Yamad Yayussê

Short introduction

Yamad yayussê means 'those who cross the mountains' and is a term used in the East of the settlement area of the Messellat Mdûlûn. It describes the traders that go east across the Hruzk Mountain to trade goods with the Andaperna people. The Andaperna people on the other hand are not allowed to cross the mountains apart from some exceptions. Thus some Andaperna states have installed trade outposts right in the mountains or at the foothills to likewise keep the Messelat Mdûlûn out of their heartlands.

History

Trade across the Hruzk Mountains is difficult as the mountain range is steep and harsh and passes are few. Thus Yamad Yayussê have only appeared after the Tarrabaenians successful conquest of the northern coast of the Grey Sea which impeded travel and trade between the eastern and western Messellat Mdûlûn states massive. While the west can trade with the Tarrabaenians via a shared border along the Limina Tegulissima and also with the Arakat people to the South, the eastern states are cut off communications, only having established trade routes to the western states and to the Andaperna people east of the Hruzk Mountains. These circumstances set the appearance of the first yamad yayussê some time after 1477 of the Era of the Earth, when Asterius Poírius Acássia destroyed a major combined Messellat Mdûlûn fleet and cemented the Tarrabaenians control over the nothern Grey Sea.

The term yamad yayussê is younger though and its origins cloudy. Probably it was a colloquialism among traders, which domestic traders used to make fun of those who had to undergo the arduous journeys to Andaperna to make business. The trade with the Andaperna people soon proofed to be profitable, so the derogative soon became a normal denominator for the traders to the East. Official records started using the term around 2800 of the Era of the Earth, but it shows up a good 250 years earlier in private texts. Trade to the East on the other hand is recorded in sources from Sendar and Rodasaikus from around 1700 of the Era of the Earth, though. The state of Akadra even has an account from the 1480s.

Tasks and role in society

The yamad yayussê have specialised teams of guards, carriers and maintenance personell for their carriages as well as specially bred beasts of burden, either hakko mules or Emmusêtro, a local shield dragon species. The complexity of the trade with another culture across such a geographic divide resulted in a number of professions evolving around the yamad yayussê. Also the producers of goods the Andaperna people demand profit greatly. Especially farmers growing olives in the East sell a great deal of their Olive oil production to Andaperna. Olive farmers west of the Grey Sea pale in comparison to their peers in the eastern states.

Most goods imported from Andaperna are for domestic consumption. But the metal huwawit, which is considered almost worthless by Andaperna people and the Messellat Mdûlûn, is one of the goods traded via the Grey Sea to the western city states, especially Kissalinn, and from there to the well paying Tarrabaenians, who cherish this metal for its versatility in arts and crafts. The only other way for Tarrabaenians to obtain this metal is via the hands of Madini traders.

Type

Transportation