The mountain people of Avar have always been close mouthed and suspicious of strangers, even when Dylann was at its height. The Avar gate was one of the least traveled. Traders looking for wool or furs could find what they wanted easier and cheaper in Cordez. The traders and trappers of Avor who coveted the wealth of the other lands beyond the Gates preferred to travel to those lands themselves.

When the gates closed it caused no great outcry, and there was little inquiry or questioning about it. People just realized that it had happened and adjusted accordingly. And forgot very fast.

Like the villagers of Cordez, they forgot Twydion; leaving them with a void in their life. They strived to fill that void by looking to the stars, and turning to sorcery and magic. The Gate was closed, but they lived in the mountains where there were many entrances to the caves below and the Darkness that had swept the caverns leaked out into their lives. The Wraiths danced and wept on their hills. Sorcerers could creep down into the darkness to talk to the demons and Invisible ones. Even the women and children were exposed to that terror daily, as they often went into the caverns to fish and harvest the glowing crystals they used to light their homes.

They weren't farmers, they were hunters and gatherers, so they were dressed in furs and animal skins. Theirs was a rough and wild life, filled with darkness, fear, and witchcraft. Sorcery had spread like wildfire through the communities. Nearly every household had a witch, and everyone sought the favor of those family members, beseeching them for charms and rhymes. They sought the darkness to ward off the darkness, for they knew no other way.

*shiver* Poor people.

So, when you say "the Gate closed," does that mean they cut themselves off from the rest of the world and stopped allowing any travel?

If witchcraft is so prevalent, why doesn't everyone learn it to serve themselves?

The Gates closed at the time of the Betrayal, hundreds of years before the beginning of the story. (Three hundred and forty, to be precise, Vorga tells me.) They were closed from the inside. They can only be reopened from the inside as well. This was to seal the darkness out of the rest of the world and inside the cavern.

I should start a thread about the Gates... but where?

I donno, but you should start one! History, maybe?