The sand villages of the Shivtsei are said to be the birthplace of necromancy in Bratsk. It is from this area that the first contactors of the dead are said to have emerged. There are many different explanations for this, but in truth no one really knows. Not blessed with a rich natural environment to distract them, and not taken to the more nomadic existence of folk to the north and west of the Nur Dal, the people here resemble something like ascetics in the truest sense, focussing far less on the material needs of the body, and far more on the transformative power of the mind. For centuries people have made the journey here to learn the ways of these psychics – including, it is rumoured, the Ruriks themselves.
