The History of the Vicenary Ports

Even when the realms of men were young, trade in tin and copper was already well-established. It is true that the City of Watersedge was settled by the last of the Lanari under Tal the Just, but choosing that spot was not a happy accident. That location had been an ancient tradeport going back millennia before the Eight Kingdoms Pact. 

A similar observation could be made about each of the Vicenary Ports, in fact. These ports of call, and the routes between them were not established by men, so much as they were re-discovered by them.

Just as the Vyrum trained certain men in the mundane skills of construction and smithing, they had others who handled their shipping and trade. Once the worldwide Vyrum Empire was no more, the Vicenary Ports still had a semblance of agreement between them, even those that had been leveled and salted during the wars to end the previous age.

It would be a mistake, however, to assume that the Vicenary Ports were established by the Vyrum. In point of fact, their mighty empire only re-discovered that which had been in place under the rule of the Elves, and the Dwarves before them. The earliest charts showing the Vicenary Ports owe their existence to Gnomish Cartographers working for their Dwarven lords. It was they which first harnessed the wind and taught their people to sail. 

Each of the Viceroys of each of the ports is well aware of this connection between their trade organization and the Gnomes of Old. For that reason, the symbol of the Viceregal Tower of Ivory always rests upon a twenty-toothed gear, though it is often taken to be a darkened sun, that gear is an homage to the symbol of the Gnomish people.  

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