Newtlings had lived in this area for a long time by the time the Karmanians arrived 850 years ago, perhaps predating even the Droods. The island which they have made their centre is hollowed out with many ancient tunnels dating back to this time. By the time the Karmanians invaded to "liberate" the area, the Water Folk already worshipped Humkt, perhaps as a reaction to the vampires of Yolande which were causing them so much trouble.

The newtlings have no legends of Erath, but their traditions clearly indicate that they fought with the Drood resistance and the Karmanians against Yolande. After the overthrow of Yolande in this area, the newtlings flourished and traded happily with the Karmanians for several hundred years. With the coming of the Lunar Empire, though, they were exterminated: they were militarily allied with the Karmanians, and the Lunars had already had a war deeper into the Empire which resulted in the extermination of all intelligent river life along the Oslir River, so Imperial policy was uncompromising.

For many years, this lake was uninhabited. But during the last century, newtlings from the West have explored and spread through Rathorela's waterways and eventually reached the lake and, further south, the marsh on that side of the Ban. By the time the Ban dissolved, there was already a new though diffuse newtling colony in this area. Meanwhile, Northmarch had been depopulated by the Plague. So the newtlings found an abandoned lake open to them, an ideal home and, it turned out, an ancient one.

They say that most of the details of the old colony have been gathered in fragmentary fashion from the spirit of the lake by their priests.

The new colony is paranoid about Lunars, their race's traditional bogeyman, because Lunar gourmets savour Newtling tails and the Empire has warred on them several times.

Things are further complicated by the fact that the newtlings of the southern marsh have spread into the Eastern (Carmanian) section and been attacked by / attacked fishermen from Stilton through mutual xenophobia and ignorance.

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