What is the world but a vast desert, reeds poking out like eye sores against the sand? Where is all the water, the trees? The truth lies with one word, Kish. You may ask where the forest went, and where it came, but the answer is always the same, Kish. If you ask how to gather water in this wasteland, the whispers, songs, and poems from every lip is overwhelmingly recited, Kish. The Kish empire marches across this desert waste with near unlimited resources, and any man, woman, or child looking for supplies finds it within Kish embrace.

Masters of metal, the Kish empire collects all manner of stone, and ores from their mines across this desolate world. This is mostly to the fact that little else grows in sand. From these resources they forge metalworks, armor, weapons, and tools that are unbreakable. Their metal is made of a strange color, close to the same color which our twin suns make when they kiss the mountain horizons of the desert valleys.

No man knows where the Kish have come from, only that it is said they were born from the mouth of a cliffside. They were once sand, stone, and gems in the depths of the earth, but when Mammon saw fit to spit the Kish out, it did so with a wrath and furry. The men made of metal were violent, and unstoppable. This much has not changed from these myths, that today they still conquer by the blade with little thought for human life.

To describe our world, Mammon, without giving you these insights about the Kish would not only be impossible, but dishonest. On Mammon, the Kish have existed sense its beginning. Within my lifetime, they have sprawled from city to city, and have control of the entire planet.

It would be ignorant to suggest that our world has not grown more orderly from their influence. Yet with this order, war is ever on the mind. Despite how much they may conquer, Kish seeks out only battle and blood. They ransack such places not for gold nor money, but for children. Little is known about what happens to these children, or how they are selected, and those who do know are forbidden to speak of it. Any village under their rule gives a tribute not of money, or of gold, but of their first born.

Those who live within the borders of Kish must be careful when they investigate such matters, or suffer the wrath of their militant laws. Few public execution's take place, more often than not, people simply go missing. The lack of knowledge frightens their people far more than the threat of simple death. The names of children gone, neighbors lost, and parents taken are all forgotten in all but the minds and thoughts of their closest relations. A peep, a whisper, and the same fate is threatened by no more than the explicate knowledge that it can happen to those who speak.

The Kish not only control the world with the sword, but with lies. They are not politicians, who try to persuade the people, nor do they work in the way of diplomacy. No, they are like deadly snakes which hide in the sand and strike their prey with their fiery stings. Their monopoly on words and their meanings give the power on the very conceptualized thoughts their citizens can contrive, communicate, conceive, and cumulate.

To understand the Kish and their impact on Mammon in a greater depth, we must discuss their origins, as documented. It may even be worthy to mention that time is told according to their methods. Even those beyond Kish's walls, are not without their influence.

The method of tracking years was credited to the Kish, though other cultures often fight the Kish on this. We live in the Kijan Period, so proudly named by them, or often abbreviated, YOTK, year of the Kish. It is uncommon in the writings of our day, to site the year followed by YOTK, as most things can only be written by the wealthy, or chiseled in stone. It is understood always, that we site the year of our current existence, otherwise we refer to the time before the Kish as before time, or BT, as commonly abbreviated.

History is more myth than documented fact before the Kijan period. Therefore, when we discuss the period before time, we count it backwards from commonly excepted events, and records.

One of the greatest outside sources for Kijan turmoil has been the Sandwalkers. A tribal, patriarchal society still intact today; the Sandwalkers are tribal communities of wanderers. Curiously enough, despite the many cumulative tribes, taking different symbols based off the animals of their environments, they still will gather as a collective group to fight against, what they deem, potential threats.

Sandwalkers are ironical associated more with the wind and sky than desert sands. Their tales of their civilization proclaims that they arrived by the hand of their various deity, which vary from tribe to tribe in both name and purpose, from the sky. As such, they consider themselves nomads, and like the desert winds they walk the sands of Mammon. The people who have interacted with the Sandwalkers have such honorably named them, for their ability to navigate the Endless Sea.

The Sandwalker culture is perhaps best known for their desert navigation skills, but also stand infamous for their barbaric culture. They are said to drink the blood of animals, and grow plants out of corpses. While seen as barbaric, my short time visiting these people has given me the insight that its based in practicality and not malice. Though I can confirm the most worrisome of rumors.

It is said that Sandwalkers are murders, assassins, thieves, and mercenaries. This is true. Sandwalker society allows for any man to leave the tribes territory as pleased, and is in fact encouraged in their pursuit to find themselves and to pursue a mate. This often times leads them to live inside other societies, taking jobs for money. Their lives an unwritten rule that seems to be prominent among all their societies and many tribes; one does not harm the tribe. Anything else beyond that, outside of their society is of no moral consequence for most of these nomads. This culture, and upbringing makes them perfect for completing mercenary work.

I can also confirm that there were many mercenaries at the rise of the Kish empire that did join their cause at first. They helped the Kish conquer lands and other free people with no association to their Sandwalker society. Later this changed, as Kish began to turn their swords on the nomads. When such things occurred, the Sandwalkers stood by each other, every tribe coming together to fight the uprising Kish empire. Eventually, the Kish were defeated, and a treaty was struct, the Treaty of Sands.

The Sandwalkers would no longer fight the Kish, so long as they were not attacked, and that the Kish had no right to stand on Sandwalker land without an invitation. To this day, the Treaty of Sands is still in act.

Despite the barbaric outlook the people of Mammon may have on the Sandwalkers, they prevented Mammon from being completely conquered. The lands West of the Endless Sea, are off limits to Kish, and to all under their thumb. Only stories shared by the nomads are told of the lands beyond the sands.

Somewhere beyond the desert of the Endless Sea, people say there are rivers, and trees, and to a degree there must be something of a truth behind these rumors. Wood is solely traded by the Sandwalker nomads to the free villages, those not under the rule of Kish, yet.

Despite these two countries, the tribal states of the Sandwalkers and the Empire of Kish, there stand other communities of unknown specious. The Disciples, as they are called, do not identify themselves, nor disavow the name selected. They hold two fingers on each hand, with an elongated thumb. No nails cover their black rough hide. The Disciples say little in our language, and refuse to reveal themselves, keeping their bodies mostly covered in a ray of colored clothes. Metal square buckets are worn over their heads, much like a helmet made of metal for Kijan soldiers, however this is seen as ceremonial, and not for warfare.

Lastly, Piscus, creatures who look much like sandfish, with moist, slimy skin can be seen in the desert. They have long ears, with long patches of skin connecting, what almost appears to be long fingers in their ears. The hands are also likewise made with long patches of skin connecting their fingers midway up, and down to the knuckles. Their toes are no different, and you can see they often walk shoeless. They often take shelter in caves, and burry themselves in mud for baths. Piscus skin is the color of water, shifting from greens and blues to off-tone whites. The most friendly societies of Piscus tend to be hostile to visitors, and unwilling to have contact with humans. The more controversial groups, tend to enjoy all manner of cruelties.

Due to the poor relations humans have with both Disciples, and Piscus; Kish and Sandwalkers both are unopposed to killing said races on sight. Piscus share similar anatomy as mankind, and are often unafraid to perform horrors on our women, and children alike. This behavior has marked them as a target for extinction by the Kish.

In recent years, a society named Reevus has come to be, named after the founder of a small city of the same name. All of society not apart of the Kish, now strive to Reevus for protection and annexation.

The last subject is of that which has little fact, and mostly speculation. Metallic objects burred inside Mammon's sandy fields are often found. The Kish melt these metals and repurpose them. However, their origins remain a mystery to all but the Kish.