Curses

Anyone can speak curses. A curse simply states that something bad should happen to someone and one must really mean it - it can't be done simply by muttering angrily. Curses must contain their solution, although how exactly this works is a matter of great debate among scholars. Speaking a curse pre-emptively - that is, without provocation and without having been wronged before by that person - means trouble to the curser, and something bad will inevitably fall back on him, there is no defense against that.

"Sure, young couples are sweet. But the speakers that moved into Draseem's tower have cursed each other half a dozen times since their arrival, and I do believe the neighbours are losing patience with the floods and fires the two set on each other."
— Zallajin, citizen

Curses cannot be spoken across the threshold into the Area, and therefore, people there are safe; the rare skill of creating curse-carriers can turn someone into a time bomb of sorts to go and meet the target and inflict the curse then.
The potential power of curses is virtually limitless. Entire peoples and countries have been cursed; however, the backlash is proportional and so, it takes someone very special to lay a curse on a tribe. The most famous curser is the Lonely Queen Dil-tona.
When a curse cannot be solved by following the instructions, voices can also help. Most of all curses do not last long.

"My uncle swears father sighed in relief when we broke the curse, some two hundred kilometers away, as if he knew. But he has never slept well again. And my sister hums always the same tune, then abruptly stops when someone approaches. We wonder if the voices might help get them back as they once were."
— Kliamara Talvreen, villager

Known curse in existence are for example Hilnired, who will wander until finding his general, whose resting place nobody knows; or the tribe of the Tsoltreemes, who cannot leave their land until making peace with their neighbours, which they refuse.
Other curses are suspected but could so far not be proven; the Brightholdian men might be cursed, as well as the burrmo princes, or the Kasillian crown.


Artists' notes
Curses are a dangerous device in fantasy. Therefore I tried to make sense of my curses' workings; you can't do it involuntarily, and they can be solved. On the other hand, they can kill you instantly.
Dil-tona will get her own article.