I get the feeling that a lot of folks secretly adore the Living Shadow, because it gives them the perfect excuse to lynch anyone they like on the pretext that they have some vague link to Jake.
Normally I'd question the wisdom of attacking trade caravans, but it has been proven time and again that nationalist zealots never care about that, and if their land turns into an impoverished hellhole, it's because the traders are punishing them, never because they drove said traders away.
Sounds a reasonable conclusion.
It really does seem like some kind of perverse reverse lottery festival. So long as you weren't one of the villages it hit you just get a bunch of "we didn't die" parties and a few weeks afterwards to live your prejudices in the open with full public approval provided you add "trickster" onto the end of it.