One enormous market where the roads cross the river — no walls, no war, and bread and bedrolls for every army.
Founded: c. year 500 (Second Age), by the Stone Talus, avatar of Atlas
Made untouchable: c. year 610 (Third Age), by Atlas
Story
Around year 500, late in the Second Age, Atlas saw the Centaur Roads crowded and the sky closed by the Skybreak, and filled the gap with the Halflings — small nomad traders of the roads — and among them the Knotted Purse, an order of moneylenders. In the same years, his Stone Talus founded a city at the point where the roads cross the River of Life, with no walls at all: the Bazaar, one enormous market where halflings, centaurs, humans, giants and dwarves trade, and caravans leave in every direction.
From its founding, the dwarves of Kharag Duun have sold star metal here.
When the Third Age broke into war, Atlas made the Bazaar untouchable (c. year 610): neutral forever, selling bread and bedrolls to every army. No one fights inside it, and no one wants to destroy it.
Neutrality did not stop the fungal plague (c. year 620). Spreading out of the burned mushroom forest, it was worst in Glaive Port, then the Bazaar, then the island — sterility in the acute phase, death untreated, passed by blood and saliva.
Around year 630, Svarog — delighted by the chaos of the Shattering and annoyed not to understand it — founded the Mages’ Guild at the Bazaar, to study magic, write it all down, and buy up crystal shards, meteor fragments and curiosities.
Now
A few months to a year after the third meteor, the Bazaar is the one safe crossroads left, drowning in refugees from a thousand ruined villages.
- The Mages’ Guild buys crystal shards, meteor fragments and curiosities — and since the Shattering the great crystals are cracking.
- The Knotted Purse lends money.
- The plague has already been through.
- Zombified Mycomancer agents slipped out of Glaive Port in disguise to found secret cells in other cities — perhaps here.
Every merchant pays the Askeri a cut of the takings; that is the price of the peace. Coin is gold, and the big trades are counted in meteor pieces, a thousand gold apiece.
Connections
- Stone Talus — founded it; “the construction worker”
- Atlas — made it untouchable
- Centaur Roads · River of Life — where the roads cross the river
- Halflings / Knotted Purse — road traders and moneylenders
- Mages’ Guild — Svarog’s scholars and shard-buyers, based here
- Fungal Plague — passed through, second only to Glaive Port
- Mycomancers — hidden cells, possibly here
- Kharag Duun — dwarves selling star metal
Open: whether a Mycomancer cell is in the Bazaar [?].