The Broken Mountains were an isolated place.
Even though they lay in Middle Earth, they were still an isolated corner of it. It was much like how the Golden City was lavish and magnificent, yet its streets were still full of poor people.
When a lord ignored the outside world and clung to old ways, arrogance and conceit ran rampant.
At heart, it came down to a lack of understanding, which led to bad decisions.
What prompted this reflection from Annan was Commander Reyne's attempt to probe him.
When they mentioned Grand Lord Raymond's past, Annan showed some curiosity. So they told him a story that mixed truth with lies:
The Raymond Family supposedly came from Wilhelm. They crossed the sea to Middle Earth and chose to develop their territory in the Broken Mountains.
Then the Raymond Family struck gold in the Broken Mountains. Suddenly rich but lacking the strength to defend themselves, they became a target.
Survival mattered more than gold, of course. But without gold, they could not survive either—so the Raymond Family made a wise choice: they sought the protection of the Wealth Church.
Each side got what it wanted. The Raymond Family gained a stable, secure territory. The Wealth Church gained a foothold of its own and received vast offerings of gold every year.
After centuries of growth, the Raymond Family, with the Wealth Church's help, took complete control of the Broken Mountains.
Grand Lord Raymond was the thirty-fifth lord of the Broken Mountains. He would have been content to keep the region stable, just like his predecessors.
But not long after he took over, the Broken Mountains faced their greatest crisis yet: their mineral deposits were running dry.
It was not the Gods falling silent. For the Raymond Family, that was at most the second-biggest