inner city of the castle, busy scheming and fighting for power, while the outer city was occupied by the survivors of the Snake Cliff Ridge Tribe. Under the leadership of the female leader Xinanmeng, this eastern tribe had expanded to a size of nearly 300 people. After experiencing a series of changes, the remaining number was less than 70. Fortunately, most of them were warriors trained by Zoltan, young and strong, well-equipped, and although they were few in number, they were extremely powerful.

Moira's attitude towards these people was to win them over and divide them. She selected the smartest women among them as apprentices, and the strongest men into her harem, and used them to influence others. However, due to the existence of Annis and Helgi, and the fact that life in the castle was not satisfactory, most of them were looking forward to regaining their homeland. The female matriarch's negative attitude on this matter caused a certain degree of dissatisfaction among them.

But it was only "to a certain extent". These people had followed Zoltan to betray Chief Xinanmeng, and then switched to Moira before Zoltan lost power. People with such flexible bodies naturally did not have any integrity or blood. Especially after Helgi was captured and Annis fell out of favor, they became much more obedient, and many of them even worked hard to behave, looking forward to one day, they could also live in the inner city.

Apart from these less than 100 people, many tribesmen lived outside the castle. They still lived in their former tribes and were only dependent on the Snake Cliff Ridge Tribe. In principle, Chief Moira could only mediate disputes between different tribes, but had no right to interfere in their internal affairs.

Among them, five tribes are relatively large, with a population ranging from 60 to 90 people. The Wind Chaser and the Eye of the Raven were allies of the Snake Cliff Tribe in the past, and it is said that the leaders of the three tribes are still related by blood. The Five-Colored Eagle, Wolf Fang, and Flying Bear tribes also live in the southern part of Richland. Although the elites of these five tribes were all killed by the army of Markarth, they still maintained a certain size, with a total population of about 400.

Although they occupied the best hunting grounds, they lacked a black witch who represented authority, which resulted in them lacking a say in public affairs. There were often conflicts between the tribes, and they all tried hard to please the people in the castle in order to gain some advantage over their restless neighbors.

Lund said that these people lived in a very twisted way. They looked down on tribes weaker than themselves, but they fawned on more powerful forces like lapdogs. Even women of high status in the tribe would bow respectfully when they saw men in the castle. Since Lund had been received by the female chief, he was treated with great hospitality, but apart from criticizing each other, they could not offer any valuable suggestions.

Each of the five families has two talented girls living in the inner city. In name, they are Moira's preparatory apprentices and candidates for the future leaders of their respective families, but in reality they are just maids. These girls have strong hostility towards each other and hope to overwhelm others and win the qualification to learn magic first. However, Moira seems to have some restraint on them, so no murder has been committed yet.

"There are less than 500 people here. Where are the other 500 hiding?"

Lund took a sip of his wine and frowned.

"It took me five days to figure out what I just said. The real trouble is not these people. They will more or less give the female leader some face and implement some policies from top to bottom. Even if there is resistance, it will not leave me helpless."

"Then what's bothering you?"

"Apart from them, of course."

Not all the Reach tribes were as lucky as the five major tribes. Most of them were completely destroyed by the army of Markarth. Only a few people escaped, and most of them were old and young. These refugees also lived in their original groups, and some even lived with only four or five people. Rather than tribes, they were more like families.

With a small number of people and poor combat effectiveness, these small tribes could not get good places and could only live in the ravines. Lund had visited fourteen of them, with a total of two to three hundred people, but he had no idea how many were hiding in the mountains. Moreover, the number of these people was dynamic, with new refugees fleeing almost every day, and people often died due to the harsh environment.

Lund once found a family of five dead in a cave, their bodies stiff. He had no way of telling whether they died of cold, hunger, or both. The people who were found generally showed a numb attitude. Both Lord Igmund and Chief Moira treated them like wild beasts in the forest. The so-called compatriots from the big tribes even robbed them of their daily necessities. Even more outrageous, some children from the small tribes were also abducted.

Lund had thought that these children would become slaves of the larger tribe. When I mentioned that some Reach tribes had the custom of cannibalism, he could not suppress his surprise and anger. His hand holding the wine glass kept shaking, and it took him a long time to speak.

"I thought they were not the worst. Now that you say that, I underestimated the filthiness of those Rich people."

"You don't have to worry too much. We don't have any solid evidence to prove that those children were eaten... Wait a minute, aren't they the worst-off?"

"Alas... their lives are not easy, but they can still survive, and there is no essential difference from before. After all, they are still hunting in the mountains and forests. The ones who are really suffering are another group of people."

"You mean those people outside the city?"

Lund nodded.

Although the Reachland is poor and barren, the Nords reclaimed a lot of land and established settlements after they took over. Among them, Markarth, Caswesten and Old Haldane are the largest. As the Nords conquered the indigenous people, farming technology gradually spread, and a considerable number of Reach people gave up fishing and hunting and became farmers or miners.

The new production and lifestyle gave rise to a new form of social organization. The original tribes disintegrated and transformed into smaller families, on which marriage and family emerged. Although women still maintained a dominant position in the Rechi family, men were no longer the pets of the patriarch, but had a relatively independent status and certain property rights.

This transformation began at least in the Second Age, and accelerated in the Third Age. Because farming can provide a stable food output to support a larger population, coupled with intermarriage with other races, this part of the population has a strong growth momentum. At the same time, these "civilized" Reachmen began to integrate into the conqueror's community, and even a number of wealthy landowners emerged.

For example, the mayor of Carthwithen, Enitak, was a native Reachman. But he also complained that the Nords suspected him of being a spy of the Forsworn, while the Forsworn believed that he had betrayed his people. There were many natives like him who were neither human nor human. After Mednach captured Markarth, he executed a large number of "traitors"; when Ulfric arrived, he killed many people and shed blood; now, it was Lord Igmund's turn to do this.

Lund believes that although these tragedies are often committed under the banner of public security, faith, and nationality, they have nothing to do with those things. They are simply because the big families want to annex land and seize wealth.

The rise of the nobles represented by the Silver Bloods came at the cost of countless people's homes being torn apart and their families being displaced. Many people took up arms and joined the Forsworn, fighting an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. They became the bloodthirsty, cruel, barbaric violent elements and pagans who believed in evil gods in the mouths of the residents of Markarth.

Let the people suffer and bear the blame.

What a good method!

Of course, most people don't have that kind of blood. They are like lambs, facing a pack of wolves, and all they can think about is how to run faster than their companions. As for what to do after running out...

They lost their land, and thus their means of survival. In the end, their lives were inevitably turned into firewood and thrown into the blazing furnace called the chaotic world.

"These people are the most troublesome. Especially after the war last winter, no one is willing to go back to the north now."

This is the dilemma Lund faces.

The Snake Cliff Ridge tribe has thousands of people, but no leader who can win the support of the people. The people in the castle have their own ulterior motives, forming cliques and factions, trying every means to gain more benefits for themselves. They have huge wealth and don't care about those who are starving.

The people outside the castle also had their own plans. The five major tribes had little interest in counterattacking Snake Cliff Ridge. Even if the three-year agreement expired, they would only have to return the Sunshine Garden Fortress. The people living inside were not in a hurry, so what did it have to do with them? It was more important to worry about where to get their next meal.

The small tribes scattered in the mountains were even less willing to get involved. In fact, they avoided everyone. The soldiers of Markarth slaughtered them, the people of the five major tribes robbed them, and the people of the Snake Cliff Tribe simply ignored them.

Not to mention that Lund was helpless, I also had a headache.

"This matter is too complicated. You have to give me a few days to think of a solution."