Black Taverns

Black Taverns emerged in the aftermath of the Second Elwynnese Civil War (1692 AN–1696 AN) and were to be found in the more remote and lawless districts of bailiwicks throughout Amokolia, Mishalacia, the Sovereign Confederation, and Upper Elwynn. Established and frequented by demobilised veterans of the war, displaced persons, and the various fraternities of bandits and other criminal low-lives who travelled the roads between the ruined cities of Elwynn.

These establishments, often set up in abandoned roadside inns but also on occasion in derelict farmhouses or occupied manor houses, serve as a base of operations for the marauding bands that plague the countryside and help to fence stolen goods and valuables on behalf of the patrons.

It should also be noted that those who enter a black tavern, whether by an unfortunate error or having been led to the location by one of the tavern's regular company, seldom depart from the premises in the same manner as they arrived.

Come hark to this fable,

All you who are able,
Fresh guests are before you,
They're broth for your brew.

Now hugger-mugger,
Slaughter the buggers,
Fresh meat for our table,
As we sing this song anew.

—The "song of greeting" for unwitting guests, gulled into accepting an invitation to enter a black tavern.

After a few years of operation, the more flagrant of these operations began to receive the unwelcome attentions of the Corps of the Gentlemen-at-Cudgels. By 1716 AN, owing to rigorous bandit-hunting warfare, as well as exponential improvements in population monitoring and control by the Commission for the Panopticon, the phenomenon of the Black Taverns had been cleansed from the main transit routes of the Union-State through Elluenuueq.

It would eventually be the cleansing of a suspected network of black taverns operating on the back roads of Araxion that would lead to the discovery of the cult of the Sovereign of the Dawn by the Magisters-Carnifex.