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‘No, it did not,’ said Garovel, ‘and for two big reasons, madness being the first. There were a LOT of insane Sandlords who cropped up during this time period. And a few of them were fun. Or even brilliant. In fact, one of them built Dunehall. Others, though... not so much. They started to fight--sometimes with each other--and frequently neglected their subjects. Or worse. The most famous example was probably the family that began a tradition of cannibalism.’

‘Whoa, what?’

‘Hahl Rahhak. They don’t exist anymore.’

‘That’s good, I guess. They really ate people, though?’

‘Yup. Story goes, a famine gripped their land for several years, so they resorted to cannibalism as a means of coping. But then the famine ended... and they just kept on eating people, anyway. Acquired a taste for it, apparently.’

‘Ugh, wow...’

‘Yeah. The story of how that family was finally destroyed is pretty interesting, too. It was an elaborate plot of Hahl Duxan--which does still survive to this day, by the way. And it was pretty dastardly on their part, I must say. But in a good way, y’know? Since the Rahhaks were a bunch of man-eating assholes ‘n all. I guess I should give some context on the conflict between the two families, though. Basically, it started when the head of Hahl Duxan allowed the Rahhaks and many of their subjects to take refuge in--’

‘Hey, ah, hold on,’ said Hector, sensing that this tangent was going to derail the conversation entirely, ‘what about the second thing?’

‘What second thing?’

‘With, um... how all the incest stuff ended badly?’

‘Oh! Right. Yeah. Insanity was the first reason. The second reason, you probably know already. Ever heard of the Wiseman’s Plague?’

‘Uh... sounds kinda familiar.’

‘Hmm. Maybe you know it better as the Great Green Sickness.’

‘Oh. Yeah. I read about that in school. It sounded horrible.’