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Originally conceived by: Novak
Virtue | Death (Change) | - |
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Fault | The Satyr (Indulgence) | - |
Fate | The Fish (The Soul Prevails vs Shallowness) | - |
Usurper | The Merchant Scales | A two-armed merchant balance made of some gleaming black material sits on a mahogany table on a silver-grey background. A pile of golden coins rests on one pan, balanced against a cup of blood on the other. |
Imports |
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Exports |
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Vanderyahr is a relatively large island moving ineffably through the seas of Shadow through mechanisms and for reasons which no one understands. Although the residents of Vanderyahr do not refer to them as such, the island has been moving through the Shadows for at least seven thousand of its subjective years, since the first shipwrecks upon it caused settlements and communities to grow through the years.
The inhabitants of Vanderyahr, and its two small cities of Klytha and Rethora, are by and large not sorcerers. Rather, they are traders and explorers. Many attempts have been made over the generations to determine some rhyme or reason to the drifting of the island through Shadow, or to control it, or even to understand the reasons and mechanisms for it. None have ever succeeded.
The inhabitants know only, through long experience, that there is little pattern, and that the places through which their home moves are truly different worlds. This they know because they have experienced the sliding streams of time, and the changing of physical laws for themselves, if the changing fields of stars would not be enough.
They know that when their new home slides to a different world, they are likely to remain there for a period of weeks or months, but that the actual time spent might be as little as hours, or as much as years. They know that the changes are much more likely to occur in the dead of night than the light of day. They know-- or base their lives on the idea-- that though physical laws may change, they have never been take to a place where they cannot survive.
They know that they sometimes visit the same place more than once, and a few places are visited multiple times, although historical records show that repeating locations show up and disappear abruptly in their chronicles. Also, repeating locations are not always marked by the island showing up in the same geographic location, or in a time that matches the flow of time experienced by the island.
Because of all this, or in spite of it, the residents of the island have set themselves up as something between a cross between a trading bazaar and a gigantic floating trading expeditionary vessel. Aided by the social structures and groups which have grown up over the centuries (for example, a group of astrologers who are dedicated to recording the new skies and cataloging them as a way to determine if they have been somewhere before) the Yahrens have loosely established protocols to begin trading-- fast vessels are sent out to search for inhabited coastline, which is normally near. These vessels bring a wide assortment of the oddities and artifacts they've acquired to barter with the locals, and instructions are given on how to get back.
Over the next few days or weeks, the natives are told what to expect and encouraged to bring small or large shipments for trade in market street bazaars or in larger municipal lots. They are also told to expect the possibility of unexpected transport to the next location.
The adventurous will often come in seek of quick riches. Some of these adventurous find themselves transported away with the next moving of the isle. Those who are find themselves with little recourse other than to join the civilization of the isle, and are accepted readily.
In recent times, there has been a rapid shift from the trading of artistic wonders and exotic materials produced by sophisticated civilizations to the less advanced, to the trading of materials and weapons used for war. This is because, in recent times, there have been very few Shadows in which there has not been a long and bloody struggle going on, and the merchant traders of Vanderyahr always adapt quickly.
Sadly, the island custom of not passing judgment on the local, transitory cultures of the Shadows they visit has continued unabated, encouraging a terrible trade of weapons. Indeed, the custom is sometimes followed to a degree which would previously caused great recriminations, almost for the sake of the custom itself, and weapons have been traded more often than not to those who are clearly the oppressors.