Skarfanes

Due to large swaths of arable land being so scarce within Grarjord the clans have all agreed that towns built upon it are considered off limits to raids or occupation and are not under control of either province regardless of location. Skarfanes is one such neutral town that bustles with agricultural trade. Additionally, due to this towns location it is also the primary trading location for all trade coming from the Emerald Sea. However, due to the Thrull's raiding nature, it would be unwise to do so without the appropriate writ or coughing up a sizable donation to the Thrull province that constantly raid the surrounding seas.
Whilst raiding and occupying the town directly by either province goes against both of their customs, this does not stop the Thrull from raiding or setting up a toll on the nearby roads that enter or exit the town. However, with the Kandar province already spread as thin as it is, they do not have the soldiers to spare to put a stop to the banditry tactic.
The town of Skarfanes was once a Valikan watchpost and waystation on the peninsula of the same name, where the reaver fleets of Tyburn would put in for rest and resupply on their way south. But as the city of Erlefurt across Kulen Sound grew in size and importance as the Bürach Empire’s greatest center of magical learning, the empire grew increasingly nervous about the proximity of Skarfanes and the reaver fleets passing through it.

Imperial Outpost.

For long years, Bürach ships out of Erlefurt skirmished with reaver fleets sailing south from Skarfanes, and with the settlement’s garrison longboats that sailed the sound even in winter. But then in a swift military operation some sixty years past, Skarfanes was raided by a full fleet of the Bürach Empire and seized by Imperial forces. However, rather than using the takeover as a beachhead for a full expedition into the peninsula against the Thrull clans, the empire declared Skarfanes an open settlement and trading hub. Today, Skarfanes is controlled largely by clan traders, even as it’s protected by an imperial garrison set up as a satellite of the garrison in Erlefurt. The town is a sprawling settlement of huts and homes, clustered around longhouses and warehouses and surrounded by a formidable stockade wall built of imported timbers. Four gates mark the entry points into the city, but just as many locals live outside Skarfanes as inside, with most of the minor clans of Grar-jord maintaining permanent steadings within sight of the walls. Moreover, after three generations, intermarriage be- tween the imperial occupiers and local clanfolk has created a mixed culture unique to Skarfanes.

Prosperity and Progress

It was never a secret that the Bürach Empire’s transformation of Skarfanes was an attempt to quell the threat of raids from the north. By en- couraging trade with the Valikan clans, it was hoped that the people of those clans would recognize and embrace a less-costly path to prosperity than the grim tradition of reaving. But the folk of the empire still fail to fully grasp the fell teachings of the Prismatic Circle that underlie the predations of Clan Völgr and the reaver fleets, making the Skarfanes experiment a mixed success at best. The town is a frequent focus of raids by Thrull clans, some seeking plunder but others nurturing a longer-term dream of driving the imperial garrison back across the sound. However, the garrison has rebuffed more than one raid with the support of local Valikans, who have learned that Skarfanes is worth more to them as a center for trade and commerce than as a mere waystation transporting stolen goods north for the prosperity of Tyburn and Clan Völgr alone.

Isolationism and Intrigue.

The official stance of the Prismatic Circle—and thus of the major clans of Thrull—is one of isolationism, with trade between Thrull and other lands formally forbidden. All commerce in Skarfanes is thus officially considered black-market trade. The three major clans of Rune, Völgr, and Sýr have no official contact with Skarfanes merchants. However, some members of the three clans secretly trade with the smaller clans of Grarjord, knowing that those clans trade through Skarfanes in return, eventually filtering the goods back to the three major clans. The only items of trade that are strictly prohibited in Skarfanes are weapons, armor, and magic. Though the impeccable metalworking skill of Clan Sýr and the magical crafting of Clan Rune is highly sought after in the southlands, the leaders of Clan Völgr take a hard line against improving the defenses of the lands their reaving fleets will inevitably target in seasons to come. When weapons, armor, runestones, and elixirs are sold through Skarfanes, they must be carefully smuggled to avoid the attention of Völgr agents. To avoid such attention, many seeking to sell contraband instead seek the black market in Summerhelm.

Type

Town