The High Moot

The confederation of Korl high-pass holds that keeps the crossings and brokers the strength of the Korl as a people — not as hired muscle for House Vandahl or the Marrow Lances. The holds gather at the Wind-Cut Pass and decide together which lowland wars are worth their backs.

Before the Imperium raised its Rampart to wall the Korl out, the high holds already kept the passes; the empire is gone from these mountains and the holds are still here. The Moot is no crown and no warband — it is the elders of the scattered holds sitting together when the snows close the line, settling tolls, feuds, and grazing, and answering as one people when a lowland captain comes up the trail wanting Korl strength. The holds gather now at Windcut Hold, their true seat across the water on the Rimeward, the far cold country the Korl came down from; the old toll-hold beside the Wind-Cut Pass on the mainland Rampart is a garrison ruin, kept only in the crossing's name. They will sell a hold's backs to an honest war at an honest price, and they will refuse a season of soft coin and offended lords without losing a moment's sleep. They hold the high country as their own, and they mean to be holding it when the next paper empire passes like weather.