The Golden Road – Heart of trade

“Once, when there was harmony between the Everlasting, the people of Selejia saw each other as brothers and sisters. There were no borders between the nations, for nations did not exist, and the people were as one. A great network of roads was shaped by Galdrum to connect the scattered cities of the continent, and Myrkos built his Towers of Transposition, so that the Everlasting could quickly reach any corner of Selejia that required their aid. And then there was the murder of Avakra and the creation of the first Vestige. There was the Everlasting War and the Fall. Myrkos’ towers were torn down or sealed away, and most of Galdrun’s great roads fell to ruin. All except one.”  

— from Secrets of the Golden Road, by Serav the Chronicler

After the Fall, with the Triumvirate gone, along with a great number of their enemies, the existing power structures failed, and many cities that owed allegiance to one side or another of the Everlasting War were left to their own devices. Many were dependent on resources provided by allies who no longer existed, or contingent on deals their neighbors would not honor, preferring to safeguard their own existence. During the Age of Strife, many cities were destroyed by Primal Blood marauders, for they had exhausted their military during the war, or had never had any to begin with, relying on the Triumvirate to protect them. Many cities also fell to natural disasters, famine, and disease.

However, while some succumbed to this new state of the world, others remained linked by the last surviving remnants of Galdrun’s network of roads, enabling them to support and defend each other. Ironkeep, Jenefin, and Waypoint became the Sovereign Cities of Selejia, eventually being joined by Veloma, and the trade way that linked them became known as the Golden Road. From it, new connections were formed to Dynas, Quinvala, Belyos, and all corners of the continent, providing the means for diplomacy and the birth of a new age.

Blessed by the Oathbound Light, the fields of Dynas are the breadbasket of Selejia, with their surplus being largely responsible for the growth of the continent’s population over the past few centuries. The Order of the Shattered Throne uses its profits to acquire artifacts recovered from the Malediction, be they magical in nature or not, for they have a fascination with their glorious past. Many members of the Order are also interested in articles of fine art and exquisite craftsmanship, although these may be considered superfluous, even contemptible by some Rites. More important than any of these, the greatest thing the Order buys through their efforts in the Golden Road is influence, and more specifically goodwill. They feed the hungry, heal the sick, and present all the glory of the Oathbound Light, in the hopes of creating more faithful. This is one of the reasons they have rebuilt a destroyed city and section of the Golden Road and named it New Osterath. This approach is rendering better, more lasting results than the Luminous Crusade ever did, although Velomans remain harder to convince.

Quinvala and the Wystral provide the continent with magical wonders, empowered by Liastrum. From untiring constructs that can be put to work defending important structures or people, to the protective wards of Sphere Akhenza and the mercenaries of Sphere Virtahn, many find the cost of doing business with the shrewd mages of the Conclave well worth it. Beyond this, the Masters have their blue-stained fingers wrapped tightly around a number of different ventures. Some of these endeavors are quite strange, such as their purchase of “corpse futures”. The Conclave has realized the Legion’s constant need for fresh corpses and offers a small amount of money to those of little means, in exchange for the rights to their bodies when they die. They then take these bodies to Belyos and sell them to the Legion by the cartload. The fact that Sphere Sybil runs this scheme, meaning they can often predict how quickly their investments will pay off, has not gone unnoticed. For all the goods the Conclave sells to the continent, and the myriad services they offer, they seem to buy surprisingly little, beyond the food they require to complement their own production. What most don’t know is that the Conclave spends much to manipulate the politics of the Sovereign Cities, making sure they remain in good graces and that their rivals never gain too much influence.  

After the Fall, Belyos remained isolated from the rest of the Continent for several centuries, but when the Legion of the Fallen revealed themselves, they brought with them more than the horrifying visage of death. They brought songs, poems, and epic tales, once thought lost to the Fall, but preserved in the minds of the Epitaph. These were but a sign that the knowledge of a past age need not remain lost, and the Legion has revived many incredible works of art and uncovered techniques that have allowed Belyos to become a center of culture for the continent. Their refined craftsmanship is valued by all and, although there is a trade embargo between Dynas and Belyos, a whole industry has developed to take advantage of this, repackaging desirable goods so they are more palatable to either side. Priests of the Order may unknowingly be dressed in finery created by undead hands, or be drinking Belyosan wine re-bottled in Veloma, while Belyosan aristocrats gorge themselves on delicacies sweetened by Dynosian sugar. 

The Legion also trades in secrets, since they have the means to extract such information, even from the most unwilling mouths, be they living or dead. It is not uncommon for a necromancer to be called upon to resolve inheritance disputes by simply asking the deceased for their opinion on the matter. The legion will always be interested in purchasing corpses; the fresher, the better. They pay a premium for those worthy of being preserved in the Epitaph. Although the dead outnumber the living by a large factor in Belyos, the living they do have still require sustenance, so the Legion also purchases large amounts of foodstuffs from the Sovereign Cities. 

Even the Primal Blood benefits from the trade through the Golden Road. Although Paxos offers the bounty of Ymiris to the Kiths, their numbers are so great that the All-Mother cannot sustain them alone, averse to farming as they are. The solution the Primal Blood has arrived at is to take whatever they need from those peoples who have abandoned Ymiris and would not heed the words of Avakra. Raids are so constant that those who do business on the Golden Road must do so under armed escort. Settlements along the road, too small to be put on any map, must fend for themselves, and many prefer to surrender their resources rather than to risk battle. What the people of these settlements don’t realize is that what some Kiths crave is not bread, but vengeance.