Barging

"Mah fam'ly's been 'n the trade for nigh on a cent'ry. Started wit mah great gran' paps, it did, and the fleet's been passed down to me. Used to be seven vessels, there did, but pirates've burned the other six. Still, we make a pretty penny 'ch year. The business is dyin', though. Each year, there's less folk willing make the trip South. And less folk willing to trade with us North'ners - and the other way round. But that's dead mens' talk. Me? I'll be sailing these waters till my dyin' breath."
--Taph Vaian, human bargeman docking in Featherknell

Remnants of Commerce

With the decay and eventual collapse of the Eitridean Empire, trade, commerce, and communication between cities and regions have become increasingly rare. Roads have been overgrown and overtaken by bandits and monsters. Long distance travel has nearly become an impossibility. In times like these, easy means of travel become incredibly valuable, the ability to utilize these paths to transport cargo even more so.
The River Fuil runs from the Wulfspires down through the eastern Crown to Featherknell and the coast. The river, as narrow as 10 meters in some places, is too rough in some places, too shallow in others, for the longship trading routes of old.
As a result of all of these factors, the only means of commerce not to have disappeared is that of barging - using large, flat wooden platforms, substantial enough to face the choppier waters of the Fuil, but light enough to be poled or carried across land if needs must.

Ancient and Overlooked

In years past, common folk have taken bargemen for granted, an annual novelty, rather than the ancient tradition that it is. In reality, barging has been a little-known but widespread form of trade since even before the arrival of humans in Ravengrin. It was first invented by the elves, but after their banishment into the Northwing, the humans took over the trade.
In the warm seasons, bargemen collect in large conclaves, to build their barges and consolidate their numbers into groups called Parcels. These Parcels travel south on the Fuil, to trade for the next months in the Crown. With the coming of the Fading, they take their gains, destroy their barges, and begin a long trek over land, back north towards the Wulfspires, and what is now New Eitridea.

New Banditry

With barging becoming more and more the sole means of transporting goods, the attention it receives from bandits and raiders has also increased. In past ages, even the smallest Parcels were a significant risk for any bandit party, but with recent events, the strength of any barging fleet has atrophied. And bandits aren't even the worst things to prowl the shores of the Fuil. Fell beasts, dark monsters, and even great sea creatures have been seen haunting the Fuil and its banks.
Now, even those who have been in the trade for generations are hesitant to make the increasingly dangerous journey south. Many, for the first time in decades, begin to think that attempting to settle down and eke a living off of the land might be wiser than risking all for tradition.
It is rumored that the coming Parcel conclaves will be the last. That barging, a tradition so ancient yet so undervalued, will simply cease to exist.
Maybe they are right.

Type

Financial / Trade