Scar Tourism

    Where is the most popular place for an average family to have a vacation or visit at least once in their lifetime?

    

    Generally speaking, is fair to describe Sharitarn as a dangerous planet. Wild lands more so than the civilized streets surrounded by tall walls of stone and magic. 
     Next to the North Coast of Main Continent sometimes you find nomadic camps with a dozen domes, and all people inside frozen to dead where they where, standing or sitting. It happens in the middle of summer, when polar winds come unexpected. Temperature drops so fast and to such  extremes that even be inside houses made of wood and isolated from the ground, covert on animal fur and warmed by burning would and oil, would not save you. In the winter no nomadic band would be caught close to the coast, or expending the night on the surface. They use shelters at least seven meters bellow ground, build in areas where live trees that have warm roots, and need to stock a moss that consumes the hydrogen from the water and liberates the oxygen: suffocate to dead during sleep is the major danger in those winter shelters. There are other risks, like be poisoned by the water tainted by that moss, or eaten by all sorts of predators that dig tunnels through the frozen ground. 
     Next to South Coast of South Continent is cold most the year, but temperatures never dropp to the same extremes that are common for those who live on the extreme north of the planet. Here the daugnar raids are a major problem, centauroids with the upper body of humans and the low body of walruses who control the islands between South Continent and South Pole. The are about as strong as humans, and far slower on land, but their organism is more resistant than ours. Is hard to cut their flesh, and barely impossible to put one down with impact weapons such as clubs and war hammers. You must take in consideration hordes of flesh eating undeads as well, especially at the west of South Coast. 
     Around the Sorrowful River that separates Main Continent from South Continent you have full and half time piracy. Full time pirates are lawless bands in stolen and improvised vessels, poorly trained people who starve most days and can reach extremes of violence in their despair. Half time pirates on the contrary are civilized merchants, sometimes from powerful State Cities, who travel long distances and alternate between piracy and commerce depending on the circumstances. On the South side of the Sorrowful you will be accompanied most the way by the Ungnui Forest, where the cannibal tribes of forest people hunt and fight their internal wars, and the talking plants allied to them protect and advice them during major crisis. North side you have even more dangerous threats. In the Sorrowful itself there is islands hiding liches, among other threats. 
     Roads are rare on Sharitarn, and few are maintained by the locals.  
     Women can be slaved at sight by any free man who sees them, if they are found in the wilds, or anywhere that is not the nation where they have citizenship. Warrior Castes rent their swords as bodyguards for women who need travel, and caste honor guarantees that they will protect their clients for the time contracted or die trying: as long as they are properly payed. However, even whit such protectors travel brings high risks for women. Not to say that it is a safe decision for men either: they are less likely to end up slaved, but more likely to be killed, and equally likely to be eaten alive by bestial monsters and/or intelligent cannibals. 
 

  After read all that you may imagine that no normal family on Sharitarn ever willingly leaves their city for vacation. You would be wrong.   

    Lutianen has four villages under its protection that have been destined mostly to tourism. At least two of them are close and affordable enough to receive visitors from all but the poorest citizens of Insular City. The Dream City of Guadlu is under Lutianen protection, and is visited mostly by the reaches families of Lutianen, but it is a important historical sight of global significance and rich people from all planet sometimes come here for pleasure. 
    The most important place of pilgrimage is Urshawa, the Mage City on the North Pole Continent. All mages who reach the apex of their power must go there if they want to became archmages. However, no one takes free companion or children in such dangerous travel. 
     However, there is something on Sharitarn that is not too different from tourism industry. A travel destination that attracts people from all places: the Main Xar-Scar. 

  The Main Xar-Scar   

 
 This region is about the size of one of the smallest European Countries on Earth. It is marked by polluted Xar, what makes magic impossible. Even the Mage's Brotherhood is not able to use divination spells to investigate what is going on in this part of their world. 
    By consequence they don't enforce the Exclusion Law as strictly here as they do everywhere else. (there is other Xar-Scars presently on Sharitarn, but that is by far the largest)
    The Brotherhood could send large armies to suppress abuses if they became too outrageous, or it could destroy the entire region from outside in some ways. However, those are extreme solutions reserved for extreme problems. The mages are happy enough to allow the existence of hand made fire weapons and motorcycles, steam locomotives and even small airplanes, as long as they can pretend not to know anything about the subject.  
      All Xar-Scars heal eventually, any way. 
      Earthling humans are the predominant visitors on touristic nations of Main Xar-Scar. Shirshan has club of weapon enthusiasts dedicated to organize Touristic Caravans to the Xar-Scar. The Desert Eagle Club. The attractions include hunt with fire guns, walk on streets illuminated by electric light (it is only a sector of a village, electric illumination is rare even in the Scar: hard to maintain it without mass production), and even a brief conversation through telephone with someone in a different building. 
     From time to time some Builder Caste suggests to build a radio station. The idea is subjected to vote in their Caste Council and looses, because it seems too much unnecessary danger of attract undesired attention. 
     Just the fauna and the flora would probably be enough to attract tourists. The absence of magic means some species cannot survive in the region, and others have better chances.
    The region follows the same rules about slavery and about duels that are present in other parts of Sharitarn. However, there is a general effort to reduce the risks for paying costumers. Wild territories are patrolled more often, roads between towns and feudal domains are kept clean and repaired carefully. The guides do not advise common people to travel alone outside the commercial areas, there is wolves on this forest, and slaver raids are not rare enough to not be considered a realistic risk. 
   Still, that is a less dangerous countryside. A place where people smile for visitors and the grass under the sun invites relaxation. 
   And is a idyllic island where everything costs at least five times more than what would be the price anywhere else. And where those the smiling locals have "tourist prices" for any product or service, that are higher than the normal prices they charge each other. Long story short: the damn region is a tourist trap! 
   Not a terrible expensive one, however. Most low caste men on South Continent would be able to afford a couple of months in a hostel up there with their families, once or twice in their lives. For those North to the Sorrowful the travel is often the most expensive part of this adventure. There is certainly options available for those who have a lot more money and want to expend it in the Main Scar, but is more than possible to have a pleasant and memorable experience without being extravagant. 
   Most people who came here are iis. And most of those involuntary immigrants came from parallel planets where ostensible magic don't exist. Earthlings are particularly common, and descendants of Earthlings even more so. Most business have names on Earthling languages, and you see in all directions logos that would constitute a violation of intellectual property and trade mark laws if those establishments identified by them where anywhere in Earth Universe.  
   People who live on the Scar have Earthling ancestors in many cases, but some families descend from Rhalpav iis, or from other groups arrived before Rhalpav became tuned by the Vortex. Some cultures (even some long lived individuals) live their lives on Sharitarn moving from one Xar-Scar to the nex. Each time their Scar heals they pack their bags and move for another.