Sellen River
The heavily trafficked Sellen River is the longest and most expansive of Avistan’s rivers. With the rise of Tar-Baphon hindering trade across Lake Encarthan, the Sellen River has become even more crucial to the cultural and economic lives of the nations it connects. Originating in the Lake of Mists and Veils, the river runs south through Numeria and the eastern River Kingdoms before serving as a natural border for many of Avistan’s central nations, then spilling into the Inner Sea. Its primary tributaries—the East and West Sellen Rivers—are vital trade routes linking Mendev, the Sarkoris Scar, and Brevoy to the wealthier and more populous nations in central and southern Avistan.
The northern reaches of the Sellen River are subject to harsh winters that choke the waters with ice and lash travelers with frigid, blinding winds. As the river and its tributaries run south, the current slows and the waterway broadens, no longer confined to leaping rapids between walls of glacier-carved rock. Grasslands and rich forests unfurl on the riverbanks, and outposts become more common.
Because trade along the Sellen River is so crucial to every nation it touches, most realms maintain regulated harbors and riverside towns where travelers can enjoy a degree of safety, generally in exchange for taxes and tolls. The river is too vast for anyone to completely control it, however, and smugglers, pirates, and cutthroats flourish along its less populated reaches. An entire secondary economy has sprung up to shield travelers from these threats, but it’s an open secret that many river pilots and mercenary escorts switch sides to play pirate when their legitimate business slows.
The northern reaches of the Sellen River are subject to harsh winters that choke the waters with ice and lash travelers with frigid, blinding winds. As the river and its tributaries run south, the current slows and the waterway broadens, no longer confined to leaping rapids between walls of glacier-carved rock. Grasslands and rich forests unfurl on the riverbanks, and outposts become more common.
Because trade along the Sellen River is so crucial to every nation it touches, most realms maintain regulated harbors and riverside towns where travelers can enjoy a degree of safety, generally in exchange for taxes and tolls. The river is too vast for anyone to completely control it, however, and smugglers, pirates, and cutthroats flourish along its less populated reaches. An entire secondary economy has sprung up to shield travelers from these threats, but it’s an open secret that many river pilots and mercenary escorts switch sides to play pirate when their legitimate business slows.
Type
River
Location under
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