Turn southwest out of Mal Nassrin and you soon reach the barren landscape of Mashiz, once home to a loose aggregation of human nomads and Cella wanderers. The current day sees it populated by a mix of rugged frontiersmen, criminals, and soldiers. The province was originally set up as a buffer region through which the legions of Tolmira patrolled to keep raiders away from the more prosperous heartlands, but rich deposits of gold and gems have made it a haven for the hopeful and the desperate. It is still under strict military rule.

A land of opportunity for the quick-witted, or a source of considerable embarrassment? The province of Mashiz can easily be described as either. The waypoint for many caravans passing through Mal Nassrin on their way from the mines and craft-workers of the sparsely-inhabited southwest, Mashiz is a place many would send an enemy, but few bring their children for a holiday.

Bordered on the north by the prosperous, freewheeling province of Nazashad, to the northeast by Narimir, to the east by the agrarian Rumir, and to the southwest by rugged, mountainous desert, Mashiz is a singular component of the Imperial body for a number of reasons. Unlike virtually all of the other provinces which belong to the Empire, Mashiz has no history as an independent state, and therefore no regional identity which holds it together. The rugged territory was best known as a staging ground and corridor for smugglers, raiders, mercenaries, and all manner of unaffiliated troublemakers.

Three hundred years ago, Emperor Galwaesh Uzanar declared war on the culture of smuggling and banditry which plagued the Empire's western borders, in both Nazashad and the territory now known as Mashiz. Against Nazashad, a territory governed by bandit kings, Uzanar and his successors were able to use economic, naval, and eventually military sanctions to bring the state to its knees and into the fold. To the southwest, however, Uzanar had no such option, there being no statesmen to bring to heel. So in the year 455, he declared some 7500 square kilometers between the Empire and the mountains to be the "Mashiz Trade Zone", an Imperial protectorate-and sent his troops in to enforce Imperial mandate, collect taxes and tribute, and squash the smugglers. At first, Nazashad lent some support to the incumbent Mashiz smugglers. But as Uzanar was taking the fight to Nazashad's doorstep as well, the Tolmiran legions had comparatively little trouble bringing the territory under a modicum of control.