Each summer and until harvest time, the various free cities and larger merchant towns gather at great market fairs, many of them specializing in particular goods: cloth and dyes, leathers, livestock, ironwork, scrolls and religious icons, or various special foodstuffs such as ale, wine, cheeses, or fish.
Bemmea, Gathering of Thoth-Hermes:
The Bemmean midwinter fair of arcanists and bookbinders. Caters to mages, wizards, and other arcanists, with a smattering of priests of Thoth-Hermes.
Birch Fairgrounds, Birch Queen’s Fair:
Deep in the Summer Lands side of the Arbonesse Forest, with an entrance somewhere along the Neurabon River, the Birch Queen’s Fair buys and sells everything from cantrips and cloaks of elvenkind to memories, skills, and luck. A dangerous fair for those who are not wary. The shadow fey are often in attendance.
Bourgund, Rose Knight’s Emporium:
A mixture of the ephemeral and the magically infused, this is perhaps the most volatile and fleeting event of this kind, involving perfumery, fey magic, dueling, the honor of the houses of Dornig, and the swaggering strength of the alchemists of Maillon. Banditry is common just outside Bourgund’s borders before and after the event.
Capleon, Baron’s Trade Fair:
Spices, salt, tea, and more trade hands at the Baron’s Fair. Notorious for espionage, intrigue, and assassinations.
Cronepisht, Horse Trade:
Livestock of all kinds are sold at the fair in Cronepisht, primarily sheep, oxen, and cattle but also monsters such as winter wolves, double eagles, dogmoles, and even some familiars. The most exotic animal market outside Harkesh, Mhalmet, or Nuria.
Friula, Scribe’s Fair:
In spring, the Friulans play good hosts (for once) and invite the world to buy their pearls, dyes, books, and scrolls. Visitors can bring books or scrolls to sell; it’s an easy way to make some money in Friula.
Krakovar, Farmer’s Fair:
The fair deals in fish and horses, amber and birchbark, linen, honey, and much more from the Krakovan villages. A rival to the Zobeck Midsummer Fair, but catering to the Northlands and (recently) to the Morgau knights and troops.
Kubourg Cantonal, Dwarfmoot:
Much more than a trade fair, the Kubourg Cantonal fair features dwarven ironwork, mercenary hiring and equipping, cheeses, woolens, and blades galore. It also provides court rulings on matters of cantonal law, the election of hall chieftains, an occasion for bride-prices and wergild to be paid, and raucous masses to Ninkash (which outsiders might consider drunken beer hall fights).
Maillon, Alchemist’s Gatherum:
The strange folk of Maillon wait until after the harvest and then sell all the potions they have left before winter sets in. Some remarkable concoctions are available, as well as many frauds. A side trade in ceramic containers and copperwork has grown in recent years.
Melana, Armoring Fair:
The smiths of Melana sell a great deal of iron and weapons to their cantonal cousins each year, and equally as much to the mercenaries of the Seven Cities. The whole city reeks of oil and iron for days.
Triolo, Fleet Fair:
The Fleet Fair started as a way to equip Triolan ships and merchants of the Middle Sea with sailcloth and rope. Now the Triolans sell a great deal of spice and glass as well. Traditionally held on Sphinx Island at the harbor entrance.
Trombei, Golden Ceres Fair:
If you don’t care about ale and horses, you have no reason to visit Trombei for this fair. If these topics hold your interest, nowhere else offers as much horseflesh and as many nights of drunken revelry.
Salzbach, Salt Fair:
The salt of Salzbach sells to the highest bidders in the autumn of each year, and taken on the roads before winter sets in. A quiet, mercantile fair with little carousing and a lot of money changing hands.
Zigistad, Wine Week: Vintners
sell barrels of wine, dwarves sell ingots of ore, and everyone goes home happy. A rather rowdy festival in a devout city, sometimes leading to brawls and arrests. Centaurs are explicitly not welcome. Elfmarked priests of Baccho sometimes see it as a good place to preach the tenets of that fading faith, and hold at least one Drunkard’s Mass during the week.
Zobeck, Midsummer Fair:
Featuring the finest weaving, the most outrageous jewelry and clockworks, and sometimes a flying city visiting from Sikkim. The Zobeck Fair is a spectacle like no other, and recently, the shadow fey have brought moonsteel weapons and memory philters to sell at the fair. On rare occasions, the Griffon Knights auction a surplus griffon egg.
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