The Bandit Road
The bandits are divided into different warring tribes and coalitions, most no more than fifty to a hundred people, including women, children, and men too old to fight. Food being the rarity that it is in the area, most of what they can acquire comes from the traders who pass through the terrain, as well as from small farms cut out of the barren rock and very carefully nurtured. Most other supplies are also taken from the caravans that run through, taken as tithes from the smaller groups of merchants, or in smash and grab raids that steal from the larger.
The thieves hold some small measure of immunity to being eradicated, because many of them situate themselves at the furthest point from any organized civilization, and these are often areas of contention, where two competing powers would clash, or could be considered overextended militarily. Thus, neither Bhreac Veryan nor Tri-Hauwcerton will attempt to banish all of the bandits, especially those at the utmost reach of their power, leaving them free to reign.
Much of the conflict between these groups is internal, as the larger groups swallow smaller ones, or have their holdings picked over while they are out, ‘harvesting’ a caravan of the prime supplies. Those stolen goods that are not directly consumed will be sold for a profit in the markets of the surrounding area, often amidst the very merchants from whom the goods have been taken, which has led to more than a few arrests and conflicts in the public eye.
Those of the bandits who are most intelligent are careful not to take more than a tithe from the merchants who pass through the lands that they control, for they, as much as the merchants, require a constant flow of traders. Those who are more desperate, often criminals who have been ejected from the oasis nation of Bhreac Veryan, will kill travelling traders and take all of their goods, causing reprisals upon them and those nearby. There is a form of rough justice, as those bandits that become too hostile or evil are slain by other thieves.
They are a persistent, irritating problem, but due to the rough terrain and the fractured leadership that norminally controls the area in which the bandits do business, the bandit road will continue to have that name for some time in the future. Given the coming war, however, the supplies that they can acquire are likely to be cut short.