In the wilderness of southeastern Dagos, Prince Kaizon looked at the stack of reports that had been received in the last day.
"What is all this? Bandits, bandits, deserters, peasant uprising? How inept was the former King that things have gotten this bad in the east?" He demanded of his advisor.
"Your Majesty, the Nobles of this region were never wealthy, and they have suffered a decade of drought. Most spent every penny of their coffers to avoid starvation, then went off to war and didn't return.
The siege at Burton alone killed ten thousand local peasants and many of their Barons. The massacres outside Cleowey were even worse, and it is said that half the population of Midgexe is buried in Cygnia now.
The Noble rulers are largely dead or young men of no accomplishments, and the populations are so depleted that the remainder of the peasants feel that they have been abandoned.
