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highways (if indeed they were highways) provided easy passage
through the jungles for invading troops, so they were permitted to
fall into disuse, and the jungles reclaimed them. Since the Nyissans
are not a prolific people (their use of drugs inhibits reproductive
activity severely), large cities simply provide larger concentrations
of people to fall victim to surprise attack, and the limited population
can be severely depleted by only a few such attacks. Thus, it became
in all probability a matter of state policy to disperse the population
broadly in small cities and towns and even villages ' except for the
capital, of course.
And so it is that we see the truth of the adage; history is the
product of war. Had there been no Marag invasion, Nyissa might
well have developed along entirely different lines. Cities might
have arisen and the jungle been cleared, but it was not to be. The
motto which appears above the door of the throne-room of Queen
Salmissra in Sthiss Tor speaks volumes: 'The Serpent and the Forest
are one.' The jungles of Nyissa are the refuge and the defense of the
snake people, and we must not expect that they will ever be cleared.
During the reign of Ran Horb ii of the First Horbite Dynasty
(sometimes referred to as the architect of Empire), a sustained effort
was made to conclude the customary trade agreements with the
Nyissans. Vordal, a noble of the Vordue line of the Imperial Family
was entrusted with the delicate task of negotiating with Queen
Salmissra. His reports provide graphic and chilling details of the
lethal intrigues which prevail in the Nyissan Court. Each noble,
functionary or priest normally employs a sizeable staff of
herbologists and chemists whose sole purpose is the distillation,
compounding and mixing of new poisons and antidotes. A break-through by
one of these professional poisoners is usually marked by the sudden
and frequently ghastly deaths of all members of an opposing faction.
Since most Nyissan politicians are able, as a result of heavy
preventive dosing with all known antidotes and a brutal regimen of
desensitization involving the eating of gradually increased amounts of the
toxins themselves, to ingest quantities of poisons sufficient to fell a
legion, the new poisons which are developed are of terrifying
potency'
Vordal reports that Queen Salmissra watched these lethal games
with a reptilian amusement, not even turning a hair when her most
trusted advisor quite suddenly turned black in the face, fell to the
floor in violent convulsions and died frothing at the mouth like a
mad dog. Nyissan Queens learn quite early to develop no
permanent attachments. Their training is so rigorously bound by eons-old
tradition and their lives so circumscribed by ritual that there is very
little in the way of appearance or personality that distinguishes one
Queen from her predecessors or her successors.
At long length Vordal was able to conclude the treaty with the
Nyissans, a difficult task since frequently the negotiator with whom
he was dealing died quite suddenly in the midst of the most
sensitive negotiations. The treaty provided for a commercial compound
near the docks at Sthiss Tor, and Tolnedran merchants were rigidly
restricted to that compound. While it is certainly not the best treaty
ever concluded, the Nyissans' seemingly inexhaustible supply of
good red Angarak gold makes it easier to put up with the
restrictions. Further, the Nyissans' phlegmatic turn of mind renders them
indifferent to the intricacies of bargaining, and they will generally
pay without question any price that is asked. Thus it is that trade
with the snake people is highly profitable, but few if any Tolnedran